Automatically Cut Silent Parts From a Video (Jump Cuts)

In videos where someone talks to the camera, the pauses between sentences slow everything down, and finding them by hand takes a long time. Cut silences in the video editor analyses the audio and removes the silent parts in one go.

How to do it

1. Add the video to the editor and click the clip on the timeline.
2. Find the Cut silences section in the right panel.
3. Set the Silence threshold and the Shortest silence.
4. Press Remove silent parts.

The clip is split into the spoken parts and the gaps close. If you don't like the result, undo with Ctrl+Z (⌘+Z on a Mac).

What the settings do

• Silence threshold (dB): audio below this level counts as silence. With more background noise, raise it (for example −35 dB instead of −40).
• Shortest silence: pauses shorter than this are kept. 0.5 seconds leaves a natural pace; lower it for a faster edit.

A short margin is kept before and after speech so the cuts don't clip words.

Afterwards

• Create automatic captions after cutting; they follow the new timing.
• If the picture jumps between cuts, add a slight zoom to the clip or a Punch zoom effect to some parts.
• The feature is off for reversed or speed-ramped clips.

More in the video editor guide.