I have some mp3s that have earbud-specific audio. I want to edit the mp3s by muting one ear's audio (wind sounds) but I don't know much about sound editing and this is such an unusual or specific goal that I haven't been able to find out how to accomplish this. I havent tried anything yet but I assume I need to somehow separate the audio "sides" (left ear and right ear) then select and delete the one I don't want. How do I do this?
2 Answers
I would use Audacity. It is a free sound editing app, relatively straightforward and easy to use, and has the capability of opening and saving as mp3.
Two recommendations:
Save as ogg/vorbis, not mp3. The quality will be just as good, if not slightly better, and using the format does not require any licensing. MP3 is a proprietary format and if you make any real money with your app, expect Fraunhofer corp or whatever their name is, to come knocking.
Be careful when you download Audacity. There are several sites which include viruses and adware in the downloads. I think you can find the original site by checking wikipedia reference section at the end of the article on Audacity.
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You say it opens and saves mp3s but does it let you separate and delete earbud-specific audio (left side or right side)? If not I won't get any use out of it. – Peter_Piper Jul 27 '16 at 17:59
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Looks like you got your answer from Connor before I got back online. Hope you are good to go now. This is a good forum for getting "how to's" on using Audacity. – Phil Freihofner Jul 28 '16 at 17:20
I agree with Phil Freihofner. Download audacity, as it will allow you to open the pre-existing mp3 file.
In audacity, you will see two tracks like this when you open your mp3:
From here, you can click the arrow next to the track title, circled in red:

Then select split stereo track. Then you will be able to edit, mute, or even delete each side of the track independently from one another.To get the tracks back to stereo, go to the Tracks dropdown menu at the top, select both tracks using shift click, and select Mix and Render.
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1Thank you for confirming the software can do this and thanks for the detailed answer. You guys are awesome. – Peter_Piper Jul 28 '16 at 05:04