Audacity is the best music editing software!

I think there are many people who want to copy and edit songs from CDs for dance recitals, karaoke, chorus practice, and other purposes.
As a member of a ballroom dance club, I am asked to do this on a regular basis.

The music editing software I use is called Audacity.

It has a lot of features, but it is easy for anyone to use if you focus on it. And it’s free! I love that it can be used on both Windows and Mac.

I have explained it in an easy-to-understand way so that anyone can use it, and I hope you will try it, too. It is very fun to edit your own songs! (Please use it only for your personal enjoyment to avoid copyright infringement.)

In this article, we will explain the following two steps.

The following is an explanation in the following order.

<1〉Convert CD data to WAV

The data on a CD cannot be handled by editing software as it is. Therefore, it must be converted to an editable format called “WAV (wav or wave).

To convert CD data to WAV, use Windows Media Player . If you do not have it, search for it, download it, and install it.

The following is what you need to do after installation.

<2> Open the WAV file in Audacity

Open the WAV file created above in Audacity.

<3> Basic tools of Audacity

You may feel that it is difficult because there are many tools on the screen, but you do not actually use many of them. Also, if you put the mouse pointer over a tool, it will show you what tool it is, which is also helpful.

The six buttons lined up on top. This is where you play and stop the song.

Try pressing the green right-facing triangle button. If the imported song starts playing, it is OK. Press the leftmost two-line button to pause the song, and the third square button to stop the song completely.

The slide bar with a speaker-like mark below it controls the playback volume. (Moving this bar does not affect the volume of the song you are editing.)

When the song is playing, you will see the small green triangle and vertical line move. That is the location where the song is currently playing.

The number is the time from the beginning of the song. If you want to play only a part of the song, drag the area where the time is written.

The left and right arrows will appear and only that area will be played.

<4>Eliminate and fade out

In order to edit and connect songs, you need to erase and fade out . However, this is not difficult.

Once selected, select “Fade Out” from “Effects ” in the menu above. That’s it.

The waveform should become smaller as you go to the right.

At this point, select “Fade Out” in the menu two or three times more, and you will see that the right side of the waveform becomes even smaller. Press the play button to listen to it.

If the “fade-out” time is too long, you will not feel the effect. Usually it is 2 or 3 seconds, 5 seconds at the most. I first roughly delete the second half of the song I want to edit, and then apply the fade-out to the last 2 or 3 seconds of the song.

<5> Fade-in

Once you know how to fade out, fade in is easy.

Fade-in is the opposite of fade-out, which is a gradual increase in volume from silence. Therefore, it is used at the beginning of a song. In the same way as before, delete the unwanted first half of the song, select the first few seconds of the song, and choose “Fade In” from the “Effects” menu.

The left edge of the waveform will become smaller. Listen to it and confirm that it gradually gets louder from silence.

<6> Crossfade

To “connect two songs naturally,” fade out the end of the first song, fade in the beginning of the second song, and blend the two songs by overlapping the fade-in and fade-out. This is a crossfade.

At the end

I wrote about the basic tools and usage of Audacity.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, Audacity is an old software that was introduced 22 years ago (in 2000), but it has been repeatedly upgraded to version 3, and there was a minor update in April this year.

I think it is rare to find software that has lasted this long and is free of charge.

I think one reason is that it is free, but I also think it has a lot of fans because it is easy to use, regardless of the computer, and can easily do what you want to do.

I think that there are few music editing software that can be used so easily, and as one of Audacity’s fans, I hope you will use it in various situations.

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If you want to cut and edit the middle of a song, please refer to this article.

If you want to change the tempo (speed) of a song or audio, please refer to this article.

If you want to extract audio from a movie or DVD, please refer to this article.