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Clip speed and volume

How to speed up or slow down a clip, change its speed smoothly along a curve, add smooth slow motion and set its volume by points or mute it in Slicer.

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Every clip has its own speed and its own volume. Speeding up helps skip through a long action or add pace to the reel; slowing down lets you linger on a beautiful moment, and a speed curve lets b-roll rush and then slow right down on the key motion. Volume comes in handy when one clip was recorded louder than the others or the b-roll sound competes with the voice.

The demo will appear here

Step 1 of 5

Step 1 of 5
  1. Click a clip on the video track
  2. Click “Speed” — a panel with values opens at the bottom
  3. Pick 1.5× — the clip on the strip gets shorter and shows a 1.5× badge
  4. Click ✓ “Done”, then “Volume”
  5. Drag the slider to 60% and click ✓ “Done”

Speed

  1. Select a clip

    Click a clip on the video track or its audio on the audio track — the Speed tool is in both sets.

  2. Open “Speed”

    A panel with values opens at the bottom: 0.25×, 0.5×, 0.75×, 1×, 1.25×, 1.5×, 2×, 3×, 4×. Above them are the Normal (constant speed) and Curve (speed curve) tabs.

  3. Pick a value

    The clip's length on the strip changes right away and a speed badge appears on it, for example “2×”. Click ✓ Done. To get back to normal speed, pick 1×.

Good to know:

  • Pitch stays the same when you speed up or slow down. The voice doesn't turn into a cartoon or a bass.
  • Captions follow the speech: words of a sped-up clip appear faster.
  • Speed changes the reel's length: 10 seconds at 2× become 5 seconds.
  • A freeze frame has no speed — its length is set by the freeze duration.

Speed curve

A curve changes the speed smoothly inside a clip: b-roll rushes, almost freezes on the key motion and speeds up again. That's how speed ramps are made — a jump, a ball throw, a hair flip.

  1. Open the “Curve” tab

    Select a b-roll clip, press Speed and pick the Curve tab.

  2. Pick a ready-made curve

    Curve How the speed changes
    Montagenormal → 3× → 0.6× slow-down in the middle → 3× → normal
    Hero2× → deep 0.3× slow-down in the middle → 2×
    Bulletnormal → almost a freeze at 0.2× in the middle → normal
    Flashnormal → a short 5× burst in the middle → normal
    Ramp upfrom 0.5× to 3× over the whole clip
    Ramp downfrom 3× to 0.5× over the whole clip

    Custom starts with a flat line at 1× — or keeps your curve if there already is one.

  3. Adjust the graph

    Below the curves is a graph: horizontally — the clip from start to end, vertically — the speed, the dashed line — 1×. The vertical line is the playhead moment, and the corner shows the speed at that moment.

    Web
    iPhone and iPad

    Drag a point with the mouse — left-right and up-down.

    Add point adds a point at the playhead, Remove point removes the one the playhead is on (the end points stay). The circular-arrow button is Normal speed: it removes the curve.

  • B-roll only. A curve works on a time-based video clip without speech. On a clip with speech the tab says A curve works on a time-based video fragment without speech: speech words are tied to time.
  • The sound is muted: The speed changes smoothly between points. The sound is muted on a speed curve. Music fits nicely under such a clip.
  • A curve has 2 to 8 points, the speed goes from 0.1× to 8×. The clip's length on the strip is recalculated right away.
  • A curve and a constant speed don't add up: picking a value on the Normal tab replaces the curve.
  • When you split a clip, the curve is divided between the parts.

Smooth slow motion

Ordinary slow motion stretches frames: at 0.25× every frame is shown four times in a row, and the motion stutters. Smooth slow motion creates new frames between the real ones — the slowed-down motion becomes smooth, like footage shot at a high frame rate.

  1. Select a b-roll clip and slow it down — with a constant speed below 1× or a curve that has a point slower than 1×.
  2. In the Speed panel press Smooth slow motion. The hint says: Smooth slow motion: new frames between the real ones (free, made in the background). For video slower than 1×, up to 10 s.
  3. The server makes the new frames in the background — Processing clip… shows above the preview, and you can keep editing meanwhile. When it's ready, the preview and the export show smooth motion.

If the conditions aren't met, the panel says Smooth slow motion works on a video fragment up to 10 s slower than 1×. Press the button again to turn smooth slow motion off.

  • Free and without AI.
  • B-roll without speech only, and a source piece no longer than 10 seconds. Split a long clip and turn smooth slow motion on for the part you need.
  • Doesn't combine with reverse.
  • Works best on smooth motion — water, hair, fabric, a camera turn. On very fast, fine motion the created frames may be noticeable.

Volume

  1. Select a clip or its audio

    Click a clip on the video track or its waveform on the audio track.

  2. Open “Volume”

    The panel has a sound button on the left and a slider from 0 to 100%. The current value is on the right.

  3. Adjust and click ✓ “Done”

    Drag the slider, or press the sound button to mute completely. The whole slider movement is one undo step.

A clip's volume can only go down: 100% is the original level. The reel's overall loudness is normalized on export to the LUFS level you choose (Export).

Volume points

The volume can change inside a clip: fade down when speech from another clip starts, or rise towards the climax. It works like keyframes, only for sound.

  1. Open Volume — the preview pauses inside the clip. Without points the slider changes the whole clip's volume, and the hint suggests: Add a point, move the playhead and add another one with a different volume — the sound will rise or fade.
  2. Press Volume point — a point with the current volume appears at the playhead.
  3. Seek and move the slider — another point appears at the new spot. Between points the volume changes smoothly.

With points, the slider shows the volume at the playhead and changes it at that moment — the point the playhead is on, or a new one. The hint shows how many points there are, for example Volume points: 2. The volume changes smoothly between them; an edit under the playhead adds a new one. On a point the button becomes Remove point.

  • A clip can have up to 24 volume points. Before the first point and after the last one the volume is as at the nearest point.
  • Volume points replace the clip's constant volume. When no points are left, the slider changes the whole clip's volume again.
  • Fade in and fade out work together with points too.

Fade in and fade out

A clip's sound starts and stops exactly at its edges. Sometimes that sounds harsh: street noise bursts in at a cut, or a phrase is cut off on the last clip of the reel. A fade-in raises the sound smoothly from silence at the start of the clip, a fade-out takes it down to silence at the end.

The demo will appear here

Step 1 of 3

Step 1 of 3
  1. Click the waveform of a b-roll clip on the “Audio” track and press “Volume” — “Fade in” and “Fade out” rows under the slider
  2. In the “Fade in” row pick “1 s” — in the preview the clip's sound comes in smoothly
  3. In the “Fade out” row pick “2 s” and click ✓ “Done”

  1. Open “Volume”

    Select a clip or its audio on the audio track and press Volume. Under the slider there are two rows: Fade in and Fade out.

  2. Pick a duration

    Each row offers None (the default), 0.5 s, 1 s or 2 s. You hear the change in the preview right away.

  3. Click ✓ “Done”

    The volume rises and falls evenly. The duration is counted in reel time — the same for a sped-up clip as for a normal one.

When it helps:

  • a fade-out on the last clip — the reel ends softly instead of being cut off;
  • a fade-in on noisy b-roll after speech — the sound of the street, the sea or a kitchen comes in smoothly;
  • a fade-out on the clip before a Fade transition — picture and sound go together.

A freeze frame has no sound, so it has no fades either. Background music has its own fade-in and fade-out at the start and end of the reel (Music).

Mute

A quick way to silence a clip: select its audio on the audio track and press Mute. The button turns into Unmute. A muted clip shows a crossed-out speaker on the video and audio tracks.

That's handy for b-roll with street or wind noise while music or a voice from another clip plays.

When to use what

Goal Speed
Tighten a long story while keeping it clear1.25×
Show a process quickly: cooking, assembly, a trip2×–4×
Linger on a beautiful moment or the result0.5×–0.75×
A dramatic pause before a reveal0.25× on a short clip
A striking accent in motion: a jump, a throw, a flipthe Bullet or Hero curve with smooth slow motion
A smooth start-up or slow-down at the endthe Ramp up or Ramp down curve

Check sped-up speech in the preview from start to end — the voice should stay clear.

Good to know

  • Edits are visible and audible in the preview right away; the finished video updates after Export.
  • Volume, speed and the other clip settings carry over to a copy made with Duplicate. To carry speed, volume and fades over to other clips, use Copy and paste the look.
  • Sound effects (whooshes on cuts, pops when emoji and cards appear) are turned on for the whole reel with the Sound FX button on a clip's audio (Audio).

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