How to Edit Playback Timing and Audio in VO Pads

Updated

VO Pads gives you per-clip control over start time, duration, playback speed, and volume, so you can trim a clip to the exact moment you want and balance it against everything else in your project. All of this happens in the browser — no install — and the settings travel with the project when you share its URL. The catch is that the controls are per pad, so you edit one clip at a time rather than applying a global setting to the whole set.

What you can adjust on each clip

According to the VO Pads overview, "Edit Playback" covers four things:

Control What it does
Start Sets where in the source video playback begins
Duration Sets how long the clip plays before stopping
Playback speed Changes how fast the clip runs
Volume Fine-tunes the level of that clip in the mix

The stated goal is "precise timing controls" so each pad fires exactly the fragment you want, at the level you want, inside a larger sequence.

Step by step

  1. Open your project. Load VO Pads in a browser. The site recommends Chrome for the best experience; any HTML5-capable browser should work.
  2. Load a source onto a pad. Tap a pad to bring up the selector, then either add a local .mp4 file or paste a YouTube URL. Supported sources are currently YouTube videos and local mp4 files.
  3. Open the clip's playback settings. With the source attached, adjust start, duration, speed, and volume for that pad.
  4. Set start and duration first. These two define the fragment. Pick the entry point, then the length — this is what makes a long source usable as a short trigger.
  5. Adjust speed. Change playback speed if the fragment needs to fit a different tempo or feel.
  6. Set volume. Balance the clip against the others in your set. Do this after you know which pads will fire together.
  7. Trigger and listen. Play the pad via pad click, keyboard, or MIDI to hear the result in context.
  8. Repeat per pad. Each clip keeps its own settings, so build the mix pad by pad.
  9. Share. When the project is set up, share the whole thing with a single URL — anyone with the link opens and plays it exactly as configured, with no downloads or installs.

Expected result: each pad plays only its chosen fragment, at the chosen speed and level, and the shared link reproduces that arrangement for anyone who opens it.

Mixing multiple clips for a performance

Because triggering works from pads, keyboard, or MIDI, the practical approach is to treat each pad as one element of the mix and use the volume control to place it:

  • Give rhythmic or loop-like fragments a level that sits under everything else.
  • Keep one-shot accents (a vocal line, a drum hit, a spoken phrase) louder so they cut through.
  • Use short durations on pads you'll retrigger rapidly, and longer durations on pads meant to run underneath.
  • Set up your "perfect performance environment" with customizable controls and instant playback before you start layering.

Common snags

  • iOS and iPadOS: only one video can play at a time, so layering multiple clips won't work there. Use a desktop browser for multi-clip mixes.
  • Source limits: YouTube and local mp4 only — other formats or platforms aren't listed as supported.
  • Per-clip editing: there's no described global timing or volume control, so plan on repeating the edit for every pad.
  • Browser choice: Chrome is recommended; other HTML5 browsers may behave differently.

When this fits

VO Pads suits browser-based triggering and sequencing where you want tight control over which fragment of each clip plays and how loud it sits — and where you want to hand the finished arrangement to someone else as a link. If you need many simultaneous video streams on iOS or iPadOS, or you need source formats beyond YouTube and mp4, look elsewhere.