How to split audio in audacity?

How to split audio in audacity? It’s a miracle that Audacity is free, considering it’s one of the best audio editing programs available. Audacity is the program of choice for podcasters, audio restoration experts, recording engineers, and anyone who wants to work with audio data. Both professionals and amateurs use it.

Once you know where everything is, using it isn’t too difficult either. The issue is that Audacity can be incredibly difficult to understand, making it challenging to carry out basic tasks. One such feature is audio splitting. 

This post will examine a few alternative strategies for splitting audio in Audacity, along with some significant tips you should be aware of.

How to Split Audio in Audacity?

The Audio Track Dropdown Menu’s commands allow you to:

• Divide a stereo track into left and right channel tracks.
• Divide the stereo track into two mono tracks.
• Combine two mono tracks—left or right—into a single stereo track.

Stereo Track Splitting

You can create separate left-channel and right-channel tracks to allow for independent editing. Split Stereo Track can be found by using the Audio Track Dropdown Menu.

The Left channel is panned hard left following this split, and the Right channel is panned hard right. If necessary, you can modify these pan settings during the editing process.

Creating two separate mono tracks from a stereo track

A stereo track could alternatively be divided into two mono tracks.

The original stereo recording is split into two distinct mono tracks when “Split Stereo to Mono” is selected from the Track Dropdown Menu.

In contrast to the strong left and right panning that results from a straightforward split of a stereo file, see how both mono channels are center-panned in this instance.

Creating a stereo track by combining tracks

A pair of mono, left, or right channel tracks (in any combination) can be combined into one stereo track by selecting “Make Stereo Track” from the Track Dropdown Menu of the upper track. Regardless of their current status as left or right in mono, the upper track will become the left channel of the stereo recording, while the lower track will become the right channel.

Be cautious of the following when combining two single-channel tracks into one stereo track:

• When creating the new stereo track, the gain and pan parameters of the two tracks will be disregarded.
• It will be assumed that the upper track has a pan setting of 100% left and a gain setting of 0 dB.
• It will be assumed that the lower track has a gain setting of 0 dB and a pan setting of 100% right.
• The new stereo track will receive the gain setting from the higher track.
• The resulting stereo track’s pan setting will be zero.

As a result, the balance may sound different from what you intended or what you heard when playing the recordings due to the joint action.

Dividing a Recording into Individual Tracks

This lesson demonstrates how to break up a long recording into individual songs for export as a single audio file per song. These files can then be played straight on a portable music player or burned to an audio CD so that you can skip from track to track on the CD.

We go over the fundamental ideas of eliminating extraneous audio, recognizing and labeling song borders, increasing volume, and using Export Multiple.

You can still follow this lesson even if each piece of music is already in Audacity tracks stacked one on top of the other. Use the dropdown option to give each song a name rather than identifying it as indicated here. Files should be divided based on Tracks rather than Labels during the Export Multiple phase.

Step 1 – Delete any extraneous sound from the recording.

1. In the Selection Toolbar, turn off Snap-To.
2. Select “Skip to Start” from the menu.
3. Zoom in so you can see the distance between the track’s beginning and the beginning of the music.
4. From the beginning of the music to the beginning of the track, click and drag.
5. Select Edit > Delete.

Remove undesirable sounds from the recording’s beginning, middle, and end in a similar manner (between sides 1 and 2 of the LP or cassette). When modifying the transition between side 1 and side 2, make sure to leave 2 or 3 seconds of silence, comparable to what you would find between songs, because later in this lesson, we will be utilizing the Analyse > Find Silences function to identify spaces between the songs.

Keep your work! To save a project, select File > Save Project.

Step 2 – Give the names of the songs

Mark the first song.

1. The Skip to Start button should be used.
2. You can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + B or Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection. The audio track is followed by a brand-new label track. Selectable and prepared for alteration, the label’s contents are available. Use “Add Label at Playback Position” in favor of “Add Label at Selection” if you need to play the music in order to determine where to set the split points.
3. The first song’s name should be typed in.

Mark the remaining songs.

1. Near the start of the second song, click the selection tool.
2. Press the Zoom In button several times until you can only see the song’s opening seconds.
3. Try to click as soon after the song’s beginning as you can.
4. Choose Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection from the menu, or press Ctrl + B instead.
5. Put the song’s name on the label.
6. Press the Zoom Out button many times until you can see the beginning of the third song.
7. As you go along, add a label to indicate the beginning of each song.

Step 3 – Maximize the recording’s volume

The recording is probably not at its loudest if you performed the first recording correctly and prevented clipping. We need to correct this so that the CD can be burned at its highest volume and match the other CDs in your collection.

• Select > All or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + A
• Click Effect > Normalize to begin.

In this window, the default setting is to amplify to a maximum of -1.0 dB. Although 0 dB is the maximum level, the default setting of -1.0 dB leaves some breathing room because 0 dB audio playback can sometimes cause issues for some players.

You may want to fix stereo channels that were recorded by some consumer-level turntables, tape decks, and/or amplifiers if one channel had a stronger signal than the other. Select “Normalize stereo channels independently” from the drop-down menu in that scenario.

A loud click in one channel during record copying can lead Normalize to produce an unexpected alteration in the stereo balance. In that scenario, you can think about utilizing Click Removal to eliminate the click prior to the Normalize step.

Step 4 – Export Multiple

Congratulations, the tracks are now ready for export.

1. Select File > Export > Export Multiple from the menu.
2. From the pop-up menu, select Export Format:

• Choose 16-bit WAV or AIFF for CD burning whether you’re using Windows, Linux, or a Mac.
• Select MP3 to be loaded into an MP3 player.
• You can export as WAV and then use Apple Music or iTunes to convert the WAVs to AAC or MP3 for loading into Apple Music/iTunes/iPod.

3. Select the location where your exported tracks will be saved by clicking the Choose button.
4. Files Are Split Based On:

• Labels for the selected radio buttons must be checked.
• Since there is no audio before the first label, the checkbox labeled “Include audio before the first label” should be left unchecked.

5. Under Name Files:

• It is recommended to check the Using Label/Track Name radio button.

6. Press the Export button.
7. The first song will have a metadata editor. You can provide any additional details for the music. However, the Track Title and Track Number will already be pre-filled from the labels (for example, the Artist Name and Album Title).
8. Open the Metadata Editor and press the OK button (not the Save button).
9. The next and succeeding songs’ metadata editors will show up; as before, fill in any extra information and press “OK” on each window. All of the files will export once you press “OK” on the window for the last song.

If the operation takes longer than a second or two, a progress dialog can show up. A confirmation popup listing the produced files will show after the operation is complete. The tracks are now prepared for import into your preferred CD-burning program.

Step 5: Backup

You should back up your exported WAV or MP3 files since you don’t want to lose all of your hard work and have to start over from scratch. All data could be lost if a computer’s hard drive fails.

The WAVs or MP3s should ideally be stored on a dedicated drive (1+ TB external magnetic drives are practical and affordable), or uploaded to a cloud storage service. Making two copies on different external devices is better yet, and keeping an online backup in addition to the local ones is even better.

To make finding and retrieval easier, you might wish to construct a taxonomic file structure. For instance, each album could be put in its own folder (named for the album) within a folder called for the artist (or, perhaps, composer for classical music).

Remove Background Noise Quickly

Really, eliminating background noise only pertains to noise sources that are constant. These include the hiss of an air conditioner, interference on the recording equipment, and any other sounds that are comparable.

It’s incredibly easy to remove it using Audacity:

1. Choose a background-only segment of your audio to start with. For this purpose, it is standard practice to record some background noise for a few seconds.
2. Click Effect > Noise reduction after that.
3. Find the “Get noise profile” button and click it.
4. Select the complete track now.
5. Select Noise reduction under Effect.
6. Select OK after leaving the settings as they are.

Now, there shouldn’t be much (if any) background noise on the track, making it more enjoyable to hear.

You’re well on your way to mastering the shortcuts and standard Audacity tools for splitting audio once you’ve learned them. Your podcasts will be more focused, the sound quality will be better, and the end result will be better as a result.

FAQs on How to Split Audio in Audacity

Originally posted on November 16, 2022 @ 1:43 am