Fade to Black, Record and Stream act only once their key has been held for a moment; a held shot key brings its shots along.
A held key acts only after you have held it down for a set time. Three keys work this way: Fade to Black, Record and Stream. All other keys act the moment you press them, and a shot key that brings other shots along adds them when you keep holding it.
Why these keys
Section titled “Why these keys”These three change what the audience sees or what is kept, and a stray press is hard to take back: the program goes black, a recording starts or stops, a stream goes on or off. A hold makes an accidental press do nothing. Take, Cut and the shot keys stay instant, because speed matters there and the next Take puts things right.
Talk to Guests works the other way round: it talks to every remote guest for as long as you hold it, as Hold to Talk does in the Remote Guests window, and stops when you let go. See Talk to guests.
Shot keys
Section titled “Shot keys”A shot key acts the moment you press it: the shot alone, in the preview or, with Auto Live on, on the program. When the shot brings other shots along, keep holding it for the hold time and it adds them: to the preview, or live with Auto Live. The shot itself stays where the press put it. Let go sooner and you have the shot alone.
While you hold, the strip under the shot’s name fills, and the keys of the shots it would bring along get a dashed frame. There is no second key per shot, so the layout keeps its keys for shots.
What you see
Section titled “What you see”While you hold Fade to Black, Record or Stream, the key fills from the bottom. When it is full, the action happens. Let go before that and nothing happens. The Fade to Black key reads HOLD at rest and BLACK while the program is black.
The hold time
Section titled “The hold time”Hold For, under Keys That Need a Hold in Settings › This Mac › Stream Deck, sets how long. It starts at 0.5 seconds and goes from 0.2 to 1.5 seconds. The hold time belongs to this Mac, not to the show.
Only on the Stream Deck
Section titled “Only on the Stream Deck”The hold is a Stream Deck rule. Switcher › Fade to Black and the other menu commands, and their shortcuts, act at once as always. A key press is never undone: Fade to Black, Record and Stream are live actions, not edits.
Read more
Section titled “Read more”Describes Live Producer 0.330 · 10 November 2026