How to Trim an Audio Clip From a Song

Guide · about 5 minutes to read

You might want a short clip of a song for a video, a social post, a presentation or a personal project. Trimming it yourself gives you control over exactly where it starts and ends, and it's quicker than you might expect.

Pick the part you want

Listen to the track once and note the time where your clip should start and end. Choose a start point just before the moment you like, so the clip doesn't begin mid-phrase. Five to fifteen seconds is common for short clips.

Trim it

Open the Audio Editor trim tool and drop in your file. Move the start and end sliders until the waveform highlights the part you want. The bright section on the waveform is what will be kept.

The tool works with MP3, WAV, OGG, M4A and FLAC files in most browsers.

Fade the ends

A clip that stops suddenly sounds rough. Add a short fade in, about half a second, and a fade out of the same length or a little longer. The fades controls let you set both.

Set the volume

If the clip sounds quieter than the original, use the volume control or the normalize option. Normalizing raises the loudest part to a consistent level without adding distortion, which helps when you combine clips from different songs.

Export

The editor exports a 16-bit WAV file, which plays almost everywhere. Many video editors and presentation tools accept WAV directly. If you need a smaller format such as MP3 for a phone or a website, convert the WAV with the software you already use.

Respect copyright

Trimming a clip doesn't give you the right to use the song. For public posts, check the rights, use music you have a licence for, or use royalty-free tracks.