Audio editing for a Ghost Box communication file consists of Clipping the "Garbage" from a single processed file and raisng or lowering the volume if needed and also adjusting the playback speed if needed.

These corrections of the audio file will help to isolate the communication in a file and not Alter It !
The process will help to allow novice communicators and individuals unfamiliar with ghost box communication to better hear and understand the communication by way of not being destracted by other useless sounds and a the file being to low in volume and playing to fast to fully understand.

First let me explain what I mean by garbage. All box communication and now especially allophones and para puck methods, all have inherent useless bits of noise and unused tones. When I say unused, I mean whatever is not being utilized by the entity to form the communication.

This garbage is simply the by product of a session recording.
Think of it like eating peanuts, you have to crack open the shell, extract the peanut and then discard the shell, the only useful part is the peanut itself. The shell is merely a garbage by product of the peanut.

When I start to review a session recording my process is to go to the first question, I highlight the question and the communication that follows it up to the beginning of the next question in the recording.

I isolate this section and save it as a "File". I then isolate or highlight only the communication portion of the file and copy it to its own temporary file to work on it. 

My next step is to highlight the communication file I'm working on one quarter section at a time. I listen to that 25% to determine if there is any understandable or valuable words in it. If not the whole section is deleted and I go to the next 25% of that portion.

Lets say in this second 25% I hear two words, lets make them "YES" and "I".
here is an example of what this 25% section might sound like.

"EH AR OO AH yes UR UR AH i ER MM" my next step would be to "CLIP" out the garbage or meaningless sounds or tones from around the words.

I would highlight and delete all unwanted sounds, as a result the previous section would end up as "YES I" 

Now you proceed to the third 25% and follow the same process and you wind up with "AM HERE".

The last 25% yields one word "BRUCE". 

Now you have completed the cleaning of your first file in the recording. Now you have a section that says "YES I AM HERE BRUCE"
copy that and re paste it where it belongs in the main file with the question. (when I say file I am referring to the single question and answer not the whole recording)

You now wind up with "Is there anyone there? YES I AM HERE BRUCE"

You have now removed (clipped) the unneeded garbage from the file that only serves to disorient and confuse the listener, without adding, removing or changing any of the communication.

You have simply thrown away the shells and served the peanuts.
And just because you removed the shell, it does not make the peanut anything else but a peanut that was surrounded by the shell.

I hope this explanation helps. Of course the mechanical process will vary for different audio editing programs, but the general process is the same.

The raising or lowering of the volume or amplitude of the file will serve to allow the listener to better hear the file and it's contents rather than having to strain to hear what the file says and in the case of  lowering the volume it will help to quell some of the noise involved ina file and thereby render the communication easier to hear but not altering the file itself, this is simple and self explanitory.

The playback speed of a file many times needs to be adjusted, the reason for playback speed adjustment is due to the rapid sweep of some ghost boxes that render the recording and it's contained communication to be delivered at a rate of speed that is not comfortable or conducive to being able to hear the file easily and correctly. You must be careful when altering playback speed in an audio editing program, too much reduction of speed can and will alter the pitch and tone of the audio and may result in changing the sound or pronunciation of the communication.

There are software programs available on the web such as "Sound Strecher" by clearvoice co. that allow you to slow the playback speed without compromising pitch or tone.

There are some other features that are standard with most if not all audio editing programs they are known as "Filters" there are usually a good number of filters with different functions, these do exactly what their name implies, they filter out some aspect of the files sound thereby changing the files content. This is something we never want to do.

It is hard enough to get individuals to accept  the legitmacy of ghost box communication without supplying them with the ammunition of a file that was apparently altered.

This is the basic explination of how we edit a ghost box file I hope it is helpfull!

Bruce Halliday