Audio Editing for Beginners: 5 Basics You Need to Know
Turning a raw recording into clean, polished audio doesn’t require years of experience. If you’re new to audio editing, there are just a few basics you need to know to get started.
And you can also watch this video here:
1. Delete and Cut Unwanted Parts
The first basic skill is removing anything you don’t want in the recording.
- Select the unwanted part and press Delete key to remove it.
- Or select the part and click Cut to remove it while keeping a copy you can paste elsewhere.
Cutting is useful when you want to move a section instead of deleting it outright — for example, rearranging the order of a recording.
2. Trim to Keep Only What You Need
Trimming works in the opposite direction from cutting. Instead of removing a selected section, it removes everything outside your selection.
- Select the part of the audio you want to keep.
- Click Trim.
This is a fast way to isolate a specific section without manually deleting everything around it.
Quickly cut, paste, and trim your audio
3. Smooth Out Transitions with Fade In and Fade Out
Abrupt starts and stops make a recording feel unfinished. Fading in and out fixes that!
- Select the beginning of your audio.
- Go to Transform, then Amplitude, then Amplify, and click Fade Over Time.
- Apply Fade In.
- Select the end of the audio and apply Fade Out the same way.
Once both fades are applied, your recording starts and ends smoothly instead of cutting in or out suddenly.
Create smooth audio transitions with fade in and fade out effects
4. Reverse or Silence a Section
Under Sample Operations, you’ll also find two useful tools:
- Reverse — plays the selected audio backward, useful for creative effects or sound design.
- Silence — replaces the selected section with silence, useful for removing an unwanted sound without shifting the rest of the timeline.
Reverse or silence the audio or selected waveform sections
5. Fix the Volume with Normalize or Amplify
If your recording sounds too quiet, you can fix the volume in two ways:
- Go to Transform, then Amplitude, then select:
- Normalize – choose the safe headroom or a specific level, and click Apply. This brings your audio up to a consistent, safe loudness automatically.
- Amplify — gives you direct, manual control over the volume increase if you want to set the exact level yourself.
Normalize quiet audio to increase volume while keeping peaks under control and avoiding clipping
Increase audio volume and make quiet recordings louder with NeonWaves volume controls
Final Thoughts
You don’t need advanced tools to turn a rough recording into something polished — just these five basics. Once cutting, trimming, fading, and adjusting volume feel natural, you’ll be able to clean up almost any recording quickly in NeonWaves.
Want to keep learning? Check out more of the audio editing tutorials to go deeper into audio editing in NeonWaves. Or read here how you can improve your audio quality fast and easy.
