Select tool + delete, just remove it. It's the absolute fastest way and it will alow you to move the spoken bits around to adjust timing and/or sync to picture without taking extra steps to cut them out of the recorded audio later.

M_Glenn_M


Am I the only one who splits tracks into clips for this?
I regularly split between waves and roll back or forward to clean up in between.
I feel it is the cleanest, is very easy and requires the least CPU?
With the smart tool you only need to hold Alt and the split is at the cursor.

No you are not the only one. I do exactly the same thing.

I use an outside editor (Soundforge)and use the "mute" function.

M_Glenn-  I do it that way too.  It really doesn't take much time to use the Trim/Split Clip tool and hit delete.

This is just my opinion, but I think you guys are being way too clinical by using any of the suggested methods here.

All of these methods are either destructive and/or you are totally removing all background noise and replacing it with digital silence.

This can and often does sound quite unnatural upon playback - you are totally removing all room ambience and other clues which place the speaker/vocalist in a given space.

You'll notice this as soon as you reach the end of a phrase and the listener is confronted with digital silence.
The audible transition is quite noticeable and, like I said, unnatural
It's the sort of sound that you don't notice is there until it's gone - a bit like well implemented reverb.

I understand the need/wish to remove breath noises etc but this can be done in a much gentler way by applying a volume envelope which doesn't flatten all the way down to -INF - you'd get away with anything from about 20db below the level of the required audio and you'll retain that all important room sound.

Of course - for things which really jump out at you then yes, by all means cut it out completely but again, using an envelope means you can gradually bring the room back into play again with a gentle slope upwards.

I agree Bristol, about the ambiance on quiet passages. 
When other instruments are present I don't think you notice and you can slip fade the clip at the end.  
But for those sensitive passages I might also try an expander, which reduces quiet signals. 
I don't delete however, I just clip and roll it back.    

   

alright guys, here is the verdict.

I tried the envelope tool and that seems to create the right effects for what i want, however when if i choose to delete a portion of the project then i have to move not only the audio but the automation.

so. what i did is created another  shortcut for delete, which was alt-d the reason for this, is that when im using control to move left and right with my mouse scroll wheel i used to have to shift from control over to the delete key, which means eyes off the screen to see the delete key, thus more time. trust me, it adds up.

so with my new left side delete I can now move left and right in the track view without issue, select using left mouse and delete the breaths between words.  after i remove the breaths i bounce all the slices to clip, just for ease of moving around

bristol, i used to think the same, but when it comes to video games, there is complete silence between takes, trust me i checked for myself, I loaded skyrim and removed all sfx,music,and ambience and it is complete silence for sure, to confirm this, i exported a voice file from the game and looked in the editor. the reason for this is once your audio falls 20db, the room ambience would become inaudible anyways. the ambience and in game music provide the natural noise floor you would otherwise need. also, the last thing you want when you are trying to create a space in a video game (which makes use of reverb in the game engine) is conflicting spaces such as room ambience, for this reason i record the vocals in a "dead booth" a 5x5x8 space of 6" of mineral wool, definately does the trick, i dont really like it for music, but excellent for voiceover.

One final thought on this.

Any method involving cutting/deleting etc runs the risk of introducing pops/clicks because the transition from fully on to fully off is abrupt - it's instantaneous - whereas using my method, there is a gradual taper off of the volume.

Put it this way, I'd rather my waveform looked like this:




Than this:

Bristol...  I agree about the silence.  But if the result sounds bad, unnatural, or any other negative way, then I wouldn't do it.  That's where artistry and skill come in.  And if there is any pop noise whatsoever after the trim, a small fade in/out usually takes care of it.

I have to trim nearly every one of my guitar clips because of the hum/noise just prior to the lick I'm going to play.  (I live in a very RF noisy area).  If there's noise inside the lick, it usually has to stay unless it's totally "non-musical" (lol), and I have to EQ it out if possible since I don't have any cleanup software.  Luckily, sometimes the "noise" lends credence that a human actually played the part and it's somewhat "musical" in that sense.  lol

My music is usually very dense, and the trims aren't noticeable.  In fact, in the last piece I did ("Clouds On Fire" in the Songs Forum), I got lazy and just left the guitar lick noise on most of the clips because I couldn't hear it, and there was a LOT of trimming that would have to be done.  LOL  (Now if the piece were for a client, or for pay....)

So I think the musical piece/passage sort of  determines what methods of cleanup can/should be used.  I would not say there is a right or wrong way to do it.