ronaldreaganfirstinaugural.mp3
ronaldreaganfirstinauguralEDIT.mp3
Now, open the ronaldreaganfirstinaugural.mp3 in Audacity. The file contains the audio of the first oath of office taken by President Ronald Reagan. Play the audio.
Now, open the second file, ronaldreaganfirstinauguralEDIT.mp3 and play it. Do you notice the two edits?
The original files says “...that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.”
The edited file (with all due respect) has been edited to say “...that I will faithfully execute the President of the United States.”
Toward the end, the original files Reagan says, “...preserve, protect, and defend...”
But the edited file says, “...preserve, protect, and swear so help my God.”
Edit on Consonants
The first and foremost thing you need to know about editing speech is to edit on the consonants, not the vowels. Consonants afford the editor the cleanest point to edit sound in someone’s speech. Consonants provide “hard” audio which is easier to hear and edit. Vowels are generally “soft” audio and harder to edit.
Think of the word “tree”. Say it aloud. The “T” is distinct and sharp. The “ee” sound is said longer and is not as sharp. In the example above in the first edit, I cut out “the office” and spliced or edited right to the “P” in President.
In the second example, I cut out the word “defend”, copy and pasted the word “swear” from the beginning of the file and then edited to the end where Reagan said, “...so help me God”.
Each edit was done using a consonant as an edit point.
Now, why don’t you try and re-edit the original Reagan audio and see what you can do to change it around.
