voxcut

Audio editing TUI for Apple Silicon: cut fragments, isolate voices, and scrub audio — powered by SAM-Audio (MLX).

Features

• Playback — play, seek, speed control (0.5-2x), volume gain (±dB), click-to-seek on progress bar and waveform
• Fragment editing — mark in/out, nudge boundaries with audio preview, split at cursor, merge adjacent, undo delete
• Visual waveform — responsive peak strip with fragment overlay (green), pending in-point (yellow), ghost selection region, and playback cursor
• Voice isolation — describe a voice in plain text, SAM-Audio isolates it. Audition target/residual/original A/B, re-run, keep, or load result back into the TUI for further editing
• Batch isolation — isolate the same voice across all fragments at once
• Session persistence — fragments and description history auto-save to a sidecar JSON file and reload on next open
• Export — save as concatenated file or separate files, with format conversion (WAV/MP3/FLAC/OGG)
• Context-aware UI — status bar shows selected fragment details and cursor position; footer shows only essential keys; full reference via ?

Install

pip / uv (recommended)

brew install ffmpeg        # required dependency
uv tool install voxcut     # or: pip install voxcut

Homebrew tap

brew tap nullhtp/voxcut
brew install voxcut

From source

git clone https://github.com/nullhtp/voxcut.git
cd voxcut
uv sync

From source

git clone https://github.com/nullhtp/voxcut.git
cd voxcut
uv sync

Usage

CLI: isolate a voice

uv run voxcut-separate alex.mp3 "man speaking"

Writes alex_target.wav (isolated) and alex_residual.wav (everything else).

TUI: interactive editor

uv run voxcut recording.mp3    # open a file
uv run voxcut                  # no arg — file picker on startup

Quick start

Open an audio file and try the basic workflow:

uv run voxcut recording.mp3

1. Listen — press space to play, ← / → to seek
2. Mark a fragment — seek to where you want to start, press i (in-point). The waveform shows a yellow marker. Seek to the end, press o (out-point). A green fragment appears on the waveform and in the list.
3. Fine-tune — press p to play the fragment. Use [ / ] to expand or { / } to contract boundaries (you'll hear a short preview after each nudge). Press g / G to jump to the fragment start/end.
4. Isolate a voice — press d, type a description like man speaking, press Enter. A progress bar shows while SAM-Audio runs. When done, audition the result: t = target, r = residual, o = original. Press k to keep the files or l to load the target back into the editor.
5. Save — press s to open the save dialog. Pick concat or separate mode, choose an output format, and save.

Press ? at any time for the full keybinding reference.

Keybindings

Press ? inside the TUI for the full reference. Summary:

Playback

Key	Action
space	play / pause
← / →	seek ±5s
shift+← / →	seek ±1s
- / +	speed 0.5× .. 2.0×
v / V	volume +3dB / -3dB
click	seek on progress bar or waveform

Fragments

Key	Action
i / o	mark in / out point
p / enter	play selected fragment
g / G	seek to fragment start / end
[ / ]	nudge in/out ±0.1s (expand) with preview
{ / }	nudge in/out ±0.1s (contract) with preview
S	split fragment at cursor
m	merge with next fragment
x / u	delete / undo delete
s	save (mode + format + path dialog)

Voice isolation

Key	Action
d	isolate voice (fragment or whole file)
D	batch isolate all fragments
ctrl+k	cancel in-flight isolation

Separation result screen

Key	Action
t / r / o	play target / residual / original
space	stop
k	keep (write to disk)
l	keep + load target into TUI
R	re-run with different description
esc	discard

General

Key	Action
f	open another file
?	help overlay
q	quit (confirms if unsaved)

Session persistence

Fragments, last description, and description history auto-save to <input>.voxcut.json next to the audio file. Reloaded automatically on next open. The sidecar is gitignored by default.

Project layout

voxcut/
  cli.py              entry points (voxcut, voxcut-separate)
  tui.py              Textual application
  player.py           numpy-backed audio player with gain
  fragment.py          Fragment value object
  ffmpeg.py           decode / cut / concat / split via ffmpeg
  waveform.py         responsive peak-strip with overlays
  separator.py        SAM-Audio (MLX) service
  session.py          sidecar JSON persistence
  timeutil.py         time formatting
  screens/
    help.py           keybinding reference overlay
    describe_prompt.py  voice description input with history
    save_dialog.py    save mode + format + path
    separation_result.py  audition target/residual/original
    confirm.py        yes/no confirmation dialog

Requirements

• macOS with Apple Silicon (M1+)
• Python 3.11+
• ffmpeg on PATH
• uv for dependency management