Editing Tips -- Removing Curse Words Pt. 1
Hello There!
Welcome back to the Hidden Fox Audio Blog - or Fox Blog, if you will. Today we are going to discuss something near and dear to my heart. Something I have expressed many a time while editing music - curse words. While there are many clean versions of songs they sometimes leave words behind that you still might not want included in your music. If there are any kids reading this - cover your ears, A very common word that is left behind by clean versions is “Ass”. I often find that being the word I am asked to edit out of clean versions. Also common to be left into clean versions is drug lingo. It’s not considered swearing to be talking about “smoking L’s in the back of the Benzi”, but I’m sorry Nelly - This is inappropriate for young children to perform to. Today in part 1, I will show you a couple methods you can use to stifle any words you don’t want within your music.
Check out our Signature pre-made mixes here!
Method 1 - Silence
This is a very basic premise but, sometimes the easiest way can be the most emphatic. Where there is a word you don’t like. insert silence. This will replace your curse word with complete silence. This method may not be ideal as it can leave your music sounding jarring and disjointed but in a pinch it gets the job done and if it’s only for 1 word, You probably won’t have too many people remembering that vs. people remembering the 6 year old who danced to a song with a bad word in it! To Achieve silence:
In Audacity, Select the section of your music you’d like to remove
Find the generate tab
Select Generate Silence.
“The entire white highlighted section will be replace with silence”
Method 2 - Reverse
The Silence Method will leave a gap in your music that most of you won’t find musical. A good option to replace the curse word more musically is to instead of generating silence, reversing the selection. This method ensures that there is no break from the 8 count and tones will be playing the entire time. With the reverse, you can’t really make out what word they were using and there is no cut distracting from the flow of your music. The Downside to a reverse is that it can still at times be choppy and disorienting musically. It’s not our best option, but it works and allows the music to flow better than if it were silenced. To achieve a reverse:
Select your desired section to be reversed
Find the Drop-down menu “Effects”
Scroll Down until you find “Reverse”
It will look like this…
“This is where reverse is located”
More to come in part 2!
There are about 4 other methods I will teach you on how to remove those pesky curse words from your music. Be sure to give these 2 methods a try on your next edit and let me know how they work out for you.
If there are any other techniques you would like covered by Hidden Fox Audio Blogs be sure to send them Here!
Thank you and Best of luck!
Sincerely,
Corey Perdue
www.HiddenFoxAudio.com