How I created the clean version of 'Hourglass' by Catfish and the Bottlemen

1. Creating a clean
version
of chosen song
‘Hourglass’ by
Catfish and the
Ellie Moore

2. • I chose to use ‘Garageband’ to edit the track as it is a free app
for Apple Computers, its user friendly interface means that
even first time users like myself are able to easily work on any
project within the program.
• Following a YouTube tutorial, I was able to edit the song and
create a clean version that can be used in our music video.
• I had to purchase the song from the iTunes store to ensure
that I was working with a high quality track as I didn’t want the
music in our final video to be of a low quality.

3. Step 1:
• Firstly, I imported the track into
Garageband by clicking ‘Media
Browser’ (circled) and typing in
the title.

4. Step 1.1:
• The track then appeared in the workspace.
• Next, I changed the BPM to 130 so I could check playback
was working correctly.

5. Step 2:
Following the tutorial, I then selected the show/hide automation button (circled). This
allowed me to write ’curves’ in the music, i.e. the silence that will replace the
expletive in the song.
Next, I played the song through and paused just before the first expletive to help me
identify where to drop the first mark of the curve. When I had done so, I made
another mark underneath, and then another right next to it. This meant I could drag
the audio back up so it could be heard again in the song.

6. Step 2.1:
Next, I followed the same technique for the end of the song but allowed the music to
fade out at the end as I was going to replace it later.

7. Step 3:
Going back to the Media Browser, I
opened the track again and
renamed it ‘filler’.
This second version of the song is
for cutting down and filling in the
silent bits of the song where the
swear words have been removed.

8. Step 4:
To fill in the gaps, I adjusted the length of the ‘filler’ track to fill in the first silent part of
the song. I tried as far as possible to keep it in the same key, however with my lack
of musical knowledge this was fairly challenging.

9. Step 4.1:
In order to fill the two other gaps I had made previously, I followed the same technique
as before and imported the track each time. I then chopped it down to fit the gap so
the silence was filled.
For the end of the song, I cropped the song so it was just the last note and put it over
the curse word, this resulted in the song sounding as if it had come to a normal end,
instead of fading out and then coming back again.

10. Step 5:
The completed track was then exported to iTunes, meaning it can be used in our final
music video and editing with iMovie.