Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Audacity Video Tutorial Script:
Hello, my name is Samantha Leonard. I am the Media Resource Librarian of High Point University.
Today I am going to teach you the basics of editing audio in Audacity. Audacity is a free,
open source audio recorder and editor of sounds. Since Audacity is free and open-source, anyone
can download this program on any computer, Mac or PC.
With Audacity you can: Record live audio, Convert tapes and records
into digital recordings or CDs, Edit MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MPS, WAV, or AIFF sound files,
Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together, Change the speed or pitch of a recording,
Change volume controls of sound, And more
To open Audacity, go to the icon that looks like headphones found on your computer. Open
up a New Project. For safety, you should save this project right a way in order to not lose
the files as you are working. It will save your files as an AUP, which is an audacity
file extension. Be sure you know where you are saving your project to easily find it
later.
First I am going to show you how to record in Audacity. All you need to do is hit the
record button and start speaking into a microphone or your computer (if you have a built in microphone).
If you are using a USB microphone, go to Audacity – Preferences – and find your USB microphone.
You can then record from this microphone.
If you have already recorded from another outside device, such as an MP3 audio recorder,
simply go to open, and find your desired file. You can import MP3 files (a common file type
for audio recordings) and other audio files from iTunes or your computer. Make sure you
are in “Built-In Output” to hear your imported audio.
One thing you can do with imported audio files is to split the stereo track and decide which
version you would like to edit. To split the stereo track click on the arrow next to your
file name on the left hand of the screen. Then select split stereo track. Next you can
listen to each version of the stereo track and decide which one you like the best. Once
you have selected the best option, you can delete the one you don’t want by clicking
on the X of that track.
Now you can start editing the track.
To delete sections of the track, select the “select tool” found at the top of the
screen. With this tool you can drag across the selection of audio you would like to remove.
Once you have selected the audio to be deleted, simply click “delete.”
To trim your audio, use the “selection tool” to find the part of the clip that you wish
to keep. Then go to Edit - trim. Once you have the selected audio, you can move it through
the time line by selecting the “time shift tool” found at the top of the screen. Simply
grab the beginning or the end of the clip and shift back or forward. Once you have the
clip trimmed, you can zoom in on the clip for better editing.
To change the volume of different parts of the your clip, select the “envelope tool”
found at the top of your screen. Using this clip grab the top or the bottom of the waves
of your clip and bring them into the center when you want to decrease volume. You can
do this on different parts of your clip to your desired effect.
There are many other effects you can perform if you look click the “effect” option
at the top of the page. Some popular effect changes are changing the speed and fading
in and out.
To change the speed, select the desired audio to be edited. Then go to Effect – Change
Speed. Then move the percentage up or down.
To fade in and out, select the desired portion and then go to Effect – Fade In or Fade
out.
When you are done with your project, now you can select File – Export. From this window
you can select which file type you would like to create. If you export to a program that
burns CDs, such as iTunes, then you can burn a CD from your project.