Introduction
Quick audio edits, removing a cough, trimming a song, looping a sound, should not need a desktop install or an upload to someone else's server.
ToolBuddy's Audio Editor runs in your browser. This guide covers the waveform, selection, editing commands, markers, effects and export.
Open your file
Open the Audio Editor and select a file: MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG/Opus, FLAC or WebM, up to 500 MB on a computer and 100 MB on a phone or tablet. To edit several files, select a folder; its audio files are listed in the Control Panel and each keeps its own edits.
The file is decoded on your device and opens in the player: a waveform lane per channel, a time ruler, zoom with an overview, and a level meter and spectrum while it plays.
Select precisely
Drag across the waveform to select a range, drag its handles to adjust it, or type exact times in Selection start and end. With Snap to zero crossings on (the default), each edge moves to the nearest point where the wave crosses zero, so a cut does not click.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Play or pause |
| [ / I | Selection start at the playhead |
| ] / O | Selection end at the playhead |
| L | Loop playback |
| ⌘/Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| ⌘/Ctrl + Shift + Z | Redo |
Cut, copy, paste and trim
The Edit tab's commands work on the selection: Cut removes it and keeps it on the clipboard, Copy keeps a copy, Paste inserts the clipboard at the selection, Silence mutes it, Trim to selection keeps only it, and Insert silence adds a second of silence.
Every command can be undone, up to 24 steps per file.
Markers and loops
Press M to drop a marker at the playhead. Comma and period jump to the previous and next marker; with Shift, the selection runs from the playhead to the marker. Markers are listed in the Edit tab, where a click jumps to one.
To make a loop, select the part that should repeat and choose Seamless loop. The end of the selection is crossfaded into its start (50 ms by default, adjustable), so the result repeats without a click or a gap.
Apply effects
The Effects tab has 16 effects, each with its own controls. Preview plays the selection with the effect; Apply makes it part of the edit.
- Level: gain, normalize, compressor, hard limiter.
- Tone: graphic EQ and parametric EQ with a response curve.
- Clean-up: noise reduction, remove silence.
- Time: change speed, fade in, fade out, reverse.
- Space and colour: delay, reverb, distortion, invert.
Export
In the Export tab, choose the format, the bitrate for MP3 and other lossy formats, the channel layout (as the source, mono or stereo) and the bit depth for WAV and FLAC. Turn on Export selection only to save just the selected range.
When to use another tool
For a single cut, the Audio Trimmer is quicker. To level loudness to a target, use the Audio Normalizer; to remove pauses or noise across a whole file, the Silence Remover and the Noise Remover. To convert or shrink many files at once, use the Audio Converter or the Audio Compressor.
Written by
Ankit Kumar
Senior Software Engineer & Founder at ToolBuddy
Engineering browser-first utilities with zero upload requirements using WebAssembly, Web Audio, and Canvas technologies.