How do I edit an MP3 file?

You’ve recorded an audio interview that you only want to use a short passage from, or you’ve got one of those MP3 files with a hidden track, leaving two minutes of awkward silence in the middle of it. How do you easily edit an MP3 file

How to edit an MP3 file with Audiotrimmer.com

By far the simplest way I’ve found to quickly trim an audio file to length is with the free online service Audiotrimmer.com. 

This site is a one-tricky pony – it can change the start and finish point of an audio file, letting you hack off an unwanted period of silence at the start and/or end of a recording, but it does nothing else. And you can’t perform multiple edits on the same file. You can change the start/end points, but that’s it. But then that’s all most people need. And did I mention that it’s free?

To perform an edit on Audiotrimmer.com, go to the site and click the Choose File button. Navigate to where the MP3 (or other audio format) file is stored on your computer. Then upload the file to the site.

Within a few seconds, you should see an editing menu appear before your eyes, with a graphical waveform, like the one below. This shows you where volume is peaking and lulling in your recording, making it easy to spot where a period of silence begins, for example.

To edit the file, simply drag and drop the start and end sliders to where you want them. You can hit the Play button and click on the waveform to hear the audio from that point, helping you to judge exactly where to place your start and end markers. 

When you’ve got the markers exactly where you want them, you might want to take a look at the options beneath the waveform. These allow you to fade the audio in or out, or to change the audio format that the new, edited file will be downloaded in. 

When you’re ready, press Crop and then download the edited file. The site will insert [Audiotrimmer.com] in the download’s file name, which is a bit sneaky but hardly the crime of the century. You can, of course, rename the downloaded file and delete this, if you wish.

Now read this: Is it legal to download YouTube videos?