Editing and organizing long files - workflow

[doctorproctor]

Hi, I'm working with students who are going to be producing short audio documentaries. I'm anticipating that they will have multiple semi-long interview files that will need to be edited down into something much shorter, and I'm trying to determine the best workflow for them in Audition. When working with video, I would subclip out a number of sections from the master clips to create more bite-sized pieces to work with, but I'm not sure how best to do that in Audition.

I see two possible paths, though I'm still somewhat new to Audition: one, in waveform view, they create a bunch of marker ranges in the interview files and then export those out as individual files, though I worry about Noobs working in a destructive setting.

Or, they place their "master" interview file on a track, create and label markers on that track, and drag what they need onto other tracks. But, that seems like a messy way to work and keep track of what's what.

Any other suggestions for workflows for this kind of project? Thanks.

[ryclark]

If you place Marker Ranges in the long interviews then you can Export them from the Markers List panel but it will leave the original files intact. So normally anything that is Export in Audition isn't destructive. It is only if you chop files about in the Waveform view and then do a Save that destruction happens. Probably best if you train them to use Save As which will create new files without destroying the originals. Usually when working in the Waveform edit view the first thing I do is a Save As with a new name or description added to the original one, so I am then no longer working with the original audio file.

[Bob Howes]

Are you re-arranging the order of the edited clips or just cutting out parts you don't want/need?

If the latter, I really like working exclusively in multitrack--I listen through dropping a marker where I (roughly) need an edit then go along using the razor tool to create an edit point where they're needed.

From there, it's easy to grab the handle and shorten clips as required.  You can even overlap clips very slightly to help cover edit points.  The great thing is that this is totally non destructive so, if a mind is changed, you can drag everything back to where you started.

Obviously you can use a similar method even if you're rearranging clips--just takes some dragging.