· clips and sounds from a link

Grab just the part you need from any link.

Paste a link from YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and more. Drag across the waveform, press HAUL, and only that part downloads. In DaVinci Resolve Studio it lands at your playhead. Anywhere else, drag it in.

Trawler: a weathered steel case with its lid open and a fishing net pulling film frames out of it, a glowing waveform on its screen and a HAUL button below — Trawler 1.0

How it works

From a link to your timeline.

Paste the link, press LOAD.
A waveform and a strip of frames appear in a few seconds. Nothing big downloads yet: Trawler reads only what it needs to draw them.
Drag across the screen.
Select the section, or type exact in and out times. Zoom in for the precise frame, and press Space to play the section first.
Press HAUL.
Only that section comes down. In Resolve Studio it lands at the playhead, picture and sound. Anywhere else, drag the file from the app into your edit.

The whole app · one panel

What you can change.

Trawler is a small app that sits beside your editor. Everything is on its front. The defaults already work: paste, drag, HAUL.

The Trawler window: a link along the top, a waveform with a film strip under it and one section selected, and the AUDIO and VIDEO switch, the format list and the HAUL button below — Trawler 1.0, as it opens

Link and LOAD: YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X, Reddit, SoundCloud and many more. Press the button again while it works and it stops within a second.
Waveform and film strip: Drag to select, scroll to zoom, and play the section before you take it. Type exact times if you know them.
AUDIO / VIDEO: Take the picture and sound, or only the sound. Video arrives as an H.264 MP4 that any editor opens, audio as WAV or MP3.
Format list: The quality, up to the best the link offers: 1080p as standard and 2160p where there is one.
An exact cut: The section starts where you put it, on the frame. A 15 second grab from a 10 minute video downloads about 5 MB, not the whole thing.
TO RESOLVE PLAYHEAD: A lamp that says where HAUL is sending the clip: to your playhead or just the Media Pool, as set in the cog. In Resolve Studio it puts the clip straight onto your timeline.
The boat: Shows how far the grab has got, with the time taken and, on the longer ones, how long is left.

Set once, in the cog

Save folder: Where the files go.
DaVinci Resolve: Whether HAUL sends the clip to Resolve, and whether it places it at the playhead.
Normalize audio: Raises a quiet sound until its loudest point sits just under zero, and tells you by how much. It never turns anything down, and it is off until you tick it.
Logins: When a link wants one (a private video, some Instagram posts), Trawler lists the browsers it can borrow your signed-in session from. On Windows that is Firefox.
Looks after itself: It checks for updates by itself and keeps its own folder tidy.

Specification

What you are installing.

Resolve: At the playheadResolve Studio 21.1 or later places the clip for you. In the free version, drag it in
Any editor: Drag inPremiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, CapCut, or anything that opens an MP4, WAV or MP3
Output: MP4 / WAV / MP3H.264 video up to the source's quality, or the sound alone
Sources: Most sitesYouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X, Reddit, SoundCloud, Facebook, Twitch, Vimeo and many more
Install: Windows + MacA signed installer for Windows and a notarized app for Apple silicon Macs
Price: FreeAnd it stays free

Free, and it stays free

Get Trawler 1.0.

The app for Windows or Mac, about 240 MB. It finds DaVinci Resolve on its own.

Grab just the part you need from any link.

Find it on the waveform. Grab only that.

From a link to your timeline.

Paste the link, press LOAD.

Drag across the screen.

Press HAUL.

What you can change.

Set once, in the cog

What you are installing.

Get Trawler 1.0.