Edit Your Video by Deleting Text
— Free Premiere Pro Cut Report

Paste your SRT transcript. Click words to mark them for deletion. Download a cut list you can use directly in Premiere Pro — or any editor. No re-encoding. No account needed.

01

Paste Your Transcript

Paste an SRT file from Premiere Pro, CapCut, Descript, or any transcription tool. Or paste plain text with rough timestamps.

02

Click Words to Mark Cuts

Click individual words — or switch to sentence mode to mark whole sentences. Marked words turn red with strikethrough. Click again to restore.

03

Download Your Cut Report

Get a formatted cut list with exact timestamps. Use the Razor tool in Premiere Pro at each mark, or install EditBuddy to apply all cuts in one click.

⚡
Do this automatically inside Adobe Premiere Pro

EditBuddy removes silence, cuts retakes, adds animated captions and places B-roll — all in one click. 2,000+ YouTubers use it daily.

Try EditBuddy Free →

Step 1 — Paste Your Transcript

SRT or plain text

SRT format: index → timestamp → text → blank line. Export from Premiere Pro via Captions → Export. Or use auto-transcribe tools like Whisper, CapCut, or Descript.

0 words marked
≈ 0s saved
Mark words above, then download your cut report.

Why Edit Video by Transcript?

The traditional way to edit a talking-head video — scrubbing through the timeline, listening for good takes, setting in and out points — is slow. For a 30-minute interview, you might spend 4–6 hours just on rough cuts. Transcript-based editing changes the math entirely.

When you can see the entire script at once, identifying what to cut becomes a reading task instead of a listening task. You process text far faster than audio. A paragraph of filler that takes 45 seconds to listen to takes 3 seconds to read and highlight. The total cut-marking work for a 30-minute interview drops from hours to under 20 minutes.

Transcript editing is especially powerful for long-form content — full interviews, podcast episodes, documentary-style videos, and educational deep-dives. When your raw footage is mostly one or two people talking, nearly 100% of the editorial decision-making lives in the words. Mark the bad parts in the transcript. Everything else stays.

This approach is also far less fatiguing. Video timeline work requires constant attention to both the visual and audio tracks simultaneously. Transcript work is purely cognitive — you read, decide, mark. Your brain does less context-switching, which means better editorial decisions and fewer mistakes.

EditBuddy vs. Manual Transcript Editing

Feature This Free Tool EditBuddy
Find cuts manually ✅ You click words ✦ Auto-detected
Silence detection ✕ Not available ✦ Automatic
Retake detection ✕ Not available ✦ AI-powered
Filler word removal ✕ Manual only ✦ One-click remove
Apply cuts to timeline Manual in Premiere Pro ✦ One click, inside PP
Animated captions ✕ Not available ✦ Auto-generated
B-roll placement ✕ Not available ✦ AI narrative engine
Works inside Premiere Pro ✕ External tool ✅ Native CEP panel
Price Free Free trial available
⚡
Skip the manual steps — EditBuddy detects silences and retakes automatically and makes all cuts inside Premiere Pro in one click.

No transcript required. No SRT file needed. Just click Run and EditBuddy handles silence detection, retake removal, captions, and B-roll automatically.

Try EditBuddy Free →

Frequently Asked Questions

EDL stands for Edit Decision List — a plain-text file that describes a sequence of edits: which clip to use, where to start, where to end. Professional editing software like Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve can all import EDLs to recreate an edit automatically. Our cut report uses a simplified human-readable format rather than a strict EDL standard, optimised for manual use in Premiere Pro.
Yes — this is called transcript-based editing. Tools like Descript pioneered the concept, but it requires exporting from Premiere Pro and re-importing, which can degrade quality and break color grades. Our free tool gives you the editorial workflow (mark text to cut) while keeping the actual cuts inside Premiere Pro where your grade and effects stay intact. EditBuddy takes this further by automatically detecting what to cut so you don't need to mark anything manually.
EditBuddy is the closest free alternative to Descript's workflow that stays native to Premiere Pro. Descript works by exporting your video to their platform, making cuts, then re-exporting — which re-encodes your footage and breaks Premiere's effects pipeline. EditBuddy runs as a panel directly inside Premiere Pro and makes all cuts non-destructively using Premiere's own timeline API. No export, no re-encoding, no broken color grade.
The manual way: use the Auto Reframe effect or go through your timeline with the Razor tool. The faster way: install EditBuddy. EditBuddy runs FFmpeg-powered silence detection on your audio tracks and then automatically applies all cuts inside Premiere Pro — removing every pause below your threshold without you touching the timeline at all. It typically cuts 15–40% of dead air from talking-head videos in under 2 minutes.
Yes. The SRT format is universal — this tool parses standard SRT files from Premiere Pro, CapCut, Descript, Whisper, Rev, Otter.ai, and any other transcription tool that exports SRT. If your SRT has slightly unusual formatting, try the "Plain Text" tab instead and paste your transcript directly.
⚡
Do this automatically inside Adobe Premiere Pro

EditBuddy removes silence, cuts retakes, adds animated captions and places B-roll — all in one click. 2,000+ YouTubers use it daily.

Try EditBuddy Free →

More Free Tools for Creators

⏱Script Timer 🔍Filler Counter 💬Caption Previewer 🎣Hook Analyzer 🎬B-Roll Calculator ♻️Repurpose Planner 📑Chapter Generator