Cutting out a portion of music

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hi All,

I have a free .mp3 music clip where I wanted to delete out just the vocals whch are from 4:01755 to 7:015. I want to keep the music from 0:00:00 to 4:01755 and thenh keep the muc from 7:015 to the end of the music clip.

Would you be so kind as to share the precise step-by-steps?

I poked around Select > Region and tied the from Play-head to right and then tried dragging the play-head to where I wanted the audio to end to cut that portion out it I could use the Scissors to cut just that part out but that didn’t work.

I have a deadline on this and limited I-net access so thank you so very much for your prompt help.

2

Since you have precise timings

  1. go to the Selection Toolbar: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/selection_toolbar.html
  2. set your start and end times for the selection
  3. Observe the selected section “lights up”
  4. Presss Ctrl + K
  5. Observe: selection is deleted
  6. Export your result to desired format

WC

3

Hi WC,

Thank you so much for sharing re: the toolbar which is at the bottom of my screen but I overlooked it.

I actually don’t have precise start and end - I was just using those numbers by example.

I would actually like to determine the precise start of the vocals and the exact end but I’m having a challenging time listening to the video and having to keep pressing pause and then back ups the audio to listen to it to catch the 1st of the vocals in the audio.

In some video editors you can back up or forward precisely using the arrow keys (left, right).

Is there an equivalent feature in Audacity?

Also, is there a more “scientific” way to establish the precise point of the start of the voclas and the exact end besides pressing the Play button and then pressing pause when the voclas ware 1st heard?

Thank you so very much!

4

You could use Scrubbing for this - but the interface can be tricksy to use:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/scrubbing_and_seeking.html

Personally when I do this I use Timeline Quickplay:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/timeline.html#tqp

Zooming in helps when you get close.
Ctrl+1 zooms in
Ctrl+3 zooms out

When you get a precise location drop a label there with Ctrl+B

Do the same at the other end and select between the two labels - you should get yellow snap guides to aid accuracy.

Peter.

5

Hi All,

I’m afraid I’m going backward on this.

I always had that graphic with those sound spikes but now it’s gone.

I’m right clicking everywhere on the Audacity screen but I can’t get that graph back.

It says in the manual link pager to just right click on the toolbar up top which I did but that just made that graph disappear.

Also, is there a tool or icon I can press to make the audio go back incrementally?

e.g. in video editors you can jut keep pressing the arrow keys on your laptop.

That’s not working here.

It’s challenging to find the exact point where the voclas start to Press Ctrl + B and then find the end fo that vocal 2-3 seconds later to Press Ctrl + B again.

Al lot of back and forth…even when I could see that graph.

Thank you!

6

Pls, disregard most of the prior post.

I’d closed out the MP3 so that graph would not show.

I see you can’t press Pause and use the arrow keys, you must press stop to advance incrementally.

It’s challenging from that graph to distinguish when the vocals end and the instrumental begins again (after the opening instrumental).

This seems like what I’d like to do:

1), Save the instrumental form 00.m.109s through 04m.462
2), Delete vocals from 04m:462 through 06.838
3), save the rest of that MP3 Instrumentals
4). Merge/combine the 1st saved instrumentals with the rest of the MP3.

Is that possible?

Thank you!