Short, practical recipes for getting started with auto-editor. Each one is a
command you can copy, paste, and tweak. Replace video.mp4 with your own file.
Cut out the silent "dead space" automatically. This is all you need to start:
auto-editor video.mp4
The result is written to video_ALTERED.mp4. To name it yourself, use -o:
auto-editor video.mp4 -o trimmed.mp4
Blend each kept section into the next instead of jump-cutting, with a fade in at the start and a fade out at the end:
auto-editor video.mp4 --transition dissolve:0.5sec
By default, cuts that removed less than a second of material stay hard so
short silence trims don't stutter. Use :0 to dissolve at every cut:
auto-editor video.mp4 --transition dissolve:0.5sec:0
Transitions survive editor exports too — see Transitions.
Use :mic in place of an input file to capture from a microphone. Press
Ctrl-C when you are done recording; auto-editor will then remove the quiet
sections and write mic_ALTERED.wav:
auto-editor :mic
All normal editing and output options apply. For example:
auto-editor :mic --edit audio:threshold=6% -o trimmed.m4a
Use --sample-rate to resample the recording before it is edited:
auto-editor :mic --sample-rate 44.1kHz
Timeline and editor exports save the microphone capture as a lossless FLAC
stream in *_RECORDING.mka. Use -c:a to choose a different codec supported
by Matroska:
auto-editor :mic --export resolve -c:a opus -o interview.fcpxml
Live microphone capture is supported on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Timeline
and editor exports keep the original capture in a sibling
*_RECORDING.mka file so the exported project can still reference it.
See how much will be cut without producing a file yet:
auto-editor video.mp4 --preview
By default auto-editor keeps 0.2 seconds of padding around each kept section
so cuts don't feel abrupt. Widen it to let speech breathe, or use different
padding before and after:
# 0.5 seconds of padding on both sides
auto-editor video.mp4 --margin 0.5sec
# 0.3s before, 1.5s after
auto-editor video.mp4 --margin 0.3sec,1.5sec
--edit decides what counts as "loud enough" to keep. Raise the threshold to
cut more, lower it to keep more. You can use a percentage or a dB value:
# Keep only louder audio (cuts more)
auto-editor video.mp4 --edit audio:threshold=6%
# The same idea in decibels
auto-editor video.mp4 --edit audio:-18dB
To analyze one channel instead of the loudest sample across all channels, use its layout name:
auto-editor video.mp4 --edit audio:channel=left
Channel names are layout-aware (left, right, center, lfe,
back-left, and so on). A mono channel acts as left, right, and center. With
stream=all, streams without the requested channel are skipped as long as at
least one stream contains it.
Useful for screen recordings or silent footage — drop the still parts:
auto-editor video.mp4 --edit motion:threshold=2%
Keep every moment, but fast-forward the quiet parts:
auto-editor video.mp4 -w:0 speed:8
See the Actions Cookbook for volume, zoom, overlays, and more.
# Drop the first and last 30 seconds, on top of the automatic edit
auto-editor video.mp4 --cut-out start,30sec -30sec,end
More in Range Syntax.
Transcribe speech, then cut on the words. First make subtitles, then edit with them:
auto-editor whisper video.mp4 ggml-medium.en.bin --format srt -o video.srt
auto-editor video.mp4 --edit subtitle
Auto-Editor understands video.srt is related to video.mp4. See the whisper command for more details.
Instead of rendering, export a project you can open in your editor:
auto-editor video.mp4 --export premiere
Auto-editor can also export to resolve, final-cut-pro, shotcut, and
kdenlive. To get each kept section as its own file, use clip-sequence:
auto-editor video.mp4 --export clip-sequence
If yt-dlp is installed, pass a link as the input:
auto-editor "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcs82HnguGc"