How to remove ums from a video on a Mac
There are two ways: cut each one out by hand, or have erm find them for you. Here is how each works, and when to use which.
Way 1: by hand in a video editor
- Open the video in an editor such as iMovie or Final Cut Pro.
- Play it and stop each time you hear an um, erm or long pause.
- Split the clip just before and after it, then delete the gap and close the space.
- Play the join back to check it doesn’t sound chopped, and adjust.
- Repeat for every one, then export.
This gives you complete control, but a ten-minute talk can have dozens of ums, so it adds up. It’s easy to miss some and easy to make the joins sound abrupt.
Way 2: automatically with erm
- Drop your video into erm.
- erm listens and marks each um, erm, uh and long pause.
- Review the suggested cuts, keep any you like, and cut any other word from the transcript.
- Save the edited video. Everything happens on your Mac, so nothing is uploaded.
erm is a single-purpose tool: it doesn’t trim, caption or add music. If you need those, export from erm and finish in your usual editor.
People use it to remove filler words from product demos, YouTube videos, course videos, webinar recordings, sales videos, screen recordings, founder videos, video podcasts, interview recordings, lecture recordings, short videos and coaching videos.
Tips for a natural result
- Don’t cut every pause. A short breath before an important point helps the listener.
- Be careful with words like “so” and “you know”. They’re sometimes part of what you’re saying.
- Listen to the result once, start to finish, before you share it.
Questions
How do I remove ums from a video on a Mac?
You can find each um by ear in a video editor and cut it out by hand, or use erm, which finds the ums, erms and long pauses and lets you review each cut before it saves the edited video.
Can iMovie remove ums automatically?
iMovie has no tool that finds and removes ums for you. You cut them out by hand on the timeline.
Does removing ums upload my video?
Not with erm. It does all its work on your Mac, and nothing is uploaded.
erm is coming soon to the Mac App Store. First 3 videos free, then $29.99 once or $19.99 a year.