DaVinci Resolve 18.1 finally brings vertical and square video support for TikTok, Instagram and other social platforms

Blackmagic Design has announced the new DaVinci Resolve 18.1 update which finally brings native vertical video editing features to the software. It also adds the Neural Engine-enabled AI dialogue leveller and AI voice isolation tools to the cut, edit and Fairlight pages to help make your voice stand out more easily from the background noise. Fairlight grid support has also been added to help you more easily edit to the beat.

DaVinci Resolve 18.1 also comes with improved support for the Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro ISO. It’s now easier to import projects created using the ATEM Mini ISO and edit them in DaVinci Resolve and audio is attached to the video clips properly.

Vertical video has always been a bit of a bugbear for me with DaVinci Resolve. It’s not something I need to do all the time, but sometimes it’s nice to pop a Story up on YouTube or something to accompany a video and while I’ve been 100% DaVinci Resolve for the last three years for my regular main video content, I still have to sneak into Premiere Pro for vertical videos for social media. Now, it looks like I might finally be able to use Resolve for everything!

But it’s not the only big change to come in DaVinci Resolve 18.1. There are also new Neural Engine voice isolation and dialogue levelling features, letting you skip the manual compression and EQ you might normally go for. I’m curious to see how it compares to doing it the old-fashioned way, but even if I still end up doing it with compression and EQ filters most of the time, it’s nice to have the option of an automated solution for quick videos for social media.

Here’s the complete list of DaVinci Resolve 18.1’s key features, although this doesn’t cover all of the updates. Just the important ones:

• Vertical resolution options in project settings for social media.
• Select custom thumbnails and channels for YouTube uploads.
• Support for individual timeline locks enhancing multi-user collaboration.
• New DaVinci Neural Engine enabled voice isolation in Studio.
• New Dialogue Leveler for natural smooth audio.
• Vector keyframing for Fairlight automation curve editing.
• Fairlight grid support for editing to timecode or musical tempo.
• Reorganized and streamlined view menu.
• Support for Resolve FX Dust Buster in the edit timeline.
• Improvements to ATEM Mini ISO project import to keep audio attached to video clips.
• Improved speed editor functionality in the edit page.
• Subtitle caption properties can now be overridden individually.
• Support for subtitle track presets and per-track formatting rules.
• Support for Magic Mask in the Fusion page.
• Support for Dolby Vision cinema trims.
• Support for fractional display scaling for Windows and Linux

As well as vertical videos, DaVinci Resolve 18.1 now lets you easily edit square videos for social media, too, making it much faster to set up your timeline to produce videos. For those working in a team, the collaboration tools have been made easier due to locking timelines – which prevents two users from editing the same timelines simultaneously. If you’re a team producing content for social media, this lets you all edit different videos in the same project simultaneously without getting in each other’s way but still keeping everything synced together.

Fusion users also get some nice improvements with the Magic Mask now available through the Fusion page. This uses the DaVinci Neural Engine to detect animals, people, vehicles and other objects to track their movement and target very specific parts of your shot as it evolves over the clip. Effects are now easier to find with new keyword and category search features.

As usual, there are performance improvements, with up to 10x faster Text+ processing, 5x faster image stabilisation, face refinement tracking and analysis, 4x faster spatial noise reduction, better playback performance with large node graphes and improved Blackmagic RAW decoding on Apple silicon-based systems.

As always, DaVinci Resolve 18.1 is available to download now for free and DaVinci Resolve Studio users can also upgrade to Studio 18.1 for free.