edit mp3s - which program?

[Noek]

Does anyone know of a shareware program that would let me edit the lenght of some of my mp3s. For example, if I want to shorten the amount of time between tracks, I can cut some of the deadspace between songs individually. Thanks!

[Kurt S]

Try MP3 Trim. It's small, free, and unlike wave editing programs it will not degrade the quality of your mp3's

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2001/mp3trim.html

[bazooka]

You can use musicmatch jukebox to get rid of the two second pause between tracks.

If you have nero, then you can use the wav editor to remove the deadspace as well.

[Timmychuck]

Sony makes a good mp3 editer called ACID® XPress , its free.

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/products/showproduct.asp?PID=906

[MOVIEGEEK]

Audacity

[Cunhambebe]

Sound Forge 7.0. You can do everything and more than that with Sound Forge.

[Kurt S]

Soundforge, Audacity, Goldwave, Musicmatch Jukebox are all great wave editors but they will degrade the sound of an MP3 since they first have to decode the mp3 then re-encode when done editing.

You are really better off using an MP3 editor designed specificly for editing MP3's and not waves.

[bazooka]

Soundforge, Audacity, Goldwave, Musicmatch Jukebox are all great wave editors but they will degrade the sound of an MP3 since they first have to decode the mp3 then re-encode when done editing.

You are really better off using an MP3 editor designed specificly for editing MP3's and not waves.

Sorry, but that is nonsense.

I have used musicmatch to edit mp3's with no further quality loss and I have used the nero wav editor to edit mp3's with no further quality loss.

If I can do it, then anyone can.

[Kurt S]

No it is not nonsense. When you load an mp3 into a wave editor, it has to convert it to a raw pcm format first. Once you edit it you have to save it as an mp3. this resave is where the loss comes in. It is a known fact, just because you can't hear the difference doesn't mean it's not happening. The loss may not be real obvious if you are re-encoding at a hight bitrate but that doesn't mean it's not happening. The same applies for any lossy format compression IE. mpeg video, AVI compressed video JPEG's etc.

[Shadowmistress]

Personally I like mp3DirectCut which looks like it was designed to do just that. It's very user friendly and can be found in the tools section of this site.

[bazooka]

No it is not nonsense. When you load an mp3 into a wave editor, it has to convert it to a raw pcm format first. Once you edit it you have to save it as an mp3. this resave is where the loss comes in. It is a known fact, just because you can't hear the difference doesn't mean it's not happening. The loss may not be real obvious if you are re-encoding at a hight bitrate but that doesn't mean it's not happening. The same applies for any lossy format compression IE. mpeg video, AVI compressed video JPEG's etc.

He is talking about getting rid of the dead space, so it is not harming the file at all by getting rid of the deadspace.

For the record, though you are wrong about musicmatch and you are wrong about the wave editor in nero. There is no conversion taking place. It can already read an mp3. When you remove the deadspace, it saves the revised mp3 so where you get it is being converted is beyond me.

Your theory does not hold water.

[Kurt S]

You need to do some reading about wave editors.

Yes, there is conversion to PCM as soon as you open the file. removing dead space still means you need to open up the file therefor converting it to a PCM format.

[bazooka]

You need to do some reading about wave editors.

Yes, there is conversion to PCM as soon as you open the file. removing dead space still means you need to open up the file therefor converting it to a PCM format.

Dude....I am only going to say this once....I have done this repeatedly and there was no reencoding going on so respectfully, https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=244978&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

[Kurt S]

Clever.

Ok this arguing back and forth isn' t getting either of us anywhere so here is hard core proof.

Take an mp3, now open it up in either MMJ or Nero wave editor. Don't do anything to the file other then save it as an mp3 with another file name. Now using a good wave editing program such as Cool Edit, Adobe Audition, Gold Wave, Audacity, etc open the original mp3. Now open the new MP3 you just created and invert it and mix it to the original mp3. That noise/distortion you hear is the artifacts you get when it re-encodes.

[bazooka]

You are not worth my time.

I have been encoding and decoding audio for about six or seven years.

[Kurt S]

That's nice, I've been doing profesional audio editing for about 9.

Are you affraid to take the challenge?

[bazooka]

That's nice, I've been doing profesional audio editing for about 9.

Are you affraid to take the challenge?

No, it is not worth arguing on parts that you can't hear.

[Cunhambebe]

Hey wait a sec, pls. As far as I know Sound Forge can work with mp3 files since you've got its mp3 plug-in. No wave coversions here. Even if Sound Forge converts mp3 to wav. then edits the file and finally convets it again to mp3, I really don't see what the problem is. If the mp3 file has been originally encoded at 128 kbps for instance, the file is already corrupted. So converting this thing to wav, editing and then converting again to mp3 128 kbps, will show the same results. You can do convertions this way: 320 to wav then to 256; 256 to wav. then to 224; 224 to wav. then to 192, and so on. Going the oposite way, form 128 to 320 doens't work at all since you'll get a 320 kbps file that sounds as a 128 kbps one.

[Kurt S]

Nothing like beating a dead horse here.

Ok, bottom line, everybody has different hearing. if you are happy with re-encoding a file and it sounds fine to you, then go with it.

The point I was trying to make here is that just because you personally don't hear a difference doesn't mean it isn't degrading the sound.

But yes, Sound Forge does decode the MP3 first into a RAW PCM format, Period, end of statement. If you don't believe me, then E-Mail the techs at Sonic Fountry and ask them or run my little test and prove it to yourself.

"editing and then converting again to mp3 128 kbps, will show the same results" Not true, but it would take way more time then I am willing to put in at this point to explain it.

[theDruid]

Kurt S, you are absolutely right about wav editors like SoundForge, CoolEdit, GoldWave & Audacity having to decode and then re-encode mp3's if you use them to edit.

Perhaps it's not very noticeable to some ears, but it does happen, and some loss of quality occurs, just like if you re-encode video files etc..

mp3trim (now called mpTrim) and tools like it act directly on the mp3 file without decoding & re-encoding.

I have banged my head against this particular wall elsewhere in this forum before!

cheers,
theDruid.

[Kurt S]

theDruid, thank you, thank you, thank you. Finally another intelligent person who knows what they are talking about.

I apologize to the rest of you if this sounds arrogant but the mindset that "I can't hear a difference so you don't know what your talking about" just frosts my cookies to no end.

[mats.hogberg]

Of course Kurt S is right. Most editors (be it audio or video) has to decompress the source before any edits can be done, and then recompress again, even if source and dest has the same format. That's simply the way things work.

/Mats

[Cunhambebe]

Kurt S, I'd really like to thank you very much for the valuable info on mp3 Trim. I didn't know Sound Forge and Audition could corrupt mp3 files as they first decode the mp3 to wav to be able to edit the file. Sorry, really. I'd like to apologize if I was not too intelligent when I wrote about Sound Forge, but I was just trying to help and yes, I guess I am a little intelligent (maybe not as much as you are). On the other hand, I guess you don't need to ofend other people, nor even being arrogant (YES YOU ARE) all the time just because your informations are more accurate than the others'.

One more thing, Sound Forge does not belong to Sonic Foundry but it belongs now to Sony Pictures Digital. C'mon, get out of your cave you porky pig (lol) and go out to read some news

[MOVIEGEEK]

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
Everytime you reencode a compressed format you will lose some quality...that's a fact.
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=lose+quality+encoding+mp3&spell=1
If you still don't think so ask the experts at www.hydrogenaudio.org