User Manual

Using JKL to Control Playback
The JKL keyboard shortcuts are common to many editing applications, and experienced editors
know these to be some of the most useful controls for playback and editing there are. Here’s a
list of the many different ways you can use these three keyboard shortcuts to play through clips
and timelines as you work.
J Plays 100% backward
K Stops playback
L Plays 100% forward
Press J repeatedly Increases backward play speed each time you press J, for a range
of fast-reverse speeds
Press L repeatedly Increases forward play speed each time you press L, for a range of
fast-forward speeds
Shift-J Plays in fast reverse
Shift-L Plays in fast forward
Shift-K Play Slow at 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 speeds
Press and hold K+J Plays backward at slow motion (with slow motion audio playback)
Press and hold K+L Plays forward at slow motion (with pitch-corrected audio playback
on macOS)
Pressing K while tapping J Moves the playhead back one frame
Pressing K while tapping L Moves the playhead forward one frame
Command-J and Command-L Holding the Command key down while using the J and L keyboard
shortcuts lets you dynamically resize or trim selected edit points or
clips at 100 percent or faster speed, depending on whether the
Selection or Trim tool is enabled.
For more information on dynamic trimming, see Chapter 34,
“Trimming.”
When you’re playing back at faster or slower than real-time speed using the JKL commands,
a speed indicator appears to the right of the frame per second indicator of the Viewer.
A speed indicator above the Viewer shows that you’re playing at 4x speed
Once you learn all the different methods of JKL playback, they will probably become one of the
main ways you move the playhead around in DaVinci Resolve.
Chapter – 27 Preparing Clips for Editing and Viewer Playback 558