Cutomatic — Quick Start Walkthrough

Your First Silence Detection in Under 5 Minutes

Welcome to Cutomatic! This walkthrough takes you from a freshly loaded file to a clean exported result, step by step.

Activating Your License

The trial badge in the title bar shows your remaining trial days (e.g., “Trial 12d”). If you have purchased Cutomatic, you can activate it at any time:

1. Click the trial badge in the title bar.
2. Enter the email address used for your purchase and the license key from your confirmation email.
3. Click Activate.

Once activated, Cutomatic removes trial reminders and keeps full export mode permanently enabled. If your trial expires before activation, click the same badge to reopen the registration panel.

What You Can Do in Cutomatic

• 🎬 Export to Final Cut Pro — send silence markers directly into your FCP timeline
• 🎥 Export trimmed video or audio — save a cleaned media file with silence removed
• 👁️ Preview before exporting — verify cuts before committing to an export
• 💾 Save your project — resume work later with all settings and cuts intact

Step 1 — Load Your Media

Add a Video

1. Look at the left side of the app.
2. You will see a card labeled “Drop or Click to Select Video”.
3. Either drag and drop a video file onto it, or click it to browse your computer.
4. Supported formats: MP4, MOV, AVI, M4V.

Processing is fast — most files, regardless of size or length, complete within about a minute.

Add External Audio (Optional)

If you have a separate, better-quality audio file recorded alongside the video:

1. Look for the card labeled “Drop or Click to Select External Audio” below the video card.
2. Click or drag and drop an audio file (MP3, WAV, M4A, etc.).
3. Cutomatic will analyze this audio instead of the video’s built-in track.

Important: The external audio must be in sync with the video. If they are out of sync, detected cuts will not align with the video correctly.

Use external audio when the video’s built-in audio is noisy or low quality, or when you have processed the audio separately for a cleaner signal.

What to Expect After Loading

• A preview window appears in the center panel.
• The Waveform and Detected Silences section at the bottom begins loading.
• The Detected Silence panel on the right shows “Process media to see detected sections” — this is normal.

Step 2 — Adjust Detection Settings

Below the preview you will find three sliders that control how Cutomatic detects silence.

Min Silence Duration (Left Slider)

How long must a pause be before it gets removed?

• Slide left to catch shorter pauses.
• Slide right to only remove longer gaps.

Silence Threshold (Middle Slider)

How quiet must the audio be to count as silence?

• Slide left (toward -70) for fewer, more conservative cuts.
• Slide right (toward 0) for more aggressive cutting.

Skip Clips (Right Slider)

Should very short audio fragments between silences be discarded?

Step 3 — Process the Media

Click the blue Process Media button in the toolbar.

1. Cutomatic begins analyzing your audio.
2. A progress bar appears in the top-right corner.
3. Processing is fast — most files complete within about a minute.
4. When complete, the Waveform and Detected Silences section updates with gold/orange sections marking detected silence.

Reading the Waveform

Waveform line        →  Audio you keep (speech, music, content)
Gold/orange sections →  Silence that will be removed

Detected Silence Panel

The right-side Detected Silence panel now shows:

• “Found X silent sections” — total number of silences detected
• A numbered list of each silence with its start time, end time, and duration
• An X button next to each entry — click to remove a cut if that silence should be kept

Step 4 — Preview Before Exporting

Quick Listen

1. Click Preview Trim in the preview area header (next to Source).
2. The player switches to the trimmed timeline with silences removed.
3. Use play/pause to watch and listen through.

• Sounds good? → Proceed to export.
• Important audio was cut? → Return to Step 2, adjust the sliders, and reprocess.

Manual Cleanup (Optional)

To keep a silence that was incorrectly flagged:

1. Find it in the Detected Silence panel.
2. Click the X button to remove that cut.
3. Click Undo (bottom-right corner) or press Cmd+Z to reverse the removal if needed.
4. Click Preview Trim again to verify the updated result.

Step 5 — Export Your File

Option A — Open in FCPX (fastest for FCP editors)

Exports the marker file and opens it directly in Final Cut Pro in one step.

1. Click the Open in FCPX button (bottom-left of the app).
2. Final Cut Pro launches and imports the sequence automatically.
3. Your timeline opens with gaps at all silence positions.

Option B — Export FCPXML Manually

Use this if you want to save the marker file and import it into FCP yourself.

1. Click the FCPXML button (bottom center, blue).
2. The file is saved to your Downloads folder automatically.
3. In Final Cut Pro, go to File → Import → XML and select the saved file.

Option C — Export Media (Audio or Video)

Use this to save a trimmed audio file, a trimmed video file, or both together.

1. Click the Export button (bottom-right of the app).
2. Choose an export mode in the export panel:

• Audio Only — save trimmed audio as M4A
• Video Only — save trimmed video without altering the original visual content
• Video + Audio — save both tracks together in a trimmed media file

1. If needed, choose the audio source: Video Audio or External Audio.
2. Choose where to save the file and click Save.

Where to use media export:

Step 6 — Save and Reopen Your Project (optional)

Save Project

• Click Save Project in the toolbar, or press Cmd+S.
• This saves your media references, detection settings, and all detected cuts to a .ctom file.

Save Project As…

• Press Cmd+Shift+S or choose File > Save Project As… to save a new copy without overwriting the current project.

Open Project

• Click Open Project in the toolbar or choose File > Open Project.
• Select a .ctom file to restore exactly where you left off.

If a referenced media file has been moved, Cutomatic will warn you but still open the project.

Your cleaned-up file is ready to upload, edit further, or share.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

“It removed too much”

• Move the Silence Threshold slider left (toward -70 dB).
• Increase Min Silence Duration to 300–500 ms.
• Click Process Media again.

“It didn’t remove enough”

• Move the Silence Threshold slider right (toward -30 dB).
• Decrease Min Silence Duration to 100 ms.
• Click Process Media again.

Other common issues

Saving Settings as a Preset

Once you find the right settings for your content type:

1. After Process Media produces good results, click Presets.
2. Click + New Preset, give it a memorable name (e.g., “Interview Settings”), and click Save.

Next time, load your file, click Presets, select the saved preset, and your settings load instantly.