> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://davinciresolveclub.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How to Delete Audio from Multiple Clips in DaVinci Resolve - URL: https://davinciresolveclub.com/delete-audio-multiple-clips-davinci-resolve/ - Published: 2026-10-06T05:17:41.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-12T15:34:11.000Z - Description: Turn off Linked Selection, select only the audio with a selection box, Command-click or Y, then press Delete (Backspace on Windows). The picture stays put. Plus ranges, whole tracks, and keeping audio out of the timeline in the first place. - Author: Jason Miller - Tags: Tutorials, #fairlight-cluster, #flow **Quick answer:** You don't have to unlink anything. Turn off **Linked Selection** (the chain-link button at the right of the Edit page toolbar), drag a selection box over the audio tracks only, check that no video clip is highlighted, and press Delete on a Mac or Backspace on Windows. Resolve lifts the audio out and leaves a gap under each clip, so the picture stays exactly where it was. Turn Linked Selection back on when you're done. Menu names and shortcuts here follow Resolve 21\. I checked them against the 21.1 Reference Manual on October 6, 2026, when 21.1.1 was the current update, and these Edit page tools are the same in the free version and Studio. Shortcuts are written the Mac way. [The manual's keyboard note](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=54) explains the swap for Windows: Command becomes Ctrl and Option becomes Alt. Once the edit is clean, the [Fairlight audio hub](https://davinciresolveclub.com/davinci-resolve-fairlight-audio/) picks up dialogue cleanup, levels and the mix. ![Timeline with Linked Selection off and a dashed selection box dragged from empty space below A2 over the audio of four clips on A1 and A2, while the video clips on V1 stay unselected](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a9/29/a929429b-cfab-4467-b902-a0cd9c90feac/content/images/2026/10/select-audio-only-bounding-box-20261006.webp) Start the drag in empty space below the last audio track and cover only the audio. Nothing on V1 should be highlighted. [Download](https://streamly.surf/c/2ebmf2MxAg6s?ref=davinciresolveclub.com) ## How to Delete Audio from Multiple Clips and Keep the Video This is the route for most jobs: a run of clips where the sound has to go and the picture stays put. The manual calls this a lift edit, because it leaves a gap instead of pulling later clips left. 1. Press Command-Shift-A, or click an empty part of the timeline, so nothing is selected. 2. Click the chain-link button at the right of the toolbar or press Shift-Command-L. While it's off, clicking a clip's audio no longer selects its picture. 3. Drag a selection box from an empty part of the timeline over the audio tracks, Command-click the audio clips one by one, or put the playhead on the first clip and press Y to take it and every clip to its right on that track. 4. Look along V1 and any other video tracks. No video clip should be highlighted. If one is, Command-click it to drop it from the selection. 5. Press Delete on a Mac or Backspace on Windows, or right-click the selection and choose Delete. The audio goes and a gap is left in its place. 6. Click the chain-link button again so your next move or trim keeps picture and sound together. The reason this works is [how Linked Selection is defined](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=913): it decides whether a clip's video and audio get selected together. Switching it off changes only what you can select. The clips stay linked, which is different from unlinking them with right-click > Link Clips, and the [guide to separating audio from video](https://davinciresolveclub.com/mute-split-audio-davinci-resolve/#separate-audio-from-video) covers when that is worth doing. Leaving Linked Selection off for the rest of the session is how audio ends up nudged out of sync, so I'd switch it back on as soon as the delete is done. Don't use Forward Delete for this. [The manual describes it as a ripple delete](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=910): it removes the selection and closes the gap by moving later material left, and every track with Sync Lock on ripples with it. That is the wrong edit when the picture has to stay where it is. On compact Mac keyboards the Delete key works as Backspace, and Forward Delete may need Fn. The [shortcuts guide sorts out which key is which](https://davinciresolveclub.com/davinci-resolve-keyboard-shortcuts-guide/#ripple-delete-and-trim-commands). If you hit it by mistake, press Command-Z straight away. ## How to Select All Audio Clips on One Track Across a long timeline, drawing selection boxes gets tedious. Resolve has track-based selection commands, listed with the mouse methods on [the manual's selection pages](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=900). Here's how each one behaves when the goal is to delete sound and keep picture: | Method | What it selects | Good for deleting audio? | | ----------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | | **Y** (Select Clips Forward > On This Track) | The clip under the playhead and every clip to its right on that track | Yes, with Linked Selection off | | **Command-Y** (Select Clips Backward > On This Track) | The clip under the playhead and every clip to its left on that track | Yes, with Linked Selection off | | **Selection box** from empty space | Every clip the box touches | Yes, if the box covers only audio tracks | | **Command-click** | Adds a clip to the selection, or removes it if already selected | Yes, for scattered clips | | **Option-Y** (Select Clips Forward > On All Tracks) | Clips to the right of the playhead on every track, video included | No | | **Command-A** (Select All) | Every clip in the timeline | No | To clear a whole audio track, move the playhead to the first clip on it, turn Linked Selection off and press Y. With Linked Selection on, Y also grabs the video linked to those clips, so don't skip that step. For a whole track I'd use Y. For a handful of clips scattered along the timeline, Command-click is quicker than redrawing boxes. Option-Y and Command-A take the video tracks with them, so leave them for jobs where you want everything. Y and Command-Y act on the current track only. If Y selects nothing, the fix is further down. ## Delete Audio in a Range or a Whole Audio Track ### Delete the audio between In and Out points When the sound has to go from a stretch of the timeline instead of from whole clips, mark a range. Set In and Out on the timeline with I and O, then turn off the red destination control on every video track and any audio track you want to keep. Click the control in the track header, or press Option-F1 to F8 for video tracks and Option-Command-F1 to F8 for audio tracks, as [the manual lists for these controls](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=905). Then press Delete (Backspace on Windows). [Only the tracks whose destination control is still on](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=903) lose their media inside the range, and the gap stays. ![Timeline with In and Out points marking a shaded range, the V1 destination control off and A1 and A2 lit red, so V1 stays intact while A1 and A2 have a gap inside the range](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a9/29/a929429b-cfab-4467-b902-a0cd9c90feac/content/images/2026/10/delete-audio-in-out-range-20261006.webp) With In and Out set, only the tracks whose destination control is lit lose media inside the range. If the range isn't shaded after you set In and Out, a clip somewhere is still selected. [The manual warns](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=904) that manual clip selections override the destination controls. Press Command-Shift-A to clear the selection and the shading comes back. ### Delete a whole audio track When a track holds nothing you need, such as a camera's scratch audio after you've [synced a separate recorder track](https://davinciresolveclub.com/sync-audio-video-davinci-resolve/), right-click its track header and choose Delete Track. [The manual is plain](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=849) about what that means: the clips on it are deleted from the timeline too. If deleting audio has left empty tracks behind, right-click anywhere in the track header area and choose Delete Empty Tracks to clear them all at once. ## Remove Audio Before Clips Reach the Timeline It's often quicker to keep the audio out of the edit in the first place. Three ways, from the quickest: - **Option-drag the clips.** [Option-dragging clips](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=893) from the Media Pool, Source Viewer or Finder into the timeline edits only their video. Shift-drag does the reverse and brings in only the audio. - **Switch off the audio source control.** In the track header, the blue column on the left holds the source controls. [Click the audio one to turn it off](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=897), or press Command-Option and the number of the track it's assigned to, and edits from the Source Viewer or Media Pool come in as video only until you turn it back on. - **Change the clip attributes.** For camera files with extra channels you never use, select the clips in the Media Pool, right-click and choose Clip Attributes, then open the [Audio panel](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=454). Each track has a trash can button, dragging along the trash cans deletes several at once, and a track's Mute box keeps it but silences it. The panel changes several clips in one go, and its settings decide which audio tracks appear when you edit the clips into a timeline. On the Blackmagic forum, Joe Shapiro summed up the Clip Attributes route in [a thread about removing blank camera channels](https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?t=193228&ref=davinciresolveclub.com): nothing is deleted from the file, and what changes is what's visible when you add the clip to a timeline. Reynaud Venter added the catch in the same thread: Media Pool Clip Attributes don't apply to clips already cut into a timeline, so this fixes the next edit, not the current one. If the waveforms look wrong after a change, the Reset icon in the panel puts the clip back to its original attributes. ## Disable the Audio Instead of Deleting It If there's any chance you'll want the sound back, disable it. Select the audio clips with Linked Selection off and press D, or right-click and toggle Enable Clip. [Disabled clips are dimmed](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=908), stay in place and don't play back or render. Press D again to bring them back. To silence a whole track, use the M button in its header. The [mute and split guide](https://davinciresolveclub.com/mute-split-audio-davinci-resolve/) covers both, plus muting only part of a clip with keyframes. ## Fix Common Problems When Deleting Audio ### The video was deleted too Linked Selection was on, or a video clip was inside the selection box. Press Command-Z, turn off the chain-link button, select again and check the video tracks before you press Delete. ### Everything after the deleted clips moved left That was a ripple delete, usually from Forward Delete. Undo with Command-Z and use Delete (Backspace on Windows) or right-click > Delete, which leave the gap. If you do want to close audio gaps later, the [section on deleting a middle section](https://davinciresolveclub.com/how-to-split-a-video-in-davinci-resolve/#delete-the-middle-section-without-moving-the-wrong-clips) in the split guide explains how Sync Lock decides what moves. ### Y selects nothing First check that Y still means Select Clips Forward on This Track in DaVinci Resolve > Keyboard Customization. That was the first suggestion in [a 2024 forum thread where Y stopped working](https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?t=201838&ref=davinciresolveclub.com) on one project's video tracks. In the same thread, Sean Nelson found that on Resolve 18.6, Y did nothing unless the track's V1 box in the header was highlighted. The original poster, on Resolve 17, got the tracks working again with Option-1 on Charlie Bennett's suggestion, which [Resolve's shortcut table](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=889) lists as setting the video destination control to track 1\. Command-Option-1 to 8 does the same for audio tracks. The track header layout has changed since those versions, but the habit still applies: in Resolve 21, [clicking a track number](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci%5FResolve%5F21.1%5FReference%5FManual.pdf?ref=davinciresolveclub.com#page=823) selects that track for editing functions and highlights it, so click the number of the audio track you want and press Y again. ### The audio comes back when you edit the clip in again Deleting from the timeline doesn't change the source clip. Every new edit from the Media Pool brings its audio along until you Option-drag, switch off the audio source control or change the clip's audio in Clip Attributes, as covered above. ### A clip is silent but its audio is still on the timeline Then it wasn't deleted. It's more likely disabled, on a muted track or routed somewhere you aren't listening. The [no-audio checklist](https://davinciresolveclub.com/davinci-resolve-no-audio/#no-audio-check-track-and-clip-mute-states) works through track and clip mute states first. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Do I need to unlink audio and video to delete the audio in DaVinci Resolve? No. Turn off Linked Selection with the chain-link button (Shift-Command-L on a Mac, Shift-Ctrl-L on Windows), select the audio and delete it. Unlinking with right-click > Link Clips is only worth doing when you want the items to stay independent afterwards. ### How do I delete the audio from all clips in a timeline at once? Turn off Linked Selection, drag a selection box from empty space over all the audio tracks, check that no video clip is highlighted, then press Delete on a Mac or Backspace on Windows. If you don't need the tracks either, right-click each track header and choose Delete Track. ### Why did my video disappear when I deleted the audio? Linked Selection was on, so selecting the audio also selected the picture linked to it. Undo with Command-Z (Ctrl-Z on Windows), turn the chain-link button off and select the audio again. ### What's the difference between Delete and Forward Delete in DaVinci Resolve? Delete (Backspace on Windows) is a lift edit: it removes the selection and leaves a gap. Forward Delete is a ripple delete: it closes the gap by moving later material left, on every track with Sync Lock turned on. ### How do I remove audio before adding clips to the timeline? Option-drag (Alt-drag on Windows) clips from the Media Pool to edit only their video, or switch off the audio source control in the track header first. To drop unused channels from camera files, open Clip Attributes > Audio for the selected Media Pool clips. ### Can I get deleted audio back in DaVinci Resolve? Press Command-Z (Ctrl-Z on Windows) if it was a recent change. Deleting clips from the timeline doesn't touch the source media, so the audio is still in the Media Pool clip if you need to edit it back in.