Software for quickly editing/chopping samples?

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Hello,

I’m looking for suggestions for the best software to quickly trim the ends off a sample or chop a longer sample into smaller chunks and save them as separate files.

I need to be able to quickly zoom in and out on a specific area for precise editing, other than that I just need normalisation and that’s about it. I’m currently using iZotope RX Elements which does the job but it feels a bit slow and clunky. I’m just looking for something to do it precisely and quickly with the minimum amount of hassle

#2

Audacity might do the trick

#3

It’s overkill just for this but I use Wavelab.

You could use Audacity - free, or Reaper (cheap).

#4

I use Audacity.

Seems to work pretty well.

#5

This thread might be helpful, too…

2 Likes
#6

Audacity is the one

#7

https://www.oscillicious.com/beatcleaver/

1 Like
#8

I am a long time aficionado of Audacity as @monquixote and @JBOT even tho it could be an obsolete program, but it’s free and easy to use.

#9

Was gonna suggest this myself, or propellerhead recycle both get the job done…

1 Like
#10

I’ve been using Soundforge for years. Very powerful tool. I have the full suite version but there’s $99 version I as well.

1 Like
#11

Reaper is the absolute best for this for me. I use a bunch of shortcuts and macros mostly all around the WASD cluster on the keyboard and can cut stuff up, set fades, normalise etc super quickly. It has some powerful batch rendering capbilities too, automatically numbering/naming resulting files based on various things. Very much recommend taking the time to try it out and explore the shortcuts and settings to create your own workflow that does what you need it to.

3 Likes
#12

Have you all tried Koala Sampler? It’s on iOS and macOS (windows and android too) and is great for slicing up samples.

You can then export the individual slices. It offers Auto Chop, Lazy Chop, Manual and Transient detection chopping and Pitch/Pan/Volume adjustments. Tons of stuff.

It also has a paid feature to extract Drums, Vocals and Melody from a track…oh and it can also import video and extract the audio.

I use it all the time to create individual samples for use on the Deluge and OT.

Give it a look. It’s essentially a software style SP404 mk2.

Some great tutorials here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2iBbHYRoAAXIMN28kc3PcZeaKQ7DNla6

9 Likes
#13

I usually do all chopping, normalization and exporting with Renoise (I’m not sure if the unregistered version has any of those things locked though).

Do you have a preferred DAW you could use? That kind of thing is also pretty quick in Ableton Live (Lite), Tracktion Waveform (Free), Ardour (opensource).

1 Like
#14

ffmpeg also works! Code below chops your sound up in 2-second files:

ffmpeg -i input.wav -f segment -segment_time 2 output_%03d.wav

I don’t remember how to do this elegantly but if you put all your newly chopped files in a new directory you can then zero cross them as follows (using the 2-second files you made earlier. Hence the fade-in starting at 0 for a duration of 0.001 second, and the fadeout starting at 1.999 second for the same duration):

for i in *.wav; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -af "afade=t=in:st=0:d=0.001,afade=t=out:st=1.999:d=0.001" "${i%.*}_zerocrossed.wav"; done

and this does all the above in one command (deletes the non-zero-crossed files):

if [ ! -d segmented ]; then mkdir -p segmented; else echo folder exists; fi && for i in *.wav; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -f segment -segment_time 2 "segmented/${i%*}%02d.wav"; done; cd segmented; mkdir -p segzc; for i in *.wav; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -af "afade=t=in:st=0:d=0.001,afade=t=out:st=1.999:d=0.001" "segzc/${i%.*}_zc.wav"; done; mv segzc ../ ; cd ..; rm -r segmented

further edit: made a bash script with variable chunk length and fade times. Works with aiff, wav and flac

1 Like
#15

Was just about to suggest this!! $5 and it can do a lot

#16

Wavosaur?

https://www.wavosaur.com

#17

I use Audacity, Wavosaur and MPC Beats, all free and all have some really handy functions, between these 3 I don’t need any other audio editors.

#18

so great

#19

Thanks for all the replies.

I suppose I could do it in the DAW but I was looking for a simple standalone editor. I should have mentioned I’m looking for something to use on Mac so I think I’ll give Audacity a try first.

Having said that I was already thinking about getting Koala for my ipad so I’ll get that as well

#20

…another overkill suggestion, but nothing’s faster and more flexible…literally…bitwig.
no matter where u wanna take it form there…while u never really have to any longer…