How to Cut a Clip So It Loops Seamlessly
Published · updated · by Loopin
Every platform counts a replay as watch time. A clip that loops invisibly can roughly double its own numbers without you doing anything else.
Trim to bars, and know your bar length
One bar in seconds is 240 divided by the BPM in 4/4. At 120 BPM that is 2 seconds, so four bars is 8. At 90 BPM a bar is 2.67 seconds and four bars is 10.67. At 140 it is 1.71 and 6.86.
Set the clip to a whole number of bars using those figures, not by dragging until it looks right. Being 80 milliseconds out is inaudible as a length and very audible as a click.
End on the beat before the one you started on
If your clip starts on the downbeat of bar one, it must end immediately before the downbeat of bar five — not on it. Including the final downbeat means you hear it twice in a row on the replay, which is the most common loop error there is.
Zoom into the waveform and cut a hair before the transient. A millisecond early is invisible; a millisecond late is a stutter.
Match the first and last video frame
The audio can loop perfectly and the picture still jumps. If you are on camera, hold roughly the same position at the start and end of the take — same distance, same posture, same hand position.
The easy version: film a movement that returns to where it began. Walking into frame and back, a strum that resets, a head turn and return. Then the visual loop happens for free.
Fade the last 20 milliseconds, not 200
If there is a tail — reverb, a cymbal, room noise — a very short fade at the end prevents the click without being heard as a fade. Twenty milliseconds is enough and nobody perceives it.
A half-second fade is a different thing entirely: it reads as the clip ending, which tells the viewer to leave. The point of a loop is that there is no ending to notice.
Test it by watching it three times
Play the exported clip and let it run round three times without touching anything. If you can identify the seam, so can a viewer, and they will use it as the moment to swipe.
Do this on a phone with the sound on, not on the editing timeline. Editors often insert a tiny gap on loop playback that does not exist in the exported file, and the reverse is also true.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a looping music clip be?
A whole number of bars. One bar in 4/4 is 240 divided by the BPM — 2 seconds at 120 BPM, 2.67 at 90. Four bars is the usual choice, so 8 seconds at 120.
Why does my clip click when it loops?
Almost always because you included the final downbeat, so it plays twice in a row on replay. Cut immediately before it. A 20 ms fade at the end handles any remaining reverb tail.
Does looping actually help reach?
Yes — replays count as watch time, so a clip that loops invisibly can roughly double its own numbers. It is the cheapest gain available in an edit.