Import Module

Strip Silence in Pro Tools

fMusic does not cut silence itself. It imports your files whole, then drives Pro Tools' own Edit > Strip Silence on the new tracks, using the parameters of each track's category. Your session arrives with clean clips and you never open the Strip Silence window by hand.

How to enable it

1. Open Settings > Import & Organize and find the Categories table
2. Turn on Strip Silence for the categories you want processed, or flip Strip silence for all categories at the top
3. Open each category's tuning popover and set Silence threshold, Minimum length, and the Kept before the clip / Kept after the clip pads
4. Run the import

How it runs

After the tracks are created, fMusic opens Pro Tools' Strip Silence window and applies your values, one pass for every distinct tuning: categories sharing the same four numbers are processed together. The parameters are Pro Tools' own sliders, entered for you, so there is no translation layer and no guesswork: the result is exactly what Pro Tools produces with those numbers.

In an Import job every imported track is eligible. In an Organize job only the tracks you added in the editor are stripped: tracks that already existed in the session are never touched.

Tuning the threshold

The Silence threshold runs from −90 to −20 dBFS (default −50). Raising it toward −20 dBFS counts more of the signal as silence and strips more aggressively; lowering it toward −90 dBFS removes only near-total silence. Tune it to sit just above the material's noise floor for clean results without cutting into the performance.

When silence is not stripped

If a pass cannot run, nothing is cut and the job report says why. Typical messages include "Strip silence didn't match any track's category", "Silence not stripped on 8 track(s) — no import category for unclassified, woodwind" (tracks without an import category carry no strip parameters), and reasons on Pro Tools' side such as the Strip Silence window not opening or Pro Tools not being in front. In every one of these cases the clips are left unchanged.

Best practices

• Tune per category: sustained material (vocals, pads, cymbals) needs gentler thresholds and longer pads than percussive material
• Keep Minimum length at or above the default 100 ms for sustained material, so short expressive gaps survive
• Watch breaths and note tails in the session after the first import: if they are getting clipped, raise the pads or lower the threshold and re-import