Editing Audio Files

DART CD-Recorder allows you perform a number of sound editing operations.

Inserting silence

To insert a section of silence into a soundfile, use the Edit/Insert silence dialog, available from the Toolbox menu.

First, enter the length of the silence block in seconds. Then choose the insertion point. Insertion point can be placed at the beginning of the file (Start), at the end of the file (End) or it may coincide with the current cursor position (Cursor).

To check the results before processing and after processing use the Play source and Play result buttons, respectively.

Cutting audio

To delete a selected portion of the recording, use the Edit/Cut dialog, available from the Toolbox menu. You can use this function in three different ways: to remove data from the beginning of the audio file (Start), to remove data from the end of the file (End), or to remove the data from the current cursor position (Cursor). Use the Cut duration box to set the length of the removed fragment. To check the results before processing and after processing use the Play source and Play result buttons, respectively.

Dividing audio files

To divide an audio file into several shorter files, use the Edit/Divide dialog, available from the Toolbox menu. If the DART tool for automatic “unpacking” of audio files by means of detecting silences (see Unpacking audio collections) does not work satisfactorily, you can use this function to divide long recordings (e.g. the entire LPs) into separate tracks. Note, however, that the cut points in Divide can be arbitrarily located, not necessarily in the silent parts of the recording. Therefore you can divide audio files in any way you wish.

The plot of the entire audio file, displayed in the signal window placed at the top of the Divide dialog, will help you set the cut points appropriately. To introduce a new cut point, position the cursor anywhere in the signal window and click the right mouse button. Alternatively, place the cursor using the left mouse button and click the Add cut point button. Use the Play buttons to listen to the fragment preceding the cursor position (Play left), listen to the fragment succeeding the cursor position (Play right) or audition the fragment centered at the cursor position (Play local). Cut positions are marked with red vertical lines displayed in the signal window. To select a cut point, click on the cut marker or choose the corresponding cut number (cut points are numbered automatically in the order they appear in the file). To adjust position of the cut marker, drag it to the left or to the right, and to remove it – click the Remove button (if there is more than one cut point, only the selected one will be removed).

After selecting the cut points choose the names under which different fragments of the audio file (tracks) will be saved. Tracks are saved in separate audio files called <name[xy].wav>, where name is an user-dependent prefix and [xy] denotes the two-digit track number.