It’s unlikely you’ll ever publish an entire session online. Just like you don’t publish entire interviews in text, you need to edit your audio to make sure the best stuff is not obscured by less compelling, less important or repetitive content. Editing audio is remarkably similar to editing text, so you shouldn’t be intimidated when approaching this task.
First, acquire the audio file if it’s still on your recording device. Connect the digital recorder to your computer through USB and drag the file(s) you need into a folder or onto the desktop.
Important Note
Most — but not all — digital recorders come with a USB cord that connects to a computer to make this easy (simply plug the cord into the recorder, then connect it to the computer through a USB port). The cheapest recorders, however, do not interface with computers, making them much less useful.
A Sound file ready for editing in Audacity.
Launch your audio-editing software. Ideally, the program should be easy to use and export files in MP3 format. If you use a PC or a Windows machine, Audacity and JetAudio are excellent free options. Let’s go through the editing process with Audacity since it appears to be the most prevalent free software in use today.
Editing with Audacity
Use File -> Open and open the audio file
Crop out the bad stuff: Think about how users would best appreciate the content — in one full serving or broken up into smaller bites. Highlight areas that represent unwanted ums, ahs, mouth noises and lip smacking. Then simply hit DELETE. Also crop out silence and any small talk at the beginning and end.
Assignment
Record your own voice as a test. Count from 1-10 into a microphone and capture it digitally. Then edit your take. Highlight the section where you say “3” and select Edit -> Cut. Then move the cursor to after the “6” and select Edit -> Paste. Repeat a few more times with other numbers. This will give you a feel for how the sound waves represent words and sounds and also show you how easy it is to edit audio.
Make it stereo: Some files will be mono, not stereo, meaning you’ll only hear the audio in one side of your headphones. You want to make it stereo so the sound file will play in both sides of speakers and headphones, instead of just one. To make it stereo, click on the Audio Track label next to an upside down triangle (see screen shot.) Then select Split Stereo Track from the drop-down menu.
Then copy the region that you’ve edited by highlighting it and using Edit -> Copy. Then click into the lower window and use Edit -> Paste.
Export the file: Convert your audio edit into a compressed, ready-for-onlinepublishing MP3. Just go to File and select Export as MP3. Ignore the meta data interface (Author, Description, etc.) unless you’re doing a podcast.
Using time points for speed
Most newspaper journalists will do what they know first — use the audio to get quotes so they can write their story before they edit the audio for online publishing. That’s great. But think about the audio editing you will do next as you listen to the entire take. If you make a note of the time when a good quote plays, you’ll save loads of time when you go back to edit the take for the good stuff.
All audio-editing software programs feature convenient time track marks, so if your interview’s best quote occurred 10 minutes into the interview, you write “10:00” next to the quote in your notebook. Then go directly to the 10-minute mark on the track when you’re ready to edit and you’ve saved yourself 9 minutes, 59 seconds.
