Trim audio

How to trim a recording

Drop the file in and the recording appears on the timeline together with its loudness waveform, so you can see at a glance where the talking is and where the silence is. Drag the edges to trim, click the timeline to move the playhead and press the space bar to hear the result.

It works the same way as trimming video. The S key splits the recording at the playhead, the Delete key removes the selected section. The remaining sections are joined together on export, so dead air in the middle can be cut out in one go.

• Drag a section to move it and its edges to trim; edges snap to each other.
• The original file is untouched, the result is saved separately.
• Save the result as MP3, M4A, WAV or FLAC.

Fading in and out

A cut in the middle of music usually clicks, because the sound wave is somewhere mid-cycle at the cut. A fade solves that by bringing the volume up smoothly over a moment and taking it back down at the end. For speech, two or three tenths of a second is enough; for music, more like half a second to a second.

Frequently asked questions

Does trimming hurt the quality?

The audio is re-encoded, so with lossy formats a little. Choosing WAV or FLAC as the output prevents it.

Can I cut out several sections at once?

Yes. Split the recording with the S key into as many parts as you need and delete the ones you do not want. The rest are joined into the result in the order they sit on the timeline.

What is the waveform on the timeline for?

It shows loudness over time. From it you can spot the pauses between sentences, applause or the start of a chorus without listening to the whole recording.

Does it work on audio from a video?

Extract the audio first with the video-to-MP3 or audio conversion tool, then trim the result.

Is the file uploaded anywhere?

No. Your browser does the editing and the export. The first run downloads about 32 MB of the computing core; later recordings run without waiting.