Audio file editing

[Desdichado]

So, I've had this CD for a while, from an independent music label (De/Vision's Zehn for anyone curious.) There are two tracks on it, back to back, where the track separation is a few seconds off from the song separation. It's been bugging me for years (I bought the CD in '99 or so), and I've also been thinking of burning a CD-R "greatest hits" of my own of this band.

I actually quite possibly might want to put both of those songs on it, but not with that tracking error, not necessarily in order, and certainly not with the little gap that CD-Rs always put in the songs as a process of having been ripped to mp3 first. So what I'd like to do is rip both tracks to a high bitrate mp3, edit a few seconds off the first track and fade it out, and then splice a few seconds back onto the beginning of the second track.

Is that incredibly difficult to do? Is there any software that would do it for me? I'm not going to go buy a $40 package just to do this one thing, so its pretty much gotta be freeware software. Unless someone with access to the real thing can volunteer to do it for me.

Any recommendations?

 

[mojo1701]

I have access to Adobe Premiere (I use that for precision sound editing, not just for video), and finalizations in Acid Pro 4.0.

Premiere will take in different types of audio files, but only export (worthwhile ones that I know of/use) wav, so I take the wavs into Acid Pro and render them as mp3s (from FM-Radio quality [64kbps] to over-CD quality [320 kbps])

 

[D+1]

Amazing. I was going to post a similar question. I have several CD's with songs that require editing of one kind or another that I'd like to fix. One is, I think, what Joshua is talking about - two tracks back to back that apparantly have their running times reversed in the FAT, or whatever you call that track on a CD that tells the player where a file begins and how long it is. As a result, the first song ends and then begins the first part of the second song all without the track changing, THEN the track number changes and the second track picks up the second song in progress where it left off. Also, I have two different CD's that have tracks with two complete songs on them and a lot of silence in between. First song, silence, then the second entirely different song - all on track. In all these cases the best I can figure is that some engineer simply failed to master the CD correctly and rather than spend time & money to remaster them without these kind of errors they just keep punching them out, because as far as I know it's the same with everyone's copy of the discs.

Oddly enough, in the latter cases the tracks concerned are the last tracks on the CD.

Mojo1701 - I have no doubt that Adobe Premier and Acid Pro are spiffy for this purpose - but how about a little perspective? That's $1100+ in software, probably not including manuals and time/training to learn to use it, all just to effectively copy, cut, and paste pieces of 4 tracks (for me anyway). It's great if you have access to it, but then if you have access to that kind of software in the firstplace you're not likely to be asking for suggestions in that regard on ENworld.

I just want to fix a few songs so that I can listen to them properly and individually in some format that works on my ipod, not start my own record label. There must be something that can be recommended outside of professional audio processing that can do this without forking over a down payment on a new car and taking night classes in audio engineering. Maybe something in the range of $20-$40, if not free, that'll do simple, decent cut and paste of MP3?

 

[mojo1701]

Mojo1701 - I have no doubt that Adobe Premier and Acid Pro are spiffy for this purpose - but how about a little perspective? That's $1100+ in software, probably not including manuals and time/training to learn to use it, all just to effectively copy, cut, and paste pieces of 4 tracks (for me anyway). It's great if you have access to it, but then if you have access to that kind of software in the firstplace you're not likely to be asking for suggestions in that regard on ENworld.

You could probably find trial versions of the software, and it's not too hard to learn what you need to know. I could tell you in a couple easy steps.

 

[barsoomcore]

Grab Audacity. Because it's free. And it pretty much rocks.

 

[Desdichado]

Grab Audacity. Because it's free. And it pretty much rocks.

Cool, that looks like exactly what I had in mind. I'll try that out when I'm home...

 

[shadowlight]

Grab Audacity. Because it's free. And it pretty much rocks.

I've used this to mix sound effects and music for a halloween spook alley CD. It worked really well with mixing tons of different audio tracks...

 

[chill metal]

hellio! iwas a scanning the boards and saw this and i thought aha! i have knowledge. www.mptrim.com is what i use, hth

 

[Desdichado]

Cool, another option. I've got audacity, but haven't had a chance to play with it yet. If it's too tricky, I'll try that one out too.

 

[Desdichado]

Well, I did it with audacity, and it took probably about half an hour given that I was trying to figure out what all the buttons, menu options and all that were. But, really, not hard. I could do it again (if I were to need to) in five minutes, and most of that time would be file conversion anyway.

Thanks for the tip! The two repaired tracks turned out great!