Mastering the Shift-B Shortcut in Final Cut Pro: Blade Speed for Seamless Edits

Keyboard shortcut: ShiftB

Want part of a clip in slow motion and the rest at normal speed, without cutting the clip apart? That's what Shift-B is for. Its official name is Blade Speed, and it blades the retimed speed segment: it splits a clip's speed into separate segments at the playhead, so each part can have its own speed.

What Blade Speed Does

When you retime a clip in Final Cut Pro, the speed is shown in the retime editor, a colored bar above the clip. Blade Speed divides that bar into two speed segments at the playhead. The clip itself is not cut. It stays one clip in your timeline. You simply end up with two (or more) sections of it that can play at different speeds.

How to Use Shift-B

  1. Select the clip in the timeline and press Command-R to show the retime editor above it.
  2. Move the playhead to the frame where you want the speed to change.
  3. Press Shift-B. A new speed segment boundary appears in the retime editor.
  4. Click the pop-up menu on one segment and choose a speed, such as Slow 50%, or drag the handle at the end of the segment to set a custom speed.
  5. Play it back to check the result.

Building a Speed Ramp

Press Shift-B at two points to create three segments: normal speed, slow motion, then normal speed again. Set the middle segment to a slower speed and you have a classic speed ramp. Turn on Speed Transitions in the Retime menu to ease between the speeds instead of switching abruptly.

Tips

  • Need a section back at regular speed? Select it with the Range Selection tool and press Shift-N to set it to normal (100 percent) speed.
  • Remember that slowing down a segment makes the clip longer in the timeline, and speeding it up makes it shorter, so later clips in the primary storyline will move.

Blade Speed is the foundation of every speed ramp in Final Cut Pro, and it only takes one key.

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