Silence Stripper: Strip Silence for Ableton Live

01One press of Strip

One take in. Clean clips out.

One vocal take on the Vocal track, one press. The gaps are cut out of the Arrangement, and each phrase becomes its own clip, exactly where it was. The other tracks don't move.

BEFORE · ONE TAKE AFTER · 3 CLIPS, SILENCE GONE SCROLL ↓

Checked sample by sample against Live's own export on a real 1,969-clip session, warped clips included. Nothing slides, nothing drifts.

02The command Live never had

Logic has it. Pro Tools has it. Live never did.

In Live you cut the gaps by hand, one Cmd-E at a time. Producers first asked Ableton for Strip Silence in January 2006, and they were still asking in 2025. Silence Stripper is that command, for Live 12.

LOGIC PROStrip Silence, built in✓

PRO TOOLSStrip Silence, built in✓

CUBASEDetect Silence, built in✓

ABLETON LIVECmd-E. One cut at a time.✕

LIVE + SILENCE STRIPPERStrip. Every gap, one press.✓

ABLETON FORUM · FEATURE WISHLIST · “STRIP SILENCE WOULD BE HANDY”, 2006

03How it works

Select. Set. Strip.

Twenty-two seconds, start to finish: one vocal take becomes three clips.

STEP 1

Select a clip.

Click any audio clip in the Arrangement. Silence Stripper analyses it at once: orange is kept, grey goes.

STEP 2

Set the line.

Drag the threshold line, or load a preset: Vocal, Drums, Dialogue, Sample Chop. The count of new clips updates as you move.

STEP 3

Press Strip.

The clip becomes one clip per sound, named and in place. A vocal take strips in under a second. Changed your mind? Cmd-Z.

04Sound familiar?

Built for the cutting you hate.

→You split a vocal take at every breath, one Cmd-E at a time.

→You zoom in, cut, zoom out, scroll, cut. For an hour.

→You came from Logic and still reach for Strip Silence.

→Your jam has thirty good hits buried in five minutes of nothing.

→You imported the stems, and now every track needs its gaps cut by hand.

→The room noise between phrases only shows up once the track is mixed.

→A gate cleans the sound, but your clip is still one long block.

→You'd rather be writing than editing.

If you nodded at more than one, that's the hour this gives you back.

05Built for

Anything you recorded with gaps in it.

Vocals

Breaths, room noise and dead air between phrases, gone. A clean take, ready to comp.

VOCAL PRESET

Sample chopping

Record a jam, resample a synth, bounce a drum take. Get every hit as its own clip.

SAMPLE CHOP · DRUMS PRESETS

Speech

Podcasts, voice-over and tutorials, without scrubbing through the pauses.

DIALOGUE PRESET

Whole tracks

Strip every audio clip on a track at once, or only what's inside the loop brace.

STRIP TRACK · STRIP LOOP

06What's inside

Looks like it shipped with Live.

The Silence Stripper device in Live: the waveform display with Vocal, three orange pieces and the threshold line, Threshold, Return, Min Gap, Min Len, Pre, Post and fade knobs, Zero X, Render, and the Strip Clip button

The Silence Stripper editor window in Live: zoom, a bar ruler, numbered pieces, the threshold line and every control in one row — THE EDITOR WINDOW IN LIVE · ON A DIFFERENT CLIP · CLICK THE DISPLAY TO OPEN IT

A big editor window with zoom, a bar ruler and numbered pieces

Threshold you drag right on the waveform

Return, Min Gap, Min Length, Pre and Post, like a gate

Zero-crossing cuts, so nothing clicks

Optional rendered fades: Linear, Equal power, Exponential

Warped clips printed first, so cuts stay exact

4 presets in Live's browser

Live's theme colours, standard knobs, two Push banks, Info View help

Stop cutting.
Start writing.

Select a clip, press Strip, and get back to the music.

Free until 5 November, then €14. Pay what you want, even nothing. If it saves you an hour of cutting, put in what that hour is worth to you. It helps us keep making tools for Live.

One-time payment. Instant download. Ableton Live 12 with Max for Live required.

Get it free

INSTANT DOWNLOAD PAY WHAT YOU WANT FREE UPDATES SUPPORT@174SHOP.COM

Questions

Does it change my audio files?

No. It works on the clips in your Arrangement, and the original file is never edited. With Render on, it writes a new copy next to it (“name [SS].wav”) and leaves the original alone.

Will my pieces move out of time?

No. Every piece stays on the exact sample it was on in the original clip. Strip doesn't move or stretch anything.

Can I undo it?

Yes. One Cmd-Z puts the original clip back.

Will the cuts click?

Zero X moves every cut to the nearest zero crossing, so cuts don't click. For smooth edges, turn on Render and set the fade lengths and shape.

Does it work on warped clips?

Yes, warped or not. Clips stretched in Beats, Tones or Texture mode can't be cut exactly from their file, so by default (“Print if needed”) Silence Stripper plays them once in real time and strips the recording. It asks before it does.

Can it do a whole track?

Yes. Strip Track does every audio clip on the device's track. Strip Loop does only the clips inside the loop brace.

Is it AI?

No. It measures the level of your audio, like a gate, and cuts where it falls below your threshold. You see exactly what it will do before you press Strip.

Does it remove noise inside the sound?

No. It removes the gaps between sounds. It isn't a denoiser.

Does it work in Session View or on MIDI?

No. Arrangement audio clips only.

What do I need?

Ableton Live 12 with Max for Live (Live Suite, or Standard with the Max for Live add-on). Built and tested on macOS.

What do I get?

The device file and four presets (Vocal, Drums, Dialogue, Sample Chop), plus every update.

Is it really free?

Yes, until 5 November. Enter 0 at checkout and it's yours. If you'd like to support the developers, enter any amount you like instead.

Why free?

Because Live should have had this years ago. Use it on your own takes, and if it earns a place in your template, pay what you think it's worth.

What happens after 5 November?

Silence Stripper goes to €14. Grab it before then and it's yours to keep, updates included.

Is it a one-time payment?

Yes. €14 once, with every update.

How do I get the download?

Through our checkout, run by Lemon Squeezy. Enter your email, and the download link arrives on screen and in your inbox.

Strip the silence.Keep the take.