How to Extract Music from a Song with Audacity

MaddList

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posted on 6 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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How many times have you heard a song in a movie or on the radio and liked only one specific part? Maybe wanted to use that part in something you create? Taking the songs you love and turning them into something that's your own can be a fun, creative process. If mastered, it can be used in your own work to have the highest quality audio. This is a basic start to doing that, using Audacity, which is a simple, free audio editing software.

Steps

Download Audacity and open it. Find Audacity at https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

Find the source of the audio file you would like to extract on your computer. Export it as an mp3. Export iTunes songs as .mp3s: Go to "iTunes" > "Preferences" > "Import Settings" under the "General" tab. Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 11.35.06 AM.png Change the "Import Using" setting from "AAC Encoder" to "MP3 Encoder". Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 11.35.30 AM.png Drag the desired song onto your desktop. Export Spotify songs as .mp3s: Download a Spotify playlist converter that will automatically convert the songs in a playlist to mp3 for download. Search online for a converter option. Export YouTube songs as .mp3s: Copy the URL of the song. Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 10.55.27 AM.png Paste it into an auto-conversion site.Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 11.09.38 AM.png Click the link that is automatically generated via the conversion website.Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 11.11.28 AM.png

Open up the exported song that you would like to extract from in Audacity. Use "File" > "Open".Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 10.44.07 AM.png Find the location of the mp3 file you would like to use and select it.Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 10.44.44 AM.png Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 10.45.08 AM.png

Extract specific parts of the song for use, or remove the vocals to obtain an instrumental only track. Highlight a specified portion of the track you would like to manipulate.Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 11.52.29 AM.png Cut or copy the highlighted portion.Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 11.52.58 AM.png Paste this extraction into a new window of Audacity. Continue to manipulate extracted sound as desired. Screen Shot 2018 10 19 at 11.53.29 AM.png Remove the vocals from the track.