Audacity

Participant Handout

Audacity Training Handout

Audacity Training Presented by Rebecka Anderson 1/17/2013 Napa County Office of Education

Audacity Participant Handout: Created By: Marilyn Christie. Modified by Rebecka Anderson January 12, 2013. Source: http://amboytechnology.wikispaces.com/search/view/audacity Contributions to amboytechnology .wikispaces.com/are licensed under a Creative commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License. Page 1

Audacity Participant Handout

CONTROLS

Selection Tool

Time Shift Tool

Skip to End (Fast Forward)

Skip to Start (Rewind) Play Record Pause Stop

Cut Copy Paste Trim outside selection Silence Selection

Redo Undo

Fit project in window Fit selection in window Zoom Out Zoom In

Adjust Speaker Volume

Adjust Microphone Volume

There is also a Meter Toolbar, but we will not be using it in this module. Toolbars can be floated by clicking on View | Float Control Toolbar. To return them to the Audacity window click on View | Dock Control Toolbar.

Audacity Participant Handout: Created By: Marilyn Christie. Modified by Rebecka Anderson January 12, 2013. Source: http://amboytechnology.wikispaces.com/search/view/audacity Contributions to amboytechnology .wikispaces.com/are licensed under a Creative commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License. Page 2

Audacity Participant Handout

BASIC EDITS with MUSIC INTRO and FADE 1. Remove silence or other noises from voice track using the selection tool and cut/delete
2. Import music clip to its own track 3. Split track to mono (Use solo/mute to control track playback) 4. Select and copy music for intro 5. Copy/Paste clip to location 6. Use Time Shift tool to adjust music track or voice track 7. Apply Fade Effect (Effects>Fade In or Out)

Audacity Participant Handout: Created By: Marilyn Christie. Modified by Rebecka Anderson January 12, 2013. Source: http://amboytechnology.wikispaces.com/search/view/audacity Contributions to amboytechnology .wikispaces.com/are licensed under a Creative commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License. Page 3

Audacity Participant Handout

ADVANCED VOLUME CONTROL
Track Volume Use volume control on track to control level for entire track.

Auto Duck Will automatically reduce the sound levels of one track to accommodate for lower sound levels in another track. 1. Place the main/control track at the bottom (usually voice). Select track and then drag/drop track. 2. Select the track that you want levels to change on (usually music). 3. Select Effects>Auto Duck

Volume Reduced According to Control Track

Track Volume

Audacity Participant Handout: Created By: Marilyn Christie. Modified by Rebecka Anderson January 12, 2013. Source: http://amboytechnology.wikispaces.com/search/view/audacity Contributions to amboytechnology .wikispaces.com/are licensed under a Creative commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License. Page 4

Audacity Participant Handout

EXPORT
Default export option is .wav. To export a file, follow these steps: 1. File>Export>Name>Save 2. Add Meta Data>Ok>Ok

MP3 Format Add a plugin to export directly to MP3. http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#lame

Convert MP3 Through iTunes 1. Export .wav file to desktop 2. Add file to iTunes Library 3. Set iTunes import settings to MP3 encoder

Windows Edit>Preferences>General> Import Settings>MP3 Encoder

Mac iTunes>Preferences>General >Import Settings>MP3 Encoder

4. Highlight song in list>right-click>convert to MP3

Audacity Participant Handout: Created By: Marilyn Christie. Modified by Rebecka Anderson January 12, 2013. Source: http://amboytechnology.wikispaces.com/search/view/audacity Contributions to amboytechnology .wikispaces.com/are licensed under a Creative commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License. Page 5

Audacity Participant Handout

EFFECTS
Review on your own the other Effects under the Effect menu. I frequently use the Fade In and Fade Out effect. Amplify changes the volume of the selected audio. Auto Duck - Reduces (ducks) the volume of one or more tracks whenever the volume of a specified "control" track reaches a particular level. Typically used to make a music track softer whenever speech in a commentary track is heard. Bass Boost enhances the bass frequencies. Change Pitch changes the pitch\frequency of the selected audio without changing the tempo. When you open the dialog, the starting frequency is set to Audacitys best guess as to the frequency of the selection. This works well for recordings of singing or musical instruments without background noise. You can specify the pitch change in one of four different ways: musical note, semitones, frequency, or percent change. Change Speed changes the speed of the audio by re-sampling. Making the speed higher will also increase the pitch, and vice versa. This will change the length of the selection. Change Tempo changes the tempo (speed) of the audio without changing the pitch. This will change the length of the selection. Click Removal This effect is designed to remove the annoying clicks on recordings from vinyl records without damaging the rest of the audio. You can choose how sensitive the click detection is, and what the maximum length of a click is. Compressor compresses the dynamic range of the selection so that the load parts are softer while keeping the volume of the soft parts the same. Echo very simple effect the repeats the selection with a decay, sounding like a series of echoes. This effect does not change the length of the selection, so you may want to add silence to the end of the track before applying it (using the Generate Menu). Equalization Boost or reduce arbitrary frequencies. You can select one of a number of different curves designed to equalize the sound of some popular record players, or draw your own curve. Fade In fades the selection in linearly. Fade Out fades the selection out linearly.

Audacity Participant Handout: Created By: Marilyn Christie. Modified by Rebecka Anderson January 12, 2013. Source: http://amboytechnology.wikispaces.com/search/view/audacity Contributions to amboytechnology .wikispaces.com/are licensed under a Creative commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License. Page 6

Audacity Participant Handout

FFT Filter similar to Equalization, lets you enhance or reduce arbitrary frequencies. The curve here uses a linear scale for frequency. Invert flips the waveform vertically, reversing its phase. Noise Removal This effect lets you clean up noise from a recording. Select a small piece of audio that is silent except for the noise, select Noise Removal, and click on the Get Noise Profile button. Then select all of the audio you want filtered, select Noise Removal again and click the Remove Noise button. You can experiment with the slider to try to remove more or less of the noise. It is normal for Noise Removal to result in some distortion. It works best when the audio signal is much louder than the noise. Normalize allows you to correct for DC offset ( a vertical displacement of the track) and/or amplify such that the maximum amplitude is a fixed amount, -3 db. Its useful to normalize all of your tracks before mixing. Nyquist Prompt for advanced users. Allows you to express arbitrary transformations using a powerful functional programming language. See the Nyquist section of the Audacity website for more information. Phaser - the name Phaser comes from Phase Shifter, because it works by combining phase-sifted signals with the original signal. The movement of the phase-shifted signals is controlled using a Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO). Repeat repeats the selection a certain number of times. This operation is quite fast and space-efficient, so it is practical to use it to create nearly-infinite loops. Reverse This effect reverses the selected audio temporally; after the effect the end of the audio will be heard first and the beginning last. Wahwah uses a moving bandpass filter to create its sound. A low frequency oscillator (LFO) is used to control the movement of the filter throughout the frequency spectrum. Adjusts the phase of the left and right channels when given a stereo selection, so that the effect seems to travel across speakers.

Other advanced effects are: Cross Fade In, Cross Fade Out, Delay, GVerb, Hard Limiter, High Pass Filter, Low Pas Filter, SC4, and Tremolo.

Audacity Participant Handout: Created By: Marilyn Christie. Modified by Rebecka Anderson January 12, 2013. Source: http://amboytechnology.wikispaces.com/search/view/audacity Contributions to amboytechnology .wikispaces.com/are licensed under a Creative commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License. Page 7

Audacity Participant Handout

RESOURCES
Audacity Support FAQ http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq Manual http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/documentation Tutorials http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Category:Tutorial Wiki http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audacity_Wiki_Home_Page Forum Support http://forum.audacityteam.org/

Free Music and Sound Effects Favorite http://www.incompetech.com Favorite http://sweetsoundeffects.com/ http://www.soundjay.com/ http://www.soundbible.com

Podcasting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hrBbczS9I0 http://www.digitaltrends.com/how-to/how-to-make-a-podcast/ http://blog.voaudio.com/how-to-make-a-podcast/

Examples of Audio for Education Twenty-Three Interesting Ways to Use Audio in Your Classroom http://www.slideshare.net/spanishsam/twenty-three-interesting-ways-to-use-audio-in Educational Uses of Audacity and Podcasts http://dscaudacity.wikispaces.com/Educational+Uses+of+Audacity+and+Podcasts 10 Great ways to Use Audacity with your Students http://kerileebeasley.com/2009/04/08/10-great-ways-to-use-audacity-with-your-students/

Sample 9th Grade English Assignment About the Assignment http://www.uhigh.ilstu.edu/blogs/techshow/?page_id=488 o Assignment Directions http://www.uhigh.ilstu.edu/blogs/techshow/wpcontent/uploads/2011/11/audacityodysseyproject.pdf

Audacity Participant Handout: Created By: Marilyn Christie. Modified by Rebecka Anderson January 12, 2013. Source: http://amboytechnology.wikispaces.com/search/view/audacity Contributions to amboytechnology .wikispaces.com/are licensed under a Creative commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License. Page 8