Audacity Tutorial

Audacity is developed by a team of volunteers and released under an open-source license and is the only audio editing software that is run on Mac's, PC's, and Linux computers. Go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ to download the most current version 1.3.13 Beta.

Open Audacity found in the applications folder.

Importing audio: Import > Audio navigate to the audio files that you want to import.

Save your project (preferrably after every edit) File > Save navigate to your hard drive and create a folder with your name and save it to that folder. This folder will contain all your audio files and edit information so you can continue to work on different computers so keep this folder and it's information contained.

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

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

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

Track Control Panel: allows you to rename the track, provides sample information, mute or solo the track, increase volume and pan left-right function.

Editing

Listen

Label tracks: Listen to your audio, make labels. Use Tab on your keyboard to select forwards to the next label, and SHIFT+Tab to select backwards to the previous label.

Open a blank track

Tracks > Mono track or Stereo Track

Choose the Selection tool in the Tools Toolbar. This is the most commonly used tool in editing and is used to highlight portions of your audio. Once the desired portion of your audio is highlighted then you can select from the options under the Edit menu: cut, copy, trim, paste, delete, add silence etc.

Use your selection tool to choose a place on any track where you want to paste your audio.

Label tracks: Use Tab on your keyboard to select forwards to the next label, and SHIFT+Tab to select backwards to the previous label.