PodClip Help

Getting started

PodClip needs macOS 26 or later. Drag PodClip to your Applications folder, open it, and allow the microphone and speech recognition when asked.

1. Choose your microphone from the input menu at the top.
2. Press Record. The first time, PodClip downloads Apple's speech model, which needs an internet connection once.
3. Talk. Words appear in the transcript as you speak.
4. Click a sentence you like, press Clip, and it becomes a button on the soundboard.
5. Click the button (or press ⌘1) to play it.

Recording

Pick an input at the top (the built-in mic, a USB interface, a mixer or a virtual device such as Loopback). The level meter shows what PodClip hears. You can't change the input while recording.

Press Record to start and Stop to finish. The audio is saved to disk as it is recorded, so a long episode doesn't use up memory. An hour is about 345 MB. Keep Follow live ticked to stay at the newest text.

Pause and resume

Right-click (or control-click) the Stop button while recording to pause. It turns orange and says Resume, and a separate Stop button appears. Click Resume to carry on. Paused time is not in the recording. The Mac's microphone indicator stays on while paused.

Capture the last few seconds

Heard something great? Use Capture last on the soundboard (10 seconds to 5 minutes) to save the most recent audio as a clip, with the words spoken in that stretch. It is named like "Last 30s @ 12:34", and you can trim it afterwards. A Stream Deck key, Companion and OSC can do the same.

Back to live

Press ⌘L (Edit ▸ Back to Live) to clear the search and selection and jump to the newest text.

Transcribing a file you already have

Choose File ▸ Open Audio File… (⌘O) and pick an MP3, M4A, WAV, AIFF, CAF or FLAC file. PodClip makes a new episode, copies the audio into it and transcribes it far faster than real time (on Apple silicon, about a minute per hour of audio).

• You can search and clip the parts already transcribed while the rest is still going.
• Press Stop in the progress bar to keep what has been transcribed so far. It can't be resumed; open the file again to start fresh.
• The file is copied into the episode, so it still works if you move or delete the original.
• The Record button is unavailable until the transcription finishes or is stopped.

Finding a moment

Press ⌘F (or click the search box) and type. Search works while the episode is still recording, and multi-word phrases work too. Matches are highlighted in the transcript and listed with a time and some context. Click a result to jump there and select its sentence. The ✕ clears the search.

Making a clip

A clip is a piece of the recording picked by its words. Select some words, then press Clip.

PodClip adds a little breathing room automatically and fades the edges by a few milliseconds so there are no clicks. The Head and Tail numbers (like +0.0s) are adjustments on top of that, and the time range shown is exactly what will be clipped.

Editing a clip

Right-click a pad and choose Edit Clip…. The transcript scrolls to its words and highlights them, an orange banner shows which clip you are editing, and Clip becomes Save Edit. Change the words, trim with Start / End or Head / Tail, or rename it. Save Edit replaces the clip in the same slot, so its position, key and numbers stay the same. Cancel leaves it untouched.

Editing needs the episode's recording and transcript, so it isn't available after you delete them, or for pads made from dropped-in audio files.

The soundboard

Clips appear on the right as pads. Click a pad to play it. Pads play instantly, can overlap, and light up while playing. While a pad plays it counts down, like "2.4s left".

Playing

• ⌘1 – ⌘9 play the first nine pads. You can set your own keys.
• Stop all silences everything. Holding Esc for half a second does the same.
• ⌥-click a pad (or right-click ▸ Stop) stops just that pad.
• Right-click a playing pad ▸ Pause, then Resume. A paused pad shows a dashed outline.
• Play through chooses the output device, for example a separate bus so clips don't bleed into your own microphone. The slider next to it sets the overall volume.

When a playing pad is triggered again

Choose what happens: Restart (the default), Stop, or Pause & resume. Set the default in Settings ▸ Sound, and override it for one pad (or several selected pads) with right-click ▸ When Clicked Again. It applies however the pad is triggered: click, keyboard, MIDI, Stream Deck or OSC.

Listen privately first

⇧-click a pad to play it through the preview output (for example your headphones) so you can audition it without it going on air. Choose the device in Settings ▸ Sound ▸ Preview through. ⇧-click again to stop. (With pads already selected, ⇧-click extends the selection instead; right-click ▸ Play Through Preview still works.)

Organizing pads

• Reorder: drag a pad onto another pad. Pads in between shift over. Keys, MIDI triggers and Stream Deck numbers belong to positions, so they follow the new order.
• Color: right-click ▸ Color. With several pads selected it colors them all.
• Rename or delete: right-click the pad.
• Select several: drag a box around them in the empty space, or ⌘-click / ⇧-click. Then right-click ▸ Delete N Clips… or press ⌘⌫. Deleting can't be undone, so you are asked first.
• New clips first: turn on Settings ▸ Sound ▸ Put new clips in position 1 to make your newest clip always the first pad.

Adding sounds that aren't clips

Drag MP3, M4A, WAV, AIFF, CAF or FLAC files from Finder onto the soundboard. Each becomes a pad named after the file. They are copied into the episode, so the original can move. These pads have no transcript words, so Edit Clip isn't offered for them.

Pad labels

Each pad shows its keyboard shortcut at the top left and its MIDI trigger (like ♪ 48) at the top right. A small icon at the lower left means the pad has its own "when clicked again" setting. Hover a pad for the full description.

Clip a word everywhere

With a Stream Deck Clip Word… key, a Companion action or OSC, type a word or phrase once and one press clips every place it was said in the transcript so far (at most 20 at a time). By default each clip is the whole sentence; choose Just the word or phrase to clip only those words. Matches that already have a pad are skipped, so pressing again only adds new ones.

Shared pads

Shared pads appear in every episode: jingles, stingers and sound effects. They sit in their own row at the top of the soundboard.

• Turn the row on in Settings ▸ Sound ▸ Shared pads. While it is hidden, shared pads still play from their keys, MIDI, Stream Deck and OSC.
• Drop audio files onto the Shared row, or right-click any pad ▸ Share with All Episodes.
• Make This Episode Only… takes a shared pad back (other episodes lose it). Delete from All Episodes… removes it everywhere, after a confirmation.
• Shared pads come first, so their keys and numbers are the same in every episode, and your own pads are numbered after them.
• Show Shared Pads Folder in Finder (in the same Settings section) opens where they are kept.

Exporting or duplicating an episode includes only that episode's own pads.

Fixing misspellings

If the transcription keeps misspelling a name or word, right-click the word in the transcript ▸ Always Replace “word”… and type the spelling you want. You can also add pairs in Settings ▸ Corrections.

• The replacement shows in every transcript (live, imported and reopened episodes) and is what search, clip names and subtitle export use.
• It keeps the word's capital letters and the punctuation around it, matches whole words only, and ignores capitals when matching.
• The saved transcript keeps what the speech model heard. Right-click ▸ Stop Replacing (or delete the entry) brings the original back.
• Clips you already made keep the text they were saved with.

Episodes

Every recording is its own episode. Open Episode lists your past episodes; click one to reload it with its transcript, search, clips and soundboard. Record always starts a new episode; it doesn't continue an old one.

Rename, duplicate, delete

• Right-click an episode in the list to rename it, duplicate it, show it in Finder or delete it. File ▸ Rename Episode… and File ▸ Duplicate Episode act on the one you have open.
• Duplicate makes an independent copy named "<name> copy" with the recording, transcript and clips. It's a safe way to try edits. It does not reopen the episode you are in.
• Delete Recording… frees disk space after you are done: erase just the recording and transcript (keeping your clips) or the whole episode. This can't be undone.

Move or back up an episode

File ▸ Export Episode… saves the open episode (recording, transcript, clips, colors, name) as one .podclip file. File ▸ Import Episode…, or double-clicking a .podclip file, unpacks it as a new episode. If you import one that is already in PodClip, you can Import as Copy or Cancel.

Where files are kept

Episodes are folders in ~/Library/Application Support/PodClip/. The Show in Finder button opens it. Inside an episode you'll find the recording (recording.caf, or recording.mp3 if you turned on conversion), transcript.jsonl, a clips folder and clips.json.

The recording is a CAF file while you record because it stays readable while it's still being written, which is what lets you clip in the middle of an episode. Most Mac audio apps open CAF.

Exporting

• Clips as MP3: right-click a pad ▸ Export as MP3…, or use Export all MP3…. MP3 export needs the free LAME encoder; if PodClip says so, install it with brew install lame. Without it, dragged clips are WAV files instead.
• Drag a clip out: drag any pad onto the Desktop, a Finder window, or an app that takes audio files (such as Farrago) to hand over an MP3 named after the clip. Clicking still plays; only dragging exports. Show MP3 in Finder (right-click) reveals the file.
• Subtitles: File ▸ Export Transcript as SRT… or WebVTT… saves the whole transcript as captions, timed from the word timestamps. It works for past episodes too.

Keyboard shortcuts

Your own pad keys

Right-click a pad ▸ Set Keyboard Shortcut… and press the combination you want. Any pad can have one, including pads past the ninth. Remove Keyboard Shortcut gives a pad no key; Reset Keyboard Shortcut to Default restores ⌘1–⌘9; Settings ▸ Keyboard ▸ Reset all resets every pad.

Shortcuts belong to positions, so pad 4 uses the same key in every episode. A key without ⌘, ⌥ or ⌃ is ignored while you are typing in a text field, and keys PodClip already uses can't be chosen.

Clicking anything that isn't a text field (a pad, the soundboard, a transcript word) takes the cursor out of the search box, so Esc, Delete and the pad keys work right away.

MIDI pads (such as a RØDECaster)

Use the pads or buttons on a MIDI controller to fire soundboard clips. Open Settings ▸ MIDI.

1. Choose your device (or All devices). Press a pad: the Last message line shows what it sent and what PodClip did with it. If nothing shows, the pad isn't sending MIDI. On a RØDECaster, enable MIDI output for the pads in its own settings.
2. Assign pads to clips. Either Learn (set the clip number, press Learn…, press the pad), or right-click a pad on the soundboard ▸ Assign MIDI Trigger…. Or turn on Play clips in order from a starting note, press Learn first note and then the pad that should play clip 1. The next pads play clips 2, 3 and so on.
3. Learn "Stop all" gives you a pad that silences everything. Learn Volume Knob… lets a knob or fader set the soundboard volume.

Assignments belong to pad positions, so pad 1 always plays the first button of whichever episode is open. Notes, controller buttons and program changes all work. Only a press counts; releases and a velocity of 0 are ignored. A pad has one job, so learning a pad that is already assigned moves it. To undo a pad, right-click it: Remove MIDI Trigger leaves it with none, and Reset MIDI Trigger to Default goes back to the automatic mapping. The device reconnects by itself if you unplug and replug it.

Stream Deck, Companion and OSC

PodClip can be run from a control surface, so you can start recording and fire clips without touching the mouse.

Stream Deck

PodClip includes a Stream Deck plugin (Stream Deck 7.1 or later). When the Stream Deck software is installed, PodClip offers to install it the first time you open the app; you can also use File ▸ Install Stream Deck Plugin… at any time. Then enter PodClip's host and port in any key's settings (the default is this Mac, port 9000). Keys available:

• Record / Stop (red, with elapsed time while recording) and Pause Recording
• Play Clip (shows the clip's name; green while playing, amber when paused)
• Stop All Clips, Back to Live, Capture Last… and Clip Word…

Bitfocus Companion

PodClip has a Companion module with actions, feedbacks, variables and presets. Search for PodClip in Companion's connections list, add it, and set the PodClip Mac's address and the port.

OSC

PodClip listens for OSC over UDP (default port 9000). The OSC button in the top bar turns it on or off and sets the port.

Settings

Open PodClip ▸ Settings… (⌘,). It remembers the tab you were last on.

License and updates

Free trial

PodClip is free to try for 14 days from the first time you open it. When the trial ends, recording, opening audio files and making new clips need a license. Everything you already recorded still opens, plays, searches and exports.

Buying and entering a license

Use the Buy button on the home page to get a license. Then choose PodClip ▸ Enter License… (or Settings ▸ License), paste your key and press Activate. Keys are long, so copy and paste rather than typing. Keep your key somewhere safe.

Using PodClip on a new Mac

In Settings ▸ License, press Deactivate This Mac on the old Mac, then enter the key on the new one.

Updates

PodClip checks for updates automatically and offers to install them. Choose PodClip ▸ Check for Updates… to check now. Updates send only the app and macOS version numbers.

Troubleshooting

Privacy

Recording and transcription happen on your Mac. Your audio and transcripts are never uploaded. The only network use is the one-time download of Apple's speech model (which macOS handles), update checks, and, if you buy a license, checking that license. Updates send only the app and macOS versions.

Contact

Still stuck, found a bug or have an idea? Email andy@lehmancreations.com. Tell me what you were doing, what you expected, and what happened. Your macOS version and PodClip version (PodClip ▸ About PodClip) help a lot.