# Cut on the beat

Edit / Sound / Music and mix. Checked 2026-11-13.

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
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/sound/cut-on-the-beat
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/sound/cut-on-the-beat.json

## Watch out

- 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. (practitioner; Director Chair field notes on motion graphics)
- Lock the picture before the sound goes on. Any change after that breaks the timing. (practitioner; Director Chair notes on Motion graphics with Claude (Rourke Heath))
- Let one element react to the audio level. The whole frame reacting reads as a screensaver. (practitioner; Director Chair field notes on motion graphics)

## Prompts

### Any chat model

```
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.
```

## Goes well with

- Sound on the peak, not the start: https://directorchair.ai/sound/sfx-on-the-peak
- Glitch hit on a beat: https://directorchair.ai/effect/chromatic-hit
- One clock for picture and sound: https://directorchair.ai/sound/one-clock-for-sound

## Source

Own words from Director Chair field notes on motion graphics

Text CC BY 4.0, Director Chair (directorchair.ai). Reference clips and their card texts belong to their makers.