I need a new program this year and I have all my music picked out. Before I can actually start skating to the music though I need to edit it some. Just stuff like adding 2 songs together and cutting the length a bit. Does anyone know of an easy to use program that would allow me to do this? If there was a free internet program to do this it would be the best but if anyone knows of some other software that does this then that would be helpful too. The Internet would be the best though because it might be difficult to find the software where im currently living. Any help would be great!!
Thanks

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Hurrah for Desert Skaters! YAY for Jeff Buttle and Virtue and Moire!

Try Audacity which is free and easy to use. You do have to download another (also free) programme to turn your music into an MP3, but it prompts you to do this the first time you need to, and after that you don't know you have, if you see what I mean - it's transparent.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I'm really pleased someone started this thread, coz I've got a question relating to music too.

I am putting together a programme (with jumps just 'pencilled in' at the moment), and am looking for some music (about 2 minutes' worth).

Has anyone got any suggestions for good pieces? I looking for something sedate/slow ish, there are some tunes I have in mind for future years when I can skate better and faster, but for the moment feel I would cope better with something slow.

Any ideas would be much appreciated!

S xxx

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

I saw a demo of Audacity - it looks very easy to use.

I use Voyetra's AudioSurgeon which is pretty easy, once you play with it a bit. Sorry, it's not free, but you can give the demo a whirl to see if you like it first.

It seems to me, based on discussions I've had with others, that once you get comfortable with a package, you're not likely to want to change. There's not a lot of training for these editing programs, so it's all on-the-job. Leave yourself plenty of time to cut the music, so you don't get frustrated. You may have to do two or three versions before you find one that's skateable for you.

A word of advice: always work off a copy, rather than your original. Make versions as you edit, so you have a restore point if you have a problem.

I learned a music editing trick at a coaches' seminar this summer: if you want to splice two parts of a song together, use the editing program to lay down two copies of the same song. Align them where you want the cut, then "fade out" the volume on the first part and "fade in" the second part. So much better-sounding than actually splicing the two sections together. *LOVE IT*

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I think you gave this tip before...I recently tried it with Audacity and it worked great! Audacity also has tons of tutorials on how to do things (but I'm lazy and never seem to get around to doing them). All I knew before was how to change the pitch of a song (for my singing daughter).

Audacity is also nice because until you save it...changes are just temporary.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Ummm - a slow skater skating to slow music isn't actually a great idea. It's surprising how well you need to be able to skate to cope with something slow. You'd be much better advised to skate to something a little faster and more sprightly with a bit of a beat to it.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

My coach said that slow music doesn't mean you skate slow...my music from last year was somewhat slow (but not slow and dragging) but she wanted me to go faster to it...and she really put lots of stuff into my routine (I have to really move my butt to get it all done in time). That makes a big difference.

If you are skating to a dragging piece of music and only have a few elements then it will be really bad for everyone. You can have a faster piece of music and skate slower in segments just to change it up.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

I love Sound Studio, which is for the Mac, and lets you do such things as ISK8NYC mentioned, and more! I also suggest you try looking through the iTunes web site/Apple music store or other similar site. For my music that I'm about to start skating my free program to, I searched on iTunes for music by a particular musician, sampled various songs listed, and ended up picking one and cutting it with Sound Studio from more than 4 minutes to 1:39. My coach loves it and says it's something he would have been willing to skate to when he was still competing, high praise indeed.

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August 22, back on the ice!

Mrs Redboots, where did you find the other programme to turn the music into an MP3? I have just downloaded audacity to try but can't find where to download this bit

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AW1
mum to Miss Lil (6yrs old)
mum to be to #2 due in March 08

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows
Scroll down until you find where it says "Lame mp3 encoder" under Optional Downloads-that's what you want.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Goldwave is the program I use. You can download it at www.downloads.com I believe. It's a trial version that lasts for quite a while - it converts whatever type of file you have into the proper format, and you can cut, blend, take out words, etc.

It's the program I swear by - however, my trial is running out (six months later, boo!), so I think I may have to buy it!

I waited until I tried to save something as an MP3, and it said I needed this programme and did I want it, at which point it took me to it, I think. But S@D has given you the link....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I usually use the software that came with my mp3 player...it has a converter (which came in handy to convert all my space-hogging .wav songs into a smaller format size .wma i believe).

I tried using the tutorial from Audacity for removing words from songs, but I wasn't happy with the results. I usually end up getting a karaoke version but sometimes there are background vocals

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

bummer I can't work it out - anyhoooo....

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AW1
mum to Miss Lil (6yrs old)
mum to be to #2 due in March 08