Music Editing Programs

[Maritime Q-Scout]

So I find it very annoying that most mp3's have 2-5 seconds of dead silence at the end of the song.

Is there a program that will be able to recognize dead space and edit it out for you? Preferably one that can edit multiple songs at once?

Ideally I'd like to be able to select 100 songs (for example) at a time and then have the program cut the dead time at the begining and end of the song for me.

Is this possible? Is there a program that will do this for me?

[johnnyrocket03]

I dont know of one that will do it for you, but Acoustica is pretty easy to download. Just import the song and cut the parts with dead air at the beginning and end.

[MonsieurFish]

Audacity would work as well, but once again you have to do it manually.

[kirant]

I use Wavepad Sound Editor. It works nicely. Like all the other programs though, it won't cut the dead time automatically. You'll need to do each individually.

[sclitheroe]

Word of warning - whatever editor you use, ensure its working directly on MP3 data, not decoding, editing the wave form, and then re-encoding to MP3.

Audacity, in particular, cannot directly edit MP3’s, and will result in loss of fidelity due to re-encoding.

MP3 Direct Cut for Windows, or Audion, for Mac, are two direct editors that I read about, but I don’t have experience with either.

[sclitheroe]

Also, for iTunes users, you can specify on a per-track basis the start and stop times, which means you don’t need to worry about editing at all. I’m almost positive this info follows the track when its synced to an iPod

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Also, for iTunes users, you can specify on a per-track basis the start and stop times, which means you don’t need to worry about editing at all. I’m almost positive this info follows the track when its synced to an iPod

I do this for songs with annoying/lengthy intros that aren't really part of the song (in my mind at least). Changes I make to my music with this method are reflected on my iPod when I sync next.

And... also for iTunes users (and probably some other music library programs), you can set a crossfade so that one song starts as the other is finishing, eliminating gaps. Makes for a nice transition automatically. Unfortunately this only works when playing music through iTunes, so it won't help you on a portable device.

[OBCT]

Yeah, crossfade is a nice feature. Also comes free on Windows Media Player/Center, Winamp and a couple others.

I think it's only available on RealOne Plus (for $25)

Not available on VLC, I don't think.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I've been using Audacity to cut each song manually. It's just a pain.

I don't notice any difference in quality, mind you I don't have the sharpest ear either so that's not really a worry for me.

Thanks for the info though