Auto-Editor is a command line application for automatically editing video and audio by analyzing a variety of methods, most notably audio loudness.
Before doing the real editing, you first cut out the "dead space" which is typically silence. This is known as a "first pass". Cutting these is a boring task, especially if the video is very long.
auto-editor path/to/your/video.mp4
Installing
See Installing for more information.
Skills
npx skills add WyattBlue/auto-editor
Cutting
Change the pace of the edited video by using --margin.
--margin adds in some "silent" sections to make the editing feel nicer.
# Add 0.2 seconds of padding before and after to make the edit nicer.
# `0.2s` is the default value for `--margin`
auto-editor example.mp4 --margin 0.2sec
# Add 0.3 seconds of padding before, 1.5 seconds after
auto-editor example.mp4 --margin 0.3s,1.5sec
Methods for Making Automatic Cuts
The --edit option is how auto-editor makes automated cuts.
For example, edit out motionlessness in a video by setting --edit motion.
# cut out sections where the total motion is less than 2%.
auto-editor example.mp4 --edit motion:threshold=0.02
# `--edit audio:threshold=0.04,stream=all` is used by defaut.
auto-editor example.mp4
# Different tracks can be set with different attribute.
auto-editor multi-track.mov --edit "(or audio:stream=0 audio:threshold=10%,stream=1)"
Different editing methods can be used together.
# 'threshold' is always the first argument for edit-method objects
auto-editor example.mp4 --edit "(or audio:0.03 motion:0.06)"
You can also use dB unit, a volume unit familiar to video-editors (case-sensitive):
auto-editor example.mp4 --edit audio:-19dB
auto-editor example.mp4 --edit audio:-7dB
auto-editor example.mp4 --edit motion:-19dB
Labels
Every moment gets an integer label: 0 is silent (cut by default), 1 is active (kept). --edit sets what's label 1; -w:0/-w:1 set each one's action. Add more classes with --edit:N and --when:N (N up to 255); where they overlap, the higher label wins.
# Cut silence, keep speech, and additionally speed up the loud parts
auto-editor example.mp4 --edit:2 audio:-12dB --when:2 speed:1.5
As a value (not a label), --edit 1 keeps everything and --edit 0 cuts everything. See the actions docs for more.
See What Auto-Editor Cuts Out
To export what auto-editor normally cuts out. Set --when-active to cut and --when-inactive to nil (leave as is). This is the reverse of the usual default values.
auto-editor example.mp4 --when-active cut --when-inactive nil
Exporting to Editors
Create an XML file that can be imported to Adobe Premiere Pro using this command:
auto-editor example.mp4 --export premiere
Auto-Editor can also export to:
- DaVinci Resolve with
--export resolve - Final Cut Pro with
--export final-cut-pro - ShotCut with
--export shotcut - Kdenlive with
--export kdenlive - Individual media clips with
--export clip-sequence
More Options
List all available options:
auto-editor --help
Articles
Run Online and as an Application
You can run auto-editor online or download the application. They use assets from this repository (Unlicense); their own unique assets are under a separate proprietary license.
Copyright
Everything in this repository is under the Public Domain. Binary artifacts in the "Releases" section may be under various open source licenses.