I'm not a developer (I've only just started out with a bit of Python and Processing) but as Kdenlive is the main software program I use almost every day, I would like to at least begin to understand how it works a little better. I'm nowhere near being able to actually submit code or anything, but how would I go about customising my own version on a very small scale? I don't want to be bugging the devs for every little thing!
For example, by far the most common effects I use are Fade in and Fade Out, so I've set shortcuts to add them to clips, which saves me having to dig through submenus. But the standard length is 03.00 seconds, which is fine for music tracks, but when trying to create smooth transitions between words in edited dialogue, 03.00 is far too long. I would like to change it to 00.03, but I haven't found a way to change this within Kdenlive (Custom Effects didn't work for me, it supposedly creates fades that are the length of the clip, and then doesn't work at all).
Am I able to change this in the code somehow on my version? Where do I look?

Hi sammuirhead,
you can copy and paste the fade in effect from one clip to another (right click -> copy, right click -> paste effect). And in previous versions of kdenlive there was a small green plus sign in the effect selection box, which allowed you to create custom effects, based on the default effects. I am not sure, if the plus is still there.
Cheers, capslock
alias al25fps from the old kdenlive forum

yeah, 'paste effects' is what I do at the moment (I keep 3 little audio clips at the end of my timeline, one with a 00.03 fade in, one with 00.03 fade out, and one with both fade in + fadeout, then I can choose which one I copy from)
Unfortunately it's a little awkward and slow having to click around like that for something I use so regularly.
I've tried various custom effects numerous times but they never worked for me - has anyone had better luck?

Also on the subject of 'paste effects' - is there any way to select multiple clips and 'remove all effects'? I used to do that very regularly with FCP but haven't found a similar function in Kdenlive yet.

I didn't test it, but you could try to edit /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdenlive/effects/fadein.xml (and fadeout.xml) and set the default value of the "Duration" parameter. I think the value is given in frames.

hmm, no luck so far but thanks for the pointer! It's good to know where to look, I will have more of a play around. The effects seem to reference settings in usr/share/mlt as well.

I think my pointer was misleading... you mean fade from/to black, right? Because the fadein/fadeout effects are for audio only. I just changed the default duration in fade_from_black.xml from 75 to 3 and when adding the effect, the length indeed is 0,03 instead of 3,00.

yes, the alteration works for me for the video fade from black but not for the audio fade in.
EDIT: it works now! I don't know why it didn't before. Thanks dode!