Joining two clips seamlessly

[tenortop]

I'm trying to join two separate clips, but no matter what I do I get this tiny little "clip" noise. It's very quiet--almost unnoticeable--but I notice it and I don't want it to be there. Any ideas? Maybe I'm not joining the clips the right way (I was just dragging the second one but up against the first one).

Thanks.

[kozikowski]

This is a common "magic" problem in computer sound systems. Digital sound systems will manage signals that are not sound. One of those signals is DC or battery voltage. If both of your songs shut up for a second, you may find that the thin blue waveforms of the two don't settle at the same level -- at zero. One will be a bit high or low. Maybe both are wrong. You can't hear that until you combine two songs and that error is different. Then you get a little "tick."

Try this. Effect > Normalize > Remove DC Level

...to both songs before you try to marry them. Don't let the tool do anything else. There's about an 80% chance that will do it and you win. The only other remedy for this is a little painful, so let me ask you if your production needs both songs smashed directly into each other. If you can stand a little silence in there, you can fade one out and fade the next one in with common effects tools. Those will not pop.

If you need downbeat accurate editing, you may need to download the current developer build of Audacity 1.3.10. It changes nightly, so this will be very messy. Did we ever establish what kind of computer you have?

Koz

[billw58]

Zoom way in to the where the two clips join, until you can see the dots that represent the individual samples. The two waveforms probably don't join up nicely. Now look for the points where the waves cross the zero line. You might have to zoom out once or twice. Edit out just a few samples so clip 1 ends with the wave as close as possible to zero, and clip 2 begins with the wave as close as possible to zero. It helps if the wave is going in the same direction in both cases. Delete that (it will be a tiny fraction of a second) and listen to the result. Undo if it didn't work and try again. It's fiddly work, but if you're bothered by that tiny click it will be worth it.

Another possibility is to zoom in as before, select 10 or 20 samples (dots) on either side of the boundary and click on Effect > Repair.

Then there's cross-fading, but that's even more fiddly. Let us know if you want a lesson.

-- Bill

[kozikowski]

<<<Effect > Repair.>>>

Is that available in 1.2?

Koz

[billw58]

<<<Effect > Repair.>>>
Is that available in 1.2?
Koz

No.

-- Bill

[waxcylinder]

<<<Effect > Repair.>>>
Is that available in 1.2?
Koz

No.

-- Bill

But you can use the Draw tool (icon is a pencil) in 1.2 - to re-draw an interpolated smoother waveform - after zooming in sa Bill suggested.

WC

[steve]

In 1.2.6 there is also the "smoothing tool", which, if I remember correctly is Alt+Shift+Left Mouse button when using the pencil or multi tool.