How to Ripple Delete a Clip in DaVinci Resolve (Shift+Delete / X)

Shift+Delete, or the single-key X shortcut, pulls the selected clip out of the timeline entirely and slides every downstream clip on that track backward to close the gap it leaves — tightening the cut instead of leaving a hole. **How this differs from a plain Delete**: pressing Delete or Backspace alone removes a clip's content but leaves its exact duration as an empty gap on the timeline, preserving the original timing and position of every other clip. Ripple Delete instead treats the removal as a genuine cut, shortening the total timeline length by the removed clip's duration and pulling subsequent clips forward to fill the space. **When ripple delete is the right choice**: tightening a rough cut by removing dead air, an unwanted pause, or a redundant take is the classic use case — you genuinely want that time gone from the sequence entirely, not just emptied out. This is one of the most repeated actions during an initial assembly-to-fine-cut editing pass. **When a plain gap-leaving delete is actually correct instead**: if other tracks (a music bed, a synced B-roll clip on another track) need to keep their exact timing relative to the rest of the timeline, ripple deleting a clip on just one track would throw that other track out of sync relative to what's left, since ripple delete by default can affect the timing of clips across multiple tracks depending on your trim mode settings. Understanding this interaction before ripple deleting in a multi-track sequence avoids an unpleasant sync surprise. **Related shortcuts**: B for the Blade tool to first isolate exactly the section you want to remove, and T for the Trim tool if you need to adjust a clip's edge rather than remove it entirely. **Ripple delete across linked audio**: if a video clip has linked audio (recorded sound synced automatically to its picture), ripple deleting the video typically removes and ripples the linked audio along with it, keeping the two in sync — but unlinking audio and video beforehand (a separate action) changes this behavior, so it's worth confirming link status before ripple deleting a clip you expect to carry its audio along automatically. **The single-key X alternative**: pressing X performs the identical ripple-and-close-gap action as Shift+Delete, offered as a faster single-keystroke alternative for editors who prefer not to use a two-key combination for an action performed this frequently during a rough-cut pass. **Confirming the result before moving on**: because ripple delete changes the overall timeline length and shifts downstream clip positions, a brief look over the timeline afterward is worth the few seconds it takes, just to confirm nothing important drifted out of its intended sync position, particularly on multi-track sequences where several tracks needed to stay aligned relative to each other. Building the habit of checking track sync before ripple deleting on a multi-track sequence avoids one of the most common frustrating surprises in a rough-cut editing pass. This small check habit prevents real headaches later. It is worth the extra second of caution. **Ripple delete versus Extract in other NLEs**: editors coming from Premiere Pro or Avid should note Resolve's Shift+Delete maps conceptually to what those tools call Extract or Ripple Delete, closing the gap across all tracks locked for ripple rather than leaving a hole, so the muscle memory largely transfers even though the exact keystroke differs slightly between applications.