Remove Silence from Audio

How it works

1. Choose an audio file.
2. Set the threshold, the minimum silence length and the padding.
3. Review how much time will be removed, and preview ten seconds of it.
4. Export and download.

Remove every long pause

All silences longer than the shortest silence you set are cut out and the sound on either side is joined, which shortens interviews, lectures and recordings with long pauses. By default the silence at the very start and end is kept; turn on the switch to cut it too.

Audio is checked in steps of 10 milliseconds. A step is silent when its level, on every channel, is at or below the threshold in dB (0 dB is the loudest possible level, so -50 dB is very quiet). A run of silent steps counts only if it lasts at least the shortest silence you set. Peak looks at the loudest sample in each step and reacts to any click; Average (RMS) measures the overall level and ignores isolated clicks.

Remove or shorten

Removed deletes the silence completely, which can sound rushed. A short pause keeps each silence at the length you choose, such as 300 milliseconds, by taking half of it from each side, which sounds more natural for speech. Silences already shorter than that are left alone.

Padding keeps sound next to every cut so words do not lose their first or last syllable. If speech sounds clipped, increase padding; if too much silence remains, reduce it. Each cut gets a one-millisecond fade so it cannot click.

Check before you export

The waveform highlights the silences that were found, and the page shows how many there are and about how much time would be removed. Preview plays ten seconds from the playhead with the same settings applied. Noisy recordings may need a higher threshold, such as -40 dB, before pauses count as silent.

Questions