For example, when we make a region shorter, no audio is lost from the file to which that region refers the edited region simply corresponds to a segment of that file, rather than to the whole thing. The key point here is that when we use the available tools to do something to one of these regions, the original audio files on our hard drive remain unaffected. Depending on which DAW you're using, these bars are typically referred to using expressions such as 'regions' (the term I'll use in this article), 'events' or 'objects', and they can be manipulated in a dizzying variety of ways, most of which we'll come to later. Audio files are recorded to your hard drive, and represented within in your software's main window as horizontal bars, usually with waveforms that allow you to visualise their audio content. In other words, false moves can be undone, and even if you screw something up beyond all recognition, the system should retain a copy of the original recording that you can revert to.ĭifferent DAWs work in slightly different ways, but the principle is as follows. Editing audio in a digital audio workstation, by contrast, is usually a 'non‑destructive' process. And if you cut in the wrong place, you've got a problem. Once you've cut a piece of tape, it stays cut. Mutually Assured Non‑destructionīecause tape is a physical medium, editing tape is a 'destructive' process. For those who are already au fait with the basics of audio editing in a multitrack DAW, meanwhile, the article on page 108 will look at specific, practical uses to which it can be put, from tidying up your projects to advanced and creative effects.
#DIGITAL AUDIO EDITOR SOFTWARE HOW TO#
I'll explain the terminology of audio editing, examine the reasons for doing it, and how to do it in ways that enhance rather than detract from your music. In this article, then, I'll be looking at the 'why' and the 'how' of editing within a modern DAW system. It's all too easy for DAW projects to degenerate into a mess of badly executed and poorly thought‑out edits that sound bad, slow the system down and sabotage the 'feel' of the performance. The flip side of this is that because these new possibilities are available, we are expected to use them - sometimes to the detriment of the music. The editing tools at our disposal in any audio recording program are vastly more flexible and powerful than the humble razor blade. If tape made recorded sound plastic, the DAW positively liquifies it.
#DIGITAL AUDIO EDITOR SOFTWARE SOFTWARE#
And those of a more experimental mind soon discovered more overtly creative applications for editing: short fragments of tape could be spliced together to make repeating loops, sound collages and so forth.įast forward to the present day, where most of us are now working with so‑called digital audio workstation software on computers. There are web sites that catalogue in frightening detail the way in which the Beatles' records were assembled it was, equally, commonplace for classical recordings to be cut together by taking the best sections from numerous separate performances. Tape editing soon became a fact of life in almost every recording situation.
By physically slicing the tape and joining sections together, a new 'performance' could be pieced together from fragments or multiple 'takes'. Additional instruments could be overdubbed, the signal could be processed electronically, and, perhaps most radically, it became possible to modify the performance itself.
Once a performance had been captured to tape, it could be changed. Not only did it offer unprecedented audio fidelity, but for the first time, recorded sound became malleable. The introduction of magnetic tape revolutionised the world of recording in more ways than one. We introduce the tools of the audio editor's trade. Today's multitrack software packages give us endless flexibility to manipulate the audio we've recorded, but the possibilities can be confusing to begin with.
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