MP3 editor n' stuff
November 11, 2005 2:35 PM Subscribe
Can you help me find a handy little tool that I can use to (visually) chop off the blernk-nee-fornk noise that exists at the end of one of my MP3s?
Basically, I'm looking something that throws the file into an oscilliscope where I can slide little markers around and delete unwanted bits of "stuff" at the beginning and the end of songs.
Basically, I'm looking something that throws the file into an oscilliscope where I can slide little markers around and delete unwanted bits of "stuff" at the beginning and the end of songs.
2d for audacity. very handy tool.
posted by prettyboyfloyd at 2:56 PM on November 11, 2005
posted by prettyboyfloyd at 2:56 PM on November 11, 2005
Or the tiny, free, fabulous mpTrim, if you're using Windows.
posted by ellanea at 3:12 PM on November 11, 2005
posted by ellanea at 3:12 PM on November 11, 2005
Response by poster: Thanks, thanks. I've downloaded Audacity and so far, it's great. This doesn't mean people can't make more suggestions, though. So please continue if you have a recommendation.
Audacity appears to have quite a number of features and such. Hooray and prettyboyfloyd (or anyone else really), would you happen to have any neat tips or tricks to suggest... something to get me started playing with this a little? I've already used it to trim off the unwanted noise. But now I feel like I should "play" a little?
Thanks again.
posted by Necker at 3:22 PM on November 11, 2005
Audacity appears to have quite a number of features and such. Hooray and prettyboyfloyd (or anyone else really), would you happen to have any neat tips or tricks to suggest... something to get me started playing with this a little? I've already used it to trim off the unwanted noise. But now I feel like I should "play" a little?
Thanks again.
posted by Necker at 3:22 PM on November 11, 2005
Have fun with the Effect menu. Select the entire song, or just a part of it, and apply different effects to it. Reverse is a good one if you're looking for satanic messages....
posted by pmbuko at 3:30 PM on November 11, 2005
posted by pmbuko at 3:30 PM on November 11, 2005
Response by poster: ...if you're looking for satanic messages...
Haha... and who isn't?
posted by Necker at 3:37 PM on November 11, 2005
Haha... and who isn't?
posted by Necker at 3:37 PM on November 11, 2005
It's important to note that if you'd like to simply cut audio from your MP3 and still preserve the quality, you'll need a native MP3 editor. If you bring an MP3 into Audacity and then export it with LAME mp3 encoder, you'll be taking a compressed file, editing it, and then compressing it again, resulting in potentially significant quality loss. It's the same effect as opening a JPG and resaving it as a JPG -- recompressing lossy compression (MP3, JPG) adds more artifacts.
The other solutions mentioned above all preserve the original MP3 and thus the full original quality. However, you won't be able to play with the file like Audacity lets you because they'd require reencoding the entire file. If you're concerned about quality, start your editing from some lossless format, such as a WAV ripped from a CD and then encode your final versions to MP3.
posted by VulcanMike at 3:47 PM on November 11, 2005
The other solutions mentioned above all preserve the original MP3 and thus the full original quality. However, you won't be able to play with the file like Audacity lets you because they'd require reencoding the entire file. If you're concerned about quality, start your editing from some lossless format, such as a WAV ripped from a CD and then encode your final versions to MP3.
posted by VulcanMike at 3:47 PM on November 11, 2005
Response by poster: Does the risk of quality loss increase with the more "stuff" you do to it? I really like Audacity, at least for visually trimming MP3s (my original sole purpose). But if I'm risking significant quality loss, then perhaps I should consider using something else. I just wanted to clean up some tracks a little for a mix CD. But I don't want the final mix to sound like crap either.
posted by Necker at 4:01 PM on November 11, 2005
posted by Necker at 4:01 PM on November 11, 2005
I don't think the amount of changes you make on the file will effect the quality - it's the act of decompressing and recompressing when you open and close the file.
That said, for this it's really best to just work natively in MP3. Just cutting off the ends doesn't need the decompression/recompression to accomplish.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 5:13 PM on November 11, 2005
That said, for this it's really best to just work natively in MP3. Just cutting off the ends doesn't need the decompression/recompression to accomplish.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 5:13 PM on November 11, 2005
Too many effects can make it sound worse in the sense of overworking the track, but individually they don't throw out much data (besides things like "robotize").
posted by abcde at 9:06 PM on November 11, 2005
posted by abcde at 9:06 PM on November 11, 2005
I like mp3DirectCut. It is free and dead simple to use.
posted by mediaddict at 10:26 PM on November 11, 2005
posted by mediaddict at 10:26 PM on November 11, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by duck at 2:39 PM on November 11, 2005