Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac

Subject: Re: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3
From: Genie
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 07:04 PM

Anyone know how to copy just a part of an mp3? Or how to edit one to make it shorter?
(I can easily duplicate an mp3 and then I could clip off the beginning or end of that duplicate file if I knew how.)

FWIW, I have a MacBook and iTunes, plus Garage Band (though I've never used GB) and iMovie.   

Any ideas?

Genie

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 07:21 PM

Audacity is a free program which allows you to edit most types of sound files, including MP3s.

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3
From: Lox
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 07:29 PM

If you have Nero CD burning ROM software, it comes with a wave editor.

All you have to do is open a file in that program and then save it again as a smaller mp3

So when it is open you click "save as" and then you are given the option of saving it as a smaller mp3, which you accept according to specifications you have chosen.

It may be possible to follow a similar type of process on your mac.

Do you have a guitar icon on the bottom of your screen?

If that is (as I believe it might be) a music software program, it may be possible to open an mp3 file in there and then alter it before saving it again, or indeed (as above) to click "save as" and save it as a smaller file (I hope I have explained the difference between these two processes helpfully).

Sadly, not being a mac man I cannot do more than give an educated guess.

Good luck.

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 07:29 PM

Sorry, I forgot to include the link to Audacity.

And in order to save to MP3 format you will also have to download the LAME MP3 encoder, which is also free.

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 07:29 PM

Easy enough. I use GoldWave. I would drag the MP3 icon into Goldwave, duplicate it, and then cut back to what I wanted in the copy I created, then save it as MP3. Piece of cake.

I have (had?) Audacity, but never thought as much of it as of GoldWave, and consequently never really learned how to do it in Audacity.

Come to think of it, while you can download GoldWave for free, I'm not sure the free version does everything that you might want to do. I long since paid the nominal fee for full functions, and I don't now remember just what extras I got with that status.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3
From: Genie
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 07:39 PM

Does Audacity work with Mac? How about GoldWave?
(I have SoundJam on an older Mac, but I can't open that computer right now (I think the motherboard is bad).)

Yes, there's a guitar icon in the dock on my Mac. That's the icon for Garage Band, and I just figured out how to import the whole (long) mp3 into Garage Band. But I haven't yet figured out how to select short clips and delete the rest. I'm still playing with it.

If I can't get Garage Band to do it, I'll try Audacity, GoldWave, etc. Thanks.

If anyone has used Garage Band for editing mp3s (Amos?), please tell me how you did it.

Thanks,
Genie

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3
From: Bru
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 07:40 PM

It's a very simple process, but - of course - you do have to have the right software. Two popular programs for this are Sound Forge and Syntrillium's CoolEdit. I'm sure there are others, but I use both of these quite a bit. Basically all you do is load the MP3 into the software, where you can view it, play it, highlight the parts you want, or the parts you don't want, and then cut, paste and save the new part.
Both pieces of software have similar functions, but CoolEdit is by far the more professional of the two, and was at one - possibly still is - the chosen tool of many radio stations in the UK.
You might be able to find Sound Forge 4 as a download and it will do exactly what you want.

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3
From: jeffp
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 07:47 PM

What you will probably do (I havent used Garage Band, but most audio editing software shares certain functions) is click within the waveform at the place you want to chop. Then look in your menus (Edit menu first) for a Split command. It might be called something else, but it will be similar to that. "Cut" won't be it. That will split the waveform at that point. You can then select the portion that you don't want and delete it. If you remove sound from the beginning, don't forget to slide the rest to the left or you won't have shortened it any.

Hope this helps.

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 08:19 PM

Genie: Record the mp3 in GarageBand, & Edit...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRns5Xxi0pM
You got a Mac! Everything is there for you...READ the Help section...
bob

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: Genie
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 01:16 AM

Thanks, Bob (and everyone).   
Actually I have read the Help section of Garage Band, but I still haven't figured it out. I'll try your link. I'll also try the highlighting thing that jeffp mentioned.

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 04:14 AM

If you don't have the mp3 encoder patch for Audacity, you can save it as a .WAV file, import it into iTunes and then convert to mp3 within iTunes.

If you want to cut down a track in Garageband, import the file and then use the track editor - it's the button whose icon is a soundwave with a pair of scissors through it.

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 04:21 AM

Forgot to mention:

Audacity is excellent for making adjustments to the sound wave with its "effects" menu, e.g. changing pitch without changing speed, amplifying the signal, cutting down crackle and hiss, etc. What it can't do - which Garageband can - is allow different settings to pan placement and volume during the track. Using both programs - Audacity first and Garageband second - can be useful in these respects.

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: Andrez
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 06:16 AM

Hi,

Just a quick suggestion. I cant see how you can do the kind of edit you want in Garageband having just had a quick look at the menu options. There a quite a few small public domain/shareware kind of programs around for the Mac.

One that I use to do the kind of thing you want is Sound Studio 3. Just open up the mp3 look at the wave form click into it and just drag to another point. You can then copy and paste it into a blank document and then save it in what format you like. The link to this program is http://www.freeverse.com/apps/.

There are quite a few more audio apps around but this the first that came to mind. Try looking for them on versiontracker at this link:
http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/

Audacity is a Windows based program and quite OK but only runs on Windows.

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 06:29 AM

Sorry Andrez, but you're wrong on two counts: (1) You can cut, copy and paste parts of tracks in Garageband - and change pan & volum during a number, and (b) Audacity is indeed available for the Mac - I use it!

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: pazbhan
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 12:26 PM

Sorry to add another suggestion, this must be very confusing, but I think Audio Hijack is what Mac users use. Try this http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: johnadams
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 12:35 PM

Genie asked:

Anyone know how to copy just a part of an mp3? Or how to edit one to make it shorter?

Audacity (with the LAME mp3 export installed) has a menu item labelled "Export selection as mp3".

Couldn't be simpler.

J

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: Genie
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 03:26 PM

Will Fly, thanks for pointing out that scissors icon. On my screen it's very easy to miss that, since it's a little light blue icon on a gray background, and it has a horizontal sound-wave-type design in blue behind it -- so at a glance, it looks more like a snowflake than a scissors.   
Now that I've found that, it's actually pretty easy to clip my mp3. You just play the mp3, which has numbers at each point above, and note the beginning and end numbers. Then click on the scissors (open/close editor) icon, highlight the section you want to copy or cut, then pull down the edit menu to click on copy or cut (or you can use the normal key strokes for copy, cut, paste, etc.). Piece of cake.

This part of Garage Band is easy. One of these days (weeks, months) I'll have to spend some time learning all the other neat things you can do with GB.    (I gather I can do all the things with it that I do with Finale NotePad Plus, and more.)

Thanks, everyone,

Genie

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: Andrez
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 11:06 PM

Happy to stand corrected.

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: spidra
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 05:55 AM

As folks have mentioned, Audacity is available for Mac. I still haven't figured out the interface, though, so I use SndSampler. It's the most annoying nagware on the planet if you haven't paid for it, but once you buy the shareware, it's very useful and I find the interface for basic functions easier to understand.

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: Gervase
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 06:48 AM

I use Amadeus, which lets you edit MP3s (or almost any audio format) and save. It's an excellent piece of shareware from www.hairersoft.com

Subject: RE: Tech: How to copy a portion of an mp3 - on Mac
From: M.Ted
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 10:12 PM

The Rogue Amoeba application that you'd want for this is Fission, which is for editing--Audio Hijack is for recording. Both are cheap, simple, and good. Garage Band offers a lot of options, which can get in the way of each other when you want to do one specific thing. With Fission, you can just drag and drop your sound file to the icon, and it will open, and you can cut and paste without fooling with anything else--Audacity is very similar--