Museum-mausoleum Audacity

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.

Getting Started

Open Audacity found in the applications folder.

Importing audio

File > Import > Audio navigate to the audio files that you want to import

Save your project

File > Save Project
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.
- Save Often! preferably after every edit

Tools

Transport Toolbar - controls playback and recording

Tools Toolbar - chooses various tools for:

selection or "I-beam" tool
volume adjustment or envelope tool
zooming -
time-shifting - move audio waveforms horizontally within your project
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 for the track
pan left-right function

Tips for organizing your project

keep a copy of your original track
use labels to identify portions of a recorded track
Copy portions from your original track and paste into a new audio track - this will become your working track
Mute your original track when you're done with it

Editing

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

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

Go to Tracks > Add New > Label Tracks

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

Highlight a portion of audio using your Selection Tool

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. 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

File > Save Project

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.

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.

Exporting

File > Export - exports the entire project except muted tracks
File > Export Selection - exports only selected tracks

Audio File Format:

Select .wav for a high quality uncompressed file but bigger file size.
Select .mp3 for a lower quality, compressed, but small file size.