Audacity – FRN 327 Tutorial

This tutorial by Tierney Steelberg, Digital Liberal Arts Specialist at Grinnell College’s DLAC, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Comment naviguer Audacity
3. Instructions pratiques
   • Getting Started
   • Selecting, Trimming, Shifting Tracks
   • Recording Audio
   • Adjusting Volume
   • Saving Your Project
   • Exporting Your Project
4. Dépannage
5. Droits d’auteur & ressources
6. Accessibilité
7. Comment obtenir de l’aide

Introduction

Audacity est un logiciel distribué sous licence libre qui permet l’enregistrement et l’édition de sources audionumériques. Vous pouvez télécharger Audacity sur https://www.audacityteam.org/download/ ou utilizer Audacity sur les ordinateurs du campus.

Cette séance se concentre sur Audacity, mais vous pouvez utilizer un autre logiciel pour ce projet.

Comment naviguer Audacity

The image above showcases Audacity’s toolbars, which can be found at the top of the window, above the audio tracks area. This tutorial will make the most use of the T​ransport​, Tools, and ​Edit ​toolbars. The positioning of the toolbars may look slightly different on your computer, but the icons and layout should remain the same.

Instructions pratiques

First, download some audio to play around with: you can download an episode of the All Things Grinnell podcast at https://www.grinnell.edu/about/leadership/offices-services/communications/podcast/all-things-grinnell.

Getting Started

Import one of your audio recordings, or a sample one, from the File menu (File > Import… > Audio). This recording will appear as a new track. Every separate “sound” or recording should appear on its own track, for maximum flexibility. Think of a podcast or audio drama you have listened to in the past: what sounds does it contain? Each of those is its own track (fade-in music, host introduction, sound effects, a guest interview…).

You can name your tracks by clicking the pulldown menu next to the track, and clicking “Name…”. From here, you can also move tracks up or down to organize them.

Use the zoom tools (shaped like magnifying glasses) in the Edit toolbar to zoom in and out from your audio: you want to zoom in to see specific sections and do more fine-tuned editing, and then zoom out to see your project as a whole.

Selecting, Trimming, Shifting Tracks

You can select a portion of a track for deletion by using the Selection Tool button to highlight a portion of a track: click the button, then click and drag on a track to choose a portion of it, then hit the “delete” key to remove that portion, or the cut and paste buttons to move it elsewhere.

• You can also split tracks by clicking your cursor at the spot you want to split (to bring the playhead there) and then using the Edit menu to split the track: Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split. Tip: double-click on a split section of a track to then select that entire segment and delete or move it.
• You can use the Cut / Copy / Paste buttons to remove or move around small subsections of audio.

As you import more audio, Audacity defaults to having tracks overlap. You don’t want this for your podcast. To move a track so that it plays after another, click the Time Shift Tool button in the Tools Toolbar (double-headed arrow), and then drag and drop it where you want it. A yellow line will appear when the end of one track is aligned with the beginning of another (but remember that you may sometimes want more of a pause).

• You can move multiple tracks by using the Selection Tool to select audio from multiple tracks, clicking the Time Shift Tool, and then clicking and dragging from within the selected area. This allows you to add audio before or after two consecutive tracks.
• To remove the beginning and end of a track (ex: dead air at the beginning and end of a recording), select the area of a track you want to keep, then click the “trim outside selection” button
  

Recording Audio

You can record audio content directly into Audacity. First, create a new track to make editing easier: Tracks > Add New… > Stereo Track. Then click the red “record” button once to begin the recording, then click the stop button (in the Transport Toolbar) to stop the recording. Then use the time shift tool to move it where you want it.

• You can use an external USB microphone to record with better sound quality: just plug it into your computer, and select it from the input source dropdown (with a microphone icon) in the Device Toolbar at the top. You can also use headphones with a built-in mic. And iPhone recording quality has increased greatly in recent years.
• Each time you click record, Audacity creates a new track. If you want to record on the same track, click pause instead of stop, and then resume your recording by clicking the pause button again.
• If your recording has consistent unwanted background noise (like a hissing fan), you can try using Audacity’s Noise Reduction effect.

Adjusting Volume

You can adjust the volume of your audio project using the Envelope Tool button: click it, then drag the center of your track up or down.

If you want to boost or reduce the volume of just a particular section, create an “envelope” with the envelope tool by clicking the beginning and end of the section you want to adjust, and then dragging the center of that section up or down to adjust the volume. This can be used at the end of a clip or in transitions to fade audio in or out (though it’s not a complete fade – there is an effect you can use if you want that). You can move your envelope around by clicking and dragging the points to the left or right, or delete a point by clicking and dragging it upwards.

Saving Your Project

While you’re working, you can save your project as an in-progress Audacity file (extension “.aup”), which will also create a data folder: click File and then Save Project…

Note that saving and exporting are 2 separate things: the .aup file is editable in Audacity as separate tracks, while the .mp3 is a playable file that no longer contains the edits and differentiation between your tracks.

Exporting Your Project

Export your finished project as an MP3 by clicking File > Export > Export as MP3. This exports a playable audio file that you can share with others, upload to website as an audio file, or even upload to a platform like SoundCloud.

Note that saving and exporting are 2 separate things: the .aup file is editable in Audacity as separate tracks, while the .mp3 is a playable file that no longer contains the edits and differentiation between your tracks.

Dépannage

Installing the FFMPEG Library

If Audacity is having issues opening certain filetypes (for example, .m4a), you can download the FFMPEG library to be able to import these files into Audacity. There are instructions on how to do so at https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_installing_the_ffmpeg_import_export_library.html – follow the instructions for your operating system and your version of Audacity.

Droits d’auteur & ressources

When creating a podcast or other audio content that is shared publicly, it’s very important to look for and use images, clips, and audio that are licensed for you to reuse freely, so you do not have to worry about copyright infringement. If a media resource is copyrighted, or you are unsure of an its copyright status, do not use it on a video shared publicly.

You can also look for media with a Creative Commons license or media in the public domain: there are many resources online for finding free-to-use media licensed for use in this kind of project. Here are some potential resources:

• BBC Sound Library
• Transistor
• Pixabay Music (requires a free account)
• Freesound (requires a free account)
• Wikimedia Commons audio files

Accessibilité

For accessibility purposes, you should provide a transcript or text alternative when creating audio-only projects. When creating a podcast, you can share your script. Don’t forget to make adjustments to the script for any changes you made on the fly, so the text alternative best reflects the audio.

Comment obtenir de l’aide

If you have questions, need help, get stuck, or want support trying something new, there are support resources out there for you!

• The Audacity Reference Manual provides a thorough overview and documentation of all the ins and outs of Audacity.
• LinkedIn Learning has an Audacity module if you want more in-depth knowledge of Audacity.
• Burling Library has recording studios and high-quality microphones available for check out: check in at the Circulation Desk. You can reserve rooms in advance for a specific block of time by emailing Max Schafer, Digital Library Services Specialist, at schaferm@grinnell.edu
  • Large recording studio has plenty of space for a group.
  • Smaller recording studio has a hard-wired mic that might be more awkward for group use, but that could easily be used with handheld recording devices available for check-out.
• Vivero Digital Fellows trained in a variety of digital tools and approaches (including WeVideo) hold peer mentoring drop-in hours from 7-9 PM in the Burling Library Media Room (lower level) Sundays through Thursdays.
• Tierney Steelberg, Digital Liberal Arts Specialist: email steelber@grinnell.edu