Instantly Clean Up Retakes and Edit Faster with AI

Introduction

Whether you're recording a YouTube video, podcast, or interview, repeating the same sentence over and over is part of the process—but finding the best take later? That’s the tedious part. With Cutback’s Remove Retake function, you can skip the manual review. The AI instantly identifies repeated lines and keeps only the most accurate, natural, and clear version. No more scrubbing through every take—just load your footage, click a few times, and move on with your edit.

🔽 In this guide:

✅ How to use AI to remove retakes in your video instantly

✅ Features that make rough cutting easier and eliminate the risk of bad editing

✅ Frequently asked questions and answers

Getting Started - How To Edit Video With AI

Step 1. Open a new Premiere Pro project and load your audio and video files into a sequence.

Step 2. Go to [Window] > [Extensions] > [Cutback] from the top menu to launch Cutback.

Step 3. Select the [Auto Rough Cut] option.

Step 4. Configure the following recognition settings:

1. Range Selection:

   • All: Generate subtitles for all tracks in the sequence.

   • In/Out: Use the in/out points set in Premiere Pro.

   • Clip: Generate subtitles only for selected clips.

2. Language Selection: Choose the language of the video (one language per session).

3. Preview On/Off: Enable preview to see a draft before applying changes.

   • Note: Preview requires encoding. For faster performance, turn it off.

4. Number of Speakers:

   • If each speaker has a separate mic/audio track, assign names per track.

   • If all speech is on a single track, input the number of speakers. AI will identify them by voice.

5. Video Tracks: Assign video tracks per speaker if needed.

Step 5. Click [Transcribe video for auto rough cut] to begin.

Easily Edit Out Bad Takes and Remove Retakes with AI

Step 1. Click the Assistant button at the top right.

Step 2. In the chat window, either select [Remove retakes] or type the command manually.

Step 3. Cutback’s AI Assistant will analyze the video using the transcript and scene detection technology to generate a draft. It will start removing repeated takes based on sentence accuracy, audio quality, and natural context flow. This includes blather, digressions, and other unwanted clips. It will then instantly remove repeated takes by seamless stitching of the best takes for clarity and maximized viewer retention.

Step 4. Click [Select best cut] in the draft view to choose which versions to keep and which to remove, so you're not stuck with the wrong take, or worse, all of them.

Step 5. Review the draft and click [Save] to apply changes to the original video. You can then continue refining the edit using text-based editing or caption editing for maximum time efficiency in your video editing workflow.

• Tip: If you click [Discard], the original unedited video will be restored.

Step 6. Click [Apply to sequence] to finalize the changes in your Premiere Pro sequence.

• Create new sequence: Saves the changes in a new sequence while keeping the original untouched.

• Apply to current sequence: Updates the existing sequence with the changes.

Note

• Segments marked for deletion by AI will appear in gray. These edits will not be applied until you click [Apply to sequence].

• Any changes not applied to the sequence will not be saved. Make sure to click [Apply to sequence] to preserve your edits.

Explore More Cutback Features To Utilize For Concise Editing

Alongside the AI Remove Retakes feature, make sure to make the most out of our other features, which include automatic silence detection through Remove Silences, Remove Filler Words for max viewer engagement, Animated Captions for trending text overlays, and many other AI tools.

1. Top Menu Features:

   • Undo/Redo: Use buttons or keyboard shortcuts u (undo) and r (redo).

   • Time Machine: Revert to the state before you applied changes.

   • Find/Replace: Search and replace words in subtitles (f key).

   • Export Subtitles: Export to .txt or .srt, or copy chapters + timestamps for YouTube.

2. Keyboard Shortcuts:

   • Move between words: w a s d

   • Cut at word: k

   • Cut at sentence: l

   • Faster preview: > (Shift + .)

   • Slower preview: < (Shift + ,)

   • View all shortcuts via the keyboard icon (top-right of Cutback window)

3. Smart Summary Tips:

   • Click a summary to jump to that chapter.

   • Edit chapters directly with the Assistant via chapter titles.

These tools will not only boost your audience’s attention span when watching your videos. But it will also allow you more flexibility in editing time so that you can focus on the creativity needed for your content’s scalability.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many times can I use Auto Rough Cut per month?

A: Currently in open beta, Auto Rough Cut has no usage limit. This may change after the official release.

Q: Can I load previously created subtitles?

A: Yes. If you've already generated subtitles in a sequence, you can reload them using [Import] in the Subtitle Generation & Edit menu or open them via [Check Subtitle File] > [Open Previous Work].

⚠️ Caution: Clicking [Generate New Subtitle] will overwrite previous subtitle files.

Q: I clicked [Apply to Sequence] and received a message saying the subtitle track prevents cuts.

A: Delete all subtitle tracks (i.e., 'Captions' in Premiere). Check inside nested sequences for hidden subtitle tracks.

Q: I don’t like the edit the Assistant created.

A: Feel free to try another prompt, give clearer instructions, or revert using Time Machine.

Q: Line breaks don’t work when I try to edit subtitles.

A: Use Subtitle Edit Mode to change subtitles. Auto Rough Cut Mode only supports cuts, not line breaks.