Script Volume Slider: Compressing and Expanding Text

Every team that creates videos from existing text materials eventually faces the same practical question: we have an article that takes ten minutes to read — but we need a one-and-a-half-minute video for Shorts and a detailed five-minute video for YouTube. Previously, this meant manually rewriting the text for each format. In Telematic, there is one tool for this — the "script volume" slider, with a range from 0.05 to 1 — and in this article, we will explore how it works and how to use it consciously, rather than randomly.

The volume slider is not just about "shorter / longer." Its logic varies depending on the script mode you are working in, and understanding this difference saves a lot of time on trial and error.

What Each Position of the Slider Means

A value of 1 means identity: the material is used in its maximum volume, without forced compression. This is the starting point from which all other settings should be compared. The closer the value is to 0.05, the more the final script differs from the original in volume — down to a very compressed version that retains only the most essential points.

It is important to understand: the slider does not work as a simple "trimming of the last paragraphs." The logic of compression depends on the script mode you are in.

How It Works in "Full Text" Mode

In extractive mode, the volume slider selects part of the original verbatim — meaning that reducing the value does not rewrite phrases but shortens the set of used material, preserving the accuracy of the formulations in what remains. This is crucial for materials where facts cannot be rephrased: financial data, quotes, technical specifications. By lowering the slider in this mode, you get a shorter, yet verbatim video — not a retelling, but a selection.

How It Works in "Hybrid" Mode

In hybrid mode, the logic is different: the slider controls the degree of compression during AI reworking. Here, the text is not just "trimmed" — the model reformulates the material to fit the essence into the specified volume, preserving facts and figures while changing the length of sentences and the amount of detail. The lower the value, the denser and more concise the voiceover becomes — while still remaining a coherent narrative, rather than a collection of disjointed phrases.

Practical Example: One Article — Three Formats

Imagine a typical scenario: you have a detailed article analyzing changes in the industry. You need to create three videos from it — a detailed long format for YouTube, a medium-sized video for the main feed, and a short Shorts announcement. Previously, this meant three separate manual editing passes. With the volume slider, this becomes three values of one setting on the same material: a value close to 1 for the long format, a medium value for the main video, and a low value for Shorts.

An important nuance: recalculating the text for the new slider value is not an instant cosmetic edit, but a full background operation. When you reduce the volume in "hybrid" mode, the system reprocesses the material through compression in the background, and the result appears after some time, rather than immediately line by line on the screen. This should be taken into account when planning: allocate time for recalculation if you are preparing several formats from one material sequentially.

When to Lower the Value and When to Keep It at Maximum

There are several practical situations where it makes sense to consciously adjust the slider:

Preparing a short announcement or Shorts version from detailed material — significantly lower the value, leaving only the key idea.
The material is initially excessive — a long article with repetitions, introductory paragraphs, digressions — moderate volume reduction often improves the video even without the goal of shortening the runtime, simply by removing filler.
The material is dense and short — a technical note, a brief news item — here, reducing the volume usually makes no sense; a value of 1 will yield a more complete and informative video.
Working with material where every detail is important (legal analysis, precise figures) — in "full text" mode, keep the value high to avoid losing significant facts during selection.

How the Slider Interacts with the Narrative Pace and Number of Scenes

The script volume is not the only parameter that governs the length and density of the video. The narrative pace (dynamic, standard, calm) separately affects how phrases are restructured within the already selected volume of material. The number of scenes on the client side scales depending on the final length of the text — that is, after changing the volume slider, the number of scenes in the edit is automatically recalculated to fit the new runtime.

Practically, this means that the volume slider should be adjusted first, and the narrative pace and specific editing tweaks should be made only after you have fixed the desired length of the video. Otherwise, you can easily find yourself manually adjusting the edit to text that will be recalculated under a new slider value in a minute.

Our Experience Using the Slider

When we tested the feature on long guides for our own blog, the first instinct was to set the minimum value for the Shorts version — the logic of "the shorter, the better for the short format" seemed obvious. In practice, overly aggressive compression in hybrid mode sometimes removed not only "water" but also context, without which the key idea became unclear on its own. The optimal approach turned out to be moderate reduction — not to the extreme position, but about a third of the full volume — followed by a manual check of the final text before generating the video.

For one of our clients, who creates detailed analyses for a B2B audience, the opposite story applies: the team rarely adjusts the slider, keeping it close to maximum almost all the time because the audience of this channel specifically seeks detail and does not forgive "neat" shortened versions. This is a good example of how the setting does not have a universally "correct" value — it needs to be calibrated to the expectations of a specific audience, rather than an abstract notion that a short video always holds attention better.

The conclusion is simple: the script volume slider is a tool for quickly adapting one material to different formats and runtimes, but the result depends on the script mode and requires verification on real text, rather than just trusting the automation.

Script Volume Slider: Compressing and Expanding Text | Blog | Telematic.Pro