SoundXtract vs BeatEdit
Both put markers on the beat in Premiere Pro. They part company over what counts as a beat, and over how you pay for it. We make SoundXtract, so judge us on the concessions below rather than on our say-so.
BeatEdit 2.2.006 for Premiere Pro, checked September 2026. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
Side by side
| Capability | BeatEdit 2 | SoundXtract |
|---|---|---|
| Beat markers | Yes | Yes |
| Markers on individual instruments | No | Kicks and toms, snares and cymbals, bass, melody |
| Beat subdivisions | Yes | Yes |
| Place project items on the beat | Premiere's own Automate to Sequence, driven by the markers | Native placement, including shuffling clips seamlessly |
| Cut and re-align clips already on the timeline | No | Cut, reshuffle, and trim in and out points to the beat |
| Stem separation | No | Vocals, bass, melody, drums split in two |
| Audio-reactive video effects | No | Yes |
| How BPM is detected | One classical beat-tracking algorithm | Two classical estimators cross-checked, with a neural network as tie-breaker |
| Where the analysis runs | On your machine, offline | Our GPU servers, over the internet |
| Tracks you can analyse | Unlimited | Metered: 1 free per month, 10 or 30 on a plan, more as extra credits |
| Host apps | Premiere Pro (After Effects and Audition sold separately) | Premiere Pro |
| Price | $99.99 once, perpetual | Free tier, or from $9.99 / month |
| Try before paying | Free trial | Free tier, no card |
Buy BeatEdit if
These are real advantages and we are not going to argue them away.
One payment, not a subscription
$99.99 buys it outright. That is about 6 months of our Starter plan. Keep editing past that and BeatEdit is the cheaper tool, permanently.
No monthly limit
Analyse a hundred tracks a week if the work calls for it. We meter by track, and a heavy month runs out.
It runs on your machine
Analysis is local, so it works on a plane, inside a facility with no outbound network, and on material you would rather not hand to a server. SoundXtract needs a connection.
After Effects and Audition too
Separate purchases, but the same beat workflow across three apps. SoundXtract is Premiere Pro only.
Buy SoundXtract if
The beat grid is where we start, not where we stop.
Markers on sounds, not only on the grid
A tempo grid is a metronome. It knows where beats belong and it is right about that, but it cannot tell you where the snare actually lands, where the bass changes note, or where the piano enters. Those are detected per instrument, from the audio.
It edits the timeline, not just the markers
BeatEdit hands you markers and stops there, so assembling against them means whatever Premiere’s own Automate to Sequence can do with project items. SoundXtract places the items itself, shuffling clips between slots without leaving gaps, and it can also cut, reorder and re-trim clips that are already on the sequence.
The music comes apart
Stem separation runs in the same panel: pull the vocal up under dialogue, drop an instrument, build a bed. No round trip to another app.
Effects that follow an instrument
Point a flash at the kick and a colour shift at the hi-hat, and the keyframes are placed for you. Nothing to sync by hand.
A free tier, not a countdown
One track a month, forever, without a card. Enough to run it on real footage before deciding. Every new account also gets an offer for 5 more credits just for a few honest words about the first session.
What you get from either one
Most of the beat-marker workflow is common ground. If this list is all you need, both tools will do it.
- Beat markers as sequence or clip markers
- Beat subdivisions
- Markers to guide a manual edit
- macOS and Windows, Apple Silicon native
The short version
If your edit is cuts on the beat and nothing else, BeatEdit does that job well, offline, for one payment, and after roughly 6 months it costs you less than we do. SoundXtract is built for the edits where the beat grid is not the whole story: the cut that has to land on the snare, the vocal that has to come out of the mix, the flash that has to follow the kick.
The free tier exists so you can find out which of those your work actually is.
Try SoundXtract freeOne track a month, no card.