Intro. to Audacity

Posted from Denton, Texas, United States.

Audacity is free audio software that allows you to record and edit sound. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

You can record up to 16 channels – using the internal microphone on your computer, an external mic, line input (electric guitar), etc. It’s easy to casually make your own multitrack recordings.

Import and Export WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files. You can also use MP3 files.

Audacity allows you to very easily edit sound files by cutting and pasting, and it makes some basic effects and processing very easy to handle.  Normalize your tracks to an appropriate volume, remove noise and hiss, create aesthetic fades, or indulge in reversing the sounds and performing more bizarre transformations.

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You can download Audacity here:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ 

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To see any image larger, click on it to go the image’s unique page. Click on the image a second time for a full resolution image.

After downloading and installing Audacity, open the program.

From the menu bar at the top of the screen, select Project > Import Audio.

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 Select the audio file you would like to edit, and click on “OPEN.”

** Music purchased through the iTunes store or other places may have Digital Rights Management that will prevent you from editing the file in Audacity. 

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This is the waveform, a visual representation of your recording. This waveform is Bizet’s Suite No. 1 from Carmen.  This is a very quiet piece, and you can see this in how small the waveform is. Above the blue waveform, running along the horizontal axis, is a series of numbers – this marks the time. The decibel level runs vertically to the left of the waveform. By looking at the waveform, you can see that the piece grows louder between 1:45 and 2:00 minutes before quietly fading away.

To listen to the music, press the space bar, or click the graphical play button to play the music. Hit the space bar again to pause the music.

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You can zoom in to view the waveform in more detail. Click the cursor on the part of the waveform you would like to see closer. This will keep the portion that you want to see anchored in the center of the screen as you zoom.

Click on the magnifying glass with a “+” to zoom in, and the magnifying glass with “-” to zoom out.
These are highlighted in yellow:

After zooming in, the Suite No. 1 looks like this:

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If you would like to mix several recordings together to make one track, now it is time to insert the next recording.  Today, I am making a mix of relaxing music to use during a modified progressive muscle relaxation session, so I will use Ennio Morricone’s song Brothers, from the movie The Mission.

From the menu bar at the top of the screen, select Project > Import Audio.

Select your second track from your computer’s harddrive.

 Select the audio file you would like to edit, and click on “OPEN.”

Initially, your screen will look like the image below, and if you try to listen to the music both pieces will play at once.

DO NOT PANIC!

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 In order to move the second track to play after the first track, you need to add silence to the beginning of the second track.

Click the cursor on any spot of the second track’s waveform, and hit the two purple arrows (near the play button) to move the cursor to the very beginning of the track. In the image below, the arrows are highlighted in yellow.

Notice how long the first piece is. In this example, the Carmen Suite is around 2 minutes and 40 seconds long, or 160 seconds.

From the menu bar, select Generate > Silence. Type in the approximate number of seconds of the first piece, and click on “Generate Silence.”

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After generating silence, it will look something like the image below. Now, when you play the music, one piece will follow the other instead of both playing at the same time. You can do this for up to 16 tracks!

You may need to insert additional silence or remove silence in order to time the transition between pieces in an aesthetic fashion.  To do this, zoom in or out as needed on the moment of transition between the two tracks.  Remove silence by using the cursor to highlight a portion of the second track’s silence (click and drag), then press “Delete.” Add additional silence by repeating the step above.

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When mixing several recordings from different sources, normalizing each track will maintain a more steady decibel level throughout the entire piece. To normalize a track, press Apple-A, or Edit > Select All.

Then select Effects > Normalize as shown in the image below.

You can preview what this will sound like by clicking on PREVIEW. You will generally be fine to click OK, and let the default settings, but feel free to experiment with your options.

Now you may notice below that the size of the waveforms seems to ave changed, while retaining the characteristics of its original shape. If you listen to your project now, the sounds in each track should sit at approximately the same volume, allowing each track to lead to the next in a pleasing way.

Also notice below that in the first track, Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 1, there are two wave forms (the top two), and in Ennio Morricone’s Brother, there is only one (the bottom waveform only). This is because the Bizet track is in STEREO - there are separate and different LEFT and RIGHT portions to the audio. Morricone’s Brother is in MONO – the same thing plays in every speaker, even if you have a nice 8.1 surround sound system. If you have nice speakers, or even just headphones, most people anecdotally prefer stereo.  Please do not angst and worry if you have preferred music that is mono.

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Next, you may like to create a fade in or out before exporting your finished audio track. Highlight the portion of the audio you would like to create a fade in, then select Effect > Fade In, or Effect > Fade Out

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When you  are ready to export your project, go to File > Export As, and choose your preferred file type. You can adjust the file types available here in the Preferences portion of the menu. Save your file, listen to it to make sure it sounds the way you want, then do a little happy dance! You have mastered the basics of audio editing with audacity!