Ever found a song that would be perfect for a presentation or skit, but wished there was a way to edit it to perfection? The program in this week’s Freeware Frenzy does just that. GoldWave 5.18 is an excellent way to trim or add effects to sounds and songs.

Let me begin with a small disclaimer. GoldWave is fully functional to try, but you do have some limitations. Projects are limited to 150 commands per session. If you reach that number, you must save, close and re-open the program to reset the counter. There is also a grand total of 2000 commands. This may seem low, but I am testing the program from the point of view of the new and infrequent user. As such, I have been using the same copy of GoldWave for months with small projects here and there and I have yet to hit either cap. So for the occasional audio edit, GoldWave’s feature-rich and easy to use interface far overcomes the limits in place on the trial version. So with that, let’s see what GoldWave can do.

Installation is very simple. Choose a program file location and whether or not to add Program Menu and/or desktop icons. Click Finish, and the program will install and auto-load. GoldWave informed me that it detected some DirectX plug-ins on my system and how to enable them. Next, the Help file opened up on top of the program. The Help explains the limitations and gives you some helpful links on how to get started playing sounds, recording sounds and selecting parts of sounds. In the Help file, tap the Contents button for more information on various menu commands and how-tos, such as converting files, setting reference points, and creating effects. Overall the Help is thorough, should you need assistance.

By default, GoldWave uses two windows; one for the sound file and all the toolbars, and a smaller "Control Window" on the side to start and stop, show visualizations, balances and frequencies. Start by clicking on New for a fresh file or Open to work on something you have already. When I work with GoldWave, I am usually removing excess music sequences to focus on lyrics, or alternatively clipping parts of the song itself to capture a length of audio. GoldWave supports popular file formats like MP3, WAV and WMA, as well as less often used formats like OGG, FLAC and AIFF. I chose to open an MP3 from my music collection. Decompression takes only a few seconds, but could vary depending on the speed of you computer’s processor and the size of the song file. Then you will see the file in Waveform, with all the spikes and valleys to represent the highs and lows in a song. No need to panic at this seemingly imposing sight, it is merely a graphical representation of the song that is useful for narrowing in on a certain point or area of the audio. The large waveform will scroll and zoom to help you pinpoint the area of interest, while the timeline at the bottom of the window highlights where you are in the full song. Note that there are red and green waveforms for right and left balances. Let’s work on my file for a bit.

Using one my favorite rock songs, "Back In Black" by AC/DC, I decided to rip the all too familiar opening guitar riff. I listened to the song and took note of the time and place when the riff ends and singing began. It happened to come to end around 26 seconds into the song. However, the singing began immediately after, with no convenient pause. So I zoomed into this area on my waveform graphic for a closer look. After zooming in, I found the specific spike in the waves where the voice appears. Just prior to that point, I placed a start marker. I then scrolled to the end of the song to place my finish marker. To remove the newly highlighted area, I simple clicked the "Del" button at the top. By removing so much of the song, GoldWave creates a new wave form of only the remaining area, which lets you see the individual guitar notes very easily.

The issue I now found was a rather abrupt ending which I knew I could not use because it sounded unpleasant. What to do? Insert a fade out! First I set my start and finish markers around the last few notes. Then, clicking on the Effect menu and selecting Volume > Fade Out was all I needed to do. You can see in my screenshot that the end of the song fades in the narrowing end of the wave form. And I only used the default fade type; there are quite a few other options to play with.

To finish up I chose to save my file as an MP3, though you can save into any supported format, and choose the related options such as MP3 bit rate.

I have barely scratched the surface of GoldWave’s capabilities here, so I encourage everyone to try it out and see what they can create. You can add in dozens of effects and customize all of them for truly unique audio creations. Check it out on http://www.goldwave.com/