Cut the dead air.
Keep everything else.
Sierra is a DaVinci Resolve plugin for macOS that finds every silence in your dialogue track and removes it automatically. Video and audio together, gaps closed, timeline clean. What used to eat an hour of your edit takes minutes.
Enjoy the silence — or rather, the lack of it.
How it works
Three steps. That’s genuinely it.
Analyse
Pick your audio track, pick a preset, press RUN. Sierra analyses the audio and drops a red marker on every silence it finds — you can see exactly what’s queued up before anything gets cut.
Cut
Sierra blades the timeline at each marker and ripple-deletes the silent sections. Video tracks are included, so picture and sound stay perfectly in sync and every gap closes on its own.
Clean up
When it’s done, Sierra removes its own markers. You get a clean timeline with no leftovers and nothing to tidy up yourself.
Not ready to commit? Use Mark Silences Only mode. It places the markers and stops there — nothing gets cut. Preview exactly what Sierra would do, then decide.
Presets
Three starting points. Fine-tune from there.
Snappy
Maximum dead-air removal
Cuts breaths, rustle, every gap. Use this when you want a fast-paced, punchy edit with no breathing room left in.
Balanced
Natural-feeling cuts
For conversational delivery. The go-to for most talking-head videos, tutorials, and podcast work.
Relaxed
The safe option
Quiet speech and whispers survive, padding is generous. Use this when the edit needs to breathe or you’re working with softer deliveries.
Every parameter is adjustable. Touch anything and the preset switches to Custom. Use the big −/+ buttons or type values directly.
Requirements
- macOS only — Apple Silicon and Intel both supported. Windows is not supported.
- DaVinci Resolve 18.5 or newer — the free version and Studio both work.
- An internet connection for the one-time install.
That’s it. Python 3 and ffmpeg are downloaded and installed automatically if they’re not already on your machine. You don’t need to touch Terminal.
What’s in the zip ~100 KB
SierraSilenceRemover.pythe plugininstall.commanddouble-click installer, handles all dependenciesPreview UI.commandsee the interface before you installREAD ME FIRST.mdquick-start, preset breakdown, troubleshootingLICENSE.txtsingle-user licence — personal & commercial work
Getting set up
No code. No Terminal. No technical knowledge needed.
-
Unzip & open the installer
Right-click
install.commandand choose Open. macOS shows a one-time “downloaded from the internet” warning — this is normal and explained in the README. -
Let it handle the dependencies
The installer checks for Python and ffmpeg and installs both automatically if they’re missing.
-
Flip one Resolve setting
Go to Resolve Preferences → General and enable external scripting. One setting, one time.
-
Run Sierra
Find it under Workspace → Scripts. Pick a track, pick a preset, press RUN.
A couple of honest notes
Hands off while it cuts
Sierra drives Resolve directly while it’s making cuts. During a cutting run, leave the machine alone — or hit Cancel if you need to stop. The analysis phase doesn’t have this restriction, so you can keep working while Sierra is still scanning.
One shortcut to confirm
You’ll need to tell Sierra your Resolve “Add Edit” keyboard shortcut once. The default
is cmd+K. There’s a dedicated field in the UI with a tooltip, and the README
covers it too.
Everything Sierra does is undoable in Resolve with ⌘Z.
FAQ
Questions, answered straight.
Does it work on Windows?
No. macOS only — Apple Silicon and Intel.
Does it work with the free version of Resolve?
Yes, fully.
Will it mess up my timeline?
Use Mark Silences Only mode to see exactly what would be cut before you commit. And
everything is undoable with ⌘Z anyway, so nothing is permanent.
Do I need to know Terminal or how to code?
No. The installer is a double-click file that handles everything.
What about whispers or quiet speech?
Switch to the Relaxed preset, or manually lower the silence threshold until Sierra stops catching them.
How do I get updates?
Re-download from your original order link when updates ship. Current version is 3.3.0.
Your timeline, minus the dead air.
One pass, minutes not hours, and a clean timeline at the end of it.