Audio how-to

How to remove silence from audio: Audacity, Logic, Pro Tools and more

Updated 2026-11-03 · by the mouzeclick team

To remove silence from audio, use your editor's own command if it has one. Logic Pro has Remove Silence, and Avid says Pro Tools removes unwanted silence across multiple clips at once. In Audacity, Trim Audio (Ctrl+T on Windows) crops intros, outros and silence. Ableton Live and GarageBand name no such command on the pages we checked: cut by hand, or open a GarageBand project in Logic Pro.

Logic Pro for Mac: Apple's guide has a chapter called "Remove silent passages from audio files". Logic needs macOS 15.6 or later and a Mac with Apple silicon.
Pro Tools: Avid says it can remove unwanted silence across multiple clips at once. Pro Tools Intro is free.
Audacity 4.0.1 is free on Windows, macOS and Linux. Trim Audio is Ctrl+T on Windows.
Ableton Live, GarageBand and REAPER: none of the pages we checked names an automatic silence remover.
mouzeclick (we make it) puts an app's silence shortcut on a mouse button, gesture or wheel slot, on Windows and Mac.

What does removing silence from audio actually do?

It finds stretches quieter than a level you set and longer than a length you set, then cuts them, keeping a little audio around each phrase. Our own Silence tab for Premiere Pro works with three settings, and the same ideas help you read any app's options:

Threshold (in dB). Anything quieter counts as silence. Breaths and soft word endings sit close to this line, so it decides whether the tail of a word survives.
Minimum length (in seconds). Shorter gaps are left alone. Set it too low and the natural pauses between words go, and speech sounds breathless.
Padding (in seconds). This is the audio kept either side of a phrase, so consonants and breaths aren't clipped.

Our Silence tab starts at quieter than −40 dB, pauses from 0.40 s, and 0.12 s kept around speech. Those are mouzeclick's defaults, not any DAW's, so treat them as a first try and adjust by ear.

Also check whether a tool deletes the gaps and closes them up, or only cuts at them. The Cut desk in our Premiere Pro workspace (Windows only) offers both: Remove + ripple, or Cuts only. For the editorial side of tight cuts, our guide to jump cuts in video editing covers when to cut and when to keep a breath.

Which audio editors have a built-in remove-silence command?

Logic Pro and Pro Tools document one. Audacity documents trimming silence with Trim Audio and Cut. The pages we checked for Adobe Audition, REAPER, Ableton Live, GarageBand and Studio One don't describe an automatic silence remover. The table shows what each maker's own page says, checked on 3 November 2026. Prices are copied as shown, in US dollars.

App	Silence command (as documented)	Platforms	Price as shown (3 Nov 2026)
Logic Pro	Yes: Remove Silence, in Apple's Logic Pro for Mac guide	Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 15.6+) and iPad	$199.99 standalone, or Apple Creator Studio at $12.99 per month or $129 per year for new subscribers
Pro Tools	Yes: removes unwanted silence across multiple clips at once	Not published	Intro free; Artist $9.99, Studio $34.99, Ultimate $99 USD/month (excl. VAT)
Audacity	Trim Audio (`Ctrl`+`T` on Windows) crops intros, outros and silence; Cut trims silence	Windows, macOS, Linux	Free and open source
Adobe Audition	Not described on the Adobe pages we checked	Windows and macOS	US$22.99/mo, annual plan billed monthly; 7-day trial
REAPER	None named. Per-FX auto-bypass on silent input only	Windows, macOS, Linux	Not published; free 60-day evaluation
Ableton Live	None named	Windows and macOS	Not published
GarageBand	None named; Apple says a GarageBand project opens in Logic Pro	Not published	Not published
Studio One	Not published	Not published	Not published

"None named" means the maker's pages we read don't mention a silence command. It doesn't prove the app lacks one, so check the app's current manual before you rule it out. If your audio sits in a video editor instead, see our roundup of video silence removers.

How do I strip silence in Logic Pro?

Use Remove Silence, the feature many people search for as "strip silence". Apple's Logic Pro for Mac guide covers it in a chapter called "Remove silent passages from audio files". The chapter has two parts: "Remove silent passages" and "Uses for Remove Silence".

We checked the chapter titles, not the window's field names or menu path, so we won't print labels we haven't seen. A safe order of work:

Save the project or duplicate the track, so you can compare before and after.
Select the audio and open Remove Silence as Apple's chapter describes for your Logic version.
Play the result against the original at the hardest passage, such as fast speech or a quiet singer, before you commit.

Apple's Logic Pro page says it needs macOS 15.6 or later and a Mac with Apple silicon (iPadOS 26 or later on iPad). It is $199.99 as a standalone app, or part of Apple Creator Studio at $12.99 per month or $129 per year for new subscribers. Educators and students pay $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year, and Creator Studio can be tried free for 30 days. Apple says the subscription and one-time versions have all the same features. Windows isn't listed.

Can GarageBand remove silence?

Not on the Apple pages we checked: none of them lists a remove-silence command for GarageBand. The route Apple does name is Logic Pro. You can open a GarageBand project in Logic Pro to use its built-in editing tools and plug-ins, and Logic's guide documents Remove Silence.

If you stay in GarageBand, cut by hand as in the steps further down. For a long recording, the 30-day free trial of Apple Creator Studio, which includes Logic Pro, lets you test the automatic route on your own file before paying.

How do I remove silence in Audacity?

For silence at the start and end, select the part you want to keep and press Ctrl+T (Trim Audio) on Windows. For gaps in the middle, select each gap and use Cut. Audacity's features page describes both: Trim Audio crops intros, outros and silence in one click, and the Cut command can trim silence.

Open the recording and zoom in until the flat, quiet stretches of the waveform are easy to see.
To lose a silent intro and outro, drag across the audio you want to keep, from the first word to the last.
Press Ctrl+T on Windows. That page doesn't give the Mac shortcut, so check it in your copy of Audacity.
For each pause inside the recording, select the gap and Cut it. Leave a little room tone either side so the join doesn't click.
Listen through once at normal speed, then export.

For a folder of episodes, Audacity's manual describes Macros for batch processing and effects automation. The pages we checked don't describe any other silence effect, so none is listed here. Check the manual for your version.

Audacity is free and open source. The current version is 4.0.1, for Windows, macOS and Linux, and it is tested on Windows 10 and 11 and on macOS 14 and 15. One catch: the Windows ARM64 build needs Windows 11 or later and has no plug-in support, and the Apple Silicon ARM64 DMG is also marked "No plugin support". If your workflow depends on a VST, check the build before you download.

Can Adobe Audition remove silence automatically?

The Adobe product and trial pages we checked don't describe a silence-removal command, so we can't give a menu path from them. Check Adobe's current Audition documentation before relying on one.

Adobe's Audition page and its audio recording software page do say:

It has multitrack, waveform and spectral displays for creating, mixing, editing and restoring audio. Waveform mode works on single clips, and Multitrack mode combines clips on a timeline.
The Essential Sound panel repairs audio and unifies sound levels.
Automatic loudness correction has presets for standards including ITU BS1770 and EBU R128.
From Premiere Pro you can send clips or whole sequences with Edit in Audition.

Audition costs US$22.99/mo on the annual plan billed monthly, and it comes only as part of a Creative Cloud membership. The free trial lasts 7 days, one per person, on Windows and macOS desktops only. You have 14 days after it ends to cancel for a full refund.

If the audio is in a Premiere Pro sequence, you may not need the round trip. Our Premiere Pro silence remover guide covers cutting pauses on the timeline itself.

How do I remove silence in Pro Tools?

Avid says it is built in. Its audio editing page says you can apply fades, remove unwanted silence and tighten timing across multiple clips at once. It is the only maker's page in this guide that describes removing silence across many clips together, which suits dense sessions such as a multi-mic podcast.

Avid's pages don't publish the menu path, the shortcut or the threshold settings, and they don't say which plans include the feature. Work on a session copy and follow Avid's help for your version.

Plans on Avid's Pro Tools page, checked 3 November 2026, in USD per month and excluding VAT:

Pro Tools Intro: free forever, aimed at more casual creators.
Artist: $9.99, with 32 audio tracks.
Studio: $34.99, with 512 audio tracks and 1 video track.
Ultimate: $99, with 2,048 audio tracks and 64 video tracks.
Studio for EDU: $9.99 on the student pricing page, with verified academic eligibility.

Perpetual licence upgrades also exist for Studio and Ultimate. A Studio upgrade includes 1 year of software updates and Standard support.

Does REAPER have a strip silence feature?

Not one that REAPER's pages name. The closest is customisable per-FX auto-bypass, which disables a plug-in's processing while its input is silent. It doesn't cut or remove anything from your audio.

For the cutting itself, REAPER's site lists Razor Edits. They cut, split, move, copy or stretch sections of media and automation envelopes, individually or together, which suits removing gaps by hand. REAPER supports VST, VST3, LV2, AU, CLAP, DX and JS plug-ins.

Version 7.84 came out on 28 October 2026. It runs on Windows XP to 11, Linux (Intel and ARM) and macOS 10.5 to macOS 26. The download is a free, fully functional 60-day evaluation with no registration. The licence price isn't stated on the pages we checked. A new REAPER 7 licence includes unlimited free updates through version 8.99.

Is there a strip silence command in Ableton Live?

None that Ableton's pages name. The product page, the edition comparison and the trial pages we read don't mention a strip-silence command or any automatic silence removal.

The nearest listed feature is Audio-slicing. It slices audio to a Drum Rack or Sampler instance, and it's in Standard and Suite but not Intro. That suits drum loops, not cleaning up dialogue, so for speech or vocals in Live, cut by hand.

Ableton's compare editions page lists nondestructive editing with unlimited undo in every edition, so cutting by hand is safe to experiment with. For long voice files, an editor from the table above with a documented command is quicker. Bring the cleaned file back into Live afterwards.

How do I remove silence by hand in any DAW?

Zoom in, select each gap, delete it and close it up, with short fades on the joins. It's slower than an automatic pass, but it works in every app, including those with no built-in command.

Save a copy of the project or file first.
Zoom in until the flat stretches of waveform are easy to pick out.
Select from just after the last word to just before the next. Leave a small margin of room tone.
Delete and close the gap. In some apps that's one ripple delete; in others you slide the next part up yourself.
Add a very short fade on both sides of a join if you hear a click.
Play the whole edit back once at normal speed. A pause that looked like dead air sometimes carries a breath the line needs.

Doing this dozens of times an episode is where a mouse helps. Put split, delete and close-gap on buttons or gestures so your hand stays on the timeline. The mouse section below shows how.

What should I check when silence removal cuts off words?

Usually the threshold is too high or the padding too short, so soft word endings and breaths get treated as silence. Check these in order:

Threshold too high. Lower it (more negative dB) so quieter speech counts as sound. For reference, the Cut desk in our Premiere Pro workspace (Windows only) has presets at Dialogue −48, Podcast −44 and Aggressive −38 dB.
Padding too short. Raise it so consonants and breaths stay. Our Silence tab's default is 0.12 s.
Minimum gap too short. If speech sounds rushed, raise it so only real pauses go. Our default is 0.40 s.
Noisy room. If the background never drops below the threshold, nothing gets cut. Reduce the noise first.
Music under the voice. A music bed fills the gaps, so run the pass on the voice track, not the full mix.
Several mics. Cutting one track alone throws the others out of sync, so cut every track at the same points. In our Silence tab, Remove cuts on every track.

For what editors on Reddit say, our summary of silence removers on Reddit draws on 14 threads.

How do I put strip silence on a mouse button? (Where mouzeclick fits, we make it)

Find the keyboard shortcut for your DAW's silence command, then put it on a mouse button, gesture or wheel slot in a per-app profile. This section is ours: we make mouzeclick, and it is one way to do this, not the only one. The mouse app runs on Windows 10 and 11 and on macOS 12 or newer. Its buttons, gestures, macros and wheels work in any app, audio editors included.

Check which shortcut runs the command. Audacity's Trim Audio is Ctrl+T on Windows. If a command has no shortcut, give it one in the app's own shortcut settings.
In mouzeclick, record that shortcut as your own. Buttons work per app, so Mouse 4 can run Trim Audio in Audacity and do something else in every other app.
Pick where it goes. Each button has eleven slots: tap, hold and move in four directions, a chord with another button, or hold and scroll. The Options wheel (F8) holds 48 favourites per app on three rings.
For a repeated routine, chain a macro of keys, clicks, waits and typed text.

Worth knowing:

The 309 built-in shortcuts (on Windows) cover Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve and CapCut, not audio DAWs. For Logic, Audacity or Pro Tools, you record the app's shortcut yourself.
mouzeclick needs an internet connection while it runs. If the connection drops, the shortcuts pause and the mouse acts normally.
There's no driver, and it doesn't change DPI or the mouse's own settings.
On a Mac you allow it under Accessibility and Input Monitoring. See our Mac install steps or remapping mouse buttons on a Mac.
The Tool wheel works only in Premiere Pro and After Effects, so in a DAW use the Options wheel. See the three wheels.

For other ways to do this on Windows, see how to remap mouse buttons on Windows 11. For Premiere, see Premiere Pro mouse shortcuts on any mouse. The plan is $25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys, with a 3-day free trial and no card.

What if the silence is in a video timeline?

Cut it in the video editor, so picture and sound stay together. A round trip through a DAW can knock them out of sync. In Premiere Pro, mouzeclick Studio's Silence tab does this on Windows and Mac:

Analyse reads the sound on your computer, draws the waveform and marks each pause.
You untick any pause you want to keep.
Remove cuts on every track and leaves a music bed alone.
A copy of the sequence is kept, and nothing is uploaded.

On Windows only, the Premiere Pro workspace's Cut desk adds Silence & Cut. It reads audio levels, with no speech model, and offers Remove + ripple or Cuts only. The After Effects workspace's Motion lab has a Silence remover with Dialogue, Podcast and Aggressive presets. The Mac app doesn't include the two workspaces.

In other editors, see removing silence in DaVinci Resolve and AutoCut in CapCut desktop. For a full show, our podcast editing software roundup compares the options.

Put your audio editor's silence command on a mouse button, free for 3 days. One plan with everything included, $25 a month, or $249 for a year.

See the price

Questions people ask

Is strip silence the same as a noise gate?

No. A noise gate mutes audio below a threshold as it plays, and the timeline stays the same length. Strip or remove silence works on the clip itself: it splits or deletes the quiet stretches, so you can close the gaps and shorten the edit. REAPER's per-FX auto-bypass is a third thing again. It switches off a plug-in's processing while the input is silent and removes nothing.

What threshold should I use to remove silence from a voice recording?

Start around −40 dB and adjust by ear. That's the default of our Premiere Pro Silence tab, along with pauses from 0.40 s and 0.12 s kept around speech. Quieter speakers or noisy rooms need a different setting, so test on the hardest passage first. Our Windows-only Cut desk presets show the range: Dialogue −48, Podcast −44 and Aggressive −38 dB. More negative keeps more.

Can I remove silence in Audacity for free?

Yes. Audacity is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux. Its features page says Trim Audio crops intros, outros and silence in one click with Ctrl+T on Windows, and the Cut command can trim silence elsewhere. For many files, Audacity's Macros handle batch processing. The Windows ARM64 build and the Apple Silicon ARM64 DMG don't support plug-ins.

Where is strip silence in Logic Pro X?

Apple calls it Remove Silence. The Logic Pro for Mac guide covers it in a chapter called "Remove silent passages from audio files", with a part on uses for Remove Silence. Open that chapter for the exact steps in your version. The current Logic Pro needs macOS 15.6 or later and a Mac with Apple silicon, so Intel Macs can't run it.

Can I delete silence in Adobe Audition?

The Adobe pages we checked on 3 November 2026 don't describe a silence-removal command, so we can't give steps from them. Check Adobe's current Audition help. Those pages do confirm Waveform and Multitrack modes, the Essential Sound panel, loudness presets, and Edit in Audition from Premiere Pro. Audition is US$22.99/mo on the annual plan billed monthly, with a 7-day trial.

Can I remove silence from many audio files at once?

Yes, in some apps. Audacity's manual describes Macros for batch processing and effects automation, so one chain can run across a set of files. Within a single session, Avid says Pro Tools removes unwanted silence across multiple clips at once. The pages for Ableton Live, GarageBand and REAPER name no batch silence tool, so plan on cutting by hand there.

Does mouzeclick remove silence inside Logic Pro or Audacity?

No. mouzeclick has no panel inside audio editors. In Logic, Audacity, Pro Tools or any other app, the mouse app puts that app's own silence shortcut on a button, gesture or Options wheel slot, on Windows and Mac. Our own silence removal runs in Premiere Pro: Studio's Silence tab on Windows and Mac, plus the Cut desk in the Windows-only workspace.

Is removing silence destructive?

It depends on the app, so keep a copy either way. Ableton lists nondestructive editing with unlimited undo in every edition of Live. Our Silence tab for Premiere Pro keeps a copy of the sequence before it cuts. When an app writes the change into the audio file itself, save a duplicate first so a bad threshold costs you nothing.

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-03. Prices and features change: each link goes to the maker's own page.