When you think about any kind of audio, you’ll find that there is quite a bit of work that goes into it before the final product is released. Audio editing is similar to editing documents; however, you cut and paste, replace, and change sounds, not words. It is one of the main processes in the industry of music and video productions. Audio editors don’t only edit audio clips; their job also includes working with video files. Video clips need to be synced with the audio clips in a way that the sound matches the picture pace and should be processed by special audio production software, so it doesn’t sound unpleasant and off. If you think audio editing is an easy job, then you are mistaken.
There are seven types of audio editing, amplification, compression, limiting, panning, equalization, normalization, and stereo imaging. Each one of these techniques has a specific effect on the audio clip. The thing is, you need to learn when and where to use each one in an audio clip, so editing audio and video files can be very challenging. However, if you are a beginner and need some tips, here we provide you with 4 editing secrets from professionals that will help you start your career and pursue your passion.
- Apply Batch Fades
This is the most crucial task in audio editing. When you start editing an audio clip, you have to trim all the regions on the timeline. This way, the only audio that would be included in the clip is the active audio in your mix. You have to listen closely even if one end of a region seems empty because there could be noise in the segments. After trimming all the regions, you need to apply (5-10ms) fades so that the transition from silence would exclude the clicking sounds and is noise-free. This process can take a very long time, but if you apply batch fades, it shouldn’t take much time.
- Choose the Right Location for Regions Splitting
To produce clean edits, you need to split at the playhead. You need to be very precise when choosing where to split the regions. Listening by ear can be helpful at times to choose where to cut. However, we are living in the digital era, and most digital audio workstations have the right equalizer config and ability to edit at the playhead location. Just listen to the track, and park the playhead at the edit point, and split.
- Consolidate Regions
When you want to keep pieces of audio in time while using the grid divisions on the timeline to maintain synchronization, it is better to extend the region, not split it. However, sometimes your clip won’t start directly on a beat, and moving the clip from its position would be risky. The right thing to do in this case is to consolidate regions of silence into audio clips. All you have to do is park the playhead at the beginning of your clip, then select the previous bar with snap to grid engaged. After consolidating the silence in the gap present between the bar and the clip, your track will begin on the bar when you merge the two regions.
- Snap Edits to Nearest Zero Crossing
The signal voltage differs from positive values to negative ones. That is how speakers can find the right direction to move and reproduce sounds in the signal. While you are editing, if you make a cut in a spot with a strong peak, the edit will not be clean, and the sound will cut off. However, you will find some tiny spots without sound energy in either direction. These spots are found right on the zero crossings. If you place your edits right over these spots, you will reduce the pops and clicks.
Audio editing is very important to produce high-quality audio or video files for enjoying good quality music or video clips. However, it is not an easy job. You need to have the passion and knowledge to clean edit audio clips. Beginners should start by learning the 7 techniques of audio editing and where and when they should be used exactly. Moreover, learning some tips and tricks would be very beneficial for beginners in this field. Tips like applying batch fades, which is the most important task of all, learn to find the right location or region splitting, consolidate regions, and snap edits to the nearest zero crossings. Challenging as it is, the digital era we are living in now provided audio editors with advanced digital audio workstations that make their job much easier.
