Auto Editor

Auto-Editor is a command line application for automatically editing video and audio by analyzing a variety of methods, most notably audio loudness.

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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

pip install auto-editor

See Installing for additional information.

Cutting

Change the pace of the edited video by using --margin.

--margin adds in some "silent" sections to make the editing feel nicer. Setting --margin to 0.2sec will add up to 0.2 seconds in front of and 0.2 seconds behind the original clip.

auto-editor example.mp4 --margin 0.2sec

Working With Multiple Audio Tracks

By default, only the first audio track will used for editing (track 0). You can change this with these commands.

Use all audio tracks for editing:

auto-editor multi-track.mov --edit audio:stream=all

Use only the second, fourth, and sixth audio track:

# track numbers start at 0
auto-editor so-many-tracks.mp4 --edit "(or audio:stream=1 audio:stream=3 audio:stream=5)"

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 percentage of motion is less than 2.
auto-editor example.mp4 --edit motion:threshold=2%

# --edit is set to "audio:threshold=4%" by default.
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:3% motion:6%)"

See What Auto-Editor Cuts Out

To export what auto-editor normally cuts out. Set --video-speed to 99999 and --silent-speed to 1. This is the reverse of the usual default values.

auto-editor example.mp4 --video-speed 99999 --silent-speed 1

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:

• Final Cut Pro with --export final-cut-pro
• ShotCut with --export shotcut

Other editors, like Sony Vegas, can understand the premiere format. If your favorite editor doesn't, you can use --export clip-sequence which creates many video clips that can be imported and manipulated like normal.

Manual Editing

Use the --cut-out option to always remove a section.

# Cut out the first 10 seconds.
auto-editor example.mp4 --cut-out start,10sec

# Cut out the first 10 frames.
auto-editor example.mp4 --cut-out start,10

# Cut out the last 10 seconds.
auto-editor example.mp4 --cut-out -10sec,end

# Cut out the first 10 seconds and cut out the range from 15 seconds to 20 seconds.
auto-editor example.mp4 --cut-out start,10sec 15sec,20sec

And of course, all the audio cuts still apply.

If you don't want any automatic cuts, use --edit none

# Cut out the first 5 seconds, leave the rest untouched.
auto-editor example.mp4 --edit none --cut-out start,5sec

# Leave in the first 5 seconds, cut everything else out.
auto-editor example.mp4 --edit all --add-in start,5sec

More Options

List all available options:

auto-editor --help

Use --help with a specific option for more information:

auto-editor --scale --help
--scale

  type: number
  default: 1.0
  ------------

  Scale the input video's resolution by the given factor.

Auto-Editor is available on all platforms

Articles

• How to Install Auto-Editor
• All the Options (And What They Do)
• Docs
• Blog

Copyright

Auto-Editor is under the Public Domain and includes all directories besides the ones listed below. Auto-Editor was created by these people.

ae-ffmpeg is under the LGPLv3 License. The FFmpeg and FFprobe programs were created by the FFmpeg team and purposely compiled by WyattBlue for use in auto-editor.

Issues

If you encounter a bug or have a feature request, you can create a new issue. If you'll like to discuss this project, and chat with other users, you can use the discord server.