Working with music files. Music editing programs

If you are passionate about music and would like to practice self-creation interesting mixes, then you should definitely get acquainted with the advanced Virtual DJ program. It is used not only by beginners in this business, but also by experienced DJs. The application resembles a real DJ console, but unlike it, it provides much more opportunities for mixing audio compositions.

Virtual DJ can replace an audio studio; it contains everything you need for professional DJing. With multi-deck support, you can mix multiple tracks at once, and the built-in multi-band equalizer allows you to always achieve excellent sound. It is noteworthy that the program is compatible with external controllers, mixers and other DJ equipment, making work in it easier.

With it, you can mix not only audio, but also video files in real time, using various audio and video effects, transitions, samples and other DJ bells and whistles. Many DJs know how important the speed of playing tracks is, so this product has built-in automatic adjustment of the sound speed, of course, if it does not work as you would like, then you can always adjust everything manually.

  • Multimedia
  • Audio editors

ocenaudio 3.6.0.1

ocenaudio is a cross-platform audio editor. This free program provides users with ample opportunities for sound processing. With its help, you can edit not only musical compositions, but also audio recordings made with a voice recorder, etc. For ease of use, audio files in the application are presented in the form of waves, i.e. visually.

Of course, the editor supports common audio formats. By loading a file into it, you can process it entirely or select the area you need to edit. At the same time, all necessary tools for trimming, joining, deleting, copying and pasting audio fragments.

Effects and filters deserve special mention; thanks to them, it becomes possible to do noise reduction, normalize sound, add echo, convert frequencies, etc. In addition, to evaluate the applied filter or effect, and indeed after any changes, you can immediately listen to the result.

  • Multimedia
  • Audio editors

Wave Editor 3.8.0.0

The Wave Editor program was released specifically for beginners; it is a small audio editor with a very friendly interface. With its help it is possible to perform the most necessary operations on audio files.

For example, thanks to this application you can easily create a cool ringtone for calling your phone or increase/decrease the sound volume in your favorite musical composition to achieve the right sound.

Wave Editor has the usual functionality for such programs; it allows you to select, copy, delete, paste or cut the desired fragment of an audio file, tracks of any audio format are supported, and the result is saved in mp3 or wav.

  • Multimedia
  • Audio editors

TagScanner 6.0.32

TagScanner is a useful program for music lovers; with its help you can create and edit music collections. As the name suggests, the utility allows you to work with tags and supports them the following types: APEv2, ID3v1, ID3v2, MP4, Vorbis Comments, WMA. In addition, if necessary, using this application you can batch rename audio files.

With support for Amazon and FreeDB databases, Tag Scanner's automatic mode searches and collects information for your musical compositions. In addition, if you need to change tags in several files, the program allows you to use batch mode, which significantly saves the user’s time. The built-in tag editor provides extensive capabilities, for example: changing the case of letters, searching and replacing text in track names and tags.

  • Multimedia
  • Audio editors

mp3DirectCut (mp3 Direct Cut) 2.25

Very often, users need to quickly cut a piece of audio from an MP3 file, for example, to create a ringtone. The mp3DirectCut program is perfect for these purposes; it is an audio editor in which you can perform various operations with MP3 files.

A distinctive feature of mp3 Direct Cat is the preservation of the original audio quality, i.e. after editing the song, it will not be re-encoded; this approach makes it possible to obtain a musical composition without loss of quality.

The application allows users to: cut a specified piece of an audio track, create an effect of increasing or decreasing sound volume, copy a section of a song for subsequent insertion, record a signal directly from a sound card.

  • Multimedia
  • Audio editors

Audacity 2.3.0

To work professionally with sound, you need a powerful digital audio editor, which is exactly what the free Audacity program is. This software provides users with enormous opportunities for editing and processing audio tracks, and in its functionality it is practically not inferior to such audio editing giants as Adobe Audition and Sound Forge. It is worth noting that the product in question is cross-platform, so it can be used on all popular operating systems.

Audacity supports recording and digitizing audio from different sources and can work with both one and many tracks at the same time. Using this editor, you can perform the most common operations on audio files, for example, cut or copy part of a track and paste it elsewhere, change the playback speed and pitch of a musical composition, convert audio tracks into the required formats, listen to the result without interrupting other operations (recording, processing, etc.).

Initially, the application can open and record files in MP3 and WAV formats, but after connecting the FFmpeg, LAME and libsndfile libraries, it begins to work with AAC, AC3, WMA, etc. formats. In general, despite a large number of functions, the editor's capabilities can be further expanded through the use of various plugins. Also worth a special mention are the effects, the use of which will allow you to get exactly the sound that you need.

  • Multimedia
  • Audio editors

MuseScore 2.3.2

If you are a musician and are looking for a convenient application for working with sheet music, meet MuseScore. It is a sheet music editor for convenient visual management of musical scores.

MuzSkor allows you to add notes to a specially marked page in a ruler from a PC keyboard and MIDI keyboard; in addition, you can use a computer mouse for the same purpose.

Speaking about musical lines, it is worth noting that you can change their number; there are no restrictions in this regard. Those. if necessary, you can add or remove them, creating the desired page layout.

  • Multimedia
  • Audio editors

Free Audio Editor 2015 9.2.7

Free Audio Editor is an advanced audio file editor. The program allows you to edit two audio tracks at once. The editor will help you process the required audio material.

The Free Audio Editor application can capture sound from various sources (microphone, headset or line-in). After recording, the track opens in the program window, where you can immediately edit it.

That is, thanks to this software, it becomes possible not only to import and export audio files, but also to create them. The audio recording in the work area looks like a sound wave and its selected segment can be stretched or compressed.

  • Multimedia
  • Audio editors

Free Audio Editor 1.1.36.831

Free Audio Editor (formerly Free Audio Dub) is a small audio editor with which you can perform simple editing of audio files. A special feature of the application is editing files without losing quality.

The program allows you to cut certain parts from audio. This can be useful when you want to create a ringtone for your phone. This product can work with the following audio formats: aac, m4a, mp2, mp3, ogg, wav, wma.

Using the audio editor is quite simple and to cut a track the user must perform the following operations: select the source and output audio file, determine the part of the track that needs to be cut (this can be done using the built-in audio player), indicate what needs to be done with the selected part of the track (cut it and leave everything else or vice versa).

With new technologies, working on audio recordings is no longer the sole responsibility of professionals. Now every home PC user has the opportunity to trim, mix and apply effects to sound files.

What can we say about transcoding them into various formats. Along with installed programs, online services also allow such actions. The most convenient of the programs and services will be discussed further.

Downloadable editors

The traditional way of editing audio is to use installed programs.

Such programs provide ample opportunities, but to solve simple tasks, like transcoding a file or trimming a composition, there are “too many” of them. However, many users prefer to use programs.

"People's" program for sound processing. With a free distribution model, it offers a solid toolkit.

The first version of the software became available to the public in 2000. Since then, the project has been continuously developed and improved. The latest version for today was released on March 29, 2015.

Audacity supports reading and writing many formats, and various codecs, including: WAV, AIFF, AU, Ogg, MP2 and MP3. Available wide range recoding capabilities sound signal between formats.

In fact, any source file can be recoded into any format supported by the program.

Among other features, it is worth mentioning an unlimited number of tracks for mixing and a large number of additional filters and effects.

Audio editor: Wavosaur

A free music editor that can seriously compete with other audio processing programs. In this case, the program does not require installation and does not make any changes to the system registry. A special feature is the ability to display a detailed track in 3D mode.

Wavosaur supports the most common formats: WAV, MP3, OGG, AIF, AIFF.

Ample opportunities are available for signal transcoding between formats, editing an unlimited number of tracks and processing in real time.

A significant drawback of the editor is that the supported operating systems are limited to the range from Win XP to Vista. Owners of the common 7, 8 and 8.1 will have to look for an alternative.

Audio editor: Audio Editor Gold

Audio Editor Gold, unlike previous programs, is not distributed free of charge. Trial access is limited to 30 days and constantly pops up a registration reminder. It features a friendly interface.

Track editing is done on a wave model, which can be scaled in detail to more accurately highlight sections of the track. You can edit each channel separately.

The software supports free transcoding between all supported formats, including WAV, WMA, Ogg and MP3. Any file can be freely recoded into one of the available formats.

Online audio editors

Network technologies are evolving. Their current level makes it possible to transfer the functionality of many programs to the browser. Editing audio and video using network resources is no longer fiction, but a reality accessible to any network user.

Audio editor: TwistedWave

With TwistedWave, there is no need to download and install proprietary audio editing software. The service offers the ability to trim, re-encode or add a filter to an audio recording using a browser.

Among the possibilities are about 40 VTS effects, fading effects over the entire track or sections of it, transcoding and saving the finished track in the cloud.

The service supports working with many formats: WAV, MP3, FLAC, Ogg, MP2, WMA, AIFF, AIFC, Apple CAF. TwistedWave allows you to freely transcode files between supported formats.

For the saved recording, you can manually set the bitrate from 8 kB/s to 320 kB/s. That is, the service turned out to be a good audio converter.

Info! Free processing is only possible for mono mode. You will have to pay extra for processing a recording in two or more channels.

Audio editor: Online MP3 Cutter

With this service, cutting music will turn into a simple process that takes a minimum of time. To get the required segment of the composition you will need only three steps: open the file, determine the segment and download the finished piece of the song.

The saved segment can be recoded into a more convenient format. The service supports five formats: MP3, AMR, WAC, AAC and Apple CAF. It is also convenient to use for simple audio transcoding.

It is enough to simply not define the segment to be extracted from the composition, and choose to save it in a different format. That is, despite the fact that cutting music is the main purpose of Online MP3 Cutter, it can be used to successfully reformat audio.

Payment will not be required at any stage of using the service. A simple and intuitive interface with a minimum of necessary features is ideal for everyday use.

Audio Editor: Make Your Own Ringtone

A convenient online service designed to create your own ringtones. Unlike the previous audio trimming service, it has 16 effects that can be applied to the recording.

Six audio encoding formats are supported: MP3, OGG, AAC, M4R, MPC and MP4. The finished file can be saved either to a computer or to a mobile device. It is possible to send the finished piece to email.

Make Your Own Ringtone can also be successfully used as an online music converter. All supported formats are freely convertible. That is, it is not necessary to trim the composition, you can simply save it in the desired format.

Audio editor is a simple and convenient service that makes working with music tracks as simple as possible. Technology is developing faster and faster every day, and today any novice user will be able to work with audio recordings without turning to professionals for help. Each person at home can give the soundtrack an original effect, cut out the chorus of a song, or mix several melodies and record their own remake of the track.


The user will also be able to change the format of the audio recording. You can not only use installed programs on your PC, but also work with music online via special services in the Internet. For maximum convenience, we will consider several utilities and services.

Downloadable editors

All changes to the audio track can be made using a specific program. By downloading it, you can get an advanced melody editing tool, including even such simple functions, like trimming a music track or changing its format.

Audacity

A standard and accessible utility for processing audio tracks, consisting of a large set of functionality. Audacity appeared back in 2000. More than 15 years have passed since its release, and during this time the project is regularly supplemented and developed. Last update This software was released in March 2015. The program can work with many audio formats and codecs: AIFF, WAV, MP2, MP3, Ogg, AU and others. Any format can be transcoded very quickly. For ease of use, the Audacity utility has a huge number of different audio tracks for combining, special effects and filters that allow you to make any composition more vibrant and original.

Wavosaur


Wavosaur is a free music editor that is considered the most functional and easy to use. One of the advantages of this program is that you can work in it via the Internet without downloading it to your computer. What makes Wavosaur unique is the ability to present each audio track in 3D. The service opens many audio formats: WAV, AIFF (AIF), MP3, Ogg, etc. An unlimited number of melodies are processed in real time. The program works on all operating systems except Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. If the user has OS data installed, he will have to find an alternative program for working with music tracks.

Audio Editor Gold


Compared to those listed above, the Audio Editor Gold utility is not free. The demo version is available for 30 days, after which a reminder to register the program constantly appears. The interface is very convenient and simple, therefore, despite paid basis, this service is also very popular among music lovers. You can edit a track on the displayed wavelength of the audio recording, which can be scaled to more clearly highlight sections of the audio track. Transcoding any audio file using Audio Editor Gold will happen very quickly, so the process of creating creative compositions will not take much of your time and will not turn into a routine.

Online audio editors

The Internet is developing, and today users of the World Wide Web have the opportunity to use many programs online. Each Internet client can very easily edit any audio track without installing programs on their PC.

TwistedWave


TwistedWave is one of the utilities that you do not need to install on your computer. The program has the functions of trimming, transcoding and using the desired filter to change the audio track online.
TwistedWave contains decay effects for the sound of the entire melody or its individual section, about 40 VTS effects. In addition, the program's feature set includes a convenient option for saving the edited melody in the network cloud. The following formats are supported: WAV, FLAC, MP3, WMA, Ogg, MP2, AIFC, AIFF, Apple CAF, etc. Even the bitrate can be set manually (from 8 kB/s to 320 kB/s). All of the above allows us to judge TwistedWave software as a multifunctional audio converter.

Free processing is only possible for mono mode. You will have to pay extra for processing a recording in two or more channels.

Online MP3 Cutter


One of the simplest and easiest-to-use utilities for editing audio tracks. Online MP3 Cutter allows you to create effective melodies, spending a minimum of time and effort on the processing process.
For example, to cut a chorus from a composition, you just need to select the desired melody, open it, select the desired section and save the finished audio segment to your computer. At the same stage, the track is re-encoded into the desired format. Online MP3 Cutter works with five audio formats: WAC, AAC, AMR, Apple CAF and MP3. You can use any of the functions of this software absolutely free, be it reformatting audio compositions, trimming or applying various musical effects. The ease of working with the service and a pleasant interface make the Online MP3 Cutter program one of the most popular among most users.

Make Your Own Ringtone


Make Your Own Ringtone is one of the most convenient online programs, the functionality of which is aimed at creating original ringtones. Unlike the Online MP3 Cutter service, Make Your Own Ringtone uses about 16 various effects overlays on the recording.
Track encoding formats: MPC, OGG, MP3, M4R, AAC and MP4. You can save the created melody to your computer, mobile device, or send the finished track to the specified email to any user. Make Your Own Ringtone can be used as an online program. All declared formats are very easily and quickly converted and saved into the required formats. You can trim the audio track, or you can simply save it again in the desired format.

A small, free MP3 file editor for direct editing (no decoding), eliminating quality loss and saving time. The program allows you to trim silence, normalize and smoothly reduce sound, combine files, edit ID3 tags and burn MP3 to a disc without decompression in PCM format (ACM and LAME codecs are supported). Supports large files.

Remember the times when we rejoiced at the advent of polyphony in mobile phones? What opportunities opened up: you could put your favorite melody on the call (which, however, could only be ordered at that time on paid services).

And even though it was not a full-fledged composition, but only a polyphonic one, this fashion (putting a melody on a bell) spread everywhere. And even then there were rumors, or maybe wild dreams, that very soon Cell phones will play full-fledged melodies in mp3 format.

Soon this is exactly what happened. But since those mobile phones had very little memory (only a few megabytes), spending it entirely on just one song, even a favorite one, was completely reckless (after all, you could save a few more photos with a 0.3 megapixel camera!).

It was then that it became fashionable to cut tracks, say, to the chorus or favorite moment in the song. And, oddly enough, now mp3 melodies are cut off no less often than before: new favorite compositions appear, old ones become boring, and we still get to the phone just as quickly, so we have absolutely no need for a long melody.

Why did I remember all this? Yes, because there are a great many programs for editing (including trimming) audio files, and in order to trim a melody several times a year, it is not at all necessary to learn to use professional software, which you most likely do not want to understand. And here is a free, convenient and unusually simple program for any user - mp3DirectCut.

However, trimming melodies is not the only function of the program, but, as it seems to me, it is one of the most popular “light” audio editors in this class.

Main features of the mp3DirectCut program:

  • Trimming, splicing and extracting audio, some editing capabilities;
  • Record and encode to mp3 with audio input device;
  • Editing metadata of audio files.

Program installation

Installation takes place in literally two clicks: just unpack the archive and run!

Interface

When you first launch the program, you will be greeted and prompted to select an interface language, fortunately, Russian is present.

The main window of the program: the central part is given to the graph - a standard situation for such programs. However, this graph is not the actual waveform of the "audio object"; it is intended to be used for navigation rather than to obtain frequency information from visual perception.


As you can see, almost all the buttons are inactive until the audio file to be edited is opened.

Now let’s add a full-fledged composition in mp3 format; this can be done by clicking the “Open” button in the upper left corner of the window, or the corresponding item in the “File” menu.

I have a problem: I really like this album, but its penultimate song ends with a long “silence” in my headphones (probably as intended by the artist - the end of the main part of the album before the bonus track, which has a slightly different style). And when this divine sound in my head ends, I have to return to real world, where it is not always comfortable. =)

Therefore, I want the next track to immediately start playing after the end of the penultimate song.

It’s good that I now have the mp3DirectCut program, with which I can easily cut off the silence at the end of a composition without making any changes to the encoding, without changing its quality or any other parameters except timing. Moreover, the program itself recognized “silence” in the audio track.

Right in the middle of the screen, as you probably noticed, there is a vertical dotted line (1), which does not change its centered position, being a kind of “sight” on the diagram. With its help, you can very simply and accurately select a fragment. You can do it the other way (using mouse buttons), but this will be more accurate and clearer. So, let's begin.

Using the slider at the bottom (4), which scrolls the diagram, we move the vertical marker (1) to the beginning of the area that the program has selected as not having audio frequencies (move the slider with the mouse, holding it with the left button). The marker will conveniently “stick” to the line, making it clear that you will not make a mistake. Now click the “Start selection” button (2).

Now drag the slider to the right again – until the very end of the composition (it won’t let you go any further). And this time press the “End selection” button (3).

All that remains is to “cut out” the fragment I don’t need, which I do by pressing the “Delete” button on the keyboard.

Unfortunately, I don’t know why, when selecting this area, the program does not highlight it in a different color (apparently the colors are the same), if you select to the left - where the “frequencies” are visible on the graph - the selection is perfectly highlighted.

That's it, the fragment has been removed - admire it for yourself.

Now you can save the file. To save in mp3 format, leaving it unchanged (except for timing, of course), select the “File” and “Item” menu. Now we save the file in mp3 format - in principle, the program did not provide me with any other option.

That's all. The program can do a few more things, but no more than is necessary for an inexperienced user. this issue to the user. Still, in order to work more deeply with sound, you need knowledge, and for this there is more powerful programs, usually paid. Well, for starters, this one will do!

Believe it or not, one of my favorite artists (whose track I cut) once created his first “beats” using cassette recorders, re-recording mixes with fragments of different tracks onto cassettes. And these compositions were played on the radio! And even with this simple program you have more possibilities! So, perhaps some of you will start your long journey with this program ;-), who knows...

Uninstalling a program

This is the first time I’ve included such a clause in the manual, but there are reasons for this. The fact is that the program cannot be removed using standard methods. That is, neither standard Windows tools nor third-party programs will help you with this.

A special feature of the program is that it does not create entries in the registry and system folders. All configuration is stored in a file mp3DirectCut.ini, which is located in the program folder ( Program Files\mp3DirectCut).

By deleting this file, you will delete all settings. If you run the program again after this, the updated file will appear again. Therefore, to completely remove the program, delete the mp3DirectCut folder in Program Files, the desktop shortcut (if there is one), and the links in the Start menu.

Advantages and disadvantages of the program

  • The program is simple, functional, will work even on the weakest hardware (tested on a 2005 computer and Windows XP), weighs only 400 kb - you can download from your phone =);
  • Fast and easy navigation even through large files – up to 4 GB;
  • A very good translation into Russian, there are localizations into other “rare” languages ​​(even into Ukrainian), I counted 26 languages.
  • There are simply no obvious disadvantages. One could name a lack of functionality, but everyone already understands that one cannot demand too much from this type of program.

conclusions

The program is made, as they say, “for humans.” The interface, no matter how trivial it may sound, is truly intuitive. I didn’t even bother reviewing the settings, since anyone can figure them out. It is not for nothing that such programs are very loved by users. You will quickly fall in love with it if you often do simple operations with audio files, and it will not interfere with your computer or generally affect the system in any way if you use it only occasionally.

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Vyacheslav Protasov is preserved.

P.P.S.. If the functions of this program are not enough for you, try the full-fledged free...

  • Audio editing features include trim, copy, paste, delete, silence, auto-trim and others.
  • Audio effects include audio boost, normalization, equalizer, envelope, reverb, echo, reverse and many others.
  • Built-in support for VST plugins gives professionals access to thousands of additional instruments and effects.
  • Supports most audio file formats including mp3, wav, vox, gsm, wma, au, aif, flac, real audio, ogg, aac, m4a, mid, amr and many more.
  • Batch processing allows you to apply effects and/or convert thousands of files in a single function.
  • Search audio recordings and bookmark them for more precise editing.
  • Create bookmarks and regions to make it easier to find, recall, and collect segments of long audio files.
  • Tools include spectrum analysis (FFT), speech synthesizer and voice changer.
  • Sound restoration features include noise reduction and crackle removal.
  • Supports sampling rates from 6 to 96 kHz, stereo or mono, 8, 16, 24 or 32 bit.
  • Works directly with the MixPad multi-track audio mixer
  • With an easy-to-use interface, you'll be editing in minutes