Trimming audio files

[dalyg]

I have Adobe Premiere Elementa 2020.  I cannot figure how to trim audio files.  The trimming scissors do not appear.

[Bill Sprague]

Where do the audio files come from and which track do you have them on?

[dalyg]

Thanks for answering.   They come from I-Tunes, and they are in the music track.

[Bill Sprague]

iTunes is picky about copy protection.  It may be that Apple has figured out a way to block editing.   

Go to the Expert mode.  Try clicking somewhere outside the timeline so nothing is selected.  Then click the music track so that only it is selected.  The scissors should show up in the CTI but above the music track.  The only thing cut will be the selected audio track.  

You might also try moving your music to the Audio 2 track.    

[dalyg]

Thanks for your suggestions.  Tried both but no luck.  Just to be sure, I am trying to reduce the length of some songs, not eliminate whole songs.  Thanks again.    I cannot get those scissors to appear.

[Bill Sprague]

"I cannot get those scissors to appear."  

Is it the same with MP3s or WAVs from some source other than iTunes?

[dalyg]

Same problem with MP3 files.  Don't have any WAV files.

[Jib452]

I've had that problem in the past. My work around was to download a free audio converter software (there are several available that work well and will convert just about any file to any other format) and convert the audio file to a WAV file. After importing it, I was then able to edit the WAV file just fine in Premier Elements. I used NCH Switch Sound File Converter to do this.

[dalyg]

Thanks for your response.  I downloaded the converter, and converted a few files to WAV.  Still no luck.  I still cannot trim my audio files.  My last software package - Memories on TV was so simple to use.  Unfortunately, they went out of business.

I can open the audio files, but there seems to be no facility to trim them.  There are 2 little handles at beginning and end of file, but they don't seem to help with trimming.

Any other suggestions?

[Jib452]

Hi dalyg,

I did a little research and discovered that you can unlink an audio clip
from the video, which permits you to mute it or even delete it. Go to
page 254 in the User Guide where it says "Mute a clip". You can create a
cut on the timeline where you want the music to stop (don't worry that
it also creates a cut point in the video as well, it won't effect it),
then unlink the audio from the video by selecting the portion you want
to get rid of by ALT clicking on the right of the new cut point, then
right click on that portion. A menu pops up that lets you disable it or
even delete it, as well as some other options like fade in or out.

I hope that helps!

[Bill Sprague]

I'm not at all sure I understand what you are trying to do and why it won't work.  But, try the very robust (free) Audacity program.  It should do about anything.  https://www.audacityteam.org/

[dalyg]

Thanks for your response.  Sorry if I am not explaining myself clearly.

Simply put, I want to shorten (trim) a 3 minute music file (song)  to 2 minutes.

Coult you tell me step by step how you would do that?

Thanks,

Gerry

[Jib452]

Thanks for the reference to Audacity. I checked it out and downloaded it
and It looks awesome and offers a lot of editing/recording options to
augment what one can do with Elements!