WavePad Audio Editing Tips & Tricks

Below you will find a compilation of some the audio effects and sound editing basics for the WavePad audio editor that you will want to know and test out for yourself as you delve into the world of audio editing. Another great way for those new to audio editing to get started is by watching the WavePad sound editor intro video tutorials so you can see the audio editor in action.

Split and Cut Audio Files

You can split a file at any point you choose by simply clicking the Split button on the Edit tab. This will create two audio files split at the point you had the cursor. Be careful when you use this function, the action cannot be undone. Additional audio splitting options include splitting at bookmarks, splitting at silences and similar Trim options that delete sections instead of creating new audio files.

Amplify Audio Volume

To make audio sound louder, instead of simply turning the volume control up you want to amplify the file. You will find Amplify on the Effects tab, which will open a window where you can either adjust the amplification using the slider or by selecting a preset level from the drop down menu. Selecting 200% will double the volume, 50% will cut the volume in half.

Equalize Audio

Amplifying affects the full spectrum of the audio in a file, but if you want to increase or decrease certain frequencies, for example, boosting all of the lower bass frequencies, then you want to use the Equalizer. The Equalizer is also on the Effects tab and opens a graph of the frequencies going from low to high frequencies as you move left to right. This gives you very finite control of the frequency ranges you want to control. Moving a point up will make the frequency stronger and moving a point down will make it weaker.

Normalize Audio

Normalizing an audio file is similar to amplifying, except that normalizing increases the sound of the loudest peak to the maximum level without causing clipping in digital audio. This is frequently used as a last step before saving a final version of an edited song or recording. To normalize an audio file, you will find Normalize on the Effects tab.

Fade In and Out of Audio

Fading in and out of an audio file will help acclimate the ear to the background noise of a file. To fade in, select a region at the beginning of your file, then select "Fade in" under Fade on the Effects tab. Similarly you can select "Fade out" with a region at the end of your file selected. A good tip is to fade in quicker than you fade out because the ear expects to hear the initial audio quickly, but abrupt transitions to silence at the end can be jilting.

Remove Background Noise

Since not every audio recording is made in a sound studio environment, you often get unwanted background noise in recordings. To remove background noise you want to take advantage of the Cleanup options on the Effects tab. Specifically, under Noise Reduction try using Audio Spectral Subtraction and then Multi-band noise gating. If the presets don't give the results you want, try using lower levels on these reductions until you find a combination that leaves only audio you want to keep.

Remove Vocals

You will find an option to Reduce Vocals under the Voice button on the Effects tab. This will open a dialog box that allows you to change the pan position and width, the vocal level, and preserve the bass. Generally the default settings will work the best, but different songs may require different settings to effectively reduce or eliminate the vocal frequencies, so if you don't get the results you want, try adjust these settings until you are satisfied with the result.

Layer Audio & Voiceovers

WavePad won't allow you to record directly over another file; highlighting a file and clicking record will replace the selection. Depending on how much mixing you want to do, you may want to consider moving to MixPad audio mixing software, but for some basic audio mixing within WavePad you want to use the Paste Mix feature. Copy the audio you want to add to your file to the clipboard, then select all in the file you want to add it to, then select Paste Mix on the Edit tab. This will open a window with options on what to do if your files are not the same length. When you click OK the two pieces of audio will be combined.

Sound Effect Library

Find audio clips and sound effects to add to your audio projects in the NCH Sound Effect Library. Open the Sound Library from the Tools tab. This opens a new window where you can preview and download sound effects and royalty-free music clips.

Audio Effect Plugins

In the Windows version of WavePad you can add DirectX and VST plugin effects to further expand your audio editing capabilities. Find the options to add and use VST and DirectX plugins on the Effects Tab. VST Plugins will open their own interface where you can adjust the settings, while you will need to go into the settings when selecting a DirectX plugin for the effect to be applied when you click OK. Get started with this list of free VST plugins you can download and use with WavePad.

FFT Sound Analysis

All of the audio editing features outlined above are all easy to put into action, but don't let that fool you into thinking that WavePad doesn't have a lot of power under the hood. One of the more advanced areas you can explore are the powerful audio analysis tools for examining the spectral content of audio. Learn about the FFT and TFFT audio analysis graphs and what they represent to start to get your feet wet. These tools can be used in many fields, including linguistics and mathematics, in addition to sound engineering.


If you have any other tips, favorite features or advice of your own, please comment and share them below.

Audio Effect Plugins for WavePad Sound Editor

In addition to the wide range of audio editing features and effects built into WavePad Audio Editor, you can also add plugins to further expand your Audio Editing possibilities. WavePad supports both DirectX and VST plugin effects, providing access to thousands of additional audio tools and effects.

VST Plugins

VST or Virtual Studio Technology, is a standardized way of adding effects to digital audio editing programs like WavePad. To add a VST effect to WavePad choose VST on the Effects tab, which will open the VST plugins window. In this window browse to the directory on your computer where you have saved your VST plugins (note that the plugins must be DLL files). When you have a folder selected, the list of VST effects in that directory will populate the VST Plugin list, so you can use the drop down list to select your plugin. When you click OK, the VST plugin will open in WavePad and you can make any adjustments to its parameters and continue to edit the waveform, but now the audio you hear is being processed by the VST effect. To save the effect, click the Apply button on your effect which will close the effect and save the audio with the effect added.

DirectX Effects

Similar to VST, DirectX plugins are another standardized way to connect audio synthesizers and effects to audio editors. These plugins do not have their own interfaces, but pass and process the audio behind the scenes. Also, as with the VST plugins, you will find DirectX on the Effects tab, and clicking on it will open a window with a list of the DirectX plugins detected on your computer. Select the effect you want from the drop down menu and click Settings to make changes to the configuration settings, and click the OK to apply the DirectX effect to your audio.

There is a world of extra effects out there that you can use when you start exploring VST and DirectX effects. To get you started we have a list of free VST plugins available online for you to download and try with WavePad, but this is just the beginning. There are lots of other plugins available that you can use with WavePad Audio Editing Software to further enhance your audio editing projects.

Note: currently plugin support is limited to the Windows version of WavePad

Adding an Audio Voice Over with WavePad

If you want to record a your voice over a piece of music you have two choices in the NCH Software audio suite. MixPad recording and mixing software is the more advanced program, that will allow you to record multiple tracks, and fine tune the mixing of the music and vocal tracks, but you can also try the Paste Mix feature in WavePad audio editor for quickly combining to files.

WavePad doesn't allow you to record directly over another file, highlighting a file and clicking record will end up replacing the selection. Instead, use the Paste Mix feature to combine two audio files into a single track.

Copy the recorded voice over to the clipboard, then select all in the audio file you want to add that voice over to and click Paste Mix on the Edit Tab.This will open a window with options on what to do if your files are not the same length. If the Mix Audio�which is your voice recording on the clipboard�is the shorter of the two files, you can ignore the options and click OK. If the Mix Audio is longer, you need to decide what to do when the audio you are mixing into is finished. When you click OK the two pieces of audio will be combined and when you press Play you will hear both files.

WavePad FFT Spectrum Audio Analysis Software

WavePad sound editor is more than just an easy audio editing program. Once you scratch the surface there are powerful audio engineering tools available for the more advance user. These tools include the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Time-Based Fast Fourier Transform (TFFT) which are both very useful tools to perform sound analysis on the spectral content of audio. These audio spectrum analyzer tools have applications in a number of areas, including linguistics, mathematics and sound engineering including reducing noise and vibration testing and analysis.

Audio FFT Graph

\ The FFT analyzer graph is designed to illustrate characteristics of audio at only one point in time. It takes a small sample of audio and plots the sound frequency in Hz against the audio intensity in decibels. If the audio is in stereo two lines will be plotted on the graph, otherwise just the one plot will be displayed.

Audio TFFT Graph

The TFFT graph maps the audio intensity of the frequency spectrum across time for the duration of the audio clip, representing the intensity through color. On this graph the x-axis is time and the y-axis is the frequency with the decibel intensity being mapped to the color intensity scale, with black representing -128 dB and white representing 0 dB.

Both the discrete and temporal fast fourier transform frequency analysis graphs can be created/opened from the Tools tab and both graphs will update in real time as you move to different positions in the audio file, or even as you play the audio so you can better see what is happening in the audio. So, download WavePad audio analyzer software to take a closer look at audio and learn how to analyze voice patterns and more.

Quickly Cut Music and Audio Files

WavePad music editing and cutting software provides several easy options for cutting music and mp3 files. Whether you want to trim off silence or cut out a section to use as a ringtone or split long recording into smaller audio files, here is a look at how you can cut, trim and split sections of you mp3, music and audio files.

1. Trim
   To trim, or cut off, the beginning and end of a file, simply select the region you want to keep, then you can use the shortcut CTRL+T or, choose Trim (delete all but the current selection) from the Trim drop down menu on the Edit tab. Here you can also see other choices for trimming down an audio file, including Trim start and Trim end that will respectively delete everything from either before or after the current position.
2. Auto Trim
   If you are deleting silence from start and end of your audio you can save yourself the step of finding the start and end points and selecting a region. Instead use Auto Trim to scan the audio file and remove the beginning and ending regions that are below the Auto Trim threshold.
3. Split
   To keep the sections on both sides of the current position as individual files, instead of trimming move over to the Split drop down menu, which is also on the Edit tab.
4. Auto Split
   Just as WavePad can detect silences at the beginning and end of a song, it can also detect silences in the middle of a file. So, if you recorded a whole set you can select Split file at silences from the Split drop down to separate the recording at each silent section so you can edit and save each song individually.

Boosting the Bass in Audio Files

Want to boost up the bass in your music? The Equalizer in WavePad music editing software is your answer. Open your song in WavePad and select Equalize on the Effects tab. Equalizing allows you to adjust the level of frequencies in your audio amplifying ranges of sound frequencies. So you can change the volume of just the higher or lower (bass) frequencies in a song, as opposed to simply amplifying a song which will affect all of the frequencies.

Unlike a graphic equalizer you might see in a studio, with a multitude of knobs and dials for certain frequencies, the WavePad equalizer displays a graph of the frequencies going from the low frequencies at the left to the high frequencies on the right giving you very finite control of the frequency ranges you want to control. Move a point up on the graph to make the frequency stronger and lower a point to make it weaker.

To familiarize yourself with the equalizer take advantage of the presets to get started, but don't be afraid to play around with them and to adjust their settings to see how they affect your songs. To boost the bass start with the Low Pass filter presets. If you hit play you will hear the higher frequencies drop down, giving a boosted effect to the bass. Chances are the result won't be exactly what you wanted on the first shot, but this will provide a good starting place to make further adjustments. Changes aren't applied until you actually click Apply, so you can continue to tweak the graph as needed without fear.

Other preset filters include a High Pass Filter which is the opposite of the Low Pass Filter lowering the bass instead of the higher frequencies, a Band Pass Filter to maintain the frequencies in a specified range and lower the regions above and below that section, and several more that you can experiment with on your own, or go to the help for more details on the settings of each of these presets.

Try WavePad sound editor today to boost your bass and pump up the volume of your music.

WavePad's Chicago Fire Cameo

If you're a fan of the new NBC show Chicago Fire and you have sharp eyes you might have spotted WavePad on the recent Two Families episode that aired on November 21st. For those of you not familiar with the show it is an intense look at the lives of the firefighters and paramedics Chicago Firehouse 51. One of the subplots of this rather intense Thanksgiving episode includes one of the firefighters deciding to put together a podcast, and there is a scene with him doing an interview with another one of the station 51 firefighters. As they are talking if you are familiar with the WavePad interface you might recognize it in the computer sitting on the table between them. For us this was an added excitement to add to the already action packed television show.

If you haven't seen it you may very well want to start following the heroes portrayed in Chicago Fire. And if you want to create a podcast of your own you will want to have WavePad Audio Editing Software on your computer.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival October 1, 2012

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Jon Savage presents When Songwriting Your Friends Will Lie To You posted at Songwriting Business.

Perry presents The Priceless Value of Music posted at ithuit.com, saying, "why is music the key to higher levels of consciousness? Find out!"

Dan White presents A DJ�s Guide to Audio Files and Bitrates posted at DJ Tech Tools, saying, "an article discusing the best options of digital audio files. Many DJs don�t notice a big difference in file type and bitrate until they�re blasting the track on a high-end club system and find the track just isn�t hitting hard enough. Read on to find out the best practices and how to be ready for the future."

Bernie Goldbach presents Use My Audioboo Voice for Audio Blogging posted at Inside View from Ireland, saying, "one of the biggest changes in blogging during in recent history has been the emergence of using multimedia technologies to extend thoughts to different communities, such as audio blogging."

John Paul Titlow presents How Journalists Are Using SoundCloud posted at ReadWriteWeb, saying, "musicians were the first to settle into SoundCloud, but the social audio-sharing service has been expanding in new directions and is now also a hub for radio-style journalism and commentary with an interactive twist."

Ken Theriot presents Recording Equipment Categories posted at Home Brew Audio, saying, "a handy little post that lists categories for recording gear, which could be a useful thing. Everyone knows about microphones or headphones."

kenetejumy presents The Person Who Does Audio Mastering Can Be As Important As The Original Artist posted at kenetejumy.

John PaolozziIn the Loop, a free workshop series introducing women to electronic production posted at CBC Music, saying, "there is a big gender divide in the electronic music community with men significantly outnumbering women. So we spoke with the women behind In the Loop, who have set out to challenge that divide, Christina Sealey? and Naomi Hocura to learn more."

Mickey Cheatham presents The Science of Music posted at STEAMD, saying, "a body of knowledge of music and what it is from a physical perspective and take the journey from records to tapes to CDs to whatever may be next. We can talk abut compression and expansion and tone controls and dynamic range and frequency response and timbre and color and tonal richness."

You might also be interested in:

• Music Notation Software Gains MIDI Playback
  
• WavePad App Recommended for Students
  
• Audio, Video and Telephone Recording
  
• Creating and Editing Extreme Electronic Music
  
• TempoPerfect Metronome Software is the First NCH Software Android App
  

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. If you have an audio story to share or advice, tips or tricks to share, we hope you will submit your audio posts and articles to the next edition.

Creating and Editing Extreme Electronic Music

Guest post by Scott Lefebvre

My motivation for creating digital music is that the music I want to hear doesn�t exist yet, so I have to create it myself. I was looking for extreme break-core music and although I appreciate the work of musical artists like Bong-Ra, Drumcorps, Babylon Disco, Atari Teenage Riot, and Aphex Twin, I wasn�t able to find anything extreme enough to satisfy my desire for the ultimate in extreme electronic music, so it looked like it was up to me to try to create the sounds I was looking for.

Although the technology has existed for a few years to perform this task, the software has often been expensive, and required a significant amount of time to put towards learning how to use the software with any kind of proficiency.

I originally discovered NCH Software�s WavePad audio editing software through a general search for �Edit MP3s� on Cnet.com because I wanted to edit out the silence associated with many �Unlisted Tracks� on albums released by self-indulgent artists and play long, unnecessary silent periods.

While I was editing out those silences, I noticed that WavePad offered many other options to copy, save clips and to combine clips, so I began to assemble a sample library and experiment with mixing clips.

The single-track mixing offered by WavePad was prohibitive when I started thinking about compiling a full-length song, so I decided to try out NCH Software�s MixPad multi-track audio software. The interface of MixPad was simple to master and after only a couple missteps I was able to easily put together my clips in the way that I wanted to create new songs from the clips I had compiled.

A tip for new users: Don�t try to add all of your clips to your project at the same time or it will all play at the same time as an un-listenable jumble of sound. Add them one at a time and ease them into the sequence for the desired effect.

When I had a completed song, I wanted to post it to my YouTube account to share, but I wanted to create something visually stimulating to accompany the song so it wouldn�t be accompanied by a blank black screen. First I tried to use Windows Movie Maker, which I used to great effect when I was running Windows Vista, unfortunately, with my new laptop running Windows 7, Microsoft simplified the interface for Windows Movie Maker so much that it was impossible to do what I wanted. Since I had a positive experience with NCH Software so far, I downloaded their VideoPad video editing software.

VideoPad had all of the usability that older versions of Windows Movie Maker used to have so after about an hour of fumbling and playing around I was well on my way to creating the videos I wanted to make. Also it�s a relief that VideoPad has all of the effects and transitions making it possible to do some pretty amazing things.

Using Microsoft Paint and a 4,000 font package I downloaded for free from Cnet.com I was able to create a tribute to the title sequence to Gaspar Noe�s �Enter the Void� to accompany a re-mix I made while compiling a sample library from the discography of Japanese extreme pop music band Melt Banana:

Granted, it took a little time to figure out. But what probably took the film-maker thousands of dollars and weeks of time to put together I was able to do in a couple hours by myself using VideoPad.

My ultimate goal for this project is to put together an album of extreme digital music and to put together a band to perform the music live, kind of like Nine Inch Nails in concert was a live cover band for music created by Trent Reznor. I also want to create a video presentation to play behind the band to supplement the audio/video experience of the live show as I�ve seen done by Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, and Neurosis.

To be perfectly honest, anyone can do what I�m doing with the NCH Software suite. All you need is the time and effort required to mix-down and sample your music library and the aesthetic sensibility to see how you would prefer that the samples be rearranged to suit your preference. So if you�re thinking about purchasing software from NCH Software, I say, don�t hesitate. The pros of this software are too many to list and the cons are so few that they are dwarfed by the incredible flexibility of the pros.

The only minor problem I have is with WavePad, and that I am not able to load an entire album of songs for editing down at the same time, but editing an album in ten song groups is a small price to pay for being able to capture whatever sample you want from whatever song you want and to be able to amplify and reduce noise on any sample.

The NCH Software suite has made it possible for me to easily create the music that I want to hear and I would recommend it to anyone interested in creating their own digital music without a moment of hesitation.

Scott Lefebvre creates digital music under the name Master Control. You can see more of his music projects on his YouTube channel or follow the adventures of Master Control at www.facebook.com/TheLefebvre

WavePad Recommended App for Students

Dakinane provides support for schools to integrate information and communications technology into their classes and programs through staff training, facilitation and consultation services. Last week Dakinane featured WavePad on their website, looking specifically at the iOS version, saying that "this app can enable students to take recordings in the field or whilst roving around the school, great for podcasting etc." And since the audio recordings and edited audio are easy to email and share with other applications, the WavePad Audio Editing App can also be a stepping stone for embedding audio in wikis, blogs, websites or other learning management systems.

Watch the short video tour/review from Dakinane of WavePad's simple, but feature-packed interface below, and be sure to visit www.nch.com.au/wavepad for the cross platform Windows and Mac versions of this wonderful audio recording and editing program.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival August 6, 2012

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Ryan Newman presents How to transfer iTunes from one laptop to another? posted at Laptop Repair London Blog, saying, "London Laptop Repair blog article describes the step by step process of how to transfer iTunes from one laptop to another?"

AtoragoN presents How to Do Audio Editing: a guide for dummies - Part 1 and How to Do Audio Editing - Part 2 posted at Guitar Nerding Blog, saying, "Audio Editing is the single most important task to accomplish before you starting mixing. Taking the time to correct all the little mistakes on the audio track ensure the final result sounds the way it should."

Lifehacker presents Hack a Zoom H2 Portable Audio Recorder to Accept Four Inputs posted at Lifehacker.com.

kentheriot presents Audio Recording Tips For Newbies: Stereo Or Not? posted at Home Brew Audio, saying, "Do you know what stereo really means?"

Marc Settle presents Smartphones for News: how the Academy is helping journalists get more mobile than ever posted at BBC, saying, "Smart phone reporting is becoming more common in news reporting, and is particularly popular in radio, using audio apps to record interviews."

You might also be interested in:

• WavePad at the Radio Station
  
• Remove Background Noise from Audio with WavePad
  
• Edit Song Tags to Organize Your Music Collection
  
• Real Time Voice Changing Software
  
• Where to Learn to Make Music
  
• New Music Industry Book Takes You Behind the Scenes
  

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. If you have an audio story to share or advice, tips or tricks to share, we hope you will submit your audio posts and articles to the next edition.

Remove Background Noise from Audio with WavePad

If you have ever made an audio recording where there are a lot of things going on, like recording an interview at coffee shop, or meetings and lectures with lots of people in the room, you are probably quite familiar with the unwanted background noise that will be a part of your audio when you go back to listen. Sometimes just having a lower quality microphone will add to this background noise, even when you are in relatively quiet surroundings. But the good news is that WavePad audio editor provides an easy way to remove this unwanted noise so you don't need to move all your recording into a studio to get a crisp sounding file.

To remove that unwanted background noise, load your audio file into WavePad.

1. On the Effects tab, click the Cleanup button and select Noise Reduction, Audio Spectral Subtraction. Click the preset drop-menu and select voice or music, then click OK to apply.
2. Then again from the Effects tab, click the Cleanup button and select Noise Reduction, Multi-band noise gating. Select a preset, then click OK to apply.

If the presets aren't giving you the best results, try using lower levels on each type of reduction until you find a combination that leaves you with just the audio that you want to hear. Download WavePad audio editing software today to try the noise reduction feature for yourself.

New Music Industry Book Takes You Behind the Scenes

Go behind the scenes of the music industry with Scottish producer Rory Nicoll, author of the new book, HIT CLICK, a must have book for anyone in the music industry. HIT CLICK is packed full of exclusive interviews with industry leaders and artists, contact information and reviews, offering collective wisdom on all aspects of the music industry, from the alchemy of a hit record to the business side of music.

NCH Software is honored to have been included in the book's reviews of music software. Nicoll concludes that "NCH does exactly what it tells you it will: It provides easy to understand software solutions to many of the activities required of an audio engineer." In another excerpt from the review, Nicoll states:

"I've spent about a day and a half experimenting with various NCH audio programs and one thing that continually surprises me is just how powerful the programs are. With each application measured in MB, the entire suite can be loaded at once without causing any detriment to even the oldest hard drive. The applications run quickly. Speed is always good. The functions are simple to find and they are overall user-friendly."

To read more about all aspects of the music industry, you can find HIT CLICK: Thriving In Tomorrow's Music Industry released today and on sale now on Amazon.

WavePad at the Radio Studio

Guest post by Daan Berg

There are many local radio stations in the Netherlands, 285 to be exact. I am a volunteer at one of these stations, where I produce and present a live weekly breakfast-with-news show every Saturday morning.

However, sometimes I need to cheat, when I need to be somewhere else during broadcast hours. Therefore, whenever I can't make a live show, I pre-record it and upload the three hours of material to the control room server, which plays the recordings during my broadcast hours as if I were there, talking live and playing music to my listeners.

I do my recording in a small studio booth in the cozy building of the combined radio and television station, in which all the professional equipment -- from audio mixers and microphones to professional recorders -- are installed. I can plug my laptop into an outlet of the mixer and start recording, which usually works fine. But recently, things went wrong.

I had just finished recording three hours of great radio with lots of enthusiasm, which one always needs when hosting any kind of show. I opened up WavePad which I always use for audio editing, to cut off the silences at the beginning and end of the files and listen if everything sounded OK. It didn't. What happened?

It turned out the internal sound processor of the audio mixer, the boards full of sliders and knobs you always see in front of radio producers, had its limiter set to a way too aggressive setting. Limiting is the act of bringing the volume of a device down quickly when it's too loud. For instance, you will notice that if you bring a microphone close to your mouth and shout into it, you will hear that your speakers can't cope. However, radio hosts shout into microphones from time to time. On the radio, it is very rare to hear this, as the limiter in the control room will automatically pull the volume of the microphone down to make sure no gear is damaged and to make the sound more enjoyable.

However, a limiter can also be set too aggressive. Instead of only pulling down peaks that go above a certain maximum level, a limiter can also see every peak as a peak that's too loud. The result: a recording with terribly annoying volume changes every tenth of a second, like someone is heavily abusing the volume knob on a radio.

So I was stuck with three hours of material that I couldn't use. Until I remembered that WavePad has an Automatic Gain Control function, which analyses the volume of the audio file and makes adjustments where needed.

It most certainly worked! Of course, the result wasn't perfect yet -- software can never 100% undo what was done with analog equipment -- but when the edited files were played back through the central server, it sounded fine. This had to do with the fact that the control room also sports a compressor, which is a machine that does the opposite of a limiter; it increases the volume when it's too soft.

Thanks to WavePad Audio Editor, I didn't have to start recording all over again. If I had done it all over with my enthusiasm completely gone it would've sounded terrible.


Daan Berg is a local journalist in the Netherlands. He writes for a national newspaper and hosts a weekly breakfast radio show on local radio. He also makes all kinds of media productions, from radio & television items and shows to websites.

How to Remove Vocals in a Song with WavePad

One of the most popular features of our audio editing software, WavePad, is the ability to reduce or remove the vocals within a song or a piece of audio you have loaded. You can use the resulting file for karaoke, sampling instruments, remixing music tracks, or simply save to have an instrumental only version of a song.

When you have your song loaded in WavePad go to the Effects tab and click the Voice button. Select Reduce vocals from the drop-down menu. This will open a dialog box that will allow you to change the pan position and width, the vocal level, and preserve the bass. Generally the default settings will work the best, but different songs may require different settings to effectively reduce or eliminate the vocal frequencies. If the default settings don't do enough you can adjust these settings until you are satisfied with the result.

If you only want to reduce the vocals on the portion of the audio be sure to select the region first. By default if nothing is selected WavePad will apply the effect to the entire file, so you can skip the selection before choosing reduce vocals to edit the entire song.

Download WavePad music editing software today to try out the vocal reduction feature and make better background music, your own karaoke songs, or use the new version with a recording of your own singing rendition to mix in.

A is for Audio

NCH Software ABCs Series

What better place to start our A to Z software tour than at the beginning�both the beginning of the alphabet and the beginning of NCH�Audio.

NCH Software was originally named NCH Swift Sound when it was founded in 1993 largely because many of our earliest products were sound and audio software solutions. Even though we have since expanded our range of software tremendously, to this day our WavePad audio editing software remains not only a company favorite, but our top selling program, currently available for Windows, Mac, iPhone and the iPad with millions of users worldwide.

WavePad may be the core of our audio software category but there are several other big players including MixPad multi-track mixer, Switch audio converter and SoundTap streaming audio recorder, just to name a few. You really can do more with audio using our complete range of audio software programs:

• WavePad Audio Editor
  
• MixPad Multi-Track Software
  
• RecordPad Sound Recording Software
  
• Switch MP3 Converter
  
• Zulu DJ Software
  
• Golden Records Vinyl to MP3 Converter
  
• Express Rip Audio CD Ripper
  
• TwelveKeys Music Transcription Assistant
  
• Crescendo Music Notation Software
  
• BroadWave Audio Streaming Server
  
• SoundTap Audio Stream Recorder
  
• ToneGen Tone Generator Software
  
• Voxal Voice Changing Software
  
• PitchPerfect Instrument Tuner
  
• TempoPerfect Metronome Software
  
• Stamp Mp3 Tag Editor
  

Next: B is for Business >>>

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival October 3, 2011

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:


HBAJAKE presents Should You Use Compression In Audio Recording? posted at Home Brew Audio

Martha presents Katy Perry Ties Michael Jackson's Record; Will She Break It?, saying, "Katy Perry is no one-hit wonder. This week, her latest single reached number one on Billboard�s Hot 100 chart. The track is her fifth number-one single off her latest album, which ties her for the most all-time off of one record. Michael Jackson was the only other artist to ever reach that number."

Danielle MacInnis presents Podcasting for small business posted at Flying Solo

Kelley Wilson presents 10 Reasons that iTunes is So Popular posted at MacApper.

Ken presents Top Audio Editor Even More Affordable In September posted at Pro PC Audio Recording on a Budget

Lisa Hood presents 10 Groups That Need to Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posted at ZenCollegeLife, saying, "Each year when the nominations are announced for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, people often pay more attention to who's not on the list than to who actually might be inducted."

bristolstudios presents Recording: Home Quality vs. Studio Quality posted at bristol recording and voice studios

Marie Kazalia presents Making Music From Everyday Objects, saying, "Sound artist R. Weis created his new Excitable Audible CD over a period of more than two years using recordings of many commonplace sounds found in his home."


You might also be interested in:

• Convert and Compress Audio, and other Files
  
• WavePad: New Look, New Tools, New Features
  
• Hamish and Andy use WavePad to detect lies
  
• Practice Typing from Audio
  
• New Wave TV Review of NCH Golden Records
  
• Ductoid Review of NCH Audio Essentials
  

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. Be sure to Submit your audio articles for the next edition.

WavePad: New Look, New Tools, New Features

Change doesn't have to be scary; in this case it�s really exciting: WavePad has a new look. Now, instead of tiny icons and long and packed menus, WavePad uses a ribbon toolbar to organize functionality by category. It really is easier to use than ever before.

WavePad continually receives praise for its user-friendliness. The interface isn�t intimidating to the beginner, yet doesn�t bury the advanced features more experienced audiophiles use on a regular basis. Its feature set includes recording, editing, and effects such as amplify, normalize, reverb, echo, and reverse and is extended by DirectX effects and VST plugin support, and an included royalty-free sound effect library. The new ribbon toolbar organizes all these aspects of the program, improving an already easy-to-use workspace.

Here is the Effects toolbar. Look how the features pop out at you:



There�s more to this latest version of WavePad, including the following features and tools:

• Wah-wah effect, for emulating wah-wah guitar pedals
  
• Vibrato effect, for modulating the depth and frequency of an audio sample�s pitch
  
• Tremolo effect, for modulating the depth and frequency of an audio sample�s amplitude
  
• Doppler effect, for simulating the sound of a passing vehicle from a higher to a lower pitch
  
• Pitch speed profile tool, for changing the speed or pitch of select portions of an audio sample
  

WavePad version 5.0 is a major release, and we want you to experience it yourself. Download your copy of WavePad now.

Hamish and Andy use WavePad to detect lies

As I was relaxing one evening last week I was surprised to see a familiar face on the TV - WavePad!

Australian comedy duo Hamish and Andy have taken their antics to New York where they are causing general mayhem. In an attempt to determine if Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, was inviting them to a BBQ or simply making polite exit conversation, the boys visit a body language expert to help uncover the truth. There on his Macbook was none other our very own WavePad Audio Editor (with the classic theme selected) being used to analyse Mrs Clinton's voice patterns.

The result? A fifty dollar bet that they will NOT be attending a BBQ any time soon.

Watch the full episode of Hamish and Andy's Gapyear (episode three), WavePad makes its appearance starting at approximately 21 minutes and 30 seconds.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival August 2, 2011

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:


Stephanie presents Outsourcing Audio Editing posted at Vox Daily discussing the decsion to outsource audio editing or keeping it internal.

Jason Briggs presents Delving Into Different Audio File Formats posted at Free Ultimate Hobbies.

Dave Taylor presents Convert WMA audio files to MP3 on my Windows PC? posted at Windows Daily News.

David Spark presents "How to be a podcaster" podcasting resources posted at Spark Minute.

Dan Friedman presents 10 Tips For Getting the Most From Your Voice Over Session posted at The ProComm Voiceover weblog.

Abraham Hyatt presents Audio Editing and Recording for Journalists posted at Digital Journalism Protland.

JC presents EVP - Electronic Voice Phenomena posted at Patently Paranormal.

Suzanne Bird-Harris presents My Favorite Audio Editing Tool posted at Suzanne Bird-Harris.


You might also be interested in:

• Record Your Own Audio Book
  
• WavePad Analyzes Electronic Voice Phenomena
  
• WavePad Makes Doing Radio Fun Again
  
• Express Scribe Now Supports DS2 Audio Dictation Files
  
• From Vinyl to MP3 and iTunes
  

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. Be sure to Submit your audio articles for the next edition.