"Clip" sound after editing

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hi there,

I hope I can explain this (I’m not good at explaining things)…
I have Audacity 2.30 and use it all the time.
I’ve noticed that when i edit portions of a file, usually an MP3, I sometimes hear a “clip” sound afterward. Why does it do this, and how can I eliminate it?
I’ve tried to find the precise location in the file where the clip is, but I don’t see it. Should I?

Thanx for your help. :slight_smile:

2

Make sure you are selecting at the [u]zero crossings[/u].

Or, you may have a [u]DC offset[/u]. If you have a DC offset, you can try to remove it, or you can use a short fade-in or fade-out.

3

when i edit portions of a file

Describe that with more words. Are you smashing two different files together? Deleting a small part of an existing file? That will help us suggest solutions.

Koz

4

I’m attempting to mix 2 separate MP3 files together.

I think I may have found at least one location where the sound occurs. (See attached jpg)
Is there a way I can clean up this area to remove the noise?
clip noise.jpg

5

I also found someone with the same problem, but for an older version of Audacity here:
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/clicking-sound-noise-when-editing/21437/1

6

I think I may have found at least one location where the sound occurs. (See attached jpg)

I see some “wiggles” that might be noise, but I don’t see anything related to cutting/splicing.

I’m attempting to mix 2 separate MP3 files together.

Do you mean like mixing your voice and music together? So the two songs play at the same time?

Or do you want the songs to play in sequence, possibly with a crossfade? If you want to play them in sequence, a [u]crossfade[/u] should make a smooth connection/transition. A crossfade can be very short (a few milliseconds) so you don’t really notice it or it can be a few seconds so you can hear the songs overlap with the 1st one fading-out while the next one is fading-in.


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Unrelated to your problem… As you may know, MP3 is lossy compression. When you open an MP3 in Audacity or any “normal” audio editor it gets decompressed. If you re-export to MP3 you are going through another generation of lossy compression, and the “damage” does accumulate. You may not notice the quality loss but it’s something to be aware of. If possible, edit the uncompressed originals and compress ONCE as the last step. If you don’t have lossless originals, try to minimize the number of times the file is compressed and use a high-bitrate/high-quality setting when you re-compress.

There are special-purpose MP3 editors (such as MP3directCut) that can do (limited) editing without decompressing the MP3.