Two Smart Ways to Remove Silences and Pauses in Premiere Pro with AI

Introduction

Removing silent segments, dead air, or awkward pauses between speech is one of the most tedious parts of audio cleaning in video editing. With the AI-powered software Cutback, our audio silence remover meticulously detects and removes silence, producing far better results than conventional rule-based tools. Even trailing speech or tiny gaps between words can be handled with precision and give you clean audio. This is the perfect feature for interviews, talking head videos, and podcast editing.

This page covers the following:
✅ How to remove awkward pauses in your waveform directly using the [Remove silence] menu ✔️
✅ Using the AI assistant to preview and remove silence from audio for studio-quality output 🦾
✅ Frequently asked questions 💬

Getting Started with the [Remove silence] Menu

Step 1. Open a new project file in Adobe Premiere Pro and prepare your audio files and video files in the sequence.

Step 2. In the top menu of Premiere Pro, go to [Window] > [Extension] > [Cutback] to launch Cutback.

Step 3. Select the [Remove Silence] menu to remove silent portions.

Step 4. Configure Settings

1. [Audio]: Select the audio track where long silence pauses should be removed.

2. [Range]: Choose the range of silence removal, and our AI tolerance system will make cuts accordingly.

   • Entire sequence: Remove silence from the entire sequence.

   • Selected clips: Apply only to specific clips. Select clips first in the timeline.

   • In/Out range: Use Premiere Pro’s in and out points (i and o).

3. Removal method: Choose whether to delete the detected silent parts or split the track.

4. Remaining length: Set how much space to leave between lines.

   • Closer to "Very short" = tighter spacing

   • Closer to "Long" = wider spacing

   • Click the preview button ▶️ to listen before selecting.

   • Select [Custom] to manually enter the padding length.

5. Silence threshold: Manually define the decibel level that counts as silence.

Step 5. Apply
Click the [Remove silence] button to process and remove silence.

Step 6. Restore (if needed)
Click [Restore sequence] to undo the silence removal.

⚠️ Note: If you do not click [Restore sequence], you won’t be able to revert later. Be sure to review the sequence before closing the popup.

Trim Silence Using the AI Assistant

You can also remove silence using the AI assistant. When enabled, silent segments are displayed directly within the transcription for easy review before applying.

Step 1. Open a new project file in Adobe Premiere Pro and prepare your audio and video files in the sequence.

Step 2. In the top menu of Premiere Pro, go to [Window] > [Extension] > [Cutback] to launch Cutback.

Step 3. Select the [Auto Rough Cut] menu.

• In order to use the AI assistant, you need to generate a transcript and transcribe audio for text-based editing. (See our text-based editing guide for more information.)

• Aside from audio transcription features, you can also use multi-cam editing for multi camera sequences that require speaker detection.

• These will enable you to make use of additional features that boost your video editing workflow, such as Remove Filler Words, Remove Retakes, Shorten Video, or Edit with a Script.

Step 4. Click the Assistant button (top right). In the chat window that opens, either select a preset editing option or type your own custom editing request. Select [Remove silence].

• If you'd like to adjust the length of the silence threshold, click [Open Draft] to open the current version, then hit [Change Settings] to fine-tune silence detection.

Step 5. Configure Settings

1. Show silence length: Displays the length of each silence section in frames

2. Remaining length: Set how much space to leave between lines.

   • Closer to "Very short" = tighter spacing

   • Closer to "Long" = wider spacing

   • Click the preview button ▶️ to listen before selecting.

   • Select [Custom] to manually enter the padding length.

Step 6. Adjust
Manually fine-tune silence durations directly in the timeline.

Step 7. Apply
Click [Apply to sequence] to apply the final edits.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Silence removal takes too long.

  In Premiere Pro, performance may vary depending on the number of clips or applied effects at the timeline level. Try these suggestions to speed things up:

  • Remove unused effects like transitions, color, or motion

  • Delete unused video/audio tracks

  • Move only the working content to a new sequence

  • Adjust silence detection sensitivity to avoid excessive cuts

  • Split your sequence into 30-minute chunks

    
    

• I only want to restore part of the changes.

  Clicking [Restore sequence] will revert the entire edit. Partial restoration is not supported.

  If you want to continue editing after silence removal, it’s recommended to use the [Auto rough cut] menu to remove silence with more flexibility.