I have a song that is 3:41. I am using in a competition and I need to cut it to less than 3:10. I have cut some off the beginning and off the end of the song. And out of the middle a little.
My problem is, if I cut some out of the middle of the song, how do I blend it together to make it sound like it was meant to be how I made it? Some help would be greatly appreciated.
That’s a tricky thing to do…
Try a [u]crossfade[/u]. You probably want a very-short crossfade (maybe 1/10th of a second) but that depends on what you want it to sound like and what you can do with the particular song. Try to match the beats & measures. It’s going to take some trial-and-error.
If you can cut-off more of the ending, that might be better than chopping out of the middle. You can use a fade-out, or you can try cutting it just-after a beat and add/or some reverb or some echo timed to the beat for a more natural feel. I assume a second or two of reverb/echo after the last beat won’t be counted as part of the “performance” time. You’ll need to add some silence to the end to “make room” for the reverb/echo, and then start the reverb/echo at the last beat (or the last few beats). If you want to synchronize the echo to the beat, count the beats-per-minute and calculate the time between beats. Then set the echo for 1 beat, 2 beats, or a full-measure (4 beats assuming 4/4 time).
At the end of the song where the echo and/or reverb overlaps it will get louder. So, you may need to use the envelope tool to even-out the volume or to prevent clipping.