Music Editing

24 Jun Music Editing

Music editing is an essential tool for musicians, sound editors, film/video producers, and more. You don’t want your music to sound like it was recorded by someone with poor audio skills. So part of becoming a better musician involves learning as much as you can about different methods of editing music.

The amount of work involved in editing a piece of music is dependent on the quality of the recording and the performances. The better the performance quality, the less editing work will be required.

The Music Editing Process

When you’re sure you have a decent recording in place, begin the editing process. The process typically involves three steps.

1. General Editing
   Start by selecting an overall best performance keeping your audience in mind, and go on to choose the best performances for particular sections of the song. Next, make general edits to these, and see if the whole arrangement sounds coherent. Finally, make a note of areas that need more detailed work.
2. Medium Editing
   Medium editing involves working in detail on the smaller sections of the song identified in general editing. This involves assessing the altitude and feel of each part, making slight pitch corrections. Then, start bringing the different sections together in a coherent whole. Don’t try to get everything perfect at this stage.
3. Fine Editing
   Give your music a fresh listen. Just focus on the music and the overall feeling, and not just the vocals. Once you have assessed the song, you can then turn to the finer details that trim everything out just so. But, again, don’t try to make it perfect. It’s the tiny imperfections that will make your song believable and well yours.

The above editing process is generic, and you don’t have to follow it strictly. The general rule of thumb is to start with a good recording and keep the vibe and the feel of the song in mind when deciding the extent of the editing work. Then, keep working on the piece until you feel it has the desired effect.