Auto tools

A large slice of editing is dull, repetitive work: trimming the silences out of a talking head, laying down dozens of volume points so the music ducks under speech, aligning two videos into one frame. None of that is creative — it's arithmetic. So it's been automated.

The top bar has an “Auto” menu behind the wand icon (on a phone it lives inside the “⋯” menu). It holds five tools. The fifth — auto-edit — has a guide of its own; the other four are here.

Removing silence

In a talking-head video a big share of the running time is silence: thinking, breathing, “um…”. Cutting all of that out by hand is an hour's work. This tool finds the quiet stretches itself, cuts them out and closes the gaps — the pieces are rejoined into a continuous take.

1. 1

   SELECT the clip

   The tool only works on what you've selected — it won't go and re-cut your whole timeline on its own. Select a clip that has audio (video or audio, both are fine).

2. 2

   “Auto” → “Remove silence”

   A settings dialog opens with three sensitivity levels.

3. 3

   Choose a sensitivity and start

   The audio is analysed — it takes a few seconds — and then you're told the result: how many spots were cut and how many seconds went away.

A small buffer is always left at both ends of a cut, so the start or the end of a word never gets clipped. That's why even “Aggressive” leaves the words whole — it just packs them closer together.

Beat effects

That feeling you get from a music video — the shot punching on every beat. This tool finds the beats in the music and gives each one a short kick of movement. Nothing is cut: the shots stay where they are, they just come alive.

• Strength — how hard the hit lands. 50–60% is usually plenty; at 100% the frame jumps noticeably and gets tiring fast.
• Cut interval — here it means the effect interval: hit on every beat, or roughly once every 2–3 seconds. When the beats come thick and fast, punching on all of them just makes the picture vibrate.

Auto-ducking (music under speech)

Background music and a speaking voice are always at war: loud music buries the words, quiet music leaves the video lifeless. The right answer is to dip the music ONLY while someone is talking, and bring it back afterwards. In radio and TV they call it ducking.

1. 1

   Select the MUSIC clip

   The clip that should get quieter — the music. Where the speech is, the tool works out for itself.

2. 2

   “Auto” → “Auto-ducking”

   Every other audible clip with sound — a mic recording, the audio inside a video — is treated as the speech source. So make sure your voice track is in place first.

3. 3

   Choose how far it dips

   70% means the music drops by 70% under speech — about a third of its level is left. That's the right number for most work. For very busy music, push it to 80%.

The result is written onto the music clip as volume automation: the music slides down just before the speech starts and slides back up when it ends. The properties panel shows a “Volume automation on” line with a “Clear” button next to it.

Split screen and PiP

Two videos in one frame — or three: side by side, stacked, three columns, three rows — or PiP (“picture in picture”), a small window in the corner sitting over the big one. Reaction videos, before-and-after comparisons, game streams.

1. 1

   Put the clips on DIFFERENT tracks

   On a single track clips sit one after another — they're never on screen at the same time. To share a frame they have to be on separate tracks and overlap in time.

2. 2

   Select them in the right order

   The ORDER of selection matters: the first clip you select goes into the first cell. With PiP the first is the main (large) frame and the second becomes the little window.

3. 3

   “Auto” → “Split-screen / PiP” → pick a preset

   Side by side, Stacked, Three columns, Three rows, or PiP in any of the four corners. One click and the clips fall into place.

In split mode each clip gets a rectangular mask for its own cell, and the picture fills that cell (the edges get cropped a little; the aspect ratio is never squashed). PiP needs no mask — the small window is simply scaled down and parked in a corner.

Common questions