I would like to remove a very small part of an audio clip. Can I?

[Gerben Wierda]

I have a clip where someone accidentally adds an 's' in the middle of a word. The person wants to say 'subtract' but says 'susbstract'. I would like to see if it is possible to remove that 's'. But finding the 's' sound is my first hurdle. The timeline goes by to quickly. So, my first step is to try to select and play a very short segment. I was thinking about selecting a small part, then narrow it down until I have the 's' sound.

I am not very experienced, so probably this is very simple (add markers — which I never use — and do some intelligent something something).  But selecting a part of the clip is something I already stumble on, and remove single frames with trial and error doesn't seem the optimal route.

Is there a good/simple way to attempt this?

[Richard M Knight]

I would unlink the audio from the video. Switch to audio time units, this will let you edit to less than a frame. Zoom in on the audio timeline, you could then see which part of the waveform is causing the issue. Put a cut in the audio at the edit point and also a cut at the start and end of the word, this will stop the rest of the audio track moving when you cut out the unwanted section. 

[Ann Bens]

Won't be easy: I have managed to do something similar in audio files.

Open audio from timeline (with marker on the word) in source monitor and set it to Audio Units.

Now you can zoom in on the waveform and start trying to find the right spot for the ' S' :trial and error.

[Richard M Knight]

If you have Audition it is quite easy to see 's' sounds using the spectrical view.

[PaulMurphy]

This should be doable, especially since the “b” sound will have a sharp transient, making it easier to cut.

1. Move your playhead one frame at a time until you locate the “b” sound in the word.
2. Make a cut at this point. You’ll now have two clips – one that starts before the “b” sound and one that starts after.
3. Add an Exponential Fade to the cut, setting it to 1 frame.
4. Select the Ripple Edit tool, and adjust the end of the first clip, removing one frame at a time until the “s” sound is removed.

[Gerben Wierda]

Thanks all.

Trial and error in the end was the right way.

I was able to locate approximately the 'tr' sound and experimented with cutting few frames (the 's' sound is more than a single frame) before it. Then I added a very short cross dissolve on the video part. The result is a slightly noticeable graphical glitch in the video of the speaker, but acceptable for me now.

I think @PaulMurphy's suggestion probably would have worked better, but it came in when I already had done the work. 

[SamVimes78]

I've used different approaches for different situations.

If it's doable by only cutting out up to 4 frames I tend to unsynch the audio just a bit. Don't cut the Video but push the beginning and pull the end of the audio towards the cut. If the clip isn't too long most viewers  won't really notice 2 frames out of synch in either direction. If you don't want to have the whole clip out of synch just unsynch up to the next breathing gap and double a few frames there.

Another approach would be to cut the video a second or two in front and behind the audio cut and speed it up just a few percents in order to close the audio gap.

And always look if the person says the same word correctly somewhere else in the clip. Sometimes you don't even need the exact same word but only a portion of it. One syllable or just the same sequence of letters can be enough if the pronounciation fits.

When I am operating the camera I always use headphones and concentrate on even the smallest slip of the tongue. With my headphones I usually hear more than the person doing the Interview. If I catch something, we can decide if we want to redo the question. If the answer was otherwise perfect I sometimes ask the person to repeat the one sentence with the slip up to have the material needed to correct it in post.

[SamVimes78]

And don't forget to activate "Play audio while scrubbing" in the options!