Audio fades — Settings and quality

Worked example

There is one setting that matters, the fade duration in seconds, with a minimum of 0.1 and a maximum equal to the clip length.

The same value is applied to the fade-in at 0:00 and the fade-out that ends with the file, and the page shows when the fade-out begins.

Typical values: 0.2 to 0.5 seconds to remove clicks at the edges of a spoken clip, 1 to 3 seconds for a music intro or outro, and 5 to 10 seconds for a long background bed. Keep each fade below half of the clip length; a 30-second bed takes up to 15 seconds, but 8 seconds is usually more natural.

The tradeoff is audible content. A longer fade hides a rough edit but also swallows quiet beginnings and endings, while a very short one may leave a faint click. For speech, shorter is almost always better; for music, a longer fade sounds intentional.

Because fade-in and fade-out cannot be set separately, a long fade-out will also fade in slowly. If the clip begins cleanly and you want only a tail, accept a short value such as 0.5 seconds, or start the clip with a second of silence that the fade-in can cross.

Export settings follow the usual rules: 192 kbps MP3 or M4A is fine for delivery, WAV is better if the file will be edited again, and leaving sample rate and channels on Keep source avoids a pointless extra conversion.

Clip with abrupt boundary

Gradual level transition

The ramp is applied once to the whole file; to change it, go back to the original file and rerun with a new duration.