An open source tool for creating
and editing digital audio files
By Tim VanSlyke
What you need
A computer
A microphone and
speakers or a
multimedia headset.
The Audacity program
How to get Audacity
You can download
Audacity for free from
the Audacity Web site:
•http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
One More Step:
Download the LAME LIB
Because of patent rules Audacity doesn’t come with the
ability to make MP3 files. To do that you need to add the
“LAME LIB” this is an extension to Audacity that is
available to download.
To download the LAME Extension, go to the appropriate
Web site for Windows or Mac. Place the extension
somewhere easy to locate (the audacity program folder
is a good bet). The first time you try to export as MP3
the program will ask you to locate the LAME extension,
or you can do this manually in the application
preferences.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&i=lame-mp3
Preference Settings
Before you record there are a few
settings you may want to change in order
to produce smaller audio files that can be
easily sent over email.
To change the setting go to the audacity
preferences. (In Windows > File >
Preferences) (In Mac OS: Audacity >
Preferences)
Preference Settings
Here you can set
the devices to
use for recording
and playback
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are neede d to see this picture.
For most spoken
text mono is
sufficient and half
as large as
stereo.
Preference Settings
A sample rate of 22
K Hz is very good
quality, 11 K Hz is
even smaller and
QuickTime™ and a
the quality would TIFF (Uncompressed) decompre ssor
are neede d to see this picture.
be fine for most
purposes.
Preference Settings
You can locate the
LAME Lib
extension using
this button QuickTime™ an d a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are need ed to see this picture .
Set the MP3 Bit
rate to 64 for much
smaller files.
Recording with Audacity
Recording with Audacity
is straightforward.
The Audacity interface is
similar to a normal audio
recorder.
Click the “Record”
button to record.
When you’re finished
If you need to stop while click the Stop button.
recording, use the pause
Click the Play, Forward
button. Then click the
and Rewind buttons to
pause button again to
playback your recording.
continue recording.
Editing your recording
After you finish recording you can edit
your recording.
Simple editing includes
– Deleting portions of the audio
– Cutting a pasting
Deleting Audio Portions
To delete a portion
of the audio track,
first select the audio
you want to delete.
Press the delete key
or select the Delete
command from the
edit menu.
Cutting and Pasting
Cut & Paste with audio is similar to doing the
same thing with text.
First select a portion of the audio, next select
“Cut” from the Edit menu, place the insertion
point where you want to place the audio, then
select “Paste” from the Edit menu.
You can use cut and paste when you want to
re-order a selection, or, for example when
you make a mistake and choose to re-record
a certain portion of the audio.
Deleting a track
If you click the stop button then click record again,
the program creates a new track. If you do this
accidentally, you can copy and past the audio to the
main track then delete the second track. To delete a
track click the X in the upper left of the track.
Click here
to delete
a track
Exporting as an MP3 file
To export MP3 files, be
sure you have
downloaded the LAME
extension.
In the File menu select
Export as MP3
Exporting as an MP3 file
Enter a name for your file to the left
of the .mp3 extension. You may want
to use your name to help your
teacher recognize your recording.
The name should look like this:
filename.mp3 for example,
timvanslyke.mp3 OR danjones.mp3
When you click “Save” the program
will ask you to edit the ID3 tags. You
can ignore this step and simply click
OK.
Exporting a selection as an MP3 file
There is another option for exporting Mp3
files. If you only wish to export a part of your
audio, you can highlight that portion and
select “Export selection as MP3” from the File
menu.
This option is useful when you want to make
several small MP3 files. You can record all
the audio at one time, then select each part
and save it as a separate file.
Conclusion
This concludes the introduction to
Audacity presentation.
For further information see my Web site:
http://newterra.chemeketa.edu/faculty/vanslyt/audio/audacity.htm