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How to Make Song Clips

A lot of people have a favorite part of a song that they wish they could hear repeatedly. Some people want to make it a ring tone, but they don't want to hear the entire song every time the phone rings. You can make music clips in a few simple steps and edit them so they're not duplicated anywhere else.

Things You'll Need:

  • Audacity Editing Program
  • Computer
  • Song File

Go online and download Audacity (see Resources). This is a free audio editing program that will allow you to make song clips.

Find the song you want to make a clip from and open it in Audacity. There are two ways you can do this. The easiest is by clicking on the song file and dragging it onto the Audacity icon or file name. The second way is to open Audacity and click "File," then click "Open" and navigate to the song you want. Once you open the file, you will see the song displayed on a frequency-wave bar.

Play through the song and find the part you want. With your mouse, highlight the parts of the song you don't want and press "Delete" on your keyboard.

Listen to the clip to confirm that it's what you want. To undo any edits, press the "Control" and "Z" keys. If you're using a Mac, press the "Apple" button instead of "Control."

Zoom into the file to make a precise clip by clicking on the magnifying glass. You can also add effects to your file.

Click on "File" and export the clip as an MP3 or a WAV file. You can also save the clip as an Audacity project file, but not many programs will be able to open it.

Tip

Don't rush it. Perfect your clip until it is exactly what you want.

Experiment with the editing features to make your clip original.

Warnings:

  • Save your clip frequently if you plan to work on it a long time. Go back in your edits as soon as you find a mistake--don't try to work around it.
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