How to cut mistakes out of an audio recording

Most recordings need a few small fixes: a false start, a cough, a phone buzzing, or a tangent you would rather not share. You can remove any number of sections and keep the rest joined smoothly in the cut out sections tool.

Plan before you cut

Listen through once and note the times of each problem. A simple list such as "0:42 cough, 1:15–1:31 false start, 3:02 phone" saves time. Remember the tool uses seconds, so 1:15 is 75.

Making the cuts

Open the recording and find the first problem on the waveform. Speech shows as tall shapes; pauses are flat.
Drag across it. Start and end in a quiet moment between words if you can.
Press Hear in the cut list to play the original one second either side of the cut, and adjust the times if a word is clipped.
Repeat for each problem, then press Preview result to hear the edited version from the start.
Download as WAV if you will edit further, or MP3 when you are finished.

Where to place a cut

False start: cut from the start of the first attempt to just before the second attempt begins. Keep the pause before the good take.
Cough or bump: cut only the noise, plus a few hundredths of a second either side.
Repeated word: cut the first instance and the small gap after it, so the rhythm stays natural.
Whole section: cut from the end of the last sentence you keep to the start of the next one you keep.

Avoiding clicks and jumps

The tool adds a very short fade either side of every join, which prevents clicks. A join can still sound abrupt if background sound changes, for example if music or traffic is audible on one side of the cut but not the other. Cutting during a pause, where the background is steady, gives the smoothest result.

Combine with other tools

Shorten every long pause automatically with remove silence, then add your own cuts.
Trim the start and end with the audio cutter and add fades.
Raise a quiet recording with the volume changer after editing.

Reviewed October 2026 · How we write our guides · Suggest a correction