Blackmagic Design releases DaVinci Resolve 18.1

Image courtesy: Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design has released a major new update for DaVinci Resolve. DaVinci DaVinci Resolve 18.1 adds vertical resolutions for social media and DaVinci Neural Engine AI enabled voice isolation. There is also now vector keyframing for Fairlight automation curves along with many more new features and improvements.

Vertical resolutions

With DaVinci Resolve 18.1 you can now choose social media square and vertical resolutions such as 1080 x 1920 directly in project settings. This makes it faster and easier for you to setup a timeline to produce videos for TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook shorts, and Instagram TV.

AI based voice isolation

DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.1 has a new AI based voice isolation track effect. This means you can use DaVinci Neural Engine enabled voice isolation to remove loud, undesirable sounds from voice recordings. You can access the feature from the Cut, Edit and Fairlight pages. Blackmagic Design says that you can isolate dialogue from background sounds ranging from moderate noise to aircraft and explosions leaving only the voice.

Dialogue leveler

DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.1 now has a built in dialogue leveler track effect in the inspector. This feature processes and smooths dialogue recordings without the need for level adjustments on clip gain or automation curves. It also has control such as real-time scrolling waveform display, focus presets and three process options so you can easily achieve natural sounding results.

Fairlight audio automation curves

DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.1 has new vector keyframing of Fairlight audio automation curves. This means you can graphically enter, edit, trim and nudge keyframes with standard tools. There is also a new automation editing view which allows for faster and simpler management of curves and keyframes. In addition, DaVinci Resolve 18.1 also adds Fairlight grid support so you can position clips on a grid based on timecode or musical tempo.

Magic Mask

DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.1 has added a Magic Mask feature to Fairlight. The Magic Mask palette uses the DaVinci Neural Engine to detect animals, vehicles, people, and objects. It then tracks their movement in so you can produce clean traveling mattes directly in the Fusion page.

Timeline locking

The collaboration tools in DaVinci Resolve 18.1 have been improved by the addition of the new timeline locking operation. This automatic operation stops two users selecting the same timeline by locking it to the first user without the need to lock the whole timeline bin. It also means that multiple editors can now work on different timelines in the same bin at the same time.

Verdict

DaVinci Resolve 18.1 is a major update with some powerful new features using the DaVinci Neural Engine. Voice isolation is made for saving your interviews and dialogue recordings from noisy locations. The AI assisted masking and tracking will save a lot of time too. If you already use DaVinci Resolve, then you should consider upgrading to take advantage of the new features and improvements. However, it is best to wait until you have finished any current projects rather than updating mid-project. If you haven’t made the switch to you can download the powerful free version of DaVinci Resolve to try before deciding whether to buy DaVinci Resolve Studio.