Joanna Cobley
joanna@digitalstories.co.nz
AUDACITY CHEAT SHEET
I f you want to record directly into Audacity, use File > Open. If you’ve
recorded an interview on a digital recorder and want to make some edits
then use File > Import > Audio. (This can take some time: a 30 minute
Audacity is free, works on Windows and Macintosh, and can be
downloaded from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. Make
sure you’re using version 1.3.4 of Audacity. Earlier versions like
1.2 don’t allow you to split a soundtrack and move the parts
interview can take over two minutes to import.)
independently, which is very important.
If recording directly into Audacity, click the red Record button to start
recording and pause when you need to take a break (Note: if you click
the stop button then start recording again, Audacity will automatically Most of the commands you’ll be using appear under the Edit
generate a new track: I would advise using the Pause button). Next, File > menu at the top. These include Cut, Copy, Paste, Split,
Save Project As (again, this can take a few minutes). Delete, Join, and Undo.
The Magnifying Glass tool is used The Selection tool is used to The Envelope tool lets you increase or
to expand or reduce the size of the create selections for cropping, decrease the volume of a track—that is,
magnification area. Click the area you deleting or copying. adjust the levels—over a period of time.
want magnified to get a closer view.
The Time Shift tool allows you to move the
This tool is useful when trying to crop
entire waveform back and forward in time (left
out a specific portion of audio.
and right), relative to another track.
The playback controls:
Play, Record, Pause.
Set the playback point
by clicking with the
selection tool. The fuzzy caterpillar is a visual repre-
sentation of your sound recording. The
size of the peaks refers roughly to the
volume of the audio file.
To boost the sound wave (make the
You can mute, solo fuzzy caterpillar look larger), use
(i.e. mute all the other the Select all > Effect > Amplify
tracks), or adjust the command. Positive numbers boost/
balance of each track increase the sound waves, negative
individually. numbers reduce them. If you amplify
too much—e.g. over 10.0—then the
volume of the background noise (the
‘hiss’) will also get louder.
Another way to boost
your output sound
level is by moving the
Use Effect > Amplify > fade in/
gain slide bar to
fade out when working with small
the right, which only
time periods of audio that cross over
affects a single track.
with ambient sound.
In Audacity, you can create multi-track “projects” that allow you to If you want to export an MP3 directly from Audacity, you’ll also
overlap sections of audio. You could have music or ambient noise in need to separately download the MP3 encoder. You can get it
the background while your interviewee speaks, and add or record voice at http://spaghetticode.org/lame/. The first time you try to
export an MP3, Audacity will ask where the encoder is, but it’ll
breaks. Add an additional file to your project using the Project > Import
subsequently remember.
Audio command. When you’re finished editing, I prefer to use File >
Export As WAV, and import the WAV into iTunes to convert it to an MP3.
feb 08 • design: www.adzebill.com