Lengthen the Song

Lengthening a song if an often necessary for theatrical productions when we have to deal with the uncertainty of a live production. We can’t simply cut a piece of music to match the ideal length of a scene transition. I’ll typically create music 1 1/2x to 2x the length of what I think I might need. Just in case.

When creating a longer version of the song, we want to retain the musical journey; meaning we can’t simply repeat the song twice, instead, we’ll need to find a point in which we can repeat portions in the middle.

1. This time, let’s use a song with lyrics – open up “2 – Babylon.mp3”
2. In music, it’s helpful to identify musical phrasing by lyrics. So find the spots where the phrase “If you want it, come and get it” are used. Here I listed Chorus 1 and Chorus 2.
   
3. If you still have the Multitrack session from the previous lesson open, we can simply add this song to the same session.
   
4. Now we’ll mute the track from the previous project. We could also name the track if that helps organize things.
   
5. Now we’ll razor slice at the second chorus, and drag the ending over in time a little.
   
6. Next we’ll duplicate and move the first half block by holding [Alt] while dragging. We’ll then match up the markers on all three blocks.
   
7. Now zoom in a big closer and match up the audio finger prints.
   
8. Then trim down to a smaller overlap, drag and fade. Avoid vocals if you can and overlap instrumentation.
   
9. Finally, repeat the process for the other second transition. And woot! We did it!