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We believe video intelligence
should run on your machine.
Not on someone else's server. Not behind a login wall. Not metered by the minute. The silicon in your PC is the most powerful creative tool ever built - and the entire SaaS industry exists to make you forget that.
[01] The Problem
Every year, video editing tools get more powerful - and more dependent on infrastructure you don't own. Your footage travels to a data center. A model on a GPU farm analyzes it. The result is streamed back. You pay per minute, per render, per export.
The pitch is always the same: "Let us handle the hard stuff." But the hard stuff is already sitting in your PC. Your hardware runs the same class of visual AI that cloud tools bill you per-image to use. That NVMe drive? It reads 7 GB/s - faster than any cloud download. The only thing missing is software that respects the hardware you already paid for.
[02] Our Answer
Onset Engine is a kinetic orchestration engine. It analyzes what's in every clip with visual AI, maps your music track into beats, bars, energy curves, and drop zones, then assembles a mathematically optimal edit using customizable presets and drivers - all locally. No files leave your machine, and once the AI model is downloaded, analysis and rendering need no internet connection.
Visual AI running locally, with two analysis models: Standard (the default, faster) and High Quality (better clip matching). GPU-accelerated when available, fully functional on CPU. Frames sampled from every clip become a searchable fingerprint of what's in it. The engine doesn't guess - it calculates.
An AI beat tracker bundled with the app finds every beat and downbeat, so cuts land on the bars of the music. Onsets and energy are mapped too. Silent tails are auto-trimmed. Drops are detected.
JSON files define what "intensity" means for your genre. Contrastive scoring ensures tier specificity - not just raw similarity. Content-agnostic by design.
Chunked, memory-safe rendering with hardware encoding when available (NVENC, AMF). 4K footage on standard hardware. No swapping. No crashes. No cloud queue.
[03] What We Believe
Software shouldn't be a landlord.
Onset Engine is a one-time purchase. You own the binary. No monthly fees, no per-export charges, no "upgrade to keep exporting." Pay once, render forever.
Your footage is not training data.
We never see your files. The AI runs locally. There is no telemetry, no analytics, no "anonymous usage data." Apart from downloading the AI model once, the app goes online only to check a paid license - it verifies your key (never your footage, projects, or usage), at most once a day - and for features you choose to use, like checking for updates. The Demo makes no license checks at all. The full list is in our privacy policy.
Your hardware is underutilized.
Your CPU and GPU aren't just for gaming. They run the same transformer architectures that power billion-dollar AI services. We just cut out the middleman.
Composability beats features.
Presets are JSON. Drivers are JSON. Your library is a standard database file on your own computer. The timeline exports to OpenTimelineIO. Every piece of Onset Engine is designed to plug into your existing workflow, not replace it.
[04] The Technical Stance
We don't compete with VC-funded cloud platforms on general-purpose editing. We stay in our moat: local-first AI search by meaning + beat-synced compositing. That's where the math is defensible, the user experience is differentiated, and the product can be maintained by a small team building on proven open-source tools - not Kubernetes and Stripe metering.
OpenCLIP Vision embeddings Beat This! Beat + downbeat detection librosa Onset + energy mapping MoviePy + FFmpeg Chunked rendering NVENC Hardware encoding MPV Zero-latency DJ playback SQLite Local vector database Decord Fast frame sampling OpenTimelineIO NLE interop [05] Who We Are
Onset Engine is built by Onset SAS, a small indie studio based in France. We're a tight team of engineers and creators who got tired of watching powerful hardware sit idle while cloud platforms charged by the minute. We build professional creative tools that respect your machine, your footage, and your wallet - no VC funding, no growth-at-all-costs roadmap, just software that does exactly what it promises.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Onset Engine?
Onset Engine is a local-first AI video editing tool that automatically syncs your footage to music. It uses visual AI and AI beat detection to analyze your clips and audio, then assembles beat-matched edits entirely on your hardware. No cloud processing, no subscriptions - just one app that turns raw footage into polished edits.
Who makes Onset Engine?
Onset Engine is developed by Onset SAS, an independent software company based in France. We're a small team of engineers and creators building professional creative tools. No venture capital, no corporate parent - just an indie studio focused on shipping great software.
Is Onset Engine safe to use?
Yes. Onset Engine is designed with privacy as a core principle. All AI processing runs locally on your machine - your footage never leaves your computer. There is no telemetry, no analytics, and no data collection. The app goes online only to download its AI model once, to verify a paid license (a one-time activation plus a quiet check on startup, at most once a day, only when you're online), and for features you choose to use, like checking for updates. None of these send your footage, projects, or usage. Our privacy policy lists every connection.
Does Onset Engine work offline?
Yes, once it's set up. Setup needs a brief internet connection: to download the AI model the first time you add footage, and to activate your license if you bought one. After that, a quiet license check runs on startup when you're online (at most once a day). All video analysis, audio processing, and rendering happen entirely on your local hardware with no cloud dependency.
Ready to Take Control?
One engine. One purchase. Your machine. Your footage. Your rules.