Best music editing program for Windows?

February 11, 2008 8:33 AM

What's the best, free music editing software for Windows?

I need a basic (but good) FREE music editing program that will let me upload .mp3's from itunes, cut out the first/last few seconds of a song, string a bunch of edited songs together, and then export back to itunes or burn onto a cd.

Basically what i'm trying to do is make mix cd's with no dead air btwn tracks. I don't care about adding effects, making my own original music, etc.

I'd be doing this on a ThinkPad T61 w/ Vista.

posted by doppleradar to computers & internet (9 answers total)

Audacity
posted by phredgreen at 8:35 AM on February 11, 2008

Yes. Audacity, no contest.
posted by worker_bee at 8:39 AM on February 11, 2008

I can't remember if it was free, but before Adobe took it over and made it Audition, CoolEdit 2000 was freakin' incredible. You can download an old version from the link.
posted by sjuhawk31 at 8:39 AM on February 11, 2008

Note that some burning apps (like Nero) automatically put in a 2 second gap between tracks.
Have you tried burning the CD without those gaps? That would be an easier fix than trimming the tracks (especially if they really end when the song ends)
posted by ijoyner at 8:41 AM on February 11, 2008

Can you buy MP3s from iTunes? I'm pretty sure that you can only get AACs (DRM and non-DRM).
posted by unixrat at 9:05 AM on February 11, 2008

The magic google term is "gapless". See, for example, this thread on how to do it with Nero.

and unixrat, you can certainly manage mp3s with iTunes, even if you can't buy them from the iTunes Store
posted by rjt at 9:10 AM on February 11, 2008

Ah, manage right. I knew that. Never mind my previous message.
posted by unixrat at 9:13 AM on February 11, 2008

2nding ijoyner - why go to all the trouble of editing when you can just burn gapless? I may be wrong, having not done it in a while, but I think iTunes will let you choose the space between tracks in the options somewhere.
posted by owtytrof at 10:28 AM on February 11, 2008

Cooledit 2000 wasn't free -- I know because I paid for it and hoard the licence key, which has to be reinstalled every time I upgrade windows. I'm not sure that it did anything that Audacity now doesn't, though.
posted by alloneword at 2:40 AM on February 13, 2008