[X Newbies] Editing MP3s

[Alex]

On Sunday, Mar 21, 2004, at 22:33 Canada/Eastern, Steve St-Laurent 
wrote:

> I grab some great music from the Net using StreamRipperX. The stuff I 
> like [WUMB Boston] arrives as one long title. Is there any inexpensive 
> OS X tool for saving selections -- mark start, mark end -- as new > MP3s?

MP3 as such are not editable. What is usually meant by "editing" an MP3 
is converting it to an editable format (e.g., AIFF, WAV), then 
recompressing it to MP3. Because MP3 is a "lossy" format, this process 
will result in a degradation of the sound quality (to what extent this 
degradation is perceptible to the listener is another matter). 
Consequently, it's a good idea to avoid 'editing' MP3 files if possible.

If you really want to do it, you can use an application such as iTunes 
to convert MP3 to an editable format, then use a sound editor to edit 
them, then recompress them using iTunes. Alternatively, you can use 
editors which import/export MP3 directly, either using QuickTime, or 
other encoders/decoders. Specific examples are Audacity (freeware) 
<http://audacity.sourceforge.net/>, SoundStudio (shareware) 
<http://www.felttip.com/>, Amadeus II (shareware) 
<http://www.hairersoft.com/>, or, if you have money to burn, Peak 
<http://www.bias-inc.com/>.

f