Set an exact clip volume, up to 150 percent, in the Volume tab

Most clips arrive at a sensible level. Some do not: a phone recording made across the room, or an interview that sits well below the rest of your edit. The Volume tab in the right panel gives each clip its own level, and that level can go above the original.

Open the Volume tab

1. Click a video clip on the timeline.
2. Open the Volume tab in the right panel.
3. Find the Clip volume row. It has a slider and a number beside it, which reads 100% for a clip you have not touched.

The slider runs from 0 to 150 percent. A clip you never adjusted sits at 100 percent, which is the recording as captured.

Three ways to set the level

• Drag the slider. The new level applies when you let go.
• Drag the number. Press the percentage and drag sideways. Hold Shift for coarser steps.
• Type a value. Click the percentage, type a figure such as 80 or 80%, and press Enter. Escape cancels. While typing, the up and down arrow keys nudge the value in steps of 5 percent, and Shift makes each step larger.

A figure above the limit snaps to 150 percent. Setting exactly 100 percent returns the clip to its untouched state.

Typing is the quick route when you know the target. If a second interview clip sounds like it sits a bit low, type 120, play it against the first, and adjust from there.

Lift a quiet clip

1. Play the clip beside its neighbors and note how much quieter it is.
2. Raise Clip volume in small steps above 100 percent.
3. Replay the loudest word or noise in the clip after each change.

Listen for harshness or crackling on the loudest moments, since a boost raises those too. If the clip needs more than 150 percent, bring the other clips down with their own Volume tabs so the quiet one sits forward.

Mute without leaving the timeline

The Mute audio switch sits right under the slider. While a clip is muted, the slider greys out, so a slider that will not move always has a visible reason.

You can also press and hold the Volume tab itself. A long press mutes or unmutes the selected clip without opening the panel, and the tab shows a muted speaker while the clip is silent. Its tooltip says "Hold to mute or unmute".

More places the same controls appear

When AI voiceover clips sit over the selected clip, a second Volume row appears under the first. It moves all of those voiceover clips together, so you can balance the original sound against the voice from one place.

Select a soundtrack clip and its Volume tab offers the same 0 to 150 percent slider and the same draggable, typeable number. That number style also appears on other fields, such as Speed, Fade in, Fade out and Starts at. Drag to scrub, click to type, press Enter to confirm.

Adjust your quietest clip

Open a project in DepCut, select your quietest clip, and type a new percentage into its Volume tab.