Need help for simple MP3 editing

I’m making some DVDs and I need to edit some music MP3s for background music. Basically I need to join a couple of songs and I need to make one song longer.

So - on the song I need to make longer, I want to very precisely copy a segment of the song and then insert it into a precise place in the same song. Basically, I need to make the song longer to make it fit the video clip, so I want to have it repeat a verse and chorus.

I tried to do this in Goldwave, which I purchased based on some things I’d read, but the interface seems clumsy and non-intuitive for this. I have a hard time putting the start and stop marks precisely where I need them, constantly accidently mark entire blocks I don’t want to mark, etc. Is there a program that is simpler to use that will let me easily do what I need to do?

Thanks.

There is always Audacity. Its pretty good and opensource so its free. Like most opensource programs I never care much for the interface. But its a small download and it doesn’t cost anything so why not try it.

For editing mp3s directly, cooledit does a nice job. For creating loops or piecing together stuff I like ableton live. I think both products have free trial versions.

Chet

Wow - those are some expensive programs.

It appears that Cool Edit Pro has been gobbled up by Adobe, and is now the core of Audition. And it looks far more powerful than what I need for my simple needs. (Although I did start out with simple photo editing software and turned into a Photoshop junkie. ;) )

Depending on what you want to do, Audacity might be what your looking for. It’s not high-end studio software, but it’s a hell of a lot better than Sound Recorder. Unless you’re at the very high- or low-end, it’s worth at least a look before you drop a couple hundred on Audition. It’s a 3 meg download, and you can run it pretty much straight from the .zip extract to see if it does what you need, if it’s not, just delete the folder. It’s UI isn’t world class, and a professional audio guy would scoff at it, but it’s not eye-bleedingly bad either.

Setup for mp3 exporting (note: mp3 importing is built-in) is a little more convoluted since it’s open source, but it’s not that bad. Download the latest mp3 encoder from here, and extract the .zip (although you only really need lame_enc.dll), and use Audacity’s prefrences (File > Preferences > File Formats > MP3 Export Setup) to point it to the copy of lame_enc.dll you extracted.

I needed something exactly like Audacity. Works awsome! was even able to fade out a song while bringing in a new one all on one mp3. God bless open source, bless Qt3 and bless us everyone! Merry Xmas! :wink: