Difference between revisions of "Audacity Tutorial"

Revision as of 11:21, 30 January 2018

Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing audio. It is available for macOS, Microsoft Windows and Linux. Visit the Audacity site to download the application and access additional help documentation and tutorials.

Getting Started

Open Audacity from the applications folder.

Save your project

Save the project before doing anything with Audacity.
Go to File > Save Project As...
If a warning message appears click OK.
On the left of the Save window click Desktop.
Click New Folder in the bottom left.
Give the folder a meaningful name (your name, name of subject etc) and click Create.
Give the project a meaningful name in the Save As box.
Then click Save.
navigate to your hard drive and create a project folder. This folder will contain all your audio files and edit information.

Inside your folder there will be the Audacity project file with a .aup extension and a folder ending with _data.

For example, inside the folder called interview if the project was named October there would be a file called October.aup and a folder called October_data.

Always keep the project file and data folder together.

(preferrably after every edit)

Importing audio

File > Import > Audio navigate to the audio files that you want to import. Audacity can import WAV, AIFF, AU, IRCAM, MP3 and OGG files. WMA files can also be imported with the FFmpeg libraries installed.

If Audacity opens a warning screen click the option that says "Make a copy of the files before editing (Safer)" and click OK.

Tools

Transport Toolbar

- controls playback and recording

Tools Toolbar

- chooses various tools for selection, volume adjustment, zooming, time-shifting of audio and a multi-function tool

Meter Toolbar

- displays levels for playback and recording

Mixer Toolbar

- controls the mixer settings of the sound card

Transcription Toolbar

- plays audio at a slower or faster speed, affecting the pitch

Edit Toolbar

- cut, copy, paste, trim, silence, undo, redo, sync-lock, zoom

Tracks

Adding Tracks

Tracks > Add new > Audio track, Stereo track, Label track, or Time track

Mono track

-this is one audio file recorded with one microphone

Stereo track

-this is one audio file with a left and right track recorded with a stereo microphone. Stereo tracks can be split into two mono tracks.

Label track

-this track allows you to add markers or regional markers to the whole project or individual tracks

Track Control Panel

Click on the black arrow to view a pull down list of options for each track - allows you to rename the track, provides sample information, waveform view, spectrogram view, mute or solo the track, increase volume and pan left-right function.

Waveform view: vertical axis represents amplitude or loudness and the horizontal axix represents time.
Spectogram view:the horizontal axis represents time, the vertical axis is frequency; a third dimension indicating the amplitude of a particular frequency at a particular time is represented by the intensity or colour of each point in the image.

Editing

Playback

Listen to your project hit the spacebar on your keyboard to Stop or Play

Zooming

Zooming In/Out helps you make accurate selections of your waveform.

Selection Tool

Highlight a portion of audio using your Selection Tool

Labeling Tracks

Label tracks and take notes of your project Listen to your audio and make labels.

Go to Tracks > Add New > Label Tracks
Tracks > Add Label at Selection
Name your label.
Use Tab on your keyboard to select forwards to the next label, and SHIFT+Tab to select backwards to the previous label.

Editing Audio

Open a blank track - this will be your working pallet.
1. Tracks > Mono track or Stereo Track
Choose the Selection tool in the Tools Toolbar.
Highlight your audio then Edit menu > copy
Select a point in your empty track then Edit menu > paste

Envelope

Let's you control a tracks volume changes smoothly over time.

Select the envelope tool.
Click a beginning, end, and middle point on your audio waveform.
Click and hold on a point to increase or decrease the volume.

Effects

Equalization

Allows you to increase or decrease desired frequencies.

Noise Removal

Removes unwanted background noise.

Normalize

Increases the overall volume of your waveform equally.

Exporting

File > Export this command exports the entire project except muted tracks.

File > Export Selection this command exports only selected tracks.

Format:

Select .wav for a high quality uncompressed file but bigger file size.

Select .mp3 for a lower quality, compressed, but small file size.

Additional Resources

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 <div class="pull-right">__TOC__</div>
 ===Getting Started===
-Open Audacity found in the applications folder.
+Open Audacity from the applications folder.
 ====Save your project====
-(preferrably after every edit) '''File &gt; Save''' navigate to your hard drive and create a project folder. This folder will contain all your audio files and edit information.
+# Save the project before doing anything with Audacity.
+# Go to '''File &gt; Save Project As...'''
+# If a warning message appears click '''OK.'''
+# On the left of the '''Save''' window click '''Desktop.'''
+# Click '''New Folder''' in the bottom left.
+# Give the folder a meaningful name (your name, name of subject etc) and click '''Create'''.
+# Give the project a meaningful name in the '''Save As''' box.
+# Then click '''Save'''.
+# navigate to your hard drive and create a project folder. This folder will contain all your audio files and edit information.
 Inside your folder there will be the Audacity project file with a '''.aup''' extension and a folder ending with '''_data'''.
@@ Line 12: / Line 19: @@
 Always keep the project file and data folder together.
+(preferrably after every edit)
 ====Importing audio====
@@ Line 142: / Line 151: @@
 '''File > Export''' this command exports the entire project except muted tracks.
-'''
 '''File > Export Selection''' this command exports only selected tracks.