@Pete-Lowland

I noticed that when moving a Take to the timeline there is then not a red dot in the upper-left corner, indicating that the object is already on the timeline. Is there a switch somewhere I did not notice?

The little red dot/square appears on the source video and not the Take. Using the Project Folder in VPX, the red dot appears on the Take within the folder.

@Pete-Lowland

Hi

. . . . Moving that trimmed part to the timeline does not work . . . .

After setting the range you want to put on the timeline, drag the Take from the Media Pool, not from the Preview moniotor as the 'tip' suggests.

The Automatic button determines what is affected when you insert an audio.video/image object to the timeline at the timeline cursor ie

HTH

John EB
Forum Moderator

@johnebaker

After setting the range you want to put on the timeline, drag the Take from the Media Pool, not from the Preview moniotor as the 'tip' suggests.

John, that doesn't work here (VDL 2026). The whole Take comes onto the timeline, not the bracketed bit.

Hello all,

I think I have found a solution triggered by the different suggestions:

For sure it is not documented, but basically it is simple:

1.       Create a second film, I named it “Takes” 😉😉 (not really needed but to prevent confusion)

2.       Load an original take from the take folder, using the arrow

3.       Adjust the take to what you want using  [ ] , leave it then as is

4.       Select the original Take from the media pool and move it to the timeline using click and drag

5.       Surprise….on the timeline is now ONLY the selected part!!

Warning: The size of the initial take is lost, but the selection on the timeline can still be extended and saved as a new take.

Any comments?

Kind regards,

Peter

@Pete-Lowland, @AAProds

Hi Peter, Al

. . . . I think I have found a solution . . . .

That is a very odd behaviour!

Can you clarify in steps 2 and 4 which 'film' , Magix use the term 'movie', you are adding the take to?

John EB

@johnebaker

John, not my comment, I was only referring to your procedure above.

@AAProds

Hi Al

I was referring to Pete Lowlands 'work around', due to a 'technical difficulty' I cannot test with VDL 2026 at the moment.

John EB

Hi @Pete-Lowland,

We are a little confused regarding your 'work around' Lets take each step separately and I'll comment my assumptions:

 Create a second film, I named it “Takes” 😉😉 (not really needed but to prevent confusion)

You created a second "movie" and named it "Takes." (Lets assume the first movie is called "Main".). The Takes movie is now active.

Load an original take from the take folder, using the arrow

Using the arrow icon, you moved the original take to the Takes timeline.

 Adjust the take to what you want using  [ ] , leave it then as is

On the Takes timeline, you trimmed the original take and just left it there. (You did not copy and paste it into the Main movie as I had suggested in my previous comments.)

Select the original Take from the media pool and move it to the timeline using click and drag

Before selecting then original take from the media pool, you clicked on the "Main" movie to make it active. You then clicked and dragged the original take in the media pool and placed it on the Main timeline.

Surprise….on the timeline is now ONLY the selected part!!

The original take, took on the trimmed properties of the take in the Takes timeline when placed onto the Main timeline.

My Finding: If my assumed workflow as outlined above is correct, I wasn't able to replicate this behavior using MMS2024. Perhaps @AAProds and @johnebaker can validate your workaround using VDL2026.

@Pete-Lowland

Hi

My interpretation of the 'work around' is the same as CanDive has commented above, it did not work, hence the request for clarification.

John EB

Hi all,

Apologizes if I did not use the correct terms, I am a newbie to VDL.

I do not see this as a work-around, my assumption is that this is intended behavior, just not correctly documented(?).

As background; What I try to create is a new video (film/movie?) consisting of many (very) small extracts from a rather large collection of 8mm films and videos. My idea is to load that (digitized) material one by one in a separate timeline, select and cut the desired parts and then save the selection(s) as Takes.

Next step is to fine-trim those Takes in the monitor, move the result to the timeline and apply possibly required effects. Interesting is that the original Take apparently gets the same in/out as in the monitor, but as soon as I have dragged it to the timeline it returns to the original size.

Last but not least, either save it on the timeline as a new Take, or copy it directly to the correct place in the final movie.

Kind regards

Peter

Hallo @Pete-Lowland and @all,

"Takes" functionality.

First of all, a *.TK2 file consists only of references. Such a *.TK2 file still contains the entire movie. You can check this yourself by stretching a *.TK2 file on the timeline.

Here's a brief description of how scene detection works.

• Start Video Deluxe
• Place the movie file on the timeline
• Right-click on the timeline and select Scene Detection
• Check the box: "Save all scenes as takes"
• Click Start Search
• The movie file is split into scenes (takes)
• Click OK
• The movie file on the timeline is cut into scenes (takes) and placed in the Take folder.
• The *.TK2 files can now be converted and saved as movie files.
• Go to: File / Batch conversion (s)
• 
• Click Object in the movie
• 
• Watch the video.
• 

Good luck,
Rob

@Pete-Lowland

Pete, there is no need to exactly re-trim your takes. Just drag the rough Take onto the timeline and drag each end (in or out) to the exact desired point (as Bol hinted in his first sentence above).

@Bol

Rob, that Batch conversion process re-renders each scene. I think that is not what Pete wants to do at this point in the project.

@Pete-Lowland

Hi

I rarely use Takes or In/Out points, ie set a Range as I find they are tedious and increase my editing time

My method is to put all the videos, and images if also part of the project, in the order required and use any combination of the following in conjunction with positioning the Timeline marker/cursor to the position where the below are to occur ensuring that the Mouse Mode is set to Single track ripple (8 key top row of the character keys)

• Trim Start (Z key)
• Trim End (U key)
• Cuts (T key)

Saving the project regularly.

John EB

@johnebaker @Bol @Pete-Lowland @AAProds @Can-Dive

I rarely use Takes or In/Out points, ie set a Range as I find they are tedious and increase my editing time

I've been following this and also wondered what the advantage would be.

I have often wondered what the 'Takes' advantage would be and when they would be most useful.

Ray.

@CubeAce

I have often wondered what the 'Takes' advantage would be and when they would be most useful.

Ray, horses for courses. For example, I want to make a video of all my Mirage flying. I have multiple files over a couple of drives containing snippets of Mirage video. I could import all the files containing Mirages (might only be a few minutes here and there in a large video), as John does, and then either export the Mirage pieces as MVDs or "keep" them on a timeline in a movie in a Mirage project.

Or I could just open each file containing Mirage video and use Takes to "save" each portion without needing to export to either a new file or MVDs.

When I finally get to create my Mirage movie, I simply go to the folder containing all my Mirage Takes and bring them in as necessary for the movie and edit away.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

I think Al has hit the nail on the head with this:

. . . . multiple files over a couple of drives containing snippets of Mirage video . . . .

Bringing these together into one location as Takes, ie references to the video location and section if it is part of a longer clip, would be more beneficial in this case.

My 'work in progress' projects are located on a single drive, 'Work disc' and organised in a 'master' folder for that project, see image below. All media, disc artwork, etc are in subfolders.

My work flow is to copy and paste the Master project folder, rename it and then drop the media from my cameras, mobile phone etc into the appropriate folders, the Media folder has subfolders for cameras mobile etc.

This makes the need for Takes unnecessary and would introduce, in my case, an extra step in the editing process and makes backing up and syncing the project between PC and laptop much easier.

John EB

Hi all,

Interesting discussion and I may have to change my workflow in some cases, in particular in cases like those of @Pete-Lowland. I, too, have to treat 8mm, S8 sound, VHS and other old files that can contain more than one subject or theme. My current workflow is to:

1. Import base material into Project/Movie
2. Detect scenes
3. Review and move related or thematic material to separate movies, aptly named. If I know that I already have same or related thematic material, I give the MVD (Movie) file the same name plus an indicator - p1 (part 1 or 2, whatever). Alternatively, I could open the related MVD file into the project and just add to it and get rid (or overwrite) of the no longer needed MVD file - just thought of that.
4. Export Movies
5. Open new Project for theme, import one or more Movies
6. Combine or copy paste as required
7. Edit

Since I use VPX and not Move Studio/VDL, I have little experience using takes. In VPX, one uses the Project Temp Folder for that. However, the entry in the PTF can be saved as a Take, which I have only done for testing purposes.

@CubeAce

Ray, here is my take (no pun intended) on Movies vs Takes. The use of Takes is defined in the manual near the beginning, page 26 in 2025 manual. So, Projects have program settings and contain Movies. Each Movie can have its own settings, like different formats, for example. The Movie contains objects, effects etc. Takes are simply grouped or single objects with or without effects and keyframes. A take contains no movie information. That is the big difference. A take is like an object in the Media Pool/Import that can be dragged to the timeline of the Movie. A Movie is like a Project in the Media Pool/Import that, if you drag it into a current Project/Movie, will just add itself as another Movie in the Project.

Advantage of Takes over Movies, is that you don't have to open the Movie and copy/paste from one Movie to another, you just drag or import into your current Movie.

A possible advantage of Movies over Takes is that you may have set up your Movie for a particular format and, like me, added in track colours and names that you want to use. You may even have added in some effects in the Mixer that you want to keep.

BUG - in MMS2025, similar to the PTF bug in VPX, when I drag or import a take to the timeline, I get a 1 second object, not the actual duration of the take. Has this been resolved in VDL2026?

John CB

@browj2

Hi John

. . . . BUG - in MMS2025, similar to the PTF bug in VPX, when I drag or import a take to the timeline, I get a 1 second object, not the actual duration of the take.. . . . .

I am not seeing this now, Takes import to the timeline at their correct duration, tested using MMS 2025 v24.0.1.249.

VPX 16 v21.0.1.270 appears to be working correctly, however the right click Save as takes is missing, and Shift+K, is not working. Checking the Keyboard shortcuts list Shift +K is assigned to Save as takes

John EB

@johnebaker @AAProds @browj2 @Pete-Lowland @Can-Dive

Hi.

So basically Takes are more useful when sections of video are considered for reuse for multiple projects and where footage may be brought in from more than one drive.

So my workflow is more similar to John EB's as everything I need tends to be shot at the same locations at the same time.

Ray.

@Pete-Lowland @johnebaker @Bol @AAProds @browj2 @CubeAce

Hi everyone,

I think I worked out why I could not replicate @Pete-Lowland's workflow on triming Takes. I am using MMS2024 but would be interested if the same issue (bug) is in VDL2026. Here are the steps to test:

1. Move an object from the Media pool to the timeline, trim it and save it as a Take. (assume the Take is 20 sec long)
2. Delete the object on the timeline
3. Go to the Takes folder and click on the Trim icon [ ] and trim the Take in the Program monitor to say 10 seconds.
4. Move the Take to the timeline by either click and drag from the Media Pool or use the Arrow icon
5. Result: The Take on the timeline reverts to 20 seconds
6. Create a new Project (do not save the current project)
7. Again, select the Take with the Trim icon and trim the Take in the Program Monitor to 10 seconds
8. Click and drag or use the Arrow icon to move the Take to the timeline.
9. Result: The Take on the timeline is now 10 seconds long.

Also note that if after making Takes, the program is closed and reopened, one is able to subsequently trim Takes and the new trim length will be maintained when the trimmed Take is moved to the timeline.

It appears the system retains in memory the original Take length and it cannot be further trimmed unless a new project is created or the program is restarted. Would someone please confirm my finding? Thanks. 🤓

Greetings,

I know I'm a bit late to this topic but I've just read it and, because I only use takes once every blue moon, I have nothing to add to it EXCEPT that I have noticed, first with MS2024 and currently with MS2025 (I'm bypassing VDL2026 as it has nothing for me) when I save a video clip as a Take, that take loads into a new project at the correct length. As it has been noted here trimming is a faff but easily done on the timeline.

BUT if the video clip has no audio or is ungrouped (audio and video separate) then the Take is corrupt, only 1 second long, all black and crashes MS2025 when trying to add to timeline.

As I say I don't use them much as I've learned to live without them.

AndyW