Merge, Join, Stitch together video and audio with Permute and Focus Video
Easy Record and Trim can split an audio file, and Video Cut, Crop and Join can split a video file, but what’s the tool for merging files back together?
Even though Video Cut, Crop and Join has “Join” in the name, and it can indeed join or merge videos together, it’s not an intuitive process.
It can be done by adding files to the task queue, even though you aren’t processing them, selecting the files in Task List, then right click and select Merge Videos. Give it a few minutes and the job will be done, even though it doesn’t look like anything is happening.
The process isn’t intuitive, it duplicates files and uses up space, and the output progress window is basically non-existent. Disappointing to be sure, but there are alternatives for this job.
If you have Permute for converting and extracting audio and video, you already have a tool for merging video and audio, it just may not be obvious.
Drag the files onto Permute in the order you want them combined, then click the gear in the upper right corner, which reveals a “Stitch Together” option. You can give the merged file a new name, then press the Convert button.
The process is the same for joining Audio or Video.
You can also go the route of using Focus Video. This is a simple and clean tool for merging files. It also works on audio even though that isn’t part of the app name.
Within Focus Video, select the Video Merger tab, there is no separate audio option. Drag in either video or audio files, in the order you want them merged, and join them together.
If the files are compatible, the Lossless option becomes available.
Both tools make it quick and easy to merge files together.
It seems small utilities like these aren’t as prevalent as they used to be. There are some decent looking tools in the App Store, for $5 and under, but alas, they haven’t seen updates in 5+ years, so not a solid investment.
They’re now part of bigger tools like Wondershare, Cisdem, and all their clones. There’s nothing wrong with that, but merging a couple of files together shouldn’t rip $70 out of your wallet, that’s kind of ridiculous.
You can also be hard core and use the cat tool from Terminal, which totally works, but can become an ugly command line real quick.
I prefer a UI and getting the files listed in the correct order. This works just fine for merging a multi-part audio into a single file so it always plays in the correct order.
I’m more interested in splitting files than merging, but it’s nice to know it’s there. If I were to try and merge all these 20 minute ambience videos, not only would it take all day to process, but the files would be over the top in size.
