Hope in the right place as this is my first visit to Audacity.
I have a few tracks that I’d like to alter. Nothing stereo, very old Jazz which is my passion. Unfortunately, there are tunes where for reasons unknown except to the performer who spoiled things, every so often someone would warble a chorus and slow down the the inst. I used to be able to very simply alter the track by cutting out a phrase or the guitar part say, and easily join up the two parts I wanted to keep. This was done with something called DVDVideoSoft. Well, since one of their upgrades (not to me it wasn’t) that feature seems to be gone. So I downloaded Audacity tonight hoping I could use this app to do that simple job. I’m not geeky and a slow learner, (age?) and some tech things come very hard to me. I learn em okay but it takes me awhile. And Audacity doesn’t look simple. 
Any help or advice appreciated. Thanks.
If your work is in MP3, then Audacity may not be the best thing to use anyway. When you do simple cuts in Audacity, the resulting music file has more sound damage than when you started.
We have been recommending mp3splt. This software does simple edits in an MP3 without increasing the distortion of the music.
http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net/mp3splt_page/home.php
Koz
Thank You very much.
Will try. It sounds like just what I need.
Much appreciated.
JD
Hi again Koz.
I downloaded the app but.
Don’t understand. I got the .exe okay and clicked. It seemed to download a black window with white lettering, tons of reading but I didn’t see the actual app itself as shown on their download page. ?? The screen shot they show looks pretty much self explanatory and in some ways similar to the old DVDVideoSoft app. But it sure didn’t download to my desktop.
Any advice?
Thanks.
Why are we recommending mp3splt for Windows - the site is confusing as there are separate command-line and interface versions which is not explained properly on the home page. See http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?p=191311#p191311 .
If you want an interface, you can also try MP3DirectCut:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Lame_Installation#lossy .
Gale
Inertia.
Koz
Aha. There is an interface on Windows but it is the separate “GTK” application. Here is a direct link to the interface version for Windows:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mp3splt/mp3splt-gtk_0.7.3_i386.exe
In view of the poorly presented site I suggest we give the direct link for Windows (as above). For Mac, it barely seems worth recommending except to advanced users as the site uses Fink or MacPorts distribution even for the GTK version.
I have updated the Wiki page.
Gale
I recommend MP3Split because it is cross-platform (without the need for WINE) and I use it (on Linux).
The command line version supports Audacity Label files for defining split points, which could be a useful feature for some users.
Installing on Linux is usually straightforward as many distributions include it in their repositories.
On Debian based systems, installing mp3splt-gtk will install all necessary packages.
MP3DirectCut may be a better option for Windows though personally I’ve only briefly tried it.
MP3DirectCut has a feature for non-destructive volume change, fade and normalize, which I don’t think that MP3Split has.
Then what is the recommendation for Mac?
indeed that seems a good point, but many Windows users are not comfortable with using command-line apps.
See the Wiki page I linked to:
Missing features - Audacity Support .
Gale
Hello Gale and thanks.
You’re right, that other app was a bit complicated and I uninstalled it. Downloaded the MP3 Direct. Gee, they sure try and get ya to download a bunch of other stuff and change browser and home page etc.
Well, it really did look easy enough to do the minor stuff I needed an editor for. Very similar to one I use a long time ago. So I don’t understand why I’m having a problem with it. It totally freezes or else takes forever to cut a five second tag off the end of an instr. trk. I can’t figure out why. Any advice?
Again my thanks.
JayD
Many free (even some open source) programs are like that now - it provides some income. Audacity will not be going down that road, though.
I rarely work with MP3’s because they are lossy. Is the original MP3 very long?
Mp3splt may be OK if you download the GTK version that has an interface to work with:
Download mp3splt-gtk_0.7.3_i386.exe (mp3splt) .
Or you can try a similar app called MP3TrueEdit ( http://www.ithinkapps.com/ ) which is free for 15 days.
Gale