How to Edit a Radio Interview That is on a CD (new)

This is an article on editing a radio interview that was conducted for the purpose of airing it. Whether editing it for a commercial for the interview or editing things like bloopers, swearing, background noise, etc. out, this article should be fine for it.

I wrote a similar one a long time ago that kept showing up as an error on E-How, so I deleted it. It was an answer to a request then, but I figured maybe the requester or someone else can use it.

This article is for the sole purpose of a person who has permission to do the editing. This article assumes the editing will be done directly on a computer.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• computer
• music editing program (works great for speech as well)
• CD with interview
• CD-R, CD-RW, or similar format
• some type of CD burner external or internal

1. Turn on the computer and load up the music editing program. Then insert the CD with the interview in the CD drive.

2. Copy the entire sound file with the help of the music editing program to the editing screen. If unable to do so within the program--Windows Media Player can be used to "rip" the file to the hard drive--just make sure the editing program can use WMA files, then use the editing program to open the file.

3. Follow the instructions for the particular music editing program being used to cut out bad parts, shorten segments, add background music, etc.
   The methods used will be slightly different for different programs. Usually, it will be a familiar "cut and paste" process. This part can be difficult as the interview needs to be edited in the right places and for the right amount of time--try to save often and restore pieces at the time mistakes are made.

4. If a CD-RW type disk was used for the interview, the interview can be added or overwritten--just be sure to save a copy of the entire original interview somewhere. If the interview was made using a CD-R, then it must be "burnt" to a new CD.

5. Burn the edited interview to a CD-R or CD-RW type disc. This can be done with the music editing program or Windows Media Player. Making more than one copy is recommended for error control such as scratched CD's--also leaving a copy on the hard drive is recommended.

6. Use the edited interview on the air or the radio station's website or what ever way permission has been granted to do so.

Tips & Warnings

• Magix Music Maker is a great lower cost program that can do everything in the article.
• Do not do this if it violates copyright.

[luv2blog]

on 8/21/2008 Great instructions. Enlightening. Thanks.