Shortening a sequence

[Tomaudio]

Can I cut the middle out of a sequence (such as one verse of a song) without redoing the sequence. I have a couple of sequences that are too long because the song verses repeat too many times, causing the songs to get boring. If so, How?

[k6ccc]

Yes.  First step is to use something like Audacity to remove a section (or more than one) from the music file.  Let's say for the sake of the discussion that you removed the audio from 1:00.00 to 2:00.00.  Then in Sequencer, do a Copy starting at  2:00.00 until the end of the song, and paste it to 1:00.00.  This will overwrite the portion of the sequencing that was between 1:00.00 and 2:00.00.  Then menu > Sequence > Change sequence length.

 

[Orville]

2 hours ago, Tomaudio said:

Can I cut the middle out of a sequence (such as one verse of a song) without redoing the sequence. I have a couple of sequences that are too long because the song verses repeat too many times, causing the songs to get boring. If so, How?

Exactly what Jim stated, you need a music editor to cut out parts of a song that are either overly repetitious or have insanely long musical interludes between verses.   I just used my music editor to cut out over 5 minutes of a musical rift, the song was over 7 minutes long, not it's just under the 2-minute mark.   Even in some instrumentals I use, I cut them down using a music editor, Audacity, the one Jim mentions is completely free, so most folks are using that.  I use a commercial music editor I got with my video editing software, so I mostly rely on it, but I also use Audacity for some things my commercial editor can't even do!

I also remove the excessive long silent delays at the beginning before the song starts and at the point it becomes completely silent at the end, although I have also shorted many silent parts that occur before a verse change because the delay, at least to me, was too long before the next verse started.

If you don't have a music editor, you really need to get one, in this hobby they really are a must-have option, as you'll find a lot of songs you'll want to edit out repetitions or excessive silent parts between verses or rifts.

I never redo the entire sequence, what I do is load in the edited audio file to a new sequence using the same filename, but add and -E to it, this way I know it is the edit of the song, then I load in the original sequence and copy ONLY those parts that coincide to the edit{s} of the song, and then, copy and paste each section from the original MINUS the section{s} I removed{edited out}.  It's not redoing the entire sequence exactly, but no matter what, you'll still need to TWEAK the edited sequence version so everything run and flows smoothly.  This is just the way I do it, and it works out well for me, I only have to do minor tweaks using the copy and paste from the original sequence to the new edit version of the song sequence.

I've just found this is the easiest route for me to accomplish such a drastic change, going from the full song to a custom edit of the same song.   And, I've been using this method close to 10+ years now.

Good Luck!

 

 

[TexasLights]

same comments as above, i find that most songs that much over 2 minutes causes people to lose interest unless its really good.   But it does get a bit tricky if you have already sequenced it.   You need to pay attention to where every part you cut out is.   As noted above, you will be really lucky if is at one minute.   I try to make it less obvious where the cuts are so that means its varies.   If editing an existing one, if you cut from the beginning you have the easiest since you keep sliding things left as mentioned in the previous.   You might find you need to adjust a little so ctrl-z to undo and then try to insert at the next frame.   Also, i always paste by time for best results. 

this is a great example, I can't even tell myself where the cuts were

 

[dibblejr]

If people lose interest before the end of a song

1- you have not presented a good sequence

2- song choice

3- boring show

Besides, the show is for me, my family and friends. Who cares what anyone else thinks.

Cutting music down is lame at best.

JR

Edited October 5, 2021 by dibblejr

[Orville]

On 10/5/2021 at 8:02 AM, dibblejr said:

If people lose interest before the end of a song

1- you have not presented a good sequence

2- song choice

3- boring show

Besides, the show is for me, my family and friends. Who cares what anyone else thinks.

Cutting music down is lame at best.

JR

The above I highlighted in Red I wholeheartedly disagree with.   I've gotten songs that are so repetitious, even after the first time through I found them boring.  I have also gotten songs that have far too much DEAD SILENCE at the beginning and end of a song, which causes huge delays in the next song starting, especially if those "beginning silent" and "end silent" parts are sometimes as much as 40-45 seconds long BEFORE the song starts and ends, so I hack 'em off, makes for transitioning from sequence to sequence much faster and smoother.   And, I personally don't like repetitively long songs, I don't need 5 minutes of instrumental music between verses of a song.  30 seconds of that is enough, perhaps even up to a minute, depending on the song itself.

But I disagree with cutting music as being lame, if too much repetition, folks do drive off during those times in a song, too large a gap between sequences and folks, again, will drive off, thinking that's the end of the show.

When I first started out I didn't edit or cut down the songs/music I was using, and my neighbors at the time, said it was either too long timewise {more than 3 minutes} or too repetitive, so they found it annoying.   Ever since those complaints,  I've been cutting down my songs/music, and I haven't had any complaints since.   There's always a time and place for everything, and our shows just happen to be one of those.   My opinion, but I'll stand by it from my experiences with a lot of music I've used over the years.