How to Trim or Cut Music in Audacity [2025 Guide]

Step 1: Launch the software on your computer. As it’s an open-source software, it doesn’t require a login, and you can upload the audio directly. For that, click the “File” option on the top menu bar, followed by “Open” from the dropdown menu. Then, select and upload the audio from your local storage.

Step 2: Each track appears as a waveform on the timeline. To preview the tracks, you can simply press the “Play” button at the top. You’ll find the option to rewind, pause, or fast forward the track.

Step 3: Select the “Selection tool” if you haven’t already. Its icon looks like a cursor from a word processor.

Step 4: Use the selection tool to select the part of the audio you want to cut. Then, click the “Edit” menu, and choose “Cut.” If you prefer using the keyboard, use the shortcut “Ctrl + X.” As you cut a portion of an audio, the other parts join automatically into one track.

Alternatively, for precise audio cuts on Audacity, you can set the start and end times. This avoids the use of the selection tool, and you always cut the exact part of the unwanted clip from the audio.

Part 3. How to Trim Audio in Audacity (Keep Only What You Need)

Trimming audio on Audacity is the opposite of using the cut option. Here, you keep a part of the audio track and remove everything before and after the highlighted section. Here’s how to trim audio on Audacity:

Step 1: As in the previous section, upload the audio track you want to trim by clicking “File > Open.” Then, click the “Selection tool.”

Step 2: Now, use the selection tool to select the section you want to keep. Or, you can set the start and end time in the “Selection” tab at the bottom.

Step 3: Then, head over to the “Edit” menu, and click “Remove Special > Trim Audio.” Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + T” to trim the audio clip.

Step 4: You can add Effects (amplify, fade in/fade out, normalize, reverb, EQ, noise reduction, and more), increase or decrease the tempo, and others to fine-tune the audio. Once you’re satisfied with the audio, navigate to “File > Export Audio” to save the track to your computer.

Most of the time, intros and outros contain long silence, applause, fades, or trailing noise. Understanding how to trim tracks in Audacity is useful to remove unwanted parts at the intros and outros.

Part 4. How to Split and Crop Audio in Audacity

Now, it’s time to learn how to split audio in Audacity. This is useful when you want to isolate specific sections of an audio for individual manipulation without affecting the entire track. You can also use it to add an audio clip in between or rearrange the order of your audio. This potentially improves organization, collaboration, and targeted exporting of specific segments. Here’s how to crop an audio in Audacity:

Step 1: Use the selection tool to select a portion of the track where you want to split it. Use the playback buttons at the top to choose the right time. Then, “Zoom in and out” using the magnifying glass option at the top, or use “Ctrl + 1 and Ctrl +2” for Windows and “Cmd + 1 and Cmd + 2” for Mac to zoom in and out, respectively.

Step 2: As you find the right spot in your audio, head over to the “Edit” menu and select “Audio Clips > Split” to split the audio. Alternatively, you can just use “Ctrl + I.”

Step 3: Move or delete the segments as needed, make the necessary edits, and then merge them back in at the end.

Now, imagine you need to add a portion of another track into the existing one. For that, follow the steps in order:

Step 1: Adjust the split sections of your existing audio to make space for the new portion to be added. You can remove any clip if required.

Step 2: Head over to the “File” menu and select “Import > Audio” to upload the new audio from your computer.

Step 3: Use the selection tool to select the part of the new audio, then use “Ctrl + X” or right-click on it and select “Cut” from the menu.

Step 4: Right-click the empty portion of the existing audio, then select “Paste” to paste the portion. Then, play it to ensure the audio is in sync.

Part 5. Keyboard Shortcuts for Faster Audio Editing in Audacity

Part 6. Best Alternative to Audacity to Cut/Trim Music

Although Audacity is a powerful tool to edit audio tracks, it has certain limitations. To start, it functions as a single-track editor, which limits its capabilities for multi-track recording or mixing projects. Additionally, the interface, although functional, may appear outdated to some users, while others may struggle to locate specific features.

To enhance your audio cutting or trimming experience, you can try out Wondershare UniConverter audio cutter. You can cut or trim multiple parts of a single audio file, and also batch process multiple audio files. Besides, this comprehensive tool allows you to remove vocals, change voice, fix metadata, and more.

Best Multimedia Processing Tool

Easily cut or trim audio music, songs or audio tracks within no time, boasting more video/audio/image processing features.

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Key Features:

• MP3 cutter helps make precise cuts or trims in an audio file.
• Its AI vocal remover can automatically remove vocals from any song.
• Use its Noise Remover feature to automatically denoise a video.
• Its Audio Converter can convert your music and audio files to over 50 formats, including MP3, AAC, M4A, OGG, FLAC, and WAV.

How to cut or trim your audio track using Wondershare UniConverter:

Step 1: Launch Wondershare UniConverter on your computer and head over to the “Audio” section. Then, from the available options, select “MP3 Cutter.”

Step 2: Tap “+” to upload the audio track from your computer, or drag and drop one to start.

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