Guitar player - need to clip solos

Not good at using recording SW. Long-time pro player needs to be able to isolate guitar parts into a separate file. These are usually just a few seconds long.

I have searched the manual for over an hour. Lots of great info. But I can’t find what I need for the life of me.

All I want to do is “mark out” the solo part and save/export just that file into an MP3 format (or similar). Playback use only, no precision needed.

Ideally I’d love to be able to apply some EQ to bring the part out (if buried) and retain that EQ for the export. This is rarely necessary but would be nice for my current tasks as this track also was pitch shifted.

If someone could tell me how to do these things, I’d be most grateful.

See here for how to “select” part of an audio track: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/audacity_selection.html#mouse
You may also find the “Quick Play” feature useful for finding the appropriate part: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/timeline.html#tqp

If you wish to Eq the selection, use the “Equalization” effect (http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/equalization.html), or just continue to the final step (exporting).

When you have selected the part that you want, use “File menu > Export Selected Audio” to export the selection as a WAV file. Follow the guidelines here to complete the export: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/file_export_dialog.html

If you want a separate file of each solo - Select (highlight) the solo and then File → Export Selected Audio.

Ideally I’d love to be able to apply some EQ to bring the part out (if buried) and retain that EQ for the export.

Note that MP3 is lossy compression and the file gets decompressed when you open it in Audacity. If you intend to export to MP3 again, export to WAV first… Then open the WAV file and apply your EQ, etc., so that you only encode only once more to MP3 as the final step.

The reason this didn’t leap out at you is we can’t split a mixed performance into individual instruments, and past some basic equalization tools, we can’t bring one instrument out over the others.

If the instrument is playing by itself, you can select it on the timeline and File > Export Selected Audio. If you need MP3, you need to install the separate LAME software. Scroll down.

http://audacityteam.org/download/windows

You can select your clip in many different ways. One way is place a label at the beginning and end of the solo. Labels are sticky or magnetic and will cause your drag-select to select the solo only. Then File > Export Selected Audio.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/label_tracks.html

Koz

We would urge production in WAV (Microsoft) rather than MP3. You can’t edit MP3 without the quality getting worse and worse. WAV holds up much better.

Koz

I didn’t know that about MP3 files. Thanks.

As for the EQ - I realize I can’t “grab” just the guitar part in a busy mix but I have had some success making it more audible for my purposes.

Thanks everyone - I’ll see if I can make this work.

Greg