{
 "slug": "cut-on-the-beat",
 "name": "Cut on the beat",
 "category": "sound",
 "group": "Music and mix",
 "media": [
  "video"
 ],
 "checked": "2026-11-13",
 "effect": "The edit feels locked to the music.",
 "use_when": "Music-led montages, launch films, showreels.",
 "phrase": "every cut and reveal lands on a beat of the music, and the big hits land on the first beat of a bar",
 "pitfalls": [
  {
   "text": "Build to a grid from the tempo: at 120 beats per minute and 30 frames per second a beat is 15 frames, so a four-beat scene is 60 frames.",
   "evidence": "practitioner",
   "source": "Director Chair field notes on motion graphics"
  },
  {
   "text": "Lock the picture before the sound goes on. Any change after that breaks the timing.",
   "evidence": "practitioner",
   "source": "Director Chair notes on Motion graphics with Claude (Rourke Heath)"
  },
  {
   "text": "Let one element react to the audio level. The whole frame reacting reads as a screensaver.",
   "evidence": "practitioner",
   "source": "Director Chair field notes on motion graphics"
  }
 ],
 "per_model": [],
 "external_refs": [],
 "licensed": [],
 "site_names": [],
 "related": [
  "sfx-on-the-peak",
  "chromatic-hit",
  "one-clock-for-sound"
 ],
 "rights": "own-work",
 "evidence": "practitioner",
 "source": {
  "url": null,
  "note": "Own words from Director Chair field notes on motion graphics"
 },
 "body": "",
 "shown_with": null,
 "url": "https://directorchair.ai/sound/cut-on-the-beat",
 "markdown": "https://directorchair.ai/sound/cut-on-the-beat.md",
 "prompts": {
  "chat": "Give me a sound brief: what to record or pick, where it sits on the timeline, the levels, and what to check before export, for a short video about [your product], for [your audience]. The technique is cut on the beat: the edit feels locked to the music. How it works: every cut and reveal lands on a beat of the music, and the big hits land on the first beat of a bar. It is right for: music-led montages, launch films, showreels. Build to a grid from the tempo: at 120 beats per minute and 30 frames per second a beat is 15 frames, so a four-beat scene is 60 frames. Lock the picture before the sound goes on. Be concrete: numbers, seconds and settings, no theory. Ask me one question first if something you need is missing."
 },
 "licence": {
  "code": "MIT",
  "text": "CC BY 4.0",
  "third_party": "Clips and card texts inside a \"licensed\" block belong to their makers and are shown with permission and credit."
 }
}