Skill · edit, music

Cut on the beat

Detect beats with an onset/beat tracker (e.g. librosa beat_track) on the full mix. Note the BPM and the time of the first downbeat.
Build a grid. Beat k is at t0 + k × 60 / BPM. Bars are every 4 beats.
Snap cuts. Every shot start goes to the nearest beat; section changes go to downbeats (bar starts).
Pace by section. Verses: cut every 2 bars. Pre-chorus: every bar. Chorus: every 2 beats. Drops: hit the first downbeat with the biggest shot.
Land the action. If a shot's action peak (arrow release, door slam) misses a beat by less than 0.3 s, retime the clip between 0.7× and 1.25× so the peak lands.
Captions on beats too. Big words appear on the beat they are sung, not before.