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.

Getting Started

Open Audacity found in the applications folder.

Save your project

(preferrably after every edit) File > Save navigate to your hard drive and create a project folder. This folder will contain all your audio files and edit information so you.

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.

Importing audio

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

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

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

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.

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

Editing Audio

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

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.

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

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.