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Trim Silence

FFmpeg Builder: Trim Silence

This flow element analyzes the end of a video to detect if there is a period of sustained silence. If found, it trims the planned encoding duration to remove that trailing silence.

It does not immediately cut the file—like all FFmpeg Builder flow elements, it updates the FFmpeg Builder model that will be used later in the flow. This means you can combine this flow element with other trimming, filtering, or encoding options in a single step.

Specifically, this flow element:

  • Analyzes approximately the last 5% of the video (or at least the final 30 seconds, whichever is greater).
  • Searches for continuous silence that meets your chosen threshold and minimum duration settings.
  • Only considers silence near the end of the video (for example, silence that ends within 10 seconds of the actual end). This avoids trimming quiet parts that still leave significant trailing content.
  • If valid silence is found, the output duration in the FFmpeg Builder model is adjusted to cut off the silent portion at the end.

This is especially useful for removing quiet padding at the end of podcasts, lectures, or other videos.

Fields​

Minimum Silence​

The shortest duration of continuous silence (in seconds) to detect.

Only silence lasting at least this long will be considered, preventing removal of brief pauses or natural quiet transitions.

Threshold​

Sets the volume level (in negative dBFS) below which audio is considered silence.

For example:

  • -60 dB is very strict, capturing even very quiet background noise.
  • -10 dB is very loose, catching only loud dips.
  • -30 dB is a typical balance that excludes normal room noise or subtle sounds but identifies clear silences.

Because dBFS is a negative scale, values closer to zero are louder. Choose a value that matches what you consider "silent" for your recordings.

Outputs​

  1. Found
    Silence was detected near the end of the video. The encoding settings have been updated to trim the video at the start of the silent section when the FFmpeg Builder Executor runs.

  2. Not found
    No suitable trailing silence was detected. The encoding settings remain unchanged, so the entire video will be kept when the FFmpeg Builder Executor runs.