Auto-duck music · Mac and iPhone
Lower the background music automatically when you talk
Music sets the pace of a video, but a bed that fights your voice is worse than none. The fix is ducking: dropping the music while you speak and lifting it in the gaps, which by hand means riding a volume line through every sentence.
Zella does the ducking for you, from where it hears speech, and the beds it ships are composed for the app, so they play with no network and carry no licence terms to track.
- Mac and iPhone
- Free on every tier
Quick answer
To lower background music when you talk, use Zella's Auto-Duck on Mac or iPhone: it finds where you speak, dips the music under your voice and brings it back up in the pauses. On the Mac, click Auto-Duck Music; on iPhone, tap Audio and turn on Music gets quieter when you talk. It works on your own track or on the royalty-free beds built in, 14 music beds on the Mac and 16 on iPhone, composed for Zella and generated on your device.
How to do it in Zella
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Step 1: Mac: click Add Music Bed
In the sidebar's OFTEN band, Add Music Bed loops a bed matched to your pace under the video. Prefer your own track? Use Add Music File… in the Sounds tab.
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Step 2: Mac: click Auto-Duck Music
Zella finds where you speak and dips the music by about 13 dB there, then brings it back up in the silences.
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Step 3: iPhone: open Audio
Tap Audio in the timeline toolbar, tap a bed to audition it, and tap + to place it.
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Step 4: iPhone: switch on ducking
Turn on Music gets quieter when you talk. Drag either end of the music strip to trim it, and set its volume per bed.
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Step 5: Or let Auto-Polish choose
Auto-Polish lays in a bed that ducks under your voice. On iPhone it also matches the pick to your pace, snaps it to the take's first beat and fades it out at the end.
Why do it this way
No volume line to draw
Auto-Duck follows your speech, so the music sits under every sentence and swells back in every pause without a single keyframe.
Royalty-free beds that work offline
The beds are composed for Zella and generated on your device, so there is no attribution line and no track licence to renew. On iPhone a bed renders the first time you use it and is cached, so a plane or a bad signal changes nothing.
The genres short-form runs on
On iPhone the library spans lo-fi, phonk, amapiano, drill, desi pop, synthwave, sad piano, bossa and more, each a whole number of bars so it loops cleanly.
What you need
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later (Apple Silicon or Intel), or iPhone on iOS 18 or later
- Free on every tier: every music bed and Auto-Duck, no watermark, exports up to 2 minutes at 1080p
Questions
Can I use Zella's built-in music on monetised videos?
Yes. The beds are composed for Zella and generated on your device, so there is no attribution line to add and no track licence to renew, on monetised videos and client work alike.
Can I use my own music?
Yes. On the Mac, Add Music File… attaches an .mp3, .m4a or .wav as an audio overlay, and Auto-Duck works on it the same way. Make sure you hold the rights to any track you bring.
How much does the music duck?
On the Mac, Auto-Duck Music dips it by about 13 dB under speech and brings it back up in the gaps.
Why 14 beds on the Mac and 16 on iPhone?
The iPhone library has two extra beds that render on the phone itself, and the two catalogs use different names, so a bed on one platform is not always on the other.
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