How to cut short spots from interviews that have music baked under the voices
Tell Vizard Agent the old music under the interviews has to go before they are cut into spots. It checks each source for a music bed, separates the voices only where one exists, measures the voice track in a quiet stretch to prove no music leaked through, then cuts the soundbites and lays one new bed under the whole spot.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
State the music rule once, up front, as part of the brand rules. Cutting soundbites with their original music still underneath means every join jumps to a different bar of a different song, and the new score you add sits on top of the old one instead of replacing it.
Strip the background music that's baked into these videos and re-score each spot with a warm acoustic bed, ducked under speech. It's fine to go over 30 seconds. Use her full sentence.
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
It treats separation as a cost to pay only where needed. A separated voice track sounds slightly worse than an original recording, so a source with no music under it is better cut from its own audio. In the session behind this article it:
- Checked each source for music first, and cut one quiet interview straight from the original audio because it had none.
- Separated the voices from the music on a three-minute source that had a bed under the speech.
- Measured the separated voice track over a stretch with no speech and found it effectively silent, confirming no music had leaked through.
- Cut ten soundbites from that voice track, levelled each one, and laid them over a single continuous new bed that dips under speech and lifts after the last word.
- Listened for any trace of a second music track and for clipped endings, then moved one out-point to the true end of the word and added a short hold.
When does this not work well?
When the music is loud under quiet speech. Separation then leaves a watery, slightly processed quality on the voice, which is more noticeable in a short spot than in a long video. Original files without the music, if they still exist anywhere, are always the better source.
Common questions
Why does my edit jump musically at every cut? The old bed is still under the voices. Vizard Agent removes it.
Will the voices sound processed? Slightly, if separated. Vizard Agent skips separation where there is no bed.
How do I know the old music is gone? Vizard Agent measures the voice track in silence and listens for it.