shortening a song

Question

shortening a song

Is it possible to shorten a song to put onto a CD. There are some songs that go on after the music is done for several minutes and I want to put them onto a mix CD but can't because it goes on for 5 or so minutes. How do I delete this dead air of no music?
Thanks
James

Posted on May 26, 2006 6:34 AM

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Answer 1

Zevoneer

Level 9

52,705 points

May 26, 2006 6:44 AM in response to James Griffin

You can edit song start and stop times in iTunes.
Highlight the song, go to File>Get Info>Options. You can amend the start and finish times there. It won't be a smooth ending it will just finish abruptly but short of using a proper audio editor with fade capabilities it will do what you want. If you want to try out a free open source audio editor have a look at this link: Audacity

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Answer 2

May 28, 2006 12:32 PM in response to Zevoneer

Thanks for the suggestion. I did what you told me but I have a question about it. I noticed when I shortened the song time in the "Options" the song time in iTunes (and on the iPOD) still said the orginal time but it just cuts it off at the time I put. But if I copy these songs into a playlist and then burn that playlist to a CD what time will be used on the blank CD- the orginal time or the time I put.
Hopefully this question makes sense
THanks
James

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Answer 3

Zevoneer

Level 9

52,705 points

May 28, 2006 12:47 PM in response to James Griffin

Hello James,

Your question makes perfect sense however I don't know the answer. It's possible that if you were to burn the track it would play at the original length as iTunes doesn't actually edit the track it merely stops it at a certain point. However that's just a guess. If you were editing it with something like Audacity you would of course be physically reducing the file size. I have never bothered with the iTunes method as I use an audio editor for the Mac called Sound Studio if I need to amend a track in any way.

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