If you’re a Premiere user finally deciding to give DaVinci Resolve a shot, congratulations and also good luck.
I use both. Premiere for my day job where I edit podcasts and interviews, and Resolve for pretty much anything else, like my YouTube videos and freelance work. The switch isn’t hard exactly, but Resolve is just different enough that I spent the first few weeks with it fighting the UI because I was expecting it to be Premiere.
1. Change your keyboard shortcuts to Premiere Pro first
Open DaVinci Resolve, click the menu, go to Keyboard Customization, and switch the preset from “DaVinci Resolve” to “Adobe Premiere Pro.” This isn’t optional. It’s the single biggest thing you can do to feel productive in Resolve from day one.
You don’t need to relearn every shortcut. Most of the muscle memory you’ve built in Premiere (J/K/L, in/out, ripple delete, slip, slide, the trim modes) will work in Resolve out of the box once you flip this setting. You can learn the native Resolve shortcuts later if you want to.
2. Stick with the Edit page (the Cut page is a trap)
Resolve has two editing pages: the Edit page and the Cut page. Most Premiere editors hear about the Cut page, get curious, try it, and bounce off immediately.
The Cut page is a different paradigm. It’s built for fast, single-window editing with simplified controls, and some longform editors swear by it for assembly cuts. But if you’re coming from Premiere, the Edit page is what feels like Premiere: dual viewer setup, timeline at the bottom, bins on the left, Inspector on the right. Start there. Come back to Cut later if you’re curious.
3. Nodes replace layers, and you need to understand them on day one
This is the biggest mental shift in Resolve. The Color page (and Fusion, which we’ll get to) uses nodes instead of layers.
Quick version: in Premiere’s Lumetri panel, you stack adjustments vertically. In Resolve, you chain them horizontally as “nodes,” with image data flowing left to right through each node. Want to apply a primary correction, then a secondary, then a vignette? That’s three nodes in a row.
Why does this matter? Because nodes let you mix, parallel-process, and isolate adjustments in ways that stacked layers can’t. The learning curve is real, but the payoff is huge. Boris FX has a clean breakdown of how nodes work in Resolve if you want a visual primer before diving in.
If you’re grading anything color-critical, this is where you’ll spend most of your Resolve time. Get comfortable with serial nodes (chained one after another) before you worry about parallel nodes or layer mixers.
4. Compound clips are your nested sequences
If you’ve ever right-clicked a group of clips in Premiere and selected “Nest,” you’ve made a nested sequence. Resolve has the same concept, but it’s called a compound clip.
Select the clips you want to group, right-click, and choose “New Compound Clip.” You can double-click it to open it up and edit the contents, just like a nested sequence in Premiere. Use compound clips the same way you’d use nests: cleaning up a busy timeline, applying effects to a group of clips at once, or building reusable sequences.
5. Adjustment clips work like adjustment layers
In Premiere, you create an adjustment layer in the Project panel and drag it onto your timeline to apply effects to everything beneath it. Resolve has the same feature, called an adjustment clip.
Find it in the Effects panel under “Effects > Adjustment Clip.” Drag it onto a track above your footage, and any effect you add to it applies to all the clips below. Great for global color tweaks, LUTs, or grain.
Same idea, different name. Knowing this one piece of terminology saves an embarrassing amount of Googling.
6. Turn on optimized media before you do anything else
Resolve plays nicely with raw and high-bitrate footage, but on a laptop or a midrange desktop, playback gets choppy fast. Resolve’s answer is optimized media, which is roughly the equivalent of Premiere’s proxy workflow.
Go to Playback > Render Cache > User, then select your clips, right-click, and choose “Generate Optimized Media.” Resolve creates lightweight versions of your footage and plays those back instead of the originals. Render and delivery use the originals automatically.
If you’re editing 4K or higher on an M-series MacBook Pro or anything similar, this isn’t optional. It’s the difference between an enjoyable edit and a frustrating one.
7. The Inspector panel is where your effects live
In Premiere, you click on a clip and your effects show up in the Effects Controls panel. In Resolve, that panel is called the Inspector, and it lives on the right side of the Edit page.
Click any clip in your timeline and the Inspector shows you transform controls, opacity, retime settings, and any effects you’ve applied. Same idea, different name and a slightly different layout. Get used to checking the Inspector first when you want to tweak a clip.
8. Audio routing in Fairlight has a learning curve worth climbing
Fairlight, Resolve’s audio page, is a full digital audio workstation. It’s far more powerful than Premiere’s Essential Sound panel, but the routing model is different and trips up almost every Premiere editor.
The basics:
- Audio clips live on tracks (like Premiere).
- Each track has a fader on the Mixer panel (think of it as a virtual mixing board).
- Tracks route to a Main bus for final output.
- You can add subgroups (called subs) and aux sends for more complex mixes.
For simple work, you can mostly ignore the routing and just use the Inspector to adjust clip levels. But if you ever need to mix dialogue, music, and sound effects with proper level control, Fairlight rewards the time investment.
The Voice Isolation effect (under Effects > FairlightFX > Voice Isolation) is the closest equivalent to Premiere’s Enhance Speech, and on dialogue-heavy work, it’s outstanding.
9. The Deliver page is your export panel and your Media Encoder
When you’re ready to export in Premiere, you either Export Media directly or send the sequence to Media Encoder. In Resolve, you go to the Deliver page.
What feels different: Resolve treats every export as a “Render” added to a queue. Set up your settings (preset, codec, resolution, audio), click “Add to Render Queue,” then click “Render All” to process. Queue up multiple versions at once. Resolve will render them in sequence without making you open a separate app.
Useful presets to know:
- YouTube 1080p / 4K: Optimized for the platform.
- ProRes 422 HQ: Master file quality.
- H.264 Master: General-purpose deliverable.
You can create custom render presets and save them, which is worth doing once you know your usual deliverable specs.
10. Magic Mask is on the Color page, and it’s worth the trip
If you’ve come from Premiere’s auto object mask, Resolve’s Magic Mask is a significant upgrade in accuracy. It lives on the Color page (not the Edit page), which throws off most Premiere editors who expect masking tools to be in the Effects panel.
The flow:
- Drop your clip into the Edit page timeline.
- Switch to the Color page.
- Click the Magic Mask icon (the human silhouette in the central toolbar).
- Use the “+” brush to draw inside your subject.
- Click “Track Forward” and let it run.
It’s slower than Premiere’s one-click auto mask, especially on the “Better” setting. But the tracking quality is significantly higher. Worth it for selective grades on any shot that actually matters.
11. Back up your project library
When you first open Resolve, it sets up a Project Library. This is where Resolve stores all your projects in a single database, rather than as individual files like Premiere’s .prproj files.
Two things to know:
- Back up your project library regularly. Project libraries live in a single SQLite database, and corruption (rare, but possible) can wipe everything if you’re not careful.
- Export individual projects as .drp files when you finish them, so you have a portable backup outside the library.
Build this habit from the start. It’ll save you time down the line.
FAQ: Switching from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve
How long does it take to learn DaVinci Resolve after Premiere? Most experienced Premiere editors can be productive in Resolve’s Edit page within a day, especially with the Premiere keyboard shortcut preset enabled. Mastering the Color page (nodes) and Fairlight takes weeks to months of regular use.
Are Premiere keyboard shortcuts available in DaVinci Resolve? Yes. In Resolve’s Keyboard Customization settings, you can switch the preset from “DaVinci Resolve” to “Adobe Premiere Pro” to mirror most familiar shortcuts.
What is the DaVinci Resolve equivalent of a nested sequence? Compound clips. Right-click your selected clips and choose “New Compound Clip” to group them, then double-click to open and edit the contents.
What is the DaVinci Resolve equivalent of an adjustment layer? Adjustment clips. Find them in the Effects panel under “Effects > Adjustment Clip,” then drag onto a track above your footage to apply effects globally.
Does DaVinci Resolve have a proxy workflow like Premiere Pro? Yes. It’s called optimized media. Select your clips, right-click, and choose “Generate Optimized Media.” Resolve plays back the optimized versions and uses the originals for render and delivery automatically.
Can I import Premiere Pro projects directly into DaVinci Resolve? Not directly. The standard workflow is to export an XML or AAF from Premiere, then import that into Resolve. Most edit decisions translate cleanly. Effects and transitions usually need to be rebuilt.