How to Split a Single Video into Multicam in Riverside

If you recorded a video call on Zoom, Teams, or another platform, you probably ended up with a single video file where all speakers appear in one frame. That's fine for playback, but it limits your editing options — you can't zoom into one speaker, switch between angles, or apply per-speaker layouts.

Riverside can take that single combined video and split it into separate tracks for each speaker, effectively turning it into a multicam recording. Here's how it works.

What You Start With

A typical Zoom or video call recording looks like this — both speakers visible in a single frame, side by side or in a grid layout. It's one video file with one video track.

Upload with "Separate Video Tracks" Enabled

When you upload the video to Riverside, the key setting is "Separate video tracks" — marked with a NEW badge. This is what tells Riverside to use AI to detect and split the speakers.

1. Create a new project in Riverside
2. Choose Upload and select your video file
3. Set "How many speakers?" to match your video (e.g., 2 speakers)
4. Toggle on "Separate video tracks"
5. Click Upload

Important: The video must show the same speakers in a single, fixed view from start to finish. If the layout changes during the call (e.g., grid to fullscreen), the tracks can't be separated properly.

The Result: Separate Speaker Tracks

After processing, Riverside creates individual tracks for each speaker. Instead of one combined file, you now have:

• Speaker-0 — cropped video of the first person
• Speaker-1 — cropped video of the second person
• Transcript — with speaker labels

Editing with Separate Tracks

Click Edit and you're in the full Riverside editor with multicam capabilities — exactly as if you'd recorded natively in Riverside with separate cameras.

You now have access to all of Riverside's multi-track editing features:

• Smart Layouts — automatic switching between speakers based on who's talking
• Crop and reframe each speaker independently (see also: crop, reposition, and reframe in Riverside)
• Solo speaker views — zoom into one person for emphasis
• Side-by-side layouts with customizable positioning

AI Tools and Speaker Identification

Once split, Riverside's full AI toolkit becomes available:

• Remove pauses — automatically cut dead air
• Remove filler words — strip "ums" and "ahs"
• Find fluff — AI recommends parts to cut (see also: Remove Fluff with Riverside)
• Magic Audio — studio-quality sound enhancement
• Smart Mute — mute anyone not talking (see also: What is Smart Mute)
• Smart layouts — automatic camera switching based on who's speaking

When to Use This

• Repurposing Zoom recordings — turn basic calls into polished podcast episodes or interviews
• Client recordings from other platforms — clients send you a Zoom/Teams file, you split and edit it professionally in Riverside
• Archive footage — older recordings that weren't captured with separate tracks
• Quick social clips — split the video, then create Magic Clips from specific moments

Tips

• Fixed layout required — the call must stay in the same grid/view throughout. If the layout switches (gallery to speaker view), the split won't work
• Rename speakers after splitting — they'll be labeled "Speaker-0" and "Speaker-1" initially (see: rename speakers on uploaded files)
• Resolution varies — each speaker's track will be lower resolution than the original since it's cropped from a portion of the full frame
• After splitting, you can use all the same editing features as a native Riverside recording — layouts, captions, branding, export

Ready to turn your Zoom recordings into multicam productions? Get started with Riverside.