Newbie - Trim chitterchat off begining & end of file

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

I have been working on this for hours. If I highlight a section I want to delete, the audio quickstarts and plays, greying out all the options like cut, delete, trim etc. If I hit the yellow stop button, the section I highlighted reverts to entire file, I really need some help. This seems like it should be easy squeezy.

2

It’s easy squeezy when you know how :wink:
To make a selection, click and drag on the “track” with the blue wiggly waveform (not on the “Timeline” above the track / tracks).

There are also other ways to make audio selections: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/audacity_selection.html

3

Thanks so much Steve.

I used your technique to move the front end noise out, but there is noise at the back too. When I slide the file to lose the back gunk, the front gunk comes back into view. AM I missing a step?

4

Let’s say that you have, for example, a 1 minute track and there is gunk in the first 5 seconds and gunk in the last 5 seconds.

  1. Zoom In/Out as required so that you can see the first 5 seconds (see: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/zooming.html)
    If you are zoomed in such that the full 1 minute does not fit in the track window, then there will be a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the track window. You can click and drag that scroll bar to scroll the view horizontally.

  2. Click at 5 seconds with the left mouse button, and while holding down the left mouse button, drag to the left until you have selected back to 0 seconds. The first 5 seconds are now “Selected” and will be highlighted in a darker shade,

  3. Press the “Del” key on your keyboard to delete the selected audio.

  4. Scroll to the end of the track.

  5. Click at the start of the gunk at the end of the track (5 seconds before the end of the track).

  6. Holding down the left mouse button, drag the selection to the end (or beyond the end) of the track,

  7. Press the “Del” button to delete the selected audio.