Audacity Forum

OK, so I have a recording that has a lot of strong language in it, and I'd like to get creative with censoring it. I can successfully use the Generate menu to put tones in the place of the offending words, but I want to put some interesting sound effects in instead. I open the desired sound effect in a new Audacity window, and copy it. I go back to the previous window, select the offending word or words, and paste the sound effect in. The first sound effect I use is a buzzer, which is about one second long, but I only want it to last as long as the part I'm censoring. However, when I paste, it puts the whole sound effect in, and it erases from the offending word all the way to the end of the recording. How do I prevent this from happening without creating new tracks, etc?

Thunderbolt1000T wrote:without creating new tracks

That's tying both of my hands behind my back.

Can I have just one more track please?

Ingredients:
1 song with filthy language.
A bunch of humorous beeps and squeaks.
Track 1 = song.
Track 2 = "bleeps".

Method:
1) Import the song (track 1)
2) Import a sound effect (track 2)
3) Use the "Time Shift" tool (double headed arrow) to slide the beep into the correct place.
4) Trim the bleep to length using Ctrl+T
5) (optional) Use Fade-In/Out effects to smooth the start and end of the bleep.
6) Double click on the beep so that it is all selected.
7) Press the ENTER key so that it is NOT selected (but the same area on the Time Line still shows the selection)
8) Press the UP cursor key and press ENTER (now the same region of the song is selected)
9) (Optional) Adjust the selection in a little by holding down the SHIFT key and click/drag the edges of the selected region (to allow a little overlap with the beep).
9a) Press Alt+Ctrl+K to "Split Delete" (also available from the Edit menu) - this will "cut out" the offending section.
9b) Use the Fade-in/Out effects to smooth the ends of the song either side of the bit that has been cut out.
10) (If you didn't use the optional step 9) Press Alt+Ctrl+K to "Split Delete" ("cut out" the offending section).
11) Import the next "beep".
12) Cut/Paste or drag (with the Time Shift Tool) the new beep onto track 2.
13) Repeat steps 3 to 10.
14) Repeat as necessary.
15) Export. (this will mix the two tracks into a single track.

Here's an example of what it will look like if you use the optional steps. It's shown here with mono tracks but will work with mono or stereo. (to place them in the same track, the beeps must all be mono or all be stereo).
(Click on picture to remove scroll bars)

Nowadays the radio edit (clean version) can have the swearing reversed, (can do that with one track), "Reverse" is in the "Effects" drop down menu.
Can use "Repair", also in effects menu, to seamlessly join the ends of the reversed section with the track.

Just reverse enough of the word to make it incomprehensible, so even if the track is played backward swearing is not heard, e.g. ...

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 26&t=29298

So, it looks like there isn't an easy way to do it. I can't use the time shift tool because I use a screen reader, and it doesn't work well with the toolbars. If I'm dealing with a long recording with a time of over 15 minutes, like the one I'm trying to censor, creating new tracks can become a pain, because I then have to mix and render them when I'm done. Why can't I just generate silence and paste the sound into the silence? Why does it have to be so complicated?

Thunderbolt1000T wrote:I can't use the time shift tool because I use a screen reader,

That makes a big difference, you should have said so before.

Thunderbolt1000T wrote:because I then have to mix and render them when I'm done.

You don't have to mix and render - tracks are automatically mixed together when you export.

Thunderbolt1000T wrote:Why can't I just generate silence and paste the sound into the silence?

Because Audacity does not automatically truncate pasted clips to the length of the selection. A lot of the time it would be really awkward to have to select the exact right length before you can paste an audio clip.

1) What you can do is to import your sound effect then cut it so that it is on the clipboard and not in the track. You will still have a second track, but it will be empty.
2) Find the position of the bit that you want to replace and set the cursor to that position. One way to do that is to be playing the track then press SHIFT+A then use the cursor keys to fine tune the position.
3) Now paste the sound effect back into its original track.
4) You can use Ctrl+SHIFT+Left Cursor to adjust the right edge of the selection to the left so that you have only the required portion selected.
5) Now press Ctrl+T to truncate the sound effect so that it is now the length of the selection.
6) Press ENTER to toggle the selection off.
7) Press the UP cursor and press ENTER so that the same section is selected on the main track.
8) Press Ctrl+L to silence the swear word.