How to Merge Clips in DaVinci Resolve (Quick Tutorial)

In this article you will learn how to merge/join multiple clips together, using DaVinci Resolve!

I will show you 3 methods to merge video clips (+ how to merge audio clips), depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

Here’s what this superpower can do:

Merging video clips:

how merge works

You can also merge audio clips, and edit the clips individually or as a group with this method:

example of merging audio

The method I used in the image above (video clip merging), is the one you will learn first. However, there are a couple of other useful ways to merge clips as well! (which I will also cover).

Lastly, you’ll learn to merge audio clips. You can skip to that part here.

Anyways, let’s get to it!

How to Merge Clips in DaVinci Resolve:

1. Select the clips you want to merge in the timeline.

You can do this by either holding down CTRL or Command (MacBook) and clicking on the clips you want to select. If you wish to select all the clips in the timeline you can also press shortcut: “CTRL+A” or “Cmd+A” (MacBook).

Another way is clicking on the “whitespace” and dragging over all the clips you want to select like this:

select all the clip you want to merge

2. Right-click on one of them and select “New Compound Clip“.

click on new compound clip

3. Give the clip a name, and click on “Create“.

Then in the menu that pops up, you can give the clip a name if you prefer. If not just click on “Create“:

click on create

In the image below, you can see that we have successfully merged all the clips into one “Compound Clip“:

compound clip created!

The awesome thing about making compound clips is that you can decompose them at any moment!

However, be aware that some adjustments made to the compound clip will get lost doing this:

decompose in place

Summary on how to merge clips in Resolve:

Merging clips in DaVinci Resolve is done by creating a “Compound Clip”. Simply, select all the clips you want to merge, right-click them, and select “New Compound Clip” in the menu. Then in the window that pops up, click on “Create”.

That’s the method that’s most useful in my opinion. However, this next one is great if you want to re-join a clip that’s split. Then you’ll keep the original clip instead of creating a compound clip:

How to Re-Join Clips in DaVinci Resolve

This method works to re-join two clips, that are really the same clip.

For example, if you by accident split your clip, you can re-join it by using this method. However, it does not work if you have trimmed the clips where they are going to be joined.

Criteria:

  • The clips come from the same source clip.
  • The ends you are joining can’t be trimmed.

How to re-join clips inside DaVinci Resolve:

1. Go to the “Edit” page inside Resolve.

how to re join two clips

2. Place the timeline playhead in between the clip you want to join.

place timemarker in the middle of where you want to join the clips

3. Click on “Timeline” in the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Watch the image below to see what it looks like.

4. Click on “Join clips” in the menu.

go to timeline and click on join clips

Voilà!

Now your clip should be merged/joined together, as long as they filled the criteria mentioned above.

re-joined clips

Summary on how to re-join clips:

To re-join clips in DaVinci Resolve, go to the “Edit” page. In the timeline place the playhead in between the clips you want to join. Then click on “Timeline” (upper left-hand corner of Resolve), and select “Join Clips”. It’s important that clips come from the same source clip, and are not trimmed.

Merge Clips Together By Creating a New Timeline:

This method is pretty legendary.

You can actually merge clips together by creating a new timeline… (Which is way simpler than what it sounds like).

All you have to do is…

Open the “Media Pool” (top left-hand corner) of the “Edit” page.

Inside it you can see all your clips, however, there is also one called “Timeline 1”.

Right-click on the “Timeline 1“, then click on “Create New Timeline Using Selected Clips“, like this:

rightclick and create new timeline in media pool

In the window, that pops up, you can give the timeline a name if you prefer. Just leave the rest of the settings as they are by default, then click “Create“:

create new timeline

Now all the clips from your timeline are merged into one, like this:

all clips merged into timeline

How to Merge Audio Clips in DaVinci Resolve

To merge audio clips in DaVinci Resolve is really easy.

This method is awesome if your camera is having multiple microphones, as you don’t have to deal with all those individual audio tracks. This method is called audio layering.

To merge audio clips in DaVinci Resolve, simply go to the “Fairlight” page. Click on “View” in the menu bar (top left-hand corner), and check off “Show Audio Track Layers” by clicking on it. Then, simply layer the clips on top of one another, by dragging and dropping them into the same audio track.

Here’s a step by step description of how to do it:

1. Go to the “Fairlight” page inside Resolve.

go to fairlight page

2. Click on “View” (top left-hand corner), then click on”Show Audio Track Layers”.

view show audio track layers

When it’s enabled your timeline should look like this:

before after

Then in the empty space above the clips:

3. Drag the audio clips on top of one another in the same audio track.

stacked audio or merged

Then, to make it a bit easier increase the size of the audio track.

What’s really cool now, is that you control all the audio clips by the same audio track in the mixer.

In my case, I control all the clips by the “Audio 1” in the mixer tab:

all clips are controlled by one mixer

However, something important to understand by layering audio is that the clip on top is overwriting all the clips beneath it.

This is awesome when you are having multiple audio clips of the same recording. However, it also means that you can’t have different audio clips in the same track if you want them to be played simultaneously.

Here’s an illustration of how you can edit the clips in the same audio track. What’s inside the yellow rectangle is what you can hear/being played:

how layers work

Another cool thing about this method is that you don’t have to watch all those audio tracks on the “Edit” page when you want to be focusing on the video part.

To do this simply go to “View“, and click on the “Show Audio Track Layers” again to uncheck it. Then when you want to edit the audio just enable it.

example of merging audio

That’s it!

Here’s an article on how to add music to Resolve + how you can save music inside Resolve for future projects!

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