Private audio mixing, in your browser
A full audio mix engine — levels, pan, a master-bus compressor and LUFS loudness — running entirely on your device. No upload, no cloud render farm.
Most tools that offer real audio mixing — levels, panning, compression, loudness matching — do it in the cloud. You upload your footage, their servers process the audio, and you trust their privacy policy with your voice, your interviews, your client's material. AetherCut takes the opposite approach: the entire mix engine runs in your browser via the Web Audio API. Your audio never leaves your device.
This is a genuine mixer, not a volume slider. Every stem gets its own gain and stereo pan. A master-bus compressor glues the mix and tames peaks. A loudness meter measures the full mix in LUFS and normalizes it to a streaming target (−14 LUFS for YouTube, −16 for podcasts, −23 for broadcast) before export. And an A/B compare toggle flips your processed mix against the raw audio with a single keystroke.
You can verify the no-upload claim in 30 seconds: open Chrome DevTools, switch to the Network tab, and mix your audio. Zero outbound traffic carries your sound. The Web Audio graph is built and run on your machine — nothing is streamed to a server for processing.
What the mix engine actually does
AetherCut builds a Web Audio routing graph on your device: each track (dialogue, music, SFX, voiceover) is a channel strip with its own gain node and stereo panner, feeding a master bus with an optional DynamicsCompressor and a makeup-gain stage. Mute and solo work per track, and the whole graph drives both the live preview and the final export — what you hear is exactly what renders.
Because the graph runs locally, there's no round-trip latency. Drag a fader and the level changes instantly. Nudge the pan and the stereo image moves in real time. Per-track L/R meters show the actual output level split left and right, so you can see a stem clipping or sitting too hot at a glance.
Local mixing vs. cloud audio editors
Transcript-driven editors like Descript have excellent audio tooling — Studio Sound, filler-word removal, level matching — but every clip is uploaded to their servers for processing, and their terms permit using uploaded content to improve their models unless you opt out. For confidential interviews, client work, or unreleased material, that upload is the whole problem.
AetherCut delivers the core of a studio mix — gain, pan, compression, loudness normalization — without the upload. The trade-off is honest: AetherCut doesn't (yet) do AI studio-sound restoration or AI filler-word removal, both of which genuinely need cloud inference. What it does give you is a real, deterministic mixer that runs on your hardware and keeps your audio private.
LUFS loudness normalization
Platforms normalize loudness on playback, so a mix that's too quiet gets turned up (raising the noise floor) and one that's too hot gets turned down (losing your carefully set dynamics). Hitting the right integrated loudness target before you publish is the difference between a mix that sounds intentional and one that sounds amateur.
AetherCut measures the integrated loudness of your full mix in LUFS, entirely on-device, then applies master makeup gain to hit the target you pick: −14 LUFS for YouTube, −16 for Apple/Spotify podcasts, or −23 for EBU R128 broadcast. One tap measures, one tap normalizes — and it all bakes into the export.
A/B compare and reusable presets
Mixing without a reference is guesswork. AetherCut's A/B compare flips between your processed mix (A) and the flat, unprocessed audio (B) with the Tab key, so you can hear exactly what your gain staging, panning, and compression are doing — and confirm you're making it better, not just louder.
Once a mix sounds right, save it as a named preset (Podcast, Music video, Vlog, or your own) and reapply it across every project. Presets export and import as a small JSON file, so a team can share a house sound without re-dialing it every time.
Frequently asked questions
Does AetherCut really mix audio without uploading it?
Yes. The entire mix engine — gain, pan, compressor, loudness measurement and normalization — runs in your browser via the Web Audio API. Open Chrome DevTools, go to the Network tab, and mix: you'll see zero outbound traffic carrying your audio.
Is the audio mixer a Pro feature?
No. The full mix engine is free in the Base tier — no tier gates the mixer. Pro adds longer projects and advanced cloud-AI tools, but gain, pan, the master compressor, and LUFS normalization are available to everyone.
What loudness targets does it support?
AetherCut measures integrated loudness in LUFS and normalizes to −14 (YouTube), −16 (podcasts), or −23 LUFS (EBU R128 broadcast). The normalization applies master makeup gain and bakes into your export.
How is this different from Descript's audio tools?
Descript's audio tooling is excellent but cloud-based — your media is uploaded for processing. AetherCut's mixer runs locally and keeps your audio private. AetherCut focuses on a deterministic mix engine (gain, pan, compression, LUFS) rather than AI studio-sound restoration.
Try AetherCut now — no signup required.
Open the editor and verify the no-upload claim yourself in Chrome DevTools.
Free tier · Pro $14.95/mo · $129.88/yr · Lifetime Pro one-time
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What editors say
★★★★★“AetherCut is an absolute game-changer for video editors. The 100% local processing gives insane speed without worrying about cloud data leaks. Highly recommended! - Karan (Founder, Topkgamerz Media)”
★★★★★“I was skeptical at first, looks a little generic on first impression and the pricing seemed low. This editor is genuinely unique and very capable. I'm glad I took the time to try it.”
“Aethercut is ridiculously powerful for a browser based editor. Not completely used to the layout yet but holy smokes!”