> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.overlap.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
> Turn synchronized video and audio sources into an editable multicamera project, refine it in Studio, and render the finished program.
# Long form editor
> Use the **long-form editor** to build one continuous program from multiple camera angles and audio sources, then review camera choices and render the finished video in Studio.
## Start from a recording
The most direct way into a long-form edit is from a [recording studio](/essentials/recording-studio) session: open the recording and choose to edit it in Studio. Overlap imports the session's synchronized tracks as sources automatically. Workflows can also open long-form Studio directly on their output.
When you assemble a project from your own files instead, the create flow accepts several sources at once. You can:
* upload several video or audio files at once
* drag and drop files onto the upload area
* add a **Video URL** or **Audio URL** instead of uploading a file
At least one video source is required. Audio sources are optional.
## Prepare the sources
Use **Source details** to check every input before opening Studio:
* Rename each source so camera choices are easy to recognize later.
* Assign video roles such as **Primary**, **Wide**, **Camera Angle**, or **Screen share**.
* Confirm that each required source shows **Ready**.
Click **Continue** or **Open Studio** when the project is ready. Overlap analyzes the sources and builds the initial camera and audio edit before handing the project to Studio.
Overlap distributes visual speaker checks across the full recording before
refining uncertain boundaries. Quality analysis has no automatic time limit.
During its first pass, select **Continue to refinement** whenever you have
enough coverage. During refinement, select **Build timeline** when you are
ready to use the evidence collected so far. Already-running checks finish and
their results are preserved before Overlap moves forward; completed phases
advance automatically.
Local files can begin opening in Studio while their durable uploads continue in the background. Studio only interrupts you if an upload needs attention; open **Project** from the right rail to retry it or reselect the same file.
The project keeps one Studio link from creation through upload, editing, and rendering. Your work is saved automatically as you go, and reloading on the same device picks the project back up where you left it.
Browsers cannot hold on to access to files on your own computer, so if a source file's upload had not finished, Studio asks you to reselect that same file.
## Review the first edit in Studio
Studio opens with a program preview and a timeline containing the generated edit. **Program** shows the camera that will appear in the finished video. Switch between **Single track** and **Multitrack angles** to reveal aligned camera choices. Colored spans are in use, including every camera visible in a grid; gray hatched camera rows are available but not chosen. Select a position in a camera row to use that angle for the aligned Program span, or focus the row and press Space or Enter to use it at the playhead. Move the playhead and select **Split** to create a new boundary.
The overview below the long-form timeline shows the full Program at every zoom level. Its outlined window marks the visible timeline range: select a point to seek and center it, drag across the overview to pan, or use the arrow keys while it is focused.
Use **Audio** to expand or collapse the independently selected audio lanes. When transcript words are available, the read-only **Captions** lane shows their timing on the same ruler. Once you add music, a **Music** lane appears under the audio lanes with one chip per track. Once you add B-roll or a still, a **Media** lane appears with one chip per added clip; selecting a chip moves the playhead to it and selects it everywhere else.
With multiple isolated microphones, the first edit compares each microphone to
its own background level instead of favoring the track with the highest raw
gain. A microphone must remain clearly ahead for a short turn before the edit
switches; close crosstalk keeps the current microphone. Matching camera and WAV
filenames and durations help Overlap retain a paired microphone when direct
audio alignment is uncertain.
Use the right-side panels to inspect the project:
* **Cameras** changes the camera for the current segment or selected timeline range. It also includes controls to split a segment and adjust edit boundaries.
* **Audio** controls the recorded tracks and audio cleanup tools.
* **Music** adjusts background tracks independently from the recorded audio controls. See [Add a music bed](#add-a-music-bed) below.
* **Media** matches the clip editor's Media panel: a **Visual** tab adds B-roll clips and stills over the program, and an **Audio** tab adds background music. See [Add B-roll and stills](#add-b-roll-and-stills) and [Add a music bed](#add-a-music-bed) below.
* **Branding** appears only for projects imported from a Room recording that carried branding, and controls which imported brand layers show, per participant. See [Room branding](#room-branding) below.
* **AI Tools** lists review targets when the source analysis found an uncertain or degraded section. Select one to move the playhead to that moment.
* **Transcript** generates searchable transcript words on demand. Studio does not wait for transcription before opening.
* **Project** shows render state and only surfaces source uploads when they need a retry or file re-selection.
To replace a camera shot, move the playhead over a camera segment or select a range, choose a source, and click **Apply Camera Switch**.
The preview layout control can keep that range on one camera or place the available cameras in a **Grid**. While a grid is active at the playhead, drag one preview tile onto another to swap their positions; the rearrangement is saved as one reversible layout edit. The timeline overview uses a full-height camera color for single-camera ranges and stacked color bands for every camera visible in a Grid. Existing projects that already contain an older side-by-side layout still render it, but the picker creates only single-camera and grid layouts.
## Add B-roll and stills
The **Media** panel's **Visual** tab lays extra footage or images over the program without changing the camera edit underneath. It offers the same sources as the clip editor's Media panel:
* **Uploaded media** uploads a file from your computer (or drag one anywhere onto the panel). Uploads land in your company-wide media library, so they survive the project and can be reused anywhere. **Browse uploads** opens that library to add what is already there.
* **Brand Assets** picks from your company's Brand Assets library, the same picker the clip editor uses.
* **From a link** takes a web address. Overlap copies the file into your own storage before adding it, because a render cannot read media directly from another site.
* **My B-Roll Library** searches your indexed B-roll library, when your company has that feature enabled.
However it arrives, media lands at the playhead: a video runs for its own length, an image for seven seconds, and either is trimmed so it cannot run past the end of the program.
Added media starts full frame. In the preview, drag it to reposition, or drag any of the eight handles to resize. Media stays fully on the canvas and cannot be shrunk to nothing. Only the media playing at the playhead shows handles.
Added media rides the timeline like everything else: cutting a range shortens, splits, or shifts it, and each surviving piece keeps playing the footage it would have played at that moment. Video clips are silent by default so they do not fight the program audio.
To remove a clip, use the trash control on its row in the **Media** panel. Any media edit can be reversed with **Restore previous version** in the **Audio** panel.
## Add a music bed
Background music is added from the **Media** panel's **Audio** tab and managed in the **Music** panel, which keeps background tracks separate from the program's own microphones and audio cleanup tools.
On the **Audio** tab, upload an audio file or pick one from **Your audio** (everything you uploaded, including Brand Assets audio). The **Music** panel can also add directly from Brand Assets. Either way the track runs from the playhead to the end of the program at a level well under the voices, with a short fade at each end.
Each track has four controls:
* **Starts** and **Ends** set the program range. Type a time in seconds and press Enter or leave the field to apply it, select the crosshair to move the playhead to that edge, or select **Playhead** to move that edge to where the playhead is now. A typed time is held inside the program and can never cross the cue's other edge.
* **Level** sets how loud the track sits, in decibels. The level holds steady for the whole cue. Music does not duck under speech, so set it where it sits comfortably behind the voices.
* **Fade in** and **Fade out** ramp the track at its own edges. Together they never exceed the length of the cue.
* **Loop** repeats the track when the cue outlasts it. If Overlap could not read the file's length, the track plays once and stops, and the control says so.
Use the play control on a row to audition the file before committing to a level.
Music rides the timeline like added media: cutting a range under a track shortens it and the music keeps playing straight through the cut, so a bed never restarts where an edit was made. Fades you set survive on the edges you placed; an edge a cut created takes a short dip instead.
To remove a track, use the trash control on its row. Any music edit can be reversed with **Restore previous version** in the **Audio** panel.
## Room branding
When a project is imported from a Room recording that carried branding (a logo, a frame, a name tag), a **Branding** panel appears on the right rail. Projects without imported branding do not show it.
Each imported layer has a row. Open a row to show or hide that layer for everyone at once, or per participant; the layer follows each participant across camera switches and layouts. The row summarizes the current state: **On**, **Off**, or **Mixed** when only some participants show it.
Branding rows control visibility only. The layers themselves come from the recording and cannot be added, removed, or restyled in Studio.
## Render and download
When the edit is ready, click **Render Video** in the Studio header or open the **Render** panel. Rendering becomes available after the project has durable source uploads; a local preview by itself is not enough for the final render.
After rendering completes, use **Download Render** in Studio.
Editing a project after a render makes that render out of date. Render again to create a video from the latest revision; Studio may continue to offer **Download Previous Render** while the new revision is still a draft.
## Return to a saved edit
The project keeps one Studio link from creation through upload, editing, and rendering — reopening that link returns to the saved edit. Edits started from a recording are reopened the same way: open the recording in the [recording studio](/essentials/recording-studio) and continue into Studio.
Deleting a long-form project removes its composition and the generated artifacts that are safely owned by that project. Shared or external source media is not treated as project-owned cleanup.