Edit commands remove, insert, copy, move, mix, or replace sections of sound. For an introduction to the concepts and terms used in this section, refer to the Editing Overview section.
Use Undo to reverse the most recent change made to a sound. The undo system keeps copies of the preprocessed audio in temporary storage, which can require a significant amount of storage when working with large files in long editing sessions. Use Options | Storage to change temporary storage settings and the number of undo levels allowed. To disable Undo, set the number of undo levels to zero.
Use Redo to reverse the most recent Undo. It restores the last undone change without any processing. Use this after accidentally undoing a change (such as a recording) to recover the change or to do a quick before-and-after comparison. Redo is possible only immediately after Undo. If any other changes are made, Redo cannot be used again until Undo is used first. Many levels of Undo and Redo are possible. In other words, you can undo several changes and redo each of them.
Use Cut to remove the selection from the sound and place it in the clipboard. The contents of the clipboard can then be mixed or placed into another sound using any of the other editing commands, such as Mix, Paste, Paste New, Crossfade, or Replace.
To remove the selection without placing it in the clipboard, use Delete instead.
If only some channels are selected in a stereo or multichannel sound, then only those channels are removed. Since it is not possible for one channel to be longer than another, the ends of the cut channels are padded with silence.
Use Copy to copy the selection to the clipboard. The selection is not removed from the sound. The contents of the clipboard can then be mixed or placed into another sound using any of the other editing commands, such as Mix, Paste, Paste New, Crossfade, or Replace.
To copy individual channels, use the Select Channels menu to select one or more channels.
In the Copy edit command in Batch Processing, audio may be copied from a separate file using the Copy from the following file setting.
Use Copy To to copy the selection to a new file. This may be used to divide a large file into smaller sections or save a piece of a file. The selection is not removed from the sound. The Save As window appears to specify the filename, type, and attributes for the file. This is the same as Save Selection As. To automatically split a large file into several smaller pieces, use the Cue Points tool and Split File.
To save individual channels, use Select Channels menu to select one or more channels.
Use Paste New to create a new Sound window containing the sound in the clipboard. To enable Paste New, use Copy first. The new sound will have the attributes and length of the clipboard sound. This is useful when you need to edit, process, or save the clipboard audio.
To save the selection directly to a new file without copying or pasting, use Copy To.
After copying audio to the clipboard using Copy, use these commands to insert it audio into another sound. Paste inserts the clipboard at the start marker's position.
The length of the sound is increased so that the clipboard sound will fit and any audio after the insertion position is shifted so that it comes after the inserted audio. The clipboard sound is automatically converted to match the attributes of the sound, when possible.
The Paste At menu list commands to insert the clipboard at positions other than the start marker. Use Beginning to insert at the beginning of the file. Use Finish Marker to insert at the finish marker's position. Use End to insert it at the end of the file.
To replace the selection, use Replace instead.
To join many files together, use the File Merger tool.
Copying a small selection and pasting it several times creates a stutter effect.
Use Mix to blend (layer or combine) the clipboard audio with the selection. To enable Mix, audio must be copied to the clipboard first using Copy. Mixing essentially allows two sounds to be played at the same time, such as vocals and music or voice overs.
See the Mixing overview for step-by-step instructions.
To automatically fade the music in and out for voice overs, use Voice Over instead.
| Mix Settings | |
|---|---|
| Setting | Description |
| Time where mix will begin (s) | Sets the time from the start marker's position where the clipboard audio will be mixed. When mixing vocals in the clipbard, adjust the start time to synchronize the vocals with the music. |
| Volume (dB) | Set the volume of the clipboard audio for the mix. A value of 0 is full volume. To change the volume of the selection, use Change Volume before Mix. |
| Invert | Inverts the clipboard audio when mixing, subtracting the audio amplitudes instead of adding them. Usually this has no audible effect unless the selection and clipboard are almost identical. |
Use Crossfade to fade and mix the ends of two sounds, fading out one song while fading in another. To enable Crossfade, a song must be copied to the clipboard first using Copy.
See the Crossfading overview for step-by-step instructions.
The selection is used when performing a crossfade. Use Select All before using Crossfade unless you intend to crossfade within a certain part of the sound.
| Crossfade Settings | |
|---|---|
| Setting | Description |
| Duration (s) | Sets the length of time of the crossfade between the songs. It is the amount of time that the songs overlap, while one song fades out while the other fades in. |
| Clipboard position | Choose End of selection to crossfade the clipboard song after the selection. The selection fades out and the clipboard song fades in. Choose Beginning of selection to crossfade before the selection. The clipboard song fades out and the selection fades in. |
| Fade curve | Sets how the audio is faded. If a song is already faded out at the end, choose None. The fade is shown graphically. |
Settings may be previewed before applying them. Note that any changes made while previewing are not used until previewing is restarted.
See Also: Blend At Marker, Mix
Use Replace to replace the selection with the clipboard. To enable Replace, use Copy first. The selection is remove and the clipboard is inserted in its place. If the clipboard is longer or shorter than the selection, the length of the file is adjusted as required and audio after the selection is shifted so that it comes after the replaced selection. To avoid changing the length of the file or altering the timing of the sound following the selection, use Overwrite instead.
Use Overwrite to overwrite part of the sound with the clipboard beginning at the start marker's position. To enable Overwrite, use Copy first. The amount of sound overwritten depends on the length of the clipboard. The length of the file is not changed (unless the clipboard would go beyond the length of the file) and nothing is shifting. If the clipboard is longer than the current selection, then some sound outside the selection will be overwritten as well. The finish marker will be placed at the end of the overwritten sound.
Use Overwrite instead of Replace when tempo, timing, or alignment of the sound following the selection needs to be preserved, such as for a video track.
Use Delete to remove the selection from the sound. The selection is not copied to the clipboard and the contents of the clipboard is not affected. Use Delete instead of Cut when the selection is not needed.
If only some channels are selected in a stereo or multichannel sound, then only those channels are removed. Since it is not possible for one channel to be longer than another, the ends of the deleted channels are padded with silence.
Use Trim commands to remove everything outside the selection or to remove leading or trailing silences. Trim is similar to cropping images to remove unwanted parts. Note that if only some channels are selected in a multichannel sound, the end of those channels is padded with silence. As an alternative, you can use the Copy To command to save the selection to a separate file.
Use Trim Beginning to remove audio before the start marker. If not all channels are selected, the area is replaced with silence instead.
Use Trim End to remove audio after the finish marker. If not all channels are selected, the area is replaced with silence instead.
Use Trim Silence to remove leading and trailing silences from the ends of the selection. Unlike other trim commands, Trim Silence works within the selection and does not remove anything outside the selection. Be sure the selection contains all the leading and trailing silences to be removed. Noise Reduction and Maximize Volume are recommended before using this effect to ensure a consistent silence level.
To remove all silences throughout the selection, use Silence Reduction instead.
| Trim Silence Settings | |
|---|---|
| Setting | Description |
| Silence to keep (s) | Sets the amount of silence to leave on the ends. Use zero to remove all silence. Extra silence is not added if the existing silence is less than this amount. |
| Threshold (dB) | Sets the highest level of background noise that should be considered silence. If the audio has a lot of background noise or hiss, use values above -30dB. If the audio is clean, use values below -40dB. |
|
Leading silence, Trailing silence, Both |
Sets the end of the selection to trim. Leading silence removes
the silence at the beginning of the selection.
Trailing silence removes
the silence at the end of the selection. Both removes silences
from both ends.
If only some channels are selected in a stereo or multichannel sound, then only that channel is trimmed. Since it is not possible for one channel to be longer than another, the ends of the trimmed channels are padded with silence, which results in trailing silence. All channels must be selected. |
Use Mute to replace the selection with silence. Unlike Delete or Cut, the length of the sound is not changed. Use this to remove offensive language from music without interrupting the overall beat.
Use Blend At Marker to smooth the transition between edit points. After cutting or pasting, the waveform at the selection endpoints may not match, causing a pop or click. Blend At Marker takes a small section of audio on either side of the marker and overlaps it with fading so that the section on the left is faded out and the section on the right is faded in. This ensure a gradual transition between edit points.
Note that the length of the file is reduced because of the overlap. When blending music, audio tracks from videos, or other time/tempo sensitive audio, be sure to compensate for the blend duration.
To crossfade between two songs with more control over the fade shape and duration, use Crossfade instead.
| Blend At Marker Settings | |
|---|---|
| Setting | Description |
| Duration of blend (s) | Sets the amount of time to overlap on each side of the edit marker. A value of 1.0 takes one second on the left and one second on the right and blends them, creating a one second blend. The length of the file decreases by one second due to the overlapping of the two parts. |
| Marker | Sets the markers affected by the blend. After pasting in the middle of a file, both the Start and Finish markers may need to be blended. After cutting audio, only one the Start marker needs to be selected. |
| Curve | Sets the fade curve for blending. For music and highly varying audio, choose "Equal power". For uniform audio, such as pure tones, choose "Linear". |
Use Find to search the sound for silences, peaks, or pop/clicks, or a text phrase in dialogue. Use the Find drop-down list to select what to find. Use the Where drop-down list to specify where to start searching. Select Past selection to find the next occurance. If the finish marker is currently at the end of the file, then the entire file is searched. Enter the search criteria in the boxes provided.
| Search Criteria | ||
|---|---|---|
| Find Type | Setting | Description |
| Silence | Threshold | Sets the minimun level of audio. Anything below that is considered silence. |
| Duration | Sets the minimum length of time the audio must remain below the thresold to be considered silence. Using a value of 1.0, for example, ignores silences less than one second. | |
| Peak/clipping | Threshold | Sets the level of audio that must be exceeded to be considered a peak. Anything below that level is ignored. Use a thresold of 0dB (or slightly below) to find areas of clipping before saving a file. |
| Duration | Sets the minimum length of time the audio must remain above the threshold to be considered a peak or clipping. Usually this value will be 0 or very small, spanning just a few samples. For a 44100Hz file, a value of 0.00007 would be about three samples (3/44100). | |
| Pop/click | Tolerance | Sets the percentage of change in the waveform that is to be considered a pop or click. Usually pops or clicks have a very sharp change in the waveform of about 700% or more. Start with a higher value and decrease it as required to avoid finding false positives. Some solo instrumentals (drums, trumpet, etc.) naturally have sharp changes where reliable pop/click detection is not always possible. |
| Text | Phrase | Sets the search text. This can be a single word, but several words usually give better matches. Everything should be spelled out, including numbers and symbols. Enter "twenty four" instead of "24" or "plus" instead of "+". |
| Recognizer | Sets the speech recognizer. On most systems only the "Microsoft Speech Recognizer" is available. | |
| Confidence |
Sets the confidence level for recognition. If you find that too many false matches are found, increase the confidence
value. A value of 100% requires a very high level of confidence for each match. However some matches may be missed.
Using a confidence below 50% usually results in too many false positives.
Speech recognition rarely works well with music or singing. Ideally the audio should contain dialogue only with low background noise. Use Noise Reduction to minimize the background noise or use Stereo Center to reduce the music and extract the vocals. Due to the limitations of current speech recognition technology, false positives or missed matches may still occur. |
|
Use the Zoom in on selection if found checkbox to automatically zoom in (up to 1:1) on the selection when found. If this box is not checked, then the current zoom level is used and the view is scrolled to the selection instead.
Use Insert Silence to insert some blank space in the sound. Use this command to make room for recording or to insert a delay. The Duration sets the length of the silence. Values may be entered in any of the supported time formats. The Location sets the starting position of the silence. The silence may be inserted at the start or finish marker's position or at the beginning or end of the sound.
Use Select View to select all of the sound currently shown in the Sound window's graph. The start and finish markers are moved to the far left and far right of the view.
Use Select All to select the entire sound. The start and finish markers are moved to the beginning and end of the sound.
Use the Channel submenu to select or unselect channels. In most cases, only selected channels are edited, processed, or played. Use this feature to copy certain channels from a sound or apply an effect to only some channels. When recording or using effects such as Resample, Playback Rate, or stereo and multichannel effects, the channel setting may not apply and all channels may be modified. Use Options | Toolbar to add the Select Channels button to the toolbar.
Selects all channels.
Lists all channels that can be selected. Channels with a leading checkbox are currently selected.
Use the Selection submenu to change the selection or moving the start and finish markers.
Use Set to change the selection range by setting start and finish markers to an exact time or sample position. To specify a time, choose the Time based range option and enter the times in hours, minutes, seconds, and thousandths of a second. Enter 1:23:45.678, for example. To specify a sample position, choose the Sample based range option and enter the positions. Tip: Right click on one of the up/down controls to change the precision of the controls.
To align the length of the selection to a CD sector or 1 kilobyte, select the appropriate option. The finish marker will be adjusted to align length when OK is pressed.
See Editing Overview for many more ways of setting the selection.
Use Previous to set the selection to its previous range. The last five selection ranges are stored automatically whenever the selection is changed. Using this command repeatedly sets the selection back to each of those five ranges. Note that absolute positions are stored, so any modifications, such as deleting part of the sound, will not be factored into the previous positions. In such situations the previous positions may not select the same part of the sound that was previously selected (that part may have been deleted).
Use Move Start To Elapsed and Move Finish To Elapsed to move the start or finish marker at the current playback or recording position. Use the bracket keys, [ and ] to move the start and finish markers respectively. If the start marker is moved past the finish marker, the finish marker is moved to the end of the file. If the finish marker is moved ahead of the start marker, then the start marker is moved to the beginning of the file.
Use Move Start To Beginning to move the start marker to the beginning of the file. Use Move Start To Finish to move it to the finish marker's position. This sets the selection to nothing.
Use Move Finish To Start to move the finish marker to the start marker's position. This sets the selection to nothing. Use Move Finish To End to move it to the end of the file.
Use Recall Selection Range to set the selection to the range previously stored using Store Selection Range. Hold the Ctrl key to recall a range stored within a different Sound window.
Use Save Selection Range to save the current selection range. Use Recall Selection Positions reset the range to the stored range. Hold the Ctrl key to store the range so they can be recalled in a different Sound window.
Turn on Snap To Zero-Crossing to reduce pops and clicks caused between edit points. When editing, it is important that the waveform not change suddenly from one amplitude to the next, otherwise a click will occur. This can happen when deleting the selection. The amplitude of the waveform at the start marker may be completely different from the amplitude at finish marker. After deleting the selection, these two different amplitude will be adjacent, causing a click.
Snap To Zero-Crossing helps minimize the problem by ensuring that the markers are always near zero amplitude samples. When you drag and release a marker, it is automatically moved to a position where the amplitude approaches zero. This means that when you delete the selection, the amplitudes at both the start and finish markers will be more closely matched (near zero).
Since stereo and multichannels sounds can have very different channel amplitudes, finding an ideal zero-crossing position may not be possible. Use the Edit | Channel menu to limit the snap feature to a single channel or use the "Sharp faded ends" preset in Shape Volume to force the ends of the selection to have zero amplitude (the unselected ends will have to be faded when deleting the selection).
If the zoom level is close enough that the true shape of the waveform is shown (such as Zoom 1:1), the snap feature is automatically turned off so that markers can be placed at any position.
Use the Cue Point submenu to edit and set cue points. Use cue points to mark or describe special places or points of interest within a sound.
Edit Cue Points displays the Cue Points tool.
Use Add Cue Point to place a cue point at the current playback or recording position. The name of the cue point is set to the time position by default, but that can be changed in the Auto Cue window using the "Cue Naming" setting.
Use Add Cue At Start to add a cue point at the start marker's position. Use Add Cue At Finish to add a cue point at the finish marker's position.
Use Add And Edit Cue Point to add a cue point and display the Edit Cue Point window.
Use Move Start To Next Cue to move the start marker to the next cue point to the right of the marker's current position or to the end of the file if no cue points are there.
Use Move Start To Previous Cue to move the start marker to the previous cue point to the left of the marker's current position or to the beginning of the file if no cue points are there.
Use Move Finish To Next Cue to move the finish marker to the next cue point to the right of the marker's current position or to the end of the file if no cue points are there.
Use Move Finish To Previous Cue to move the finish marker to the previous cue point to the left of the marker's current position or to the beginning of the file if no cue points are there.
Use Split File to divide the file into smaller files using cue points as split points. Displays the Split File window.
Displays vertical cue lines on the Sound window graph. This setting applies to each Sound window individually, so lines can be shown in one window and not in another. When a new window is opened, the last setting selected is used.