Audacity Forum

Basically all I want to do is edit some songs so its JUST the solo part of the song. ex. minutes 6:30-9:00 and then save that 2 and a half minutes and export to itunes.
Thanks!

Precision editing is not the best in Audacity, so I'd do it backwards.

Make sure you have a protection copy of the whole performance because you're going to mess up the one on the timeline pretty bad.

Basically, delete everything before and after your clip and Export As WAV....

Select a place just before your clip and delete everything from there to the beginning. Then magnify what's left so you see the beginning of your clip and the beginning of the remaining undesired work. Select and delete that. Now you have your clip with a clean beginning but a lot of tail.

Go to the end of the clip and just a little further and delete everything from that point to the end of the performance. Magnify what's left, find the actual end of the clip and surgically delete from there to the end of what's left.

Export as WAV...

That should drop right into iTunes with no trouble.

Yes, you do have to suddenly get good with reading audio waveforms. You can't depend on the moving cursor being accurate, it's not (this kills people all the time and makes me crazy). So you have to move the cursor and start and stop the playback (Spacebar) until you find the right place.

I would totally convert the timeline to dB instead of percent. Black Down Arrow > Waveform dB. It's easier to see.

That's it. This is exactly how I edit radio shows I want to record and listen in the car.

Koz

Just to add to Koz' reply - you may want to also consider using the Fade-in/Fade-out effects at the beginning/end of your edited track.

WC

Hey thanks but I dont even know how to do what you said

I used to know how to do this but its been a while and I cant figure it out at all anymore! Back when I did it the first time I was cutting a large 50 min+ thing into a bunch of smaller several minute length mp3's. All I remember is it involved highlighting, possibly making markers of some kind and using the toolars at the top of the page (file edit, etc those things)
Still lf help D:

All you need to do is to place a label at each track break - use the Ctrl-B shortcut - and don't forget to place a label right at the beginning for the first track.

Then use Audacity's Export Multiple command (available from the File drop-down) to export a multiple set of WAVs, MP3s or whatever.

The Audacity Wiki, Documentation and Turorials have much useful information on how to do this - a recommended read - http://audacityteam.org/help/

WC

Ah~ Nice thanks a lot I looked up on the wiki before I posted but found ntoihng thanks a ton everyone