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Takes & player

Every recording is a take: all cameras, in sync, kept together as one item. Double-click it to watch every angle at once — or open it up and drag the camera files into your video editor.

Requires StudioTools 2.4.0 or later. Coming soon to the Mac App Store — beta testers have it now.

What a take is

Each time you record, Video Studio saves a take in your output folder. It's named after your Pro Tools session — My Song – Take 3 — or, without one, after the moment it started (see Take names):

Take 2026-10-29 14-15-21.stvideo
    Kick.mov            ← one movie per camera, named after the camera
    Overhead.mov
    Vocal booth.mov
    take.json           ← describes the take

One movie per camera, each with the sound you chose in Setup. All movies start on the same frame.
take.json — a small description of the take: its cameras and their order, the layout it was recorded in, the sound input, and where a lost camera stopped. The Takes player uses it.

Finder shows a .stvideo take as one item, so a session folder stays tidy and a take is copied, moved or archived in one piece.

A Finder window with several Video Studio takes, each shown as a single .stvideo item — Takes in Finder: one item per take.

Prefer normal folders? Set Save takes as to Plain folder in Setup. Each take is then a normal folder —

Take 2026-10-29
          14-15-21

— with the same files inside. Double-clicking it in Finder opens the folder; to play it in the Takes player, use Open Video Take….

If Finder shows a .stvideo take as an ordinary folder, open StudioTools once — macOS then knows what a take is.

Take names

While a Pro Tools session is open, Video Studio names each take after it, so takes from different songs are easy to tell apart:

My Song – Take 1.stvideo
My Song – Take 2.stvideo
My Song – Take 3.stvideo

Every take gets the session name — whether your DAW started it (auto-record) or you pressed the record button.
Each song counts on its own. The number continues from the highest My Song – Take N already in the output folder. Gaps aren't filled: after Take 1 and Take 3, the next take is Take 4.
Without a session — no Pro Tools session open, or the setting turned off — takes are named by date: Take 2026-10-29 14-15-21.stvideo.
Plain folders get the same names without the extension: My Song – Take 3.
Characters that aren't allowed in file names, such as / and :, become -. Very long session names are shortened.

In Monitor, the control strip shows Pro Tools: My Song while a session is open, so you know what your next take will be called. To name every take by date, turn off Name takes after the Pro Tools session in Setup.

The take also remembers its session: the session name and where it's saved go into take.json — even when the take is named by date. Media Manager shows it as Pro Tools session.

Logic Pro and REAPER Video Studio gets the session name from Pro Tools, through StudioTools' Pro Tools connection. Logic Pro and REAPER sessions aren't detected, so takes recorded with them are named by date.

Get the camera files into your editor

To cut a multi-camera video for social media or a client, bring the camera files into Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Premiere or any other editor:

In the Takes player, click Show Camera Files. A Finder window opens inside the take with the movies selected — drag them into your editor.
Or, in Finder, right-click the take and choose Show Package Contents.

All files of a take start on the same frame and carry the same sound, so they line up when you place them at the same start.

Copy, don't rename Leave the files inside a take as they are, so the Takes player can still find them. Copy them out if you want to rename or re-encode them.

The Takes player

The Takes player shows all cameras of a take in sync, in one picture — perfect for reviewing a performance with the band right after the take.

Open a take

Double-click a take in Finder.
Choose Open Video Take… in the StudioTools app menu and select one or more takes.
In Video Studio's Monitor, click Play Last Take.
Double-click a take in Media Manager.

Each take opens in its own window. Opening a take that is already open brings its window to the front.

Layouts and cameras

The player starts in the layout the take was recorded in — Grid, Focus or Single, like in Monitor. To switch, use the layout buttons or the camera buttons in the top bar, or the keys 1–9 (pick a camera; from Grid this switches to Focus) and G (back to Grid). Switching changes only what you see right now; the take itself isn't changed and the layout isn't saved.

Playback

Keys / control	Action
`Space`	Play / pause
`←` `→`	Step one frame back / forward
Timeline	Drag to scrub through the take
Volume	Playback volume
Full screen	Fill the screen with the take

The controls work as in any Mac video player.

Sound — you hear the take's sound, taken from a camera that recorded to the end. A take recorded without sound shows No sound.
Lost cameras — a camera that was lost during the take turns black at that point and shows Lost at m:ss. The other cameras play on.