How to split up a large audio file in Windows?

October 26, 2005 4:40 PM

What is the easiest way to split up a large audio file into shorter segments on Windows?

I have a large WAV file and I would like to automatically split it up into smaller segments based on where the silent areas are (and also possibly edit the auto-selected division points based on manual input). Presume I know next to nothing about audio editing and baby-talk me through it, please. Can I do this in Audacity or do I need an additional tool or plug-in? It should be free as I probably am not going to do this very often.

posted by matildaben to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I don't know about Audacity but Steinberg Wavelab 4.0 has an autosplit function. I would think that Audacity would have that function, or at least a plug in for it. It's a common task.

Setting cut points is pretty easy, though. You can even just highlight the segment of the WAV you want and copy-paste it to a new WAV document and save it. (Pay attention to the bitrate of the new document. It should be automatic, but sometimes it isn't. Just make it the same as the original.)
posted by loquacious at 4:57 PM on October 26, 2005

Here are instructions on splitting a file into pieces with Audacity. (Disclaimer: I'm the author, and an Audacity developer.)

In Audacity 1.2 you'll need to mark the split points by hand. (The program can't auto-split based on silence; we're planning to add that to a future version.) If you have a really long file, you will probably want to find a program that can do this automatically.
posted by mbrubeck at 5:47 PM on October 26, 2005

CDwave does exactly what you want. Not free, but there's a 30-day trial version (and at $15, it's pretty cheap regardless).
posted by nixxon at 6:47 PM on October 26, 2005

Here's an Audacity plug-in to automatically mark silences. Right-click that link and choose "save as" to download it. (Via the Audacity wiki)

See the Audacity web site for how to install plug-ins.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:38 PM on October 26, 2005