Editing Audio Files

Sometimes it's necessary to edit the audio files to remove noise, clicks and pops, or even amplify it if it's very soft or reduce its volume if it's too loud to begin with. One of the most popular software editing tools is Audacity, a free download: https://audacityteam.org

For example, suppose you need an extra second of no sound before a song starts. With Audacity, simply import the audio file, put the cursor at the beginning of the display and "generate silence" for one second. The top pair of L/R channels shows the original; the bottom pair shows how the silence has been added, shifting the start of the song by one second:

Another example might be completely replacing the beginning of the song with silence, such as you might encounter if taking a song off a record where the first second is noise from setting the needle in the groove, or instead selecting the section of the song and simply deleting it. First, select the section you want to edit and then...