• New

Pause Cleaner

Remove pauses from your After Effects videos/audio

Pause Cleaner detects silence in your audio and creates a cleaned version of your composition without dead air, so you can tighten talking-head videos, speed up pacing, and keep the flow without manually slicing every gap.

Learn about license types
  $38.86
  • Free Trial
Description
Pause Cleaner
Cut silence. Keep flow.
Hours of audio and video cleaned in minutes. Native After Effects workflow — fast, precise, fully editable.
Before 1m 28s
▄▆█▇▅▄▆█▇▅▃▆█▇▆▄▁▁▁▁▅▇█▇▆▅▇█▆▄▆▇▅▄▁▁▁▄▆█▇█▆▄▇█▆▄▅
After 52s
▄▆█▇▅▄▆█▇▅▃▆█▇▆▄▅▇█▇▆▅▇█▆▄▆▇▅▄▄▆█▇█▆▄▇█▆▄▅
Same speech. Half the runtime.



Why Pause Cleaner?

Everything you need to clean up pauses fast

Smart pause detection

Finds pauses that simple volume thresholds miss — quiet phrases, breath sounds, room tone — without false-triggering on speech.

Local processing

Pause detection and rendering both run on your computer using bundled tools. No external services involved in the workflow.

One-click presets

Subtle for interviews, Balanced for podcasts, Tight for tutorials, Aggressive for reels. Pick a pace, click Clean.

Native After Effects workflow

Result drops back into your composition automatically — as split layers, a clean precomp, or a freshly rendered file.

Audio and video

Works on audio layers, voice-over comps, and full video footage. Cuts both tracks in perfect sync.

Many output formats

H.264, HEVC, ProRes 422, DNxHR, plus audio-only WAV, MP3, AAC. Auto-match the source codec or override.

Preview before apply

Inspect every detected pause. Keep, cut, or shorten each one. Listen with ⌘-click. Never blind-trim.

Hardware accelerated

VideoToolbox on macOS with software fallback everywhere. Hours of footage in minutes, not the other way.

Bundled and ready

FFmpeg and the detection engine ship with the plugin. Nothing to install, no separate downloads, no setup.




Three ways to deliver the result

Pick how the cleaned version lands back in your composition



Cut in place

Splits the layer right where pauses were detected. No rendering, instant. Keep tweaking on your timeline.

PRECOMP


New precomp

Bundles the speech segments stitched back-to-back into a fresh comp. Instant. Drag it anywhere in your timeline.

Composition cleaned.mp4 imported

New file in composition

Renders a clean MP4 / MOV / WAV with pauses cut out, then drops the new file straight back into your active comp. Final delivery in one click.




How it works

Four steps from raw recording to clean delivery
1

Select a layer

Pick any audio or video layer in your active comp.

2

Pick a preset

Subtle, Balanced, Tight, or Aggressive — to match your pacing.

3

Click Clean Pauses

The detector analyzes the track and opens the preview strip.

4

Review and apply

Tweak individual pauses or apply all. Done.




Built for

Whatever you edit, Pause Cleaner trims the dead air
Podcasts Voice-overs Tutorials & courses Interview editing Reels / TikTok / Shorts Corporate explainers Audiobooks Lecture recordings



Technical specs

After Effects
2022 and newer (CSXS 11+)
macOS
Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4) and Intel
Windows
10 / 11, 64-bit
Detection
Voice activity detection — bundled engine, runs on your machine
Render
Bundled FFmpeg with VideoToolbox hardware accel on macOS
Trial
Built-in via aescripts licensing framework



Frequently asked questions

Where does the cleaned file go?

When you choose Save new file, Pause Cleaner renders the result to disk (MP4, MOV, or audio-only WAV / MP3 / AAC) and imports it back into the project. The new clip is automatically placed in the same composition as the original layer, ready for delivery or further editing.

Can I edit individual pauses before applying?

Yes. Preview is on by default. You'll see a strip of every detected pause — click each to keep, cut, or shorten. Hold ⌘ and click any segment to play it with surrounding context. Apply only when you're happy with the result.

Will it cut my video out of sync with audio?

No. When you process a layer with both video and audio, both tracks are cut at the exact same timestamps and re-encoded together via FFmpeg. Audio-video sync is preserved.

What output formats are supported?

Auto-match the source codec (recommended), or pick H.264, HEVC, ProRes 422, DNxHR, or audio-only WAV, MP3, AAC. Each has Draft, Standard, and High quality presets.

Does it work on AE 2021 or earlier?

No. The plugin requires CSXS 11 (CEP 11), which ships with After Effects 2022 (version 22.0) and newer. Older AE versions don't support the licensing framework or the modern panel runtime Pause Cleaner needs.

How does it compare to silence-trimming with FFmpeg or other plugins?

FFmpeg's silenceremove is threshold-based — it cuts anything below a dB level, which trips on quiet speech and missing room tone. Pause Cleaner uses voice activity detection that distinguishes actual silence from quiet voice, so you get cleaner cuts without over-trimming.

Discussions

Want to talk about it?

Head over to r/aescripts to chat with fellow users about this product.

Need Support?

Please open a support ticket to be connected directly with the author of this product

Version History

1.0.0 -

May 21, 2026

-Release version

Compatibility

After Effects

2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022

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Updated: Oct 21, 2025 1:35 AM