Ryan Avery

Though I never claim to be a master when it comes to editing audio, I do know enough to be able to solve most day-to-day problems.

Recently, I was asked to create a shorter mix of a song for a dance troupe performance. They were using Down Home Girl by Old Crow Medicine Show, and had a lot of choreography set to the lyrics, but wanted a few alterations made:

• Remove the instrumental break
• Shorten the intro slightly
• Shorten the outro, but keep the ending riff

All of these were simple requests, and after hearing the song I figured this would be a fairly easy job. Here’s how I went about it.

Pre-work listening

I listened to the track a couple of times, noting sonic characteristics that would be important when making the edits.

• How much does the tempo change over the length of the song?
• How does the instrumentation change between verses and choruses
• Where are the obvious cut-points? Are there any gotchas?

Basically, I’m looking for anything that could ruin the edits that I was planning. In this case, the harmonica was in the foreground near the edit points, so I knew I would have to listen carefully to make sure I didn’t cut off any notes in mid-blow.

Project Setup

Though I could have easily done these edits in a WAV-file editor, I decided to work in Pro Tools, since I’m very familiar with editing in PT, and I already had it open while working on another project.

I created a new PT project with the following settings:

• Bit depth: 24-bit
• Sample rate: 44.1kHz

After loading the new project, I used the Import Audio dialog to import the MP3 I was given by the dance troupe.

I listened to the whole track, making sure to set a Marker at every major song section. It is important to put the markers exactly on the downbeats, which will save me lots of time in the future when making the actual edits.

The first edit – remove the instrumental break

The first edit I did was to remove the instrumental break. Rather than have the instrumental break, the troupe wanted to go directly into the next verse after the chorus, and also wanted to remove 2 bars of the standard pre-verse break after the chorus to go better with the choreography they were planning.

I usually find edits work best when they occur on beats. Be extra careful if either segment you’re editing together contains a legato foreground instrument – it will make the edit very noticeable if a sound suddenly appears or disappears.

Additionally, I often like to edit on a secondary beat, especially when dealing with acoustic music. The reason is because you can often find very good edit points on the pickups to the down beat. Due to the phrasing of most music, you’ll find sparser instrumentation at the end of a phrase. Of course, it all depends on the specifics of the song you’re editing.

When I find the edit points I want, I slightly reduce the bounds of my selection before removing the middle. With Pro Tools, you can always adjust the edit point after the fact, so right now our only concern is to make the beats of each section line up so that the pulse of the music is steady through the edit. The reduced bounds will give me a visual indication I can use to help align the beats of the segments.

Now listen to your new edit (no crossfades are applied yet). If you sense that the beat is slightly off, make sure the adjust it now before going on.

Here’s the edit, before adding crossfades:
Inst-edit-nofade by chancesend

With your edit in place, you can turn the cut into a crossfade. I like to start with a crossfade of 40-60ms, making sure the fade is set to Equal Power mode (this will make sure the audio is at a constant volume through the edit). Depending on the kind of music, you will need to adjust the crossfade length. For faster or more rhythmic songs, I use a smaller crossfade. For more melodic or slower songs, I use a longer crossfade.

The placement of the crossfade is also key. I usually place my crossfade just before the beat, so that we avoid flamming the drums. Again, adjust depending on the song.

Here’s the edit with the crossfade:
Inst-edit-wfade by chancesend

The intro and outro edits

The intro and outro edits went through roughly the same process as the instrumental edit. Though here it was vitally important to make sure the lead instruments “made sense” through the edit.

The intro edit without the fade:
Intro-edit-nofade by chancesend

The intro edit after crossfading:
Intro-edit-wfade by chancesend

The outro edit without the fade:
Outro-nofade by chancesend

The outro edit after crossfading:
Outro-wfade by chancesend

Hopefully, you should notice that the edits without the fades should sound pretty good – the crossfades should only be hiding the instantaneous discontinuity, not masking the sonic differences between the two sections.

Bouncing down

Once I finished the edits, I bounced down the result to WAV. Note that I didn’t add a fade in or a fade out to the track – they are not needed since we were already working with a final mix that presumably had fade ins and outs.

I then used RazorLAME to create a 256kbit MP3 file

Delivery to the dance troupe

Once I had the final MP3 edit, I posted the audio to SoundCloud. I marked it as Private and listed the email addresses of the dance troupe members so they could listen to the track online.

Advanced edits

There are several advanced edits when standard crossfades won’t cut it. I won’t go into too much detail, with the hope that you will explore their use yourself.

Extended crossfades

Extended crossfades are crossfades that last more than ~1 second, and work wonders for non-rhythmic sections such as synth pads. In these scenarios, you need to make them long enough so that the crossfade sounds like it occurs naturally in the song. In some cases, I have used crossfades that even extend 20 seconds or more. It’s very important you use Equal Power crossfades here, so that you don’t produce a dip in the volume of the track.

Extended crossfades can also work well in rhythmic sections, but you have to be extra-careful to match the beats properly so that you don’t hear any flamming. This is equivalent to beat-mixing when DJing, but done in an offline fashion.

Unmatched fade curves

Unmatched fade curves are sometimes necessary for edits, when you want a beat to enter at full-volume, but have the pre-edit material continue to fade out (for instance, shortening a non-rhythmic intro).

Conclusion

With just a little bit of effort, you can create professional-sounding fades that most people won’t be able to notice. At least, if they’re not looking for it…

It is easy to look at the external persona of successful people and ask ourselves “why do they have all the luck?” It is even easier to tell ourselves that our lack of luck is caused by others. In many aspects of my life, I see people blaming others. This especially occurs when you have a group of “blamers” talking to eachother. They feed off of their notions that they are not to blame for their own lack of success, and the conversation degenerates and no real solutions are presented.

In music, this commonly takes the form of “Why are they so popular? My music is much better than that other band!”

The fallacy here, of course, is thinking that music quality is the sole factor for success in the music business. Only a little thought is required to realize that items such as networking, promotion, marketing, and drive are MUCH more important than quality.

Mike Venti at Music Think Tank writes about just this in his article 30 Tips For The Typical Musician. Though tongue-in-cheek in nature, lots of people tell themselves just these things.

If you still don’t believe me, look at another industry. Take, for example, the beer market in the USA. If quality were the deciding factor here, then why would beers like Bud Light, Miller Light, and Coors Light, all be at the top of the list? Surely most people haven’t sampled every beer in the world and found that they like those the best? No, they are at the top because they are promoted and marketed like crazy, and have enough quality to appeal to a general audience. Boy bands, Auto-Tune rap artists, and generic pop singers are the Bud Lights of the music world.

This is not to say that some cream doesn’t rise to the top. It’d be tough to find someone who says that The Beatles, Queen, Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson were talentless hacks. But if they didn’t have the personal drive or motivation to succeed at all costs, they definitely wouldn’t have gotten to the top of the charts.

So how does this apply to other aspects of life? Let’s look at the tips, but abstract away the music business.

Practice

The average person will stop practicing or doing homework as soon as they leave school. Nor will they take lessons (or apprentice) from someone who is considered an expert in the field.

This is a good way to get passed-up by those who do practice. And believe me, there are people out there who practice. A lot! They are the ones who you will be resentful of, because they have exceeded your reach or abilities at a much younger age.

Gigs

Consider gigs like the work they are. Everyone, in life, will make mistakes. The key is to accept you will make these mistakes, and resolve to learn from them every time it happens. Don’t stick to a tried-and-true formula in life, unless you’re perfectly happy exactly the way things are. Even then, if you stick to the formula, the world will change around you and you may find yourself out of a job, slowly losing respect with your friends, or considered “old-fashioned”.

And for god sakes, network like there was no tomorrow. This does not mean just handing out business cards. This means establishing working relationships, friendships, a network of people you trust. Respond to emails. Even better, take the time to email people you haven’t talked to in awhile. Remember, most people are passive in this regards.

When you have to rely on others, understand that they make mistakes too. And more importantly, no one will be more invested in your success than you are. So if your boss, or neighbor, or coworker doesn’t seem to care about you as much as you’d like, then you’re probably right. Accept it. Don’t blame them. Or if it truly is a problem, then actively work to change it. Make them understand why they should care, and how they can best help you.

In the end, you are the one who has to live your life. So take it upon yourself to create your own fate. Don’t let the most important thing in life be left up to someone else – they don’t have as much invested.

Strategy

Your friends are not your customers. Let me repeat – your friends are not your customers. They may become your customers, but your business model should definitely not be “market my services to my friends.” They are the people who will support you as you get off the ground, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find friends who will continually pay you enough money to survive. You NEED to branch out beyond them – this involves marketing, promotion, and actually having something to offer that people want.

Sure, send out a Facebook invite if you’re having a gig, looking for extra work, etc. But if you’re relying on that invite to get business, then you’ve just fallen back into the “friend business model” trap. And don’t blame your friends when they don’t respond to your mass email.

Studio

Let’s replace studio with resources. Whether you’re a musician working in a studio, a programmer working in an office, or a hairdresser working out of their home.

If you skimp, people will notice. Some amount of cost-cutting may be necessary (and it’s always good to price-shop), but at some point you cross a threshold that people will notice. Your dingy windowless office. Your beat-up instrument. Your rusty scissors and bulk generic shampoo. Your ripped clothes. You see what I’m getting at, I hope.

I’m guilty of this, too. The lure of saving a buck can be strong, but can get you into trouble. When you see people react by not contacting you as much, don’t blame them – realize it might be a reaction due to the cost-cutting.

Personal

Yes, you will interact with others. Some people will be very successful, and you will resent them. Some people will be amazing, but will be very difficult to work with. Some people will be flaky, some people will be stubborn. Learn how to work with them all, and as a result start becoming easy to work with, yourself.

If you’re resentful of someone, understand why. Then figure out if your resentment is truly about something that person did, or if you’re really resentful about your own lack of drive.

Go above and beyond what you have seen others do. That will set you apart. But if you see someone setting the standard, then don’t blame them no matter how much “inexperience” they have. Instead, show them what experience looks like, and rise above.