I’m able to digitize my audio cassette tapes for which I am sooo grateful to Audacity and help on this list.
I haven’t been the best at editing that digitized file.
At the end if I have lots of empty sound I would place the mouse cursor just to the right of where I see the last of the purple waves and then press Shift/End and click the Delete button. But, it seems to cut off the end of the last of the music digitized.
I’d like it to delete just after the conclusion of the end off the last of the music without cutting any music out.
Is there a better way to do that editing?
Also, at the front end, the tape starts and there’s about 10 seconds of dead air space and then the first of the music plays. I tried to reach that very first area by pushing the little hand to the left to 0:00 but it only stops at the last of the zeroes of the 0:00 not the first zero or where the digitized file begins.
Is there a sure fire way to reach the very beginning of the digitized file? And then how could I delete from there to the very first sound of any music to delete that 10 seconds intro?
Drag- select an area bigger than the portion you want to sheer off and Control-E Zoom In. Then drag-select the flat blue waves (silent lead-in or lead-out) but leave a little of it still attached to the show (illustration – the light portion will remain). Press Delete. Zoom out Full with Control-F. Do that at both ends of the show. Then Export the WAV or MP3.
Press the “Home” key on your keyboard. This will take you to the very start (time zero).
Hold down the shift key, and while holding it down, click and drag on the waveform to just before the start of the music. Release the mouse button, then release the Shift key.
The other long winded way would be to place your cursor where you want the cut to start/end. So if you want to cut everything from 0:00 to say 15:00 then place your cursor at 15:00 and go to the menus at the top: Edit —> Select —> Track Start to Cursor.
Then press Delete.
Same for the end. So you know where the music finishes, zoom in a bit and place cursor at the end of the music. Edit —> Select —> Cursor to Track End.
Press Delete.
I tend to do it this way because I’ve never been a keyboard short cuts kinda person.
Pressing stop will do that. You should be able to click the waveform to place the cursor where you want. Ensure you have the “selection tool” button activated at the top on the toolbar.
The questions remain what’s the easiest step-by-by step process of ascertaining what the digital number is for the point where the music begins and then what’s he step-by-step process to delete from that spot back to all zeroes?
I think the problem you are having is probably step (1). If you are zoomed out too far you will not be able to see precisely where the music starts. Zoom in close so that you can click in precisely the right place.
Maybe this plug-in helps you: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/arrange-your-tracks-with-chain-it-up-ny/26201/1
It searches both, from the start and the end until it finds a sound that is louder than the threshold.
For the transition type choose “Trim and align left”.
If the threshold is equal or less than -120 dB, then only digital silence i.e. only zeros are going to be removed.
However, in this case, you can also use the command Edit >> Clip Boundaries >> Detach at Silences.
There is only ever one “tool” enabled at a time. If you enable the “Selection tool” then the Zoom tool will no longer be selected. To enable the Selection tool, press the F1 key.
