Editing cuts

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stefan.
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Editing cuts

Post by stefan. » Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:59 am

Hi, I am editing a few pieces of classical music and as you can imagine, the cuts have to be very smooth throughout.
I am having difficulties removing the sound of the actual cut, it sounds like a separate bit has been put in and I am
trying to avoid that.
Any help is welcome. Thanks, Stef

kozikowski
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Re: Editing cuts

Post by kozikowski » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:31 pm

That's a little too fuzzy for us to understand. Try describing it with actual instruments. "I'm trying to remove the violins from a Vivaldi orchestral presentation." or "I need to remove act two from a three act opera." We need to be able to visualize what you're doing since we can't be there to actually see it.

Koz

stefan.
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Re: Editing cuts

Post by stefan. » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:49 pm

Thanks for your answer. Its piano solo that I am dealing with.
I have had to combine many cuts together to create a complete piece. Some cuts are fine and smooth,
while the others are audible. By that I mean, you can hear that there is cut, simple as that. I tried
to play around to find the actual sound that it produces but to no avail, it always sounds as if there is a cut.

kozikowski
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Re: Editing cuts

Post by kozikowski » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:36 pm

People frequently make the mistake of trying to cut individual notes or sounds out of a completed performance. Most of the time you can't do that because even though the notes are OK, the expression, swing, and emphasis are going to be off. Much better to edit a completed phrase.

If the performance is too choppy for that, there is still the possibility of rapid fades between two audio tracks. This is how video editors work. You can't actually edit sound in video, but everybody's expecting it to work anyway, so instead of a hard cut, they do a rapid dissolve between two sounds. Most people can't tell the difference.

You put two tracks one above the other and, using the Time Shift and Envelope tools, cross-fade between them, like this...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/CrossFade.jpg

The top track has an error in the last half and the bottom track has an error in the first half. Neither error makes it out of the edit.

I'm assuming you're reasonably good at the magnifier and cut and paste tools. There are Hollywood editors who make a good living doing what you're trying to do. It's not simple.

Koz

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