Configuring Audacity Before you can get started with Audacity there are a few preferences and settings which need to be altered. These only need to be done once before using Audacity for the first time. Make sure you have you microphone and headphone/speakers connected to your computer before proceeding. 1. Open Audacity. 2. From the Edit menu select Preferences. Altering the Audacity Preferences 3. Click the Library button it will ask you to locate the LAME encoder.(fig 1) 4. Click Locate. Navigate to "C:\Program Files\Lame for Audacity", select lame_enc.dll, then click OK. 5. Click OK to confirm the settings or keep the preferences window open and continue to setup your microphone. Figure 1 File Formats Preferences Locate Library Button Setting up your Microphone Also within the Audacity preferences you need to set what devices will be used for Audio playback and recording. 1. Open the Audacity Preferences window again. 2. Select the Devices Tab. 3. In the Playback section, click on the drop-down menu and select the sound card for your computer, for example Realtek HD Audio Output.(Fig2) 4. In the Recording section, click on the drop-down menu and select the sound card for your computer, for example Realtek HD Audio Input. (Fig2) Alternatively, if you have a specific microphone it may be listed. Select it instead. 5. Click OK to confirm the settings. - 1 -
Figure 2 Audio Input/output Tab Specify Playback Device here Specify Recording Device here That s it! Audacity is now configured and ready for you to start recording audio and save them as files you can share. Creating an audio file with Audacity Audacity is simple to use and many of its features are intuitive. 1. Click on the red record button to start recording.(fig 3) 2. Stop recording with the yellow stop button, or pause with the blue pause button.(fig 3) Figure 3 Main Audacity Interface Record button Stop button Pause button Audio track Every time you stop a recording it ends the track. When you hit record again it starts a new track. If you want to stop the current track and then continue recording on the same track use the pause button. Click the pause button again to continue recording. - 2 -
Listening to your audio file Once you have made a recording you can listen to it immediately afterwards. 1. Click on the green play button to listen to it. (Fig3) 2. Playback can be paused or stopped using the blue or yellow buttons. 3. Use the rewind button to return to the very start of the recording. If the volume of you recording is low, check that the playback volume is adjusted correctly. You can alter this directly in Audacity by moving the playback volume slider to the right.(fig 4) Figure 4 Adjusting Playback volume Playback volume slider Basic editing of your audio file When you make a recording there are often changes you want to make. This can involve deleting parts of the recording or improving its quality. Selecting and deleting portions of a track With an audio recording there are often parts at the beginning and end which need to be removed. 1. Ensure the selection tool is active, if not click on it.(fig 5 over) 2. Hold down the left mouse button and drag across the portion of the track you want to select. 3. Click on the green play button and just that portion of audio will be played. 4. To delete it click on the Delete key on the keyboard. - 3 -
Figure 5 Selecting parts of the waveform Selection Tool Selected part of the audio track Adjusting the magnification of the audio track To make it easier to select portions of the track you can zoom in or zoom out of the audio timeline to view it in more or less detail. 1. Click on the Zoom In button a number of times to see how the timeline changes (Fig6) 2. Use the Zoom Out button to return the timeline view to its original view. Figure 6 The Magnification Tool Zoom Out Zoom In Adjusting the volume If you need to alter the volume of a track as it has recorded at an unexpected level you can use the gain control.(fig 7) 1. Slide it to the right to make it louder, slide it to the left to reduce the volume. Figure 7 Using the Gain to enhance/ reduce volume Adjusting the gain - 4 -
Saving and exporting your recording When you have finished your recording you need to save the project and create the mp3 file. 1. From the File menu select Save Project. This will create a project file (ends with.aup) and allows you to reopen it in Audacity and continue to edit or build it. 2. Create the mp3 file, by going to the File menu and selecting Export and choosing Save as Type: MP3 Files from the drop down list. Enter the file name. 3. A window will appear where you can enter details about the recording. You can ignore this for now and just click OK to create your MP3. You mp3 file will now play in any media player by doubling clicking on it. - 5 -