# How to Remove Silence from Video Automatically

> Step-by-step guide to cut dead air and pauses from recordings in minutes, not hours, using CleanCut Video.

## Quick answer

To remove silence from video automatically: (1) Download CleanCut Video, (2) Import your video file, (3) Click "Detect Silences", (4) Review the detected sections, and (5) Export. The entire process takes less than 5 minutes for most videos.

## What counts as silence?

"Silence" is any section where the audio level falls below a threshold: dead air (no one speaking), long pauses between sentences, awkward hesitation, and background-noise-only sections. CleanCut lets you define this per project by adjusting the volume threshold (dB) and minimum duration (seconds).

## Step-by-step instructions

1. **Download and install CleanCut Video** — Download CleanCut Video for your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux) and complete the installation process.
2. **Import your video** — Launch CleanCut and drag-and-drop your video file into the application window, or click the import button to browse for your file.
3. **Detect silences** — Click the 'Detect Silences' button. CleanCut will analyze your video's audio and highlight all silent sections on the waveform.
4. **Review and adjust** — Preview the detected silences. Adjust the threshold and minimum duration settings if needed, or manually exclude specific silence regions you want to keep.
5. **Export your video** — Click 'Export' to create a new video file with all silences removed. Your original file remains untouched.

## Troubleshooting

- **Too many silences detected**: lower the threshold (more negative, e.g. -40dB instead of -30dB) or increase minimum silence duration.
- **Not enough silences detected**: raise the threshold (less negative, e.g. -25dB instead of -35dB) or decrease minimum duration.
- **Cuts feel too abrupt**: add 0.1-0.3 seconds of padding before/after each speech section.

## FAQ

**Does this work with any video format?** Yes — MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WebM, and most other common formats.

**Will this reduce video quality?** No, CleanCut uses lossless cutting; only silent sections are removed.

**How long does processing take?** Detection is near-instant; export is typically 2-5x faster than the video's duration.

## Related

- [Remove Dead Air from Podcasts](https://cleancut.video/guides/remove-dead-air-podcast.md)
- [Download CleanCut](https://cleancut.video/download.md)