How to Edit Vlogs for Free With DaVinci Resolve

So it’s 2018, and you’ve decided that you want to start vlogging. However, you don’t have a license for Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X is also expensive for your wallet, and iMovie is not going to cut it. Don’t worry, Casey Faris has got you covered and created a tutorial to show you how to edit your vlogs with DaVinci Resolve 14, a totally free app that is also used by some of biggest video productions out there. So keep your excuses for yourself, and get your vlogging game to the next level.

Faris is, as he describes himself, a video nerd and YouTuber who has created tons of tutorials about DaVinci Resolve. All of his quality and instructive clips will help you get off the ground and start editing your footage smoothly. In his latest 25-minute tutorial, he explains how to edit your vlogs using only DaVinci.

Premiere and Final Cut Pro X may be the most known editors amongst YouTubers for vlog and videos editing. However, DaVinci is an excellent choice as well. It includes a more than stellar array of color tools, its brand new sound management features are fantastic, and the editing interface is quite straightforward. But best of all, the software is free unless you need its advanced features. So if you are looking for an easy and cheap way to get starting with vlogging, this may be it.

[via Casey Faris]

Quentin Decaillet's picture

Quentin Décaillet is a photographer and retoucher based in Switzerland specializing in portrait and wedding photography.

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7 Comments

Good find, I needed this to help get me started.

I love what Blackmagic has done with Resolve, but it's been real quirky for me. I really want to replace Premiere with Resolve, but it's not all there yet.

Quirky as in bugs or as a comparison to Premiere? I’m at the very beginning of relearning video tools so I forgot what editing in Premiere is even like. Haven’t noticed the quirkiness in Resolve yet.

Buggy. It has problems with different formats. I mix and match formats all the time, and Resolve doesn't recognize certain formats at all (the files aren't visible in their folders), and others it won't play the audio. The sync functions claims video and audio files are sync'd, but don't show up sync'd, or even flagged as out of sync. It does appear to see the majority of H.264 files, but as I said some are missing audio. Premiere, and other apps as well, see all the formats and can play them back and mix and match on the timeline without a hitch. I really would like to see Resolve become and editor you can use with all mediums. I love that Blackmagic gives you a fairly complete free version to learn and work on, and considering the new price drop, if it worked with all mediums without a hitch I wouldn't hesitate to buy the commercial version.

...also, rendering is significantly slower than Premiere. At this time, anyway. I output a ~5min .wav file, and it took something like 30-40 seconds. That would've been like 4-10 seconds in Premiere. A 1080P YouTube res video, while I didn't time it, just felt much slower than similar stuff I've done in Premiere.

I could go on about other things, like the scattered preferences all over the app, but it's all moot. I'll have to deal with Resolve as is, and hope good changes come along, and decide then if I can finally switch or not.

Nice, looks super simple, I like it

Davinci relies primarily on your GPU for power. You may encounter some quirks if you don't have a killer graphics card - especially if you're editing in 4K.