Editing Tip: Use Short Fades for Transparency, When Applicable

Sometimes when you make an audio edit, the resulting audio can sound a bit unnatural or just plain weird — which means it’s a potential distraction for the listeners.

Some edits may result in an unnaturally abrupt transition, an unnatural ending or beginning of a word, an abrupt piece of silence, or even an audible click. And sometimes these sounds are OK and can be left alone.

But if the edit sounds too weird you may want to clean it up, and one of the tools you can use is the fade. And I’m talking about really fast fades — fades that last a half of a second, or even a tenth of a second or less. Quickly fading in and/or out as needed can do a great job of smoothing over any weird noises or abrupt transitions.

Are you an editing ninja who uses fading like this? hehe

Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.

And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”