The best and easiest software for .WAV editing

[theDruid]

I'm not arguing with that LordSmurf - we just didn't really play tunes with swearing in them (and tried to be disciplined ourselves when we were chatting live on air!!)

I'm not really into much music that would qualify for bleeping anyway - with perhaps one or two exceptions.

You're right about the ball being in the artists' court though.

One other thing, is that I'm not even sure if it's legal to mess about with commerically released tunes, and then broadcast them.

The best thing might be to contact the record companies and ask them for the 'radio edits' for this purpose. I'm sure they'd be really helpful :P

In this case, I think I was more interested in the how? than the why?

cheers,
mcdruid.

[mol3000]

lordsmurf i actually do need it to clean up hissing and stuff like that also along with editing out curse words.... i need the whole package bascially and theDruid thanks for that... i wll try it out soon and let u no if i have any problems. Also i am not getting paid for this and i dont really have a boss.... its actually a radio station that plays real music out of the certain genere that i like and not the garbage commercial cuts that you hear on the radio, so basically what i am sayin is that i am doing it outta pure love for the music. This will totally be on my own time..... also thanks to everybody for helping and any other tips that u have for this beginner then i wll love to hear em.....

ps:: this is the crazy part... i found out that after a certain time fcc dont care if u play words like that but for some reason.... prob political most radio stations wont let u play them anyway..... this perticualr radio station that i am help basically had no problems playin words like this in the past for years.... next thing you know the station just said no more no real reason why.... they just said " because we say so"

[lordsmurf]

The FCC will fine you for certain words, no matter the hour. Don't learn that the hard way.

"****", "shit" and "****" are not allowed. Never.

Words like "piss" and "ass" and "bitch" are more allowable.

But that being said, some stations budget FCC fines.

[housepig]

The FCC will fine you for certain words, no matter the hour. Don't learn that the hard way.

"****", "shit" and "****" are not allowed. Never.

thing is, the FCC doesn't monitor - it responds to complaints. if no one complains, it's not going to get fined.

every time I hear "Jet Airliner" by Steve Miller on the local classic rock station, I always wonder which line I'm going to hear:

funky kicks goin' down in the city

or

funky shit goin' down in the city.

around here (MPLS/St. Paul) it seems to be about 3/4 "shit", 1/4 "kicks".

[mol3000]

anyone..... how about a software called pro tools

[BJ_M]

anyone..... how about a software called pro tools

the free version is the (one of) worse program in the world for stability and the other versions require hardware .... runs MUCH better on a mac than on a pc and used in a lot of studios - though an almost equal amount of studios would like to use something else ... it IS a good program for work with avid DS -- Sonar is really a better program (and some others) but the hardware I/O of Protools is really first rate ... with Sonar - you can also use hardware such MOU and other top notch da/ad ...

In a system built to run protools -- it just runs protools (as with hardware based avid suites) , you dont run any other software on them ...

protools - w/ hardware is also fairly expensive route to go -- figure on 10-15 grand for full system plus outboard gear (sky the limit) and another $1000-3000 for plugins ....

[Roundabout]

every time I hear "Jet Airliner" by Steve Miller on the local classic rock station, I always wonder which line I'm going to hear:

Steve Miller wrote:
funky kicks goin' down in the city


or

Steve Miller wrote:
funky shit goin' down in the city.

And I always wonder when I hear Pink Floyd's "Money" what I'm going to hear...


"Money, it's a hit
But don't give me that do goody good bullshit"


Or...

"Money, it's a hit
But don't give me that do goody good bull___"
with just silence after "bull".


Or why The Who's "Who are you?" has two different lyrics - (never heard the UK/english version on C.S.I., wonder why?)

"Well, who are you
(Who are you, who who, who who)
Oh, who are you
(Who are you, who who, who who)
Come on, tell me who are you
(Who are you, who who, who who)
Oh, who the **** are you [UK/english lyric version]
Oh, who the hell are you [USA lyric version]
(Who are you, who who, who who)"

[coldfire8]

just replying to the radio censorship, I listen to a local radio station often, and i notice that, depending on the time of day, you will hear shit, bitch, and even ****. Sometimes you get full censorship, others times you get all the true lyrics of the song. for example, i hear that song by everlast - "what it's like" every now and then. i don't know if everyone knows the lyrics (look it up if you don't and want to know), but sometimes of the day you get cool little sound effects in place of some of the words. other times there is no censorship. i don't know, maybe it works differently up here in canada.

and by the way, i think that most radio stations get censored songs that are already pre-edited. because i often here the same song on different stations and they have the same sound effects and what not for censored parts in the song...

[bode]

Most record companies will provide radio friendly tunes. I've heard Wheatus' Teenage Dirtbag song become more censored the longer it receives airplay.

"Her boyfriend's a dick (d or geek??)
He brings (dj scratching instead of "a gun to school")

MTV will censor swear words long before the watershed. I was watching a live broadcast and noticed that the singer's watch was one minute ahead of "real time". MTV UK did on the spot editing of the entire audio. Annoying as hell, but i'm glad I wasn't offended

I will try the Goldwave method of vocal editing, because I've read so many posts on trying to remove vocals, but officially, it cannot be removed on a single (stereo) track.

[BJ_M]

in canada it depends on time of day (radio and tv) - the rules a lot more relaxed here (full nudity, etc allowed on broadcast tv night and day but during "family hours" it has to be toned down - except in quebec, where in some areas anything goes night or day ..

in canada - films have tougher rules (but diff. ratings than USA) than tv/broadcast (which is self governing for the most part as to ratings) ..

recently though - canada has gotten tougher on displaying the age bracket for shows -- though the scale they use doesnt make a whole lot of sense sometimes ...

[mol3000]

well i finally found what i will do.... basically i have wavelab and goldwave now..... and instead of editing out the vocals i found something in it called reverse and it reverses a segment..... which is even better because it sounds like when the djs edit songs on radio stations basically they reverse the record over a curse word..... so thts even better..... but now the trbles its hard on both software to get the curser right where you need it.... instead of having a way where u can click on the line, highlight it then use your right or left arrow key on the keyboard to move it a little..... u have to use the mouse which is real anoying so whats the easy way (on either software) to get it right where you need it

[Cornucopia]

BJ_M, I know you don't seem to like protools, or at least you don't like its hardware/software paradigm, but for me, it's got the best editing interface i've ever tried, and that includes alot--cooledit, soundforge, goldwave, wavelab, motu, peak, sdII, radar, logic, etc, and the audio portions of most video editors (though i still use a number of these). and i know some have had a buggy time with the free version, but i haven't.
though i do agree with you about AVID/Digi's small import/export format set, that doesn't really hinder me in my workflow.

...and if you know what you're doing (and i think YOU do), you can run other softwares on the same system.

one can always try it out and see for one's self...

Scott

[lordsmurf]

What "free" version?

[Cornucopia]

What "free" version?

Go to the Digidesign website, then go to the support section, and look around. It's called ProTools Free. There's a MacOS (8-9) version and a Win (98/SE/ME) version, sorry nothing newer. They don't require the hardware assist of their bigger brothers, but their feature set is reduced--but not by much. They are finnicky about CPU and sound card choices though, and have 128MB as MINIMUM ram (verified many times). It is totally free, you just have to sign in your request to download(and I've never gotten any spam from the sign-in).

Check it out, you might like it, you might not. Some people don't like working with multiplemono/splitstereo wave files as opposed to single stereo stream files, that's the only MAJOR quirk.

Scott

[BJ_M]

BJ_M, I know you don't seem to like protools, or at least you don't like its hardware/software paradigm, but for me, it's got the best editing interface i've ever tried, and that includes alot--cooledit, soundforge, goldwave, wavelab, motu, peak, sdII, radar, logic, etc, and the audio portions of most video editors (though i still use a number of these). and i know some have had a buggy time with the free version, but i haven't.
though i do agree with you about AVID/Digi's small import/export format set, that doesn't really hinder me in my workflow.

...and if you know what you're doing (and i think YOU do), you can run other softwares on the same system.

one can always try it out and see for one's self...

Scott

I didnt mean i don't like it at all (i use it (protools) - and an avid system, in addition to a lot of other tools) , just that it is not geared to the home user running a lot of other software ... you know avid and how strict they are about MS patchs and other installed software and how most problems can be traced to that and also how they are about what hardware you use (pretty short list) ... also the learning curve is a bit steeper ..

avid also has stupid prices for some of thier hardware (like harddrives)

protools i use on a mac (not often)

[Cornucopia]

true...

[mol3000]

ok.... on goldwave so far this has the most potential on being the easiest..... but i have problems.... basically wit GW when u set markers it doesnt give u a way to inch them over..... basically i am tryin to fight with the mouse so i can get one word (or basically a millisecond) in between 2 markers so i can reverse it.... this doesnt make senese.... is it something i am doing wrong is there a better way???????

[theDruid]

Zoom in closer, so that your one word etc.. almost fills the whole window. That ought to make it easier to adjust the markers accurately.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[bode]

Yes, just use the zoom tool to enlarge the wave graph. I place markers in very precise locations, at the very start of a bass drum beat if necessary.

[tito13kfm]

The FCC will fine you for certain words, no matter the hour. Don't learn that the hard way.

"****", "shit" and "****" are not allowed. Never.

Words like "piss" and "ass" and "bitch" are more allowable.

But that being said, some stations budget FCC fines.

Getting waaaay off topic here, but i heard from a DJ from a local radio station (one that clear channel doesn't own) that you CAN use the word **** if you aren't referring to a sexual act. But you can't use any derivatives of the word like *******. So you can legally say Bill Gates is a stupid ****. But can't say Bill Gates is a ******* moron.

Don't know if it's true, but he gets away with it all the time.

[Ehong33234]

Hey, that Audacity program is really good. Picked it up right away...very easy for what I was doing and user friendly. Thanks.

[pippas]

IMHO - CoolEdit Pro (or whatever it's called this week) is brilliant!

- but if you're on a tight budget (like 0!) then Audacity or Kristal are both worth a look!

[Jester700]

Sometimes there is an instrumental part of the song, or another verse (that doesn't happen to have vocals over that particular 1/4 second) that you can copy & paste over the offending word. It ends up sounding like the "cleaned up" versions where the vox were muted.

My software vote - Adobe Audition. Several years ago I tried a few (Sound Forge, Wavelab, Samplitude, SawPro) and picked Cool Edit Pro 1.0 for features & ease of use. I've stuck with them since (though I use Vegas for multitrack - go figure). The cleaning tools in Audition are right up there with SF/Sony's noise reduction, IMO. But really, these all have many fans and are great programs.

[Hardcoreruss]

Audacity is good and it's free.

This gets my vote

[mike1061]

For what its worth, I use Blaze Audio software for recording and editing wav files. I don't edit words, or worry about hiss. But it is excelant at editing out parts, fades, skips, pops, scratches, blending recordings. Basicly I use it to transfer cassettes, and LPs to CD.
Thanks Mike

[anubis13]

so whats about sound forge that irratates you???? is it a harder interface to use????

The two most common tasks which I do are awkward in Soundforge:

Not being able to navigate to each marker point easily.
The cursor returns to the beginning instead of restarting where I've told it to stop!

Minor, but it slows things down. Go for Steinberg Wavelab.

to navigate from marker to marker hold down Ctrl key and use your right or left arrow buttons

to control the cursor: go to options>preferences>general tab-- check the box for Spacebar and F12 play/pause instead of play/ stop