Cool free program: WavePad Sound Editor

[Clint Swank]

Just today I used WavePad Sound Editor.lnkto truncate a file that when exported was 4:42 in length though the song was just 3:10. Tried a number of solutions in Cakewalk, none of which worked. Loaded the file into Wave pad,hit "trim" and done. Took about 30 seconds. Also jacked the volume by a few db in about the same time. Check it out, very useful.

 

[scook]

16 minutes ago, Clint Swank said:

Tried a number of solutions in Cakewalk, none of which worked.

Did you try exporting a time-based selection?

This may be done in the Range section of the export dialog or in the track view. Here are a couple of methods using the track view

• Click-drag on the timeline
• From the menu Edit > Select > All, then set the start time using either
  • the Select Module or 
  • click in the timeline to set the Now time position and from the menu Edit > Select > From Now

[Syphus]

Although this sounds too obvious:

If the song was supposed to be  3:10 in length,  why don't you check to see what the extra time is from.  What I mean is there is something possibly causing the file to be longer that you expected.  Don't forget that sometime reverb/delay tails can cause the extra time (if that is what is causing the extra time.

As scook was pointing put, setting your "Selection" parameters for export will also save you that extra step of chopping the end off your file.

 

Syphus

[sjoens]

You can also (after exporting) drag it back into CbB, cut it's tail, bounce it and drag it back out of CbB.

[John Vere]

I just released a tutorial on doing exactly all this.  # 28 on the list, There are dozens of great free Wave editors and all of them will do top and tails as well as many other chores. Of course the best of the free ones is still Audacity. But You can get older versions of Sound Forge free as well as not really free, but with a nag to buy, Gold Wave which I bought a lifetime license cheap years ago. It's best feature for me is Batch conversion of any audio format to any audio format. But I use that to top and tail MP3 files. I have Wave Lab which is $100 but it never included MP3 encoding. I use that for top and tailing Wave files. 

But now Cakewalk has the Range selection feature of export I use that. Only gripe is it is not remembered and you have to re set each export. 

 

 

Direct link to You Tube  for now, might become dead if I update video--- Using Cakewalks Export -- https://youtu.be/ETBGFp_YRrE

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by John Vere

[abacab]

27 minutes ago, John Vere said:

Of course the best of the free ones is still Audacity.

Audacity's a good one! My go-to for quick audio editing, even though I have Sound Forge Pro.

[scook]

34 minutes ago, John Vere said:

But now Cakewalk has the Range selection feature of export I use that. Only gripe is it is not remembered and you have to re set each export. 

The range is remembered when an export task is saved.

[John Vere]

 

2 hours ago, scook said:

The range is remembered when an export task is saved.

It's supposed to, Mark mentioned this a while back,  But it doesn't work for me.  Tried it a few times. And the other problem I found is setting up a Task takes up more time than just making changes to the dialogue. 

Tasks is a good idea if you want to export in a bunch of different formats all at the same time but after playing with it for a while,  I found just using pre sets I had custom made,  was faster.  

[scook]

19 minutes ago, John Vere said:

It's supposed to, Mark mentioned this a while back,  But it doesn't work for me.  Tried it a few times. And the other problem I found is setting up a Task takes up more time than just making changes to the dialogue. 

Works for me.

The only additional effort is giving the task a name. Other than that it is the same level of effort as defining the export.

Once created it's two clicks in the dialog to export, one to select the task and one for the run tasks button.

[John Vere]

Don't no why but for me  every time I re open the export dialog then choose a task, the Time setting is back to 1:01:000 etc. Possible that if I run the task it changes? haven't tried that.   

The other item not recalled by tasks is the MP3 meta data always has to be re set. 

[scook]

To see task settings in the export dialog, click the menu on the right side of the task and select "Recall Task Settings"

This is not necessary to run a task. Just click the checkbox left of the task and then click the Run Tasks button.

[John Vere]

Thanks for that I used the dialogue to delete tasks but I just played with it a little more and now see how I can easily customize each task with the update to currant setting option.   The other item I totally didn't know about until I made the tutorial is the view you pull out with the arrow that shows which tracks are soloed or muted.  In an effort to keep the video under 20 minutes I removed that but I think I'll add that and this information as well. Still can't get the time selection to stick. 

[scook]

In order to create a time-based selection, I use the Range section. Once defined, I save the task. From then on, the task honors the range setting.

[John Vere]

I just finally got it to work using the Re call task settings. So it was sort of working just that one detail I missed. I might just have to read the documentation again! But I'm almost there now. 

[scook]

12 minutes ago, John Vere said:

I just finally got it to work using the Re call task settings. So it was sort of working just that one detail I missed. I might just have to read the documentation again! But I'm almost there now. 

This is not be necessary when running the task using the "Run Tasks" button but is needed when using the Export button because the Export button relies on the export dialog settings instead of the settings saved in the task.

[msmcleod]

6 hours ago, scook said:

To see task settings in the export dialog, click the menu on the right side of the task and select "Recall Task Settings"

This is not necessary to run a task. Just click the checkbox left of the task and then click the Run Tasks button.

Double-clicking the task will also recall the task settings.