How to completely delete a slice of an audio region

[alexe]

I‘m having trouble with Logic Pro‘s apparent distinction between an audio region and the underlying audio file.

 

I have an audio region that contains a short pop noise that I would like to get rid off. Here is how I attempted to do this, unsuccessfully:

 

Using the scissors tool, I cut the pop part. What was originally one region is now three regions: The part before the pop, the pop, and the part after the pop. I now select the pop region and press the backspace key to delete it. The pop region is gone. I now select the remaining two regions with the parts before and after the pop and join them into one. My expectation would be that this creates a new audio file with silence where the pop noise used to be and everything else being the same as before. However, that isn‘t what‘s happening. The joined region once again contains the pop that I had just deleted.

 

What‘s going on with this? How do I get rid of the pop? At the very least I want to achieve that the deleted region is not part of the result if I join the two surrounding regions, but even better, I want to completely delete the audio of the region I deleted.

 

I tried to do this in the Project Audio Browser, but it seems as if even if I cut up a region into several smaller regions, these regions still belong to the same underlying audio file, and that one can only delete the entire audio file. Or at least the „Delete file(s)“ option is greyed out when I select the region I would like to delete in the Project Audio Browser. In other words, the scissors tool does not seem to allow me to split up one audio file into multiple audio files. Is this understanding correct so far? How can I actually split up the audio file and delete the part I want gone?

[fuzzfilth]

Congrats, you have discovered the wonders of non-destructive editing.

 

Join Regions first and foremost deals with Regions and should not work on an audio file level, at least not immediately. Here are it's rules:

- If you place a cut somewhere in a Region, Joining the two Regions will not create a new audio file from both Regions, but a new Region from both Regions.

- If, however, one or both Regions have been changed (Position, Gain, Fades), then a new file will be written to not lose these changes.

 

Now, cutting out a portion from a longer Region and expecting the Join command to create a new file is an edge case because, according to the rules, none of both remaining Regions have actually changed and thus Join, without a hint of guilt or shame, re-creates the original Region with the pop we're so desperately trying to get rid of.

 

Now, there's several way to deal with this:

- Don't Join the Regions. Duh.

- Move one Region the slightest bit before Joining

- Put a miniscule fade on either of the Regions before Joining

- Change one Region's Gain ever so slightly before Joining

- Don't use Join but Bounce In Place.

[David Nahmani]

3 different workflows:

 

1. Non-destructive editing: Marquee select the regions you want and join, like there: trim - bounce - handles

— A new file is created each time you join.

— The original file is untouched.

2. Non-destructive editing: Use selection-based processing with a plug-in that mutes the audio (here a Noise Gate).

— A new file is created each time you join.

— The original file is untouched.

 

 

3. Destructive editing: Open the audio file in the Audio File Editor, select the section to remove and choose Functions > Silence.

— The original file is processed destructively.

[alexe]

Thank you both so much for these awesome answers! Every time I ask a question here I realise how little I know about Logic. I didn't even know that selection-based processing existed!

 

I guess the Marquee selection join is the behavior I expected from the regular selection join, thank you very much for that!

 

Only one question about your third option @David: I don't see a "Silence" function in the Functions menu in the audio editor, only a "Remove Silence" function. Is that expected? I'm on Logic 10.7.2.