Remove silence in Premiere Pro without razoring by hand

How do you remove silence with Oncut?

1. In Premiere Pro, open the Oncut panel: Window > UXP Plugins > Oncut.
2. Click “Dérusher” (rough-cut; the panel’s labels are in French for now). Transcription and silence detection run on your computer.
3. Pick one of the four paces, from Steady to Very snappy, then click “Appliquer · nouvelle séquence” (apply as a new sequence). Oncut creates “your sequence — Oncut” next to the original.

Measured on a real 61-minute interview, at the Very snappy pace: 1,069 cuts and a 30 min 53 sequence at the end. The footage ends up 30 minutes shorter, or 49% of its length.

Should you cut the whole pause?

No. A cut that hugs the last word sounds clipped, and a gap left whole loses the viewer. Oncut keeps some air around the speech, depending on the pace. The panel offers four: Steady for interviews and training, Natural that keeps the breaths, Dynamic for YouTube or a podcast, and Very snappy that cuts tight for a punchy talking head. Compare Natural and Very snappy in the settings demo.

Every cut gets a 2-frame constant-power audio fade, so there are no clicks or pops at the join. Oncut does not rely on volume alone to find dead air. It combines level, voice detection and the transcript, so a softly spoken word is not cut.

What about Premiere Pro’s built-in method?

Premiere Pro can delete pauses out of the box, with Text-Based Editing. In the Text-Based Editing workspace, transcribe the clip, click the filter icon in the Transcript panel, choose Pauses, then Delete for one pause or Delete all for every one.

It is quick and built in. But the deletion happens right in your sequence, as a ripple edit: no new sequence, so duplicate it first. Each pause goes in full, with no setting to keep some air around the speech, and no audio fade is added at the joins. Repeated words are left for you to spot by ear: that is what repeat removal is for.