My Chosen Soundtrack and How/Why I Edited it

Santigold - L.E.S Artistes (HUGLIFE trap remix)

I have chosen this song for my music due to its calm and relaxed tones. The fact that it is a remix adds to the serene, trance-like state in which the listener is induced. Even though there are some lyrics, this remix is more repetitive, unlike other songs with lyrics, I plan to have no lip-sync as I would prefer to include the trance-like tones and calm state into a story-based video. 

Definition of Trap Music 

Trap music is a genre that originated in the Early 1900s from Southern American hip hop. It incorporates sub-bass kick drums, double-time, triple-time and other faster time division hi-hats, layered synthesisers and cinematic strings. 

This electronic produced music began, in 2012 to be included into a new movement of hit singles and tracks. Trap music can be fast, up-beat and heavy (the bass drops being higher and a lot more powerful) or, like my chosen song, can be more psychedelic and can rapture your state of mind. 

How I Edited it With Audacity

I decided to slightly alter the original remix due to fact that it was conventionally too long to be made into a music video. At 5 minutes long, I felt that this track would be too long-winded for the abstracted video I want to create. Therefore, I downloaded the free audio-editing software 'Audacity' where you can cut and edit parts of the soundtrack out and also add effects. 

Step 1.

Within this screenshot, it shows Audacity open with my soundtrack in full. I decided, that between 3.00 minutes and 3.30, there was unnecessary, quiet singing. Because of this, I thought it would be better if the music before and after should carry on as one. Therefore, I used the select tool to drag the section I wanted to delete. After this was deleted, I now had to make the two sections co-inside with each other. Therefore, I used a convention of remix trap music and used 3 seconds of the quiet music to introduce the small bass-drop. This worked effectively as the last beat of the three seconds was cohesive with the beat of the bass.

Step 2.

Within this screenshot I decided that there was a long unnecessary ending for the remix. Therefore, I removed the grey-shaded area of sound to reduce the time of the track and also to make the ending more abrupt and interesting. If not, I believe the ending to the soundtrack would be too long-winded and the visual film wouldn't be able to adapt any more.

Step 3.

Within this screenshot I felt as though my newly cropped ending stopped too abruptly. Therefore, I selected the audio that was slightly quieter and put a 'fade out' effect on it. Therefore, the ending now flows perfectly and ends like a conventional soundtrack instead of stopping on an odd beat.