14 DAY TRIAL // mp3DirectCut is an audio tool that provides cutting capabilities for MP3, MP2, and AAC audio files. It is a frame-based editor that allows you to work with the encoded frame structure instead of PCM samples.
This free program empowers you to cut, copy, paste, or change the volume of an audio selection without re-encoding the file and check out a fast visualization of the compressed audio data. You can work with cue sheets for splitting a file at cue positions, as well as record audio streams from your audio input device and save them to MP3. All audio tasks are carried out using frame manipulation, so mp3DirectCut is not a waveform editor.
Tricky installation
The application is delivered on your system in the form of a self-extracting ZIP archive that needs to be extracted manually before you can proceed with a normal installation mode. Otherwise, several errors prevent you from deploying the tool on your system.
Clean feature lineup
When you run it for the first time, a small configuration panel pops up, letting you select the language and enable the portable mode in order to store all settings in the program’s folder. These settings can be altered at any time in the configuration panel.
mp3DirectCut delivers a straightforward interface that integrates a built-in audio player, several smart buttons for tweaking the entire process, along with a graphical visualization of the compressed audio data.
It is important to mention that the app does not show the real waveform audio data in the graph but it actually reveals the MPEG audio data, which embeds only higher frequencies. The real audio level is shown while playing a song in the VU meter on the right side of the working environment.
Files can be added in the workspace using the built-in browse button or drag-and-drop support. The tool lets you insert several audio file formats, such as MP3, MP2, MPA, MUS, AAC, MPD, and CUE.
There’s also support for a help manual in case you want to find out more about the program’s capabilities.
Audio editing features
mp3DirectCut offers you the right tools for helping you divide an audio file into more parts each time you cut or set a cue/gain point. The first step that you need to take is to select the audio streams, more specifically an audio range or only a single position (dotted line). The audio selection may be cut, copied, or pasted, while the point selection can be used for generating cues or points of volume change.
The application lets you make use of different selection methods, as you may use the “Set begin” and “Set end” buttons, drag a selection using the left and right mouse clicks, or enter the beginning and end of length of the selection in numbers.
Each editing point clearly separates independent audio parts. Parts can be from different audio files and have distinctive information about the volume change or cue. An edit point remains each time you cut a selection, so you can restore the cut range using the Edit button.
You can use the Cut button in order to split the current audio part into two smaller parts. The split point may work as cue (for creating a cue sheet) by setting the flags in the audio representation.
What’s more, you may manually set or remove a cue flag, delete existing editing points, and make use of clipboard editing tasks for cutting, copying, and pasting a selection. You may define a part by entering details about the artist and title.
The volume can be modified for different parts of the audio file by simply dragging the gray handles that are placed in the visualization panel.
Several buttons integrated in the main window enable you to move the selection one frame to the right or left, trim the selection, as well as move the current cue to the left or right.
You can check out detailed file information (e.g. total audio size, current position and bitrate, average bitrate, size of the current frame) and create or edit ID3v1 tag by providing info about the title, artist, album, year, genre, and comment.
Pre-listening mode and other handy features
The application is able to play a region to/from the selection beginning, as well as to/from the selection mode, adjust the gain, normalize the volume, and set cue flags for all split points.
Furthermore, you can make the utility automatically set a cue at a custom time (in minutes) in order to split large tracks into small segments of the same length, use the Pause detection feature in order to seek for pauses and set the cues at the pause ends (you may adjust the level and duration threshold), automatically remove silences at the beginning and end of the track, load CUE sheet over the current audio file, record the audio streams, play the current selection in a loop, and view a list with all your cut points.
Batch processing
mp3DirectCut gives you the possibility to process multiple audio files at the same time using the batch processing feature. You may add the content of an entire folder, select the files that you want to manipulate, and pick the target actions, namely save, apply an automatic cue mode, normalize, cut, fade to/from a certain position, join, pause detection, and enable the automatic cropping mode.
In addition, you are allowed to select the saving folder, overwrite the original files, start and stop the current task, as well as check out the log for possible errors.
Exporting and splitting options
You can also save data to a project that stores the editing information (such as cuts), but it does not include the audio files. In addition, you may export the audio data to a cue sheet (CUE file format) that may store metadata (track names and index time). The tool lets you save the entire audio file or the current selection to MP3 file format.
You can split every audio region beginning with a cue to a new file (you need to make sure the cue flag is placed at the preferred split position), specify the saving directory, set up file naming rules, as well as create ID3v1 tags and copy ID3v2.
Configuration settings
You can show or hide several elements from the GUI, such as big timer, milliseconds, timeline, dB scale, bitrate graph on VBR, and margin button (shows the room between the highest gain and maximum of 0 dB since play or record was started).
The application allows you to pick the output and input device, adjust the encoder, choose the standard working directory, set the number of frames that is skipped while you are playing a selection, and choose between several button layouts (icons, text buttons, navigation buttons are displayed on the left side of the screen, or slim looks).
Last but not least, you may adjust the colors of the background, MPEG level graph, cursor/big timer, selection, edit ranges (cut, cue, gain), and VU meter, enter the maximum height of time display, specify the maximum number of recent files and undo steps, and show tooltips.
The Good
Advanced software applications such as Audacity have a lot more to offer than mp3DirectCut, but you can use it for basic cutting tasks when you quickly need to remove the talks during radio shows. It excels at providing cutting and cropping options, adjusting the gain, and applying fading effects without having to decode or re-encode the audio.
You can normalize audio files, detect silence, split long recordings into individual files based on cue points, and record audio directly to MP3 via the sound card input of your computer.
The Bad
The user interface is not highly intuitive, so you need to hover your mouse cursor in order to view the short description of the corresponding button.
Sometimes, when you increase the audio volume, the sound is distorted. The help documentation doesn’t cover thoroughly all the program’s features and include screenshots.
