The Context
On my wife’s 30th anniversary I decided to make her a video with flash backs of her life, from the time she was little to the present day.
I have asked my parents-in-law for old photos and gathered tons of footage from time we’ve been together.
Given that most of the material were photos and I still wanted to make a video, had to find a way to make the photo parts be as dynamic as possible. Music was therefore a must!
The Problem
The music I used in the video had to fit the moment of their life which the photos belonged to, but it also had to fit the duration set for the slide show. This last part was very challenging.
I am definitely not an expert in both audio and video editing, so cutting a song and making the end sound good was a challenge. Not only I didn’t know how to make the ending of the song sound well, but also didn’t know how to use the software to achieve it.
Understanding the solution
Had to do quite a bit of research to understand what to do. After reading a few blog posts on the matter, found a process to do it and make the endings sound well.
Perhaps the most inspiring post was this one: 3 Techniques for Cutting Music Without a Sudden Stop.
It proposed the ideas to make a music sound good after it’s cut at an arbitrary time:
Fade-out
This is classic way of doing it, cut at specific point in time and start fading, more or less abruptly until the final point. It may not sound well at all times, especially if the song is at a high when you need to cut it. Nonetheless, applying it well and at the right time, often grants you a seamless experience, as there’s loads of songs that end in similar fashion.
Cut to the beat
Cutting after a beat works surprisingly well. This means finding beats on the song and cutting it straight after one. This one could be challenging as it may not be always easy to find a beat. On top of it, you may not have a beat available at the point you need to cut.
Reverb
The reverb effect is almost like an echo that fades away. The reverb “ending” is very flexible and sounds well in most occasions, especially when you cut to the beat.
In the end, after hours of trial and error I was able to get song clips to match the photos. However this was the task that took me longer on the whole video project.
The Idea
What if there was a way to leverage the ideas of the blog post and programmatically apply the ending strategies? You could easily get a clip that sounds great and fits your video like a charm.
The idea led me to create the Music Cutter or Exit Music App (For a Film). This app allows your clip sound well at the right length in 4 simple steps:
- Upload
- Slice (or Cut to Beat)
- Apply effect
- Download
The beats are automatically calculated by our algorithm and the effects are applied seamlessly for the best sounding experience.
PS: I am terrible with names!! This name isn’t final, it’s terrible for SEO and may have copyright problems. Until I get subpoenaed for the Exit Music (For a film), the master piece song by Radiohead, or until I get a new name, I’ll keep the name.