ClutchCut Shadow
Replay Buffer & Screen Capture
Only for Mac
Free
Mac
Now records your webcam alongside your screen, to its own file. Plus constant frame rate, 16:9/9:16 area locks & a Pause hotkey. Free, no account, nothing leaves your Mac
ClutchCut Shadow: Capture the Moment. Retroactively.
Stop guessing when the "clutch" play will happen. ClutchCut Shadow is a native macOS screen recording and replay-buffer utility that flips the script on traditional capture. While most tools make you decide to record before something happens, Shadow stays invisible in the background, allowing you to save the moment after it occurs.
Built from the ground up with Swift 6 and Apple Silicon in mind, Shadow utilizes ScreenCaptureKit to deliver high-performance recording without interrupting your workflow or gameplay.
Key Features
Clutch Mode (Replay Buffer): Run a silent background buffer and save the last 30 to 600 seconds retroactively with a single hotkey.
Webcam Recording: Record your camera alongside your screen. Shadow writes it to a separate file next to the screen recording, so both stay independently playable and you can lay out the picture-in-picture however you like later. A draggable preview shows your framing as you record, and your microphone stays on the screen recording — the webcam's own mic is never duplicated. (Standard mode.)
Scheduled Recording: Never miss a meeting or a live stream. Set specific dates and times for Shadow to automatically wake up and start capturing your screen.
Smart Auto-Stop: Save disk space and system resources. Tell Shadow to stop recording automatically after a certain duration, when a file reaches a specific size, or—most importantly—the moment a specific app or game is closed.
Flexible Sources & Pro-Crop: Record your entire display, a specific app, or a single window. Use the precision Crop Tool to isolate any custom region of your screen.
Exact Aspect Ratios: Lock the crop to 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or 4:3 so a YouTube or Shorts recording is framed correctly at capture time — no cropping or quality loss afterwards.
Constant Frame Rate: Screen recording normally captures a frame only when the screen changes. Choose a constant 24, 30 or 60 fps for timing that drops straight into any editor, or leave it variable for the smallest files.
Pro Audio Routing: Capture system audio, your microphone, or both with dual-track support for professional post-production.
Standard Recording: Traditional start/stop recording with a "mark this moment" signal to identify highlights or chapters in real-time.
Zero Interruptions: A glass-morphic HUD that stays out of your way and a 3-second countdown to ensure you're ready before the frames start rolling. A global Pause/Resume hotkey lets you pause without reaching the window.
The ClutchCut Pipeline
Shadow is the first step in the ClutchCut Studio ecosystem. When you finish a session, Shadow generates a .clutchmeta manifest that maps your highlights and markers.
Instant Handoff: Click "Edit Session" to send your footage directly to ClutchCut Video.
Auto-Assembly: Your recording arrives in the editor with markers pre-placed, allowing for instant rough-cut assembly.
Built for Performance & Privacy
Native & Fast: Optimized for Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) to ensure minimal CPU/GPU impact.
Fully Featured & Free: No buffer caps, no resolution limits, and no tiers—Shadow is a fully functional tool for every creator.
Privacy First: All processing happens locally on your Mac — screen, microphone and webcam. No account, no network requests, and no data ever leaves your device.
Who is Shadow for?
Gamers: Save highlights mid-game without managing huge files.
Educators: Schedule lesson recordings or mark chapter boundaries during a tutorial for faster editing later.
QA & Remote Workers: Automate bug reporting by setting Shadow to record until an app crashes or closes.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
ClutchCut Shadow 2.0
WEBCAM (new)
Record yourself alongside your screen. Shadow captures the webcam to its own file next to the screen recording, so both stay independently playable and you can lay out the picture-in-picture later however you like. A draggable preview shows your framing while you record, and your microphone stays on the screen recording — the webcam's own mic is never duplicated. Standard mode for now; Clutch-mode webcam is coming.
IMPORTANT FIXES
- Long recordings no longer stop on their own. Shadow now holds a power assertion while recording, so macOS can't throttle or suspend it when it loses focus or is minimized — this was the cause of recordings quietly ending after a couple of minutes.
- Recordings are no longer stretched. Capturing a display that isn't 16:9 could distort the picture to fit a fixed frame. Shadow now always preserves the true shape of what you record.
- Recordings capture at your display's real resolution by default instead of downscaling to 1080p, and your choice is remembered between launches.
- "Native (source resolution)" no longer records at a lower bitrate than picking a fixed resolution of the same size.
- Hiding the preview now actually frees its resources.
FRAME RATE (new)
Screen recording normally captures a frame only when the screen changes — great for file size, but the variable timing can be awkward in some editors. Choose a constant 24, 30 or 60 fps in Settings for timing that drops straight into any timeline. Variable stays the default for the smallest files.
EXACT ASPECT RATIOS (new)
Selecting an area to record now offers 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 and 4:3 locks, so you can frame a perfect YouTube or Shorts recording at capture time — no cropping or quality loss afterwards.
QUALITY (new)
A Balanced / High / Maximum setting for recordings with a lot of motion. Balanced is the default and matches previous behaviour.
ALSO
- New Pause / Resume hotkey (⌘⇧P by default) so you can pause without reaching the window — useful when the thing you're recording is full-screen.
- Settings now tells you exactly what will be recorded, e.g. "Records at 3024 × 1964 px", and the display picker shows real pixels instead of points.
The developer, QIANG GAO, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- User Content
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- QIANG GAO
- Size
- 3.2 MB
- Category
- Utilities
- Compatibility
Requires macOS 15.6 or later.
- Mac
Requires macOS 15.6 or later.
- Mac
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2026 ClutchCut Studio. All rights reserved.