Audio Cutter
Trim MP3 and other audio on a waveform, with fades. Runs in your browser.
About this audio cutter
This audio cutter trims MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG, FLAC and other audio files on a waveform you can zoom into, then saves the part you want as MP3, WAV, M4A or an iPhone M4R ringtone. Use it for ringtones, podcast intros, music beds and voice memos without the dead air.
Everything happens in your browser. The file is decoded, edited and encoded on your own device, so nothing is uploaded and there is no size limit beyond your computer's memory.
You can keep a section, delete one from the middle, add fades and change the volume, then hear the result before you export.
Features
Zoomable waveform
Zoom from the whole song down to a few milliseconds. Ctrl and the mouse wheel zoom where you point.
Exact times and keyboard nudges
Type a start, end or length as 1:23.5, 83.5 or 1m 23s. Focus an edge and move it with the arrow keys in 0.1 s steps, 1 s with Shift or 0.01 s with Alt.
Trim or delete
Trim keeps only the selection. Delete removes it and joins the two sides with a 5 ms crossfade, so the cut doesn't click. Both can be undone and redone.
Fades, volume and normalize
Fade in and out by up to 10 seconds each, change the volume by up to 20 dB either way, or press Normalize to bring the loudest peak to −1 dB.
Ringtone preset
One button selects 30 seconds from where your selection starts, adds a half-second fade in and a 2-second fade out, and picks M4R where your browser can make it.
How to use the audio cutter
- 1Open an audio file, or try the demo clip that loads with the page.
- 2Drag on the waveform or type exact start and end times, then add fades or volume.
- 3Pick MP3, WAV, M4A or M4R and press Export, then download the file.
When to use it
A ringtone from your favorite song
Find the chorus, press Ringtone, nudge the start onto the beat and export. Android phones take the MP3, iPhones take the M4R.
Podcast intros and outros
Cut a 15-second sting from a longer track and fade it out under your voice. If the music came inside a video file, open the video directly or pull the soundtrack out as an MP3 first.
Cleaning up voice memos
Delete the coughs and the long pause before you started talking. Need a new take instead? Record one in your browser and open it here.
Background music for a video edit
Cut the music to the length of your clip, fade both ends, and export WAV so your editor gets an uncompressed file. You can trim the video to match as well.
How do I cut an MP3 without losing quality?
MP3 is a lossy format, and this cutter decodes the file and encodes a new one. In practice you won't hear the difference if you export at the same bitrate as the source or higher. A 128 kbps source exported at 192 kbps sounds like the original to almost everyone.
If the clip is going into an editor or will be converted again later, export WAV. It is lossless, so nothing is lost at this step, but it is big: about 10 MB per minute for 44.1 kHz stereo, against 1.4 MB per minute for a 192 kbps MP3.
How long can a ringtone be?
An iPhone ringtone must be 40 seconds or shorter, and text alert tones 30 seconds or shorter. The preset uses 30 seconds so one file works for both. The M4R format is simply AAC audio in an MP4 container with a different file extension.
Android has no fixed limit, but the phone only plays the first part before the call is answered, so 20 to 30 seconds is plenty. Android takes MP3 directly.
- iPhone: copy the .m4r to the phone with Finder on a Mac or iTunes on Windows, then pick it in Settings → Sounds & Haptics → Ringtone.
- Android: copy the MP3 to the phone's Ringtones folder, or open it from Settings → Sound and choose it as the ringtone. Menu names vary by brand.
Why do cuts sometimes click, and how do fades help?
A click happens when the audio jumps from one level to a very different one in a single sample, which is what a hard cut in the middle of a sound wave does. Fades fix this by easing the volume up from silence and back down to it.
Short fades of 0.1 to 0.5 seconds hide clicks without being noticed. Fades of 2 to 5 seconds sound like a deliberate ending, the way radio edits finish a song.
Which audio formats can I open?
Anything your browser can decode: MP3, WAV, M4A and AAC, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, Opus and WebM. MP4, MOV and MKV videos open too, and you edit their soundtrack.
Very long files are the one real limit. The whole file is held in memory as uncompressed audio, which takes about 23 MB per minute of 48 kHz stereo. An hour-long recording usually works on a desktop computer. For longer files the tool warns you instead of crashing the tab.
Why use Mavros
| Mavros | Typical upload sites | |
|---|---|---|
| Upload required | No, the file stays on your device | Yes, sent to a server |
| File size limit | Your device's memory | Often 100 MB to 1 GB, more if you pay |
| Delete a middle section | Yes, with a click-free join and undo | Often keep-only |
| Exact time entry and keyboard nudges | Yes, down to 0.01 s | Sliders, sometimes arrow keys |
| Formats offered | Only what your browser can really encode, with a reason for the rest | Long lists, converted on a server |
Tips
- Press Space to play the selection and hear exactly what will be exported, fades and volume included.
- Use Normalize on quiet recordings instead of guessing a volume. It stops at −1 dB so the file won't clip.
- Skip silent ends trims the selection to the first and last sound louder than −45 dB.
- Need the same clip in several formats? Export WAV once, then convert it to MP3, M4A or Opus in a batch.
Questions
Is my audio uploaded anywhere?
No. The audio is decoded, cut and encoded inside your browser, and the file never leaves your device. There is no account and no daily limit.
How do I make an iPhone ringtone?
Press Ringtone, adjust the 30-second selection, choose M4R and export. M4R needs a browser that can encode AAC, such as Chrome or Edge on Windows or macOS. Then copy the file to the phone with Finder or iTunes.
Why is M4A or M4R greyed out?
Your browser has no AAC encoder that web pages can use. Firefox is the most common example. Export MP3 instead, which phones and players all accept, or open this page in Chrome or Edge on Windows or macOS.
Can I remove a part from the middle of a song?
Yes. Select the part and press Delete selection or the Delete key. The two sides are joined with a 5 millisecond crossfade, so there is no click, and Ctrl+Z brings the part back.
Does cutting an MP3 reduce its quality?
Slightly, because the MP3 is decoded and encoded again. Export at the source bitrate or higher and the difference is inaudible to almost everyone. Export WAV if you want no loss at all.
Are the title, artist and album art kept?
Yes, when the source file has them. The checkbox under the export settings copies them into MP3 and M4A files. WAV and Opus keep text tags but not the cover picture, and M4R ringtones skip the cover.