Editing MP3

Drebin · #1 (**permalink**) 05-28-2007, 12:21 PM

Hi,

My first attempt at audio editing.

I have just finished making my dvd footage and want to add audio in the background.

I have 2 questions to start with.

1. What is the best software to edit mp3/wav files?
I want to cut a mp3 file in half, add my own in the middle and then splice all 3 bits together.

2. Is there any software that can remove singing from songs. I want to just keep the instruments from mp3 songs.

Thanks.

Frank

Alan Mills · #2 (**permalink**) 05-29-2007, 09:43 AM

I use Adobe Audition for my audio editting. There is a downloadable trial you can try out to see if it's for you. I'm sure others can recommend their own favbourite audio editor.

Not sure you'll be able to cleanly remove just the voices though from your tracks.

These things (if I'm not mistaken) will allow you to remove certain ranges of frequency so if you isolate the voice frequencies then you should be able to do pretty well.

one thing though. MP3 is not the best audio to start with. Use a format that's not compressed like WAV files. An interesting exercise (and quite an eye opener) is to rip a music track to WAV, open in an audio editor and view the frequency spectrum. Save as MP3 and then view the spectrum again. Quite a difference!

Drebin · #3 (**permalink**) 05-29-2007, 01:51 PM

Alan,

You pop up everywhere.

Answering my video quesions and now audio.

Thanks I have audition and will give it a go.

Alan Mills · #4 (**permalink**) 05-30-2007, 08:30 AM

Originally Posted by Drebin

Alan,

You pop up everywhere.

A bad penny indeed!

Originally Posted by Drebin

Answering my video quesions and now audio.

Thanks I have audition and will give it a go.

The best simple advice I can give you when tryting to remove sound/noise in Audition is that given to me by Jason Levine of Adobe. "If you can see it, you can remove it!"

Noise/sound removal in Audition is often best done in spectral view. Depending on what version of Audition you have it might be easier but look for the frequencies you are after. Drag a marqee (or rubber band if your got v2) around those areas and hit delete. If the area is small enough (and this means quite small) there is an option to remove the sound within and then bleed in the sound around to refill the gap. This is great when it works but the area need to be small. i.e. it;s design more for pops and clicks I think.

Chapman Photography · #5 (**permalink**) 07-09-2007, 03:33 AM

Originally Posted by Alan Mills

I use Adobe Audition for my audio editting. There is a downloadable trial you can try out to see if it's for you. I'm sure others can recommend their own favbourite audio editor.

Not sure you'll be able to cleanly remove just the voices though from your tracks.

These things (if I'm not mistaken) will allow you to remove certain ranges of frequency so if you isolate the voice frequencies then you should be able to do pretty well.

one thing though. MP3 is not the best audio to start with. Use a format that's not compressed like WAV files. An interesting exercise (and quite an eye opener) is to rip a music track to WAV, open in an audio editor and view the frequency spectrum. Save as MP3 and then view the spectrum again. Quite a difference!

Providing that the vocals are panned in the middle. This is whay I would do. Take your audio and duplicate it to a second track. Right click on the first audio segment and select Channels>Left then on the second select Channels>Right. On the Right hand side, you will see a button that looks like this Ø. Click on that and it will invert the chanel that you do it to. What this is doing is subtracting what is common between left and right (the vocals and what ever is panned in the middle). If you loose too much, you can pull the pan on track one and two out until you get the right blend.

This is a trade secret so don't tell any one...lol good luck