Creating And Deleting Silence - Adobe AUDITION 3 User Manual

Creating and deleting silence

Create silence
Creating silence is useful for inserting pauses and removing nonessential noise from an audio file. Adobe Audition
provides two ways to create silence in a waveform: by muting part of the existing waveform or by inserting a new
duration of silence.
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Do either of the following:
• To mute existing audio data, select the desired range of audio data and choose Effects > Mute. Unlike deleting or
cutting a selection, which splices the surrounding material together, applying the Mute effect leaves the duration
of the selection intact, and simply zeros the amplitude within it.
• To insert a new duration of silence, place the cursor where you want to insert the silence. Or, if you want to replace
part of the existing waveform, select the desired range of audio data. Then choose Generate > Silence and enter
the number of seconds of silence you want to generate. Use decimals to enter partial seconds. For example, enter
.3 to generate three-tenths of a second of silence. Click OK. Any audio to the right of the cursor is pushed out in
time, thereby lengthening the waveform's duration.
Delete silence
The Delete Silence command detects and removes silence between words or other audio. It's ideal for cleaning up
voice prompts and speeding up narratives without affecting the foreground audio.
1 If you want to delete silence from part of a waveform, select the desired range of audio data. If you don't select a
range, Adobe Audition deletes silence from the entire waveform.
Choose Edit > Delete Silence.
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3 Set the following options as desired, and click OK:
Determines what Adobe Audition considers silence. In the Signal Is Below text box, enter the
"Silence" Is Defined As
amplitude value (in decibels) you want Adobe Audition to consider as the maximum level for silence. In the For More
Than text box, enter the duration (in milliseconds) of this maximum amplitude value.
For very quiet, low-noise-floor audio, enter a lower amplitude value (such as –60 dB). For noisier audio, you might
enter a higher value (such as –30 dB). Enter a longer duration to keep groups of words together, for example.
Determines what Adobe Audition considers audio. In the Signal Is Above text box, enter the
"Audio" Is Defined As
amplitude value (in decibels) you want Adobe Audition to consider as the minimum level for audio. In the For More
Than text box, enter the duration (in milliseconds) of this minimum amplitude value.
Enter a higher duration to ignore short periods of undesired audio (like clicks, static, or other noise). However, if the
value is too high (above 200 milliseconds), short words might be skipped.
Scans the waveform (or selected range) to have Adobe Audition automatically determine a good starting
Find Levels
point for signal levels. Suggested values appear in the appropriate text boxes.
If these values don't do the job—for example, words or phrases are chopped off—lower the signal level values.
Increase the signal level values if not enough silence is removed.
Mark Deletions In Marker List
Limit Continuous Silence To
ranges shorter than this length aren't removed; silent ranges greater than this length are shortened so that exactly the
specified amount of silence remains. Set this value to zero to remove as much silence as possible.
Adds each location where silence is removed to the marker list.
Specifies the minimum amount of silence (in milliseconds) to keep at all times. Silent
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