Audacity

Using Audacity

Setup There are a few settings that you should double check in the Preferences of Audacity. 1. Click on File 2. Click on Preferences 3. Click on the Audio I/O tab. Make sure that in the Recording Area, the Channels is set to 1 (Mono). This will allow the file size to be as small as possible. As you create more advanced podcasts, you might want to check the box next to Play other tracks while recording new one. This would allow you to hear background music, other narrations, etc while you record your track.

4. Click on the File Format tab. 5. Make sure there is a check next to the Make a copy of the file before editing option. 6. Click on OK 7. Check the Microphone setting on your computer – Start, Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices, Click on the Audio Tab, and in the Microphone area, click on Volume. Make sure it is turned all the way up!

Making a Recording 1. Launch the Audacity software 2. Make sure the microphone is plugged into the computer 3. Click on the Record button (the one with the red circle) to start the recording. 4. When you are done with your recording, click on the Stop button (the one with the orange square on it). If you only want to Pause the recording, click on the Pause button (the one with the blue double lines). To continue recording, press again on the Pause button.

Adding Music to the Recording 1. Locate the music that you would like to add to your recording. 2. Click on Project, and then click on Import Audio 3. Locate where you saved the file, and click on Open

Shifting your Audio Tracks 1. Click on the Time Shift Tool 2. On the track you want to move, click and hold the mouse button down and slide the track left or right.

Zooming into an Audio Track 1. Click on the Zoom Tool 2. On the track you want to zoom in on, either left click (to zoom in) or right click (to zoom out).

Splitting or Duplicating Audio Tracks 1. Highlight the section you want to split 2. Click on Edit, Click on Split or Duplicate

Silence a Selection (take out all audio) 1. Highlight the section you want to Silence 2. Click on Edit, Click on Silence

Adding Effects to your Recording 1. Click on the Selection Tool 2. Highlight the audio (either music or verbal) that you want to add the effect to 3. Click on Effects on the menu bar 4. Select the effect

The Effects Explained

Amplify – changes the volume of the selected audio. If you click the “Don’t allow clipping” checkbox, it won’t let you amplify so much that the audio ends up beyond the range of the waveform. BassBoost – enhances the bass frequencies

Change Pitch – changes the pitch/frequency of the selected audio without changing the tempo. When you open the dialog, the starting frequency is set to Audacity’s best guess as to the frequency of the selection. This works well for recordings of singing or musical instruments without background noise. You can specify the pitch change in one of four different ways: musical note, semitones, frequency, or percent change. Change Speed – changes the speed of the audio by resampling. Making the speed higher will also increase the pitch, and vice versa. This will change the length of the selection. Change Tempo – changes the tempo (speed) of the audio without changing the pitch. This will change the length of the selection. Click Removal – this effect is designed to remove the annoying clicks on recordings without damaging the rest of the audio. You can choose how sensitive the click detection is and what the maximum length of a click is. Compressor – compresses the dynamic range of the selection so that the loud parts are softer while keeping the volume of the soft parts the same. You can optionally apply gain, resulting in the entire piece having a higher perceived volume. Echo – very simple effect that repeats the selection with a decay, sounding like a series of echoes. This effect does not change the length of the selection, so you may want to add silence to the end of the track before applying it. Equalization – Boost or reduce arbitrary frequencies. This dates back to the record player, so it won’t be used too often. Fade In – fades the selection in linearly Fade Out – fades the selection out linearly FFT Filter – similar to equalization, it lets you enhance or reduce arbitrary frequencies. The curve here uses a linear scale for frequency. Invert – Flips the waveform vertically, reversing its phase. Noise Removal – this effect lets you clean up noise from a recording. First, select a small piece of audio that is silent except for the noise, select “Noise Removal”, and click on the “Get Noise Profile” button. Then select all of the audio you want filtered select “Noise Removal” again, and click on the “Remove Noise” button. You can experiment with the slier to try to remove more or less noise. It is normal for Noise Removal to result in some distortion. It works best when the audio signal is much louder than the noise. Normalize – allows you to correct for DC offset (a vertical displacement of the track) and/or amplify such that the maximum amplitude is a fixed amount, -3 dB. It’s useful to normalize all of your tracks before mixing. Nyquist Prompt – for advanced users only. Allows you to express arbitrary transformation using a powerful functional programming language. Phaser – the name “Phaser” comes from “Phase Shifter” because it works by combining phase shifted signals with the original signal. The movement of the phase shifted signals is controlled using a Low Frequency Oscillator. Repeat – repeats the selection a certain number of times. This operation is quite fast and space efficient, so it is practical to use it to create nearly-infinite loops. Reverse – This effect reverses the selected audio temporally; after the effect the end of the audio will be heard first and the beginning last. Wahwah – uses a moving bandpass filter to create its sound. A low frequency oscillator is used to control the movement of the filter throughout the frequency spectrum. Adjusts the phase of the left and right channels when given a stereo selection, so that the effect seems to travel across the speakers.

Saving your Project 1. Click on File 2. Click on Save Project As 3. Name the file

Exporting your Project 1. Click on File 2. Click on Export as MP3 3. Rename the file if you would like to 4. You will receive a dialog box about Editing the ID3 tags for the MP3 file. This information is important if you plan to post your MP3 file to the Internet. Fill in the Title (name of the project), Artist (who created the project), Album (name of the podcast again), Track Number (version of the podcast), Year, Genre (doesn’t matter), and Comments (anything else). 5. Click on OK