Trimming mp3s?

[bcharm]

Can anyone suggest any freeware app for trimming off the beginning or end of an mp3? Thanks! =)

[arn]

remember, if you do trim an MP3, that requires a decode and reencode which means you are losing quality.

If it's simply because you don't want to listen to a bit of the start or end, you can have iTunes start or stop the song at arbitrary start/stop points without actually sacrificing any quality.

File -> Get Info -> Options

change the start and stop times.

arn

[ftaok]

Originally posted by bcharm
Can anyone suggest any freeware app for trimming off the beginning or end of an mp3? Thanks! =)

I can think of two free ways to do this and one $30 solution.

Free

iMovie - use iMovie to import your mp3 file. Cut it up as necessary. I think you may be able to export the file as an aiff or maybe even back to mp3. With an aiff, you can use iTunes to import it back as an mp3.

iTunes - do a "get info" on the mp3 you want to edit. Change the start and end points for that song. burn an audio CD with that song in it. then use iTunes to "rip" that song again.

$30 solution

Quicktime Pro - With QT Pro, you can take the mp3 and cut out the parts that you don't want. Then just save it as a new file. This should work.

NOTE - I haven't tried any of these yet. I might try it tonight to see if my initial thoughts were right or not. At least get a 2nd opinion before spending the $30 on QT Pro.

[bcharm]

I didn't know you could do that in iTunes. Awesome!

Btw, I already have QT Pro, but when I tried to save the trimmed mp3, QT had .mov as the only format to save to. That's why I asked if there was some other way to trim mp3s.

Changing the start/stop times in iTunes fixes my problem. Thanks guys!

[TyleRomeo]

Originally posted by arn
remember, if you do trim an MP3, that requires a decode and reencode which means you are losing quality.


arn

is the quality actually effected if you re-encode to the same compression

(eg. 128KBPS MP3 to 1411KBPS AIFF and back to 128KBPS MP3.)

what if you edit an AIFF and then save it as an AIFF you can't possibly lose any quality.

Tyler

[johnnowak]

Tyle: yes it is. and aiff->aiff = no loss.