Digital Audio Editing

Digital Audio Editing

by Simon Langford
Released October 2013
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781134111374

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Book description

Whether you’re comping a vocal track, restoring an old recording, working with dialogue or sound effects for film, or imposing your own vision with mash-ups or remixes, audio editing is a key skill to successful sound production. Digital Audio Editing gives you the techniques, from the simplest corrective editing like cutting, copying, and pasting to more complex creative editing, such as beat mapping and time-stretching. You’ll be able to avoid unnatural-sounding pitch correction and understand the potential pitfalls you face when restoring classic tracks. Author Simon Langford invites you to see editing with his wide-angle view, putting this skill into a broad context that will inform your choices even as you more skillfully manipulate sound. Focusing on techniques applicable to any digital audio workstation, it includes break-outs giving specific keystrokes and instruction in Avid’s Pro Tools, Apple’s Logic Pro, Steinberg’s Cubase, and PreSonus’s Studio One. The companion websites includes tutorials in all four software packages to help you immediately apply the broad skills from the book.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Table of Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Introduction
    1. What Exactly Is Audio Editing?
    2. Book Format
  8. Chapter 1. Audio Editing 101
    1. Editing History: Tape
    2. Editing History: Digital Tape and Hard Disk-Based
    3. Editing History: DAW
    4. The Here and Now
  9. Chapter 2. Different Aims of Audio Editing
    1. Corrective Editing versus Creative Editing
    2. Restorative Editing
    3. The Role of the Editor
  10. Section 1: Corrective Editing
    1. Chapter 3. Cutting, Copying, Pasting, and Moving
      1. Why Start Here?
      2. The Basics
      3. Start at the Beginning
      4. Tightness of Edits
      5. “Zero-Crossing” Edits
      6. “Visual” Editing versus “Audible” Editing
      7. Multiple-Track Editing
      8. Potential Problems
      9. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
    2. Chapter 4. Fades and Cross-Fades
      1. Differences between Fades and Cross-Fades
      2. Different Fade Shapes
        1. Linear
        2. Logarithmic
        3. Exponential
        4. S-Curve
      3. Different Fade Shapes: Summary
      4. Using Fades
      5. Using Cross-Fades
      6. Phase Cancellation
      7. Periodic Patterns
      8. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
    3. Chapter 5. Level Control
      1. Should This Be a Part of the Editing Process?
      2. Destructive versus Nondestructive Edits
      3. Different Types of Level Control
        1. Destructive Edits
        2. Static Nondestructive Edits
        3. Variable Nondestructive Edits
        4. Automatic Nondestructive Edits
      4. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
    4. Chapter 6. Tonal Matching
      1. What Is Tonal Matching?
    5. Chapter 7. Comping and Alternate Takes
      1. The Search for Perfection
      2. Putting It All Together
      3. Making the Grade
      4. Tonal Matching
      5. Pitch Adjustments
      6. Timing Changes
      7. Comping Made Easy
      8. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
    6. Chapter 8. Multi-Track Comping
      1. Ideal-World Multi-Track Comping
      2. Real-World Multi-Track Comping: Spill Issues
      3. Real World Multi-Track Comping: Timing Issues
      4. How Can We Fix It?
      5. Frequency-Dependent Gating
      6. Expand Your Options
      7. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
    7. Chapter 9. Transient Detection
      1. Why Use Transient Detection?
      2. Simple Level-Based Detection
      3. Advanced Level-Based Detection
      4. Spectral Detection Techniques
      5. Possible Applications and Limitations
      6. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
  11. Section 2: Creative Editing
    1. Chapter 10. Beat-Mapping and Recycling
      1. Introduction
      2. Beat-Mapping
      3. Quality Limitations of Beat-Mapping
      4. Recycling
      5. Extended Uses of Recycled Files
      6. More Creative Uses
        1. Beat-Mapping
        2. Recycling
      7. Quick and Easy Multi-Samples
      8. Rhythm from Anything
      9. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
    2. Chapter 11. Drum Replacement
      1. Using Recycled Loops
      2. Dedicated Drum Replacement Tools
      3. Drum Replacement Tools in Use
      4. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
    3. Chapter 12. Time-Stretching
      1. Introduction
      2. Why Is It So Difficult?
      3. The Additive Approach
      4. The Granular Approach
      5. How We Use It and When We Use It
      6. Time-Based Stretches
      7. Tempo-Based Stretches
      8. Length-Based Stretches
      9. Filling in the Gaps
      10. “Manual” Time-Stretching
      11. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
    4. Chapter 13. Elastic Audio (Time)
      1. Definition of Elastic Audio
      2. Different Algorithms
      3. Advantages and Disadvantages Compared to Regular Time-Stretching
      4. Quantization of Audio Files
      5. Auto-Conform and Follow Tempo
      6. The Best of Both Worlds
      7. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
    5. Chapter 14. Pitch-Shifting
      1. Introduction
      2. A Brief History of Pitch-Shifting
        1. Analogue
        2. Digital
        3. Computer-Based
      3. Different Approaches to Pitch-Shifting
      4. Size Matters
      5. Formants
      6. Uses of Pitch-Shifting
      7. Hands On
        1. Introduction
        2. Logic
        3. Pro Tools
        4. Studio One
        5. Cubase
  12. Section 3: Restorative Editing
    1. Chapter 15. Editing in the Third Dimension
      1. Introducing the Idea of Spectral Editing
      2. Taking Things Further
      3. FFT Analysis and Waterfall Plots
      4. Spectrograms
    2. Chapter 16. Spectral Editing
      1. Introduction
      2. Tools of the Trade
      3. Corrective Spectral Editing
        1. Attenuation
        2. Copying and Pasting
        3. Clicks and Crackle
        4. Noise and Hum
      4. Creative Spectral Editing
        1. Compression
        2. De-clipping
    3. Chapter 17. Applications of Audio Restoration
      1. The Recording Studio and Beyond
      2. Beyond Restoration
    4. Chapter 18. Demixing
      1. What Exactly Is Demixing?
      2. Is That Even Possible?
      3. How Does It Work?
      4. What Are the Applications?
      5. Legalities of Possible Uses
      6. Fair Use
      7. Moral Issues
      8. It’s Not All Bad
    5. Chapter 19. Thinking Outside the Box
      1. Sound Design
      2. Using and Abusing Audio Editing Techniques
  13. Index

Product information

  • Title: Digital Audio Editing
  • Author(s): Simon Langford
  • Release date: October 2013
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781134111374