Newbie - Ending track suddenly or with echo

Hi,

Bit new to audacity but got the basics covered.

I am putting together a medley of tracks for a local performance but they are very different bpms so wont mix. So it would be good to abruptly end, maybe add an effect, and have the other one then kick in.

Is there a clever way to add an effect to make a track abruptly end… I have heard some songs apply like an echo effect that kind of brings the song to a halt, which nicely allows an effect to be added, or faded out

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Effect > Fade-In and Effect > Fade Out. There’s also the Envelope tool which will allow you to change the volume of a track, note by note if you want.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/envelope_tool.html

Are you placing the old and new tracks on separate timelines? That’s more or less required to execute any of the cross-fade tricks.

Since you’re doing this in post production, you can play phrase games. Wait until the top track gets to the end of a logical phrase and stop it dead. Then start the new song at the exact beginning of a new phrase and if you play your cards right, it will sound OK, even though nobody will think it’s all one song.

You can also cross-fade the song if the beats aren’t too far out. That’s more of an adventure because only two or three beats may match before they drift too far out. Doing this in real time is why the hot DJs get the big bucks.

Koz

Thanks for your response.
I do put them on separate timelines but doing a cross fade is almost killing the momentum of the performance that this musical piece is for.

The drop sounds interesting… I might try that. Assume it’s just finding the right bit and trimming it there ?

Will look into the envelope feature u mentioned too

Thanks

The drop sounds interesting

If you mean stop dead and start up again with little or no gap, yes. I’ve heard DJs do that when there’s just no hope of gracefully smooshing them together with a crossfade. Generally at last call. Time to wind down the audience.

Sometimes you have to leave enough gap so the first note of the second song occurs on the place when the next beat of the last song would have been if there was one. And it only works on complete phrases. No fair whacking up the song into random notes. The audience needs to think that it’s intentional, not a ham-handed mistake.

Koz