How To Edit Audio In 8 Simple Steps
Did you know that 505 million people will listen to podcasts in 2024? That is the most listeners ever since the term “podcast” was coined in 2004. One might reasonably conclude that editing audio is now an essential skill for professionals, not just for content creators. It’s easy to record a voice memo on a smartphone. But few people know how to cut or rearrange a recording.1
It’s remarkably easy, and today I’ll teach you how to do it 8 simple steps.
If you recently watched the
replay, “Substack Audio the Easy Way,” you’ll know that Substack has a built-in recording tool. But let’s say a siren goes off in the background while you’re recording, or your AC suddenly kicks on, or you can’t string five words together without messing up. Then you need a do-over. And if your recording is longer than a minute or two, you might need 10, 15, 20 tries to get a keeper.Learning how to edit audio will save you time, because you don’t have to start at the beginning every time you make a mistake. Just press record and keep going. If you mess up, pause for a beat or two to create space for editing, then try again from the beginning of the last sentence.
This tutorial will teach you how to cut out those false starts and splice the good parts together.2
You can have all kinds of fun with audio, like this 2-minute story I recorded for my daughter’s “Star Student” week in second grade. I made about 10 mistakes while recording. But hopefully you can’t tell.
If you complete the following steps, you’ll be capable of trimming and rearranging a sound file, which is the foundation for more creative experiments with audio.
Step 1: Download Audacity
Audacity is free, and it’s the tool I use for editing all of my voiceovers and podcast interviews. There’s no reason to start anywhere else.
Step 2: Record a file
You can record directly in Audacity or you can import a file, such as a Zoom recording or voice memo. If your recording is in mp3 format, you can skip to the next step. If your recording is in another format, such as mp4, you’ll need to convert it to edit in Audacity.
A simple tool for that is CloudConvert, where you upload an mp4 file, click “Convert,” and then download your mp3.
Step 3: Import a file
If you’ve already recorded a file in Audacity, you can just edit directly there. But if you’ve recorded elsewhere, you’ll need to import an mp3 file as follows.
Open Audacity
Go to File → Import → Audio
Select your file
For the purposes of this tutorial, you can use a sample file that I’ve created, called “Numbers Shuffle.” I’m borrowing this exercise from David Barasoain, an award-winning producer based in Atlanta. The idea is simple: if you can rearrange the numbers that I’ve recorded out of order and export a file that has me saying them in sequence, you’ll have mastered the basics of sound editing.
Once you’re ready for the next step, your Audacity screen should look like this:
Step 4: Select portions to copy or cut
It’s kind of mind blowing to realize that audio files end up looking like any other document, and just like you can cut and paste text in a Google Doc or in Word, you can do the same thing with a sound file in Audacity. Before we move on to the actual cutting, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the Select feature.
Select a portion of your imported file.
Press “C” to play the portions outside the selection. This allows you to preview the result of cutting the selected segment before you actually remove it.
Press “Space” to play the portion selected.
Zoom in and out with the tool button. Or try doing this with your touchpad, if you have one.
Experiment with dragging either side of the highlighted segment to expand or reduce the amount that you’ll cut.
Once you have highlighted a portion of the file to cut or copy, it should look like this.
Step 5: Cut a portion and save for later
Select Tracks → Add New → Mono Track.
This is what it should look like when you have your new Mono track for saving the portions you plan to shuffle.
Use the Edit function or Command+X to cut a portion of your sound file. If you’re using “Numbers Shuffle,” you’ll want to do that first with the number 8.
Click anywhere on the blank track and paste in your selected segment with Command+V or Edit → Paste.
Now repeat this with number 9. You have numbers 8 and 9 saved below, and the numbers in the file above should all be in order through the number 7. Our next task will be to fill the gap between 7 and 10.
Step 6: Create an audio split and paste copied segments
Position the cursor halfway between the number 7 and the number 10 in the top file and either use Edit → Audio Clips → Split or Command + I to create a split between the number 7 and the number 10.
Now you have two separate sound files in the top layer. Use the mouse to grab the shorter segment (with the number 10) and slide it to the right to create room for numbers 8 and 9.
Grab number 8 and drag it up into the gap you’ve created. Now do the same with number 9. Then use the mouse to grab and drag all the separate clips together.
Click on the divider lines to remove the splits and combine the segments into one track.
If those steps are hard to follow, watch me do it below.
Step 7: Clean up the file
Congratulations! Now you have successfully shuffled the numbers. You know the very basics of editing audio. Now let’s clean up the file by removing all of my instructions.
Select my introductory remarks and hit “delete.” Then do the same for my closing remarks. All you should have left are the numbers.
Step 8: Export the file
Now select the entire file, either by clicking on the top of it like you did to drag the segments in the previous steps, or by using the toolbar: Select → All. You can also use the keystroke Command+A to Select All.
Go to File → Export → Export as MP3.
Choose the folder where you want to save the file and click “Save.”
Now you’ll see a window called “Edit Metadata Tags.” This is an important step if you’re preparing a podcast episode, because it will determine what information comes up on a device or on a stereo console if someone listens to your podcast on a car Bluetooth system.
Choose the artist/author name, track title, album title, year, and whatever other information you want to include, then click “OK.” (You have to click it twice)
If you have any trouble with the directions above, watch me do it here.
You now have an audio file that you can upload to Substack, attach to emails, or import back into Audacity to experiment with layering music or sound effects.
If you followed this tutorial to the end, I’d love to hear about your results. Where did you get stuck? What questions arose for you throughout the process?
And the key question: Are you ready to learn how to layer music and sound effects next?
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Descript will allow you to edit video and audio simply by deleting words or phrases in a transcript. This usually works great for filler words (ums and uhs). But Descript can create weird leaps in video that look like glitches, and the audio transitions aren’t always seamless when you cut individual words or phrases. Let’s say that someone says “like” or “you know” a thousand times in your interview, to the point that you want to tone it down a little. Descript is not a reliable tool for that. You have to listen to each cut to make sure it works, and when it doesn’t, you have to decide either to live with a subpar result or undo it and do your fine-tuning in another tool, like Audacity.
Some say it’s fine to use imperfect recordings, that readers or listeners actually prefer a few small mistakes as a sign of authenticity. Maybe I’m old-school, but I see avoidable audio glitches as similar to typos — they distract from the waking dream of listening. In some ways, audio is more personal than the written word, because an earbud sits right in your ear.
If an essay is like a house guest that shows up on your doorstep, and you get to decide whether to let it in or turn it away, a voiceover is like a guest who you only meet once they’re inside your house. Personally, I’d rather not make my listeners kick me out. I’d like to stay there and deepen that intimacy. Just me? Cool. But it’s worth considering the tradeoffs you’re willing to live with from your audio.
Audacity rocks. I use it for my radio show. Thanks for the simple pointers Josh.
This is very helpful, weirdly for the smallest thing: after mistakes, pause and repeat. Somehow mentally I’ve thought of a fresh take to then edit together. But really editing by deletion may be the easiest. But, there’s a lot here. Thanks.