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Prepend a Frozen-Frame + Narration Cold-Open to a Clip

The raw multiplexer for voiceover cold-opens. Take a video clip and a narration audio file, and this tool creates a cold-open segment by freezing the clip's first frame while the narration plays over it, then joins that segment to the front of the original clip. Zero configuration — just wire the two inputs and get a clip with a voiceover intro. Perfect for pairing with any narration source: Video Narrate (Qwen3) output, custom voice recordings, external TTS, music stingers, sound effects, or podcast-style intros.

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What it does

Narration Mux (Cold Open) combines a video clip and an audio track into a single output video where:

1. The audio plays over a frozen still of the clip's first frame at the very front
2. Immediately after the audio ends, the original clip resumes and plays through normally

The duration of the frozen-frame section equals the duration of the narration audio. No parameters — everything is driven by the two inputs. The name says "Mux" because that's exactly what it does: multiplex (combine) a video stream and an audio stream into one continuous clip

Problem it solves

• Custom voiceover cold-opens – Use any narration audio (not just Qwen3-generated) to create a cold-open intro
• Bring your own audio – Recorded voiceovers, music stingers, sound effects, external TTS output, brand jingles — anything with an audio track works
• Clean freeze-frame intro – The first frame becomes a poster / thumbnail-like still while the narration plays, creating a classic "trailer voiceover" feel
• Auto-timing – Cold-open length = narration length, so long narrations get long intros, short narrations get punchy ones — no manual duration setting needed
• Zero-config simplicity – Nothing to tune; the output is fully determined by the two inputs
• Complements Video Narrate (Qwen3) – Where Video Narrate handles TTS + prepend in one node with batch support, Narration Mux is the single-clip version that accepts any audio source
• Foundation for custom pipelines – Build your own narration flow: any audio-generating node → Narration Mux → clip with voiceover intro

Input/Output

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• Input: Video clip + narration audio
  • Video (top input, blue port): A single video clip (not a list). Any standard video format.
  • Audio (bottom input, green port): The narration / voiceover / music audio to play during the cold-open. Any standard audio source — Video Narrate (Qwen3) output, uploaded audio file, TTS from another provider, recorded WAV/MP3, etc </aside>

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• Output: Single video clip with cold-open prepended
  • Structure: [frozen first frame + narration audio] + [original video clip]
  • Length: Original clip length + narration audio length
  • First segment: A still of the clip's opening frame, held on screen for the duration of the audio
  • Second segment: The original clip plays from its first frame, unchanged, with its original audio intact </aside>

How to Use

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1. Prepare the video clip → Any single clip (from an Image Loader / Video Loader, from List Extract on a batch, or from an upstream editing step). Wire it into the top input port.
2. Prepare the narration audio → Any audio source. Common patterns:
   • Video Narrate (Qwen3) output audio for AI-generated hook / title narration
   • Uploaded audio file (recorded voiceover, music, jingle)
   • External TTS output Wire it into the bottom input port.
3. Run Flow → The tool freezes the clip's first frame, plays the audio over that still, then continues into the full original clip </aside>