How to remove silences in DaVinci Resolve

How do you use Ripple Delete Silence?

1. On the Edit or Cut page, select the clip in the timeline.
2. Choose Clip > Audio Operations > Ripple Delete Silence.
3. Adjust the settings: vertical red stripes show on the clip which parts will go.
4. Click Remove. The audio under the red stripes is cut, and the rest of the clip closes up in the timeline.

Which settings should you use?

• Threshold: the level, in dB, below which audio counts as silence. The higher it is, the more Resolve cuts. Start from the room tone.
• Pre Head and Post Tail: the air kept before and after each audible section. This is what stops the start or end of words being clipped.
• Minimum to Trip: the shortest silence, in frames, that gets cut. Too low and the speech sounds chopped up.
• Cross fade audio: a simple crossfade on the joins, if the head and tail leave enough audio.

What are its limits?

Ripple Delete Silence is a good built-in tool, with padding and a fade. It has the limits of a level detector: a softly spoken word can fall below the threshold, while a breath or room noise can stay above it. It cuts the selected clip right in your timeline, so duplicate the timeline first to keep the original. And it cannot see repeats, since it does not read what is said.

Oncut for DaVinci Resolve will do what it already does in Premiere Pro: combine level, voice detection and the transcript, cut repeated words too, and build a new timeline next to the original. It is coming soon, and the same subscription will cover it.