Free Audio Editing Software?

Posted by: droodzilla on 26 January 2008

I've just completed some interviews for a project I've been working on in my spare time, and now wish to edit the files.

The files average 1 hour/30Mb in length, and are in WMA format.

I want to be able to chop them up into smaller files, rearrange them, and then burn those tracks onto disc in CD format, so that they will be play on a normal CD player. It must b e possible to make the edits appesr smooth, and the option to fade in/out could come in handy. I may also need to remove some background hiss/noise so anything that could handle that would be welcome. The software must be very simple to use - I'm fairly IT literate, but know very little about a/v software, file formats, etc. I don't want to pay any money, and am interested in audio only, not a/v generally.

Any suggestions?
Posted on: 26 January 2008 by Fraser Hadden
Audacity for sound file editing, chopping, concatenation etc. from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Ashampoo Burning Studio from Ashampoo.com for trouble-free burning.

If you are manipulating a concert (i.e. no gaps in the music) remember to set the gap to zero in the burning software.

Fraser
Posted on: 26 January 2008 by droodzilla
Thanks Fraser - but it says on the website that Audacity doesn't support WMA format? Guess I need a tool that does, or a free format converter?

I should add - there's nothing dodgy here - these are recordings of interviews that I have conducted. I'm a little miffed to find they're in a protected format tbh.
Posted on: 26 January 2008 by AV@naim
Also http://www.reaper.fm/download.php

this is an alternative to Soundforge. The software allows (or the last version i downloaded) you to use this fully functional forever, but technicaly you should pay for it after evaluation...
Posted on: 26 January 2008 by AV@naim
looks like the new version maybe payware thoough... Frown
Posted on: 26 January 2008 by Fraser Hadden
Sorry about that. I'm so used to fiddling with WAVs and then converting the manipulated files back that I hadn't noted that Audacity didn't handle WMA natively.

Conversion from WMA to WAV and back is easy (Ashampoo Music Studio is free and handles OGG and FLAC conversion also) and the conversion process gives you a built-in back up should you mangle the file and have to start again.

Fraser