Best Free Software to Cut, Split or Merge Audio Files

So, you've got some big mp3 or other audio files which you want to trim, splice, split or otherwise cut down to size, maybe for your mp3 player. Perhaps you want to extract one or more songs from a large audio file, or a particular part of a radio program you recorded (cut the commercials!). Or you want to use a particular portion of an mp3 file to create a personalized ring tone for your smart phone.

You could use an all-round audio editing freeware program like Audacity, but that isn't the most convenient way. Your best bet is probably to use a smaller, more specific program for the job: a lightweight freeware splitter (or joiner). Perhaps something you can run even on an oldish laptop. And you'll be better off choosing a lossless splitter which - unlike Audacity, for example - will cut (or merge) your files without any loss of sound quality due to decompressing and recoding.

This review will focus on simple audio cutter / joiner freeware, at the same time providing a few pointers on how to cut, split or merge various audio file types.

Audio Cutters / Splitters

mp3DirectCut is likely to be top choice if your main need is simply to cut / split mp3 files. It's a lightweight, portable, lossless mp3 splitter which is a joy to use even on less powerful computers.

Like other top audio file splitters,  mp3DirectCut  incorporates an audio player with a volume unit (VU) meter which lets you see as well as hear the points where you want to cut. Mp3DirectCut offers a good range of handy features, including pause detection,  CUE sheet support, looping, volume gain, fading trimming, ID tagging, etc.

A particular strong point is the simplicity of its neatly arranged interface. It's a pleasure to get to know this no frills program and there's an excellent manual to help.  Splendid, straightforward portable freeware.

mp3Splt-gtk has the advantage that it handles ogg vorbis files as well as mp3. It also has a few more features than mp3DirectCut, including the ability to identify split points between tracks via online database services (CDDB or FreeDB).

On the downside, the user interface is less tidy than mp3DirectCut's, and the program's response times tend to be somewhat longer. For instance, you have to load the player's VU meter (by checking "Show amplitude wave"). Documentation too seems to be confined to the command line version of mp3splt. However, you can find a good overview of the program and its interface here.

Audio Joiners

MakeitOne MP3 Album Maker outshines other joiners for its ability to join the MP3 files and unpack them back to their original state. In either way, the program is a lightning fast mp3 joiner and unpacker that accepts large files.

The MP3 files packed by the program can be played on any MP3 players. It features drag-and-drop files for ease of use and includes a tagging function allowing for adding tags (artist and album title) and the album art to the joined files.

On the downside, it does not support other audio formats than the MP3.

Shuangs Audio Joiner takes three simple steps to join audio files, Add files in the list, Select Output Format, and Join the files, straight forward, easy to use and effective.

Users are allowed to join MP3, WMA and WAV format files with the program. The MP3 files can be joined using a bitrate ranging from 32 to 320 kbps while WMA files using a bitrate ranging from 48 to 160 kbps.

The user interface shows a small ad panel linking to the developer's homepage but it is not intrusive.

More freeware review suggestions:

• Medieval Cue Splitter - good for other audio file types if you want to split into original CD tracks a ripped audio file with an accompanying CUE file.
  
• Merge Mp3 - what it says.
  
• Meda MP3 Joiner - another contender.

No recommendation:

• Slice Audio File Splitter - Partial reliance on an ambiguously "freeware"  audio editor (Wavepad Basic) is an annoyance - as is the stuff these programs write to the registry.

You might want to check out these articles too:

• Best Free Audio Editing Software
• Best Free Audio/Video Format Conversion Program
• Best Free CD Ripper
• Best Free MP3 Tag Editor

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