# Editing music on a Mac **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 9, 2003, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-music-on-a-mac/180635 "2003-06-09T13:36:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Man\_N.Cognito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Man\_N.Cognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_N.Cognito)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-music-on-a-mac/180635/1 "2003-06-09T13:36:38Z")
I’m trying to cut out a small clip of an mp3 file using my G3 Mac. I want to be able to burn a CD w/ just those 10 seconds or so on it as a separate track. Is there an easy way to do this? Is there a program I probably already have that will do this for me? iTunes? Quicktime? ---
**Author:** ![merge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9f8e36/32.png) [@merge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merge)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-music-on-a-mac/180635/2 "2003-06-09T14:57:55Z")
I have only ever done this once. I used a program called soundedit. I don’t know if you can do it with quicktime or iTunes… I think you would need an app that is a music editor. I know the Apple Store sells one called Peak LE… but browse around a bit… you should be able to find one for free ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-music-on-a-mac/180635/3 "2003-06-09T15:09:50Z")
If you have paid for the Pro version of QuickTime, that will work for you quite well. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-music-on-a-mac/180635/4 "2003-06-09T16:37:03Z")
I also still use SoundEdit 16, but it’s not being sold any more. Peak LE is a good substitute, sure enough. ---
**Author:** ![viking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@viking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/viking)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-music-on-a-mac/180635/5 "2003-06-09T16:43:52Z")
In iTunes, if you get the track info and select advanced options (or some such), you can tell it to start and/ or stop playback at a specific time. This is pretty crude, though, and I’m not sure if you could burn the clip to a CD. If you want to see the waveform to cut in and out on a specific beat, I’ve used Spark ME, which is freeware. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/editing-music-on-a-mac/180635/6 "2003-06-09T18:29:55Z")
Another freeware Music editor is Audacity, available at [Sourceforge](http://www.sourceforge.net) (search for audacity). The Mac version has its bugs, so save often, but it does have its good features. You can find the point in the waveform and export it in various formats. If you do use Audacity and want to put it on the CD as an MP3 track, you’ll need to get some extra files, though I get the impression you want to convert it to a ‘regular’ CD format (like AIFF).