EDAD660 (2010)

Audacity is an audio editing program that allows you to record, mix, and add special effects to your sound files. It is completely open-source, and is available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.  Here’s how you can get started with a new audacity project:

1. Open up Audacity.  A screen simliar to the following will appear:
   

   Audacity startup screen

2. Make sure that you have a microphone installed.  You can use the built-in microphone on your laptop if need be, but a USB powered external microphone will really help to make your audio come out crisp and clear.
3. Click on the record button (#1) and begin speaking.  A waveform will begin to appear (#2) as your voice is detected by the microphone.
4. Click on the stop button (#3) in order to stop the recording.
5. Click the rewind button (#4) and play button (#5) to listen to your recording.
6. To trim your recording make sure that the selection tool is clicked (#6) – then highlight the portion of the audio that you would like to cut.  Click on Edit->Cut to extract the selected area.
7. To record a second clip, click the record button (#2) – a second waveform will appear beneath the first.
8. To reposition a clip, click on the slider tool (#7) and slide the desired clip back and forth.
9. Using the volume adjustment tool (#8) you can increase or decrease the volume of a specific clip.
10. Your can import other audio files (WAV, MP3) by clicking on Project -> Import Audio.  The audio file will appear as a new waveform. Here is a small collection of sound effect files to get you started.
11. You can also apply special effects to your audio clips – this can be accomplished by selecting a portion of a clip using the selection tool (#6) and then using the Effect menu.
12. When you are finished working on your clip you should save your project by clicking on File -> Save.
13. You can export your project as an MP3 file by clicking on File -> Export as MP3.  Note that Audacity does not come pre-loaded with MP3 export capabilities – you can add this feature into the system by installing the free LAME MP3 Conversion Library (available here).

With your newly created MP3 file you can create a soundtrack to a video, remix a song or even create your own podcast.  For more information on using your WordPress blog to create a podcast, click here.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 6:04 am and is filed under Digital Audio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.