Last updated: 2026-07-03
Cutback Selects is an AI pre-editing tool that turns 6 hours of raw multi-cam footage into an organized rough cut in minutes, from $16/month billed yearly.
Cutback Selects is an AI pre-editing app that reduces 6 hours of raw video prep to minutes, cutting reported prep time by 60% across 10,000+ projects. It syncs multi-cam footage, switches cameras by detected speaker, removes silences and filler words, and exports a structured timeline to Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, or DaVinci Resolve. Plans start at $20/month, or $16/month billed yearly.
Cutback Selects is a standalone AI pre-editing app made by Cutback, a startup founded in 2024 with offices in San Francisco and Seoul. It handles the first, most tedious pass of video editing: syncing multi-camera footage, transcribing audio, detecting speakers, and organizing raw clips by scene and topic before an editor ever opens a timeline. Cutback says the tool has processed more than 10,000 real projects and cuts footage prep time by roughly 60 percent, turning 6 hours of sorting into a few minutes of automated work. The core mechanism is speaker-aware multi-cam sync. Selects analyzes every camera angle and audio track in a shoot, picks the best audio source, and switches between cameras based on who is speaking, without a human scrubbing through footage first. It removes silences, filler words, and mistakes automatically, then lets editors search the footage in plain language, for example asking for the part where someone laughed, instead of manually locating timecodes. A Suggest feature can generate a full rough cut from a text prompt describing target length, audience, and key message, which editors can reuse and refine on future projects. Selects is built for teams cutting long-form, multi-camera content: interviews, podcasts, documentaries, lectures, and talk shows. It is not aimed at solo creators making 60-second social clips, since its pricing and analysis caps assume hours of raw footage per project. Assistant editors and post-production teams already working in Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, or DaVinci Resolve get the most value, since Selects hands off a structured, non-destructive timeline directly into those apps rather than trying to replace them. Pricing starts at the Starter tier for $20/month, or $16/month billed annually, covering up to 10 hours of video analysis and 3,600 credits. Pro runs $100/month ($80/month annually) for up to 40 hours of analysis, and Team runs $1,000/month ($800/month annually) for 5 or more seats with shared credits and central billing. Enterprise pricing is custom. Selects ships as a Mac and Windows desktop download; there is no mobile app and no permanent free tier, only a 7-day trial. Cutback also sells a separate Premiere Assistant plugin that automates cuts, trims, captions, and animations directly inside Adobe Premiere Pro, positioning Selects as the pre-editing layer and Premiere Assistant as the in-NLE automation layer for the same workflow.
Starter $20/mo ($16/mo billed yearly, 10hr analysis, 3,600 credits). Pro $100/mo ($80/mo yearly, 40hr analysis, 14,400 credits). Team $1,000/mo ($800/mo yearly, 5+ seats, 72,000 credits). Enterprise custom pricing. No permanent free tier; 7-day free trial only.
Cutback Selects is a standalone AI pre-editing app from Cutback Corporation, a startup based in San Francisco and Seoul. Cutback was founded in 2024 and raised a 2.6 million dollar seed round. Selects ingests raw video footage before an editor ever opens a timeline. It transcribes audio, syncs multi-camera angles, and organizes clips by scene and topic automatically. The tool targets the prep phase of post-production, the sorting and reviewing that normally eats hours before creative editing starts. Cutback reports the tool has processed more than 10,000 real projects and cuts prep time by roughly 60 percent. It exports the result as a structured, non-destructive timeline into Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, or DaVinci Resolve.
Selects runs on four paid tiers plus a custom Enterprise plan. Starter costs 20 dollars a month, or 16 dollars a month billed annually, and includes up to 10 hours of video analysis with 3,600 credits. Pro costs 100 dollars a month, or 80 dollars a month annually, and raises the analysis cap to 40 hours with 14,400 credits. Team costs 1,000 dollars a month, or 800 dollars a month annually, and requires 5 or more seats. Team adds shared credits, central billing, and advanced data privacy controls, with 72,000 credits included. Enterprise pricing is custom and adds unlimited seats, a dedicated account team, and 24/7 support with SLAs. There is no published free tier, only a short free trial before you must subscribe.
The core feature is automatic multi-cam sync with speaker-based camera switching. It handles 4K and 360-degree footage without manual review. Selects also performs word-level transcription and speaker identification from a single audio track. It organizes footage by scene and topic automatically once ingested. A natural-language search lets editors find a moment by describing it, like the part where someone laughed, instead of scrubbing through hours of raw video. The Suggest feature can generate a rough cut automatically from a prompt describing target length, audience, and key message. Editors can refine that generated prompt and reuse it across future projects.
Selects does not publish a standalone free tier for ongoing use. New users get a 7-day free trial to test the Starter feature set before paying anything. After the trial ends, the cheapest paid option is the Starter plan at 20 dollars a month. Billed yearly, Starter drops to 16 dollars a month and covers up to 10 hours of video analysis. There is no permanently free plan with unlimited ongoing usage. This differs from some competing transcript-editing tools that keep a limited free tier active indefinitely. Anyone who needs to prep footage past the trial window has to commit to a paid subscription.
The closest alternatives are Descript, CapCut, and VEED. Descript is an all-in-one transcript-based video and podcast editor. Choose Descript over Selects if you want to do the entire edit, not just the prep, inside one app. CapCut is a free-to-use general video editor with AI-assisted cutting tools. CapCut fits creators on a tight budget who need quick social clips rather than multi-cam production prep. VEED is a browser-based editor with built-in captioning and brand kits, better for teams that do not want a downloadable desktop app. Selects wins over all three when the job is specifically multi-cam interview or podcast prep before a professional NLE.
Selects is built for video editors and assistant editors handling long-form, multi-camera content. That includes interviews, podcasts, documentaries, lectures, and talk shows. Production teams that shoot with 2 or more cameras and need consistent, speaker-based camera switching get the most value from the tool. It is a poor fit for solo creators making short-form social clips. The pricing and feature set assume hours of raw footage per project, not 60-second cuts. It is also not built for editors who want to finish a video entirely inside one app. Selects hands off to Premiere, Final Cut, or Resolve rather than exporting a finished cut.
Getting started means downloading the Selects desktop app for Mac or Windows. New users create an account, which includes a 7-day free trial. Raw footage gets dropped into the app, which automatically syncs multi-cam angles and transcribes audio. Selects organizes clips by scene and speaker within minutes of ingest. From there, editors can search the transcript for specific moments using plain language. The Suggest feature can generate a first rough cut from a text prompt describing the desired edit. The finished selection then exports as a structured, non-destructive timeline directly into Premiere, Final Cut Pro, or DaVinci Resolve.
Selects and Descript both target the video prep and rough-cut stage, but they solve it differently. Descript lets editors cut video like a text document. Descript can carry a project from raw footage to finished export inside one app. Selects instead focuses only on the pre-editing phase, then hands a structured timeline to Premiere, Final Cut, or Resolve. Selects charges more at the entry tier, 20 dollars a month against Descript's lower-cost plans. Its multi-cam speaker-based camera switching is more specialized for interview and multi-camera podcast production. Choose Descript for one app covering the whole edit. Choose Selects if your team already uses a professional NLE and just needs the prep automated.