Editing

Editing involves manipulating recorded soundtracks to enhance their quality and clarity (e.g. by removing disruptive background noise). The most basic type of audio editing is trimming/cutting, where the length of an audio clip is shortened by removing unwanted sections. Additionally, users can modify the audio level to achieve a consistent output by reducing/increasing the volume of loud/quiet sounds. Altering audio levels can be used to fade into or out of an audio clip for a smoother transition (e.g. gradually increasing/decreasing the volume of background music at the start/end of a video). Finally, users can also combine multiple audio files, which is known as mixing. This can be used to add background music, sound effects or narration. 

Converting

As different audio file formats differ in their compression methods, bit depths, and sample rates, an audio file may need to be transcoded into another format to cater for a specific purpose. Users can specify the desired format (and quality) for the software to convert the original file into. This is an essential feature that ensures an audio file is compatible with a program/platform and can be widely distributed (e.g. a high-quality uncompressed file format like WAV will need to be compressed and converted into MP3 for distribution over the internet).

Exporting

Once the edits have been made, all the individual audio tracks and related effects are packaged into a single audio file. At this stage, the user also has the ability to define the desired file format and quality settings for the audio to be exported as, depending on the purpose.