A lot of us know VLC Player as an all-inclusive media player, but not many know that VLC Player is actually also a powerful media editor with various video and audio editing functions. For simple tasks like cutting an MP3 song, VLC Player can deliver a pretty nice result within a very short amount of time.

In today’s article, we’ll take a look how you can cut MP3 songs in VLC Player effortlessly. In addition, we will also make a comparison between VLC Player and another professional media editor/converter program, and see how recommendable VLC Player is for the MP3 cutting task.

Part 1: How to Cut MP3 Songs in VLC Player

As a media player product, VLC Player does not have a professional media editing engine in order to perform complicated media editing tasks. So in terms of the audio editing function, VLC Player has a unique and smart way to realize. Instead of actually trim or cut the audio file, VLC allows you to select a start point and then record the audio fragment while you play it with the Player.

When you reach the point where you want your song to end, simply stop recording and VLC Player will save the part that just has been played. So by nature, VLC does not “cut” your MP3 song, but “record” the wanted fragment in your song and save it as a copy.

Sounds easy enough, right? Now let’s have a look at how exactly you can cut your MP3 song in VLC Player using the audio recording function it provides.

Step 1: Launch VLC Player and import your MP3 song into it. To import the MP3 song, you can either drag the audio file and drop it on the player interface, or click “Media” in the menu bar, and then click “Open File”. If you have set VLC Player as default media player on your computer, you can also directly double click the MP3 file and the file will automatically be opened in VLC Player.

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Step 2: When the MP3 song is successfully imported in VLC Player, it will automatically start playing. Pause the playback, and click “View” in the menu bar, then activate the “Advanced Controls” option. When the option is activated, there will be a check mark shown next to the option.

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Step 3: When the “Advanced Controls” option is activated, there will be four new buttons shown above the media control section. Now drag the slider of the progress bar to the point where you want your MP3 song to start, and then click the “Record” button, the red dot. Be noted that if you don’t want any sound come out of your speaker, you should mute the player first because the moment you click the “Record” button, you music will resume playing.

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Step 4: The moment you click the “Record” button, your music will resume playing. When it reaches the point where you want it to end, click the same button again to stop recording. Once the recording is stooped, your music fragment will be immediately saved in your default recording folder, and the MP3 cutting task is done.

Part 2: Another Powerful Tool to Cut MP3 Song

Having an audio cutting function integrated in the player is convenient for VLC Player users, but as you may have already noticed, the audio cutting function in VLC Player is hardly easy to use. Not only can’t you have precise control over the start and endpoint of your song, but you also have to wait for the audio fragment to finish playing in order to record and save it, which is inconvenient especially when you have a long song to cut. So if you feel like you could use a more professional application to make the MP3 cutting experience more enjoyable and less frustrating, then you should probably consider trying Leawo Video Converter Ultimate.

Leawo Video Converter Ultimate is a professional multimedia processing center for all kinds of media editing and converting tasks. With a set of rich and powerful functions built in, anyone can find it useful and helpful in the digital life. Video enthusiasts can use it to convert video or audio files between 180+ formats; YouTube lovers can use it to download high definition online videos from YouTube as well as 1000+ other online video communities; Blu-ray DVD fans can use it to rip HD videos from discs as well as burn videos to a blank disc with ease; and normal users can also use it to do daily media customizations like making a beautiful photo slideshow, converting a regular 2D video to 3D, or, of course, cutting an MP3 song.

Unlike VLC Player, Leawo Video Converter Ultimate cuts your MP3 songs in a clean and efficient way. Take a look at the following guide and you will see how easy it is to cut an MP3 song in Leawo Video Converter Ultimate.

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Part 3: How to Cut MP3 Songs in Leawo Video Converter Ultimate

Leawo Video Converter Ultimate provides not only an easy way to cut MP3 songs but also precise control over the start and end point of your wanted audio fragment. What’s more, if your music has noise in the background, Leawo Video Converter Ultimate can also remove it so that you would have a clearer audio file after cutting it. Detailed steps to cut an MP3 song in Leawo Video Converter Ultimate are as follows.

   

Step 1: Launch Leawo Video Converter Ultimate and go to the “Video Converter” module by clicking the corresponding entrance.

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Step 2: Import your MP3 song by directly drag and drop it on the program interface, or by clicking the “Add Video” button.

Step 3: When your MP3 song is imported in the program, you should be able to see an “Edit” button on the imported video item. Click the button to go to the audio editing window.

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Step 4: On the audio editing window you can see two sliders under the progress bar, representing the start point and the end point respectively. Drag the sliders and place them where you want your final song to start and to end. If you know the specific time where the wanted fragment starts and ends, you can also input the time information in the “Start Time” and “End Time” section. Another way to specify the start point and the end point is playing the song, click the “Set as start time” button when the progress indicator reaches the start point and click the “Set as end time” button when it reaches the end point.

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Step 5: You can also go to the “Remove Noise” tab to turn on the “Remove Noise” switch. When you are done editing, click “OK” to apply changes. Back at the main interface, click the output format area next to the green “Convert” button, and then click “Change” to change the output format. You can save the cut song as “MP3 Audio” as well as any other format you want.

Step 6: Finally, Click the green “Convert” button to call out the output settings panel, where you need to set an output directory and then click the big “Convert” icon below to start outputting your cut MP3 song.

Part 4: Comparison between VLC and Leawo Video Converter Ultimate

After viewing the introductions and guides shown above, I’m sure you already have some ideas on how VLC Player and Leawo Video Converter Ultimate differ each other in terms of cutting MP3 songs. VLC Player wins by its natural advantage for VLC loyal users. If you already have VLC Player installed on your computer and don’t want to download another application for media processing tasks, then the built-in audio recording function in VLC Player could indeed bring you some convenience.

However, to cut MP3 songs in VLC Player, you need to wait for the entire audio fragment to finish playing in order to let the software record it. The fact that you can only choose the start and finish point relying on your ear and reaction sometimes could by annoying because once you make a small mistake and make the music longer or shorter than it’s supposed to be, you have to start all over and do it again.

So, if you take efficiency, ease of use and functionality into account, Leawo Video Converter Ultimate could easily win in all aspects. With Leawo Video Converter Ultimate, you can not only cut MP3 songs easily and precisely but also get tons of other practical media processing functions altogether. Even if you only consider the audio cutting function, Leawo Video Converter Ultimate is also definitely a better option.

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Part 5: Conclusion

In today’s article, we talked about how to cut MP3 songs in VLC Player using the recording function. As a professional media player application, VLC Player does a great job delivering good media playback performances. Although it also comes with multiple media processing functions like the audio recording feature introduced today, the actual performances of these functions are usually not very ideal. VLC Player can help you cut an MP3 song roughly.

But if you want a precise control over the song’s length, quality and even file format, Leawo Video Converter Ultimate is no doubt a better option due to its rich functionalities, powerful media processing abilities and user-friendly software design. Try Leawo Video Converter Ultimate and you’ll realize cutting an MP3 song is so much easier than ever before.