Audacity Forum

I have been trying to delete the first 55 seconds of a song that I opened in Audacity v1.2.6, but, try as I might, after downloading and following the instructions from various Help venues, I simply cannot obtain this result. When I play the edited file, it still has the 55 second intro. I have read and reread the tutorials but cannot seem to be able to perform this operation successfully.

After I open the file in Audacity, I go to the Save Program menu and give the file a name. Then, with the mouse, I click at the 56 second position and drag to the song's end. Then I listen to the selection and, sure enough, the 55 seconds are not there. So then I record the song and save as an MP3 file to a directory. Yet, when I click on the file in its directory, those 55 seconds are still there.

What do I need to do to keep the 55 seconds off my final copy?

My PC is a Dell desktop, 5-1/2 yrs old, with XP Home, SP3, and 2G RAM.

I would certainly appreciate any help from this forum. I will have to say that the instructions I have read are confusing, to say the least, although I do appreciate the fact that I am using a free program.

Thank you,

I Love Music

You can either select the section you want to retain (as you have described) and then use Export Selection

Or you can select the bits you don't want, delete them leaving just the bits you do want and the do a simple Export

WC

WC, I really thank you for your answer as it was quite helpful.

I did not repeat my first try, which was the source of my frustration. What I did do was to select the part I wanted to delete (per your suggestion), and then continue on to a successful recast of the desired song.

If you have time, I would like to ask you another question. It has to do with the deletion of an unwanted section, to wit, does the Audacity program have a digital counter on screen that can be used when selecting the part to be deleted? What I see now is a ruler above the wave forms divided into 30-second segments. I'm thinking a digital counter could provide a more accurate selection.

Thank you once again.

I Love Music

If you upgrade to Audacity 1.3.12 there are (very useful) counters at the bottom.
(Don't worry about the "beta" description, it's more stable than the (now very old) 1.2.6 version)