How to censor words using sound effects

Dear members,

Hi, I was wondering whether any knows how to use Audacity to make sound effects that censor explicit words. It is very hard to describe but it is a common technique used on radio edits and I’ve always wanted to know how to do it.

I would prefer not to use silence and I don’ t think the ‘reverse’ effect is always the best option.

I have attached a short sample of a song which uses the effect I am talking about.

Many thanks,
carryoutkyle

I can’t hear any word obliteration in that sample, but that is not my kind of music. What are the words and where is the obliterated word amongst that?

You could keep it simple and beep a word out with Generate > Tone… . The tone does not have to be loud.


Gale

You can do that using “sliding time-scale / pitch shift” …
sliding time-scale   pitch shift.png
But you’ll have to repeat (Ctrl+R) the effect 2 or 3 times though.

Ideally you should only apply this effect to the vocal track alone, not the music, but you probably won’t have the seperate tracks, (unlike the producers of the radio-edit ).

The attached plugin produces a similar effect : it’s like “scratching” vinyl records, which can be used to censor words .
The effect only works on audio less than 2 seconds duration, (when the sample rate is @44100Hz).

Wikki-Warp.ny (625 Bytes)

Thank you very much for your help everyone! :slight_smile: