Timbre: edit audio and video on Android

Martin Brinkmann
May 23, 2017
Google Android
|
5

Timbre is a free application for Google Android devices that enables you to edit audio or video directly on the device it is running on.

While all Android devices come with options to record video, editing tools to edit these captured videos or audio files are either super basic, or not available at all.

You should not expect desktop-like editing capabilities on Android, but basic operations such as merging, cutting or trimming are often all that you require.

The Google Play store is home to hundreds, if not thousands, of applications that let you edit video or audio on Android devices. While that is good, many are either too basic, filled with ads, or not working at all.

Timbre review

timbre edit audio video

Timbre's interface is clean and well designed. You find the two main sections audio and video displayed in the interface right on start, and may pick one of the available editing tools.

The first five tools are the same for audio and video:

  • Join allows you to join multiple audio and video files. This concatenates the media files in order that you select them on the device.
  • Cut provides you with the means to cut part of a media file, and save it to the device.
  • Convert lets you convert media files to different formats. For video, supported formats are mp4, avi, mkv, flv and mov. For audio, they are mp3, wav, flac, m4a, aac and ogg.
  • Omit removes part of a video or audio, and saves the remaining parts to the device. It is basically a reverse version of cut.
  • Split lets you split an audio or video file into two parts.

Then there are the bitrate, remove audio and video to audio tools which are only available to audio (bitrate) or video (remove audio and video to audio).

  • Bitrate may be used to change the original bitrate of the selected audio file. You may reduce the bitrate only using the tool.
  • Remove Audio finally may simply remove the audio source of video files.
  • Video to Audio simply converts the video file to an audio file, so that you end up with the audio only.

The process itself is always the same: you pick one of the available tools, and are either taken to the file browser right away, or are prompted to pick files using one of the available browsers, for instance the gallery.

The tools are easy to use, and it is often just a matter of seconds before you have made the desired changes. Output options allow you to select a folder for the new file that is created in the process, and a file name.

The processing time depends largely on the video or audio file, the operation, and the performance of the device. Timbre processes media files in the background, so that you may navigate away and use other apps or functions of the device while the conversion runs in the background.

Keep in mind that conversions are resource intensive, and that you may experience a lower performance when you run demanding apps or games during that time.

The app displays a notification when the conversion ended, so that you can check out the new file right away.

Timbre ships with two additional options listed under more. The first provides you with text to speech capabilities. This did not work properly when I tested it. The option to enter text was provided, but there was no button or option to proceed with the conversion.

The second option is to run console commands. Timbre uses ffmpeg for all the background work, and you can run ffmpeg commands directly as well. This is an advanced feature that most users probably don't require. Still, great to have if you know your way around running ffmpeg from the command line.

Closing Words

Timbre is a useful application for Android. It is well designed and all of the tools are easy to use. If you need to process audio or video directly on your Android device at times, this is one application that you should definitely check out for that purpose.

Now You: Do you edit media on your mobile devices, or desktop devices?

Summary
software image
Author Rating
1star1star1star1star1star
3 based on 6 votes
Software Name
Timbre: Cut, Join, Convert mp3
Operating System
Android
Software Category
Multimedia
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Comments

  1. Albert said on August 18, 2023 at 1:49 pm
    Reply

    Thanks for the tip Martin.

    It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.

    1. Mike Williams said on August 26, 2023 at 8:55 pm
      Reply

      What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?

  2. Tachy said on August 18, 2023 at 3:23 pm
    Reply

    2G?

    Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.

    1. arbuz said on August 20, 2023 at 5:02 pm
      Reply

      Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.

    2. Doc Fuddled said on August 31, 2023 at 5:55 pm
      Reply

      Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??

  3. Tachy said on August 18, 2023 at 3:27 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    Your website has gone insane.

    When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.

    1. Martin P. said on August 31, 2023 at 4:39 pm
      Reply

      @Tachy @Martin Brinkmann

      ” Your website has gone insane. ”

      Same here. Has happened several times.

      1. owl said on September 1, 2023 at 3:42 am
        Reply

        @Tachy,
        @Martin P.,

        For over two weeks now,
        I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
        https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
        https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
        For the time being,
        it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.

  4. Anonymous said on August 18, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    @tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
    Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
    3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.

    Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).

    But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.

  5. Andy Prough said on August 19, 2023 at 3:04 am
    Reply

    >”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”

    The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.

    I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.

  6. owl said on August 21, 2023 at 3:40 am
    Reply

    I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
    But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402

    It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
    What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.

  7. Anonymous said on August 26, 2023 at 9:27 pm
    Reply

    Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?

  8. Anonymous said on August 27, 2023 at 2:30 am
    Reply

    Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?

    I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]

  9. Tachy said on August 27, 2023 at 5:15 am
    Reply

    @Martin

    You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.

  10. John G. said on August 28, 2023 at 2:46 pm
    Reply

    @Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[

  11. ECJ said on August 28, 2023 at 5:37 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.

    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/

    And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.

  12. Naimless said on August 29, 2023 at 12:57 am
    Reply

    What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL

  13. Paul Knight said on August 31, 2023 at 3:35 am
    Reply

    The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)

  14. Anonymous said on August 31, 2023 at 9:57 pm
    Reply

    How about other things that matter:
    Drop survival?
    Screen toughness?
    Degree of water and dust protection?

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