Audacity

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Audacity Help

Step-by-step Guide to Recording Podcasts with Audacity

USB Microphone Setup
Consider using a USB microphone for your recording.  The Plantronics DSP-500 headset is a good choice. Connect the microphone to your computer. Open Audacity. Next, from the main menu under Edit, select Preferences.  The Audacity Preferences dialog opens. Select the Audio I/O tab. For the recording device select your USB microphone as the input source. Click the OK button.

View Audacity: USB Microphone Setup

Set Recording Level
First,  make a sample recording. Click the Record button to begin recording in a new audio track. Use the Mixer Toolbar to set the record levels. The Meter Toolbar is used to monitor playback and recording levels. It is critical not to set the recording level too high or too low. If the audio level is set too high the the audio will clip and the sound will be distorted. Lower the record level using the record level slider in the Mixer Toolbar. Click the Stop button. Click the Play button to listen to your audio track. Repeat the process if needed to fine-tune the audio level. Once you have a proper recording level, you are ready to record your fist audio track. Click the Record button again. Use the Pause button if needed to temporally stop the recording. Click the Stop button (or the spacebar) to end the recording. Click the X in the Audio Track Control Panel to delete an unwanted audio track. From the main menu under File select Save Project to save your work.

View: Audacity: Set Record Level

Basic Cut and Paste Audio Editing
Basic audio editing is very similar to editing a text document. Instead of text, you "read" the Waveform Display. You primarily use the same commands, Cut and Past. Click the Selection Tool from the Control Toolbar. To select audio, drag the Selection Tool over the audio in the Waveform Display. From the main menu, under Edit select Cut. To paste audio place the Selection Tool at the point in the Waveform Display where you want the audio to be inserted. From the main menu, under Edit select Paste. Click the Play button to listen to your audio track. Choose Undo Cut or Undo Paste under Edit to eliminate a bad edit. From the main menu under File select Save Project to save your work.

View: Audacity: Basic Cut and Paste Audio Editing

Normalize Audio
Apply the Normalize effect to raise the volume of the audio without clipping. From the main menu under Edit, choose Select and then All. Next, from the main menu under Effect, select Normalize. Click the OK button.  From the main menu under File select Save Project to save your work.

View Audacity: Normalize Audio

Exporting MP3 Files
 Audio files are compressed using the MP3 file format. Some quality is lost, but the file size of the audio clip is greatly reduced. First, set the MP3 compression export quality for Audacity. From the main menu under Edit, select Preferences.  The Audacity Preferences dialog opens. Select the File Formats tab. For MP3 Export Setup select 64 for the bit rate. This is a good MP3 export setting for speech. Click the OK Button. Next, set the ID3 tags for your audio file. From the main menu, under Project select Edit ID3 Tags. Enter information for the Title, Artist, and Album. For the Genre select Other. Now, from the main menu, under File select Export as MP3. Click Save. Open your MP3 file in Windows Media Player, iTunes or QuickTime to listen to the audio.

View: Audacity: Exporting MP3 Files

 

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