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DraftAudacity2.2.0Manual v0.4 PDF
DraftAudacity2.2.0Manual v0.4 PDF
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - most common questions are answered in the FAQ
1 Menu Bar 2 Transport Toolbar 3 Tools Toolbar 4 Recording Meter Toolbar 5 Playback Meter Toolbar 6 Mixer
Toolbar 7 Edit Toolbar 8 Transcription Toolbar 9 Device Toolbar 10 Unpinned Play/Recording Head 11 Timeline
12 Scrub Ruler 13 Track Control Panel 14 Audio Track 15 Label Track 16 Selection Toolbar 17 Status Bar
Chapter 1
Getting Started
This guide provides a quick tour of selected features of New Track Record
Audacity. This page doesn’t tell you how to use features,
it would be much too long if it did. Rather it tells you about Hold Shift and the record button changes from to
some of the features that exist in Audacity and will help Record New Track. Click, (or use shortcut Shift + R )
you learn a little about those. There are many links on to start recording in a new track at either the current cur-
this page (highlighted in blue). Click the links to go to the sor position or at the beginning of the current selection.
more detailed pages in the Manual.Also remember that By default Audacity will record at the end of the currently
the Screenshot of Audacity on the front page is click- selected (or only) track
able. Clicking on a feature will take you to the place in
the Manual that describes that feature.
Select and Edit
1.1.1 Record, Play and Edit - the basics of Select audio by dragging, before using buttons like cut,
Audacity copy and paste to rearrange the audio. You can also ap-
ply an audio effect to the selected audio.
Audacity can Play Record and edit audio. To play
or record, click on the button on the toolbar:
Hold Shift and the play button will change from to Audacity makes a distinction between saving audio in
the Loop Play button. Click on this and you will get Loop Audacity project format which only Audacity can open,
Play where the audio plays over and over until you stop. and exporting audio in formats like WAV and MP3 for use
2
1.1. AUDACITY TOUR GUIDE 3
Export
1.1.3 Themes
1.1.4 Faster ways to do things - shortcuts • Envelopes provide a more flexible way to con-
and Chains trol loudness. You will need to select the Enve-
lope Tool or Multi-Tool to use envelopes. With
envelopes you can graphically control when audio
gets louder and quieter.
A fragment of the keyboard preferences dialog show- These are the two sliders in the track’s Track Control
ing some shortcuts Panel . The Gain slider enables you to set the loudness
for the track. The Pan slider lets you make the audio
louder on the left or the right. You can move these sliders
to affect the audio as it plays.
Shortcuts
Ever want to do the same thing to a large number of au- Auto Duck
dio files, for example remove noise from them and con-
vert to MP3? Chains is the feature for this. Give it a list of This reduces (ducks) the volume of one or more selected
files to work through and tell it what sequence of things tracks whenever the volume of a single unselected "con-
to do. Programmers may want instead to use Scripting , trol track" placed underneath reaches a particular thresh-
an experimental but more flexible version of Chains. This old level. It can be used to create voice-overs for pod-
needs a free experimental module called mod-script-pipe casts or DJ sets, for automatic "ramping" of background
and experience in programming. music in radio productions and for turning down a voice
in original language as soon as its translation kicks in.
Export Multiple
Mixer Board
You can save several audio files at once, rather than sav-
ing them one by one.
An alternative view to the audio tracks in the main tracks
window, and is analogous to a hardware mixer board.
Each audio track is displayed in a Track Strip with its own
1.1.5 Changing the loudness of your audio pair of meters, gain slider, pan slider, and mute/solo but-
- fades, Amplify, pan and gain tons, mirroring that track’s controls in its Track Control
Panel.
Amplify
Audacity can add noise to a recording too. Three differ- You can speed audio up or slow it down by applying an
ent types of noise can be generated. White noise has effect that changes the audio:
the greatest ability to mask other sounds, as it has simi-
lar energy at all frequency levels. If you want to add some • Use Change Speed to make audio faster or
room noise to make silences more realistic, try adding it slower and higher or lower pitched.
at 0.001 amplitude. • Use Change Pitch to change the pitch of a selec-
tion without changing its tempo (speed).
Draw Tool • Use Change Tempo if you want the pitch to
stay the same when speeding up or slowing down.
If you Zoom in enough on the audio you can edit indi- Change Tempo does not always work so well with
vidual samples of audio. Usually there are 44100 sample large changes in speed and the end result may
dots for every second of audio. This gives you an idea sound a little strange.
of how the audio is stored in the computer. Very occa-
sionally there may be a click in the audio which is better
removed with Draw Tool than with Click Removal or the
Repair effect. Repair is best used when zoomed in a lot Time Tracks
as it only works with short pieces of audio.
A Time Track is a graph line you drag on to change the
amount of speed-up or slow-down over time, instead of it
1.1.7 Navigation and changing speed and having to be a constant speed change. As with Play-at-
pitch Speed the speed changes immediately without waiting to
run an effect, but the changes do apply when exporting
unless you delete the Time Track. So export a copy of
your work to WAV format before using Time Track to be
safe.
6 CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED
1.1.8 Lots of things you might not know what to count as a long silence, the loudness level and
Audacity could do duration, and how much of each long silence to remove.
Snap To
This set of tutorials provide a guide to making your first digest. The following topics are covered and should be
microphone, guitar or keyboard recording with Audacity. followed in the order presented here:
1. Tutorial - Connecting Up
1.2.1 The Tutorials (a) Tutorial - Connecting a Microphone
(b) Tutorial - Connecting an Instrument
This tutorial has been broken into several sub-tutorials for
ease of reading as there is a lot of material to read and (c) Tutorial - Connecting a Mixer
1.3. NEW FEATURES IN THIS RELEASE 7
2. Tutorial - Selecting Your Recording Device • Tutorial - Audacity Settings for Recording
3. Tutorial - Making a Test Recording
4. Tutorial - Recording and Editing For more information
1.3.2 Themes
Classic theme High Contrast theme The theme to use 1.3.5 Menu reorganization
can be chosen at Edit > Preferences > Interface .
We have made the Menus shorter and clearer than in
previous Audacity versions. The menus have been sim-
• In addition to the four pre-configured themes there
plified without losing functionality. The most commonly
is also a Custom theme.
used functions are found in the top levels of the menus.
The functions moved down into lower submenus are bet-
By default the custom theme looks the same as Clas- ter organized. This is not just a rearrangement. We also
sic theme - but, if you have the right programming skills added new menu items to make the layout more logical.
and tools, you can use this template to create your own There are new menu items for exporting as MP3 or WAV.
theme. Instructions for how to do this may be found in Previously you had to export audio, and then choose the
the Audacity Wiki. format. You still can do that, but these new items are
1.3. NEW FEATURES IN THIS RELEASE 9
there for convenience. One of the long standing bug- To record on a new track
bears with Audacity is the distinction between ‘Save’ and
‘Export’. People expect to be able to open a WAV audio
If you hold the Shift button down the Record button in
file, edit it in Audacity and then click save. That is not how
Transport Toolbar will temporarily change to . Then
Audacity works. Audacity needs audio in its own unique
clicking on this modified Record button, or using the
format to work on it. So Audacity converts when you
shortcut Shift + R will cause Audacity to create a new
’Open’ a WAV file and converts back when you ’Save’. In
track and begin recording on that track from the current
an attempt to make this clearer Audacity uses the word
cursor position (or from the left edge of a region on the
’Import’ for opening a file like WAV and ’Export’ for con-
Timeline ).
verting and saving in a format like WAV. Open and Save
are reserved for Audacity’s own project format.Now the
‘Export’ options are under the ‘Save Other’ menu item,
where people trying to save audio as an MP3 or WAV file
1.3.8 Help buttons
are more likely to find them.
1.3.10 Selection Toolbar improvements 5. Select > Clip Boundaries > Previous clip
6. Select > Clip Boundaries > Next clip
There are now four available settings in the Selection and
Audio Position Boxes in Selection Toolbar for the manner There are also two new commands ( Clip Left and Clip
in which the details of your selection are displayed: Right ) for moving clips, which are available in the ex-
• Start and End of selection: the start time and the tended menus added in this release.Note that these ex-
end time of your selection (default setting) tended menus are not turned on by default, to turn them
on please see Menu Reference for how to reveal the ex-
• Start and Length of selection: the start time and tended menus.
the length of your selection
• Length and End of selection: the length and the
end time of your selection 1.3.12 Running out of disk space
• Length and Center of selection: the length and
the time at the center of your selection We have now provided an error trap for situations where
you are running out of available disk space. You will
now see the error message: "Audacity failed to write
to a file in <device>" This is particularly useful when
recording as Audacity will stop recording when the error
is trapped, preserving your recording up to that point.
New commands, all of which interact with the clips on the This page New features in this release - appendix
focused track. As yet, there are no default shortcuts: gives an overview of further new functionality that has
been introduced in this release of Audacity.
1. Transport > Cursor to > Previous clip boundary
2. Transport Cursor to > Next clip boundary
3. Select > Clip Boundaries > Previous clip boundary 1.3.14 Links
to cursor
4. Select > Clip Boundaries > Cursor to next clip > Audacity Release Notes 2.2.0- detailed release notes
boundary for this release of Audacity
1.4.1 Sync-Lock
This page is an appendix to New features in this re- Old Edit Toolbar, with Sync-Lock
lease . It is an overview of further new functionality
that has been introduced in Audacity 2.2.0
Left-clicking on a clip line will delete the clip line, merg- The colors of the spectrograms are now customisable
ing the two neighbouring clips. Now if you hover over the using custom theming . This can give greater clarity to
Clip line and press and release the Esc key you can then the spectrograms. In the example below the high inten-
click on the clip line and select from there by dragging, sity greens stand out better than the reds in the standard
without deleting the clip line and merging the clips. spectrogram.
Slider thumb not highlighted (Classic theme) 1.4.8 Simplified stereo splitting and join-
ing
The default behavior now for effects and for edits requir-
ing a selection is that if you click on them without a se- 1.4.9 Documentation Overhaul
lection, a dialog now shows explaining that you need to
make a selection. Here an attempt to apply Fade effect
was made without first selecting some audio. Major overhaul of the Audacity manual, including more
work on clickable images.
< Back to: New features in this release > Audacity Re-
lease Notes 2.2.0- detailed release notes for this release
Redo
• Select "History..." from the View Menu and click on
an action to jump the project state to there
• Use the Keyboard shortcuts:
Windows Linux Mac
UndoCtrl+ZCtrl+ZCloverLeaf+Z
RedoCtrl+YCtrl+Shift+ZCloverLeaf+Shift+ZOnly changes
that modify the project data can be undone. Changes
that cannot be undone include:
• Saving or exporting
• Changing the track height or the selection or cursor
position (these are saved when you save a change
that is recorded by Undo/Redo). • History list: This has two columns.
Undo is unlimited, back to the first action you took in the – "Action" shows a list of all project states that
project. That means you can make a hundred changes, you can go back or forwards to, earliest state
then change your mind and undo them all. Undo is step- first.
wise. This means that if you Undo to several steps back
– "Reclaimable Space" shows for each action in
then perform a new action, you cannot then redo the old
the list the amount of disk space that will be re-
steps that followed the point you went back to. For exam-
leased if you discard that action’s Undo level.
ple, suppose you made ten edits, numbered 1 through
10. Now you undo back to step 5, and then perform a To ensure that "Reclaimable Space" displays
1.5. UNDO, REDO AND HISTORY 13
an accurate calculation of space that could be • Discard removes steps from the top of the History
freed by discarding actions, space usage is al- list. This action is immediate and cannot be Un-
ways allocated to the latest step that uses that done.
data. So if some steps were only applied to
– Undo information is removed and the disk
part of the project, then as each new action
space it uses is released when you close an
is applied, the action before will have its re-
Audacity project. Thus you should only need
claimable space reduced.
to discard Undo levels if you are working on
Select an item in the history list to Undo or Redo a very large project and are running short of
immediately to that action. It’s the same as choos- disk space.
ing Edit > Undo or Edit > Redo multiple times, but
quicker.
1.5.3 Example
• Total space used: Displays the total disk space
currently used by the project, which is the total of all
the "Reclaimable Space" values shown in the his- Example of using History WindowIn the image below
tory list. we see the History window positioned beside a stereo
track that has been imported into a project. The file size
• Undo Levels Available: (Uneditable). Displays was 67.7 MB, and at the moment that amount of space
how many actions are available to Undo. Select is taken up on the drive by the ability to undo the import.
the next item down in the history list to increase the
number of available undo levels by one. To choose
the maximum possible number of Undo levels, se-
lect the bottom item in the list.
• Levels to Discard: Edit this text box to choose the
number of Undo levels that will be discarded when
you click the Discard button. Items are discarded
starting from the top of the history list.
– Discard button: Removes the number of ac-
tions specified in the Levels to Discard box.
This action is immediate and cannot be un-
done. Discarding undo levels will release the
disk space taken by the discarded items and
the value displayed in the "Total space used" In the next image the user has repaired two clicks and
box will accordingly reduce. amplified the entire track. These edits have slightly more
than doubled the space used by the project to 139.5 MB.
• Clipboard space used: Indicates the amount of
disk space currently used by the Audacity Clip-
board.
– Discard button: Empties the data on the Au-
dacity Clipboard, releasing the disk space dis-
played in Clipboard space used and reset-
ting that value to zero. This action is imme-
diate and cannot be undone. After discard,
pasting will do nothing.
• OK button: Accepts the changes made in the His-
tory window, if any, and closes the window.
Note the difference between Undo and Discard.
• Undo (by any method) grays out steps starting from We see here that the user could for example quickly undo
the bottom of the History list. the "Amplify" step and the two "Repair" steps, returning
to the project to the state it was in immediately after the
– When you Undo, you can still Redo to the file was imported. This is equivalent to selecting Edit >
grayed out list items (as shown in the third im- Undo three times. The project still uses 139.5 MB of disk
age in the example below) until you perform space because it is still possible to Redo those actions.
another editing action. After the new action, Having now selected the "Imported" item to undo back to
the grayed out steps will be removed from the that stage, the project reflects that change - the amplifi-
list and replaced by the new action. cation has been removed and the clicks are back.
14 CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED
do not degrade over time and can be copied perfectly and 20000 Hz. Sounds outside that range are inaudi-
without introducing any additional noise. The following ble. Therefore a sample rate of 40000 Hz is the abso-
image illustrates a sampled audio waveform: lute minimum necessary to reproduce sounds within the
range of human hearing. Higher rates (called oversam-
pling) are usually used so as to allow adequate filtering
to avoid aliasing artifacts around the Nyquist frequency.
The sample rate used by audio CDs is 44100 Hz. Hu-
man speech is intelligible even if frequencies above 4000
Hz are eliminated; in fact telephones only transmit fre-
quencies between 200 Hz and 4000 Hz. Therefore a
Digital audio can be edited and mixed without introducing common sample rate for audio recordings is 8000 Hz,
any additional noise. In addition, many digital effects can which is sometimes called speech quality. Note that very
be applied to digitized audio recordings, for example, to steep filtering (called an anti-aliasing filter) is required
simulate reverberation, enhance certain frequencies, or at the Nyquist frequency in order to prohibit signal above
change the pitch . Audacity’s ability to play or record au- this cutoff point from being folded back into the audible
dio directly from your computer depends on your specific range by the digital converter, and creating the distort-
computer hardware. Most desktop computers come with ing artifacts of aliasing noise. The most common sample
a soundcard with 1/8 inch (3.5mm) jacks for you to plug in rates measured in Hz are 8000, 16000, 22050, 44100,
a microphone or other source for recording, and speak- 48000, 96000 and 192000. Sample rates can also be
ers or headphones for listening. Many laptop computers referred to in kHz or units of 1000 Hz. So in units of
have speakers and a microphone built-in. The sound- kHz the most common rates are expressed as 8 kHz, 16
card that comes with most computers is not particularly kHz, 22.05 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 96 kHz and 192 kHz.
high quality, in this case you may want to consider using Audacity supports any of these sample rates, however
an external USB soundcard. For information on how to most computer soundcards are limited to no more than
set up Audacity for playback and recording, see Audacity 48000 Hz, 96000 Hz or sometimes 192000Hz. Again,
Setup and Configuration . the most common sample rate by far is 44100 Hz and
many cards will thus default to this rate, whatever other
rates they support. In the image below, the left half has
1.6.2 Digital Audio Quality a low sample rate, and the right half has a high sample
rate (ie. high resolution):
The quality of a digital audio recording depends heav-
ily on two factors: the sample rate and the sample
format or bit depth. Increasing the sample rate or the
number of bits in each sample increases the quality
of the recording, but also increases the amount of space
used by audio files on a computer or disk.
Sample rates are measured in hertz ( Hz ), or cycles The other measure of audio quality is the sample format
per second. This value is the number of samples cap- (or bit depth), which is usually measured by the number
tured per second in order to represent the waveform. of computer bits used to represent each sample. The
Higher sample rates allow higher audio frequencies to be more bits that are used, the more precise the represen-
represented. Provided that the sample rate is more than tation of each sample. Increasing the number of bits also
double the highest audio frequency present, the wave- increases the maximum dynamic range of the audio
form can be reconstructed exactly from the digital sam- recording, in other words the difference in volume be-
ples. Frequencies that are more than half the sample tween the loudest and softest possible sounds that can
rate cannot be correctly represented in digital samples, be represented. Dynamic range is measured in decibels
and, if present in the original audio, must be removed be- ( dB ). The human ear can perceive sounds with a dy-
fore converting to digital. "Half the sample rate" therefore namic range of at least 90 dB. However, whenever possi-
represents an upper limit called the Nyquist frequency, ble it is a good idea to record digital audio with a dynamic
and the analog waveform must be entirely below this limit range of far more than 90 dB, in part so that sounds that
to be correctly represented digitally. Analog frequencies are too soft can be amplified for maximum fidelity. Note
at this limit or above cannot be correctly represented by that although signals recorded at generally low levels can
the digital samples and would cause a kind of distor- be raised (that is, normalized) to take advantage of the
tion called aliasing. The human ear is sensitive to sound available dynamic range, the recording of low level sig-
patterns with frequencies between approximately 20 Hz nals will not use all of the available bit depth. This loss
16 CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED
quality. There are many other lossy compressed audio file sizes can be applied to audio files. While MP3s use
file formats. Audacity fully supports the Ogg Vorbis for- lossy compression, newer compression algorithms, such
mat, which is similar to MP3 but is a completely open, as FLAC and Apple Lossless compression, can be
patent-free standard. Over time the quality of Ogg Vorbis used to create lossless compressed audio files. Such
files has come to surpass the quality of MP3, and its for- compression basically rewrites the data of the original file
mat is more extensible so more improvements are possi- in a more efficient way. However, because no quality is
ble. Ogg Vorbis is a great choice for your own audio, how- lost, the resulting files are typically much larger than im-
ever the reality is that many more devices such as iPods age and audio files compressed with lossy compression.
and other portable audio players support MP3 but not For example, a file compressed using lossy compression
Ogg Vorbis yet. Other well-known compression methods may be one-tenth the size of the original, while lossless
include ATRAC, used by Sony MiniDisc recorders, Win- compression is unlikely to produce a file smaller than half
dows Media Audio (WMA), and AAC. Audacity supports of the original size. Lossless audio formats are most
more formats by adding the optional FFmpeg library . often used for archiving or production purposes, while
smaller lossy audio files are typically used on portable
players and in other cases where storage space is lim-
1.6.8 Lossless Compression ited or exact replication of the audio is unnecessary.
Tutorials
2.1 Tutorials
This page lists tutorials that provide step-by-step instruc- • Copying tapes, LPs and other media to CD or com-
tions for performing common tasks in Audacity. puter
• Editing an Audio File Detailed instructions on connecting your turntable, tape
deck or MiniDisc player to your computer, recording from
How to import an audio file into Audacity (for example, an that device, then editing and exporting the recording so
MP3 music file), edit it, then export the result. that you have separate audio files for each song on the
• Your First Recording original source ready to burn to a CD or import into a
media player such as iTunes.
Detailed instructions on connecting your audio source
(be it a microphone, guitar or keyboard) to your computer, • Click and pop removal techniques
and then recording that source with Audacity. The primary tool in Audacity for dealing with clicks and
• Mixing Voice with Background Music pops is the Click Removal effect. Clicks which do not
get removed with Click Removal can be treated individu-
How to edit a narration to fit the pace of the background ally with other methods. These methods are only really
music, and fade down the music so your listeners can useful if you have a relatively small number of clicks and
hear your narration, useful in particular for podcasts. pops to deal with; otherwise, these approaches will be
• Recording Multi-track Overdubs too labor-intensive and time-consuming.
A set of tutorials on making multi-track recordings, using • Splitting a recording into separate tracks using La-
three different specialist hardware configurations or using bels
your computer’s on-board soundcard. How to divide a recording into separate songs for export
in preparation for burning those tracks to an audio CD or
• Vocal Removal and Isolation
loading onto a portable player.
Techniques which on some stereo tracks may allow you
• Burning Audio CDs
to remove or isolate vocals (or other parts of a recording)
from the rest. Audacity does not burn CDs directly but audio files cre-
ated with Audacity can be used with a CD burning appli-
• Looping
cation to create an audio CD.
How to make an audio loop with Audacity.
• How to import CDs
• Making Ringtones and IVR nessages
How to import audio from CDs as WAV or AIFF files for
How to make ringtones for your cellphone or messages editing in Audacity.
for your IVR system with Audacity.
• Exporting to iTunes
• Recording streaming audio playing on the com-
How to export audio files from Audacity for use in iTunes
puter
• Importing from iTunes
How to record audio that is playing on the computer such
as streaming audio from Internet websites. How to import files from iTunes for use in Audacity
18
2.2. TUTORIAL - AUDACITY SETTINGS FOR RECORDING 19
Now that you know you’re getting sound into the com- The sample rate defines the number of digital audio sam-
puter, it’s time to launch Audacity and possibly change ples per second taken from a continuous analog signal.
some of the basic settings to enable recording. You may 44100 Hz is standard for creating files that can be burned
not need to change any of these settings as Audac- to Audio CD or for high-quality MP3 files. This is the de-
ity’s default settings are designed to work well for fault setting in Audacity and is best left at that setting for
you right from the start, so much so that you can your recordings.
probably skip-read this page.Your first recording with
a microphone is probably best done without playthrough
of additional sounds, and unless you know you have a 2.2.2 Project Sample Format
stereo microphone, using mono. Nothing goes ’wrong’ if
you attempt to record in stereo with a single microphone, The Project Sample Format (also known as Bit Depth
though you may find that only one of the two stereo tracks or Word Size) is the number of computer bits present in
has sound. To just use the sound from the microphone: each audio sample. It determines the dynamic range of
Go to Edit > Preferences (or Audacity > Preferences on the audio. Audacity’s default is set to 32-bit float. This is
Mac) then select the Recording section, and make the good for editing and processing audio. It is strongly rec-
following settings in the Playthrough section ommended that you retain the default setting, however if
• Other tracks while recording (overdub) you really need to change your sample format this can
only be done in the Quality section of Preferences . You
• Software playthrough of input can easily downsample to 16-bit (the standard for creat-
To record in the most standard way: In the Recording ing WAV files that can be burned to audio CD) when
section of Preferences make the following settings: in the exporting later. See Digital Audio for more explanation of
Sound Activated Recording section sample rates and formats.
• Enable
in the Options Section 2.2.3 Temporary Files
• Always record on a new track Most users have only one hard disk. However, if you
In the Quality section of Preferences make the following have multiple hard disks, you will want to make sure that
settings: in the Sampling section Audacity uses your largest or fastest hard disk to store
audio. Open the Preferences (in the Edit menu, or the
• Default Sample Rate: 44100 Hz Audacity menu on Mac) and click on the Directories tab
• Default Sample format: 32-bit float . Make sure that the directory listed is on your preferred
hard disk.
On a Mac you are probably best off with a USB micro-
phone, as a typical PC microphone will need a small am-
plifier between it and the computer. If your home directory is mounted from a remote
server, you definitely do not want Audacity’s temporary
directory to be there!
2.2.1 Project Sample Rate
2.2.4 Software Playthrough
The project sample rate in Hz can be seen, and
changed if required, in the Selection Toolbar at the bot-
tom of the Audacity window: Now click on Transport > Transport Options and, if
you are recording from a microphone, make sure
that Software Playthrough is not checked - Software
Playthrough will cause undesirable feedback from the
20 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
computer speakers to the microphone. If you are record- is constant, you can adjust the Latency correction value
ing a guitar or keyboard and want to hear the in- so that your recorded tracks should end up properly syn-
strument through the computer speakers, make sure chronized with the other tracks after correction. To set a
that Software Playthroughis checked. Using Software custom latency value for your system, see the Latency
Playthrough will cause a slight delay between time you Test page.
play a note and the time you hear it. The amount of de-
lay will vary between computers and operating systems.
There is no way to avoid this delay. If you find it bother- 2.2.6 Sound Activated Recording
some, the best solution is to play the guitar or keyboard
through a mixer and plug headphones into the mixer. Also at Transport > Transport Options make sure that
"Sound Activated Recording" is not checked. "Off" is
the default setting. When this is enabled, recording will
automatically start or resume when the recording volume
rises above the chosen threshold level, and pause when
Hardware playthrough:This is a method available on the level falls below that threshold. You cannot pause
some Windows and Linux machines that lets you un- Sound Activated recordings manually using the Pause
mute the input directly in the sound device. To use this, button or corresponding menu item or shortcut.
open the operating system sound mixer, then the Play-
back section, then unmute the input device (microphone
or line-in) and turn the volume up. You can find the sys-
2.2.7 Audacity Preferences
tem mixer in the Control Panel at Sound on Windows.
On Linux, it may be possible to unmute input devices in
ALSAmixer then set playback and recording devices in If you prefer, you can make the above settings in your
Audacity to the (hardware) device. Audacity Preferences . To access this, use Edit > Prefer-
ences... (or Audacity > Preferences... on Mac). The im-
age below shows the Recording section of Preferences:
Macs have not had proper hardware playthrough
support for some years. If hardware playthrough is re-
quired it is best to use an external USB or Firewire audio
device that has a headphones jack for no-latency moni-
toring (such as the Behringer UCA 202 or Zoom H2).
There are a number of ways you can use Audacity to Then, using the settings from your preview testing, use
remove clicks and pops from your recording. First, with- the Click Removal effect on selected regions of audio or
out zooming in too far, visually inspect your recording for on the whole project. Very soft and rapid light ticks that
clicks - they will show up as abnormally tall (sticking up sound like static electricity and which are typical of vinyl
or down), very narrow (one or two pixels wide) vertical (even though the pressing is often the cause rather than
lines protruding from the waveform. The primary tool in a static charge) will not be effectively removed with Click
Audacity for dealing with clicks and pops is the Click Re- Removal. For this type of noise, select an area of vinyl
moval effect. Clicks which do not get removed with Click that contains only the noise (no music or speech) and
Removal can be treated individually with other methods. use Effect > Noise Reduction . For details of how Au-
These methods are only really useful if you have a rela- dacity’s Click Removal works see this page in the Wiki.
tively small number of clicks and pops to deal with; oth- Click Removal requires an audio selection of more than
erwise, these approaches will be too labor-intensive and 4096 samples. This is about 93 milliseconds at 44100 Hz
time-consuming: project rate as shown in Selection Toolbar .
• Audacity’s Repair effect can repair a short length of
up to 128 samples by interpolating from the
neighboring samples. 2.3.2 Repair of short sections
• For hard to spot clicks you may want to try Click
removal using the Spectrogram view . Audacity has a Repair effect which can be used to re-
pair a short length of up to 128 samples long (for most
• For somewhat longer regions of audio, try: audio, only a few thousandths of a second) by interpo-
– Silence Audio The silenced sections must be lating from the neighboring samples. You will need to
short enough so as to not be audible. zoom in to see the individual samples to use this effect.
Above this length, it becomes too hard to interpolate what
– Draw Tool The principle is to put samples back should be going on in the section under repair. You will
into line with their neighbors to smooth out the get an error message if you select too much audio to try
contours of the samples and so attenuate the and repair. In general, the shorter the section of audio
click or pop. you select to repair, the better the results will be. The
Repair effect is unusual because it requires there to be
audio outside the selection region on at least one side
2.3.1 Audacity Click Removal of the section to be repaired. If the surrounding audio in
the track is very short or non-existent there may not be
To use Audacity’s Click Removal first select the audio enough information to make the interpolation, in which
from which you want clicks repaired. You can select all case an error message will be shown. When using Re-
of a track by clicking on its Track Control Panel . Alterna- pair it is often convenient to set Selection Toolbar bar to
tively, you can select all the audio in the project by using show hh:mm:ss + samples, then click the Length radio
Select > All or its shortcut Ctrl + A(CloverLeaf + A on a button to ensure you are only selecting up to 128 sam-
Mac). If there are a lot of clicks it is possible they may ples.
be removed more effectively by selecting individual clicks
or groups of clicks rather than the whole track. You can
select part of a track by clicking in the track and drag- 2.3.3 Silencing and Draw Tool
ging to left or right with your mouse, or by holding down
Shift and the left or right arrow keys. Zooming right in
Sometimes an even better result can be obtained by
and selecting only an individual spike may not work well
zooming in to sample level and either silencing the click
- extend the selection a little either side of the immediate
using Edit > Remove Special > Silence Audio (or the Ctrl
click or group of clicks to give the algorithm more idea of
+ L shortcut), or using Draw Tool to smooth out the con-
the undamaged audio it can use. Then, choose Effect
tours of the samples and so attenuate the click. Remem-
> Click Removal . Move the "Threshold" slider to adjust
ber, the click will be visible as a "spike" in the waveform.
how sensitive the click detection is, and the "Spike Width"
Most discrete clicks up to 10 milliseconds long can actu-
slider to adjust the length of spiked audio to be consid-
ally be simply silenced or deleted without leaving an audi-
ered as a click. Then click the OK button. Softer clicks
ble gap in the sound, although many clicks spread wider
may require you to move the threshold slider further to
that that. If the click is not suitable for silencing or dele-
left (but moving it too far to left may create a "broken up"
effect with too much audio removed). For broader clicks,
move the "Spike Width" slider further to right. Preview the tion, enable Draw Tool by clicking the pencil icon
effect with these different settings to get the best results. in the Tools Toolbar , or press F3 on your keyboard. The
22 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
mouse pointer will change to a pencil while over the audio • Then click in the new track’s in track name to open
track. You must zoom in until you can see the individual its Track Dropdown Menu and choose Split Stereo
sample dots before you can use Draw Tool. Click in the to Mono.
track at the point you wish a sample to be redrawn to, and
• Now select one of the channels by clicking where
wait for the samples to be rejoined together. Alternatively,
it says "Mono". In the menus at the top, choose
click in the area of track where the line of samples is not
Effect > Invert .
smooth and hold down Alt on your keyboard. The pointer
will now change to a brush (or spray can on Linux). Some When you export the result as a stereo track, the area
patience may be needed with this tool, but the principle is you split out will be effectively mono (in the sense that
to put samples back into line with their neighbors so that the previous music signal in the left and right channels
a smooth contour is presented. will be mixed into both channels), but the click should be
sharply attenuated without harming the music too much.
Click removal using the Spectrogram view is a workflow Click Removal may not work well with broader clicks of
tutorial giving steps to remove hard-to-spot clicks using 10 milliseconds or longer. Here are two Nyquist plug-ins
Audacity’s Spectrogram view. In the default Waveform you can try. Installation instructions for Nyquist plug-ins
view, loud clicks often show up as easily seen spikes, but are here:
smaller, lower amplitude clicks can be very hard to find • PopMute: heavily attenuates loud clicks and pops
without zooming in to near sample level then scrolling the (and even hand claps or small bangs) to make them
waveform to identify the exact location of the clicks. Con- less obtrusive.
siderable time can be saved by first using Spectrogram
view which identifies clicky regions more readily. • EZ-Patch: really loud and wide glitches may still
sound too bad even if moderated with "Pop Mute".
In that case, try "EZ-Patch" which lets you repair the
damage by selecting the glitch together with some
2.3.5 Other techniques
undamaged audio on one side of the glitch, then
smoothly replaces the glitch with the undamaged
Silencing highly zoomed areas or redrawing samples can
part of the selection.
get tedious even over a relatively short stretch of audio.
Here are a few other tricks you can try if Click Removal
did not help as much as you hoped.
2.3.6 Alternative software
Spectrum analysis It is also possible to use other software than Audacity for
click removal, while still using Audacity for the other edit-
ing tasks and to produce the final master. Export your
Analyse the area with Analyze > Plot Spectrum to see
audio track from Audacity as a lossless WAV or AIFF file,
if any spikes are concentrated in particular frequencies
and also save the click-removed audio as a WAV or AIFF
and then use Effect > Equalization to reduce the volume
for import back into Audacity.
of those frequencies. You can do this more precisely with
the Effect > Notch Filter . • GoldWave: Though nominally not free it is a top
class, free trial click remover as well as an excellent
alternative audio editor. Its click removal is an ef-
Subtraction fect, just like in Audacity, and there is a "Smoother"
effect for broad unwanted noises and an excellent
Where the clicks sound equally loud in both left and right "Noise Reduction" effect for steady noise. The trial
channels of a stereo recording (this often is not the case), version limits you to a hundred or so commands
but the music information in the channels is very different per session, and a total number of several thou-
at that point, you can try to cancel out the click by making sand commands before it expires, but if you export
the affected section of track mono and inverting one of from Audacity as 32-bit WAV and just do Click Re-
the channels: moval in it, you should be able to declick several
hundred records for free.
• First, select the area of track that has the click, then
click in the track name by the downward-pointing • Gnome Wave Cleaner: Only for Linux users. Dig-
arrow to open the Track Dropdown Menu (right). ital restoration of CD-quality audio files. Dehiss,
Choose choose Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split New declick and decrackle in a GUI environment. It
. This moves the selected area into a new track can also automatically mark song boundaries if re-
underneath your original track. quired.
2.4. TUTORIAL - CONNECTING AN INSTRUMENT 23
Generally speaking you will want to connect these instru- A Stereo Mini plug to dual RCA cableIf the keyboard
ments to the line input port on your computer, not the has two 1/4 inch jacks on the back you will need a 2 x
microphone port (which is often mono). Not all comput- 1/4 inch jack to stereo 3.5mm jack, or you could use a
ers will have a line input port. dual RCA to stereo mini-plug cable, and two RCA to 1/4
inch adapters. Plug the RCA plugs into the RCA jacks
• Some PC laptops may have a hardware or software
on the adapters - you now have a dual 1/4 inch to stereo
switch to convert the microphone port to line-level
mini-plug cable.
stereo.
• Some PC notebooks/netbooks may have a compli-
ant microphone input port which will tolerate line
level inputs and may provide stereo input.
Always try line-level input first, and only use a micro-
phone input if you cannot otherwise get adequate record-
ing volume. You can buy modestly priced, decent quality
USB interfaces with line level stereo input if needs be.
If the keyboard has RCA jacks on the back then the best
way to connect it is with a dual RCA to stereo mini-plug
cable as shown below, plugged from the RCA output
jacks on the back of the keyboard to the line input port
of the computer.
the keyboard to the line input port of the computer. You setting recording levels in Audacity), you can try the mi-
will lose the ability to listen directly to the keyboard using crophone input on your computer (if you have one). Be-
headphones, and any internal speakers will probably be ware of overloading the microphone input. You can turn
muted. You can get around this using a headphone split- down the volume control on your guitar to compensate
ter cable, or by enabling Software Playthrough in Audac- for the extra amplification in the microphone input port,
ity, (Software Playthrough will introduce a delay between but hum and noise may increase in comparison to us-
the time you play a note and the time you hear it). This ing the line input port. Most effect pedals are designed
topic is covered in more detail in a following section. to deliver about the same volume to the amplifier as the
unaffected guitar sound (the volume you get when the ef-
fect is bypassed). Thus you can connect your guitar to a
2.4.2 Connecting a guitar to your computer pedal and then connect the pedal to the computer. Some
guitar amplifiers include a "direct output" for feeding the
amplifier sound to recording or PA systems. Amplifiers
This section is about connecting an electric guitar, bass
designed for stage use that include this feature will usu-
guitar or acoustic guitar with electrical pickup to your
ally have either a line-level 1/4 inch mono jack output, or a
computer. If you want to record an acoustic guitar with
microphone-level balanced output using an XLR connec-
a microphone, or record the sound of your guitar ampli-
tor. Connecting this output to your computer microphone
fier using a microphone, please read the section on con-
input is beyond the scope of this Tutorial - talk to the folks
necting a microphone to your computer .If you have a
at your local music store.
"USB Guitar" then you can skip ahead to testing the input
connection for your operating system. Generally the out-
put level from an electric guitar (or electrical pickup in an Some amplifiers have a 1/4 inch output for connect-
acoustic guitar) is sufficient to drive the line input port on ing an external speaker. This must not be connected
a computer. Turn the volume control on the guitar all the directly to the computer soundcard input as the signal
way up. You will need a shielded adapter cable that goes level is far too high and may permanently damage the
from a 1/4 inch mono plug (to plug into the guitar) to a soundcard. Some USB audio interfaces are specifically
mono mini-plug (to plug into the computer line input port). designed for connecting a guitar to a computer or may
You probably have a guitar cable for plugging the guitar have a dedicated input for electric guitar or bass guitar.
into an amplifier, and you may be tempted to buy a 1/4 Talk to the folks at your local music store.
inch to 1/8 inch adapter instead, plug it into the computer
line input then connect the guitar to the adapter using the
cable - do not do this! This creates a heavy, stiff cable 2.4.3 Links
hanging off the back of your computer - the slightest tug
in the wrong direction could damage your soundcard! If
< Back to: Tutorial - Connecting Up
you cannot get a good recording level when connecting
to the line input port (explained in a following section on |< Tutorial - Your First Recording
An XLR plug
2.7.1 Identifying the sound ports on your PCs - Windows and Linux
computer
Macs
Line In For better audio quality, many people use an USB audio
device. If you have such a device, attach your micro-
The Line In port is the highest quality input available on phone and speakers to that device, and plug the device
most soundcards (like the one pictured above). It ex- into your computer’s USB port.
28 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
2.7.4 Links
This set of tutorials provides instructions on how to • Video cassette recorders (VCRs), Personal Video
record audio material from a variety of sources and Recorders (PVRs) and DVD players (recording
then deploy it to CD, your computer or portable mu- from a dedicated line-out containing audio output
sic player.You can use Audacity and your computer to only)
record sound from any external device which outputs an
• Televisions (via a SCART adapter cable connected
audio signal. Although cassette tapes and records (LPs)
to the computer soundcard, or through a TV or
are the most popular examples, Audacity can be used
VCR’s audio out)
just as easily to record audio from the following:
• Personal digital voice recorders (DVRs)
• Open-reel tape decks
• Portable MP3 players (such as iPods)
• MiniDisc (MD) or Digital Audio Tape (DAT) players
(if you have a digital soundcard, connect from digi- • Other computers.
tal out of the player to S/PDIF in of the soundcard) Making vinyl to digital transfers is a skill and the more you
do the more expert you will become. Consider starting
• Radios
out with some LPs or singles that you care less about and
• Mixers only ever played infrequently. This way you will not need
to go back and repeat important earlier transcriptions that
• Musical Keyboards (via headphones-out, line-out you made. This tutorial assumes that you have read and
or other audio-out, not from the MIDI output - more understood the Your First Recording tutorial, and have
help on recording keyboards at pianoclues.com) figured out how to get sound into your computer and into
2.9. TUTORIAL - EDITING AN EXISTING AUDIO FILE 29
Audacity. You should at least read and understand Step 1 6. Burning music files to a CD
of that tutorial in order to become familiar with the jacks,
The following tutorials address additional special interest
plugs and cables you may need to connect your audio
topics which may not be of use or interest to the general
device to your computer. The instructions here will apply
user who wishes to transcribe LPs, tapes or other media:
only to the special situations of connecting a turntable,
cassette deck or MiniDisc player to your computer. • Sample workflow for LP digitization
• Exporting audio for use in iTunes
The easiest way to use Audacity is to import an existing files. If you want to edit music that you have on an audio
audio file and make small changes. If you’ve never used CD , you need to "rip" the music into an audio file. See
Audacity before, this is a great place to start. the Audio CDs page for information on getting the audio
off of CDs and into Audacity. Don’t have any audio files
handy? There is lots of free music online! Here is one
If you have just made a recording it is strongly rec- site where you can download free music: OpsoundThe
ommended that you immediately export your audio using recordings on this site are free, distributed under the
File > Save Other > Export Audio... to WAV or AIFF Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license, which
(ideally to an external drive) as a safety copy before you gives you the right to create a derivative work without
start editing the project. paying royalties, as long as you give credit and make your
derivative work free, too. This is similar to the license for
Audacity , which allows any devloper to modify it and re-
2.9.1 Objective distribute it for free.
• On Mac and Linux you can drag the file to the Au-
dacity icon in the Dock or Taskbar respectively to
import the file into Audacity.
2.9.4 Step 3: Look at the waveform • Hold down Shift and Ctrl while pressing Left or
Right to contract an existing selection leftwards or
rightwards respectively.
Clicking the Skip to Start button or pressing the Home
key will move the cursor to the beginning of the track. It’s
kind of like rewind, but it’s not for playback - it will only
work when playback is stopped. Similarly, clicking the
Skip to End button or pressing the End key will move
the cursor to the end of the track. To jump the playback
This image above shows a stereo waveform . The left position forwards or backwards from where it is now, click
channel is displayed in the top half of the track and the on the Timeline above the waveform at the point you wish
right channel in the bottom half. The track name takes the to hear. Keyboard use: You can use the following keys
name of the imported audio file ("No Town" in this exam- to skip around the audio file while listening.
ple). Where the waveform reaches closer to the top and
bottom of the track, the audio is louder (and vice versa). • Press Left or , to move the playback cursor back
The ruler above the waveform shows you the length of one second.
the audio in minutes and seconds.
• Press Right or . to move the playback cursor for-
ward one second.
Removing any DC offset (if present) • Press Shift + Left or Shift + , to move the playback
cursor back 15 seconds.
DC offset can occur in audio files so that the recorded • Press Shift + Right or Shift + . to move the playback
waveform is not centered on the horizontal line at 0.0 cursor forward 15 seconds.
amplitude . It can be caused by recording with a faulty
soundcard. The example above is centered on 0 cor- The amount the cursor moves in this situation is called
rectly and carries no DC offset. If your waveform is not the "seek time". The long and short seek times (one
centered, see the Normalize page for how to use Nor- second and 15 seconds in the examples above) can be
malize to remove DC offset and how to check if your set in the Seek Time When Playing section of Playback
Windows sound device can perform this correction au- Preferences .
tomatically.
The image above shows Edit Toolbar with the Zoom but-
on Selection Tool then click on the waveform to
choose a place to start, then click the Play button .
Click and drag to create a selection, and then when you tons highlighted. This is the Zoom In tool, and
click Play button only the selection will play. Keyboard
use: You can select audio entirely using the left arrow,
this is the Zoom Out tool. To zoom in to get a
right arrow and other keys.
closer look at the waveform , first choose the Selection
• Press Left or Right to move the cursor left or right
respectively in the waveform.
Tool , then click near the point you’re interested in,
• Hold down Shift while pressing Left or Right to cre- then click the Zoom In button. Keep clicking the Zoom In
ate then extend a selection leftwards or rightwards button until you see the detail you need. Note that when
respectively. you click the Zoom In button the cursor is centered on the
32 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
screen. There are also menu commands and keyboard • A convenient way to listen to only the adjusted
shortcuts for zooming. View > Zoom > Zoom In (or Ctrl start of the selection is to move the mouse
+ 1) is the same as clicking the Zoom In button. View pointer a little after the start of the selection
> Zoom > Zoom Out (or Ctrl + 3) is the same as clicking then press B. The selection plays from the
the Zoom Out button. View > Track Size > Fit to Width (or start of the selection to the pointer. To hear
Ctrl + F) will zoom the waveform so it fits in the window. the adjusted end of the selection, move the
Use the Zoom commands so that you can make maximal pointer close to the selection end, then press
use of your Audacity window to see as much detail as B to play from the pointer to the selection end.
you need, or to make sure you see the entire file when
necessary. • You can also play a length of audio either side
of the selection by pressing C. This lets you
make sure there is no audio you want to keep
that will be removed. Playing either side of
Walk through deleting all but approximately 10 sec- the selection would also be useful if you later
onds of selected audio wanted to cut a small piece out of that selec-
tion - you would select the small piece to be
To cut this audio file down to exactly 10 seconds, use cut, then could preview how the audio would
these following steps. sound after the cut. To adjust the length of au-
dio played before and after the selection, go to
Cut Preview in the Playback Preferences .
These steps require a mouse, except for using
Keyboard use: Use the arrow keys to adjust the selec-
Space on the keyboard to play the selection and C to
tion start and end.
play either side of the selection. See below for how to
create and adjust selections using the keyboard. 1. Pressing Shift + Left will expand the selection to the
left.
1. With playback stopped, click near the point where
you want the 10-second piece to begin. 2. Pressing Shift + Right will expand the selection to
the right.
2. Zoom in until the Timeline shows 10 seconds or
more before and after the cursor. 3. Pressing Shift + Ctrl + Left will contract the selec-
tion from the right.
3. While holding down the Shift key, click 10 seconds
to the right of the cursor. 4. Pressing Shift + Ctrl + Right will contract the selec-
tion from the left.
• Note that this is just like selecting a range of
text in a word processor Keyboard use: Use Selection Toolbar to create or adjust
a selection.
1. Without a mouse, use Ctrl + F6 to navigate into Se-
lection Toolbar, then Tab between the controls.
2. In "Selection Start", type the starting point of your
selection if there is not yet a selection.
4. Press Space to listen to the entire selection. Play- 3. Select the Length radio button above the second
back will stop when the end of the selection is group of numbers in Selection Toolbar if it is not yet
reached. selected.
5. Adjust the start and end of the selection with the 4. If there is no selection yet, select the digit after
mouse as follows. the "m" in the "Length" box and type 1 (one) on
your keyboard. This selects exactly 10.000 sec-
• 5.1. Move the pointer over the start of the onds from the starting point you chose.
selection - the cursor will change to a left-
pointing hand. 5. Once there is a selection, you can adjust its
length in the same way. Let’s suppose you dragged
• 5.2. Click and drag to adjust the beginning of a little less than 10 seconds in the waveform, but
the selection. you need the selection to be exactly 10 seconds.
• 5.3. You can adjust the end of the selection in (a) Select the first digit to the right of the decimal
a similar manner. point in the "Length" box.
6. Press Space to listen to the adjusted selection. You (b) Type 0 (zero) - the digit changes to zero, the
do not have to listen to all of it; press Space again digit to the right is selected and the selection
at any time to stop playback. in the waveform changes to match.
2.9. TUTORIAL - EDITING AN EXISTING AUDIO FILE 33
(c) Type 0 (zero) twice more - the selection length Editor prior to export step". Metadata Editor adds ex-
is now 10.000 seconds, accurate to one thou- tra information about the speech or music into the file -
sandth of a second. see For More Information below to learn more. You can
go back to the Import / Export Preferences at any time to
You’ve now selected the portion of the audio that you
re-enable Metadata Editor.
want to keep. Make sure you have pressed Space to stop
if the track is still playing, then to delete everything except
the selected audio, click on Edit > Remove Special > Trim
Exporting a WAV file
Audio .
• Click on Effect > Fade Out . The last second of the • In the Save dialog, from the "Format" menu,
audio is smoothly faded out. choose "MP3 files"
Note that we always select some audio first, then choose • Then click the Options button to set the bit rate
what action we want to perform on it. and other options for the MP3 file.
2.9.8 Step 7: Export the resulting file 2.9.9 Step 8 - Testing your new Audio Pro-
duction
When you save an Audacity project with File > Save
Project you are doing just that - saving an Audacity To demonstrate the difference between an Audacity
project . Audacity projects can be opened only by Au- project (the AUP) file, and a sound file you export from
dacity. If you want other applications (such as iTunes or an Audacity project:
Windows Media Player) to be able to open this file you
• Click on File > Close , saving changes if asked.
need to export it. Before we export this 10 second clip
to a separate file we’re going to simplify things a bit. Go • Find the AUP file on your computer and attempt to
to the Import / Export Preferences , and under When ex- open it with the audio player of your choice (for ex-
porting tracks to an audio file uncheck "Show Metadata ample iTunes, Windows Media Player). You cannot.
34 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
Before exporting audio for use in iTunes it is important to 4. Or you can set the file location on export from Au-
consider which audio file format you want to use. WAV dacity to auto-import into iTunes
and AIFF files produce high quality lossless audio files
You may also want to read this workflow tutorial Sample
but consume a lot of disk space. MP3 and AAC files are
workflow for exporting to iTunes .
compressed so they occupy less disk space, but audio
damage may result as a result of the compression es-
pecially when using low bitrates.Submitting a podcast to
the iTunes Store is a different process than exporting an
2.10.2 What format should I export to?
Audacity file to an iTunes library. See our Tutorial on Tu-
torial - Mixing a Narration With Background Music and AAC is the default format set in iTunes and the format Ap-
our Wiki page on How to publish a Podcast for more help ple uses for audio files sold from the iTunes Store, so is
with creating and publishing a podcast. the most obvious choice if you solely use Apple products.
MP3 should be considered if you think that in the future
you may wish to switch to an alternative portable music
player or phone. If you have plenty of storage space on
2.10.1 Exporting audio for loading into your device or a relatively small music library you may
iTunes wish to consider the larger lossless WAV or AIFF formats.
There are several advantages to using a compressed for-
mat on iPods and iPhones. The two main benefits are
Follow the below steps to export audio for adding to that you can fit many more songs into the device (for 256
iTunes. kbps files you can fit about 10 times as many songs) and
compressed files improve battery life, because disk reads
1. Use the File > Save Other > Export Audio... com-
are relatively heavy on battery power. If you choose lossy
mand or in Audacity (or File > Save Other > Export
formats (MP3 or AAC) the minimum bitrate setting you
Multiple... ).
should use for music is 160 kbps, though 256 kbps is
2. Choose the export format in the Export dialog, to probably to be preferred - and in use on an iPod is un-
export the particular format you want your file(s) to likely to be distinguishable from WAV or AIFF (or Apple
be in (the best choices are WAV , AIFF , MP3 or Lossless). For speech 128 kbps or even 64 kbps can be
AAC ). used as the bitrate if preferred. Apple does not officially
support Ogg Vorbis (a lossy, compressed format sim-
3. Move the file(s) into iTunes from the location you ilar to MP3/compressed AAC) and has no support at all
exported it to, using the iTunes File > Add File to for FLAC (a lossless, compressed format smaller than
Library... (or File > Add Folder to Library...) com- WAV but larger than MP3/compressed AAC). If you re-
mand. ally want to export to OGG for iTunes, see OGG usage in
2.10. TUTORIAL - EXPORTING TO ITUNES 35
iTunes and QuickTime. iPods, iPads and iPhones cannot preferred and in use on an iPod is unlikely to be distin-
play OGG files. guishable from WAV or AIFF (or Apple Lossless). Au-
dacity can export directly to AAC if you install the optional
FFmpeg library . To export to AAC choose M4A (AAC)
WAV or AIFF (universal support, lossless, best for Files (FFmpeg) in the Export Audio window then type
CD burning) the file name. If you are exporting an AAC file for mobile
devices, you can add the M4R (ringtone) or 3GP ex-
If you want a perfect lossless copy of your audio, or tension after the file name and dot as required by the
to burn it in iTunes to an audio CD for playing on any device.
CD player, you should choose WAV or AIFF. It is strongly
recommended you export a standard "CD quality" 44100
Hz , 16-bit stereo WAV or AIFF to make sure iTunes Apple Lossless (Apple proprietary, lossless, smaller
understands the file. This means: than WAV/AIFF)
1. Ensure Project Rate at the bottom left of the Au-
dacity project window is set to "44100" Hz. Apple Lossless Encoding (sometimes referred to as
ALAC - Apple Lossless Audio Codec) is also an Ap-
2. Select File > Save Other > Export Audio... (or File ple proprietary format. Apple Lossless is, as the name
> Save Other > Export Multiple... ) then select suggests, Apple’s size-compressed lossless codec. Like
"WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM" or "AIFF (Ap- AAC it also uses files with the M4A extension. Apple
ple) signed 16-bit PCM" in the export window Lossless Encoder is quite similar to FLAC , producing
• If you want a stereo export but your Project larger files than AAC or MP3 but smaller than WAV. Typ-
does not already contain a stereo track, click ically an Apple Lossless file is around half the size of an
Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track. equivalent WAV file and more than three times the size
of an equivalent AAC 256 kbps file. You cannot export
See Burning music files to a CD if you are only interested directly to Apple Lossless from the Export Audio dialog.
in burning a CD. An advantage of exporting to AIFF is Instead, on Windows and Linux, install the optional FFm-
that lyrics or album art can be added to the file in iTunes, peg library . On Mac, search for and download a stan-
which is not possible with WAV files. dalone "ffmpeg" binary online. Then export using the (ex-
ternal program) choice. Click the Options... button, then
enter the following command:
MP3 (universal support, small files, lossy)
ffmpeg -i - -acodec alac "%f" On Mac, you must give the
full path to ffmpeg enclosed in quotes, instead of just
If you want to distribute your files on the internet (for ex-
"ffmpeg". Finally in the Export Audio dialog, add the M4A
ample as a podcast), you should choose MP3 as the
extension after the file name and dot. See Exporting to
Format in the Export dialog, as this is a space-saving
an External Program for more help.
(although slightly lossy ) format that anyone should be
able to play. To export as MP3 from Audacity you need
first to download the LAME encoder and point Audacity
to it (see Lame Installation ). If you want to put the files 2.10.3 Format conversion in iTunes
on an iPod, or simply store them in iTunes in a compact
form, MP3 is also a good choice. However, there are
Alternatively you can export to WAV or AIFF and convert
some reports that when run on battery, recent iPods can
to MP3, AAC or Apple Lossless in iTunes:
struggle or crash when playing MP3s created in applica-
tions other than iTunes. So you may want to export as 1. Click Edit > Preferences (or iTunes > Preferences
WAV or AIFF from Audacity and convert the files to MP3 on Mac)
in iTunes instead.
2. Click on the leftmost "General" tab
3. Click the Import Settings... button
AAC (Apple proprietary, small files, lossy)
4. In the "Import Using" dropdown, choose "MP3 En-
Apple’s proprietary format produces lossy, small, files coder", "AAC Encoder" or "Apple Lossless En-
similar to MP3, they are approximately the same qual- coder" as required
ity as MP3 for a slightly smaller file size. The files are 5. Click OK and OK
created with the .m4a extension. AAC is useful for iPod
or storage in iTunes due to its small file size and reduced 6. Select the file to be converted, then use File > Con-
disk occupancy, particularly if you have an iPod with a vert and choose "Create MP3 Version", "Create
small disk. The minimum bitrate setting you should use AAC Version" or "Create Apple Lossless Version"
for music is 160 kpbs though 256 kbps is probably to be as appropriate.
36 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
After creating the MP3, AAC or Apple Lossless version You can export files from Audacity directly to your iTunes
you should delete the original WAV or AIFF files to save library. Exporting a file to the following locations will
disk space, as iTunes does not do this for you automati- cause iTunes to automatically place it in the Music sec-
cally. tion of your library. You can then play the audio on your
computer with iTunes or add it to your iPod, iPhone or
iPad. Set the destination folder as:
2.10.4 Export location
• Windows:Computer
Music
You can choose any location for the export such as a
iTunes
"Music" folder on your Desktop or even the iTunes "Mu-
iTunes Music
sic" folder if you have one. However you must still import
Automatically Add to iTunes
this file from the exported location into the iTunes Library
(which makes it visible in Library > Music on the left hand • Mac:Home/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Automatically
panel of iTunes). There are two ways to import your ex- Add to iTunes.
ported audio files into iTunes:
• Use the File > Add File to Library... or File > Add
By default iTunes is a "virtual" Library containing no
Folder to Library... command from within iTunes, to
actual files but only links to them. To avoid losing your
add a single audio file or a folder of audio files.
files, do *not* delete the exported files from the location
• Select Library > Music in iTunes and drag the file you exported them to, unless you have already gone to
from the location you exported it to, into the iTunes Edit > Preferences > Advanced in iTunes and enabled the
window. If you just want to burn the files to CD , it’s "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to li-
best to drag them directly into an iTunes Playlist in brary" option. It is strongly recommended that you make
the left-hand panel. this setting in iTunes.
Audacity does not contain any function for importing (rip- time you export an MP3 file, some of the quality is lost.
ping) audio from CDs. This can, however, be achieved by Extract to WAV or AIFF which are lossless . You can
using other applications to extract the data into a file for- always export to MP3 from Audacity after editing, but do
mat Audacity does support. that only once for the finished audio.
Users new to audio editing are often surprised to find that Audio CDs may be ripped to WAV with Windows Media
they cannot import the audio from CDs into Audacity with Player 11 or 12 (click Tools > Options > Rip Music and
the File > Import > Audio command. In fact, most operat- choose "WAV (Lossless)" in the Format dropdown in "Rip
ing systems do not actually allow the import of data from Settings"). Earlier versions of Windows Media Player are
the CD tracks into applications, because audio CDs do not appropriate for extracting CD audio for editing in Au-
not have files or a file system like computer media, but dacity, because they are unable to extract to WAV. Alter-
consist essentially of a stream of bits on the disc. That is natively the Windows version of iTunes(which is free to
why when you look at an audio CD in a file manager like download) may be used to extract audio CDs to WAV or
Windows Explorer, each CD track will appear only as a AIFF.
small .cda "file" 44 bytes in size, which is merely header
information for the stream. In order to import tracks from
an audio CD, you must first usually extract (or "rip") the Mac
tracks to a WAV or AIFF audio file using CD extraction
software; then you can import those WAV or AIFF files
into Audacity with the usual File > Import > Audio com- Mac users have a quick way to import CDs, because
mand. when a CD is put in the drive, the CDA tracks are
mounted as AIFF files in the Finder. It’s thus possible
to either drag the AIFF files from the Finder into Audac-
Do not extract the CD to smaller-sized MP3 format ity, or use the File > Import > Audio command, instead of
if you want to edit the audio in Audacity, because every extracting the audio.
2.12. TUTORIAL - HOW TO IMPORT FILES FROM ITUNES 37
1. Launch Audacity
2. Click {File > Import > Audio 2.12.5 Exporting the audio back to
iTunes/iPod
3. Navigate to the actual location of the file
4. Select the file by clicking on it See the tutorial Exporting to iTunes .
38 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
The start of the selection should match (look like) the end
of the selection as closely as possible and both selection 2.13.2 Using loops in Audacity
edges should be positioned so that the blue line of the
waveform seems to cross the selection edge at zero am-
If the loop is to be used in Audacity, the selection may be
plitude (where the horizontal line appears). There are
trimmed: Ctrl + T. The loop may be repeated using Copy
items in the View menu that allow jumping from one end
and Paste, though it is usually more convenient to use
of the selection to the other while zoomed in:
the Repeat function: Effect > Repeat... .
• View > Skip to > Selection Start ( shortcut is Ctrl +
[ )
2.13.3 Exporting Loops
• View > Skip to > Go to Selection End ( shortcut is
Ctrl + ] )
The selection may be exported using File > Save Other >
Export Selected Audio... . The lossless PCM WAV format
To look for appropriate loop points, zoom in horizontally
is the best format for loops. Choose "WAV (Microsoft)
on the start of the selection and then on the end of the
signed 16-bit PCM" when exporting. Many lossy, size-
selection. To zoom, place the mouse pointer at the se-
compressed formats like MP3 , WMA and ADPCM WAV
lection edge and scroll with the wheel or ball. Drag the
suffer from added silence at the the start or end of the
selection edges leftwards or rightwards as necessary so
file or other issues that do not respect the exact length. If
as to find loop points that have a similar shape, amplitude
a lossy compressed audio format is required then OGG
and slope so that the end of the loop may flow smoothly
Vorbis may be a better choice as it does not suffer from
into the start of the loop. It may also be useful to zoom in
length issues.
on the vertical scale to left of the waveform, as shown in
the following images: Beginning of the loop selection
2. Select "Enable dragging selection" in the Time- When the selection loops seamlessly, playback may be
line right-click context menu. stopped (using Stop button or its Space shortcut) and
the selection exported or trimmed as required (use Ctrl +
3. Make an approximate selection of the audio to be T to trim to the selection). Seamless loops should nor-
looped. mally be exported in a lossless format such as WAV .
4. Shift + Left-Click within the selection to loop play Note that seamless loops should NOT be exported in
the selection. MP3 format because encoder/decoder overall delay is
not defined, which means there is no official provision
5. Shift + Left-Click and drag the start/end of the se- for gapless playback. If a compressed file format is re-
lection as necessary to adjust the selection closer quired, try OGG Vorbis (though understand that because
to "seamless" looping positions. OGG Vorbis is a lossy format, the encoded audio is not
exactly identical to the original audio). OGG Vorbis loops
6. If necessary, zoom in on the start / end positions to
will generally perform acceptably provided that the start /
make adjustments to the play region and selection.
end of the loop are at zero crossing points . Finding free
7. Note that if zooming in causes the selected region loops created by othersTry:
to extend beyond the visible track area, Audacity
will, by default, cause the waveform to scroll. The
scrolling behavior can be disabled from the Time-
line right-click context menu.
8. While zoomed in, use Ctrl + [ and Ctrl + ] to view
the start / end of the selection.
9. If a long selection is being looped, playback may
be stopped at any time by pressing the Space key,
then looped Quick-Play may be restarted from a •
short way before the end of the selection with Shift http://ibeat.org/ (loops are available under a Cre-
+ Click on the Timeline ative Commons licence).
10. Then Optionally label the loop region (use Ctrl + B) • http://www.looperman.com/
Most modern cell phones can be customized with the 2.15.1 What type of file does your phone or
user’s own ring and answer tones. This tutorial will help IVR systemrequire?
you to prepare suitable sound files. Many different kinds
of file formats are used in cell phones, some of which
Ringtones
cannot be created by Audacity. You need to research
what file format(s) your phone accepts and how to up-
load it to the phone before you start to prepare the sound You need to check what type of file format your phone
file. See our advice below and always consult your phone requires for its ringtones and whether the file needs to be
manual if in doubt. mono or stereo. There are many different ringtone for-
mats in existence but they fall into three main categories:
IVR Interactive Voice Response systems usually support
customized messages created by the user. • Music ringtones - digitally sampled audio files in-
2.15. TUTORIAL - MAKING RINGTONES AND IVR MESSAGES 41
cluding MP3 and WAV formats supported by Au- copy of the CD track, or you cannot record it easily,
dacity, plus other formats like AMR and QCP. extract it digitally to WAV or .AIFF as described at
Importing data from CDs . To make a perfect copy
• Polyphonic - multiple notes at the same time;
of a purchased file, burn it to an audio CD in the
some phones can play true MIDI files, others rely
application licensed to play it, then extract the CD
on sp-midi or .mmf formats.
track in the same way.
• Monophonic - just one note at a time, usually
RTTL format. If you want a ringtone in this format
it’s often easiest to simply use the phone’s keypad 2.15.3 Edit your chosen ringtone or IVR
to enter it if the phone supports that.
message
Most modern PDA phones (computer phones) will sup-
port music ringtones, older phones are likely to support 1. Click File > Import > Audio... and import your
polyphonic ringtones, really old phones will only support source file; this can be any audio file Audacity can
monophonic ringtones. open.
2. Select the portion of audio you want to use for your
IVR messages ringtone (say 15-20 seconds). To do this, click in
the audio track and drag a selection region to left
These are normally spoken text files but audio may also or right with your mouse - you can see the length of
be needed for "hold music". Your IVR system may require the selected audio in the Timeline above the track.
compressed files and those maty be required to be either Many phones will loop the ringtone automatically
mono or stereo, please consult the manual for your IVR (repeat it over and over), so choose your selec-
system to check the requirements. tion region with that in mind. To hear your selec-
tion play looped in Audacity hold down Shift while
clicking the green Play button or use the Shift +
Space keyboard shortcut. To stop playback, press
2.15.2 Choose the ringtone or IVR mes-
the Space or click the Stop button .
sage source
3. Click Edit > Remove Special > Trim Audio . This
Existing audio file will remove the rest of the audio, leaving only the
section you have selected. If you want to use the
whole file, then skip this step.
The source for your ringtone or IVR message will most
likely be an audio file on your computer. Click File > Im- 4. Add any effects you may want to the ringtone
port > Audio... , select the file you want and click Open. by clicking in the Track Control Panel where the
Audacity can import MP3, MP2, WAV, AIFF, OGG and mute/solo buttons are to select all the track (you
FLAC files (and MP4 files on Mac OS X) without addi- may also use the Edit menu or a keyboard short-
tional libraries. To import other file types (including MP4 cut), then choose from the Effect menu. Be spar-
on Windows and Linux) you can install the optional FFm- ing with effects, but some you may want to consider
peg library . On Linux it may sometimes be more con- are:
venient to use the system FFmpeg or mplayer at the
command-line to convert other file types to 16-bit 44100
Hz WAV before importing the file into Audacity.
Equalization
Recording an audio file Many phone speakers cannot reproduce very low fre-
quencies so consider attenuating them (a gradual reduc-
tion in the amplitude of the sound level), especially if you
• You may wish to record you cat/dog/partner or any
are making a ringtone from an original high quality mu-
other sound with a microphone for use as a ring-
sic file. On opening Effect > Equalization you’ll notice a
tone.
horizontal line at 0 dB, meaning that at that position, no
• Alternatively, you can play any audio file on your changes are made to the volume of any frequencies. A
computer (including purchased files), a CD, or any curve can be created using the mouse, clicking at vari-
other sound on your computer including sounds ous points above or below the line. For ringtones, bring
playing over the internet, and record the sound . the line down to -24 dB on the vertical axis for the low
This is not the highest quality way to grab the sound frequencies from 30-300 Hz on the horizontal axis. You
from a CD or from a purchased file, but it is proba- may want to increase the lower frequencies from 300 Hz
bly adequate for making a ringtone as quality often to say 600 Hz by dragging them above 0 dB, then re-
needs to be compromised in a ringtone to make the duce the highest frequencies above say 10,000 Hz. This
file size smaller. If you want to grab a perfect digital should make the sound somewhat richer and less "tinny"
42 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
on a small cellphone speaker by emphasizing the fre- > Mix > Mix Stereo down to Mono menu item which mixes
quency range it can reproduce best. You can view the in data from both channels to mono without distortion.
sound level in the different frequency bands in your ring-
tone by clicking Analyze > Plot Spectrum . Here is an
example spectrum plot from Audacity 2.x for the Nokia 2.15.4 Export the file from Audacity
original ringtone Hummingbird.aac (47 kbps, 22050Hz,
SBR+PS, Mono) converted to WAV (Mono, 22050Hz, 16- Use the Export Audio dialog to export your custom ring-
bit). This ringtone is quite acute so you can hear the tone or IVR message to various formats. You can export
phone from far, something that is essential for a well- to 16-bit PCM WAV by choosing "WAV (Microsoft) 16 bit
made ringtone. PCM" in that dialog. You can export to the smaller-sized
MP3 format by adding the optional LAME library to your
computer then choose "MP3 Files" in the Export Audio
dialog.
The methods below are suitable for producing a podcast it picks up a minimum of computer noise (hard drives,
of the very common type where you talk over a music fan). When speaking into the microphone, point the mi-
background or have talk interspersed with music. This tu- crophone at your mouth but do not point your mouth at
torial assumes that you have figured out how to connect the microphone. If you can, place the microphone so
your microphone to your computer and get the sound that you are talking past it - think David Letterman and
from the microphone into Audacity. If you have not got that microphone he has on his desk: he’s always talking
that far yet, please read the Your First Recording tutorial over it. Setting up the microphone so that it is level with
first. your mouth but a little off to the side also works. This
avoids "popped p’s" and other breath effects from ruining
your recording. Finally, try to set up the microphone so
2.16.1 Introduction that it is 4 to 6 inches away from your mouth. While you
are talking, try to keep looking in one direction - moving
your head left or right, up or down, while you’re talking will
The objective in this tutorial is to record a simple narra-
change the tonal quality of your voice, and may be dis-
tion, add some background music, cut the narration to fit
tracting to your listeners. Speak in a normal, conversa-
the music, lower the volume of the music during the nar-
tional tone of voice, but also speak clearly and enunciate
ration, and finally mix and export the final product. Give
carefully. Your listeners cannot see you so do not have
yourself an hour or so to complete this tutorial. On your
the visual cues they would have if your were speaking to
first attempt:
them in person. If you need to listen to the background
• do not try to create a masterpiece while recording your narration (for example to record a
commentary), you should:
• do not work on something critical.
• make sure that Transport > Transport Op-
You are learning and experimenting, exploring the many
tions > Overdub (on/off) is checked
tools Audacity offers you. Don’t expect to get it perfect
the first time. It really does not matter what your narra- • use headphones (to listen to the background track)
tion is about, and whether you read it or ad lib. It also so that your microphone will pick up only your voice.
does not matter what the music is, but an instrumental
track is preferable. If you do not need to hear yourself in the headphones you
can continue with this tutorial. Otherwise please read the
tutorial on overdubbing for details on how to set up Au-
dacity so you can hear both the background track and
yourself in your headphones. If you are overdubbing your
Save your work often! narration certain parts of the work flow presented below
will change or be eliminated. For example: your first step
• If you are making a lot of changes save a will be to import the audio that you will be recording your
new Project with a different name; use menu narration against; you will not need to cut the narration
File > Save Project As... from time to time (this to fit the background track. So let us begin ...Start Au-
will give you incremental backups on disk). dacity: a new untitled project window opens. Click on
File > Save Project As... and name your project. Set the
• At least once a day (more often if desired) save the
recording device to your microphone in Audacity’s Device
Project on an external drive.
Toolbar (or on Mac, set the microphone as the default
recording source in Apple Audio MIDI Setup). You are
now ready to record the narration. Don’t worry about mis-
2.16.2 Step 1: Record the narration takes, pauses, coughs and similar - we can edit those out
later. In fact you may want to make a few deliberate mis-
Consider where your microphone is going to be in rela- takes so you can practice editing them out later. When
tion to everything else in the room. Try to place it so that you stop to make a correction, go back to the start of a
44 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
natural break - sentence or phrase - and start again in a your liking. Continue in this manner correcting the mis-
normal voice: once you’ve tried to edit out your mistakes takes until you are satisfied with the end result. Save your
you will realize the importance of this. Click the Record work.
button in the Transport Toolbar. Record your narration.
• Does your voice sound unnaturally squashed? this point. Choose Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split - a split
Undo and try again with a Threshold setting of -6 line appears. There are now two clips on the narration
dB. track. Similarly, put a split point between the second and
third portions of the narration. The narration track will
Note that once you’ve gone through setting everything
now look something like this:
up the first time, on subsequent tries you just change the
Threshold. This make it easy to home in on the setting
that works. When you have your narration edited to your
liking, be sure to save your project. Now it’s time to add
the music.
Start by clicking the "Solo" button on the narration track Moving the clips to work with the music
- we do not want to listen to the music track while we’re
doing this work on the narration track. For the purposes Click the Solo button on the background music track to
of this tutorial we will assume that we want to cut the turn off the Solo function on that track, so we can hear
narration into three separate segments. Each of these both the narration and music tracks. Using the Time Shift
segments will begin when the music makes a dramatic Tool drag the third narration clip so that the start of the
change. Find the spot between the first and second por- clip lines up with the third label. Audacity will help you
tions of the narration. Using the Selection Tool click at line this up perfectly - when the start of the clip lines up
46 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
down the volume of the narration and music tracks to -4 – the volume of your final mix is maximized.
dB each.
You exported a project in a previous tutorial . If you need
a refresher on how the File > Save Other > Export Au-
dio... command works, that information is on the Export
2.16.9 Step 8: Save and Export
Audio Dialog page. Congratulations, your narration over
background music is now ready to share with the world.
The File > Save Project command just saves the Audacity
project. You need to export your project in order to use
it with other audio applications. When you export your
project, Audacity automatically mixes it, so the exported
2.16.10 Step 9: Backup
file sounds just like what you hear when you click the Play
button. Make sure there are no unwanted bits of audio far Backup your exported WAV or MP3 files - you do not
along the time line or your exported file will be unexpect- want to lose all that valuable work and have to do it all
over again, do you? Computer hard drives can fail, de-
stroying all data. Ideally use a dedicated drive (1+ TB ex-
edly long! Click on the Fit Project button in the Edit ternal drives are convenient and economical), or upload
Toolbar. If the expected length of your final mix is dis- to an online (cloud) storage service, to store the WAVs or
played in the window, all is fine. If the displayed time line MP3s. Better still is to make two copies on different exter-
is much longer than your actual production, look for the nal devices and even better is to hold an off-site backup
unwanted bits of audio and delete them. You may need
to click just past the real end of your narration/music and
delete everything from there to the end of the track(s).
2.16.11 Publishing your Podcast
Audacity can export in a variety of formats. The two most
commonly used are MP3 (for podcasts and similar) and
WAV (for burning to CD). In order to export to MP3 format Publishing your Audacity-created podcast on the internet
you must first install the optional LAME MP3 encoder . is in some ways the most important stage of all. Unless
you podcast purely to entertain yourself, you want oth-
ers to hear what you have to say. Much useful advice on
Optional - Mix and Render how and where to host your podcasts, how to set up RSS
feeds and how to publicise your work can be found in the
You may want to Mix and Render your project before you Wiki Tutorial "How to publish a Podcast".
export it. The Mix and Render command (in the Tracks
menu) will mix your project, and put the resulting mix in a
new track (this is the "render" portion of the command). Further reading
This gives you the opportunity to maximize the volume
of the final mix, and do a final check for clipping. If you The following book on Podcasting was written by one of
would like to try this, follow these steps: the co-founders and developers of Audacity:
• Choose Select > All • Podcasting with Audacity - Purchasable e-book
(PDF download or view online) by Dominic Mazzoni
– Mix and Render only mixes the selected tracks
and Scott Granneman
- you want to mix all of them
• Choose Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render
– your project is mixed into a new stereo track 2.16.12 Where to go from here
and the previous, separate tracks are deleted
For more information
• Choose View > Show Clipping
• How the Solo button works: Audio Tracks , Tracks
– The Show Clipping command will put red ver- Preferences
tical bars anywhere clipping has occurred in
your track. If any red bars appear, choose Edit • Using the Time Shift Tool: Audacity Tracks and
> Undo Mix and Render and go back to Step Clips
7. • Using the Envelope Tool: Envelope Tool
If no clipping was detected, proceed:
• Using Labels: Label Tracks
• Click in the Track Control Panel of the newly-
• The Compressor effect: Compressor
created track
• The Auto Duck effect: Auto Duck
• Choose Effect > Normalize
• The Mix and Render command: Tracks > Mix and
– accept the default values and click the OK but-
Render
ton.
48 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
2.17.1 Introduction
In every case the device must include the ability
This tutorial describes a method of creating a multiple to mix the live sound with the previously-recorded tracks
sound track overdubbing session using Audacity. You and present that mix at a headphone output jack. Most
record one track then play it back and add a second USB microphones do not include this capability. Almost
track against it: drums, guitar, voice, other instruments any Windows, Mac or Linux machine with fast enough
or voices and repeat as needed. With the methods de- USB and good storage can be used. You will need
scribed here you will be able to hear a mix of your live headphones or earbuds. If you require cranium-crushing
recording and the previous tracks simultaneously in your headphone volume you may need a headphone ampli-
headphones. Live monitoring is often unavailable (or you fier. You must get the headphone sound from the USB
hear yourself in the headphones after a delay) without audio adapter, output on the USB microphone or head-
hardware designed for this purpose. The procedure is phone jack on the mixer, not from the computer head-
similar for any USB audio adapter, USB microphone or phone output. Headphone monitoring is good. Live mi-
mixer providing that it has a headphone output and some crophones and speakers in the same room is a recipe for
way to mix the live signal with the computer playback sig- feedback.
nal and present that mix at the headphone output. If your
USB microphone, USB audio adapter or mixer does not
have a headphone output you should follow the advice 2.17.3 First recording
on Overdubbing using your computer’s on-board sound-
card using the hardware you have on hand. It is strongly First, make a simple recording with no overdubbing or
recommended that you do not use your computer’s built- other fancy tricks; your system must work correctly for
in microphone. Advice on connecting and testing several simple recording and playback before we go further.
specific hardware combinations are available at Record- While listening to the playback of your test recording, talk
ing multi-track overdubs with specialist hardware in the into the microphone or play your instrument. You should
Wiki. be able to year your voice or instrument along with the
playback. This demonstrates what you will hear during
the overdub sessions; any combination of existing tracks
If you have not yet made a recording and played it
will play in your headphones in addition to your live voice
back using Audacity and your selected hardware, please
or instrument, allowing you to play along with the existing
read our First Recording tutorial.
tracks. If you cannot hear your live voice or instrument
simultaneously with the playback you are not ready to
begin overdubbing. This tutorial cannot cover every pos-
2.17.2 Hardware sible hardware configuration. If you need help, post a
message on the Audacity Forum.
You will need hardware that allows you to:
1. Get sound into the computer 2.17.4 Setting the recording latency
2. Listen without a delay to the sound going into the
computer (the live sound) Latency refers to the delay between the time the audio
enters the computer and the time Audacity is able to
3. Listen to the previously-recording tracks simultane- record it to a track. For example, if you are recording
ously with the live sound a keyboard track, latency is the delay between the time
Hardware that will accomplish this includes: you strike a key and the time that note is recorded. For
instructions on how to adjust the latency see the Latency
• A USB audio adapter Test page in the manual.
• A USB microphone that has a headphones output
• A USB headset 2.17.5 Performance
• A conventional analog microphone plugged into an
external USB adapter that includes a microphone Choose File > Close (you do not need to save any of your
pre-amp tests). You are ready for your first overdubbing session.
Choose File > New . Confirm the following settings in the
• A conventional analog mixer Transport menu:
• A USB mixer • Overdub (on/off) is checked
2.17. TUTORIAL - MULTI-TRACK OVERDUBBING 49
• Software Playthrough (on/off) is not checked the final mix of your project.
all subsequent tracks with the corresponding one lays in the analog to digital conversion processes.
from the first track, using the time shift tool.
• To remove audio shifted before time zero:
• Your audio should now be synchronized. If not, ad-
1. Ctrl + A to Select All (including behind zero)
justments should be minor, unless your count or
performance was way off ... in which case, noth- 2. Shift + Home to move the selection start back to
ing can help you, except to re-record. When your zero
song is finished, remove your count-in beats.
3. Ctrl + T to trim to that selection.
• If your tracks drift out of synchronization gradually,
you may be having problems with skipping or with
poor-quality hardware. 2.17.7 Links
• You can always expect a small (but constant) time
delay on subsequent tracks. This is due to fixed de- |< Tutorial: Recording Multi-track Overdubs
Click the Record button in Transport Toolbar then be- 1. Click the Skip to Start button in Transport Toolbar
gin talking or playing. Continue for as long as you want. 2. Repeatedly click the Zoom In button until the dis-
When you feel you’ve recorded enough, click the Stop played waveform expands so you can see from the
button . Try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6 beginning of the recording to the time you started
dB (see: dB ) or 0.5 if you have your meters set to linear talking or playing
rather than dB.Tip: Enlarging the Meter Toolbar by click-
ing and dragging on the toolbar helps considerably with 3. With the Selection tool , click just before the point
this task. See Undocking and Resizing where you started talking or playing
4. Choose Select > Region > Track Start to Cursor
• The region from the beginning of the track to
the beginning of your performance is selected
If you have just made a recording it is strongly recom-
mended to File > Save Other > Export Audio... it immedi- 5. Choose Edit > Delete
ately to WAV or AIFF (ideally to an external drive) as
• The selected audio is removed from the track,
a safety copy before you start editing the project.
and the rest of the audio moves left to fill the
space left after the delete.
2.18.2 Step 2: Remove any DC offset Similarly, you can delete the extra bit from the end of your
recording.
DC offset can occur at the recording stage so that the 1. Click the Skip to End button in Transport Toolbar
recorded waveform is not centered on the horizontal line
at 0.0 amplitude . This can be caused if you have a 2. Repeatedly click the Zoom In button button un-
faulty soundcard. If this is the case with your recordings, til the displayed waveform expands so you can see
2.19. TUTORIAL - RECORDING AUDIO PLAYING ON THE COMPUTER 51
from the time you stopped talking or playing to the Note that Normalize defaults to retaining the exist-
end of the recording ing balance between stereo channels. However ba-
sic consumer-level equipment can often record with
3. With the Selection tool , click just after the point
channels unbalanced. To correct unwanted volume
where you stopped talking or playing
differences between left and right, check "Normalize
4. Choose Select > Region > Cursor to Track End stereo channels independently". Extraneous noises in
the recording can cause Normalize to create unwanted
• The region from the end of your performance
changes in the stereo balance, or prevent recordings be-
to the end of the track is selected
ing made as loud as they can be. Extraneous noises
5. Choose Edit > Delete should be edited with Click Removal , Repair or Amplify
before the Normalize step. Also see our tips for reducing
• The selected audio is removed from the track
noise in the recording chain.
If you’ve made any mistakes in your performance you
could edit them out. Use the Selection Tool to select
each mistake and press the delete key. Listen back to
each edit to make sure it sounds natural. If not, choose 2.18.5 Step 5: Save and Export
Edit > Undo Delete and try again.
1. Choose File > Save Project , then choose a name
for your project and a place to save it.
2.18.4 Step 4: Amplitude adjustment
• You have now saved an Audacity Project to
Since you were careful not to record too loud it is likely disk. The project file (ending in .aup) can only
that your recording is not as loud as possible. To correct be opened by Audacity. You can come back
this you can use the Normalize effect. to the project and make changes to it later.
For example you could do more editing, record
1. Choose Select > All (or use Ctrl + A) to select all of more audio, or apply other effects.
the track.
2. To listen to your performance in other audio soft-
• With default Tracks Preferences , you may not
ware (such as iTunes or Windows Media Player),
need this step - all the audio in the project is
or to burn it to CD , choose File > Save Other >
selected if you choose an effect without first
Export Audio... .
selecting any audio.
2. Choose Effect > Normalize... .
• Accept (for now) the default choices in the 2.18.6 Links
Normalize dialog and click the OK button
• The volume is normalized to -1 dB, so leaving < Back to: Tutorial - Making a Test Recording
a little headroom below the maximum possi-
ble 0 dB level. |< Tutorial - Your First Recording
This tutorial outlines solutions for recording audio play- to digital to record it. The resulting quality will depend
ing on the computer, (for example, audio being streamed (amongst other things) on the quality of your soundcard’s
from an internet website). How or if you can do this de- digital to analog and analog to digital converters.
pends on your computer operating system, your sound-
card and its drivers.
• To extract audio CD tracks to your computer, see
Audio CDs .
Copyright or website restrictions may pre-
vent you recording or distributing material. Check
first.Generally, it is better to extract or import audio • To import additional types of audio file or extract au-
from CDs, DVDs or existing video or audio files than dio from video files, download and install FFmpeg ,
record them as they play. Recording from an analog then import the file. FFmpeg can also extract audio
soundcard is relatively inexact and lossy because the dig- from the individual VOB files stored on unencrypted
ital source is converted to analog to play it, then back DVDs.
52 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
2.19.1 Step 1: Set up devices to capture 2.19.3 Step 3: Monitor and set initial sound
computer playback levels
This is often the hardest part of the overall task, being de- Before recording for real, try to set sound levels by play-
pendent on your computer operating system and sound- ing similar material from your intended source and mon-
card. Many manufacturers are making it increasingly dif- itoring it in Audacity, so that the recording level will be
ficult to record streaming audio by deliberately remov- neither too soft nor so loud as to risk clipping . There
ing or hiding this functionality due to copyright concerns. are two ways to turn monitoring on and off in the Record-
Sometimes, older soundcard drivers can be found on the ing Meter Toolbar :
website of the soundcard or motherboard manufacturer • Left-click in the right-hand recording meter to turn
that still allow recording of computer playback. This sec- monitoring on. Click again to turn it off.
tion of the tutorial shows how to find a suitable soundcard
input for recording computer playback, with workarounds • Use the context menu by either left-clicking the
if such an input is not available. Click the link to the tuto- downward-pointing arrow beside the microphone
rial for your operating system: symbol or right-clicking over the Recording Meter.
Choose "Start Monitoring" or "Stop Monitoring" as
• Recording Computer Playback on Windows appropriate.
playback. If you need to do this, unplug the speakers good idea to turn the playback or recording level
or on Windows XP, turn down the "Speaker" slider (not down if you can.
the "Wave" slider") in "Sounds and Audio Devices" in the
• On slower machines it’s best to turn Show Clipping
Windows Control Panel.
off when recording for real.
If clipping occurred, turn the recording or output level
2.19.4 Step 4: Make a test recording down a little and try again. If no clipping occurred you
can now Edit > Undo Record from the menu to remove
Make a test recording to refine levels if necessary. Start the test recording(s) then make the real recording.
the audio playing on the computer then click the Record
button in Transport Toolbar . Record for long enough to
find the loudest likely part, then click the Stop button . 2.19.5 Step 5: Make the real recording
Have a look at the recorded waveform - there should
be no clipping visible. Clipping is bad - this is when the Click the Record button in the Transport Toolbar then
volume of the source sent to Audacity is louder than Au- start the audio playing on the computer. Continue record-
dacity can record. The result is that the tops and bottoms ing for as long as you want, but keep an eye on the "disk
of the recorded wave are chopped off ("clipped"). The il- space remaining" message (in the Status Bar at bottom
lustrations below show about 0.004 seconds of a properly left of the Project Window ) and on the Recording Meter
recorded waveform then a clipped waveform. You’ll need (to ensure that you are maintaining a good level without
to zoom in to inspect the waveform as closely as this, but clipping). When you have finished recording, click the
extended lengths of clipping will also be visible at lower Stop button .
zoom levels. A properly recorded waveform
after Audacity has been launched then it will be neces- proprietary software but later released as partially open
sary to Transport > Rescan Audio Devices for new audio source. Possible solutions to recording audio playing on
devices before jack is available to Audacity. Any Jack- a computer using OSS are described here.
compatible applications that are running before Audacity
is launched will have their ports available in Device Tool-
bar. To make an application available to Audacity that 2.20.5 Other Methods
is launched after Audacity it is necessary to use Rescan
Audio Devices in the Transport Menu. After rescanning
Alternative programs for recording computer play-
audio devices, input and output ports from other appli-
back
cations will be available in the Recording and Playback
boxes in Device Toolbar. In this image the output of Hy-
drogen drum machine is being selected as the recording An alternative to recording streaming audio from the In-
source. This will enable Audacity to record directly from ternet is to download the data directly to disk, either
the audio output from Hydrogen. If "System" is selected by using command-line tools such as streamripper or
as the recording source then Audacity will record from mplayer, or with a browser plug-in (many available for
the physical soundcard input. Firefox), or writing the stream to disk from a media player
such as VLC or xmms, or using a graphical down-loader
such as streamtuner.
applications such as system "dings" and the raw file from analog to digital, instead of staying in the digital do-
could get corrupted or overwritten. Unless your ALSA main. This may result in some slight increase in noise
install allows you a setup like below you must abso- and distortion. Plug your line-out or headphones-out to
lutely make sure that only the desired application is pro- the line-in using a cable with a stereo mini-plug at each
ducing sound while you are recording this way. With end, then record from line-in. To hear the sound while
newer ALSA versions you can try these parameters for recording, use a single to double stereo connector to give
convenience (also you can adapt to use a different en- you a jack for the speakers or headphones. If you have
coder than lame): pcm.teewav { type copy slave.pcm only mic-in and no line-in is selectable through alsamixer,
"tee:default,’/tmp/out.raw’,wav" } pcm.teemp3 { type file you can build an attenuator to reduce the line level out-
format "raw" slave.pcm "default" file ’|/usr/local/bin/lame put to a level suitable for mic-in. But probably this will
-S -r -s %r –bitwidth %b -m j - /tmp/asound-$$.mp3’ } only provide mono recording, because mic-in is mono in
most cases. As well, the quality may be questionable.
Mac computers have no built-in ability to record stream- (if you are running NoScript you must disable it on
ing audio playing on a sound device. You can use Sound- that page).
flower to record computer playback directly into Audac-
ity or can do so by using a connecting a loopback cable
from audio out to the separate audio input available on Obtaining Soundflowerbed if you install Soundflower
some Macs. Alternatively there are commercial applica- 2.0b2
tions which can record computer playback to a file that
is importable into Audacity, or that like Soundflower can Important: The 2.0b2 version is the only version that will
provide an additional audio device from which Audacity work on El Capitan and later. It can also be used on Mav-
can record computer playback. ericks or Yosemite but it lacks the "Soundflowerbed" ap-
plication that lets you hear audio on your computer while
Soundflower is set as the system output device. Fortu-
Copyright or website restrictions may prevent
nately Soundflowerbed from Soundflower 1.6.6b can be
you recording or distributing material. Check first.
used on its own with Soundflower 2.0b2.
• If you already have Soundflower 1.6.x:
2.21.1 Soundflower 1. Copy Soundflowerbed.app from the /Applica-
tions/Soundflower/ folder to your Desktop or
Soundflower is a free open source system add-on for somewhere else.
Mac computers that allows you to route what is playing
2. In the same "Soundflower" folder, double-
on the computer digitally back to the input without using
click "Uninstall Soundflower.scpt" to uninstall
a cable. Set Soundflower as your system output device,
Soundflower 1.6.x. In the window that opens,
then in Audacity, set Soundflower as your recording de-
press the "Run" button. You should see
vice.
"Done!" in the results, indicating that the unin-
stallation completed satisfactorily.
Download Soundflower 3. Reboot the computer then run the
"Soundflower-2.0b2.dmg" installer as above.
• OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and later in- • If you do not have Soundflowerbed.app: the
cluding macOS:Soundflower-2.0b2.dmg from easiest solution is to download it by clicking this link
https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower/releases/. https://forum.audacityteam.org/download/file.php?id=14089.
• OS X 10.6 to 10.8 (Snow Leopard/Lion/Mountain Unzip the "Soundflowerbed.app" from the down-
load, then place it anywhere that is convenient.
Lion):Soundflower-1.6.6b.dmg from https://code.google.com/p/soundflower/downloads/list
2.21. TUTORIAL - RECORDING COMPUTER PLAYBACK ON MAC 57
Install your chosen Soundflower version Thus these sounds will not be recorded by Au-
dacity.Some Macintosh applications are better
1. To install the downloaded DMG file, double-click it behaved than others when it comes to alert
to mount it. In the DMG itself, double-click the PKG sounds. Tests on a recent iMac running 10.7.2
file. show that Mail and TextEdit alert sounds will
not be recorded with the above setup, but iCal
and Yahoo Messenger alert sounds will be
If you see a warning on OS X 10.7.5 or later recorded. To be safe you should disable the
that Soundflower cannot be opened due to your Se- sound on any iCal alerts that may occur while
curity Preferences, right-click or control-click over you are recording, and quit any other applica-
the PKG file and choose "Open", then choose tion that may make an alert sound.
"Open" again.
8. Close the System Preferences window.
2. After opening the PKG file, you may see a warn-
ing that the certificate for the installer has expired. 9. Start Audacity.
Press "Show Certificate" to review the certificate
then choose "Continue". 10. In Audacity’s Device Toolbar , select Built-in Output
or similar as Playback Device and Soundflower
3. Then run through the standard installer steps. If (2ch) as Recording Device.
you obtained the 1.6.x installer, save your work in
other applications, then press the button in the in-
staller to restart your Mac. The 2.x.x installer does
not require restarting the computer. 11. Click on the Transport menu and make sure that
"Software Playthrough" is checked.
4. Choose Apple Menu > System Preferences and se-
lect the Sound preferences panel. 12. Go to the application that will be playing the sound
you want to record. For example, start Safari and
5. In the Sound preferences panel, choose the Out- go to a website that plays sound clips. Start some
put tab, then select "Soundflower (2ch)" from the audio playing.
"Select a device for sound output:" list and turn the
Output volume up. 13. Click on the recording level meters (beside the mi-
crophone symbol) to begin monitoring:
To hear what is playing on the computer while using the audio signal is converted from digital to analog, then
Soundflower from analog to digital, instead of staying in the digital do-
main. This may result in some slight increase in noise
When you install Soundflower 1.6.x, a new folder will be and distortion.
installed in your Applications folder called "Soundflower". 1. Using a cable with a stereo mini-plug (1/8") at each
Inside that folder is an app called "Soundflowerbed". end, connect the headphone output port to the line
Launch Soundflowerbed and it will install a "flower" menu input port.
at right of your menu bar.
• At this point you will no longer be able to
hear what is playing on the computer. As a
If you see a warning on OS X 10.7.5 or later that workaround, you could attach a single to dou-
Soundflowerbed cannot be opened due to your Security ble stereo connector to the output port provide
Preferences, right-click or control-click over the app and an extra jack for speakers or headphones.
choose "Open", then choose "Open" again. 2. Choose Apple Menu > System Preferences and se-
lect the Sound preferences panel.
3. In the Sound preferences panel:
(a) Click on the Output tab, then select "Line Out"
from the "Choose a device for sound output"
list.
(b) Click on the Input tab, then select "Line Input"
from the "Choose a device for sound input" list.
(c) Leaving the Sound preferences panel open,
start sound audio playing on the computer
(this could be from iTunes, or streaming audio,
or some other source).
(d) Adjust the Input volume slider so that the top 3
bars of the Input level meter do not light up on
the loudest passages, but the rest of the bars
do light up.
(e) Close the System Preferences window.
4. In Audacity’s Device Toolbar select Built-in Input
or similar as Recording Device. Note you need
to choose a line-in for this, not a four-position port
meant only for connecting a headset.
The choices below the "Soundflower (2ch)" and "Sound- 5. Click on the Transport menu and make sure that
flower (16ch)" menu items determine how the output of "Software Playthrough" is not checked.
Soundflower will be monitored. "None (OFF)" means that
you will not hear anything from your computer speakers.
All system alert sounds such as email and appli-
Selecting "Built-in Audio" will allow you to hear (moni-
cation alerts will be recorded using this method. If you
tor) the sound that is passing through Soundflower. If
have iCal alerts or have turned on event sounds in Mail,
you are using Soundflowerbed to monitor the sound, you
you may want to turn them off. You should also quit any
will want to uncheck "Software Playthrough" in Audacity’s
application that may make an alert sound while you are
Transport menu. The original Soundflowerbed could not
recording.
restart itself if the system was put to sleep then resumed.
You can download a modified version that solves that
problem and adds a volume control to Soundflowerbed.
2.21.3 Commercial applications
Recording computer playback can be confusing be- Otherwise you will hear and record echoes or dis-
cause there are several different ways the audio can be torted sound.
recorded.
• Hardware playthrough (e.g. using a loopback ca- In Device Toolbar (pictured below) or in Devices Pref-
ble) - The computer generated audio is converted erences , choose "MME" or "Windows DirectSound" in
to analog, mixed with any incoming audio, and con- the Audio Host box. In the Recording Device box, look
verted back to digital again. if there is an input meant for recording computer play-
back. This input could be called "Stereo Mix", "Wave
• Overdub - This option in Audacity is for a different Out", "Sum", "What U Hear", "Loopback" or other names,
purpose. It allows you to listen to other audio that depending on your sound device.
you have already in Audacity as you record new au-
dio. For example you could listen to vocals on your
headphones as you record a backing track. There
is no need to record these other tracks, because
they are already in Audacity and available for mix-
ing.
If you do not see Stereo Mix or similar:
On Windows, sound devices often lack a "Stereo Mix" or
similar input, or it must be specially enabled in the Win- • Make sure you have the latest correct audio drivers
dows "Sound" Control Panel. On these operating sys- meant for your version of Windows
tems. You can also choose Windows WASAPI host and
the (loopback) input choice in Device Toolbar . This will • Go to the Windows Control Panel to see if stereo
record computer playback even if the computer sound mix can be enabled
device lacks its own input to do this.
• On Windows, choose the Windows WASAPI loop-
back recording method instead.
You must play the audio you want to record using the
• Copyright or website restrictions may prevent same sound device that has the "Stereo Mix" or sim-
you recording or distributing material. Check ilar input. You cannot play audio through an HDMI out-
first. put or through a headset, headphones or speakers that
connect via USB or wirelessly then record that playback
• When recording computer playback, ensure the using the stereo mix input of the built-in sound device.
menu item Transport > Transport Options > Choose the Windows WASAPI host (next section) if you
Software Playthrough (on/off) is off. If the item want to record playback of a USB, wireless or external
has a checkmark, click it to turn off playthrough. sound device.
60 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
soundcard’s own control panel can be found in the Win- 2.22.6 Alternative applications for record-
dows Control Panel. Hints for RealTek control panels: ing computer playback
• Some panels "select" an input by muting all but one,
so in this case, mute everything except Stereo Mix You can use other applications to record computer play-
back that do not rely on the computer sound device hav-
• If you do not see Stereo Mix, click the wrench or ing this ability. These applications will make an audio file
spanner icon and enable Stereo Mix in the dialog which can then be imported into Audacity for editing. All
that appears the options below grab the audio digitally from the appli-
• In some panels the option to choose is "Enabled cation producing the sound. This has advantages over
recording multi-streaming" stereo mix recording. Lossy digital-analog-digital conver-
sions are avoided and also unwanted system beeps and
• You should now see a volume control for Stereo alerts are not captured.
Mix; make sure it is selected or unmuted.
• SoundLeech is a free application for Windows
which runs from the system tray. It records to loss-
2.22.4 Updating sound device drivers less WAV format only.
• VB-Audio Virtual Cable is a donation-ware applica-
If there is still no suitable input, try updating the sound tion for Windows. You can set the Cable Input as
device drivers for your soundcard. This can sometimes default playback device then set Audacity to record
produce an additional input for recording computer play- from the Cable Output.
back, and may fix other problems such as poor quality or
skipping . • TotalRecorder is a low cost recording package. In-
ternet streams can optionally be captured at faster
than real-time rates (monitoring is not available in
2.22.5 Loopback cable that mode).
This set of tutorials describes known, good, working 2.23.1 Multi-track overdubbing
methods of creating a multiple sound track overdubbing
session in Audacity. That is, you record one track and
then play it and add a second track against it – drums,
guitar, voice; repeat as needed. You will be able to hear a
mix of your live recording and the previous tracks simulta-
This tutorial is a generalized tutorial on multi-track over-
neously in your headphones (essential for overdubbing).
dubbing.
Generally, purpose-built hardware is needed to hear your
live recording without unacceptable playthrough latency
- without that hardware you will hear what you are record-
ing too late. Failing that, a method for overdubbing using Tutorial - Multi-track Overdubbing For specific cases of
your computer’s on-board soundcard is given too. working with different hardware setups please see below.
62 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
2.23.2 Overdubbing with specialist hard- 2.23.3 Overdubbing using your computer’s
ware on-board soundcard
• A stereo, line level, USB external soundcard (2- If, no matter what you do, the show sounds terrible or
channel USB/Audio Interface). does not work at all, drop in to the Forum where we can
try to help you further. Registration is required to post
Overdubbing with a Behringer® UCA202 Stereo bidirec- and you may need to wait before your posting appears.
tional USB Soundcard At minimum, you will need to tell us: exactly which ver-
sion of Audacity you are using (that means the full three-
• A USB microphone. part number, for example 2.0.0), what kind of computer
you have and which operating system it uses. Don’t head
Overdubbing with a Samson® G-Track USB Micro- straight to the details of the problem without telling us
phoneAll three have been hands-on tested. They can what you’re producing and why. Be prepared to tell us
be made to work on Linux®, Mac®, and Windows®. The how the straight recording session went - the one you did
one "magic" feature of all three devices is the ability to before you tried overdubbing. Help > Diagnostics > Audio
mix your live voice with the computer’s rhythm track so Device Info... may give us useful diagnostic information,
you can hear the mixed musical performance and that but if you post it, please post it between [code] [/code]
can only happen if the rhythm track is available. tags.
Now that you know you’re getting sound into the com- dragging right on the drag handle. Choose your preferred
puter and you’ve made your Audacity settings, it’s time to Audio Host, Recording Device and Playback Device
set up your recording device. from the dropdown menus. This selects the particular in-
terface with which Audacity communicates with your cho-
sen recording and playback devices. The "Audio Host" is
2.24.1 Setting up the audio host and play- the interface between Audacity and the sound device. On
back device Windows, the choice is between the following audio in-
terfaces.
Device ToolbarOn the device toolbar, if you are unsure • MME : This is the Audacity default and the most
what settings to use, use MME if it is available, ALSA if compatible with all audio devices.
on Linux and Core Audio if on Mac.
The choice of recording and play back devices may take • Windows DirectSound : This is more recent than
some detective work (or trial and error). The items earlier MME with potentially less latency .
in the list are generally built in devices, e.g. a speaker • Windows WASAPI : This host is the most re-
actually in the laptop, and the later items devices that cent Windows interface, that Audacity supports,
are plugged in, e.g. headphones. The Device Toolbar, between applications (such as Audacity) and the
shown below, is displayed by default in a new installation soundcard driver. WASAPI was first officially re-
of Audacity. If Device Toolbar is not visible, click on View leased in 2007 in Windows Vista. WASAPI is par-
> Toolbars > Device Toolbar . ticularly useful for "loopback" devices for recording
computer playback . 24-bit recording devices are
supported. Playback is emulated using this host.
As a result, the playback slider in Mixer Toolbar will
You may want to expand the size of the Device toolbar by only scale the system playback slider’s current level
2.24. TUTORIAL - SELECTING YOUR RECORDING DEVICE 63
up or down rather than directly manipulating that Choose your preferred recording device from the Record-
system slider. ing Device dropdown menu in the Device Toolbar . In the
Recording Channels dropdown menu choose whether
On Mac the only choice is Core Audio. On Linux there
you want to record in mono (1 channel) or stereo (2 chan-
is often only one option: ALSA . Other options could be
nels). In general if you are recording a microphone or
OSS and/or Jack Audio Connection Kit (also known as
guitar you will want to record in mono. If you are record-
"Jack" or "Jackd").On Windows:
ing a keyboard and the keyboard has stereo outputs you
• Windows DirectSound may by default have only will want to record in stereo.
slightly lower latency than MME.
• Selecting Windows DirectSound or Windows WAS-
API and enabling both "Exclusive Mode" boxes in 2.24.3 Audacity Preferences
Windows Sound allows Audacity to request audio
direct from the device without resampling . If you prefer, you can make the above settings in the Au-
• For output device, choose the named sound de- dacity’s Preferences . To access this, use Edit > Pref-
vice your headphones or speakers are connected erences The image below shows the Devices section of
to (not a device like Microsoft Sound Mapper that Preferences:
uses the system default device). If you are using a
USB-connected guitar, microphone or keyboard on
Windows, you may also need to reset the default
system playback device to your computer sound
device in order to hear audio in other applications.
2.24.4 Links
2.24.2 Setting up the recording device > Forward to: Tutorial - Making a Test Recording
< Back to: Tutorial - Audacity Settings for Recording
Now that you know that you can hear what Audacity
is playing you can continue setting up for recording. |< Tutorial - Your First Recording
64 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
This page describes techniques which, on some stereo and Isolation "Remove Vocals" is to be preferred in most
tracks, may allow you to remove or isolate vocals (or cases because this returns stereo output. Vocal Reduc-
other parts of a recording) from the rest. There is no uni- tion and Isolation also lets you specify frequencies above
versal, reliable way of doing this without having the orig- which or below which audio is not removed or isolated.
inal multi-track recordings. Different tracks will require This can help cure the common problem where center-
different techniques to achieve maximum possible atten- panned bass or Hi-hat is also removed when removing
uation or isolation. This will depend on where the vocals vocals.
are positioned in the stereo field, and on their frequency
content compared to the rest of the audio.
2.25.2 Case 2: Vocal Removal with vocals
in one channel and everything else
in the other
• It is strongly recommended that you make a
backup copy of your original recording before at-
If you have an unusual stereo track where the vocals are
tempting any of the editing described in this tutorial.
mixed hard into one channel and everything else hard
• For popular songs, consider downloading vocals- into the other channel you can split the stereo track into
only tracks from the internet. Many studios re- separate channels then delete the vocal channel. To iso-
lease the instrumental tracks for use with things like late the vocals, rather than remove them, delete the other
karaoke and some singles even have them on the channel. To split a stereo track, click on the downward
B side. pointing arrow at the top of the Track Control Panel then
click on Split Stereo to Mono . To delete the unwanted
channel, click the [X] to left of the downward pointing ar-
2.25.1 Case 1: Vocal Removal with vo- row. If you accidentally delete the wrong channel, use
Edit > Undo to get it back.
cals in the middle and instruments
spread around them
2.25.3 Case 3: Vocal Isolation
If the vocals are panned in the center of a stereo track
the so-called "vocal removal" technique can sometimes
be effective by removing what is common to both tracks You can use the Vocal Reduction and Isolation effect to
(i.e. the vocals), leaving behind what is different (i.e. the attempt to isolate the vocals by choosing one of the Iso-
instrumentals). The underlying technique in Audacity is late Vocals in the Action dropdown menu in the dialog.
to split the stereo track into its left and right channels, But note that the end result may not be total vocal iso-
make both mono, invert all (or a selected part) of one lation or even satisfactory isolation of the vocals; it all
of them then play back the result. Note, this removes depends on how the original recording was engineered.
everything panned in the center, not just vocals, and re-
turns a dual mono result (both channels have the same
audio). In some music this could mean removing instru- A technique using Audacity for vocal isolation
mental parts. Removal of the vocals can often be in-
complete leaving artifacts behind; this is especially true An Audacity user (Marco Diego) suggested the following
where there are backing vocals or where reverb (echo) technique for using Audacity to attempt to isolate vocals.
has been applied as this spreads sound sources and It will not work successfully in all cases. It is sometimes
makes them very hard to extract from each other. possible to isolate vocals by using Audacity’s Noise Re-
duction to capture the noise profile of a song that has
had vocals removed, then run Noise Reduction with that
Vocal Reduction and Isolation profile on the original mix before vocals were removed.
1. Make a copy of your original stereo track
Audacity includes a Nyquist plug-in effect to automate the
steps involved in Case 1, at Effect > Vocal Reduction (a) Select the whole track (click in empty space
and Isolation... . If you only wanted to automate Case in its Track Control Panel for example where it
1 in the Vocal Reduction and Isolation effect, you would says "Hz")
choose the option "Remove Center Classic (Mono)". As
(b) Copy the track with Edit > Copy
in Case 1 above, this removes the whole frequency spec-
trum of center-panned audio and returns a dual mono (c) Create a new stereo track with Tracks > Add
track. However the default option for Vocal Reduction New > Stereo Track
2.26. LATENCY TEST 65
(d) Use Edit > Paste to make a copy of the original the instrumental tracks (with and without backup vocals)
track in the new stereo track for use with things like karaoke. There are places online
where you can buy these tracks (Karaoke-Version.com
2. Select the whole of the copied track (click in empty
for example and some records even have them on the
space in its Track Control Panel)
B side). MP3 encoding of one or both versions will cre-
3. Remove the vocals in the copy by using Effect > ate small differences that will make this technique less
Vocal Reduction and Isolation... effective. As opposed to the final mono track you get
from removing vocals, this method will leave you with a
4. The copied track should remain selected, so use full stereo track. As such, it becomes more important to
Effect > Noise Reduction... and click on the Get try and match the quality of both tracks and align them
Noise Profile button before you isolate the vocals.
5. Now select the original track (click in empty space 1. Open Audacity and Import both the regular and in-
in its Track Control Panel) strumental tracks.
6. Use Effect > Noise Reduction... and click on the 2. Select one of the tracks and use the Time Shift tool
OK button to roughly align the two tracks.
7. Delete the copied track (click in the [X] at the top 3. Zoom in really close and then zoom in more.
left of its Track Control Panel)
4. Exact alignment is critical. Pick a peak or trough
The following may let you remove drums which are not in the left channel of one track and match it pre-
centered but keep the vocals: cisely with the left channel of the other track. If the
1. Use the steps above to create a track with isolated alignment isn’t right the process won’t work.
vocals. 5. Select the instrumental track, and invert it using Ef-
2. Import the original song into Audacity again. Down- fect > Invert .
load the Bass to Center Nyquist plug-in and install 6. Use Ctrl + A to select all of both tracks.
it . Use this plug-in to move the bass frequencies to
center. 7. Use Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render .
3. Remove the drums (and the vocals) from the center You should now have one combined track that should
using Effect > Vocal Reduction and Isolation... . have a more diminished amplitude where the vocals were
kept and the instrumentation removed.
4. Finally mix the isolated vocals back in.
2.26.1 What is Latency? amount is. You enter this correction amount in the De-
vices tab of the Preferences dialog.
Using a microphone
information on overdubbing with Audacity, see our and its delayed version on the bottom track. Using Selec-
Tutorial - Recording Multi-track Overdubs tion Tool, drag a selection starting at the start of the click
in the top track and ending at the start of the delayed click
in the second track. You should see something like this
2.26.3 Doing the latency test (your numbers will likely be different):
Note that there is still a tiny delay between the two If you make a recording that is shorter than the latency
tracksYou’ll never get it absolutely perfect. In this case correction the entire recorded track will be pushed left be-
we’re still off by 17 samples. At 44100 samples per sec- fore 0 seconds. In this case Audacity will issue a warning
ond that’s about 0.39 milliseconds. This is as close as dialog telling you that this has happened, and that Au-
we’re going to get, and it is not an audible difference. This dacity has moved the track to start at 0 seconds. In this
is the length of time it takes a sound wave to travel about case you will have to manually correct for the latency us-
5 inches, and the latency will probably have natural vari- ing the Time Shift Tool. This is unlikely to be an issue,
ability greater than this each time you record. However since in the example presented a recording of less than
if you really need to, you can set the latency correction 96 milliseconds would need to be made at the start of the
amount to a fraction of a millisecond (for example -96.4). track in order to trigger this warning.
2.27 Tips
This page lists tips on particular aspects of working with • Playback Tips
Audacity. Following these will greatly enhance your day-
to-day experience of using Audacity. How to view and adjust playback volume, and achieve
smooth playback quality.
• Navigation Tips
• Audio Alignment Tips
How to navigate the waveform or tracks (including mov-
ing the playback position) identifying audio for editing, How to align multiple tracks so that their audio starts at
and how to find and mark edit points. the same point on the timeline above the waveform
This page explains how to view and adjust playback vol- 2.28.1 Viewing and adjusting playback vol-
ume, and achieve smooth playback quality. For tips on ume
how to navigate the waveform or tracks (including mov-
ing the playback position), and how to find and mark edit
points, see Navigation Tips . The volume of audio playback (output) which will be
saved in an Audacity project or exported as a finished
audio file can be seen in the Playback Meter :
2.28. PLAYBACK TIPS 69
If Meter Toolbar is not visible, go to View > Toolbars and • Set the project rate (bottom left of the Audacity
enable the Meter Toolbar. screen) to 44100 Hz or 48000 Hz. Higher rates will
give the computer more work to do and will have to
• This volume level can be modified with the -....+
be resampled if your sound device does not sup-
gain slider on the Track Control Panel of each track.
port those rates, leading to worse quality
Note this does not affect the volume level stored in
the audio data and represented in the waveform, • Go to the Quality tab of Prefences and set the De-
but is a modification on top of it. Avoid accidentally fault Sample Format to 16-bit, which halves the
moving the gain slider away from center when ex- work the computer needs to do to play the tracks
porting an audio file. If the slider goes too far to
right, this may lead to excessive volume and there- • Zoom out using View > Zoom Zoom Out (or Ctrl +
fore distortion in the exported file. If it goes too far 3)
to left, the file may not be audible. • Don’t use a network drive for your Audacity tem-
• The left-hand playback (output) volume slider on porary folder or project _data folder, or for storing
the Mixer Toolbar controls only the volume at which uncompressed files for import into Audacity - it will
you hear the tracks in Audacity. It does not affect be too slow
the Playback Meter. Only moving the gain slider, or • On Windows, keep your drives defragmented, so
changing the track volume by editing will affect the the data files can be accessed quickly and effi-
meter. ciently. Instead of the Windows defrag utility, try
• If multiple tracks are played simultaneously, fragdown.This will give you a replacement shut-
their volume is combined. You may need to move down button that will automatically defragment all
the gain sliders leftwards on each Track Control detected disks, then shut the system down.
Panel to reduce the combined volume. To keep • Consider enabling DMA on your drive if it is not al-
the current balance between all the tracks, move ready
each slider to left by the same amount. To judge
if you have distortion, look at the Playback Meter. • Ensure your sound device drivers are up to date
If the colored bars are changing to red and hitting
• Consider reinstalling Windows if updating your
the right-hand edge of the scale and so bringing on
sound drivers does not help - Windows problems
the red hold lights to right of the meter, you have
can lead to erratic sound behavior especially when
distortion in the output and must reduce the gain.
the CPU is busy
• The Playback Meter Toolbar can be resized, mak-
ing it bigger provides more detail and make it more • See the tips at Managing Computer Resources and
accurate and easier to use. See this page for de- Drivers in the Audacity Wiki.
tails of how to do this.
Managing Tracks
2.28.2 Smooth Playback
• Muting the tracks you do not need to hear may help
A project with a track lasting several hours or multiple slightly
tracks of any length will eat a lot of computer resources. • Select areas of tracks rather than the whole, in or-
To play many tracks simultaneously you will likely need der to hear what a mix sounds like
far in excess of Audacity’s stated minimum requirements
(mentioned on the download page for each operating • If you need separate Audacity tracks, select all of
system). Think of 500 MB RAM and 1 GHz processor each track in turn (by clicking in the Track Control
speed upwards, depending on the number of other run- Panel where the mute/solo buttons are) and Tracks
ning applications and processes, and the number and > Mix > Mix and Render - this may help playback
length of tracks you have. Generally the more RAM you by ordering the audio data files more logically
have the better. You can click Help > Run Benchmark...
• Consider mixing some tracks together (again with
to run a test that gives an approximate idea of how many
Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render as soon as you no
tracks could be played simultaneously. Try all these other
longer need them to be separate
tips if you are having problems with uneven playback:
• Consider cutting tracks you are not currently work-
ing with into a new project window (File > New ).
Computer Resources This will make a big difference.
• If you are recording sections one at a time, use
• Try exiting and restarting Audacity or rebooting
Pause in the same Audacity session to keep the
• Close as many other applications as possible recording on one Audacity track
70 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
• You can always hold Shift and click Record (short- • Try increasing the default "Audio to buffer" setting
cut Shift + R) to record at the end of an existing of 100 milliseconds at the Recording tab of Pref-
track, even when re-opening a saved project erences. This might lead to smoother playback
on slower machines. The disadvantage would be
• On slower machines, try right-clicking over the that playback would take longer to start, and there
Playback Meter Toolbar, hit "Preferences" and would be more delay in laying down and monitoring
choose a lower refresh rate recordings.
This page explains how to navigate the waveform or Shortcuts to change the ongoing playback position
tracks (including moving the playback position), and how
to find and mark edit points, so as to identify the audio There are also two shortcut commands that have no
you want to edit. menu item or button associated with them, they exist just
as shortcuts. These enable you to change the current
• For tips on how to view and adjust playback vol- playback position to the next or previous label (if labels
ume, and to achieve smooth playback quality, see exist), while audio is playing:
Playback Tips .
• Alt + Right moves the cursor to the next labeled se-
• For tips on how to navigate effects without using lection (or point label) and continues playback from
a mouse see Navigating Effects without using a there
mouse • Alt + Left moves the cursor to the previous labeled
selection (or point label) and continues playback
from there.
2.29.1 Navigation
Zooming
Changing playback position To move to different positions in the track with the mouse,
it is easier if you are fully zoomed out with the View >
Tracksize > Fit to Width command (Ctrl + F), or the Fit
Audacity always plays from where the cursor position Project button on the extreme right of Edit Toolbar . If the
is, or where a selected area is, when you press Space track is zoomed in, you can drag the horizontal scroll bar
or use the Play button. Click the Stop button or Space near the bottom of the screen to find a new position to
again to stop playback. Clicking Play or Space a further play from, but you cannot do this while the track is play-
time resumes playback from the original cursor position ing, unless you go to the Tracks section of Preferences
or the start of the original selection. You can move the and uncheck Update display when Recording/Playback
cursor position backwards or forwards anywhere on the head is unpinned. If that feature is unchecked, once the
visible screen by: green playback cursor moves past the right edge of the
window, you will always need to drag the horizontal scroll-
• moving the cursor with the Left arrow or Right arrow
bar in order to see the current playback position, or fit the
keys on your keyboard
whole Project in the window so you can see the whole
• (quicker) by clicking in the track at the desired point track again without scrolling.
with your mouse
• Home key or « button to left of the Play button skips Go to Selection Start/End
to the start of the project
View > Skip to > Selection Start (shortcut Ctrl + [ ) and
• End key or » button to right of the Stop button skips View > Skip to > Selection End (shortcut Ctrl + ] ) let
to the end of the project. you move quickly to the start or end of your currently
selected audio, centered on the screen, without chang-
To start playback from the new point, press Space once. ing the zoom level. These commands are useful if you
If you are already playing the track at another position, are zoomed far in at one edge of the selection and then
press S twice and playback will resume from your newly wish to view the other edge which may be currently off
chosen cursor position. screen, or if you have lost sight of the selection entirely
2.29. NAVIGATING AND IDENTIFYING AUDIO FOR EDITING 71
by scrolling too far. Using either command after zooming – Seek left (short period) during playback - Left
in or out provides a keyboard method to zoom in or out on
a selection edge. This is otherwise possible only by Con- – Seek right (short period) during playback -
trol and mouse wheel scroll while the mouse pointer is Right
positioned at either selection edge. – Seek left (long period) during playback - Shift
+ Left
Navigating multiple tracks – Seek right (long period) during playback - Shift
+ Right .
If you have multiple tracks on screen you can fit them on • The length of the seek period can be set on the
screen without the need to scroll up and down by drag- Playback tab of Preferences. The shortcuts used
ging the bottom edge of each track upwards at any point for the seek commands can be changed on the
along the waveform. Or you can use the View > Track- Keyboard tab of Preferences.
size > Fit to Height command to fit all the tracks in the
screen. You can move tracks up and down by clicking • "Play/Stop and Set Cursor" shortcut X: This acts
on the Track Control Panel with the mouse and dragging like Space except that when stopping playback, the
up or down. Alternatively, click the downward pointing ar- cursor is set to the place where it stopped, so re-
row at the top of the Track Dropdown Menu and choose sumes from there.
"Move Track Up" or "Move Track Down". Audacity can
• Quick-Play : Another way to change the playback
manipulate tracks and selected areas entirely with the
position is to click on the Timeline above the wave-
keyboard. Use the Up or Down key on the keyboard to
form. Playback will start from that point at once. Or
give focus to a track, as shown by the colored border
click on the Timeline and drag a region (shown by
around the track. Then press Enter to select or deselect
arrowheads with a line connecting them). Release
the track. There is an additional "roll-up" button (the up-
the mouse to play the region once. Neither an al-
ward pointing arrow) at the base of each Track Control
ready selected region or the cursor is affected by
Panel:
Quick-Play.
• Scrubbing : Scrubbing or Seeking is the action
of moving the mouse pointer right or left so as to
adjust the position, speed or direction of playback
while listening - a convenient way to quickly navi-
gate the waveform to find a particular event of in-
terest.
• Selection Toolbar:
the right half of the selection, and this short- audio you want to mark as a region, use ] to draw a re-
cut will play from the pointer to the end of the gion from the cursor to the current playback position. You
selection. could then stop and place a label at the region with Ctrl
+ B (see below). A selected region or the position of the
– Move the pointer to left of the selection and
editing cursor can be stored and retrieved. One region
this shortcut will play from the pointer to the
or cursor position at a time can be stored with the Edit
start of the selection. Move the pointer af-
> Store Region command and retrieved at any time with
ter the end of the selection and this shortcut
Edit > Retrieve Region . Additionally, Edit > Store Cursor
will play from the end of the selection to the
Position stores a cursor position which when audio is not
pointer.
playing, recording or paused, is the position of the editing
• If you like the selection region you heard, you can cursor or of the left edge of the selection region. If audio
then use Ctrl + Shift with the appropriate Left or is active, the stored cursor position is the position of the
Right key to contract the selection to the area you Playback cursor or Recording cursor at the time
played with the B shortcut. If you need to expand you store. The stored cursor position can then be used
the selection before using B, you can use Shift + with the Edit > Select > Cursor to Stored Cursor Position
Left or Shift + Right. command to create or modify a selection region.
• Transcription Toolbar:
• This is a special playback button with attached Labels
speed slider
Multiple selected regions and cursor points can also be
marked with labels using the Tracks > Add Label at Se-
lection command (Ctrl + B). Labels can be helpful as ref-
erence points for editing. The region or point can be re-
which allows you to play back at faster or slower called at any time by clicking in the label. The labels
speeds (affecting both tempo and pitch). If this is appear in a new Label Track underneath the audio track.
not visible, enable it at View > Toolbars . You can also add a label at the current playback position
while the track is playing, or at the current recording posi-
tion while recording. To do this, click Tracks > Add Label
2.29.3 Marking edit regions or points at Playback Position (Ctrl + M). It can also be useful to
drag out and a label a region while the track is playing
Creating and modifying selections or recording. To label that region, use Tracks > Add La-
bel at Selection as you would if the track was stopped.
To create a selected area in the track, click in the track If you want to label while still playing, use Enter then Up
and drag to left or right with your mouse, or with the left after typing the label to close the label and return focus
or right arrow keys. When you press Space once, the to the track. You can now use [ and ] as above to
whole of the selected area will start to play. You can sim- mark another region between desired points. If you miss
ilarly create a selected area in the track whilst already something you wanted to mark, you cannot currently use
playing the track, in which case you press Space twice seek to jump the playback position behind the cursor, but
to move from the current playback position to playing the as always you can click in the Timeline to restart playback
selected area. Another way to create a selected area in at the click point. If you click in the Timeline to left of the
the track is to click in the track where you want to start editing cursor, the [ shortcut will draw a region from the
your selection and hold Shift while clicking in the track at playback cursor forwards to the editing cursor, which may
the point where you want to end your selection. Again, not always be what you want. During playback you can
this also works while playing a track, so the selection re- click to place the editing cursor behind the playback cur-
gion is drawn from the point where playback started to the sor then draw a region from there to the current playback
point where you shift-clicked. You can adjust the edges position using ] .
of the selection region with your mouse (hover over an
edge then drag when the mouse pointer changes to a
hand). Alternatively, adjust the selection edges with the Navigating using Label Tracks
left and right arrow keys. Holding down Shift while using
Left or Right will expand the left or right selection edge Tabbing to open the label for editingWhen focus is on
respectively. Holding down Ctrl + Shift while using Left a label track as indicated by the yellow focus border:
or Right will contract the right or left selection edge re-
• Tab opens the next label for editing and places the
spectively. You can also mark regions during playback
editing cursor or selection to correspond with that
with the [(Select Left at Playback Position) and ](Se-
label
lect Right at Playback Position) shortcuts. To use these,
start playing then use [ to move the cursor to the cur- • Shift + Tab opens the previous label for editing and
rent playback position. When you hear the end of the places the editing cursor or selection to correspond
2.30. AUDIO ALIGNMENT TIPS 73
with that label. For both tabbing so as to open labels and moving be-
tween labels, the audio corresponding to a region label
The label background becomes white, indicating you can
will be selected if the track is selected.
type to edit the label’s text. For a point label, the editing
cursor is placed at the label moved to. For a region label,
a selection is placed corresponding to the label moved
to. The view position moves if necessary to show you the Clips
label moved to. Audacity cycles through the labels auto-
matically, so when at the last label, moving to next label The Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split command (shortcut
jumps to the first label. When at the first label, moving to Ctrl + I) splits the audio into different clips at the cursor
previous label jumps to the last label. These commands or selection region, marking the split points with a black
exist only as shortcuts - they have no menu items or but- vertical line in the waveform. You can use these lines to
tons. Shortcuts to move between labels without edit- quickly find or cut regions. A quick workflow to find and
ing themThere are also two shortcut commands to move cut regions using split lines works like this:
between labels without opening them for editing. These
shortcuts do not require the yellow focus border to be in 1. Zoom in as far as you like and play
a label track: 2. When you hear the starting point of the audio you
• Alt + Right places the editing cursor or selection to want to delete, X to stop playback at that point, then
correspond with the next label Ctrl + I
• Alt + Left places the editing cursor or selection to 3. Press Play to resume from where you stopped, and
correspond with the previous label. when you reach the end of the intended cut, X then
Ctrl + I again
The view position moves if necessary to show you the
label moved to, centred in the view. If there is a single 4. Double-click to left of the split line you just placed
label track, you do not need to be aware of which track to select the region between the two split lines
has the yellow focus border. If you have multiple label
tracks, use Up or Down arrow to move the yellow focus 5. Adjust the edges of the region as needed using the
border into the label track you wish to use. If there is mouse (or use Shift + Left or Shift + Right to ex-
more than one label track and none have focus, then the pand the region or Ctrl + Shift + Left or Ctrl + Shift
first label track downwards from the focused audio track + Right to contract it).
is used. During playback these "Move to the label" com- 6. Edit > Cut
mands restart playback at the position of the label moved
to (whether the track is selected or not). This is useful if Split lines disappear when you click on them to merge
you have a long recording which you want to split into clips together, but you can use current Audacity’s Cut
separate tracks using labels . As with the Tab and Shift + Lines feature to place a vertical line at which audio was
Tab commands, Audacity cycles through the labels auto- cut out. Click on the line at any time to restore the cut
matically, and there are no corresponding menu items or audio. Cut Lines can be enabled on the Tracks tab of
buttons. Preferences.
This page explains how to align multiple tracks so that • Align End to End: Aligns the selected tracks one
their audio starts at the same point on the timeline above after the other, based on their top-to-bottom order
the waveform. For example you would often want to do in the project window. The first selected track re-
this when you have recorded one track against another mains where it is, the start of the second selected
and need to ensure the recorded track is properly syn- track aligns with the end of the first selected track
chronized with the other track(s). and so on.
• Start to Cursor/Selection Start: Aligns the start new plug-ins, place them in the "Plug-Ins" folder inside
of selected tracks with the current cursor position the Audacity installation folder. On Windows computers,
or with the start of the current selection. your installation folder is usually under "Program Files".
On Mac, it is usually under "Applications". Time shifter
• Start to Selection End: Aligns the start of selected
will appear in the Effect Menu underneath the separator
tracks with the end of the current selection.
after you restart Audacity.
• End to Cursor/Selection Start: Aligns the end of
selected tracks with the current cursor position or
with the start of the current selection.
2.30.4 Marking align points
• End to Selection End: Aligns the end of selected
tracks with the end of the current selection.
Some users find it easier to align tracks together when
there is a vertical reference point extending down through
If Sync-Lock Tracks is enabled, unselected tracks all the tracks. You can make such a reference point by
in a Sync-Locked Track Group will also move so that all dragging the cursor down into the other tracks, and op-
the tracks in that group remain synchronized, except for tionally by marking cursor positions with labels. To drag
the Align "End to End" and "Together" commands where the cursor into the other tracks, make sure you are using
only the selected tracks will move. Aligning end to end
or together overrides Sync-Lock Tracks if necessary, so
the selected tracks in that group may become desynchro- the Selection Tool (shortcut F1), and place your
nized. cursor at a point where you want to line up the tracks.
Then hold down Shift on your keyboard and click in the
Track Control Panels (where the mute/solo buttons are) of
2.30.2 Time Shift Tool all your other tracks. Now you’ll see the cursor displayed
in all the tracks, and you can switch to the Time Shift Tool
and line up all the tracks against the cursor line. To add a
An easy way for sighted users to align tracks with each
label at a cursor point, use Edit > Labels > Add Label at
Selection . You can use the shortcut Ctrl + B(or Clover-
other is to use the Time Shift Tool which is located Leaf + B on a Mac) instead. The label is created in a new
at the top of the Audacity screen in the Tools Toolbar . To Label Track underneath the audio tracks. When you click
on the label, all tracks will be selected and the cursor
will be displayed through all the tracks, just like when you
use the Time Shift Tool, click on the button so it selected all the tracks by clicking on their Track Control
appears to be depressed, or press its shortcut F5. If you Panels. However the label provides a permanent refer-
wish to change its shortcut to something other than F5, ence point you can come back to, and because you can
you can do so on the Keyboard tab of Preferences. Then have multiple labels in a Label Track, there can be multi-
zoom in with Ctrl + 1(or CloverLeaf + 1 on a Mac) so you ple points you can line up with. You could also generate a
can make a more precise alignment. Click in the track Rhythm Track before you put other tracks on screen, us-
you want to move with the left button of the mouse, hold ing the Generate > Rhythm Track command. This gives
the button down while dragging the track to your required you visible and audible bars in that Rhythm Track at the
position, then release the mouse button. beat points of a chosen tempo. You could use a beat
point to set a cursor position then drag the cursor into the
other tracks as described above. You need to close this
2.30.3 Aligning tracks without a mouse - Rhythm Track when you export your work (by clicking on
for visually impaired users the [X] top left of the track) so that you do not export the
audible clicks. If you use the current version of Audacity,
Visually impaired users can use this Time Shifter plug- there is no visual guesswork involved in aligning tracks:
in to time-shift tracks without a mouse. This is one of a you can snap to labels when you time shift a track to-
number of Nyquist plug-ins available for use in Audacity wards them, and if you drag a selection region, the start
and works on both mono and stereo tracks. Instructions point of the area on the time line is displayed dynamically
are given in Timeshif.TXT inside the zip folder. To install in the Selection Toolbar as you drag.
2.31. BASIC RECORDING, EDITING AND EXPORTING 75
DC offset can occur at the recording stage so that the As a final step, since you were careful not to record too
recorded waveform is not centered on the horizontal line loud it is likely that your recording is not as loud as pos-
76 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
sible. To correct this you can use the Normalize effect. of identical quality to the original recording, but take up
10 MB or more of disk space per minute. If you want to
• Choose Select > All to select all the track.
burn an " audio CD " that will play on any standalone CD
– With default Tracks Preferences , you may not player (note these only give you 74 - 80 minutes’ play-
need this step - all the audio in the project is ing time), export your recording as a 44100 Hz , 16-bit
selected if you choose an effect without first stereo WAV or AIFF file. See: Burning music files to a
selecting any audio. CD . If you want your exported audio file to be smaller
(you’d want to do this for example if you wanted to make
• Choose Effect > Normalize... . it available on the internet), you can export as MP3, at
– Accept (for now) the default choices in the the expense of losing some of the audio quality of the
Normalize dialog and click the OK button original. You can also burn the MP3s to a " data CD " or
"MP3 CD" which will give you (at Audacity’s default MP3
– The volume is normalized to -1 dB, so leaving export settings) over 11 hours’ playing time on the CD.
a little headroom below the maximum possi- Note you can only play these kind of CDs in computers,
ble 0 dB level. MP3 CD players (including some newer automotive play-
Note that Normalize defaults to retaining the exist- ers), or some DVD players. Generally, you will see an
ing balance between stereo channels. However basic MP3 logo printed somewhere on the device if it is MP3-
consumer-level equipment can often record with chan- capable. Note that most players manufactured prior to
nels unbalanced. To correct unwanted volume dif- 2005 will not be able to play MP3 CDs. To export as an
ferences between left and right, uncheck "Normalize MP3, you first need to add the LAME encoder to your
stereo channels independently". Extraneous noises in system and show Audacity where it is.
the recording can cause Normalize to create unwanted If you are exporting your file to a media application which
changes in the stereo balance, or prevent recordings be- has its own "Library" such as Windows Media Player,
ing made as loud as they can be. Extraneous noises iTunes or Real Player, you would generally drag your ex-
should be edited with Click Removal , Repair or Amplify ported file into the application’s Library, or use the media
before the Normalize step. Also see our tips for reducing application’s built-in commands to add the exported file
noise in the recording chain. to its Library. For more help on importing your audio file
into iTunes (for example burning to CD or for putting on
an iPod), see Exporting to iTunes .
2.31.5 Step 5: Exporting
When you are happy with your editing, you need to ex- 2.31.6 Step 6: Backup
port the recording as an audio file such as WAV or
MP3 that you can either play on your computer media Backup your exported WAV or MP3 files - you do not
player (for example on iTunes or Windows Media Player), want to lose all that valuable work and have to do it all
or which you can burn to an audio or MP3 CD . See the over again, do you? Computer hard drives can fail, de-
About WAV, AIFF, MP3, Audio CDs and MP3 CDs< be- stroying all data. Ideally use a dedicated drive (1+ TB ex-
low about the difference between audio and MP3 CDs. ternal drives are convenient and economical), or upload
To export a single audio file, use the File > Save Other to an online (cloud) storage service, to store the WAVs or
> Export Audio... command. If your recording contains MP3s. Better still is to make two copies on different exter-
multiple tracks or songs, you may want to export these nal devices and even better is to hold an off-site backup.
from your Project as separate audio files. This would be You may want to create a taxonomic file structure - for ex-
necessary if you wanted to burn a CD with separate CD ample each album can be stored in its own folder (named
tracks corresponding to each track in your recording. To for the album) within a folder named for the artist (or, per-
prepare your recording for export as separate audio files, haps, composer for classical music) to make searching
see the tutorial Splitting a recording into separate tracks and retrieval easier.
. If you are planning to burn a CD with your exported
files you should ensure that you use the export format
16-bit PCM stereo WAV, this should be the default if you 2.31.7 Links
have not changed it. Also ensure that your Project Rate
is 44100 Hz (see the box in the bottom left hand corner > Forward to: Splitting a recording into separate tracks
of the Audacity window). About WAV, AIFF, MP3, Audio
< Back to: How to set up Audacity
CDs and MP3 CDsWAV, AIFF and MP3 are the most
common formats for exporting. WAV and AIFF files are |< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
2.32. OVERDUBBING USING YOUR COMPUTER’S ON-BOARD SOUNDCARD 77
You may want to make the Audacity project window larger could use existing sound files. You should record a lead-
than its default and expand the Meter Toolbar. Click in. That is, a non-musical rhythmical clue before the mu-
once anywhere inside the recording meter (the one with sic starts so as to warn you of the imminent start. In a live
the mic icon) to put the meters into Monitor Mode. They band, this would be the drummer or lead guitar count-in.
will display the microphone’s sound level without starting You could use the keyboard rhythm stops or you can per-
Audacity recording and wasting drive space. This may form several rim shots into the microphone to establish
fail on certain Linux machines using Jack . Find your the rhythm before the first note; tapping on the table with
microphone; scratch or tap around your computer until a pencil also works. You can sheer it off later in post pro-
the Recording Meter goes sharply up. Some computers duction so nobody else will hear it. Tick, tick, tick, tick,
have it in the lid, some in the grill just beside the left Shift music; adjust as appropriate for music type and rhythm.
key. Play or sing into the microphone. Adjust Audacity’s Click "Stop", then "Home" and then "Record" to record
recording control so you do not peak much over -10 to -6 track two using your live performance and track playback
on Audacity’s meters. You can fix low levels later, but you in your headphone mix as a guide. Repeat for as many
cannot fix overloading, smashing, and clipping (meters tracks as required. The "Mute" and "Solo" buttons to
too far to the right). Click "Record"; Audacity will take a the left of each track are valuable in overdubbing. Solo
second to configure itself and start recording. The blue causes only that track to play and Mute turns that track
waves will start to crawl left to right as you perform. Play off. Solo has options that can be set in Preferences .
or sing a simple song that you can use for rhythm and The little volume control to the left of each timeline also
timing tests later. Click "Stop", then "Home" and then controls the playback volume – it affects the headphone
click "Play" to hear the track you have just made. You mix. When you get to a stopping point, click on "Stop"
should hear the track in your headphones. This is all you and File > Save Project As to save your project. As
will hear during the overdub sessions. You will only hear you progress, you should save a new Project periodically
your voice or instrument in your headphones after you with a slightly different file name. A good recommenda-
record it. tion is to use ISO date and time for the file names or
the start of the file names; also, refrain from using slash
marks or other punctuation marks in a file name. ISO
Date and time201110011500.aup That’s 3PM. 2011 Oc-
2.32.4 Setting the Recording Latency tober First, 1500hrs. Then save a new version of the
song about every twenty minutes: 201110011520.aup
Latency refers to the delay between the time the audio 201110011545.aup 201110011602.aupDo not go weeks
enters the computer and the time Audacity is able to with one Project and file name, and never cover up or
record it to a track. For example, if you are recording record over existing work. If anything happened to that
a keyboard track, latency is the delay between the time one Project, your project would be ruined and could nul-
you strike a key and the time that note is recorded. For lify weeks of work. Think of what would happen if the
instructions on how to adjust the latency please see the lights went out right now, the computer ground to a halt
Latency Test page in this manual. To achieve lower la- and you were forced to use the last known good version
tency software playthrough on Windows you can: of the show. For extra safety it is good practice to pe-
riodically back up your project versions to a DVD-R or
• (Only gives somewhat lower latency): On Windows, external hard drive for archive purposes. Remember that
right-click over the Speaker icon’ by the clock, it is important to keep the AUP file and the _data folder
choose Recording Devices, right-click over the together. One way to make sure of this is to create a zip
input, choose Properties then on the "Listen" tab, archive of the AUP file and _data folder. In the unlikely
enable "Listen to this device". event that the Audacity project is corrupted or your hard
• (Advanced) Compile Audacity with ASIO® true low drive crashes you will be able to recover your work. Note
latency support. Ask on the Compiling Audacity that Audacity projects cannot be played in computer me-
board of the Forum if you need help. dia players nor burned to audio CDs. Export your project
as 16-bit WAV or AIF for burning to a CD, or to MP3 for
email or internet delivery. See Mixing for advice on doing
the final mix of your project.
2.32.5 Performance
Click on the [X] in the Track Control Panels to delete all 2.32.6 Troubleshooting
the test tracks. You’re ready for the first proper record-
ing session. The first recording can be whatever you’re • How much hard disk space do you have available?
planning to use as a base, backing track, guide or rhythm If your only experience with computer files is with
track. It can be anything including Generate > Rhythm spreadsheets, email or Photoshop pictures, live au-
Track which can be adjusted with its control panel for dio (and video) production will stun you with the
rhythm and composition. You could use the music from amount of disk space it consumes. With high qual-
a rhythm and chord machine playing to the mixer. You ity overdubbing and UNDO, project files and folders
2.33. BURNCD 79
get big in a hurry; with periodic saving, a project can • Record a track with that setting. Chances are ter-
get very seriously large. rific that your headphone voice and your real voice
are not going to match. This is computer or sound
• Communications features on newer Windows ma-
channel latency and there’s no adjustment for it.
chines can cause unwanted changes in recorded
You should probably leave that setting deselected.
volume or make the recording sound tinkly and/or
hollow; see this FAQ
• You can try to listen to yourself in the headphones
by changing an Audacity setting: Edit > Prefer- 2.32.7 Links
ences > Recording : and check [X] Software
Playthrough(select for ON). |< Recording Multi-track Overdubs
2.33 BurnCD
This page provides an overview of how to burn an audio • Audio CDs are generally limited to 74 minutes play-
CD. Audacity does not burn CDs directly but audio files ing time on a 650 MB disc ("Red Book Standard")
created with Audacity can be used with a CD burning ap- or 80 minutes on a 700 MB disc.
plication to create an audio CD.
• When buying blank CDs for burning, it is strongly
recommended that you purchase good quality CD-
Rs (that can be burnt just once) and not the
2.34.1 Audio CDs rewritable CD-RWs.
There are two main types of CDs that you can create with
CD burning software: audio CDs and data CDs.
2.34.2 Audacity setup
• To ensure that you create a CD that will play any-
where it is important to choose the option to burn Audio CDs always contain uncompressed PCM stereo
an "Audio CD" or "Music CD" and not a "Data CD". audio at 44100 Hz sample rate , 16-bit sample for-
A data CD containing for example MP3 or WAV files mat . So to burn an audio CD, export the file(s) you want
will play happily on your computer but is unlikely to to burn as a 44100 Hz 16-bit stereo WAV or AIFF file.
play in a standalone CD player or in-car CD player To configure Audacity for this:
(note that some modern CD players will play data
CDs). An audio CD will play on any standalone or 1. At the bottom left of the Audacity window, set the
in-car CD player and in your computer and in mod- Project Rate to 44100 Hz.
ern DVD players.
2. Some CD burning software require you to
Audio CDs do not have files or a file system like data have a stereo track. If your Project does
CDs and other computer storage media, but consist es- not already contain a stereo track, click
sentially of a stream of bits on the disc in a single spiral Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track . It does not
"track" with a TOC (Table of Contents) index. matter that this track is empty, its purpose is just to
80 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
make Audacity export your recording as a stereo into a burn list. Windows Media Player 12 does not have
file. This step is not needed if you are burning to this problem.
CD with iTunes or Toast.
• Also, neither Windows Media Player 11 or 12 can
3. Click File > Save Other > Export as WAV . burn AIFF files, so you must export from Audacity
as WAV.
It may be possible to use other formats if your CD-burning
software supports them, but they may not give the best
quality or they may not be playable on all CD players. If
you experience clicks at the start or end in the resulting iTunes
CD tracks, this may because your CD burning drive or
software does not correct for track splits made outside In iTunes:
CD frame boundaries. To enable splits at CD frames,
right-click or use the context key when over any of the 1. Create a playlist
three fields in Selection Toolbar , then choose one of the 2. Drag the files you want to burn into it
selection formats for CDDA frames. This may also be
required if burning gapless CDs . 3. Right-click on the playlist in the left hand panel and
click on the "Burn Playlist to Disc" in the drop-
down menu
2.34.3 Multiple songs • in iTunes version 9 and earlier, click the Burn
Disc button bottom right of the window
If you are exporting a long Audacity track that contains
4. Select the burner speed, the gap between songs if
multiple songs, please see " Splitting a recording into
you are burning multiple files onto the CD
separate tracks " for how to export multiple files for each
of the songs by using labels to identify songs for the 5. Make sure "Audio CD" is selected as the "Disc
Export Multiple command to operate on. An alternative Format"
method is to use Cue Sheets to define individual songs.
6. Click "Burn".
• Unsupported formats: Some CD burning software as one WAV file with with DAO and a "cue sheet" that
does not support compressed formats such as marks the starting times of each CD track. Cue sheets
MP3 , OGG , or M4A/AAC . can be created as simple plain text files. Each track in a
Cue Sheet is of this format:
• TRACK (number) AUDIO
Metadata and CD-Text
• TITLE "(name)"
Even if you use Audacity’s Metadata Tags editor to add • PERFORMER "(name)"
metadata such as Title, Artist and Genre to your exported
WAV files, that metadata does not get automatically • INDEX 01 (start time) in the format min-
burned to the CD. You can set iTunes and some other utes:seconds:frames with the first track always be-
burning applications (but not Windows Media Player) to ing 00:00:00
burn metadata to each track as separate CD-Text. Pro- Audacity cannot currently export Cue Sheets but it is pos-
viding your CD burner supports CD-Text, a standalone sible to use the File > Save Other > Export Labels... com-
CD player that supports CD-Text will then be able to dis- mand to export a text file representing the label positions,
play each track’s metadata. You can also use a Cue then on Windows and Linux use label2cue to convert the
Sheet to add CD-Text in burning applications that sup- minutes and seconds data in the text file to minutes, sec-
port Cue Sheets. onds and frames data laid out in cue sheet format.
You can read more about cue sheets on Wikipedia here.
2.34.5 Gapless burning
2.34.6 Burning longer recordings to disc
By default, many CD burning applications add a two-
second gap between CD tracks as part of the standard
As stated above audio CDs are generally limited to either
for audio CDs. So be aware of CD track gaps when
74 or 80 minutes, however it is sometimes possible to
placing labels between album tracks for Export Multiple
achive longer times by using Overburning . Alternatively,
and consider deleting excess silences between tracks.
for longer recordings, you may be able to use data discs
However most CD burning applications have an option to
provided your player will support and play these. (A data
burn the CD with no gaps between tracks. This is useful
CD will not normally play on older standalone CD play-
for recordings such as live concerts, allowing the CD to
ers. It will play on computers, most DVD players and in
play continuously if the player supports gapless playback
MP3 CD players).
while still permitting skipping to individual CD tracks. If
burning a gapless CD, you will need to place the Audac-
ity labels exactly where you intend the burner to mark Data CDs and Data DVDs
the track splits. Some CD burning applications (for ex-
ample, older versions of Windows Media Player) have
For burning really long files to optical media, you must
no option to burn without gaps. Gapless burning is also
burn either a data CD or a data DVD which can con-
only available if the optical drive supports Disc-At-Once
tain a set of WAV, MP3 or other audio format files. For
(DAO). Additionally, make sure you do not export MP3
example, burning MP3 files to a 700 MB data CD (some-
files for burning to your gapless CD, even if you’re burn-
times called an "MP3 CD"), and using Audacity’s default
ing a "data CD", because MP3s have inherent silence
128 kbps MP3 export bit rate gives over 11.5 hours play-
padding due to a restriction of the MP3 format. Note you
ing time. But if 64 kbps MP3 bit rate was chosen (either
may still hear the most momentary gaps between tracks
in "MP3 Export Setup" in the File Formats tab of Prefer-
even on DAO burned CDs, unless the CD player supports
ences, or Options at time of export) about 23 hours of au-
true gapless playback. Many CD players do not support
dio would fit on the CD. Note that the penalty of reducing
gapless playback properly because the hardware simply
the bit rate would be reduced sound quality (especially so
does not buffer the audio data properly. However quite a
for music but less so for speech). A single layer 4.7 GB
few computer-based media players can use DSP effects
data DVD can accommodate nearly 80 hours of 128 kbps
when playing back audio to give proper gapless playback,
MP3 audio, though some older DVD players will not play
even of CDs not burned with DAO. An example of such a
DVD data discs, or only those containing certain audio or
player is Apple’s iTunes.
video formats.
Cue Sheets
An alternative solution is to not split the track up at all in A data CD will not normally play on older standalone CD
Audacity. The best way to get apparently gapless play- players. It will play on computers, most DVD players and
back of a live concert recording or live album is to burn in MP3 CD players.
82 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
This page contains examples of how to export audio in Hz mono WAV files. If your phone has the same require-
various formats usable for ringtones and IVR (Interactive ments as this, the instructions below should work for your
Voice Response) messages: phone. If the only information you have is that the WAV
needs to have a bit rate of 64 kbps, these instructions will
• 44100 Hz 16-bit PCM WAV also probably work for your phone, because in a WAV
• 8000 Hz 8-bit WAV file the bit rate is always the (bit depth) multiplied by the
(sample rate), multiplied by the (number of channels) so
• MP3 32 kbps 8000 Hz the WAV in our example is (8 * 8 * 1) = 64 kbps. If your
phone requires WAV files with slightly different charac-
teristics than these you can adjust the instructions be-
2.35.1 44100 Hz 16-bit PCM WAV low appropriately. It’s assumed you’ve already made the
track mono as per "Convert stereo to mono" .
To export to 44100 Hz 16-bit PCM WAV 1. Look at the Project Rate control on the Selection
Toolbar (by default at bottom left of the Audacity
1. If required, convert the stereo track to mono . Project window); if it is already showing "8000", skip
2. Look at the Project Rate control on the Selection to Step 2 below; otherwise, select the "8000" option
Toolbar (by default at bottom left of the Audacity from the dropdown menu. If there is not an 8000
Project window); if it is already showing "44100" (Hz) option, select "Other ..." and type 8000 in the
skip to Step 2 below. Otherwise, select the "44100" box that pops up (in Audacity 2.x select and type
option from the dropdown menu; if there is not a over the existing value).
44100 (Hz) option select Other ... and type 44100 2. Select menu item File > Save Other > Export Au-
in the box that pops up (in Audacity 2.x select and dio... , in the "Export File" dialog choose other un-
type over the existing value). compressed files from the "Save as type" drop-
3. Select menu item File > Save Other > Export Au- down, then enter a file name. Click Options, a di-
dio... ; in the "Export File" dialog choose WAV (Mi- alog will open. In the "Header" dropdown, select
crosoft) signed 16-bit PCM in the "Save as type" "WAV (Microsoft)" and in the "Encoding" dropdown
dropdown, then enter a file. Click OK then click choose "Unsigned 8-bit PCM"; click OK then Save.
Save. If the Metadata Editor pops up at any stage, If the Metadata Editor pops up at any stage just
click OK. Metadata tags are not needed for WAV click OK; metadata tags are not needed for WAV
files in mobile phones. files in mobile phones.
LAME MP3 encoder to your computer and tell Au- dio... , in the "Export Audio File" dialog, choose
dacity where to find it; instructions on doing this are MP3 Files from the "Save as type" dropdown, then
here . enter file name. Click Options, a dialog will open.
Set the Bit Rate Mode to Constant; in the "Quality"
2. Look at the Project Rate control on the Selection
dropdown select "32 kbps"; set "Channel Mode" to
Toolbar (by default at bottom left of the Audacity
"Stereo" - a single-channel (mono) file will still be
Project window); if it is already showing "8000", skip
produced if your Audacity track is stereo; click OK
to Step 3 below; otherwise, select the "8000" option
then click Save.
from the dropdown menu. If there is not an 8000
(Hz) option, select "Other ..." and type 8000 in the
You may want to add ID3 metadata tags to your MP3.
box that pops up (in Audacity 2.x, select and type
Use Audacity’s Metadata Editor for this; enter any tags
over the existing value).
you require (or none) and click OK. If the tag editor does
3. Select menu item File > Save Other > Export Au- not appear select menu item Edit > Metatdata... .
This tutorial outlines a set of example steps that can be Export the WAV files
used to get Audacity Projects (LP and tape transcriptions
for example) into iTunes. The workflow concentrates on Use Export Audio or Export Multiple to produce a WAV
AAC music files because that is Apple’s native, default, file or set of WAVs to any convenient location. With Au-
format. Some users may prefer to use uncompressed dacity set to a project rate of 44100 Hz and 32-bit sample
WAVs or AIFFs or compressed Apple Lossless formats format (these are the default quality settings ), exporting
for their music files in iTunes. It is not the only way of will by default produce 44.1kHz 16-bit PCM WAV files (or
working - there are many alternatives. Like any recipe AIFF files on Mac). Audacity will down-sample from its
it can be adapted to suit your personal needs. You can 32-bit internal format to 16-bit, with shaped dither noise
work in AIFF rather than WAV if required. Many Apple applied to cover any clicky noise that may result from the
Mac users would probably prefer to work in AIFF. conversion to 16-bit. Advanced users can change the
See also Tutorial - Exporting to iTunes which has further type of dither, or turn it off, in the Quality Preferences .
useful information on this topic. 16-bit export will ensure the files are compatible with all
versions of iTunes, They will also be compatible for con-
version to AAC or other formats (or for CD burning) in
iTunes. It is possible to export 32-bit PCM files too, by
2.36.1 Workflow choosing "Other uncompressed files" in either export di-
alog, then clicking Options.... These files will theoretically
1. Export the WAV files be of marginally higher quality but twice the size of 16-bit
files. Latest versions of iTunes will play them, but other
2. Add the WAV files into iTunes players may not.
3. Use iTunes to edit the metadata for the album name
and artist
Add the WAV files into iTunes
4. Use iTunes to make AAC copies in the library from
the WAV files
Add the WAV files to the iTunes library (using the iTunes
5. Delete the WAV files from the library command File > Add File to Library or File > Add Folder to
Library. Note that even if iTunes Import Preferences are
6. Edit the metadata tags of the tracks/album set to Import Using AAC Settings ( Edit > Preferences >
7. Fetch the album artwork General > Import Settings ), no conversion takes place
as this preference only applies to importing from CD. Be
8. Optionally make a CD - and create cover & playlist aware that by default iTunes does not copy audio files
into its own filespace, rather it makes a link to where you
9. Backup your updated iTunes library
currently have the audio file stored. To change this in
10. Delete the Audacity project and exported WAV files iTunes go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced and mark the
to release hard disk space checkbox that says "Copy files to iTunes Media folder
when adding to library". It is strongly recommended
11. Optional direct AAC export from Audacity that you make this setting.
84 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
Use iTunes to edit the metadata for the album name files in, NOT to reference external files - so the WAVs
and artist that are deleted are iTunes’ copies of the original source
WAVs. This is set in Edit > Preferences > Advanced
Make sure that one of the columns you have showing in with the Copy tunes into iTunes folder when adding
your iTunes library is Kind. The imported files will show to library checkbox.
as WAV and can be listed together by clicking on the
"Kind" column header. Select all the WAV files and use
iTunes’ metadata editor to enter the album name and the Edit the metadata tags of the tracks/album
artist name so that you can easily find it later when editing
the other metadata tags. You could alternatively set this Edit the metadata tags for Song Name, track number
metadata prior to Audacity Export using Audacity’s meta- and similar The album should be easy to locate in iTunes
data editor – some users report that it is easier to use as you have already edited the Album tag in a previous
iTunes rather than Audacity to manage the metadata. workflow step above. You may wish to edit the song ti-
tles to remove the leading 01, 02 numbering series that
was applied earlier to facilitate the correct ordering of the
Use iTunes to make AAC copies in the library from songs.
the WAV files
Provided that you did not already have other WAV files in Fetch the album artwork
your iTunes library, the WAV files you need should still be
the only selected tunes at this stage, providing that you
Find a copy of the album artwork - either directly via
have done no further clicking. Make sure that you have
iTunes if the album is recognized by the Gracenote
your iTunes Import Settings set to AAC at your required
database CDDB (but note that Gracenote does not al-
bitrate. Convert them to AAC by using the iTunes com-
ways carry the artwork), or by making a digital photo of
mand File > Convert . Note carefully that this makes a
the album cover, and add the artwork to the album. You
“copy” not a straight conversion – so at this stage your
may be able to find a copy of the album artwork on Ama-
library will contain both the AAC and the WAV copies of
zon, Wikipedia or the artist’s own website.If you are using
the songs. If you have plenty of room you may wish to
WAV files in your iTunes library then you cannot asso-
keep the WAV files in your iTunes library to for their loss-
ciate album artwork with these files.
less quality and not convert them to AAC. In that case
you should omit this conversion step and the next step
which deletes the WAV files from your iTunes library. Yet
another option is to set iTunes to convert to Apple Loss- Optionally make a CD – and create cover & playlist
less which has about half the file size of WAV. Or you
may wish to use MP3 files in your iTunes library instead You may wish to burn a CD from the WAV files. You
of AAC. In that case either export as MP3 from Audacity, can use iTunes to print CD covers with track-list and al-
to any convenient location, for import into iTunes or im- bum cover; to do this you will need to create a temporary
port WAVs and set iTunes to convert to MP3 rather than iTunes playlist for the album.
its default AAC. Note that for equivalent file size, AAC is
generally reckoned to give better quality audio than MP3,
but MP3 is a much safer choice if you want to send the Backup your updated iTunes library
file to someone else.
There are several advantages to using compressed for- This is a critical step – you do not want to lose the valu-
mat on iPods. The two main ones are that you can fit a able fruits of your labors, do you? We would recommend
lot more songs into the device (for 256 kbps files you can maintaining two separate backup copies of your library
fit more than 8-9 times as many songs) and compressed on external disks. Keep the WAV files that you exported
files improve battery life (because disk reads are rela- from Audacity and back those up as well (two copies) on
tively heavy on battery power). external disks.
Delete the WAV files from the library Delete the Audacity project and exported WAV files
to release hard disk space
The WAV files should still remain as the selected tunes
- just take extreme care at this stage (the AACs are cre- After the backups are made you can then safely release
ated but selection is not forced by iTunes) So then just space on your hard drive by deleting any Audacity project
Delete the selected WAV files using the Delete key - and you created (delete both the .aup file and the _data folder
send the files to the wastebasket. Note carefully that this with the same name) and deleting the originally exported
workflow assumes that you have iTunes is set to copy WAV files.
2.37. SAMPLE WORKFLOW FOR LP DIGITIZATION 85
2.36.2 Direct AAC export from Audacity roughly comparable to encoding to AAC in iTunes using
VBR encoding at the highest bit rate preset.
This tutorial outlines a set of example steps using Au- 14. Adjust Label positions
dacity to digitize LPs to create files that are ready for CD
creation, loading into a digital jukebox or portable mu- 15. Track names
sic player. There is no fixed "right" way of working -
16. Advanced labeling techniques
there are many alternatives; like any recipe, it can be
adapted to suit your personal needs.This workflow does 17. Amplitude adjustment
not at any stage necessitate the saving of an Audacity
project (though you may wish to do that if you need to 18. Compression
interrupt your work). Your final goal will be to export WAV
files for CD creation or other file formats which might be 19. Export a set of WAVs
more suitable for your needs. While all of the processing
20. Export labels
in this tutorial is carried out using Audacity, some users
may prefer to use alternative software for specific sub- 21. Backup
tasks like noise removal and the removal of clicks and
pops (Audacity’s Click Removal may not give as good a 22. Alternative software
result as other software). For more details of the steps in-
volved in this workflow please see the tutorial set Copying Making vinyl to digital transfers is a skill and the more you
tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD . do the more expert you will become.
4. Recording levels • Clean-up steps are optional and need only be ap-
plied if your recording requires them.
5. Capture
6. Raw master backup
7. Remove DC offset Audacity settings
Cleaning the LP carefully and thoroughly before record- Record both sides into the project prior to doing the pro-
ing it will reduce the number of clicks and pops and will cessing. You can either Stop the recording after the first
improve the quality of your recording. Prepare a solution side using the button or Transport > Stop and then use
of lukewarm water mixed with a little dish washing deter- Transport > Record (or use Shift + R) to restart record-
gent. Use a soft, clean washcloth (or piece of velvet) to ing when you are ready. Alternatively you can pause by
carefully wipe the LP’s surfaces - try not to get the label pressing the button (or use Transport > Pause ) at the
wet. The detergent will float away all the greasy finger- end of the first side and then press the button again
prints - a gentle scrubbing motion will help. Rinse in luke- once you are ready to record the second side. After
warm water until all the detergent is gone. Finally, rinse recording you may find it helpful to zoom out to display
in distilled water (which dries and leaves no residue be- the entire recording in the Audacity window. You may
hind). Air dry your record thoroughly before playing - do prefer to work with a single side of an LP at a time as that
not be tempted to play the record "wet" as this may dam- gives a smaller working set.
age the LP and possibly your stylus. There are a num-
ber of commercially available cleaning fluids and cleaning
machines that you may wish to consider: Raw master backup
• KAB EV-1 Record Cleaner & KAB cleaning solution Export a single WAV for this recording at 32-bit float (not
16-bit). Retain this WAV file as a maximum quality "raw
• Disco Antistat
capture" file that you can import back into Audacity later
• Discwasher to start over (if you damage the project while working on
it).
needs to have clicks removed use the Click Removal ef- • Frequency smoothing (bands) - no more than 6 (3
fect with various settings - preview the effect with these or lower is a good setting for Music)
different settings to get the best results. Then, using
the settings from your preview testing, use the Click Re- Noise reduction is always a compromise because, on the
moval effect on selected regions of audio or on the whole one hand, you can have all the music and a lot of noise
project. Clicks which did not get removed with Click Re- and, on the other hand, no noise and only some of the
moval can be treated individually with other methods. music. Try different settings on the "Noise Reduction
These methods are only really useful if you have a rel- (dB)" slider until you get the best compromise.
atively small number of clicks and pops to deal with; oth-
erwise, these approaches will be too labor-intensive and
time-consuming: Place the song labels
Backup
Amplitude adjustment
Backup your exported WAV or MP3 files - you don’t want
Normalize the amplitude of the recording; either do each to lose all that valuable work and have to do it all over
track of the recording individually (especially if the tracks again, do you? Computer hard drives can fail, destroy-
will be randomly played from a library containing many ing all data. Ideally use a dedicated drive (1+ TB ex-
different styles of music) or, do the whole recording at ternal magnetic drives are convenient and economical),
once (which will work fine if all the tracks have the same or upload to an online (cloud) storage service to store
average volume). Use Effect > Normalize as the last edit- the WAVs or MP3s. Better still is to make two copies
ing step, setting "Normalize maximum amplitude to" to on different external devices and even better is to hold
2.38. SAMPLE WORKFLOW FOR TAPE DIGITIZATION 89
an online backup as well as the local copies. You may You may find the default settings for this application re-
want to create a taxonomic file structure - for example move a little too much signal. An alternative recommen-
each album can be stored in its own folder (named for dation:
the album) within a folder named for the artist (or, per-
• DeClick = 30 (default is 50)
haps, composer for classical music) to make searching
and retrieval easier. • Pitch Protection = "on" (default is "off") though leave
this "off" for brass recordings
• Reverse = "on" (there is no processing penalty for
2.37.2 Alternative software this and it helps on percussive music)
• Method = Wavelet
• GoldWave: Though nominally not free it is a top
class, free trial click remover as well as an excellent
alternative audio editor. Its click removal is an ef-
Hiss and noise removal
fect, just like in Audacity, and there is a "Smoother"
effect for broad unwanted noises and an excellent
• DeNoise: Brian Davies also supplies a tool called
"Noise Reduction" effect for steady noise. The trial
DeNoise; this is effective at removing noise and
version limits you to a hundred or so commands
hiss. As with ClickRepair, some new users may find
per session, and a total number of several thou-
it similarly intimidating as an entry level tool. Users
sand commands before it expires, but if you export
report that settings normally have to be reset for
from Audacity as 32-bit WAV and just do Click Re-
each recording to optimize the noise removal thus
moval in it, you should be able to declick several
making it difficult to use in a semi-automated way.
hundred records for free.
– DeNoiseLF is supplied as a separate package
• Gnome Wave Cleaner: Only for Linux users. Dig-
bundled with DeNoise. It is used for reducing
ital restoration of CD-quality audio files. Dehiss,
low-frequency noise (such as turntable rum-
declick and decrackle in a GUI environment. It
ble) and hum.
can also automatically mark song boundaries if re-
quired.
Compression
Clicks and pops
Please see Chris’s Dynamic Compressor for a popular al-
ternative compressor which may be downloaded for free.
• ClickRepair: An excellent tool for removing clicks It works by trying to even out abrupt changes of volume
and pops is Brian Davies’ ClickRepair. Some new by employing "lookahead" (this attempts to anticipate vol-
users may find it a bit intimidating as an entry level ume changes by starting to apply compression before
tool but, once you have understood the settings you the volume rises to the threshold level). It has options
want to use, it is effectively an automated tool. It re- to soften the softer audio and invert loudness.
quires Java and is not free, but many users report
that it saves a lot of time and produces good re-
sults. Since ClickRepair will work with 32-bit files 2.37.3 Links
it is worth exporting a 32-bit float WAV file for pro-
cessing though ClickRepair and importing back into
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
Audacity, that way no dithering will be applied in the
process. > See also tutorial on: Recording 78 rpm records
This tutorial outlines a set of example steps using Au- the saving of an Audacity project (though you may wish
dacity to digitize tapes (cassette tapes and reel-to-reel) to do that if you need to interrupt your work). Your final
to create files that are ready for CD creation, loading into goal will be to export WAV files for CD creation or other
a digital jukebox or portable music player. There is no file formats which might be more suitable for your needs.
fixed "right" way of working - there are many alternatives; While all of the processing in this tutorial is carried out
like any recipe, it can be adapted to suit your personal using Audacity, some users may prefer to use alterna-
needs.This workflow does not at any stage necessitate tive software for specific sub-tasks like noise removal and
90 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
the removal of clicks and pops (Audacity’s Click Removal Audacity settings
may not give as good a result as other software). For
more details of the steps involved in this workflow please
see the tutorial set Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to Work with Audacity set to a project rate of 44100 Hz and
CD . 32-bit sample format (these are the default quality set-
tings ). You may use 16-bit if you prefer; it will give smaller
working file sizes but you may lose a little quality in some
of the processes. Export WAV files at 44100 Hz 16-bit
2.38.1 Workflow PCM stereo, the standard required for burning CDs ; this
will also produce WAVs which are accepted for import by
iTunes (and most other music player software).
1. Audacity Settings
13. Adjust Label positions Clean the heads and pinch roller
14. Track names
Most deposited oxide goes onto the pinch roller. The
15. Advanced labeling techniques more oxide there is on this roller, the less able it is to
16. Amplitude adjustment remove and hold loose oxide from the tape, and thus the
more oxide gets deposited on the head. A dirty pinch
17. Compression roller has less friction, and can occasionally result in tape
slip, degrading playback quality. This is especially true for
18. Export a set of WAVs 8 track tapes, where tape slip is a real issue. All types of
tape deck that use a pinch roller should have the roller
19. Export labels
cleaned occasionally. Microcassettes and picocassettes
20. Backup don’t use pinch rollers.
Recording levels noise sample from either the lead-in grooves immediately
before the music starts, or from a lead-in between tracks.
Read this page about making a test recording then make The length is not important but, typically, it will be less
a test recording of portions of the tape (or even a whole than a second; what is important is that you have a true
side) so as to check the levels. It is important to avoid any representative sample of the noise without any audio sig-
clipping during the recording! Try to aim for a maximum nal at all (such as a very quiet fade lead in). Try amplify-
peak of around –6 dB (or 0.5 if you have your meter set ing the sample and audition it to ensure that no real au-
to linear rather than dB). dio signal is present. If it’s OK, undo the amplify, then re-
apply the Noise Removal effect with these recommended
settings:
DC offset can occur at the recording stage so that the Silence the inter-track gaps
recorded waveform is not centered on the horizontal line
at 0.0 amplitude . If this is the case with your record- These are rarely truly silent so you may want to replace
ings, see the Normalize page for how to use Normalize them with silence by selecting the gap and using Ctrl + L
to remove DC offset and how to check if your Windows or the Silence Generator effect . Edit the inter-track gap
sound device can perform this correction automatically. as desired to around a maximum of 2 seconds; you may
wish to use a shorter gap or even no gap at all for some
recordings.
Reduce tape hiss and high frequency noise
Whether you need to use Noise Reduction will depend on By default CD burning software almost always adds
the quality of your tapes, your azimuth setting , the clean- a 2-second gap between tracks. Check for any options
liness of the tape heads and your Dolby settings.Use the to turn this off, for "gapless burning" or "Disc-at-once
Noise Reduction effect’s Get Noise Profile to obtain a (DAO)" that you can enable.
92 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
Fade Ins/Outs as otherwise you will get the unexpected halt to the
recording when you type "space-bar" in what you
You may wish to more cleanly fade-in and fade-out the think is a label. Also ensure that you do not click in
song beginnings and endings by using Effect > Fade In the Timeline as that will also stop the recording and
and Effect > Fade Out . Normally fade outs should be instead play from the clicked position.
longer (typically a few seconds), and fade ins, if required, • If the tape has track timings listed you can enhance
quite short (typically a fraction of a second). Consider this step of the process by setting up an empty
using Effect > Studio Fade Out instead of the linear Fade project with the labels placed at the listed track
Out. It applies a more musical fade out to the selected boundary timings and a further label slightly be-
audio, giving a more pleasing (more "professional stu- yond the end at the end - then zoom the project to
dio") sounding result. You may also get a more musical fit (use Ctrl + F) and then start recording. The text
fade-in by applying Effect > Fade In multiple times to the of each label can be typed, once again with great
selected audio, three times is a good guideline. This will care, while you are making the recording.
produce a shaped, curved, fade rather than a linear one.
Although no keyboard shortcuts for effects are provided
by default in Audacity it is possible to set up your own Amplitude adjustment
shortcuts for any effects you choose. You may find it par-
ticularly beneficial to assign shortcuts for Fade In and
Normalize the amplitude of the recording; either do each
Fade Out (or Studio Fade Out) as these will used re-
track of the recording individually (especially if the tracks
peatedly for tape digitization.For instructions on how to
will be randomly played from a library containing many
do this please see the Keyboard Preferences page in the
different styles of music) or, do the whole recording at
manual.
once (which will work fine if all the tracks have the same
average volume). Use Effect > Normalize as the last edit-
ing step, setting "Normalize maximum amplitude to" to
Adjust label positions
around -3 dB or similar, to give some headroom below
the distortion level. The Normalize effect can be set to
If you are using a 2-second gap, adjust the label position either:
as desired to be 0.5 seconds before the start of the next
track. To move the label, drag it by its center circle. • Adjust the amplitude of both stereo channels by the
same amount (thus preserving the original stereo
balance), or
Track names • Adjust each stereo channel independently (this can
be useful if your equipment is not balanced).
Edit the labels for the song names - we suggest using "01
First Song Name", "02 Second Song Name", and so on
as this helps keep them in the right order for CD produc- Compression
tion or loading into iTunes. You may find that changing
the zoom level will help you with this task; you can ad- The Compressor effect reduces the dynamic range of
vance to the next label by ensuring that the focus is in audio. One of the main purposes of reducing dynamic
the current label then using TAB. If you wish you may in- range is to permit the audio to be amplified further (with-
stead automatically prefix named tracks with a sequential out clipping) than would be otherwise possible. Com-
two-digit number. To do this, in the "Name files" section pressor makes the loud parts quieter and (optionally) the
of the Export Multiple dialog select the Numbering before quiet parts louder. It can be very useful for listening to
Label/Track Name radio button. classical music in a car. Such music normally has a wide
dynamic range and can thus be difficult to listen to in a
car without constant volume re-adjustment.
use, place all the files for a particular album in a specifi- version limits you to a hundred or so commands
cally named folder for that album. per session, and a total number of several thou-
sand commands before it expires, but if you export
from Audacity as 32-bit WAV and just do Click Re-
Export Labels moval in it, you should be able to declick several
hundred records for free.
Some users advise a final step of exporting a file contain- • Gnome Wave Cleaner: Only for Linux users. Dig-
ing the labels. Use File > Save Other > Export Labels... ital restoration of CD-quality audio files. Dehiss,
This produces a text file that you can later re-import us- declick and decrackle in a GUI environment. It
ing File > Import > Labels... should you wish to re-edit can also automatically mark song boundaries if re-
from the raw capture file that you backed up earlier in the quired.
workflow.
An appropriate input is required that will accept strong In general, you need to run an appropriate cable from an
line-level signals as produced by high quality playback output on the external device (for example a tape deck,
equipment. Generally there are only two such suitable or a phono amplifier or receiver connected to a turntable)
inputs: to the line-in port of the computer. Do not connect to
• A line-in computer input (blue) that is separate from the mic-in port of the computer. A standalone turntable
the computer’s microphone input (usually pink) should not generally be connected directly to the com-
puter unless you are making specialist recordings from
• Failing that, a line-in input on a USB or Firewire in- pre-1950s discs . The best option is usually to connect
terface. to the source device’s "aux out", "tape out", "line-out" or
94 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
unsuitable for line-level signals. This is true even if the analog stages and contaminate the analog signal dur-
you use a splitter adapter. ing the sampling process. You may need a double-
shielded USB cable or to add ferrite beads or a ferrite ring
The following are the only exceptions where it might be to the USB cable.It is also advisable in the interests of
appropriate to connect to a computer microphone input. minimizing USB noise to plug all mains-powered equip-
• Some personal recorders only have a low power ment into the same mains board or into a multi-socket
mini-jack intended for connection to the micro- surge/lightning protected power-block.
phone input of a recorder. If the jack is 3/32 inch
(2.5mm) it is probably intended for connection to
a microphone input and may already come with a 2.39.2 Connecting a tape deck
suitable cable. Look at the manual for the recorder.
• On some Macs, or some Windows laptops or desk- If you wish to record from an audio cassette, or a reel-
tops, there is a "switchable" single input port which to-reel tape deck, you can connect that deck directly to
can be toggled to line-level stereo. Check your your computer without the need for any external ampli-
computer manual to see if there is a switch on the fier or receiver. Simply connect the deck’s "line-out" RCA
computer itself or in the soundcard control panel. jacks to your computer’s "line in" jack, using a cable de-
On a few laptops the line-level source is called "mix" scribed above. You can also connect to the headphones
or "stereo mix", but on most machines "stereo mix" out jack of an integrated cassette deck or to that of an
will only record computer playback. amplifier connected to the tape deck. If you do this (or if
the "line-out" volume of your deck is adjustable), it is best
• On recent Windows laptops, notebooks or net- to set that level quite close to its maximum, and adjust the
books, there may be a "compliant" single port which recording level using Audacity’s input volume slider (see
will tolerate line level input and may provide stereo below). This helps keep the inherent tape noise to a mini-
input. Even if stereo, the quality may not be as high mum in the signal sent to Audacity. If the cassette you are
as that of a dedicated line-in port. playing has been encoded with Dolby ® as denoted by
the Dolby Double-D symbol, then you must enable Dolby
Always try line-level input first, and only use a micro-
playback on your tape deck, or the recording of the tape
phone input if you cannot otherwise get adequate record-
will sound over-bright. Before transferring your cassette,
ing volume.
you may want to clean and align your tape heads and
also clean the transport mechanism (capstan and pinch
roller). See the wiki page on Recording from Cassette for
Add a USB external soundcard for line-level input more details.
pre-amp and connect to your computer through a USB amplification and RIAA equalization are already built into
port. They can also be used to connect line level devices the USB turntable. There are also USB cassette decks
such as a cassette deck. available which are similarly designed to connect directly
to your computer’s USB port. There are some special
playback and recording device settings you need to ob-
serve when using USB devices - see Recording with USB
turntables or USB cassette decks
Advanced technique: It is possible to directly connect
a standalone turntable to the line input of a high quality
soundcard, if you are prepared to perform the amplifica- 2.39.5 Connecting a MiniDisc player
tion and RIAA equalization yourself in Audacity. Effect
> Equalization has a suitable RIAA preset. Discs pre- Some users find that the line-level output of MiniDisc
dating RIAA equalization such as 78 rpm’s sound too dull players is too strong for recording on a computer and
if recorded through a standard amplifier using RIAA play- causes distortion, since its level is not adjustable. If you
back equalization. A solution is to record without RIAA are encountering this problem, try connecting your ca-
playback equalization, either by connecting the turntable ble to the player’s headphone jack instead. Since the
directly to a soundcard with a "high-gain" input, or by us- strength of the headphone signal is easily adjustable,
ing a "flat" amplifier that applies only signal gain. The you can then reduce the signal level sent to the PC.
recorded waveform can then be re-equalized using an On most players, this means using the same shared line
appropriate pre-RIAA or 78 rpm playback EQ curve. Suit- out/headphones out socket/jack, but choosing the head-
able curves may be downloaded from the Wiki. phones out option in the player’s "Sound Out" Prefer-
ences menu. If you have a soundcard which has digital
outputs, connect from digital out of the MiniDisc player to
2.39.4 Connecting a USB turntable or USB the S/PDIF input of the soundcard.
cassette deck
2.39.6 Links
A USB turntable is a relatively new kind of turntable which
is designed to connect directly to your computer’s USB
> Forward to: How to set up Audacity
port. The concerns noted in the ’standalone turntable’
section above do not apply here, as the necessary pre- |< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
Many of our users are not only new to Audacity, but new Manual it’s another place to search for your answer. You
to recording or editing audio. Others may be more expe- do not need an account to use Audacity Wiki, unless you
rienced, but just hit a snag. Don’t worry. Here’s how to want to edit the pages to make them better. All useful
get help. edits are welcomed! To apply for a Wiki account please
write to our feedback address stating your reasons for
requesting an account.
2.40.1 Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ
2.40.3 Audacity Forum
Most common questions are answered in the Frequently
Asked Questions and this should be the first place where
you search for an answer to your problem. Still got a question? Then the Audacity Forum is a great
place to ask! A Forum member will have the answer, or
will point you to where you can find it.
For example if you are recording from a USB turntable topic is started! To reduce the number of emails, you can
and cannot hear the records in Audacity, try entering: always subscribe in "digest" mode, which combines each
USB turntable hear records day’s messages into one large email. If you only want to
ask a question every now and then, the Forum may suit
you better.
How to join
This is another place where Audacity users can get to- • Tell us exactly what version of Audacity you are us-
gether, learn about our application, share tips and ask ing (see Help > About Audacity, or Audacity > About
questions. The difference here is that this a mailing list, Audacity on a Mac computer)
meaning you usually send messages to the list by email
using your email application. You will also receive an • If this is a recording problem, tell us what equip-
email every time any other list member makes a post. ment you are recording with, and how it’s con-
Sometimes there can be a lot of emails if an interesting nected to the computer
98 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
If you are recording from a USB turntable, USB cassette • Windows: Choose the line-in option for your
deck or USB interface, please go to the set up instruc- connected sound device (for example, "Line-
tions at Recording with USB turntables or USB cassette In: Realtek HD Device"). Do NOT select
decks . "Microsoft Sound Mapper" or "Primary Sound
Capture Driver".
• Linux: Select the connected sound device.
2.41.1 Setting Up Audacity
• Mac: Select the "Built-in Audio: Line In" input
The Device toolbar is displayed by default in a new instal- device, or "USB Audio CODEC" if you are us-
lation of Audacity. If the Device toolbar is not visible, click ing an external USB audio adapter.
on View > Toolbars. 3. If you cannot choose your input source as de-
scribed above, or if the line-in input will not record,
you can use the operating system mixer device to
choose the required input. For instructions, see the
further help for Windows, Mac or Linux on our Wiki.
2.41.2 Monitoring
You may want to expand the width of Device Toolbar by
dragging right on the drag handle. Decide if you want to "monitor" your recording, that is
hear it played back as you make it.
1. Click on the Recording Channels dropdown menu
and choose whether to record in stereo or mono
2. Set the Playback Device and Recording Device Software playthrough
dropdown menus to the built-in computer sound de-
vice, or to the specific sound device your cable is Using software playthrough you can route the input to the
plugged into. output through the computer enabling you to hear what
2.41. HOW TO SET UP AUDACITY 99
you are recording. All such methods have latency and Set the volume level of your recording input
cause extra load on the computer.
Click on the downward pointing arrow in the Recording
• In Audacity for all platforms: Choose Software Meter :and click "Start Monitoring".
Playthrough in Recording Preferences or under the
Transport > Transport Options menu.
2.41.3 Links
If hardware playthrough is required, usually only needed
for overdubbing , it is best to use an external USB or > Forward to: Basic Recording, Editing and Exporting
Firewire audio device that has a headphones jack for no-
< Back to: How to connect your equipment
latency monitoring (such as the Behringer UCA 202 USB
or Zoom H2 USB). |< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
Chapter 3
The FAQs
To find your answer more easily, try using Ctrl + F( 3. What should I do if I have problems downloading or
CloverLeaf + F on Mac ) to search this page. installing Audacity?
4. How do I download and install the LAME MP3 en-
About Audacity
coder?
1. Is Audacity really free? Why?
5. How do I download and install the FFmpeg Im-
2. Does Audacity contain any spyware, malware or port/Export Library?
adware? 6. What Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins does
3. May I distribute copies of Audacity? Audacity support and how do I install them?
4. Someone is selling Audacity on eBay. Is this legal? 7. How can I solve Audacity not appearing or crashing
on launch, or crashing after I add a plug-in?
5. A search result misled me into paying for an Audac-
ity download. What can I do? 8. What should I do if I get errors building Audacity?
6. Audacity isn’t displaying in the expected or desired 9. Windows: How can I make Audacity launch when I
language. Can I change this? double-click a WAV or other audio file?
10. Mac: Why do I see "Verifying" or "Damaged" mes-
7. Will there be a version of Audacity for iPod, iPad or
sages when I launch Audacity?
other smartphones or tablet computers?
11. How do I reset my Audacity settings?
8. Can I run Audacity on a Chromebook laptop?
Recording - Troubleshooting
9. Does Audacity work with screen-reader applica-
tions for blind users? 1. Why can I not record in Windows?
10. What features does Audacity have for speech tran- 2. How can I prevent clicky recordings on Mac?
scription or speech recognition? 3. Why can’t Audacity see the audio device I just con-
11. Does Audacity run on 64-bit systems? nected?
12. Does Audacity support low latency ASIO drivers? 4. Why can’t I hear what I’m recording?
13. How do I find which Audacity version I have, and if 5. Why is there a delay or echo when listening to what
this is the latest version? I am recording?
14. Why doesn’t Audacity ship with an MP3 encoder? 6. Why do my recordings fade out or sound as if they
were made in a tunnel?
15. How can I help to improve Audacity?
7. Why is my new track out of sync with the previous
Installation, Startup and Plug-ins ones, or sounds crackly or at wrong pitch?
100
3.1. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) 101
8. Why can’t I record my electronic keyboard or elec- 4. Why is there a very low level hiss on exported files?
tronic instrument using the USB cable?
5. How can I pause playback so I can edit there?
9. Why doesn’t recording from YouTube (or other
streaming audio) work? 6. How can I play or export multi-channel (surround
sound) files?
10. Why do I get crackles, pops, or distortion when the
recording is loud? Opening and Saving Files
11. Why do I see a lot of vertical red lines in the track I 1. How do I save my audio for use in other applica-
just recorded? tions? Does saving a project (AUP file) do that?
12. Why is the Audacity recording slider grayed out on 2. Why does Audacity create a folder full of .au files
maximum? when I save a project?
13. How can I record without small skips or duplica- 3. Audacity crashed, or I no longer have the AUP
tions? project file! Can I recover the data?
14. Why does my recording keep pausing automatically 4. Can Audacity import or export formats like WMA,
or why is my recording cursor stuck? AC3 or iTunes files (M4A/MP4)?
15. Why do I get only a flat line and no sound when I 5. How can I export to formats not listed in the Export
try to record? Audio Dialog?
16. Why do I get a periodic noise every 6 - 12 seconds 6. Why do exported files not include Album Artist or
when recording? BPM metadata, Album Art or Lyrics?
17. How can I prevent a half-volume mono recording? 7. How do I import tracks from an audio CD?
18. How can I prevent unbalanced or poorly separated 8. How do I save my recording on an audio CD?
stereo recording?
9. How can I split a long recording into multiple files or
19. How can I correct an unbalanced stereo recording? CD tracks?
20. Why is the recorded waveform not centered on the 10. Why does Audacity warn about the name or nothing
horizontal line at 0.0? happens when I export?
Recording - How To’s 11. Why does my file import with a hatched pattern
then slowly change to a waveform?
1. How can I record in stereo?
12. I copied the .aup file to another computer or sent it
2. What is an optimal recording level to aim for?
by email to a friend; but now when I open it there’s
3. How do I record from vinyl records, cassette tapes no sound, why?
or MiniDiscs?
13. How can I backup my Audacity Projects?
4. Can I play a track while recording a new one on top
of it? Editing
5. Can Audacity record YouTube, internet radio or 1. Why can’t I use the effects or other menu items?
other streaming audio? 2. Why can’t I select less than one second or click be-
6. What is the maximum recording length? tween whole seconds?
7. Can I set Audacity to record at a certain time? 3. Why do I hear clicks when I remove or paste audio,
or at the start or end of the track?
8. Can I record from a multi-channel device (more
than stereo)? 4. How do I select audio in one track?
9. Can I record from two microphones (or even two 5. How do I extend or move the selected region into
soundcards) at the same time? other tracks?
10. Why do I see a lot of vertical red lines in the track I 5. Feature X is not good enough or missing.
just recorded?
Errors opening and recovering Audacity projects
11. Can Audacity preview or apply effects live, in real-
1. Why do I get "Error: not well-formed (invalid token)
time?
at line x"?
12. How do I convert a stereo track to mono, or mono
2. Why do I get "Error: Reference to invalid character
to stereo?
number at line x"?
Errors
3. Why do I get "Error importing" when opening an
1. Why do I get "Error opening sound device"? AUP file?"
2. Why do I get "FFmpeg Error - Can’t open audio 4. Why do I get "Error Opening File or Project: File
codec 0x15002" (or 0x15003)? may be invalid or corrupted"
3. Why does the computer reboot or show a blue 5. Why do I get "Error Opening Project: mismatched
screen message when I play or record in Audacity? tag at line x?"
4. I found a bug! Now what? 6. Other errors opening projects
> Forward To: FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plug-Ins Apple ID respectively. Please review independent veri-
fication of the Audacity software by visiting the virusto-
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions tal.com search page, entering "audacity" (without quotes)
in the search box and clicking the "Search it!" button. Visit
siteadvisor.com to view the report for audacityteam.org.
3.2.1 Is Audacity really free? Why? Audacity is always completely free and open source
when downloaded from us. It is developed by a not-for-
Yes, Audacity is completely free, open source software. profit volunteer group, and the source code is available
You are free to use this application for any personal, com- for anyone to study or use. Nonetheless, virus check-
mercial, or educational purposes, including installing it ers can occasionally report false positives for the Au-
on as many different computers as you wish. You are dacity installer for Windows (.exe). This can happen be-
also free to give it away, sell it, or modify it for your own cause Audacity uses a compressed installer. Some anti-
use, under the terms of the GNU General Public License. virus applications can also block installers if you run them
The authors of Audacity decided to release it under the from temporary space. Try downloading the installer to
GPL for many reasons. Some of us do it out of generos- your Desktop and running it from there. If you are con-
ity. Some of us do it for moral reasons, because we feel cerned about the safety of the installer, please feel free to
that all software should be free; others believe that there download the zip version of Audacity and check that for
is a place for both free and proprietary software. One viruses. Please report false positives about Audacity to
reason Audacity is free is so that it will be more popular the supplier of the security application so they can update
and useful. Yet another reason is to encourage collabora- their virus definitions. Also, SmartScreen filter in recent
tion. Because of Audacity’s free license, dozens of peo- versions of Internet Explorer (IE) or Microsoft Edge may
ple around the world have contributed code, bug fixes, complain that Audacity is not "commonly downloaded" or
documentation, and graphics. We welcome donations to say that "Windows has protected your PC" and ask you
support Audacity development. to confirm the download. This warning is normal and
will only occur (if at all) with a new Audacity release or
back to top download. The warning occurs because (in addition to
checking a list of known malware), IE checks a Microsoft
database of files that are "well known and downloaded
3.2.2 Does Audacity contain any spyware, by many Internet Explorer users". For more help, please
see this SmartScreen FAQ. Please take care when down-
malware or adware? loading any applications from the internet. See our ad-
vice Online safety when downloading.
No, if you always download Audacity from our website
https://audacityteam.org. We have a policy never to bun-
dle offers or other software with Audacity and we code-
sign Audacity on Windows and Mac with Microsoft and back to top
3.2. FAQ:ABOUT AUDACITY 103
3.2.3 May I distribute copies of Audacity? registered trademark in the USA and recognised as such
by Google, therefore if advertisements on Google.com in-
You can redistribute Audacity under the GNU General clude "Audacity" in the advertisement or link text you may
Public License, which gives you permission to modify, report this to Google. You can also complain to Google if
copy or sell the application as long as you keep the same the advertisement did not "accurately represent the prod-
license and make the source code available. We ask uct or service" - please tell Google in what way the ad-
vendors to give proper credit to Audacity, to add some vertising was not an accurate representation. If you paid
value to their product (for example by including video tu- money by credit card due to a fraudulent advertisement,
torials or openly licensed sound samples), and to offer you may be able to initiate a chargeback with your credit
customers technical support. See Advice for Vendors for card company. You need to show that the advertising
details. and website you visited was misleading. Generally you
should try to sort out a refund with the retailer first, but
back to top often they are very hard to contact and there is a time
limit of only a few days on requesting a refund.
operating system which ships on devices running ARM Window-Eyes and NVDA). However a few features, no-
architecture (such as Microsoft’s Surface with Windows tably Label Tracks , are not read. We still have to improve
RT tablet). There are many alternatives available for screen-reader support for Linux.
lightweight recording or editing on mobile platforms:
• Android:TapeMachine Recorder Unfortunately, Audacity 2.1.2 is not accessible for
• iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad: users of VoiceOver, and this was also the case for the
Audacity 2.1.1 release. However, an accessible version
– VC Audio Pro of Audacity 2.1.1 is available to download on the Mac
page of the Audacity website. The name of this acces-
– Hokusai
sible version is 2.1.1-vi. It is hoped that future versions
– iSaidWhat?! of Audacity will be accessible for users of VoiceOver. For
more information, see Accessibility . There are useful
• Symbian:Mixx Mobile links to free screen readers and support resources for
• Windows Mobile:WavePad for CE(free). the blind on our Wiki page Audacity for blind users.
3.2.8 Can I run Audacity on a Chromebook 3.2.10 What features does Audacity have
laptop? for speech transcription or speech
recognition?
You cannot run Audacity on a Chromebook because
Audacity does not support Chrome OS. However as Audacity is not specialised transcription or speech recog-
Chrome OS is based on Linux it is fairly easy to install a nition software, but has some useful features for those
Chrome version of Linux Ubuntu on your Chromebook. transcribing speech manually.
You can then install the Audacity package from Ubuntu’s • You can use Transcription Toolbar to play audio
repository using Synaptic or the Ubuntu Software Cen- more slowly (also lowering the pitch).
ter, or compile Audacity yourself from our source code.
Be aware that the repository versions of Audacity 2.0.6 • You can add labels at the playback position using
supplied with Ubuntu 15.04 and 15.10 are built with Ctrl + M (or CloverLeaf + . on Mac) then type into
a version 3 release of wxWidgets that 2.0.6 did not the label. Use File > Export Labels... to export a
support. For Ubuntu 15.04 or 15.10 you can install tab-delimited plain text file containing the text and
a recommendable PPA of Audacity 2.1.0 or later from audio position of each label.
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/audacity.• Audacity has many other configurable keyboard
Uninstall any repository version of Audacity you installed shortcuts that can be used to control playback and
before installing one of these PPA builds. Alternatively editing. However as yet Audacity has no global
you can install the WINE compatibility layer and run the shortcuts that work even if you have focus in an-
official Windows version of Audacity on Ubuntu. Note other application. Some mouse gestures (not yet
that Audacity may run slower under WINE than a native configurable) can also be used.
Linux build of Audacity. WINE should work fine on Intel
Chromebooks, but will not run on ARM Chromebooks, Foot pedals: Audacity has no built-in support for foot
such as the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook. pedals, but if you can install a suitable driver so that the
pedal delivers mouse clicks or key strokes, Audacity can
back to top be controlled by those. The pedal manufacturer might
be able to assist, or some pedals (for example, Vpedal
or X-keys) already come with software to map pedal but-
3.2.9 How accessible is Audacity for tons to specific keystrokes. Alternatively if your pedal is
motion- or visually-impaired users? recognised by the computer as a Game Controller or Hu-
man Interface Device, you may be able to use third-party
software such as AutoHotKey (Windows) to map pedal
Audacity has numerous keyboard shortcuts which can be
buttons to keystrokes. USB Overdrive can do the same
customised in the Keyboard Preferences . Most of Au-
on Mac for a USB pedal. Speech recognition: If you are
dacity can be wholly or partially used without a mouse,
looking for software that can recognise microphone input
with excellent keyboard navigation of the selection . A
or speech in an audio file and convert it automatically to
few features currently have no keyboard alternatives, no-
a text file, see Wikipedia’s list of speech recognition soft-
tably clips , Time Tracks and the Tools Toolbar tools
ware.
except Selection Tool . Audacity works well with most
screen-reader applications on Windows (including Jaws, back to top
3.2. FAQ:ABOUT AUDACITY 105
There is no 64-bit version of Audacity except on Linux 3.2.13 How do I find which Audacity ver-
64-bit systems. However 32-bit Audacity should run fine sion I have, and if this is the latest
in principle on 64-bit systems, subject to having appro-
version?
priate drivers for the sound device. Sufficient RAM must
be available to run Audacity smoothly and support the
greater memory requirements of 64-bit systems com- You can click Help > About Audacity...(or on a Mac
pared to 32-bit. Audacity > About Audacity...) to check the version
of Audacity you’re running. Clicking Help > Check
for Updates... opens the Audacity download page
Windows 64-bit http://audacityteam.org/download/ in your browser and
displays your Audacity version number in the browser ad-
On 64-bit versions of Windows, sound device drivers spe- dress bar. Whenever asking for help or reporting possi-
cific to the 64-bit operating system are essential. If up- ble bugs, please quote Audacity’s full three-section ver-
grading from a 32-bit to 64-bit operating system, a 64- sion number (for example, 2.1.1) and your exact oper-
bit capable computer is required, and the sound device ating system (for example, Windows 7 64-bit). back to
drivers must also be updated to a 64-bit version. top
3.3 FAQ:Editing
> Forward To: FAQ:Errors than one second of track visible, you will not be able to
click or select in the track until you zoom out or set Snap
< Back to: FAQ:Opening and Saving Files
To to "Off".
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
back to top
3.3.1 It’s Not Working! Why do I hear clicks when I remove or paste audio,
or at the start or end of the track?
Why can’t I use the effects or other menu items?
Clicks where audio is removed or pasted may be caused
Many menu items and other functions are disabled while by DC offset in the waveform or by poor selection of the
playing or recording. To enable them, press the Stop edit points. DC offset may also cause a click at the start
button . To stop playback and set the cursor where or end of the track, even if you do not edit the audio before
you stopped, so playback resumes from there, you can exporting . Make it part of your workflow to use the Nor-
use the keyboard shortcut X. All effects , most Edit Menu malize effect with "Remove any DC offset" checked as
items and Cut, Copy, Trim and Silence in Edit Toolbar soon as audio is recorded or imported. You can set the
require you to select the audio you want to change. Import / Export Preferences to run Normalize automati-
cally on all the project tracks when importing any audio
• To select a specific region of audio, click and drag
file. When removing or pasting audio, Select > Region
with the Selection tool enabled so as to highlight
> Ends to Zero Crossings can be used to move the cur-
the selected track.
sor point or selection boundaries to a safe position where
• To select all the audio in the project, choose Select the audio samples are at silence. This works very ef-
> All or its shortcut Ctrl + A. fectively on mono tracks. In stereo tracks, zero crossing
points may be in a different place on the left and right
• You can Pause during playback or recording then
channels, so Find Zero Crossings may still leave a click
use effect and other menu items, which will stop
in one of the channels. Splitting a stereo track to left and
the audio stream.
right channels then finding zero crossings on each chan-
• If you choose an effect or other menu item requir- nel will not help, because the cut or paste must be in the
ing a selection without making a selection, Audac- same place on each channel to keep synchronization.
ity will, by default, select all the audio in the project. The solution is to take care where edit points are posi-
You can disable this behavior in the Tracks Prefer- tioned in stereo tracks. For example, zoom in then try to
ences by unchecking Select all audio in project, place the selection edges or cursor point where there is
if none selected but menu items requiring a selec- silence, or at the onset of a strong beat (which will mask
tion will then be grayed out if there is no selection. any click). If none of these solutions are available, you
can fix a click by whichever of the following methods pro-
• If you Pause while Scrubbing or Seeking menu
duces the best-sounding result:
commands are greyed out for now.
• Use the Repair effect
back to top
• Apply a short linear fade in to the click
• Edit > Duplicate the selection to a new track un-
Why can’t I select less than one second or click be-
derneath, then crossfade the joins so they sound
tween whole seconds ?
seamless.
Change " Snap To " in Selection Toolbar to "Off". If Snap back to top
To is set to "Nearest" or "Prior", the selection edges or
cursor will be force-snapped to an exact time unit (for ex-
ample, whole seconds) or to the nearest sample or 3.3.2 I’d Like To...
media frame, according to the selection format chosen
in Selection Toolbar. "Nearest" or "Prior" determines How do I select audio in one track?
respectively whether the nearest or previous time unit,
sample or frame is snapped to. See Audacity Selection for an extended overview of the
principles of selecting audio.
If Snap To is set to "Nearest" or "Prior", selection • How do I select audio in one track using the
format set to seconds and you are zoomed in with less mouse?
3.3. FAQ:EDITING 107
were moving the selection, so as to deselect those can also use View > Mixer Board... to display the controls
tracks. for each track together in a separate window. When you
use File > Save Other > Export Audio... , the tracks will
– Keyboard users can press Up or Down to
be automatically mixed to an audio file for use in other
move the focus to the track from which the se-
applications. If you want to mix tracks together explic-
lection is to be removed, then press Enter.
itly before export, so that they are replaced with a single
Extending or moving the selected region into other tracks mixed track, select the tracks, then Tracks > Mix > Mix
only determines if the selected region appears in a track. and Render . For more details, see Mixing Audio Tracks .
It does not move the audio content of the selection. To
back to top
copy or move the content of a selection, use Edit > Copy
or Edit > Cut then Edit > Paste .See also:
• How do I select audio in one track? Can I remove the vocals from a recording to make a
Karaoke track?
back to top
6. Choose Edit > Paste IVR stands for Interactive Voice Response, a technology
that allows a computer to interact with humans through
7. Optionally, click the X track close button top left of the use of voice and DTMF tones input via keypad. back
the Track Control Panel on the tracks you cut the to top
audio from.
A time-saving alternative if you have many tracks to com-
bine is to choose Select > All , then Tracks > Align Tracks Why do I see a lot of vertical red lines in the track I
> Align End to End . This aligns the selected tracks one just recorded?
after the other so they follow the Timeline . If it’s more
convenient to make the result into one Audacity track, you This happens when you have an oversaturated record-
can then choose Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render .Press ing, where clipping has occurred, that is, the signal has
the green "Play" button to hear the result, and use the exceeded the maximum allowed level. The vertical red
File > Save Other > Export Audio... command to save it lines show where clipping has happened. The clipping
as an audio file. indicators can be turned on and off (Audacity’s default
setting is "off") by selecting View > Show Clipping . See
back to top the Audacity Waveform page for more explanation of how
the waveform is displayed.
How do I mix two tracks together? back to top
apply effects in real-time while recording or while oth- the resulting mono track will be reduced. The resulting
erwise writing data to the project. Advanced users can track will never clip if the original stereo track does not.
apply effects to recordings in real-time by applying the Alternatively you can use Split Stereo to Mono from the
effects in a VST host and routing the effect output to be Audio Track Dropdown Menu in the Track Control Panel
recorded by Audacity. See this Forum topic and ask on to create separate mono tracks for each channel. If you
the Forum if you need any help. want to discard one faulty or noisy channel entirely, use
the X button top left of the track, or select the track then
back to top
choose Tracks > Remove Tracks . Split Stereo to Mono
can also be useful if you are making a mix of multiple
tracks. You have more control using the Pan Sliders on
How do I convert a stereo track to mono, or mono to mono tracks than if you use the Track Dropdown Menu
stereo? to Split Stereo Track to left and right channels. There is
no general audio benefit in converting a mono track to
Use Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo down to Mono . This con- stereo. A mono track will already play on both speakers
verts the selected stereo track(s) into the same number of a stereo player. If you want to add an illusion of stereo
of mono tracks, combining left and right channels equally. space and depth, try this Pseudo-Stereo plug-in.
This command is not available for stereo tracks split into
back to top
left and right channels. Stereo Track to Mono mixes the
two channels together then reduces the volume of the > Forward To: FAQ:Errors
mix by -6 dB (halves the volume) to produce an aver-
< Back to: FAQ:Opening and Saving Files
age of the two channels. Therefore if one channel of the
stereo track is louder than the other, the peak volume of |< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.4 FAQ:Errors
> Forward To: FAQ:Errors on opening or recovering an 3.4.2 Why do I get "FFmpeg Error -
Audacity project Can’t open audio codec 0x15002" (or
< Back to: FAQ:Editing 0x15003)?
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
Error 0x15002 occurs if you export more than a 2-
channel M4A file (such as a 5.1 surround sound file), us-
ing the "M4A (AAC) Files (FFmpeg)" export choice. To
3.4.1 Why do I get "Error opening sound correct the error and export up to 8 channels, choose
device"? (external application) and specify a command that tells
Audacity to explicitly use the native FFmpeg AAC en-
This error message asks you to check the recording or coder. Error 0x15003 occurs if you export more than
playback device settings and the Audacity project sam- a 6-channel AC3 file. Six channels is the maximum pos-
ple rate . If the message mentions "recording device", sible for AC3.
it means there’s a problem with your Audacity, operat- back to top
ing system or sound device recording settings. If the
message mentions "playback device", it means there is a
problem with your playback settings. Either message can
suggest a problem with the drivers of the sound device, 3.4.3 Why does the computer reboot or
or possibly that you are asking the device to do some- show a blue screen message when I
thing it cannot do. For example you will see this error if launch Audacity or play or record?
you attempt to Record to more channels than your de-
vice supports, or if you try to overdub on a device that
This mostly affects Windows computers. It happens
can either record or play back but not both. The record-
when your computer sound device has a bad or mis-
ing device message most commonly occurs on Windows
matched driver or there is a problem with a system driver
when one of the sound device inputs is not properly en-
that interacts with that sound device. Even if the prob-
abled or otherwise cannot respond to Audacity’s request
lem occurs after updating to the latest Audacity version,
to start recording. For details of how to fix this please see
it still is not Audacity’s direct fault because Audacity does
Error opening sound device .
not have kernel privileges to make the computer restart.
back to top Inappropriate drivers can also cause Audacity to crash
110 CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
< Back to: FAQ:Errors 3.5.1 Error Opening Project: not well-
formed (invalid token) at line x
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions This page deals
with errors that you may encounter when opening or re- This usually means that when reopening the AUP project
covering an Audacity project .Most of these errors are file normally, Audacity finds an unexpected non-English,
caused by malformed or broken .aup files. accented or control character at the line quoted in the
3.5. FAQ:ERRORS ON OPENING OR RECOVERING AN AUDACITY PROJECT 111
error message. There are two main causes of this. 3.5.3 Error Importing: aup is an Audacity
• The project contains imported files whose meta-
Project file. Use the File > Open com-
data (like artist or genre) contains control char- mand
acters. This mostly occurs with iTunes files on Mac
where the project was created in an older version This error usually occurs because you have attempted to
of Audacity. open an Audacity project by using the Import command
• The project was saved containing non-English or (which is reserved for audio files). Instead, you should
accented characters using an old ANSI build of always use File > Open... to open an AUP ( Audacity
Audacity for Windows. ANSI builds are not prop- Project ) file. If you see "Error Importing" even when us-
erly Unicode aware, so do not support non-English ing File > Open..., this usually means the AUP file is seri-
or accented characters. ously damaged, has been encoded other than as UTF-8
without BOM, or only contains NULL (zero) data. NULL
– The latest version of Audacity will always fully contentsThe contents are NULL and unusable if you
support Unicode. You can check your Audac- open the AUP file in a text editor like Notepad or TextEdit
ity version at Help > About Audacity... (or Au- (on Mac) and see empty contents despite the file being
dacity > About Audacity on Mac). a non-zero size. The AUP file is saved last, so a NULL
AUP file can occur if you shut down the computer or close
If Audacity or the computer crashed, Audacity will try to
the lid on a laptop before the project is completely saved.
recover the project from its AUTOSAVE file, but the crash
Be sure to wait until the Audacity Status Bar says the
may have created a redundant line near the end of the
project is saved, or until all project save progress dia-
file that triggers the token error. Very occasionally, the
logues have closed, before shutting down the machine.
AUP file may become corrupted by one or more redun-
If the AUP file appears empty, try to use any backup you
dant lines, giving a token error even if there was no ap-
created, such a different AUP file for an earlier stage of
parent crash. To correct this, see remove redundant lines
the project, or an exported WAV file. Failing this, you
in an AUTOSAVE or AUP file . For details of how to fix
can try manual recovery of the project’s _data folder, but
this please see Error: not well-formed (invalid token) at
this only works for unedited recordings. File not saved
line x
as UTF-8 without BOMUsing Notepad on Windows to
back to top save an AUP file containing Unicode characters as UTF-
8 will create this problem because Notepad adds a BOM.
To solve it, open the file in Notepad++, choose Encoding
> Convert to UTF-8 then save the file. Old versions of
3.5.2 Error Opening Project: Reference to Notepad ++ may refer to the required command as Con-
invalid character number at line x vert to UTF-8 without BOM. If the problem occurred af-
ter editing the AUP file in TextEdit on Mac, resave the file
This error message usually means that when reopening as text in Brackets or BBEdit.
the AUP project file normally, Audacity finds an unex-
back to top
pected non-English, accented or control character at the
line quoted in the error message. There are three main
causes of this.
• The project contains imported files whose meta- 3.5.4 Error Opening File or Project: File
data contains symbols that Audacity cannot display. may be invalid or corrupted
This may create either the "(invalid token)" or "in-
valid character number" error
This error is seen if the file is completely empty (0 kB) or
• The project was saved containing non-English or for some cases of partial corruption of the file syntax. If
accented characters using an old ANSI build of the file is 0 kB, try to use any backup you created, such
Audacity for Windows. ANSI builds are not prop- a different AUP file for an earlier stage of the project, or
erly Unicode aware, so do not support non-English an exported WAV file. Failing this, you can try manual
or accented characters. recovery of the project’s _data folder, but this only works
for unedited recordings. If the file is non-zero size, you
– The latest version of Audacity will always fully
can try backing up the AUP file to another location, then
support Unicode. You can check your Audac-
open the file in Notepad++ for Windows (or Brackets or
ity version at Help > About Audacity... (or Au-
BBEdit for Mac) and examine if the syntax of the file is
dacity > About Audacity on Mac).
consistent and if the file is complete as expected. Com-
For details of how to fix this please see Error Opening pare with a known good AUP file to see what the AUP
Project: Reference to invalid character number at line x . contents should look like.
3.5.5 Error Opening Project: mismatched 3.5.6 Other errors opening project
tag at line x
There are a number of other errors that you might see re-
lating to the syntax of the AUP file not being quite correct,
such as:
This error usually means that for some reason, an
opened tag in the XML did not have the same name as • unclosed token at line x (for example, the final
the tag that was opened, or a nested tag (inside the tag) </project> tag is missing its ending ">"
was not closed correctly. Examples: Wrong - the clos- • no element found at line x (for example, the fi-
ing tag is "tag" instead of "tags" to match the tag that nal </project> tag is missing in an otherwise correct
was opened: file)
• junk after document element at line x
<tags> <tag name="ARTIST" value="Elton"/></tag>Wrong
- the closing "/" after "Elton" is missing: The best advice in these cases is to examine the line
quoted carefully, and don’t manually edit the AUP file un-
less it is unavoidable.
<tags> <tag name="ARTIST" value="Elton"></tags>Correct!
back to top
< Back to: FAQ:Errors
<tags> <tag name="ARTIST" value="Elton"/></tags>
back to top |< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
This error message usually means that when reopening 3.6.1 Solution for error caused by control
the AUP project file normally, Audacity finds an unex- characters
pected non-English, accented or control character at the
line quoted in the error message. There are two main
1. Make a copy of the AUP project file and open it in
causes of this.
a text editor. You can use the default Notepad on
Windows or TextEdit on Mac, but in a few instances
• The project contains imported files whose meta- these could change the AUP file in such a way that
data (like artist or genre) contains control char- Audacity could no longer open it. We recommend
acters. This mostly occurs with iTunes files on Mac instead Notepad++ for Windows and Brackets or
where the project was created in an older version BBEdit for Mac.
of Audacity.
2. Turn word wrap off in the menus (or in TextEdit,
• The project was saved containing non-English or drag the window horizontally so that lines do not
accented characters using an old ANSI build of wrap).
Audacity for Windows. ANSI builds are not prop-
3. In the line indicated in the error message, look for
erly Unicode aware, so do not support non-English
one of these:
or accented characters.
•
– The latest version of Audacity will always fully
support Unicode. You can check your Audac- • projname=
ity version at Help > About Audacity... (or Au- • name=
dacity > About Audacity on Mac).
• value=
If Audacity or the computer crashed, Audacity will try to • title=
recover the project from its AUTOSAVE file, but the crash
may have created a redundant line near the end of the then remove all characters inside the quotation
file that triggers the token error. Very occasionally, the marks that follow which are not a number or an
AUP file may become corrupted by one or more redun- A to Z letter. You could also change those char-
dant lines, giving a token error even if there was no ap- acters to a number or A to Z letter. For example, a
parent crash. To correct this, see remove redundant lines string of control characters you would want to re-
in an AUTOSAVE or AUP file . move or change might start with &# followed by
3.6. ERROR: NOT WELL-FORMED (INVALID TOKEN) AT LINE X 113
(such as D:), press Enter, and then type "cd" (with- to that Audacity file.
out quotes) then a space.
6. Then at the end of the file path, type a space, "-d"
5. Go up one level in Explorer then drag the icon for (without quotes) and another space then drag the
the Audacity installation folder into the command AUTOSAVE file into the Terminal.
window. The path "C:
Program Files (x86) 7. Press Enter to convert the file. You will see a mes-
Audacity" (or whatever it is) will appear. Press En- sage that the file has been decoded successfully.
ter to change the prompt to the path you dragged 8. In the "Mac OS" folder, right-click or Control-click
in. the AUTOSAVe file and choose the option to Copy.
6. At the end of the path, type "audacity" (without 9. Go to the "AutoSave" folder, hold CloverLeaf and
quotes), a space, then "/d" (also without quotes), Option then press V to move the converted AU-
another space, then drag the AUTOSAVE file into TOSAVE file back into the AutoSave folder. Now
the command window. Here is what an example you can make corrections to the file in a text editor.
should look like:
GNU/Linux:
C:
Program Files (x86) 1. Open a terminal.
Audacity> audacity /d "C:
2. Assuming Audacity is installed, type "audacity -d"
Program Files (x86)
(without quotes) then a space, then type the path
Audacity
to the AUTOSAVE file (or drag the AUTOSAVE file
My Project - 2015-07-01 14-12-35 N-2.autosave"
into the terminal). Here is an example:
7. Press Enter. You can see in Explorer that the AU-
TOSAVE file has been updated. audacity -d "home/al/.audacity-data/AutoSave/My
Project - 2015-07-01 14-12-35 N-2.autosave"
8. Now you can cut the AUTOSAVE file from the Au-
dacity installation folder, and paste it into the Au- 3. Press Enter to convert the file. You will see a mes-
toSave folder. Now you can make corrections to sage that the file has been decoded successfully.
the file in a text editor. Now you can make corrections to the file in a text
editor.
Mac OS X/macOS:
If none of the above helps to correct the invalid token
1. In the AutoSave folder, right-click or Control-click error, you can:
the AUTOSAVE file and choose the option to Copy.
• Ask for help on the Audacity Forum and attach the
2. Go to the folder Audacity.app is installed in, such as AUP or autosave file.
/Applications/Audacity, hold CloverLeaf and Option
then press V to move the AUTOSAVE file alongside • Try to recover the project manually , if it is an
Audacity. unedited recording.
3. Right-click over Audacity.app then choose "Show Problem still there? It probably means there is a spe-
Package Contents". cific problem with the syntax of the tags in the AUP file.
Copy the AUP file to another location, then open the file
4. Open the "Contents" folder then the "Mac OS"
in Notepad++ for Windows and Brackets or BBEdit for
folder.
Mac and examine if the tags of the file enclosed in angle
5. Open a Terminal then drag the Audacity file in the brackets < > are consistently open and closed and are
"Mac OS" folder into the terminal to display the path complete.
This error message usually means that when reopening This may create either the "(invalid token)" or "in-
the AUP project file normally, Audacity finds an unex- valid character number" error
pected non-English, accented or control character at the
line quoted in the error message. There are three main • The project was saved containing non-English or
causes of this. accented characters using an old ANSI build of
Audacity for Windows. ANSI builds are not prop-
• The project contains imported files whose meta- erly Unicode aware, so do not support non-English
data contains symbols that Audacity cannot display. or accented characters.
3.8. ERROR OPENING SOUND DEVICE 115
– The latest version of Audacity will always fully then remove all characters inside the quotation
support Unicode. You can check your Audac- marks that follow which are not a number or an
ity version at Help > About Audacity... (or Au- A to Z letter. You could also change those char-
dacity > About Audacity on Mac). acters to a number or A to Z letter. For example, a
string of control characters you would want to re-
Solution: move or change might start with &# followed by
1. Make a copy of the AUP project file and open it in four numbers and a semi-colon, such as &# 0
a text editor. You can use the default Notepad on 0 1 3 ;. For symbols there will usually be five char-
Windows or TextEdit on Mac, but in a few instances acters between the &# and a colon.
these could change the AUP file in such a way that 4. Save the changes to the .aup file.
Audacity could no longer open it. We recommend
instead Notepad++ for Windows and Brackets or 5. If you re-open the project and an error occurs at
BBEdit for Mac. another line, repeat the steps above in the new line
indicated in the error message.
2. Turn word wrap off in the menus (or in TextEdit,
Here is a real-world example of a corrupt line in the
drag the window horizontally so that lines do not
GENRE tag in a project where "Country" and "West-
wrap).
ern" were incorrectly separated using the control char-
3. In the line indicated in the error message, look for acter for a horizontal tab, also missing the closing semi-
one of these: colon: <tag name="GENRE" value="Country &# 0 0
0 9 Western"/>And the same line corrected so that
• the two words can be read into the project: <tag
name="GENRE" value="Country, Western"/>
• projname=
This error message asks you to check the recording or Sometimes a project rate change is all that is needed.
playback device settings and the Audacity project sam-
ple rate . If the message mentions "recording device", • Set the project rate bottom left of the Audacity win-
it means there’s a problem with your Audacity, operat- dow to the standard rate of 44100 Hz (or if your
ing system or sound device recording settings. If the soundcard only supports a particular rate such as
message mentions "playback device", it means there is a 48000 Hz, set the project rate to that). Help > Di-
problem with your playback settings. Either message can agnostics > Audio Device Info... should show the
suggest a problem with the drivers of the sound device, rates the device claims to support.
or possibly that you are asking the device to do some- • Try turning off Transport > Transport Options > Soft-
thing it cannot do. For example you will see this error if ware Playthrough (on/off) (this should never be en-
you attempt to Record to more channels than your de- abled if recording computer playback ).
vice supports, or if you try to overdub on a device that
can either record or play back but not both. • Try turning off Transport > Transport Options >
Overdub (on/off) because recording while playing
The recording device message most commonly occurs could stress your sound device or computer. If this
on Windows when one of the sound device inputs is not solves the problem, read the Wiki pages Updating
properly enabled or otherwise cannot respond to Audac- Sound Device Drivers and Managing Computer Re-
ity’s request to start recording. sources and Drivers for advice on how to make your
sound device or computer more capable.
3.8.1 Check Audacity Settings • Check in Device Toolbar that the playback and
recording devices are correctly and explicitly se-
lected.
It may be a good idea to try to play or record after check-
ing or changing each of the following Audacity settings. – On Windows, do not choose "Microsoft Sound
116 CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
Mapper" or "Primary Sound Driver" which it. Open Pulse Audio Volume Control and
point to the current Windows default device; check that there is an available output device.
choose the required device by name. Try se-
• If Jack Audio System is running on the com-
lecting "Windows Direct Sound" as the "Host"
puter, ensure that it is selected as the Host in
instead of "MME".
Device Toolbar.
3. Open the system Sound Preferences and check
3.8.2 Check operating system settings that a recording device is available. Sound Prefer-
ences is often available through a loudspeaker icon
on the Desktop, Desktop panel, or in the system
• Windows: Follow the Wiki instructions for Win-
Preferences menu.
dows to configure the Windows sound settings.
The key points are: 4. Open AlsaMixer (type alsamixer in a terminal win-
dow) and check the soundcard and recording de-
– Ensure all available inputs are listed and vice settings. To view the AlsaMixer manual, type
enabled in the Windows Control Panel. man alsamixer in a terminal window.
– Additionally for Windows: Ensure Default
Format for the playback and recording devices
contains the same sample rate and number of 3.8.3 Check sound device drivers and
recording channels as in Audacity. firmware
* Very rarely, it can help to use 16-bit or The computer’s built-in sound device should usually have
24-bit Default Format then change the Au-
the latest drivers for your operating system, supplied by
dacity Quality Preferences to that sample
the motherboard or computer manufacturer. A PCI or ex-
format.
ternal soundcard should usually have the latest drivers
* If necessary, put a checkmark in both Ex- and firmware supplied by the manufacturer of the device.
clusive Mode boxes then set the "Host" in See Updating Sound Device Drivers on the Wiki for help
Audacity’s Device Toolbar to "Windows Di- with correcting driver issues.
rectSound" and choose a project rate that
your playback and recording devices sup-
port. Audacity can then request that rate 3.8.4 Check PCI card or external sound de-
directly from the sound device. vice settings and connections
• Mac: In Finder, choose Go > Utilities > Audio MIDI
Setup.app. In "Audio Devices", select in turn the re- If you use a high-end PCI soundcard or external USB
quired Recording and Playback devices. Set "For- or Firewire interface, you must make the sample rate,
mat" to the same sample rate , bit-depth and num- bit-depth and number of input channels the same in
ber of recording channels as in Audacity. all possible places. This is especially important if you
are recording Multi-Track Overdubs where you play and
• Linux: record at the same time. Settings must match in:
While troubleshooting, ensure that Transport > Transport • the Audacity Project Rate
Options > Software Playthrough (on/off) is off. Only en-
able this option if you really need it, after you have estab- • the track(s) in Audacity (to resample tracks to the
lished that Audacity is recording correctly. Project Rate, select each track in turn then choose
Tracks > Resample... ).
1. In the first instance, try refreshing Audacity’s list of
• all inputs and outputs in the operating system
audio devices at Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
sound control panel or application
then select the default option in Device Toolbar . If
the error still occurs, recheck the Audacity settings • all inputs and outputs in any software or hardware
. control panel the sound device may have.
2. It is possible that another application may have ex- Make sure the device is connected properly. "Error
clusive access to the audio device. Try logging out opening sound device..." will occur if the device becomes
and back in again, then re-check the Audacity set- disconnected during an Audacity session and you then
tings before opening any other application that may try to play or record. Reconnect the device then choose
use the audio device. Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
• If pulse is an option in Device Toolbar, en-
sure that you have Pulse Audio Volume Con-
3.8.5 Links
trol (pavucontrol) installed. If it is not installed,
use your system’s package manager to install
|< FAQ:Errors
3.9. FAQ:INSTALLATION, STARTUP AND PLUG-INS 117
> Forward To: FAQ:Recording - Troubleshooting the entire folder containing Audacity to Trash. Uninstal-
lation retains your Audacity settings in case you want to
< Back to: FAQ:About Audacity
install Audacity again at some time in the future. If you
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions want to remove your settings as well, delete Audacity’s
folder for application data ( ~/Library/Application Sup-
port/audacity/). See also: How do I reset my Audacity
3.9.1 How do I install and update Audac- configuration settings?
ity?
• Windows: See Installing and updating Audacity on 3.9.3 What should I do if I have problems
Windows downloading or installing Audacity?
• Mac: See Installing and updating Audacity on Mac
If you cannot download Audacity from our official down-
• GNU/Linux: See Installing and updating Audacity load page https://audacityteam.org/download/ please
on Linux check at http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ to see if
the problem is with your connection. If the downloaded
back to top
setup file is corrupt, it’s a very good idea to clear the
download list or cache in your browser or download man-
ager then try downloading again. If problems persist,
3.9.2 How do I uninstall Audacity? please let us know at our feedback address.
Note that there is no need to uninstall your previous Au- back to top
dacity version before updating to current Audacity, unless
you are updating from 1.3.x Beta. Please see the Win-
dows installation page . 3.9.4 How do I download and install the
LAME MP3 encoder?
Windows
Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include
MP3 encoding software or distribute such software from
Audacity can be uninstalled by choosing "Add/Remove its own websites. Instead, use the following instruc-
Programs" or "Uninstall a application" in the Windows tions to download and install the free and recommended
Control Panel. Select "Audacity" from the list and follow LAME third-party encoder to export MP3 files with Au-
the instructions which will launch the Audacity uninstall dacity. See the LAME Legal Issues page for more details.
application. Make sure you quit Audacity before unin-
stalling, or you will receive errors that some files could • Windows: See the LAME installation section on
not be removed. If the Control Panel cannot uninstall Au- Installing and updating Audacity on Windows .
dacity, open the folder in which you installed Audacity and • Mac: See the LAME installation section on In-
double-click "unins000.exe" (this file might have other stalling and updating Audacity on Mac .
numbers in the name). This requires "unins000.dat" (or
similar) to be present in the installation folder. If you still • Linux/Unix: See the LAME installation section on
cannot uninstall Audacity, download the installer again. Installing and updating Audacity on Linux .
Install Audacity to the same location you installed it to
back to top
before (which happens by default). This will replace the
uninstall files with good copies, then you can run the
uninstaller again. Uninstallation retains your Audacity
settings in case you want to install Audacity again at 3.9.5 How do I download and install the
some time in the future. If you want to remove your set- FFmpeg Import/Export Library?
tings as well, delete Audacity’s folder for application data
whose location is given here . The optional FFmpeg library allows Audacity to import
and export a much larger range of audio formats includ-
ing M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA
Mac and also to import audio from most video files.Because
of software patents, Audacity cannot include the FFmpeg
Quit Audacity then drag Audacity.app to Trash. If you are software or distribute it from its own websites. Instead,
uninstalling older Audacity versions prior to 2.1.3, drag following the links below to instructions to download and
118 CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
install the free and recommended FFmpeg third-party li- due to a bad or mismatched audio driver (or due to a sys-
brary. tem driver conflicting with your sound device). See how
to inspect the computer’s memory dump or test its mem-
• Windows: See the FFmpeg installation section on
ory to diagnose crashes. LADSPA, LV2, VST or Audio
the Installing and updating Audacity on Windows .
Unit plug-insA hang or crash could occur after you use
• Mac: See the FFmpeg installation section on the the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Installing and updating Audacity on Mac . dialog to add new LADSPA , LV2 , VST or Audio Unit
(Mac) effects. The crash or hang could occur immedi-
• GNU/Linux: See the FFmpeg installation section
ately after pressing OK in the dialog, when using an ef-
on the Installing and updating Audacity on Linux .
fect, when exiting Audacity or when restarting it next time.
back to top If Audacity crashes immediately after you enable one or
more effects in the Plug-in Manager dialog, the effect(s)
that crashed should be disabled next time you launch Au-
3.9.6 What Effect, Generator and Analyzer dacity. They will be relisted in Plug-in Manager as "New"
plug-ins does Audacity support and rather than "Disabled". If Audacity crashes when an ef-
fect is launched from the Effect Menu or applied to the
how do I install them?
audio, you can restart Audacity then try disabling the ef-
fect in the Plug-in Manager. This effect will then not be
You can download and install plug-ins to add extra func- available in Effect Menu. Sometimes it may not be ob-
tionality to Audacity. Plug-ins can give you extra ef- vious which effects to disable to solve a hang or crash.
fects, or more audio generation and analysis capabilities. You might be able to identify offending effects from Au-
Nyquist plug-ins provide most of the optional effects un- dacity.zip if there is an Audacity Debug report . You can
derneath the divider in the Effect menu . They are also also try Windows Event Viewer (or more easily on Win-
used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio gen- dows, type "Reliability" without quotes in the Search box
erators and analysis tools . A wide range of additional to open Reliability Monitor). To view Mac reports, open
Nyquist effect, generation and analysis plug-ins can be /Applications/Utilities/Console.app then look at the Sys-
obtained from Download Nyquist Plug-ins on our Wiki. tem Diagnostic Reports. Should it remain unclear which
VST(Virtual Studio Technology): Audacity supports al- effects are responsible, it may be useful to reset Audacity
most all VST effect plug-ins on Windows, Mac and Linux to load only the enabled effects that it had on first instal-
including "shell" VST’s that host multiple VST effects. lation. To do this, go to Audacity’s folder for application
LV2 is a more advanced evolution of the LADSPA plug- data as follows:
in architecture which was originally developed on Linux.
VAMP plug-ins are usually for analyzing audio so will ap- • Windows:Users
pear under Audacity’s Analyze Menu . To add new plug- <username>
ins please see: AppData
Roaming
• Windows: See Installing Effect, Generator and An-
Audacity
alyzer plug-ins on Windows .
(or type %appdata% in Explorer)
• Mac: See Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer
plug-ins on MAC OS X . • OS X:~/Library/Application Support/audacity/ (use
Go > Go to Folder in Finder)
• GNU/Linux: See Installing Effect, Generator and
Analyzer plug-ins on Linux . • Linux:~/.audacity-data/ .
dacity a trusted application. Conversely if you have not be able to choose which one, then you will need to re-
run a virus scan for a while, update your security applica- name one to give them different names, such as audac-
tion to the latest virus definitions and perform a thorough ity.exe and audacity_old.exe. back to top
scan in case a newly acquired virus is the problem. ma-
cOS 10.11 El CapitanIf Audacity does not launch on El
Capitan with an error message "The application “Audac-
3.9.10 Mac: Why do I see "Verifying"
ity.app” can’t be opened", please see this advice. If you
see a message that Audacity is already running when or "Damaged" messages when I
you attempt to restart it, go to Task Manager (Windows), launch Audacity?
Activity Monitor (Mac) or similar to force quit Audacity.
back to top On OS X 10.7.5 and later, the Apple Gatekeeper fea-
ture by default verifies authorship of applications down-
loaded from the internet and controls whether they can
3.9.8 What should I do if I get errors build- be launched. Audacity is now codesigned with an Ap-
ing Audacity? ple Developer ID to make it easier to launch Audacity
securely. The first time you launch Audacity after down-
load, Gatekeeper will verify Audacity, perhaps showing a
Audacity provides ready-built installer applications for
progress dialogue, but once complete you will see a stan-
Windows and Mac, but Audacity can also be built from
dard warning saying that Audacity came from the internet
source code on any platform. With a little knowledge,
and asking if you want to open it. You can safely do so.
building is a great way to customize Audacity! For help,
please see the Wiki documentation for Windows, Mac
and Linux. If you still cannot build Audacity, please ask If after verification, Gatekeeper says that Audacity
on the Compiling Audacity board on the Forum. is "from an unidentified developer" or "not downloaded
• Please tell us whether you are building from a re- from the Mac App Store", this means you have an old
lease tarball or Audacity HEAD. version of Audacity that was not codesigned. If neces-
sary you can right-click or control-click over the Audac-
• On Windows, please give all the instances of "ER- ity application in Finder, choose "Open", then in the di-
ROR" in the Visual Studio output window (including alog box that appears, choose "Open", but we recom-
Linker errors). mend you download the current version of Audacity in-
• For Mac and Linux, please provide the last lines of stead. Occasionally, you may see an error message that
the configure or make output that fail. "Audacity is damaged and cannot be opened, possibly
with "You should move it to the Trash." If this message
– For Linux, also tell us which distribution and persists even if you right-click or control-click over Au-
release you are using (for example, Ubuntu dacity to open it, try downloading Audacity again from
11.10 or Fedora 16). http://www.audacityteam.org/download/mac. If neces-
back to top sary, you can open Apple menu > System Preferences...
> Security & Privacy: General tab. Under the header
"Allow apps downloaded from:", choose "Anywhere". On
macOS Sierra 10.12, the "Anywhere" choice is unavail-
3.9.9 Windows: How can I make Audacity able by default, but you can make the "Anywhere" choice
launch when I double-click a WAV or appear and set Gatekeeper to this choice by opening a
other audio file? Terminal and entering
sudo spctl –master-disable then entering your password
For Windows, click the Windows Start button, then Con-
when prompted. Audacity should now launch, assuming
trol Panel, then "Programs". Under "Default Programs",
it is not a corrupted download. It would then be advis-
click "Make a file type always open in a specific applica-
able to change the "Anywhere" preference in Gatekeeper
tion". Choose ".wav", ".mp3" or your chosen extension,
back to a more restrictive setting. On macOS Sierra, do-
then click "Change application..." and browse for Audac-
ing so will remove the "Anywhere" choice once more.
ity to associate it with that file type. Another method
is to use the Windows Start button, type "Run" (without back to top
quotes), press Enter, then type %windir%
system32
control.exe /name Microsoft.DefaultPrograms /page
pageFileAssoc and press Enter. On Windows you can
3.9.11 How do I reset my Audacity config-
instead set the default association of a file type with Au- uration settings?
dacity by right-clicking over any file of that type, choosing
"Open with" then "Choose default application...". If you Uninstalling Audacity does not automatically repair
have two different versions of Audacity, and you want to or reset your configuration settings in Audacity Pref-
120 CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
The optional FFmpeg library allows Audacity to import the Installing and updating Audacity on Windows .
and export a much larger range of audio formats includ-
• Mac: See the FFmpeg installation section on the
ing M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA
Installing and updating Audacity on Mac .
and also to import audio from most video files.Because
of software patents, Audacity cannot include the FFmpeg • GNU/Linux: See the FFmpeg installation section
software or distribute it from its own websites. Instead, on the Installing and updating Audacity on Linux .
following the links below to instructions to download and
install the free and recommended FFmpeg third-party li-
brary. 3.10.1 Links
• Windows: See the FFmpeg installation section on |< FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plug-ins
Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include • Mac: See the LAME installation section on In-
MP3 encoding software or distribute such software from stalling and updating Audacity on Mac .
its own websites. Instead, use the following instruc-
• Linux/Unix: See the LAME installation section on
tions to download and install the free and recommended
Installing and updating Audacity on Linux .
LAME third-party encoder to export MP3 files with Au-
dacity. See the LAME Legal Issues page for more details.
3.11.1 Links
• Windows: See the LAME installation section on
Installing and updating Audacity on Windows . |< FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plug-ins
3.12. FAQ:OPENING AND SAVING FILES 121
back to top
3.12.4 Can Audacity import or export for-
mats like WMA, AC3 or iTunes files
3.12.2 Why does Audacity create a folder
(M4A/MP4)?
full of .au files when I save a
project? Audacity as shipped can import or export the following
audio formats:
Audacity breaks long tracks into small pieces so it can
edit them more efficiently. When you save an AUP project • Uncompressed audio formats: most WAV and
file, Audacity stores all the pieces in a _data folder that AIFF files including all PCM variants
has the same name as the AUP file. For example, sav- • Compressed audio formats: Ogg Vorbis ,
ing "song.aup" saves the required data pieces as AU files FLAC and MP2
inside the "song_data" folder. To open the project, open
the AUP file then Audacity will load the AU files in the – MP3 can be imported using Audacity as
correct sequence automatically. A project you saved re- shipped, but to export as MP3 you must install
cently can be opened from File > Recent Files . the optional LAME encoder.
122 CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
You can install the optional FFmpeg library to import and many audio formats, especially the ID3 tags used by
export a much larger range of audio formats including MP3 , but less well supported in WAV .
AC3, AMR(NB), M4A, MP4 and WMA(on Mac only, Au-
• Metadata in imported MP2 and MP3 files (except
dacity can import unprotected M4A, MP4 and MOV files
for the default Metadata Editor tags "Artist Name",
without FFmpeg). Audio files that are DRM-protected
"Track Title", "Album Title", "Track Number", "Year",
to work only in particular software cannot be imported.
"Genre" and "Comments") will be exported as a
FFmpeg will also import audio from most video files or
"custom" ID3 frame. This means that exported cus-
DVDs that are not DRM-protected. You can export to
tom tags such as "Album Artist", "BPM" or "Com-
iTunes by exporting to any location on your computer
poser" will not be seen in Windows Media Player,
then add the file to the iTunes library . See Importing
Windows Explorer, iTunes or other software that ig-
Audio and the Export Audio Dialog for more help with im-
nores custom tags.
porting and exporting. If an audio file you want to import
is DRM-protected (for example, an older iTunes M4P file), • Relatively few audio applications or players are able
first burn it to an audio CD in the application that is li- to read WAV metadata produced by other applica-
censed to play it. Then rip the CD track to WAV or AIFF. tions, for example iTunes cannot do so. For iTunes,
You can also record the file as it plays on the computer if you can export to AIFF as an alternative lossless
your sound device supports this, though this may result format with metadata support.
in slight loss of quality.See also:
• For WAV files, Audacity exports metadata in a RIFF
• How can I export to formats not listed in the Export INFO chunk for all seven default tags plus "Copy-
Audio Dialog? right" and "Software". It also exports all the entered
tags as ID3 tags. Applications that can read ID3
back to top
tags in WAV files can read these tags.
• Some audio formats supported by the optional
3.12.5 How can I export to formats not FFmpeg library may not export complete metadata.
listed in the Export Audio Dialog? See this table for more information.
• For all formats, Audacity currently discards any ex-
If you install the optional FFmpeg library you can use the isting lyrics or album art when exporting. You can
(FFmpeg) choices in the Export Audio Dialog to export copy the lyrics (or search for them online) then add
M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA . If them back to the exported file in your favorite media
you do not see a choice for one of those specific FFm- player. Extract the album art using a tag editor such
peg formats, then the build of FFmpeg you are linking as IDTE (or use Windows Media Player or iTunes to
to was not compiled to support encoding in that format. search online for the art) then add the art back to
The most flexible method to export to more formats is to the exported file using your media player.
choose (external application) in the Export Audio Dialog
See also:
which opens the dialog for Audacity’s command-line en-
coder . Point your command to an encoder that supports • How do I download and install the LAME MP3 en-
the format you want to write to, which could be FFmpeg coder?
or some other encoder (for example, an alternative AAC
or MP3 encoder). On Windows, the recommended EXE • How do I download and install the FFmpeg Im-
installer of FFmpeg includes an ffmpeg.exe which you port/Export Library?
can use for this purpose. On Mac, you can download a back to top
standalone "ffmpeg" binary if you search online. Please
see formats supported by FFmpeg on the Audacity Wiki.
Alternatively you can export to some additional formats
3.12.7 How do I import tracks from an au-
supported by your build of FFmpeg by choosing Custom
FFmpeg Export in the Export Audio Dialog. dio CD?
back to top Audacity cannot import tracks directly from an audio CD.
You must use a separate application like Windows Me-
dia Player or iTunes® to extract (or "rip") CD tracks into
3.12.6 Why do exported files not include a format that Audacity can read, like WAV or AIFF .
Album Artist or BPM metadata, Al- Then you can import those WAV or AIFF files into Au-
bum Art or Lyrics? dacity. The only exception is that on Mac computers with
optical drives, CD tracks are mounted in Finder as AIFF
files so can be imported directly into Audacity. For more
When you export a file, by default Metadata Editor pops
detail see the tutorial Tutorial - How to import CDs .
up where you can add, delete or change embedded in-
formation about the file. Metadata is well supported by back to top
3.12. FAQ:OPENING AND SAVING FILES 123
3.12.8 How do I save my recording on an button, Audacity will save each song as a separate
audio CD? file, using the format and location you choose.
Alternatively, Audacity can attempt to detect the silences
After making a recording or editing a file in Audacity, fol- between tracks and label them automatically. See the full
low these steps to save your work on an audio CD. instructions at Splitting a recording into separate tracks .
1. Choose "WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM" or See also:
"AIFF (Apple) signed 16-bit PCM" in the Export Au- • How do I save my recording on an audio CD?
dio Dialog "Save as type" dropdown menu to export
to an audio file. back to top
to the warning, Audacity will not add the standard exten- 3.12.11 Why does my file import with
sion for the format. So if you need a period within the file a hatched pattern then slowly
name you must answer "No" to any warning, then add change to a waveform?
another period followed by the correct extension at the
end of the name. Otherwise the file may not be playable.
See this page: On-Demand Loading .
back to top
3.13 FAQ:Playback
> Forward To: FAQ:Opening and Saving Files sounds when audio goes through the recording or play-
back devices set as "Default Communication Device" in
< Back To: FAQ:Recording - How To’s
Windows. This feature can be useful when making or re-
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions ceiving internet phone calls but is undesirable for other
audio. To turn off this adjustment:
1. Right-click over the Speaker icon by the system
3.13.1 Troubleshooting clock then choose Sounds
Why have I lost sound after connecting a USB device 2. In the dialog that opens, click the Communications
on Windows? tab
3. Underneath "When Windows detects communica-
When you connect a USB audio device to a Windows tions activity", choose "Do nothing" and click "OK"
computer, it may automatically become the "default" de-
vice that is normally used for both playback and record- 4. On the Playback and Recording tabs, you can op-
ing. If the USB audio device is not meant as a play- tionally right-click over a device and set or unset it
back device for the computer (such as a microphone, as "Default Communication Device."
turntable or tape deck) you may lose sound in Audacity If there are other problems with audio inputs or outputs
or in most applications on your computer. You can fix the not interacting properly, make sure your sound device
problem as follows. Right-click over the Speaker icon by has the latest drivers specific to your particular com-
the system clock, choose Playback Devices, then right- puter model and operating system. The drivers should
click over the speakers or headphones device you are be obtained from the motherboard or computer manufac-
using, choose "Set as Default Device" and click "OK". turer’s website, or if not available there, from the sound
Alternatively, you can disconnect the USB device from device manufacturer’s website. For more help, see our
the computer after you have finished recording. Note: Wiki page Updating Sound Device Drivers. Also note that
To hear audio while you are recording, ensure "Soft- Skype can sometimes manipulate playback and record-
ware Playthrough" is "on". This can be toggled on/off ing levels when it is running, even if not being used. See
by clicking Transport > Transport Options > Software also:
Playthrough (on/off) .
• Why do my recordings fade out or sound as if they
back to top were made in a tunnel?
back to top
Why does playback go quiet when I record or adjust
the recording volume?
Why do I hear clicky playback on Mac?
You may notice this on Windows 7 or later, for exam-
ple when recording overdubs while playing an existing This is most likely to occur if you use Soundflower or an
track. This system setting turns down or mutes other external USB or Firewire playback device rather than the
126 CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
built-in audio output. The problem can usually be fixed by Real-time preview effects are always available in the Ef-
opening Recording Preferences and adjusting the "Audio fect menu. Playback remains paused after you open the
to Buffer" setting which also affects playback. Reduce the effect, but you can stop then restart playback to adjust
setting to 0 milliseconds. If playback breaks up or does the effect while listening, and Audacity will stop playback
not start, increase "Audio to Buffer" in increments of 10 when you apply the effect. You must still make a selection
milliseconds until playback is smooth. Sometimes run- for the effect to act on.There are many other alternative
ning other audio applications while Audacity is running workflows, depending on your purpose. Here are two ex-
can cause clicky playback in Audacity. This might be the amples:
case if you are running another audio editor, iTunes or
QuickTime Player. If you are playing a recording that you • Instead of stopping at each edit point, keep playing
made in Audacity and the clicks are at the same place on and use Ctrl + M ( CloverLeaf + . on Mac ) to add
every playback, you may need to redo the recording at a label when you hear each point of interest. After
the lower buffer settings. See also: stopping, click in any label to set the cursor there
for editing.
• How can I prevent clicky recordings on Mac?
• While playing and listening for an edit region, use
back to top [ on your keyboard when you hear the start of the
audio you are interested in, then press ] when you
hear the end of the audio of interest. The ] shortcut
Why is there a very low level hiss on exported files?
draws a selection region from the point where you
pressed [ to the point where you pressed ]. Now
Deliberate low-level noise is normally added when you you can press Space twice to easily stop playback
downsample to a lower sample format , for example then play that selection.
when you export from a project at default 32-bit depth to
a 16-bit WAV or AIFF file, or when you run effects on You can change any of the above shortcuts in Keyboard
a project containing 16-bit audio. The additional noise is Preferences . See Navigation Tips for useful ways to find
known as dither and is generally beneficial. Dither pre- the audio you want to edit then mark points or regions for
vents clicky noises which might otherwise occur due to cutting.
not being able to accurately represent 32-bit values in a
16-bit format. If you still want to turn dither off for all data back to top
processing (including export) you can do so at "High-
quality Conversion" in Quality Preferences . Alternatively
you can turn dither off just for the export step. This may How can I play or export multi-channel (surround
help avoid cumulative dither noise if you are exporting sound) files?
regularly over the same file.
back to top Audacity can export multi-channel files by enabling "Use
custom mix" in Import / Export Preferences . You will
need to adjust the mapping of tracks to channels in Ad-
How can I pause playback so I can edit there? vanced Mixing Options according to the channel order of
the format you are exporting to, though some files or play-
Audacity cannot apply effects or change the audio while back software/hardware might not necessarily respect
playback is paused. To stop playback and set the editing that order. However Audacity playback is currently lim-
cursor where you stopped, it’s easiest to press X on your ited to mixing down tracks to mono or stereo (two chan-
keyboard to "Stop and Set Cursor" (if there is a selection nels). Therefore playback will only reach two channels of
region , X trims the left edge of the selection to start at the the device unless you configure the device to duplicate
stop position). Use either Space or X to restart playback audio to other channels. Many playback systems also
from the stop position. Note that except for Scrub or Seek have optional "bass management" where you can route
playback , using Space or the Stop button to stop will the bass signals in a stereo signal to the low frequency
leave the editing cursor where playback started - proba- channel for the subwoofer speaker.
bly not what you want. You do not always have to stop
paused playback yourself. If you have a selection region, back to top
you can still access many menu items when paused and
Audacity will stop playback so as to apply your change to > Forward To: FAQ:Opening and Saving Files
that region. If there is no selection region, Audacity will < Back To: FAQ:Recording - How To’s
stop playback but will warn you that no audio is selected
to act on. |< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.14. FAQ:RECORDING - HOW TO’S 127
> Forward To: FAQ:Playback 2. Plug one end of a stereo cable into the "Line Out"
or "Headphone" connector on your tape deck, Mini-
< Back To: FAQ:Recording - Troubleshooting Disc player, or stereo system. Plug the other end
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions into your computer’s "Line In" port. If you do not
have a suitable cable, you can find one at an elec-
tronics store.
3.14.1 How can I record in stereo? 3. Choose "Line In" as the recording source in Audac-
ity’s Device Toolbar or Devices Preferences .
Audacity by default should already be set to record in 4. Press the red Record button. While Audacity is
stereo. If this is not the case, use Device Toolbar to se- recording, start playing your tape or disc. When you
lect the playback and recording devices and to set the have captured the audio you want to record, press
channels to "2 (stereo) Recording Channels". Alterna- the Stop button. You can also press the Pause but-
tively you can open the Audacity Preferences , choose ton to pause recording, and Pause again to resume
the “ Devices ” section on the left, then in the "Record- recording on the same track.
ing" panel, change the number of recording channels to
For a detailed tutorial, see Copying tapes, LPs or Mini-
"2 (Stereo)". Windows: Many USB recording devices,
Discs to CD . This covers all the steps from recording
even if stereo, are seen as "microphones" so set by Win-
your records, cassettes or MiniDiscs to exporting as an
dows to record in mono. If Audacity is set to record in
audio file and burning to an audio CD . Vinyl or shellac
stereo this will cause both channels to have the same
records can also be recorded into Audacity with a special
content as one of the channels. To set Windows to record
type of turntable that connects to the USB port of your
the device in stereo:
computer. These turntables need to be set up differently
1. By the system clock, right-click over the Speaker from those that connect to line-in. See Recording with
icon > Recording Devices then right-click over USB USB turntables or USB cassette decks for setup instruc-
Audio Codec > "Properties" tions, then Basic Recording, Editing and Exporting in the
main tutorial. Connection hints:
2. On the "Advanced" tab, in the "Default Format" sec-
tion, make sure the dropdown menu is set to "2 • Do not connect a turntable directly to your com-
channel 16-bit 44100 Hz". puter. The signal from a turntable must be passed
through a phono pre-amplifier or a receiver with
back to top a “phono” input that provides phono amplification.
Otherwise, it will be too quiet and will also sound
"tinny" due to incorrect equalization.
3.14.2 What is an optimal recording level • Do not plug stereo equipment into your com-
to aim for? puter’s “Microphone” port. This port is usually
designed only for low level, mono microphone in-
Using the Recording Volume Slider on Mixer Toolbar to put. It will produce distortion if you connect phono
adjust the level, aim for a maximum peak of around –6 amplified output. Use the “Line In” port if you have
dB on the Recording Meter (or 0.5 if the meter is set to one (on some laptops or other portable computers,
linear scale). This should ensure that clipping will be the "Mic" port can be switched to a line-level input).
avoided. The recording will only show a maximum peak See further help .
of around 0.5 on the default waveform display, but given See also:
how the ear hears sound, this is actually much louder
than apparent "half volume". You can boost the level if • How to split a long recording into multiple files .
necessary after recording and editing by using Effect > • How do I save my recording on an audio CD?
Amplify or Effect > Normalize .
back to top
back to top
with yourself, or add new instruments or vocals to an ex- Audacity settings, stereo recording takes 1.2 GB of space
isting recording. To do this in Audacity, follow these in- per hour. After recording you will still need space to ex-
structions: port the recording as an audio file for your computer.
Editing the recording before export takes extra space.
1. Select the recording device you are plugged into
Each edit of a region requires as much extra disk space
(probably microphone or line-in) in the Recording
as was required to originally record that section.To get
Device menu in Device Toolbar
more recording time:
• If you do not see your required recording de-
• Delete your old files and folders (especially your old
vice, enable it and make it default in the oper-
Audacity Project files and _data folders when you
ating system’s mixer, then in Audacity, choose-
have finished with them)
Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
• Select an alternative drive that has more space in
2. Import or record the first track
the Directories Preferences (but do not record to
3. Choose {Transport > Transport Options > Overdub an external USB or Firewire disk because record-
(on/off) ing needs disk access to be as fast as possible)
4. Press the Record button . • Record in mono instead of stereo (settable at
"Recording Channels" in Device Toolbar or in De-
If you are recording from a microphone, make sure you vices Preferences )
use headphones so that the microphone picks up only
what you are recording. Detailed, illustrated instructions • Set the "Default Sample Format" in Quality Pref-
on how to make overdub recordings are in Tutorial - erences to 16-bit instead of 32-bit (this is a good
Recording Multi-track Overdubs . See also: choice for a "quick recording" which you export at
once without editing).
• Why isn’t my new track in sync with the previous
ones? See Recording length for more details.
• Why can’t I hear what I am recording? back to top
• Why can I not record in Windows?
back to top 3.14.7 Can I set Audacity to record at a cer-
tain time?
3.14.5 Can Audacity record YouTube, inter- Yes! See Timer Record in the Transport menu . You can
net radio or other streaming audio? also make Audacity stop recording after a certain time
limit without using the Timer Record feature, by following
• With most Windows and Linux audio devices, it is these steps:
possible to record whatever sound the computer is
1. Turn on "Overdub: Play other tracks while recording
currently playing, including internet radio streams.
new one" in the "Recording" section of the prefer-
• Mac users can capture streaming audio using third- ences (you can also turn Overdub on or off in Trans-
party standalone applications or system exten- port Menu)
sions.
2. Choose "Add New > Mono Track" from the Tracks
See the Recording audio playing on the computer tutorial menu (even if you will record in stereo).
for details, following the link thereon for your particular
3. Zoom out if necessary, then click and drag to select
operating platform.
the amount of time you want to record.
back to top
4. Start recording. Audacity will stop recording auto-
matically when it reaches the end of the selected
area.
3.14.6 What is the maximum recording
length? back to top
drivers. There are some known Audacity limitations in 1. Right-click over the speaker icon
channel selection and channel-to-track allocation. It is by the system clock, then choose
essential that sample rates are matched in all places (Au- "Recording devices".
dacity, the operating system and the device). See this
2. Right-click over the first device,
Wiki article for more details.
choose "Properties" then the "Listen"
back to top tab (if available).
3. Check "Listen to this device" and set
it to play through the required sound-
3.14.9 Can I record from two microphones
card.
(or even two soundcards) at the
same time? 4. Repeat the steps for the other de-
vices.
Audacity can only record from one sound device at a 5. Use the "stereo mix" feature on your
time, but here are some solutions. soundcard (if it has such a feature) to
• record the computer playback .
• If your sound device has separate left and right mic * Alis can capture simultaneous recordings
inputs, connect the separate microphones to those from different soundcards.
inputs.
* Advanced: Compiling Audacity with
• Connect the separate microphones to a mixer and ASIO support will allow you to aggregate
record from the mixer. two USB microphones, for example us-
ing the ASIO4ALL driver for WDM Audio.
• If these are dynamic microphones that do not need Aggregating two devices that use ASIO
extra power, buy an adaptor that has two inputs for drivers is unlikely to work correctly.
the microphones with a single 1/8 inch TRS con-
nector for the computer microphone port (this will – On Mac OS X use Audio MIDI Setup to aggre-
usually only give you a combined mono input). gate devices. See detailed instructions for OS
X 10.7 or later.
• Record each track to different computers.
– On Linux you can use JACK to route two
• If you have two USB microphones or any other sep- devices to one stream that Audacity can
arate sound devices you can aggregate them as a record from. See also these two Forum post-
single device for recording in Audacity, or use other shttps://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5
recording software to record the two devices to sep- .
arate tracks.
Separate audio devices such as two USB micro-
– On Windows you can try the following. phones or devices on different computers will have
* Some applications can route two devices separate clock speeds (in the absence of a master
to one stream. Use Voice Meeter (dona- clock to synchronize to). Therefore the two inputs
tionware - see this YouTube video tutorial) may drift apart over time. back to top
or Virtual Audio Cable (not free).
> Forward To: FAQ:Playback
* It may also be possible on Windows to use < Back To: FAQ:Recording - Troubleshooting
the "Listen" feature to route inputs to the
output, though this is slightly lossy. |< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
> Forward To: FAQ:Recording - How To’s 3.15.1 Why can I not record in Windows?
"Error while opening sound device"? for more details on 3.15.3 Why can’t Audacity see the audio
this error. If your Audio Host is not already set to MME device I just connected?
(the Audacity default) in Device Toolbar, try changing it to
MME as this host is the most compatible with all audio
Built-in audio devicesGenerally, if you connect a cable
devices. To investigate this further, exit Audacity then on
to one of the inputs of the built-in audio device, Audacity
Windows, right-click over the Speaker icon by the sys-
will be able to record immediately from that device. If not,
tem clock and choose Recording Devices. This opens
on Windows go to the "Sound" control panel and make
the Recording tab of Windows "Sound". Follow the steps
sure the device is enabled. On Mac, you can configure
on our instructions for Windows "Sound" to show then
devices in /Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup.app.
enable all disconnected and disabled recording devices.
On Linux systems that use PulseAudio, install and open
Many new Windows laptop, notebook or netbook com-
PulseAudio Volume Control. Restart Audacity after mak-
puters only have a single audio input port. This will often
ing changes to system audio. On systems with only one
be a mono port only meant for microphones. On some
audio port for both input and output, you may need to
machines this single port may also be able to accept
change the output to an input. On Windows you can
stereo line level input which is essential to record from
do that in the soundcard’s own control panel. On Mac,
standalone cassette decks or home audio systems. How-
use the Input tab of "Sound" in System Preferences and
ever the stereo quality or separation may be poor. See "
change the “Use audio port for:" menu to "Sound Input".
How to connect your equipment " before connecting high
External audio devicesAudacity does not automatically
output devices to a sole input. See also:
search for new external playback or recording devices
• Can Audacity record YouTube, internet radio or (such as headsets, turntables or microphones that con-
other streaming audio? nect by USB cable) if you connect these while Audacity
is already running. To solve this, make sure the device
back to top
is detected by the operating system , then either restart
Audacity or use Transport > Rescan Audio Devices in the
Audacity Menu Bar .
3.15.2 How can I prevent clicky recordings
on Mac?
For most larger audio interfaces it is essential that
There are several possible fixes. you install the latest drivers and/or firmware for your oper-
ating system from the interface manufacturer’s site. Oth-
• Open Recording Preferences and adjust the "Au- erwise, the device may not be detected or may not work
dio to Buffer" setting. Reduce the setting to 0 mil- correctly. See also:
liseconds. If recording breaks up or does not start,
increase "Audio to Buffer" in increments of 10 mil- • Why do I get "Error while opening sound device"?
liseconds until recording is smooth.
• Why is my new track out of sync with the previous
• If you are recording from an external ones, or sounds crackly or at wrong pitch?
USB or Firewire interface, open /Applica-
tions/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup and select the de- • Can I record from a multi-channel device (more
vice. On the Input tab, make sure that the sample than stereo)?
rate and number of channels matches with those back to top
chosen in Audacity.
• Turn off WiFi.
• Mitigate power saving features in Mavericks or later 3.15.4 Why can’t I hear what I’m record-
that can interfere with recordings. ing?
– Right-click or Control-click Audacity.app then
"Get Info" and enable the "Prevent App Nap" To listen while Audacity is recording, enable what is
checkbox. This should prevent the Mac putting known as software or hardware playthrough as explained
Audacity into a paused state when it does not below. If you use software playthrough and want to listen
have focus. to the input without recording it, you must also left-click
in the Recording Meter Toolbar to turn on monitoring . In
– A few users have reported that Antipop helps. the Recording section on the left, put a checkmark in the
This prevents the Mac shutting down the audio “Software Playthrough” box and click OK. You can also
system when there is no playback. turn Software Playthrough on and off in the Transport >
See also: Transport Options menu. This type of playthrough has
latency, so you will hear what you are recording a notice-
• Why is my new track out of sync with the previous able time afterwards. You could also experience audio
ones, or sounds crackly or at wrong pitch? breakup.
3.15. FAQ:RECORDING - TROUBLESHOOTING 131
3.15.7 Why is my new track out of sync a particular rate such as 48000 Hz, set the project
with the previous ones, or sounds rate to that). Look at Help > Audio Device Info... to
crackly or at wrong pitch? see the rates the device claims to support.
• If you are recording with a USB or Firewire inter-
When you make an overdub recording (listening to an ex- face, sample rates and number of recording chan-
isting track while recording a new one), computers can- nels must be the same everywhere. Match the
not lay down what you record at the exact instant you Audacity project rate and the number of recording
sing or play in response to the beat. Therefore without channels set in the Audacity preferences with those
intervention, the recording inevitably gets laid down after specified:
the beat. Audacity tries to correct for this "recording la-
tency" automatically by pushing the recorded track back- – in the Windows Control Panel or Apple Audio
wards after recording stops, but further adjustment may MIDI Setup
be needed. If a new track is not synchronized with the – in any software control panel the device has
others, you can zoom in and use Time Shift Tool ( short-
cut F5 ) to drag the track to the correct location. If you are – on any hardware control the device has.
doing a lot of overdubbing, try our Latency Test to set a
• Ensure your USB device is connected to a spare
custom value for Audacity’s latency correction which can
USB port of the computer and not to a USB hub.
then be applied in Recording Preferences .
Tutorial - Recording Multi-track Overdubs gives a step- • If you are on Windows:
by-step guide for manually correcting for latency. Record- – Set the Audacity project rate to the same rate
ing while playing is much more demanding for the sound as the Default Format for your sound device.
device than simply recording. Hardware and sound driver To view the "Default Format", go to the Win-
problems or sample rate mismatches between Audac- dows Control Panel, select the Playback" and
ity, the operating system and the sound device can cause "Recording" tabs in turn, right-click over a de-
poor audio quality or make tracks play and record at dif- vice entry > Properties, and look in the "Ad-
ferent speeds. If a new track is being recorded at a differ- vanced" tab. If the playback and recording for-
ent speed, it will progressively drift apart from the beat of mat rates are different, make them the same.
the other tracks, so latency correction will never synchro- Also make sure the number of recording chan-
nize it correctly along its entire length. To fix speed drift, nels set in the Audacity Preferences matches
pitch and quality problems, try the following tips. with that specified in Default Format.
• Use the same device for playback and recording. – If that does not help, select Windows Direct-
• Ensure your sound device has up-to-date drivers Sound as the "host" in Device Toolbar in Au-
specifically intended for your particular computer dacity. On the "Advanced" tab of "Sound"
model and operating system, as provided by the in the Windows Control Panel, ensure both
motherboard or sound device manufacturer. En- boxes for Exclusive Mode are checked. For
sure USB or Firewire devices have the manufac- this to work, the Audacity project rate must be
turer’s latest firmware. a rate supported by your device and all other
sample rate settings must be at that same
• If you hear crackling while playing and recording at rate.
the same time, try increasing the "Audio to buffer"
setting in Recording Preferences . On Mac you may • If you suspect recording dropouts as the cause of
need to reduce the Audio to buffer setting, even if loss of synchronization, read our tips about manag-
only recording. ing computer resources.
• If crackling occurs while playing the tracks together, To fix recordings already made which are out of step with
check if the Playback Meter’s red clipping warn- other tracks, you can use Effect > Change Speed... .
ing is showing, which would indicate the combined Only a very modest speed change will be needed. back
volume of the tracks is too loud. To fix the clipping, to top
use the gain sliders on one or more tracks to reduce
the overall level.
• Make sure the rate of the pre-existing tracks (as 3.15.8 Why can’t I record my electronic
stated above the mute/solo buttons) is the same as keyboard or electronic instrument
the project rate. Select the tracks and click Tracks using the USB cable?
> Resample... to resample the track to the project
rate.
The USB connection on electronic keyboards, pianos,
• Set the Project Rate bottom left of the Audacity drum machines or other electronic instruments is often a
screen to 44100 Hz (or if your soundcard only uses MIDI connection containing instructions with which MIDI
3.15. FAQ:RECORDING - TROUBLESHOOTING 133
software like Finale or Cubase can create notes of spe- 3.15.10 Why do I get crackles, pops, or
cific pitch and duration. Audacity cannot yet accept MIDI distortion when the recording is
input, so it can only record an audio signal (the actual loud?
sound that the keyboard produces). If your keyboard
manual says you can send audio over USB but there is
a problem, try tightening or replacing the USB cable, en- If you hear crackles, pops, or distortion when the record-
sure it is connected directly to a spare USB port on the ing is loud, or if the waveform is clearly touching the top
computer, then restart Audacity or the computer. In the and bottom edges of the track, you probably have clipping
absence of a USB audio output: , which means that the signal has exceeded the maxi-
mum allowed level. Try lowering the recording level using
• connect from the AUX or Line outputs of the key- the Audacity Mixer Toolbar or the slider in the operating
board to the line-in (blue) port of the computer system. You can also check to see if you can lower the
volume on the input source itself (such as the tape deck,
• if there is no AUX or Line output, connect from the record player or microphone). Many soundcards and
headphones out of the keyboard to computer line- USB turntables or USB tape decks have an independent
in volume control for the playback signal level. See Record-
ing with USB turntables or USB cassette decks for more
• record using a high quality microphone - see help with USB turntables or tape decks. When record-
Connecting a Microphone ing, try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6 dB
in the Recording Meter so as to prevent the meter’s red
• some keyboards may have a function to record di- clipping warning coming on. If the meters are set to lin-
rect to a USB flash or hard drive - choose WAV for- ear , the equivalent level to aim for is 0.5. Clicking and
mat if available if you want to edit the recordings in dragging on the meter’s right edge lets you expand the
Audacity. meter to gauge levels more easily. After recording, you
can boost the level safely using the Amplify or Normal-
Connecting from headphones out will disconnect the key-
ize effects. Help with repairing clipped recordings: If
board speakers. In this case you can use an adaptor
there is only a small amount of clipping (just the tops
that doubles the headphones out, or enable Transport >
of a few isolated peaks), Effect > Clip Fix can be applied
Transport Options > Software Playthrough (on/off) in Au-
to just the clipped sections. This will attempt to recon-
dacity to listen as you record. See Tutorial - Connect-
struct the missing peaks by interpolating the lost sig-
ing an Instrument for details and images of suitable au-
nal. In other cases where there is mild distortion through-
dio connectors.Many new laptop computers these days
out a recording, using Effect > Equalization... to reduce
only come with a mono "microphone" (pink) input which
the higher frequencies can help to mitigate the damage.
will distort if you connect a keyboard to it. Occasionally
Sometimes a bass cut will help also by making the result
the pink input can be switched to stereo line level in the
sound less "muddy". If you are recording overdubs , note
audio control panel or may be "compatible" with stereo
that when multiple tracks are mixed together their volume
line level (this may not be of highest quality). Check
is combined. This may make the mix clip, even if the indi-
your computer manual or experiment connecting from the
vidual tracks did not. To fix it, use the gain sliders on one
keyboard headphones out with the volume turned well
or more tracks to reduce the overall level. See also:
down. However in most cases it is preferable to pur-
chase a USB interface with line level input instead. See • Why is the Audacity recording slider grayed out on
also: maximum?
• Why can’t I play MIDI files? back to top
back to top
3.15.12 Why is the Audacity recording otherwise has to write. A single instrument or solo
slider grayed out on maximum? vocal should usually be recorded in mono and can
be panned in the stereo field later using Audio Track
The recording slider in Mixer Toolbar is purposely dis- Dropdown Menu .
abled if it cannot directly manipulate the operating sys- • Use a local drive with sufficient space: Set the
tem’s slider for the sound device, or if that device has no path to the Audacity temporary directory to a local
system slider. Turning down the Audacity slider to pre- hard drive because these are usually faster than ex-
vent distortion would be inadequate unless it also turned ternal USB drives. Choose the local drive with the
down the system slider. It would only make existing dis- most space. Audacity tells you how much longer
tortion quieter instead of removing it. If the slider is dis- you can record for (based on available disk space)
abled, check first in Device Toolbar that you are selecting in the Status Bar at the bottom of the window.
the correct device. Audacity should be able to control the
recording level of most built-in sound devices subject to Computer and hardwareThere are many possible ac-
the device having appropriate Sound Device Drivers. If tions you can take. Some may have no effect on a skip-
necessary look in the operating system mixer or in the ping problem, others may have a cumulative beneficial
soundcard’s control panel for an input slider. To locate effect, so try them all.
the system mixer see the help on our Wiki for Windows, • Quit as many other other applications or processes
Mac or Linux. External recording devices such as USB as possible. In particular, stop anti-virus applica-
turntables or interfaces may not have an operating sys- tions scanning the Audacity Temporary Directory .
tem slider, especially on Mac. For all cases where there Disconnect from the internet.
is no system slider, try to adjust the playback level on the
recording device itself. See also: • On Windows, regularly defragment your hard disk
drive (this should happen automatically on Win-
Why do I get crackles, pops, or distortion when the dows, but do not schedule defragmentation dur-
recording is loud? ing a recording). Disable Windows Update while
back to top recording. Consider creating hardware or software
profiles that load only essential hardware and ser-
vices for a recording session.
3.15.13 How can I record without small • Set Audacity to a higher priority in the operating
skips or duplications? system.
• If you are using a USB recording device. connect
If it sounds like recording is skipping, or small fragments
directly to a USB port, not a hub.
are sometimes missing, this means that Audacity cannot
write the audio to disk fast enough to keep up with what • Whatever the audio device, ensure it has the latest
it’s recording. You may not hear skips while listening dur- drivers as supplied by the motherboard or device
ing the recording, but you will hear them on playback. manufacturer (as appropriate).
Audacity settings
• A faster processor or more RAM could help solve
• Reduce screen redrawing: Zoom out to at least the problem.
the entire length you’ll be recording, or in Tracks
Preferences , uncheck Update display when • Set DMA mode for the hard drive on Windows and
Recording/Playback head is unpinned:. Turn off Linux, hardware acceleration for the video card and
View > Show Clipping while recording. Minimize avoid soundcard interrupt sharing.
the Audacity window whenever you have no need More detailed advice on addressing computer and hard-
to see it. ware issues can be found at Managing Computer Re-
• Turn off Transport > Transport Options > Soft- sources and Drivers on the Audacity Wiki. back to top
ware Playthrough (on/off) unless it is essential
you hear what is being recorded.
3.15.14 Why does my recording keep paus-
• Increase the default "Audio to buffer" setting of
100 milliseconds in Recording Preferences . ing automatically or why is my
recording cursor stuck?
On Mac using Mavericks or later, it may be necessary to
reduce audio to buffer, possibly to zero.
The recording cursor can legitimately appear to be stuck
• Reduce the amount of audio data being writ- in Audacity if you have accidentally enabled Sound Ac-
ten: Choose 16-bit Sample Format in Quality Pref- tivated Recording in the Transport Menu and the cur-
erences and set recording channels to mono in De- rent recording input is below the threshold level at which
vice Toolbar (unless you need stereo). Either of recording is set to start. You can tell this is the case be-
these actions halves the amount of data Audacity cause the blue Pause button will be depressed after you
3.15. FAQ:RECORDING - TROUBLESHOOTING 135
press Record. To disable Sound Activated Recording, • There have been isolated reports that recordings
click the Transport menu and uncheck Sound Activated freeze up if they are attempted whilst the unit’s RCA
Recording (on/off). To make a Sound Activated record- cables are connected to an external input such as
ing commence, increase the recording level, or reduce a home stereo, although concurrent recording and
the "Activation level" at Transport > Transport Otions > playing through external equipment is implied as
Sound Activation Level.... Out of resourcesIf you have being possible.
not activated Sound Activated Recording and the red
recording cursor will not move from the position where Generally, if you find you can record into Audacity without
you start to record or stalls while recording, this usually interruption from another source such as a microphone
means you are out of computer resources. Rebooting plugged into your computer’s microphone port, this im-
the computer may solve the problem. Note: Windows 8 plicates the turntable or USB cable. To check if other
and later default to shut down performing a "hybrid boot" sources record satisfactorily, go to Device Toolbar and
that retains the kernel session in memory, so producing change the Recording Device to your inbuilt sound. If
a "Fast Startup". When you want to replenish resources recordings from sources other than the turntable are also
you should do a traditional "cold boot" (full shutdown) freezing or have dropouts, there could be problems with
instead, waiting a few seconds after shutting down be- insufficient computer resources, see above. Please see
fore powering on the computer. Leaving Fast Startup the Managing Computer Resources and Drivers page in
enabled, you can cold boot by holding Shift while click- the Audacity Wiki for tips on correcting this. If you’re us-
ing the "Shut down" menu option from the Start Menu, ing "software playthrough", it’s also possible that prob-
Start Screen or Win + X menu (on Windows 8.1 only, lems with your inbuilt sound device (used to play back
unmodified click on "Shut Down" in the Win + X menu al- your recording whilst you are making it) are disrupting the
ways performs a full shutdown). If preferred you can turn recording. Please look at our list of tips on the Updating
off Fast Startup at Control Panel (icons view) > Power Sound Device Drivers Wiki page for help.
Options > Choose what the power button does then any back to top
Shut Down menu item will cold boot. For an in-depth ap-
proach to resolving resources problems, see Managing
Computer Resources and Drivers in the Audacity Wiki.
Preferences
3.15.15 Why do I get only a flat line and no
sound when I try to record?
• Check the "Audio to buffer" setting by opening
Recording Preferences . Buffer should normally be If the red recording cursor moves across the screen but
set to the default of 100 milliseconds. Very low set- no waveform is drawn behind it (only a flat line), you need
tings will prevent recording starting. to start from the beginning and set up your recording
• Other non-default settings such as excessive device and input source properly. Step 1: input de-
Project Rate could prevent recording starting. It can viceSelect the Recording Device you are using (such
sometimes help to completely reset preferences . as microphone or line-in) in the dropdown selector of
the Audacity Device Toolbar . The dropdown selector
USB turntables and tape decksReports of recordings you need is the one with the microphone icon.If you are
from USB turntables freezing or having dropouts are not plugging a microphone or line-in input directly into the
that uncommon. Generally they are not caused by Au- jacks on the computer, or recording computer playback
dacity, but by poor quality equipment and cables, or lack such as internet radio, choose the name of the built-in
of sufficient USB bandwidth. sound device or soundcard. By default, Windows only
enables the microphone input. You must exit Audac-
• Check the Project Rate bottom left of the Audacity
ity, then go to "Sound" in the Windows Control Panel to
screen is set to either 44100 or 48000 Hz - setting
show and enable other inputs before you can record from
a very high rate might overload the USB bandwidth
them. Instructions can be found here in the Wiki.If you
and cause transmission problems
are connecting an external device to the computer, such
• Check the USB cable for tightness at both ends and as a USB soundcard, USB microphone or USB turntable,
try using a different cable instead choose "USB Audio Codec" or similar. Detecting USB
and Firewire devices:If Audacity does not recognize the
• Always use a spare USB port, not a hub device, try exiting Audacity and relaunching it, or in cur-
rent Audacity choose Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
• Limit USB bandwidth whilst recording by using
. If that does not help, use the following steps.
other USB devices sparingly e.g. simply discon-
necting from the internet may help if you use a USB 1. Exit Audacity.
modem for internet access.
2. Unplug all other USB devices, then switch off and
• Check for any system warnings (e.g. in Device unplug the recording device at the USB connection
Manager in Windows) about the Universal Serial and at the mains (on Windows, use the "Safely Re-
Bus Controllers. move Hardware" icon in the System Tray).
136 CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
3. Plug the recording device into a spare USB port come from increased CPU activity as a result of the scan.
(not a USB hub), and switch it on. You should not turn off security applications unless you
are disconnected from the internet, but you may be able
4. Wait a few minutes then completely shut down the
to add an exception to the application so that it does not
computer and restart it. On Windows 8 or later
scan Audacity or its temporary folder .
you should disable hybrid boot (or Shift-click on the
"Shut down" choice, or on Windows 8.1 only, use back to top
Windows key and X, then "Shut down") to ensure
the USB drivers are fully re-initialized.
5. When the computer has finished rebooting, launch 3.15.17 How can I prevent a half-volume
Audacity. mono recording?
6. If Audacity still does not recognize the device, try This can occur when connecting to one channel only of
another USB cable, or a different empty USB port, a device that has separate left and right channel inputs.
then repeat steps 1 to 5. Recording in mono will often result in a half-volume track
Setting sample rates for USB or Firewire inter- that cannot be made louder without adding distortion. If
faces:It’s important to set the same sample rate in the this happens:
project rate bottom left of the Audacity window, in the op- 1. Record in stereo using Device Toolbar
erating system mixer, in any settings in the device’s con-
trol panel and on any controls on the device itself.Step 2. After recording, use the Audio Track Dropdown
2: playback deviceAlso in the dropdown selector of the Menu to "Split Stereo to Mono"
Audacity Device Toolbar select the playback device you
3. Use the track Close button [X] top left of the upper
are using, usually this will be your computer’s on-board
track to close the silent track. The remaining mono
soundcard. The dropdown selector you need this time is
track will play out of both speakers.
the one with the loudspeaker icon.Step 3: channelsIn
the Audacity Device Toolbar set the Recording Chan- back to top
nels to 1 (mono) or 2 (stereo) as required. Step 4:
recording signal levelIn the Mixer Toolbar , adjust the
recording level using the recording slider (the one that 3.15.18 How can I prevent unbalanced or
has the "microphone" symbol) in conjunction with the poorly separated stereo record-
Recording Meter level to set the correct recording level ing?
before starting to record for real. If the Audacity recording
slider does not control the recording level of the device,
Ensure Audacity is set to record in stereo using Device
use the slider in the operating system instead. This is
Toolbar . Your recorded track will then say "Stereo" in its
usually accessed by a loudspeaker icon near the system
Track Control Panel and two channels, left above right,
clock. Further Help
will be displayed when you press the Record button.
• Recording source unavailable/unselectable, or Also ensure that the Recording Device is set in the sys-
records incorrectly: Try selecting it instead in the tem mixer to record in stereo and that the left and right
system mixer - see the help for Windows, OS X or channels are balanced.
Linux.
• On Windows, access the recording section of
• Recording computer playback: See the special Sound or Sounds and Audio Devices in the Win-
help for Windows , Mac or Linux . dows Control Panel. This is usually accessed by
right-clicking over the speaker icon by the system
back to top
clock. On Windows, devices often default to mono,
which will lead to identical left and right channels in
Audacity.
3.15.16 Why do I get a periodic noise every
6 - 12 seconds when recording? • On Mac go to Applications > Utilities > Audio-MIDI
Setup: Audio Devices.
Audacity writes to disk roughly every 6 or 12 seconds, de- Ensure that any balance controls on your mixer, amplifier
pending on your preferences settings. If you hear a funny or record player/cassette deck are centrally placed. For
noise in the background that’s relatively consistent every non-USB recordings, make sure you are using a clean,
6 - 12 seconds, it means that your soundcard is picking tightly connected stereo plug. Ensure that the computer
up the noise from your hard drive. See Improving record- port you are connecting to is stereo. Most microphone
ing quality in the Audacity Wiki, because you’ll probably ports are mono. A laptop that only has a single input
need to find a better driver or upgrade your hardware. will usually offer only low quality, poorly separated stereo
Also consider however if a security application could be when using a stereo plug. You can buy modestly priced,
scanning Audacity’s disk writes. If so, the noise could decent quality USB interfaces with line level stereo input
3.15. FAQ:RECORDING - TROUBLESHOOTING 137
Toolbars
Toolbars provide quick access to many functions in Au- • The tooltips for the toolbars and tools (visible when
dacity. In some cases the functions provided by a tool- hovering over the toobar or tool) will display the
bar are available only through that toolbar. Other than shortcut for that tool/toolbar if one is set.
the Spectral Selection Toolbar and the Scrub Toolbar , all
toolbars are enabled by default. If your desired toolbar
is not visible, choose View > Toolbars and click to put a
checkmark by the toolbar you wish to enable. 4.1.1 Toolbar dock areas
• The Meter toolbars are a special case. You may
have one or both of the separate Recording and There are two dock areas for toolbars in Audacity. By de-
Playback Meter toolbars visible (both are visible by fault, most of the Audacity toolbars are in the upper dock,
default). Alternatively you can have only the Com- with only the Selection Toolbar in the lower dock. Tool-
bined Meter Toolbar visible (which displays record- bars can be arranged and resized within either of the two
ing and playback levels in a single meter). docks, or floated free of the docks.
Hover over each green-bordered toolbar in the dock images to learn more then click to go to that toolbar’s details
page. Or jump to the brief toolbar descriptions .
Lower Toolbar dock area Toolbar from the View Menu (it is not shown by default)
then it will also be shown in the Lower Toolbar dock area.
The image of the Selection Toolbar shown in this exam-
ple has non-default settings for the selection formats .
138
4.1. TOOLBARS OVERVIEW 139
Mixer Toolbar
The individual toolbars are described briefly below. Click Edit Toolbar
on any toolbar image to go the details page for that tool-
bar.
Transcription Toolbar
• Chooses various tools for selection, volume adjust- • This toolbar is not shown by default. Select View >
ment, zooming and time-shifting of audio. Toolbars > Scrub Toolbar to show the toolbar, which
by default docks in the upper dock.
Selection Toolbar
Spectral Selection Toolbar else in or outside the project window, including on a sec-
ondary monitor. The toolbar positions on exiting Audacity
are always remembered when restarting Audacity next
time. Toolbars can be docked or floated by dragging on
their serrated left edge. When docking a toolbar into a
toolbar area, a black triangle will appear, indicating an
available docking position. The default toolbar docked
positions can be restored at any time by clicking View >
Toolbars > Reset Toolbars . Some of the Toolbars can be
resized (the Meter Toolbars and the Device Toolbar) by
clicking and dragging on the vertical bars at the right of
the toolbars. If you change your mind part way through
a drag or a resize of a toolbar you can simply use the
• Displays and lets you adjust the current spectral Escape key Esc to abort the action. The image below
(frequency) selection without having to be in Spec- shows Mixer Toolbar being docked to the right of De-
trogram view . vice Toolbar:
• This toolbar is not shown by default. Select View >
Toolbars > Spectral Selection Toolbar to show the
toolbar, which by default docks in the lower dock,
beside or under Selection Toolbar .
• Choose your preferred format option from the drop- The image below shows the Transport and Recording
down menu above the boxes: Center frequency Meter toolbars floated outside the Project window,
and Width or Low and High Frequencies . with the Recording Meter dragged wider:
In Center frequency and Width view, to clear the spec-
tral selection entirely just use the Delete key after having
clicked on any of the digits (note carefully that this is not
the Delete key on the numerical keypad). When in Low
and High Frequencies view you can clear either input box
individually with the Delete key.
Transport Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback, 4.2.1 Pause Transport > Pause or P
recording and for moving to the project start or end. The
buttons can also be controlled with keyboard shortcuts .
Click on the toolbar image below to see this toolbar dis- Click Pause to temporarily pause playing or recording
played in context of the default upper tooldock layout. without losing your place. Click Pause a second time to
resume. You can also click Pause before clicking Record,
then click Pause again to start recording. On some sys-
tems or devices, "arming" recording in this way with the
stream already open might start recording more quickly.
Note that in earlier versions of Audacity while you were in
Pause mode, editing and other commands were grayed
out and unavailable except for Real-time preview effects .
This has now changed so that invoking an edit command
4.3. DEVICE TOOLBAR 141
while paused will stop playback and call the command. 4.2.4 Skip to Start Transport > Skip to
Start or Home
4.2.2 Play Transport > Play/Stop or Move the cursor to the beginning of the project. This is
Space useful if you want to play everything, or record a new
track starting from the beginning.
You can press Play when there is already playback or
when playback is paused to restart playback immedi-
ately from the editing cursor or selection. Play: play- 4.2.5 Skip to End Transport > Skip to
back begins wherever the editing cursor is. Otherwise, if
End or End
an area of track is selected , only that selection will be
played. Loop Play: play the track or selection over and
over until you stop. Hold down Shift while clicking Play. Move the cursor to the end of the project.
This causes the button image to change to Loop Play • Holding down Shift while clicking Skip to Start ex-
. You can use the Shift + Space shortcut to start Loop tends a selection region from the cursor position or
Play instead. Play Cut Preview: play audio either side current selection region to the start of the project.
of a selection to preview what deleting the selection will
sound like. Hold down Ctrl (CloverLeaf on Mac) while • Holding down Shift while clicking Skip to End sim-
clicking Play. Alternatively you can use the C shortcut to ilarly extends a selection region to the end of the
preview the cut. This also causes the Play button image project.
to change to Play Cut Preview.The Play button in Trans-
port Toolbar plays at standard speed, or as speeded up
or slowed down over time by adding a Time Track enve- 4.2.6 Record Transport > Record or R
lope. The easiest way to play at a fixed faster or slower
speed is to use Transcription Toolbar . Record: Clicking Record or using the R shortcut al-
ways begins recording at the end of the currently se-
lected track(s). Record New Track: Hold down Shift
4.2.3 Stop Transport > Play/Stop or while clicking Record, or use its shortcut Shift + R, to start
Space recording in a new track at either the current cursor posi-
tion or at the beginning of the current selection.Any users
Stops playing or recording immediately, and releases who had the CleanSpeech customized interface enabled
Pause if depressed. You must stop playback or recording in 1.3.13 or earlier 1.3 versions of Audacity will find that
before you can use the "Skip" buttons below. Use Trans- Transport Toolbar has an empty space which previously
port > Play/Stop and Set Cursor (or its shortcut X) to stop contained the CleanSpeech button. This space can be
and set the cursor at the stop point. removed by choosing View > Toolbars > Reset Toolbars .
Device Toolbar provides an easy way to select your 4.3.1 Drag Handle
required combination of audio host, recording device,
recording channels and playback device, without having Using the drag handle at right, you can expand Device
to open Devices Preferences . Click on the toolbar im- Toolbar rightwards to be wider than the default width
age below to see this toolbar displayed in context of the shown, or drag it leftwards to be less wide. You can hover
default upper tooldock layout. over any of the four boxes in Audacity at any time to see
the full text for the selected item.
Selects the particular interface with which Audacity com- name of the soundcard manufacturer. On Mac, the in-
municates with your chosen playback and recording de- ternal soundcard recording inputs are usually referred to
vices. On Windows, the choice is between the following as "Built-in". On GNU/Linux, recording is often managed
audio interfaces: by the pulse sound server. It is normally best to select
"default". That will choose whatever is the system de-
• MME : This is the Audacity default and the most
fault soundcard or server, then choose the exact input
compatible with all audio devices.
device required in the control application for the card or
• Windows DirectSound : This is more recent than server (such as Pulse Audio Volume Control). The (hw:)
MME with potentially less latency . recording devices give direct, lower latency access to the
soundcard inputs, bypassing any sound servers. For a
• Windows WASAPI : This host is the most recent built-in (hw:) sound device, choose the exact inputs in
Windows interface between applications (such as ALSAmixer. If a device only has one possible input for
Audacity) and the soundcard driver. WASAPI was selection by the computer (for example, a USB micro-
first officially released in 2007 in Windows Vista. phone), only the name of the device will be listed, with no
WASAPI is particularly useful for "loopback" record- input type.
ing of computer playback . 24-bit recording devices
are supported using this host. Playback is usually
emulated. As a result, the playback slider in Mixer
Toolbar will only scale the system playback slider’s If you attach or disconnect an external device while
current level up or down rather than directly manip- Audacity is open, use Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
ulating that system slider. to update the device lists before playing or recording.
On Windows:
• Windows DirectSound may by default have only
slightly lower latency than MME.
• Selecting Windows DirectSound or Windows WAS-
API and enabling both "Exclusive Mode" boxes in 4.3.4 Recording Channels
Windows Sound allows Audacity to request audio
direct from the device without resampling .
On Mac the only choice is Core Audio.
On Linux there is often only one option: ALSA . Other
options could be OSS and/or Jack Audio Connection Kit
(also known as "Jack" or "Jackd").
Removes the selected audio data and/or labels and 4.4.5 Silence Audio Edit > Remove
places these on the clipboard. By default, any audio or Special > Silence Audio or Ctrl + L
labels to right of the selection are shifted to the left.
Silence Audio replaces the currently selected audio with
absolute silence. Does not affect label tracks.
Copies the selected audio data and/or labels to the clip- Reverts the last editing operation. Audacity supports un-
board without removing these from the project. limited "stepwise" undo. This means you can undo every
144 CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
4.5 Edit
The main commands for editing audio are under the Edit audio.
Menu and the Effect Menu .
You can mark edit points or regions in your audio with la-
If you are unhappy with the result of your edit or effect
bels . These can be useful for recalling the edits when
you can simple use the Audacity Undo command or use
saving and reopening a project . They can also be useful
the Ctrl + Z keyboard shortcut. A good tip for effects is to
to mark splits in a long audio track that is to be exported
try them out on a short section of audio first to try it out
as multiple files.
on a longer section than preview allows and then use the
Undo . |< Back to: Getting Started
Audacity has two meter toolbars, one for recording and (which is a good maximum signal level to aim for). If the
the other for playback. They display the amplitude of signal exceeds -6 dB the bars merge from yellow to red.
audio being recorded or played in the project. They are The red color warns that the signal is becoming too "hot"
an easy way to see if audio which is being recorded or (approaching 0 dB) and that clipping may occur.
edited is clipped , which results in distortion. Both me-
ters look very similar. The Recording meter can be identi-
fied by the microphone icon, whereas the Playback meter
has a loudspeaker icon. 4.6.3 Playback Meter Toolbar
Audacity always launches with input monitoring off and Clicking on the microphone or speaker icons in the Meter
so the Recording Meter Toolbar displays "Click to Start toolbars will open a dropdown menu with the Meter Op-
Monitoring". Click in the recording meter to start moni- tions dialog specific to that meter. Another way to access
toring, or when you press the Record button the meter the menu is by right-clicking anywhere in the meter. The
will activate. The Recording Meter Toolbar again displays dropdown menu on the Recording Meter additionally lets
"Click to Start Monitoring") whenever you stop a record- you enable or disable monitoring of the recording level
ing or start playback. without the need to record a track.
To find the exact points where clipping exists in a track, 4.6.8 Adjusting playback level
enable View > Show Clipping or run Analyze > Find Clip-
ping... .
The playback level displayed in Meter Toolbar reflects the
combined amplitude of all the tracks in your project, in
other words, the level of the mix as determined by the
4.6.6 Meter channels gain sliders on each track. The playback volume slider
on Mixer Toolbar does not affect the playback meter - the
• When playing a mono track, Audacity sends the purpose of the meter is solely to indicate what the loud-
output to both left and right speakers. Therefore ness of the project audio would be were you to export it
if you leave the pan slider on the Track Panel un- as an audio file.
touched, both channels of the playback meter will
show an identical level. If you pan towards one
channel, then the opposite channel will have its
level reduced until a complete pan away from it will 4.6.9 Resizing and Undocking
remove it.
• If you set Audacity to record in mono (for example, Like all toolbars , either or both Meter Toolbars can be
from a microphone), only the left channel recording undocked, but unlike the other toolbars, they can also be
meter will be active. resized. Resizing gives longer scales for the meters and
hence a more accurate view of the volume levels.
4.6.7 Adjusting and monitoring recording • If a meter is docked, you can resize it horizontally
level by clicking and dragging the right edge.
Full-height Meter
Mixer Toolbar is where you adjust Recording Volume level of the currently selected "Recording Device" in De-
(the amplitude at which recordings will be made) and vice Toolbar . Inputs can also be chosen at "Recording
Playback Volume (how loud the project’s audio sounds, Device" in Devices Preferences , in the operating sys-
not affecting the volume of exported audio). Click on the tem mixer or in any control panel that the soundcard may
toolbar image below to see this toolbar displayed in con- have. The Recording Slider should then control that in-
text of the default upper tooldock layout. put. After selecting the required recording source, use
the recording slider in conjunction with the recording level
meters on the Meter Toolbars to set the correct record-
ing level before starting to record for real. If your input
Recording Volume Slider: Sets the recording vol- sounds distorted, lower the recording slider until no dis-
ume.Playback Volume Slider: Sets the playback vol- tortion can be heard, also making sure the clipping indi-
ume. cators on the recording meter do not light up.
If the recording slider does not have direct control of your This is the slider with the loudspeaker icon. It enables
sound device’s input level, it will be disabled and set you control the volume at which you listen to the mix of
to maximum. You will need to set the recording levels your project. This is a purely a "monitor" control. It does
using the input slider in the operating system mixer or not affect the level of your mix and hence does not affect
in the soundcard control panel. To locate the system the level that audio is exported at. Adjusting the playback
mixer, see the help on our Wiki for Windows (right-click slider will not help if your mix is clipped . The playback
the speaker icon by the system clock), Mac (use /Appli- slider does not affect the levels indicated by the playback
cations/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup or the system Sound meters which do reflect the level of the mix. Should your
Preferences) or Linux (use ALSAmixer or PulseAudio playback sound distorted, the distortion usually comes
Volume Control). from clipping of your project’s mix. You actually need to
• Note that Macs in most cases do not permit volume reduce the level of your tracks. It is suggested you re-
adjustment of USB audio devices. Use the gain duce every track by the same amount using the gain slid-
control on the USB device if it has this, or adjust ers in the Track Control Panel . If Windows WASAPI
the level that is going into the USB device. audio host is chosen in Device Toolbar , output is emu-
lated (as shown in the hover tooltip for this slider). As a
This is slider with the microphone icon. It controls the result, this slider will only scale the system output slider’s
4.8. SCRUB TOOLBAR 149
current level up or down rather than directly manipulating Double-clicking on the recording or playback volume
that system slider. slider will bring up the Recording Volume or Playback
Volume window. Here you can make much more pre-
cise adjustments with the slider or enter a value in the
4.7.3 Precise Volume Adjustment text field. You can also set a keyboard shortcut to bring
up either of these windows.
Scrub Toolbar starts, stops or switches to Scrub play or start, stop or switch to Scrub play
Seek play, and hides or displays the Scrub Ruler.
4.9 Timeline
The Timeline displays a horizontal ruler above the tracks and selecting Disable Scrub Ruler from the dropdown
measuring time from zero (the start of the track). De- menu.
pending on zooming the ruler may span minutes of audio
or give a "close up" view of a few seconds or fractions of
a second. The Timeline is not merely an indicator of au-
dio position but can also be used to effect Quick-Play .A
particularly powerful use of the Timeline is in the creation 4.9.2 Symbols displayed on the Timeline
of seamless loops . ruler
heads, clicking on it again will revert to un- at the point from which you want playback to
pinned. start or restart. The Quick-Play cursor is then
shown only by a left-pointing arrowhead. Play-
• back will continue to the end of the project.
The selected region :(when present) is shown as – To make the dragged Quick-Play region loop
a shaded region on the ruler. By default, press- (play repeatedly until stopped), press and hold
ing Play or Record on Transport Toolbar plays or Shift, drag in the Timeline then release the
records from the left edge of this region. drag. Loop play will be indicated by the Play
button in Transport Toolbar changing to Loop
– In the shaded region, the playback region is Play .
shown by thin left-pointing and right-pointing
arrowheads connected by a line. This region – You can also play two seconds before the
will be played whenever the Play button is Quick-Play region and one second after it
clicked (see also: Play Region Lock ). (as if that region had been deleted) just like
Play Cut Preview of a region in the wave-
• The playback start position cursor. Pressing form. To preview cutting the Quick-Play re-
the Play button plays from this cursor position. gion, press and hold Ctrl then drag and re-
• The editing cursor:(always present when there lease in the Timeline. The duration that is
is no selected region) is shown as a black vertical played before and after the region can be
line.When "Quick-Play" is not active, the playback changed in the Cut Preview section of Play-
start position cursor is attached to it . back Preferences .
• The unpinned-head playback cursor:(when – As with standard playback, you can press
playing or paused during play) is shown as a large Space or click the Stop button to stop
green triangle. Quick-Play before the end of the region or
project is reached.
– To unlock the region so that all further play- After clicking and dragging in the waveform:
back respects the editing cursor or region in
the waveform, choose Transport > Play Re-
gion > Unlock, or right-click in the Timeline and
choose Unlock Play Region from the context • Instead of the editing cursor, a shaded region
menu . shows the time range of the selected audio.
– Play Region Lock or Unlock may be performed
• No audio plays, but the potential playback region is
even when the track is playing or paused from
indicated by the thin horizontal gray bar with arrow-
playing.
heads on each end.
• The editing cursor (the black vertical bar) • The thick horizontal red bar with arrowheads on
each end show the region that will always be
• The playback start position cursor (the left-pointing played, even if the editing cursor or region in the
gray triangle with short gray vertical bar to left) waveform is at a different position.
– When Quick-Play is not active ( see below ) For other methods of navigating to playback points or ar-
the editing cursor and the playback start posi- eas, see Playing and Recording .
tion cursor are always at the same point on the
Timeline, and together are called the standard
cursor
Recording with no selection present shows: 4.9.4 Pinned Recording/Play head
The selection
4.9.6 Timeline right-click menu Play Region only, leaving the current selection or edit-
ing cursor unaffected. When enabled, left-click and drag-
Right-click on the Timeline gives access to options that ging the Play Region adjusts both the Play Region and
are convenient when using Timeline Quick-Play, via a the waveform selection together. This is particularly use-
short context menu. ful when finding the right place for a seamless loop .
Disable/Enable Timeline Tooltips: Timeline tooltips are
visible when hovering over the Timeline. They are use-
ful for indicating whether Timeline Quick-Play is enabled.
Experienced users may find that the Timeline tooltips get
in the way, so this option allows these tooltips to be dis-
abled. These tooltips are enabled by default. Do not
scroll while playing: By default the waveform scrolls
when playing. Enabling this option not to scroll can be
useful when using Quick-Play to adjust the start and end
of loops . Not scrolling ensures that the edges of the
looped selection do not move if zooming in moves the
playback point outside the visible area. The alternative
method of disabling scrolling is to use Tracks Preferences
and remove the checkmark from Update display when
Recording/Playback head is unpinned. Lock Play Re-
Disable/Enable Quick-Play: Turns the Timeline Quick- gion: The current position of the Play Region or Quick-
Play functionality on or off (some users may find the white Play region can be locked in the Timeline for use in all
cursor line on the waveform distracting when navigat- further standard playback, while still allowing Quick-Play
ing over the Timeline). The default setting is "on". En- of other regions or from other points. Disable/Enable
able/Disable dragging selection: When disabled (de- Scrub Ruler: The Scrub Ruler can be hidden or dis-
fault), left-click and dragging the Play Region adjusts the played using this command.
4.10.2 Selection F1
control points at different levels, a smooth curve is inter- • Middle button zooms in or out to Audacity’s default
polated between them. Dragging either the top or bottom zoom level of about one inch per second.
handle ensures you can never distort the track by drag-
ging outside its original volume envelope. Dragging an • If you commence a drag to zoom by mistake, you
inner handle allows you to amplify a quiet piece of audio can press Esc before releasing the mouse to can-
beyond the original volume envelope of the track. cel the zoom operation.
• You can also zoom without using Zoom Tool by us-
ing keyboard shortcuts , or the zoom buttons on
Edit Toolbar .
4.10.4 Draw Samples F3
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool- make sure you’re using Selection Tool , click in the
bar . track just after 2.0 seconds in the first track, then drag
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more rightwards to just after 5.0 seconds as displayed on the
about those tools. Timeline , then downwards so that the gray selection re-
gion now includes the second track:
If it’s not already selected, choose the Selection tool
4.12. DRAW TOOL 155
Note that because the drag started in the first track and
extended into the second track, only those two tracks are
selected, as indicated by the blue-grey background color
of the Track Control Panel . Therefore, any operation you
perform will now only affect the selected area of the first
two tracks. This, and the method for selecting all audio
are enough for using selections in Audacity. Many more
options for selecting audio are described on the Audacity
Selection page.
Draw Tool enables you to redraw the waveform; it can 4.12.1 To use the Draw Tool
thus be used to make volume changes to individual sam-
ples or effect repairs to clicks/noise. • Click above or below a sample to move it to that
vertical position. You can keep holding the mouse
and drag up or down to move the sample to the ex-
act position required. Dragging left or right moves
adjacent samples to the current vertical position of
the mouse pointer. If you only want to move one
sample, hold down Ctrl before clicking. This en-
The image above shows the Tools Toolbar with the Draw
sures that no other samples are affected, even if
Tool selected.
you drag slightly left or right by accident.
• Smooth the vertical disparity in a group of samples
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool- by holding down Alt(or Ctrl + Alt on Linux). This
bar . changes the mouse pointer to a brush (or spray
can on Linux). Position the pointer halfway along
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more the group of samples then click repeatedly to pro-
about those tools. gressively smooth the group.
Draw Tool only works when using the default Waveform
When zoomed in close to maximum level, the Draw Tool view or Waveform (dB) view (selectable on the Audio
enables you to adjust the volume level of individual audio Track Dropdown Menu ). It does not work in Spectrogram
samples . The closer the sample is to the horizontal line view
through the center of the track, the quieter the sample
The image above shows the Tools Toolbar with the En-
velope Tool selected. 4.13.2 Adding and editing Control Points
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool-
bar . Just click the mouse button anywhere in a track to create
a new control point.
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more
about those tools.
The entire track follows your new control point until you
When you select Envelope Tool from the Tools add another one. Click in a different spot to add a new
Toolbar , your track, which normally looks like this: control point.
now has a thick blue border at the top and bottom of the The audio will always change smoothly between each
waveform , like this: control point, so you only need to add as many as are
necessary. You can click in either the top or bottom half
of a track to create a new point. If you have a stereo
track, the same envelope will apply to both channels. If
you want to place a new control point very near an ex-
isting one, Audacity might get confused and try to move
the existing one rather than create a new one. It’s some-
times easier to click farther away from the existing one
Here’s an example of an amplitude envelope applied to and then drag it closer.
the track. The volume is made to diminish slowly be-
tween 9 and 11 seconds, and then to grow again much
faster during the next half second (note the much steeper 4.13.3 Removing control points
slope of the blue line). The volume is directly proportional
to the height of the waveform - the smaller you make the To remove a control point, click on any one of its control
waveform, the quieter it will sound: points and drag it outside the track. Remember, you can
4.14. TIME SHIFT TOOL 157
also use Edit > Undo to undo your envelope changes in just underneath the Mute and Solo buttons). This adjusts
sequence. the volume of the whole track, like Effect > Amplify... can
do, but without modifying the waveform itself. Therefore
you do not have to use Envelope Tool to adjust the overall
4.13.4 Extra amplification volume of a track - use it to specify changes in volume
through the course of the track, then you can make fine
If you are amplifying a quiet passage, you can amplify adjustments to the overall volume with the gain slider.
outside the original volume envelope of the track by grab-
bing either of the inner control points. When you do this,
Audacity cannot display the full shape of the envelope,
and changes the border to a dotted line in the affected
area: 4.13.6 Rendering envelope changes
To Time Shift using the mouse, select Time Shift Tool on 4.14.1 Time Shifting selected tracks to left
Tools Toolbar or press the F5 shortcut. or right
Having selected multiple tracks for left/right shift, you may 4.14.3 Shifting clips vertically
still want to drag only one of the selected tracks to fine
tune its position. You can do this in several ways. The When there are multiple audio tracks, a selected audio
simplest is to hold Shift while dragging the track you want clip may be dragged up or down to another audio track
to time shift. You can also temporarily deselect the tracks of the same type. Mono audio clips may only be dragged
you do not want to move by Ctrl-clicking their Track Con- to mono tracks and stereo clips may only be dragged to
trol Panels or by arrowing to them then using Enter. Al- stereo tracks. To prevent unwanted left or right move-
ternatively if some of the track lies outside the selection ment while dragging, press and hold the Ctrl key while
region, drag from outside that region, which moves the dragging (on Mac, hold down the CloverLeaf key).
track but not the selection region. If you always want to
retain synchronization between tracks when time shifting,
you can alternatively enable Sync-Lock Tracks . When 4.14.4 Shifting behind time zero
this is enabled, dragging any of the linked audio or note
tracks will shift all the tracks in that group (and any labels If an audio track is dragged to the left (earlier on the Time-
as well), whether tracks are selected or not. line) audio data may be hidden before the start of the
track. This is indicated by the presence of two arrows at
the left edge of the track.
You can get very precise control over zooming using the To zoom in, position the mouse pointer over a track and
Zoom Tool in the Tools Toolbar : left-click. To zoom out, shift-click or click the right mouse
button. The mouse pointer position will remain at the click
point, while the length of time visible on the Timeline di-
minishes or expands on either side to respect the change
in zoom level.
The image above shows the Tools Toolbar with the Zoom
Tool selected.
When zooming in or out with the zoom tool, Audac-
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool-
ity will attempt to keep same time at the mouse pointer
bar .
position. That is, Audacity will attempt to keep the same
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more "piece" of audio under the magnifier pointer. That may
about those tools. not always be possible.
4.16. ZOOMING OVERVIEW 159
• If "Enable scrolling left of zero" is on then it will al- When you release the mouse button, Audacity will zoom
ways be possible to keep same time at the mouse in to that region so that it now fits the window:
pointer position.
• If "Enable scrolling left of zero" is off, then, when
zooming in or out, it may not be possible to keep
same time at the mouse pointer position.
You can zoom in on a specific region by clicking and drag-
ging. Position the mouse at the left edge of the region
you require, click and hold the mouse button, then drag
the mouse in either direction: Shift and drag zooms out based on the dragged region.
The smaller the dragged region, the farther the audio will
be zoomed out.
Menu Commands
or even a tiny fraction of a second, where you can see View > Zoom submenu: use the four commands in this
the individual audio samples as small dots: submenu to;
160 CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
• View > Zoom > Zoom In: double the current zoom Fit To HeightCtrl + Shift + F
level.
Zoom to SelectionCtrl + EMac users: Use CloverLeaf
• View > Zoom > Zoom Normal: reverts back to Au- instead of Ctrl.
dacity’s default zoom, where you can see 5 - 10
seconds at a time.
• View > Zoom > Zoom Out: cuts the current zoom Zoom Tool
level in half
• View > Zoom > Zoom to Selection: zooms and
scroll so that the selection just fits in the window. You can also zoom in and out using the Zoom Tool
View > Track Size submenu: use the first two com- .
mands in this submenu to;
• View > Track Size > Fit to Width: zoom out just
enough so that you can see the entire project Zoom In or Out on the Mouse Pointer using the Scroll
Wheel
• View > Track Size > Fit to Height: resize all the
tracks so they fit in the window vertically without
If your mouse has a scroll wheel or ball, you can zoom
scrolling. If you have more than about ten tracks,
in or out centered on the position of the mouse pointer,
some scrolling up and down will still be needed,
instead of centered on the selection or editing cursor.
because there is a minimum track height beyond
When extremely zoomed out, or when zooming in or out
which reduction is impossible.
near the beginning or end of the track, it may not be pos-
sible to keep the audio centered on the mouse pointer
position. Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard then
Edit Toolbar
scroll up to zoom in, or scroll down to zoom out. For
example. you can zoom in at or near the start or end
Four of the view commands have equivalent buttons on of a selection by placing the pointer there. Mac users:
the right of the Edit Toolbar : Hold down both CloverLeaf and Ctrl while using the scroll
wheel. To zoom the waveform in Audacity without using
the Ctrl key, look in these places, depending on which
version of macOS/Mac OS X you are using:
• in the System "Mouse" Preferences (in older ver-
sions of Mac OS X before the Magic Mouse), dis-
able "Zoom using scroll ball while holding Com-
mand" (or similar).
• Zoom In
• in the System "Universal Access" Preferences, the
"Seeing" tab, then in the "Zoom" section click the
• Zoom Out "Options" button - uncheck "Use scroll wheel with
modifier keys to zoom"
• Zoom to Selection • in the System "Accessibility" Preferences, click on
"Zoom" in the left panel, then uncheck "Use scroll
gesture with modifier keys to zoom".
• Fit Project in Window
Note: When Scrubbing or Seeking , the zoom buttons in
Edit Toolbar and the zoom items in View Menu (or their
Keyboard shortcuts shortcuts) also zoom at the mouse pointer and not at the
selection or editing cursor.
All six zoom commands have keyboard shortcut equiva-
lents:
Zoom action Keyboard shortcut 4.16.2 Vertical zooming
Zoom InCtrl + 1
Vertical zooming can be useful on occasions. You can
Zoom NormalCtrl + 2 zoom vertically whichever of the tools in Tools Toolbar
are selected. Hover the mouse over the vertical scale of
Zoom OutCtrl + 3
a track, and the pointer changes to a magnifying glass,
Fit to WidthCtrl + F indicating you can zoom vertically:
4.17. MULTI-TOOL 161
4.17 Multi-Tool
Multi-Tool mode on Tools Toolbar lets you access all of Tool Mode automatically selects one of the five tools on
the five separate tools on this toolbar at once, depending the Tools Toolbar according to mouse moves and key
on the location of the mouse and the modifier keys you presses. The mouse pointer changes to show which of
hold down. its functions is currently available (the pointer will appear
similar to the button for the relevant tool on the toolbar).
The image above shows the Tools Toolbar with the Multi
Tool selected.
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool- 4.17.2 Selection Tool
bar .
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more
about those tools. Selection Tool is available when the mouse is in an area
that does not trigger the Envelope Tool or the Time Shift
Tool. The pointer will appear as . See Selecting Audio
If you quit Audacity with Multi-Tool selected then it with the Mouse for more details.
will be selected upon reopening Audacity. Otherwise, Se-
lection Tool will always be selected upon reopening Au-
dacity, irrespective of which of the separate tools was se-
lected when you quit.
Click to position the cursorDrag cursor to select a Dragging from the half-way pointDragging from the
region envelope boundary
Envelope Tool is made available by hovering the mouse Draw Tool is made available by zooming in until you can
pointer over the waveform either on the blue horizontal see individual samples then hovering the mouse pointer
envelope boundary or at half the distance of the envelope close to the line joining the samples. The pointer then
boundary to the center line. The pointer then changes to changes to a pencil tool
. Click and drag with the mouse and then use envelope
tool as you would use the standalone Envelope Tool .
and you can use it as you would use the standalone Draw
Tool .
drag and release to zoom-in to a drag-selected region. 4.17.6 Time Shift Tool
If you commence a horizontal or vertical drag to zoom by
mistake, you can press Esc before releasing the mouse Time Shift an individual clip
button to cancel the zoom operation. The illustration be-
low shows a right-click drag zoom-in.
Irrespective of the setting on the slider, using Space or cut for Loop Play will only play at normal speed
the green Play button on Transport Toolbar will only play whatever the setting on the Play-at-Speed slider,
at normal speed. You can however set a keyboard short- but you can set a keyboard shortcut for "Loop Play
cut for "Play-at-Speed" with which you can start or restart at speed" in Keyboard Preferences.
playback at adjusted speed. Drag the slider to set a low-
• To Play Cut Preview at speed (play audio either
est speed of one-hundredth of normal (0.01x) to three
side of a selection at adjusted speed to preview
times as fast (3.00x). Using the keyboard, right-click on
what deleting the selection will sound like), hold
the slider then use the keyboard arrow keys to change
down Ctrl while clicking the Play-at-Speed button
speed by 0.05x increments. Alternatively you can set
(this works on Mac too, but using CloverLeaf while
keyboard shortcuts for "Decrease playback speed" and
clicking does not). This causes the button image to
"Increase playback speed". Each press of those short-
change to Play Cut Preview (like the green Play
cuts decreases or increases speed respectively by 0.03x
button but with a vertical cut through it). The stan-
increments. To set a precise playback speed, double-
dard C shortcut for Play Cut Preview will only play at
click over the slider (or create a keyboard shortcut for
normal speed whatever the setting on the Play-at-
"Adjust playback speed"), enter the desired speed in the
Speed slider, but you can set a keyboard shortcut
box and click OK.
for "Play Cut Preview at speed" in Keyboard Prefer-
ences.
It is not currently possible to change speed during play-
back. To change speed when audio is already playing,
change the speed first with the slider, then click the green
Play-at-Speed button to play at the new speed. Play-
back resumes from the original cursor position. This can
also be achieved by setting keyboard shortcuts to control
Play-at-Speed as described above.
Export of the audio will be at normal speed whatever the
• To Loop Play at speed (play the track or selection position of the Play-at-Speed slider. To export at an ad-
over and over at adjusted speed until you stop), justed speed, use Change Tempo... in the Effect Menu to
hold down Shift while clicking the Play-at-Speed change speed without modifying pitch. Alternatively, use
button. This causes the button image to change to either Change Speed... or a Time Track to change speed
Loop Play . The standard Shift + Space short- also affecting pitch.
Selection Toolbar includes controls for Project Rate, 4.19.1 Project Rate (Hz)
Snap To and for manipulating units of time or other selec-
tion formats . Using the "Start" and "End/Length" boxes, The sample rate for the project, by default this is set
you can precisely place the cursor point or selection re- to 44100 Hz . To change the default rate that is used
gion without using a mouse to click or drag in the wave- each time Audacity is launched (or each time a new,
form , and without zooming in first to find the exact spot. empty project window is opened), use Quality Prefer-
If you change the Snap To option or selection format, all ences .Changing the project rate in Selection Toolbar im-
subsequent project windows you open will respect that mediately changes the sample rate at which new tracks
change.Click on the toolbar image below to see this tool- will be recorded or generated in the current project, and
bar displayed in context of the default lower tooldock lay- at which existing tracks will be played, rendered or ex-
out. ported. If the rate you require is not in the dropdown list,
you may type the rate you want directly over the currently
selected rate.
4.19.2 Snap To
Selection Toolbar (above) is normally at the bottom of the
Audacity window, but like any of the Toolbars , it can be Snapping to whole seconds can be useful for exporting
moved as desired by dragging the serrated edge on its a selection that needs to be a whole number of sec-
left side. onds, without entering values in the Selection Toolbar
4.19. SELECTION TOOLBAR 165
boxes (which would be another way of ensuring accu- • Dragging a selection always snaps both selection
racy).Various types of file frame can be snapped to, in- edges to the nearest whole second. For exam-
cluding NTSC and PAL. Snapping to film frames can be ple, when dragging rightwards on the right edge of
useful to maintain video and audio synchronization when a selection from 2.3 seconds to 2.6 seconds, the
editing audio from video files . left edge of the selection will jump back at once to
2.0 seconds and the right edge of the selection will
• Select Nearest from the Snap To dropdown jump forwards at once to 3.0 seconds.
menu to force-snap the cursor or selection edges
to the closest position of the current selection for- • If you continue to drag the mouse pointer, the right
mat . edge of the selection will not extend at once, but
will snap to 4.0 seconds once the mouse pointer is
– A mouse click will move the cursor unless the dragged beyond 3.5 seconds. Similarly, if you then
click is less than half way to the next nearest drag leftwards on the left edge of the selection it will
snap position. extend to start from 1.0 seconds when the pointer
– Any selection drag moves the selection once is dragged before 1.5 seconds.
you drag the mouse pointer more than half
way to the next snap position in the direction
of drag. Prior
• Select Prior from the same menu to force-snap
the cursor or selection edges to the immediately With Snap To set to "Prior" and the format set to hours,
preceding position of the current selection format. minutes, seconds and milliseconds, clicking anywhere
in-between 6.500 seconds and 6.501 seconds always
– If a mouse click moves the cursor, it will always snaps the cursor to the immediately preceding unit, in
move it backwards relative to the click point. this case 6.500 seconds. Now let’s set the format to one
where the smallest unit is seconds, for example, hours,
– A leftwards selection drag immediately moves
minutes and seconds.
the selection to the next snap position in the
direction of drag. A rightwards drag does not • Clicking at either 2.4 seconds or 2.8 seconds will
move the selection until the mouse pointer both snap the cursor to 2.0 seconds
goes beyond the next snap position.
• Dragging a short way on either edge of a selection
The format can be various Selection Formats, samples from 2.3 seconds to 2.6 seconds will remove the se-
, audio CD frames or film frames. The default format is lection and set the cursor at 2.0 seconds because
hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds (seconds ac- the snap is to the previous whole second unit and
curate to three decimal places, as in the above image). there can not be a selection shorter than a whole
second.
Even if Snap To is enabled, a track or clip can still be • Dragging rightwards on the right edge of a selec-
time-shifted to any position and the Tracks > Align Tracks tion from 2.0 seconds to 4.0 seconds will not extend
command will still align to positions outside snap posi- the selection until the mouse pointer reaches ex-
tions for the current format. actly 5.0 seconds. Dragging rightwards on the left
edge will not contract the selection until the pointer
reaches exactly 3.0 seconds.
Nearest • Dragging leftwards on the left edge of a selection
from 2.0 seconds to 4.0 seconds extends the selec-
With Snap To set to "Nearest" and the format set to hours, tion immediately to start from 1.0 seconds. Drag-
minutes, seconds and milliseconds, clicking in-between ging leftwards on the right edge contracts the se-
6.500 seconds and 6.501 seconds as displayed on the lection immediately to end at 3.0 seconds.
Timeline snaps the cursor to the nearest millisecond unit, Keyboard use:
unless the cursor is already exactly at the nearest mil-
lisecond unit relative to the click point. Now suppose we • When either "Nearest" or "Prior" Snap To is enabled
want to snap to whole seconds. To do this, change the you can always move the cursor to the preceding or
format to one where the smallest unit is seconds, for ex- following Snap To position by using keyboard Left
ample, hours, minutes and seconds (hh:mm:ss). arrow or Right arrow respectively.
• Assuming the cursor is currently at other than ex- • Similarly you can always expand a selection edge
actly 2.0 whole seconds, clicking at 2.4 seconds will to the nearest Snap To position by holding Shift and
now snap the cursor to 2.0 seconds, while clicking pressing Left arrow to move the left edge or Right
at 2.8 seconds will snap the cursor to 3.0 seconds. arrow to move the right edge.
166 CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
• Contract a selection edge to the nearest Snap To the start of the selection is not currently at an exact multi-
position by holding Ctrl and Shift then pressing Left ple of the selection format. That is, by editing the Length,
arrow to contract from the right edge or Right arrow the entire selection, including the start, will snap to the
to contract from the left edge. current selection format.
This shows the current audio position while playing or To access the context menu listing the selection formats,
recording click the triangle to right of any box. You can also select
in or right-click over any digit in a box (or use a keyboard
equivalent). The following table lists the 16 available for-
mats.
4.19.4 Selection Position Boxes
Selection Format Example Notes
There are four available settings in the Selection Position seconds 005,408 seconds
Boxes in Selection Toolbar for the manner in which the
hh:mm:ss 01 h 30 m 08 s Hours, minutes, seconds
details of your selection are displayed:
dd:hh:mm:ss 00 days 01 h 30 m 08 s Days, hours, min-
• Start and End of selection: the start time and the
utes, seconds
end time of your selection (default setting)
hh:mm:ss + hundredths 01 h 30 m 08.51 s
• Start and Length of selection: the start time and
the length of your selection hh:mm:ss + milliseconds 01 h 30 m 08.512 s Default
• Length and End of selection: the length and the hh:mm:ss + samples 01 h 30 m 08 s + 22500 samples
end time of your selection samples 238,514,850 samples
• Length and Center of selection: the length and hh:mm:ss + film frames (24 fps) 01 h 30 m 08 s + 12
the time at the center of your selection frames
film frames (24 fps) 129,804 frames
hh:mm:ss + NTSC drop frames 01 h 30 m 08 s + 14
frames American video format
hh:mm:ss + NTSC non-drop frames 01 h 30 m 03 s + 02
frames
4.19.5 Editing the Selection Toolbar digits NTSC frames 162,092 frames
hh:mm:ss + PAL frames (25 fps) 01 h 30 m 08 s + 12
You can edit the individual digits representing time or
frames European video format
other formats in the time boxes so as to change the cur-
sor position or selection region on the waveform . Using PAL frames (25 fps) 135,212 frames
a mouse, click on a digit in one of the boxes then use
hh:mm:ss + CDDA frames (75 fps) 01 h 30 m 08 s + 37
the mouse wheel or up and down arrow on the keyboard
frames
to increment the value, or type the required value. Use
left and right arrow to navigate quickly to adjoining dig- CDDA frames (75 fps) 405,637 frames Audio CD
its, and Tab or Shift + Tab to navigate to adjoining boxes. frames In the following example we changed the format
Selection Toolbar is also fully accessible using only the to samples , which is the most finely detailed format
keyboard. See Audacity Selection for how to use Selec- available. All three time selection boxes changed their
tion Toolbar with the keyboard. selection fornat units to the new format.
Spectral Selection Toolbar lets you use the keyboard • High frequency: If there is no spectral selection
to precisely define a Spectral Selection in an audio track , defined, this shows dashes, representing "none". If
without having to zoom in to the exact spot while in Spec- there is a spectral selection, the upper frequency
trogram view. One pair of controls can define "Center boundary of the selection is displayed.
Frequency" and "Width" and the other pair can define
"Low Frequency" and "High Frequency".You must how-
ever be in Spectrogram view with Spectral Selection en- 4.21.3 Editing the Spectral Selection Tool-
abled to see the spectral selection, or to apply one of the bar digits
Spectral edit effects that can filter the spectral selec-
tion. Spectral Selection Toolbar is not visible by default.
Select View > Toolbars > Spectral Selection Toolbar to You can edit the individual digits representing frequency
show it. By default it docks in the lower dock, beside or in the "Center frequency", "Low frequency" and "High fre-
under Selection Toolbar . Spectral Selection Toolbar can quency" boxes, or the digits representing bandwidth in
show information about the spectral selection in two for- the "Width" box. When Spectral Selection is enabled this
mats: Center frequency and Width , or Low and High changes the visible spectral selection in any of the Spec-
Frequencies . Choose your preferred option from the trogram views . Using the mouse, click on a digit in one
dropdown menu above the boxes. of the boxes then use the mouse wheel or up and down
arrow on the keyboard to increment the value or type
the required value. Use left and right arrow to navigate
quickly to adjoining digits, and Tab or Shift + Tab to nav-
4.21.1 Center frequency and Width boxes igate to adjoining boxes. To clear the spectral selection
entirely and return the digits to dashes, you can select
any of the digits while in "Center frequency and Width"
view, then press Delete (note this is not the Delete key
on the numeric keypad). When in "Low and High Fre-
quencies" view you can clear either input box individually
with the Delete key. The Low and High Frequency values
are linked together so that changing the Low Frequency
• Center frequency: If there is no spectral selection
to exceed the High Frequency or the High Frequency to
defined, this shows dashes, representing "none". If
be less than the Low Frequency will have no effect.
there is a spectral selection the center frequency of
the selection is displayed.
• Width: If there is no spectral selection defined, this 4.21.4 Selection formats
shows dashes, representing "none". If there is a
spectral selection this shows the bandwidth (range To access the context menu listing the selection formats
of frequencies) of the selection. click the triangle to right of any box. You can also right-
click over any digit in a box, or select any digit then use
the Menu key. The following selection formats are avail-
4.21.2 Low and High Frequency boxes able.
• For Center frequency, Low frequency and High
frequency:
– Hz : Hertz, or cycles per second
– kHz: 1000 cycles per second
• For Width:
• Low frequency: If there is no spectral selection
defined, this shows dashes, representing "none". – octaves: an octave is a doubling of frequency.
If there is a spectral selection the lower frequency For example, a range of 1000 to 2000 Hz
boundary of the selection is displayed. would be 1 octave.
168 CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
The Audacity Status Bar is to be found at the bottom of The "Disk space remaining" message will continue to dis-
the Audacity window. It cannot be relocated or floated. Its play thereafter as soon as you leave the mouse station-
function is to display messages about recording or play- ary for a couple of seconds. If you run out of disk space
back, to indicate parts of Audacity that are being hovered at any time after starting or completing a recording, the
over by the mouse, and to provide hints about how to use default Status Bar message will change to "Out of disk
Audacity. space".
4.22.1 Status Bar sections The time remaining will be less at higher project
rates and higher bit depths because these will require
more disk space. See Quality Preferences for details.
There are three sections in the Status bar:
• the current status: Playing, Playing Paused,
Scrubbing, Recording, Recording Paused or 4.22.3 Reading files directly using On-
Stopped Demand Loading
• the central information and hints section
When reading imported uncompressed files files di-
• the Actual Rate of the audio (the active sample rate,
rectly from the original files, the percentage of the wave-
only shown when playing or recording).
form that has been computed is displayed in the center
When you hover over the audio area in any audio track , section of the Status Bar. When multiple files are being
Status Bar displays "Click and drag to select audio". imported, the Status Bar will display the overall percent-
Dragging horizontally always selects a region of time. age of the multiple tracks that has been computed. To
When you release the drag or otherwise hover over the make the Status Bar display the percentage completion
left or right edge of a selection, the Status Bar message of a particular track, move the mouse over that track.
changes to advise that you can click and drag to move
that selection boundary.
Buttons in Transport Toolbar that display a Status to Audacity can often differ from the chosen project rate,
Bar message include in parentheses the current depending how the "Host" chosen in Device Toolbar han-
keyboard shortcut for that button. dles the card’s settings in the operating system. For an
explanation of how this works on Windows, see the sam-
• When making a Spectral Selection , hovering over
ple rates section of the Windows 7 Wiki page. If the "Ac-
the edges or center line of a frequency selection
tual Rate" is different from the project rate then Audacity
also displays relevant help messages.
will resample from "Actual Rate" to the project rate.
Tracks
Anything that is added to the Project Window will be contains no audio itself. It can be used to mark specific
placed inside a track container, underneath the Timeline points or ranges in the project with point labels or range
of the project. There are four different types of tracks: Au- labels.
dio Tracks , Label Tracks , Time Tracks and Note Tracks
.
170
5.2. AUDIO TRACKS 171
For more details please see: Note Tracks . clude commands such as "Close focused track" (Shift +
C), "Mute/Unmute focused track" (Shift + U) and "Toggle
focused track" (Return or Enter, which toggles whether
5.1.5 Track focus the focused track is selected or not). The complete list
of "focused track" commands can be seen by searching
You may have noticed in the images on this page that for "focused track" (without quotes) in Keyboard Prefer-
Note track has a yellow border around it. This bor- ences or by viewing the description of these commands
der indicates that this track has focus. The track that in Keyboard Shortcut Reference . Track focus is used to
has focus is the track that accepts any command whose select audio and to extend or move the selection region
name includes "focused track". These commands in- into other tracks using the keyboard.
Each audio track containing digital audio contains from RMS (Root Mean Square) value of the audio, see The
left to right: waveform colors for more detail.
• a Track Control Panel with Audio Track Dropdown
Menu for changing View Mode and audio proper-
ties of that individual track
• a Vertical Scale with units
• a visual representation of the audio waveform .
New tracks are created whenever you import an audio
file, record (except for generate audio when there is no
selection . Tracks > Add New lets you explicitly add a
new, empty mono or stereo audio track.
See Audacity Waveform for further details of the Wave-
form and alternative Waveform (dB) View Mode (chosen
5.2.1 About Tracks using the Track Dropdown Menu). Spectrogram views
can be chosen from the same menu.
A track is like one instrument in your symphony, or one
voice in your podcast. You can add more tracks, and all • To change the default View Mode that all tracks
of them will be mixed together to create your final output, show when created, use Tracks Preferences .
but during editing you can manipulate each track inde- In a stereo track, all editing actions on the track are ap-
pendently. If you have an interview recorded with two plied identically to both channels, though some effects
microphones, each one can go in a separate track. If you may treat each channel differently. For exaample, Effect
have background music, that could go in a third track. > Amplify... and by default Effect > Normalize... set the
You can move the whole track along the Timeline so that peak amplitude of only the loudest channel then apply
it plays at a different point in time in the mix, but until it the same change in amplitude to the other channel, pre-
is split into clips you cannot move individual parts of it serving the balance between channels. Normalize has
around. an option to normalize left and right channels indepen-
dently to the same amplitude if this is required. See Am-
plify and Normalize for more details.
5.2.2 Stereo Audio Track
The image below shows the separate components of an 5.2.3 Single Audio Track (Mono, Left or
Audacity stereo track: the Track Control Panel with Au- Right)
dio Track Dropdown Menu , the Vertical Scale and the
Waveform Display itself, typical of a finally edited record- A single audio track has the same components as a
ing. As per convention, the upper waveform and vertical stereo track with a single waveform and one vertical scale
scale represent the left channel and the lower waveform rather than two. This can be easily seen if using "Split
and vertical scale represent the right channel. The dark Stereo Track" in the Track Dropdown Menu to split the
blue part of the waveform displays the tallest peak and stereo track into two single tracks. The same menu
the light blue part of the waveform displays the average can make single tracks mono, left or right. Each single
172 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
track can be separately selected and thus edited inde- menu include changing the name or sample rate , how
pendently from other tracks. the track is displayed, splitting a stereo track to single left,
right or mono tracks and swapping stereo channels.Mute
Set the gain for this track. Hold down the shift key while
dragging to adjust the slider in finer increments. Double-
click the slider to bring up a window where you can make
precise adjustments or enter a gain value.Pan Slider:
The Track Control Panel at the left of the audio track has
controls and status indicators for this track. Left-clicking
To make signal stronger on left or right
other than on a control performs track selection and move
speaker/earphone. Hold down the shift key while drag-
as follows.
ging to adjust the slider in finer increments. Double-click
• Clicking selects all this track’s audio, deselecting all the slider to bring up a window where you can make
other tracks. precise adjustments or enter a pan value.Track Collapse
Button:
• Holding Shift while clicking selects all this track’s
audio, keeping already selected tracks selected.
– (keyboard: use Up or Down to give the track
focus , then Enter to select it; hold Shift Click on this to make the track ’fold up’ into a smaller size.
then use Up or Down to extend selection into Click again, or drag the lower edge of the track to restore
another track. Read keyboard selection for the size.
more).
• Click-and-drag moves this track up or down when
there are other tracks (keyboard: choose one of Status Indicators
the "Move Track" commands in Audio Track Drop-
down Menu , opened by Shift + M on the currently • Track Information Area:
focused track ).
Controls
Gives the following information for each track:
Close Button: Clicking this button will close the track,
removing it from the project.Audio Track Dropdown • Stereo or Mono
Menu: • The sample rate in Hz
• The sample format or bit depth. An imported
file will show the bit depth at which the file was im-
Clicking the track name or using Shift + M on the currently ported (as per your choice in Quality Preferences ),
focused track opens the Audio Track Dropdown Menu not the actual bit depth of the file.
giving options that affect this track only. Newly created
tracks are named "Audio Track". Options in the dropdown • Sync-Lock Indicator:
5.2. AUDIO TRACKS 173
When present (at bottom-right of the Track Control • Hold Shift and right-click to zoom out in one step to
Panel, adjacent to the Track Collapse button), indicates 1.0 to -1.0 linear (maximum 0 dB) or when in Spec-
that this track is part of a Sync-Locked Track Group . trogram view, to a range of 0 Hz to the maximum
for the sample rate (so 0 Hz to 22050 Hz for 44100
Hz rate).
5.2.5 Vertical Scale • Hold Shift and rotate the mouse wheel to scroll up
and down at the same zoom level, using the same
visible range of amplitude or frequency.
Display options
Click and drag between the two waveforms to change in the Track Control Panel . This will affect this track only
their relative height (Esc key can abort that drag).
Click and drag between the tracks (Esc key can abort that
drag).
Stem Plots
a stem plot, the horizontal distance between sam- has focus is the track that accepts any command whose
ple dots may be more uneven than seen with the name includes "focused track". These commands in-
connect dots default. clude commands such as "Close focused track" (Shift +
C), "Mute/Unmute focused track" (Shift + U) and "Toggle
• Connect dots: This is alternative setting yields a
focused track" (RETURN or Enter, which toggles whether
waveform where each sample dot is connected to
the focused track is selected or not). The complete list
the next sample by a line drawn between them. de-
of "focused track" commands can be seen by searching
fault.
for "focused track" (without quotes) in Keyboard Prefer-
ences or by viewing the description of these commands
in Keyboard Shortcut Reference . Track focus is used to
select audio and to extend or move the selection region
into other tracks using the keyboard.
5.3.1 Default Waveform view lie closer to +/- 1 so filling more of the vertical space in
the track), the audio is louder. When the top and bottom
The default track created in Audacity when you press the of the waveform lie closer to the zero line, the audio is
record button is a stereo track displayed in Waveform quieter. It is tempting to look at this and think that has not
view with a linear vertical scale running from -1.0 (neg- been recorded loud enough, but the -0.5 to +0.5 level that
ative values) to +1.0 (positive values), centered on zero this example shows corresponds to -6 dB on the Meter
(provided you have not changed Audacity’s default for the Toolbar and is an ideal peak level to aim for while record-
display). You will also get a waveform like this if you im- ing (the signal can always be amplified in later processing
port a stereo audio file into Audacity. Stereo Tracks con- if required).
tain a Track Control Panel and a Vertical Scale to the left
with two waveforms on the right. The upper waveform
represents the left channel and the lower waveform rep- The Vertical Scale
resents the right channel as in this example:
The Vertical Scale (at the left of the waveform) goes lin-
early from +1 at the top (the maximum possible loudness
without distortion when the signal is positive) to -1 at the
bottom (the maximum when it is negative).
• The dark blue part of the waveform displays the is exactly the same recording as that above displayed in
tallest peak in the area that pixel represents. At Waveform (dB) view.
default zoom level Audacity will display many sam-
ples within that pixel width, so this pixel represents
the value of the loudest sample in the group.
• The light blue part of the waveform displays the av-
erage RMS (Root Mean Square) value for the
same group of samples. This is a rough guide to
how loud this area might sound, but there is no way
to extract or use this RMS part of the waveform sep-
arately.
This view shows that the recording has been made loud
enough and fills the display nicely.
there is mild distortion throughout a recording, using Ef- 5.3.4 Alternative audio view formats
fect > Equalization to reduce the higher frequencies can
help to mitigate the damage. Sometimes a bass cut will See Audio Track Dropdown Menu for information on the
help also by making the result sound less "muddy". alternative Spectrogram audio track view formats. These
are not documented here as they are not true "waveform"
views.
An Audacity project can contain multiple audio tracks that single clip, so again you can only move that
. Each track is normally in one unbroken section, some- whole track unless you split it into multiple clips.
thing like a single film clip. However, Audacity can split a
track so as to create multiple clips within that track. Each
clip in a track can then be moved around independently,
5.4.2 Splitting a track into clips
but they all share several properties of the parent track
such as its overall volume, panning, sample rate and
sample format . When you record some audio or import audio from a file,
you get a single track. In many cases, there are natural
gaps in the audio - silence between sentences or pauses
between phrases in music. Those are good candidates
5.4.1 Channels, Tracks and Clips for splitting the track into multiple clips, allowing you to
move or otherwise manipulate those clips independently.
The terms channel, track and clip can be a little con- There are eight ways to create multiple clips in a track.
fusing, especially because some applications may use
them to mean slightly different things. Within Audacity, • Edit > Remove Special > Split Delete at a region
the meaning is as follows: in an existing track or clip, removing the selected
audio without shifting the following audio.
• A channel is for audio recording (input) or playback
(output). Audacity can record two channels of in- • Edit > Remove Special > Split Cut at a region in an
put (stereo), and more if you have a special sound- existing track or clip, removing the selected audio to
card or audio device that supports more than two the Audacity clipboard without shifting the following
simultaneous channels. Audacity supports only two audio.
channels of playback (output), no matter what kind
• Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split at the cursor or re-
of audio hardware you have.
gion in an existing track or clip, doing nothing ex-
• An audio track is like one instrument in your sym- cept separating it into multiple clips.
phony, or one voice in your podcast. You can add
• Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split New at a region in an
more tracks, and all of them will be mixed together
existing track or clip, moving the selected audio to
to create your final output, but during editing you
the same position in a new track at the bottom of
can manipulate each track independently. If you
the project.
have an interview recorded with two microphones,
each one can go in a separate track. If you have • Edit > Clip Boundaries > Detach at Silences at a re-
background music, that could go in a third track. gion in an existing track or clip, creating clips either
You can move the whole track along the Timeline side of absolute silences.
so that it plays at a different point in time in the mix,
but until it is split you cannot move individual parts • Edit > Paste from the Audacity clipboard into vacant
of it around. space in an existing track.
• A clip inside an audio track is a separate section • Generate some audio into vacant space in an ex-
of that track which has been split so that it can be isting track.
manipulated somewhat independently of the other • Drag a clip from a different track (or the whole track)
clips in the track. For example, you can split an in- into vacant space in an existing track using Time
terview into separate clips for each sentence then Shift Tool .
move them around individually although they are all
from the same track. Or you could move a clip to As an example, the "before Split " and "after Split" images
another track that is panned further right, or split it below show that after selecting Edit > Clip Boundaries >
to a new, empty track. The new track only contains Split, the two boundaries of the gray selection region are
178 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
It’s easy to select all the audio of a given clip. Make sure
that Selection Tool is enabled in Tools Toolbar then
double-click in the clip. You can also select all of an entire
track that has no individual clips in this way.
After dragging with the Time Shift tool, the first clip in the
left channel has moved independently of the clips in the
right channel. The clip does fit after the second clip in the second track.
180 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
5.5.1 Name...
• Swap the channels of a stereo track • Move Track To Bottom: Move the track to the bot-
tom of the project window.
• Make or split stereo tracks
It is often more convenient to just click in the Track Con-
• Set the current sample rate and sample format trol Panel on the left of the track and drag the track up or
for the track. down.
5.5. AUDIO TRACK DROPDOWN MENU 181
5.5.3 Waveform This view of the same chirp and word shows how the
amount of energy in different frequency bands changes
over time. Higher frequencies are at the top of the scale,
lower frequencies at the bottom. The blue color is the
least energy and the red and white are the most. The
progressive increase of pitch in the chirp tone is vividly
demonstrated by the upward sloping diagonal line. Spec-
trogram view also confirms that the "Audacity" word has
This first half of this waveform is a "Chirp" tone which most energy in the middle of the word.
stays at the same amplitude (loudness), as shown by
the horizontal top and bottom. The linear scale on the • Go to the Spectrograms Preferences to see the op-
left goes from +1 at the top (the maximum possible loud- tions for adjusting exactly how the spectrum is dis-
ness without distortion when the signal is positive) to -1 played and for the various styles of spectrogram
at the bottom (the maximum when it is negative). The display.
horizontal line centered on 0.0 is silence. What you can- • You can click in the Vertical Scale at any time to
not see without zooming much further in is that the pitch zoom in to a particular frequency range, or right-
of this tone is gradually increasing. Zooming would show click to zoom out. Frequencies higher than half the
the individual cycles in the waveform (the positive and sample rate of the track are not displayed because
negative peaks) occurring much closer together at the a given rate cannot contain higher frequencies than
end of the sound. The second half of the waveform is the that.
word "Audacity" spoken by a male voice.
• See Spectrogram View for more details of the
Spectrogram views.
• This tutorial shows how the Spectrogram view can
be used to help track down and eliminate hard to
find clicks.
See Splitting and Joining Stereo Tracks for more de- 5.5.8 Format
tails on using the Split Stereo Track, Split Stereo to
Mono and Make Stereo Tracks commands. Converts the sample format of the current track state
to 16-bit integer PCM, 24-bit integer PCM or 32-bit float-
ing point. The number of computer bits representing
each sample in the waveform will be recalculated for the
changed precision . Further edits will be performed at the
Stereo Tracks
new bit depth, but audio data for any track states before
the conversion remains at its previous bit depth. This
• Swap Stereo Channels Use this command on a means that undoing the format change is always loss-
stereo track to swap the left and right channels with- less.
out having to split the stereo track (see below). The
left channel and the right channel and will change
places, so that the audible content of the left chan- 5.5.9 Rate
nel moves into the right and the audible content of
the right channel moves into the left. Change the sample rate of the track, which can be
thought of as the concentration of audio samples in the
• Split Stereo Track splits the two channels of a track or the time distance between them. Increasing the
stereo pair into separately editable tracks for left rate squeezes the existing samples into a shorter length
and right channels, left above the right. If you are (so increasing playback speed and pitch), while decreas-
mixing multiple single channel files, you might want ing the rate spreads them out over a greater length (so
to use the "Split Stereo to Mono" command noted reducing playback speed and pitch). This is useful for ex-
below then use the pan slider on the Track Control ample if you import a file that has the wrong rate and thus
Panel. This will give you more control over the pan plays at the wrong speed. Changing the sample rate of
than leaving the tracks as left and right channel. a track without changing the speed involves resampling
. Resampling for export is always done by changing the
• Split Stereo to Mono splits the two channels of Project Rate in Selection Toolbar . To resample a track for
a stereo pair into two separately editable mono use in the project, choose Resample in the Tracks Menu
tracks. .
5.6.2 What the Colors Mean • anything above -20 dB is indistinguishably white
(the tone at -10 dB in the image above is white)
To demonstrate how the various settings affect the ap- • levels from -40 dB to -20 dB transition from red to
pearance of an audio track in spectrogram view, we will white (the tone at -30 dB in the image above is light
start with this artificially constructed test track. It consists red)
of 10 segments of a sine wave tone at 2000 Hz, each 2
seconds long. The level of each segment in dB is indi- • levels from -60 dB to -40 dB transition from ma-
cated by the labels below the audio track. This is how genta to red (the tone at -50 dB in the image above
the track appears in waveform dB view. is magenta)
• levels from -80 dB to -60 dB transition from dark
blue to magenta (the tone at -70 dB in the image
above is bluish purple)
• levels from -100 dB to -80 dB transition from light
blue to dark blue (the tone at -90 dB in the image
above is light blue)
This is how the track appears in spectrogram view, using • anything below -100 dB is gray.
the default settings.
Musical overtones form a linear sequence and are gen- Comparison of Mel, Logarithmic and Linear Spectro-
erally best viewed in Linear Spectrogram view.Here is a gram views
chromatic scale shown in Spectrogram view.
The image below shows the scaling differences in differ-
ent Spectrogram views of the same audio:
Using the commands in the Audio Track Dropdown Menu 5.7.1 Splitting a Stereo Track
you can:
Now you can see the two tracks marked "Left" and
"Right":
– the upper track will be treated as having a pan 3. Choose Effect > Equalization and apply the appro-
setting of 100% left and a gain setting of 0 dB priate equalization curve to the track.
– the lower track will be treated as having a pan 4. Listen to the result - if it is not as intended, choose
setting of 100% right and a gain setting of 0 Edit > Undo Equalization and try a different equal-
dB ization curve.
• the gain setting of the upper track will be applied to 5. When you are satisfied with the result, choose
the new stereo track Make Stereo Track from the Track Dropdown
Menu of the upper track.
• the pan setting of the resulting stereo track will be
set to 0.
Thus the join action may make the balance sound differ- Example 2: Reducing the "width" of a stereo track
ent from your intentions or what you hear when playing
the tracks. Assume you have a recording of a drum kit where the
stereo spread of the kit sounds unnatural. The high hat
• Envelopes will be retained for the left and right sounds like it’s coming from the right speaker only and
channels of the new stereo track, but any further the floor tom from the left speaker.
envelope adjustments will be applied to both chan-
nels simultaneously which may give unexpected re- 1. Choose Split Stereo to Mono from the Track Drop-
sults. down Menu, which makes two new mono tracks
and sets them to mix together equally in both left
If you want to preview the result of the Make Stereo and right channels of your listening equipment.
Track command, set the gain of each track to 0 dB, set
the pan of the upper track to 100% left and set the pan 2. Adjust the pan control of the upper track to 70% left.
of the lower track to 100% right. If you wish to retain the 3. Adjust the pan control of the lower track to 70%
gain, pan and envelope settings of the two mono tracks right.
when joining them into one stereo track, select the two
tracks then choose Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render in- 4. Listen to the result and adjust the pan controls until
stead of joining the tracks. you get the effect you want.
5. Select the two tracks, for example by clicking info
area of the Track Control Panel of one track, then
5.7.4 Examples using the Track Dropdown holding Shift and clicking similarly in the Track Con-
trol Panel of the other track.
Menu
6. Choose Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render so that the
Example 1: Applying equalization to one channel of two tracks are mixed and rendered into one stereo
a stereo track track. This changes the audio data and waveform
to match with the audible pan settings.
Assume that you have a recording where one channel is • If instead at step 6 you had chosen Make
"muffled" - lacking in high frequencies compared to the Stereo Track on the upper track, this does
other channel. not render your changes: you would just
get your original stereo track back again
1. Choose Split Stereo Track from the Track Drop- since Make Stereo Track ignores the pan set-
down Menu. tings. Use Edit > Undo Make Stereo then
2. Select the muffled track, for example by clicking in Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render if you choose
the info area of the Track Control Panel. Make Stereo Track by mistake.
This tutorial shows how to divide a long recording in unwanted audio, identifying and labeling boundaries be-
one Audacity track into separate songs for export as one tween songs, maximizing volume then using Export Mul-
audio file per song. You can then burn these files to tiple .If you already have each song in Audacity tracks
an audio CD (enabling you to skip from track to track one above the other, you can still follow this tutorial. In-
on the CD) or play the files directly on a portable mu- stead of labeling as described here, name each song us-
sic player. We describe the basic concepts of removing ing that track’s dropdown menu . At the Export Multiple
5.8. SPLITTING A RECORDING FOR EXPORT AS SEPARATE TRACKS 189
step, split files based on Tracks instead of Labels. Live • On Linux, do not use /
recordings versus studio recordings
Mark the rest of the songs
• Sometimes songs on live recordings flow together.
1. Using the selection tool, click near the beginning of
If you want to split a live recording into songs with-
the second song
out any audible break between the songs on the
CD you must use burning software that can set the 2. Repeatedly click the Zoom In button until you can
"gap" or "pause" between tracks to 0 seconds and see just the first few seconds of the song
can burn in "disk-at-once" (DAO) mode. See Gap-
less burning. 3. Click as closely as possible to the start of the song
4. Click on Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection , or
use shortcut Ctrl + B
5.8.1 Step 1 - Remove unwanted audio
5. Type the name of the song into the label
from the recording
5. Click on Edit > Delete 7. Continue in this manner adding a label to mark the
start of each song
Similarly, remove unwanted audio from the end of the
recording and from the middle (between sides 1 and 2 of You can save time by using Analyze > Silence Finder
the LP or cassette). Note that later in this tutorial we will to automatically add labels in the silences, or Analyze
be using the Analyse > Find Silences command to iden- > Sound Finder to label the regions to be exported for
tify spaces between the songs, so when you are editing the songs. The Sound Finder method thus lets you ex-
the transition between side 1 and side 2 be sure to leave clude some or all of the areas between songs.Both these
2 or 3 seconds of silence, similar to what you would find effects depend on correctly detecting the "silences" be-
between songs. Save your work! Click on File > Save tween tracks and this depends on setting their parame-
Project . ters appropriately for your track. See this example of ad-
justing Silence Finder parameters in order to place labels
correctly between the songs.
5.8.2 Step 2 - Label the songs
Mark the first song 5.8.3 Step 3 - Maximize the volume of the
recording
1. Click the Skip to Start button
2. Click on Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection If you did the original recording properly and avoided clip-
, or use shortcut Ctrl + B.A new label is created ping, the recording is probably not at the maximum possi-
in a new label track underneath the audio track. ble volume. In order for the CD to be burned at maximum
The contents of the label are selected and ready volume and thus match other CDs in your collection we
for editing. If you need to play the track to decide need to fix this.
where to place the split points, you can use "Add
Label at Playback Position" instead (directly under- 1. Click on {Select > All , or use shortcut Ctrl + A
neath "Add Label at Selection", or use shortcut Ctrl 2. Click on Effect > Normalize...
+ M(on Mac it is CloverLeaf + .).
The default choice in this dialog is to amplify to a max-
3. Type the title of the first song imum of -1.0 dB. The maximum setting is 0 dB, but the
default setting of -1.0 dB provides a little headroom as
some players can have playback problems with audio at
When typing the label, you should not use charac-
0 dB.
ters which are reserved by the operating system.
Some consumer-level turntables, tape decks and/or am-
• On Windows, do not use:
plifiers may well record stereo channels with a stronger
/ : * ? " < > |
signal in one channel than the other, which you will prob-
• On Mac, do not use : ably want to correct. In that case, check the box that says
190 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
"Normalize stereo channels independently". One prob- and add the common tags there, Audacity will pre-
lem when copying records is that a loud click in one chan- fill these when the metadata window for each song
nel can cause Normalize to create an unwanted change appears.
in the stereo balance. In that case you should consider
• If all your tags are common to each song (except of
removing the click before the Normalize step, using Click
course for each song’s Track Title and Track Num-
Removal .
ber), you can enter the common tags before export
as above but export silently without the metadata
window appearing. To do this, choose Preferences
5.8.4 Step 4 - Export Multiple , then the Import / Export tab, and uncheck Show
Metadata Editor prior to export step.
Congratulations, you are now ready to export the tracks.
• Hiding Metadata Editor at the export step can also
1. Click on File > Save Other > Export Multiple... . be useful if you mainly export WAV files for which
many audio players don’t recognize tag information.
2. Choose the Export Format from the pop-up menu: Use AIFF (in iTunes or VLC) or FLAC if you want
• for CD burning choose 16-bit WAV if using full metadata in lossless files.
Windows or Linux or AIFF if you’re using a A progress dialog might appear if the process takes more
Mac than a second or two. When the process is finished a
• for loading into an MP3 player, choose MP3 confirmation dialog will appear listing the files that were
created. The tracks are now ready to import into the CD
• for loading into iTunes/iPod you can export as burning software of your choice. If you burn a CD with
WAV and use iTunes to convert the WAVs to a gap of zero seconds between tracks (if your burning
AAC or MP3. software supports this), you will end up with an exact
replica of the LP or cassette. If, when burning the CD,
3. Click the Choose... button and pick the place where
you add the standard 2-second gap between each track
your exported tracks will be saved.
you will be adding an additional 2 seconds to the exist-
4. Under Split Files Based On: ing silence between tracks, and the vinyl surface noise
or cassette hiss will suddenly disappear which some lis-
• Labels should be checked teners may find annoying. See Refinements, below, for
• Include audio before first label should be ways of dealing with this.
unchecked, as there is no audio before the first
label
5.8.5 Step 5: Backup
5. Under Name Files:
• Using Label/Track Name should be Backup your exported WAV or MP3 files - you don’t want
checked. to lose all that valuable work and have to do it all over
again, do you? Computer hard drives can fail, destroy-
6. Click the Export button. ing all data. Ideally use a dedicated drive (1+ TB ex-
7. Metadata Editor will appear for the first song. The ternal magnetic drives are convenient and economical),
Track Title and Track Number will be pre-filled from or upload to an online (cloud) storage service to store
the labels, but you can enter any additional informa- the WAVs or MP3s. Better still is to make two copies
tion for that song that you wish (for example, Artist on different external devices and even better is to hold
Name and Album Title). an online backup as well as the local copies. You may
want to create a taxonomic file structure - for example
8. Click the OK button in the Metatdata Editor (not the each album can be stored in its own folder (named for
Save button). the album) within a folder named for the artist (or, per-
9. Metadata Editor will appear for the next and the haps, composer for classical music) to make searching
subsequent songs; as before, enter any additional and retrieval easier.
information and click "OK" for each window. When
you click "OK" on the window for the last song, all
the files will export. 5.8.6 Refinements
Metadata in this context refers to information "tags" Remove the "silence" between songs
stored in the audio file such as Artist, Album and Song
Title.
Of course, the space between songs is not really "silent"
• Often you may have an album where most tags - it contains vinyl surface noise or cassette hiss. Using
(such as Artist Name) are common to all tracks. If standard editing techniques you can select and delete
you choose Edit > Metatdata... before exporting these portions of the recording, then insert whatever gap
5.9. LABEL TRACKS 191
(silent portion) you want when burning the CD. If you will by using Effect > Fade Out at the end of each song.
be listening to the songs primarily on a computer or MP3 You can do the fade-out after the music ends (in effect
player you may prefer to have some silence at the end fading out the noise). Alternatively you can fade out the
of each song. In this case select the silent portion then last second or so of the song if that works with the music.
click on Edit > Remove Special > Silence Audio . Now If fading the last seconds of the music you may prefer to
you can edit the length of the silent portion to your taste. use Effect > Studio Fade Out as that should give you a
Alternatively you can delete the silent portion, then click smoother and more "musical" sounding fade out. Exper-
on Generate > Silence and specify exactly how much iment and listen to the results to decide what works for
silence you want. you and for the music you are working on.
• The label text can be edited and you can resize re-
gion labels or move region or point labels.
• Label tracks can be used to define sets of Sync- Right-clicking a label will cause its context menu to ap-
Locked Track Groups . pear:
192 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
Selecting a Label
When you click inside a label to select it, the label back-
ground color changes to white, indicating that the label
text is open for editing, and the cursor point or region of
audio the label corresponds to is restored. The region
will be visible in all audio tracks that are selected and the
cursor will be visible in all audio tracks that have the yel-
low focus border. This applies even if the label track is
above the audio track. See this page for more details on
label creation and selection .
From this menu you can:
• Cut or Copy any text selected in the label to the
system clipboard 5.9.4 Navigating Labels
• Paste any text that is currently on the system clip- Open label for editing
board
• Delete the label When focus is on a label track as indicated by the yellow
focus border:
• Open Labels Editor to edit only that label’s Start
Time and End Time (and also its Low Frequency • TAB opens the next label for editing and places the
and High Frequency for use in Spectral Selection ). editing cursor or selection to correspond with that
label
• Shift + TAB opens the previous label for editing and
5.9.3 Creating and selecting Labels places the editing cursor or selection to correspond
with that label.
Labels can be created by selecting a region or clicking
at a point of interest then choosing Edit > Labels > Add The label background becomes white, indicating you can
Label at Selection (or use its keyboard shortcut Ctrl + type to edit the label’s text. For a point label, the editing
B). An empty label appears then you can type to add cursor is placed at the label moved to. For a region label,
text to the label. Press Enter on the keyboard to con- a selection is placed corresponding to the label moved
firm the text and close the label. When the label track to. The view position moves if necessary to show you the
has the yellow focus border as in the image above you label moved to. Audacity cycles through the labels auto-
can, if preferred, just type to create a label containing matically, so when at the last label, moving to next label
that text rather than first using the menu or shortcut to jumps to the first label. When at the first label, moving to
create the label. This default behaviour can be turned previous label jumps to the last label. These commands
off, if required, in Tracks Preferences by unchecking the exist only as shortcuts - they have no menu items or but-
"Type to create label". You can also create labels while tons.
playing or recording.
• To create a point label at the current position of Just move to the label
the green playback cursor or red recording cursor,
choose Edit > Labels > Add Label at Playback Po-
There are also two shortcut commands to move between
sition or its keyboard shortcut Ctrl + M (CloverLeaf
labels without opening them for editing. These shortcuts
+ . on Mac).
do not require the yellow focus border to be in a label
• To create a region label while playing or recording, track:
click and drag the region then use the same Add
• Alt + Right places the editing cursor or selection to
Label at Selection command (or its shortcut Ctrl +
correspond with the next label
B ) as when adding a region label when the track
is stopped. Similarly you can click anywhere in a • Alt + Left places the editing cursor or selection to
track while playing or recording and use Ctrl + B to correspond with the previous label.
label that point.
The view position moves if necessary to show you the
You can create extra label tracks using Tracks > Add New label moved to, centred in the view. If there is a single
> Label Track but when exporting multiple files based on label track, you do not need to be aware of which track
5.9. LABEL TRACKS 193
has the yellow focus border. If you have multiple label • Split method - retains audio synchronization:
tracks, use Up or Down arrow to move the yellow focus
Often you may want to remove labels from the label track
border into the label track you wish to use. If there is
without removing their associated audio, while keeping
more than one label track and none have focus, then the
the remaining labels synchronized with their audio.The
first label track downwards from the focused audio track
quickest way to do this is to select any region in the label
is used. During playback these "Move to the label" com-
track that extends beyond the label or labels to be re-
mands restart playback at the position of the label moved
moved (without reaching other labels), then choose Edit
to. This is useful if you have a long recording which you
> Remove Special > Split Delete , or its shortcut Ctrl + Alt
want to split into separate tracks using labels . As with the
+ K. Any labels lying to right of the removed labels stay
TAB and Shift + TAB commands, Audacity cycles through
where they are, still associated with their original audio.
the labels automatically, and there are no corresponding
menu items or buttons. • Label text removal method - retains audio syn-
chronization:
You can use this method to remove a single label. Open
5.9.5 Editing, resizing and moving Labels the label, remove the text then press Backspace or
Delete once to remove the empty label. All remaining
You can edit labels by changing their text content, resize labels remain synchronized with their audio.
region labels or move region or point labels. You can
• Delete method - loses audio synchronization
change label positions:
for labels to right of the delete point:
• move a point label by clicking and dragging its circle
To remove labels or a region of label track so that the
handle
following labels move back (leftwards), select over or be-
• expand a point label into a region label by clicking tween labels then choose Edit > Delete , or its shortcut
and dragging either of its triangle handles Ctrl + K. Labels following to right of the removed labels
will always move backwards (earlier on the Timeline) ac-
• move a region label by clicking and dragging either cording to the length of the removed selection. See Re-
of its circle handles moving Labels - Examples for examples of the various
• change the length of a region label by clicking and methods.
dragging one of its triangle handles
• adjust the junction point where two labels meet by Deleting the entire Label Track
clicking and dragging their shared circle handle
• if you remove part of a label track inside a region You can also remove all labels at once by deleting the
label this will reduce the duration of the region la- label track entirely. To remove the entire label track and
bel. all its labels, click in the label track and choose Tracks >
Remove Tracks . Alternatively, click the close button in
You can cut and paste region labels using Edit > Cut and the upper-left corner of the label track. Label tracks can
Edit > Paste , but you have to make sure you do not select be exported as a text file and are required for splitting
any audio, or you will end up cutting and pasting audio a long recording to separate files using Export Multiple
where you probably did not intend. See Editing, resizing . However labels themselves cannot be included as part
and moving Labels for more details on editing labels. of an exported audio file so there is no need to remove
additional label tracks that for example were used for an-
notation or transcription but are no longer required.
5.9.6 Removing Labels only
Labels can be removed (deleted) in a number of ways. 5.9.7 Removing labels together with their
However because labels are usually associated with an associated audio
audio track, the label deletion method may affect whether
or not the remaining labels are still synchronized with the In most cases when you remove parts of the label track,
audio (that is, remain associated with the same part of you will also want to remove the corresponding audio so
the audio track ). Incorrect edits to label tracks can al- that the remaining labels are still synchronized with their
ways be undone by using Edit > Undo . original audio, for example, you may have labeled a re-
gion of noisy audio for later deletion. To remove the audio
• Delete Label - retains audio synchronization:
region as well as the label region, select over or between
Right-click inside the label’s text box and choose Delete the labels as required then include the audio track in the
Label from the dropdown menu. Any labels lying to right selection by dragging the selection upwards to include
of the removed labels stay where they are, still associ- the audio track, then choose Edit > Delete or its shortcut
ated with their original audio. Ctrl + K. Similarly, if you want to keep labels and audio
194 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
Edit > Labels > Edit Labels... launches a keyboard- • Move Track to Bottom: Moves track to become
accessible Labels Editor where you can perform all re- the bottom track in the project.
move, text edit, resize and move operations on labels. All
the labels and label tracks in the project are displayed in Label tracks can also be moved up or down by clicking
a tabular view, similar to a spreadsheet. Each row rep- between the controls in the track’s Track Control Panel
resents a single individual label. See this page for more then dragging upwards or downwards.
details on the editor.
Clicking the label track’s name by the downward-pointing Track Collapse Button:
triangle (or using shortcut Shift + M or the keyboard Menu
key when the label track has focus) opens the Label Track
Dropdown Menu:
Click on this to make the track ’fold up’ into a smaller size.
Click again, or drag the lower edge of the track to restore
the size.
Alternative Method Using Point Labels anywhere in a track while playing or recording and
use Ctrl + B to label that point.
In the example above we used region labels to mark the
You can create extra label tracks using Tracks > Add New
interview segments. We could just as easily have used
> Label Track but when exporting multiple files based on
point labels. For example, we could click in the audio
labels, audio is only exported for the labels in the upper-
track at the beginning of the first question then click on
most label track in the project.
Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection to create the point
label.
Label Tracks can be exported to, and imported from plain time position and text content information in the first line,
text files (.txt extension). The structure of the file is a tab- a second line for each label records the low frequency
delimited plain text format that can be opened by any text followed by the high frequency. To view the low and
editor or spreadsheet application and edited there.The high frequency values for a label, either select the label
standard structure to display a label denoting its Time- then look in Spectral Selection Toolbar , or right-click
line position and any text it contains is as below. the label and choose "Edit" to open the Edit Labels win-
dow.Sometimes it may be useful to use these labels in
2.150000 → 2.150000 → point label at 2.15 sec- another application (for example if somebody wanted to
onds 3.400000 → 6.100000 → region label from 3.4 know the time where each piece of an interview starts
to 6.1 seconds In the example above, the first column or stops), or to import a labels file that someone has
has the start time in seconds, the second column has shared with you. You can export labels using the Edit
the end time, and the third column if present shows the Labels window mentioned above, or by choosing File >
text of the label. Start time and end time are identical Save Other > Export Labels... . By default the exported
for a point label. Values are separated by tab charac- file has the same name as the current name of the label
ters (which will often appear as an arrow in text editors, track. If there are multiple label tracks, the labels of all
as shown above). If a label is created from a point or those tracks are combined into a single label track in the
region in a Spectrogram track where Spectral Selection exported file, which by default has the same name as the
is enabled (or if a label is otherwise created when a low current name of the last label track. Labels can be im-
frequency and high frequency value are already stored ported using the Edit Labels window, or by choosing File
in the project), the labels file also contains the frequency > Import > Labels... . Imported label tracks are added to
range for that label. the bottom of all existing track types in the project, just
1.000000 → 1.000000 → This point was clicked at as when you import an audio track .
6928.456055 Hz
→ 6928.456055 → 6928.456055 2.000000 → 2.500000 → Low
If you import labels created by some application
frequency undefined, High frequency 6334.588867 Hz
other than Audacity, make sure the application supports
→ -1.000000 → 6334.588867 3.000000 → 3.500000 → Low
UTF-8 or use only ASCII (Latin unaccented) characters
frequency 8908.015625, High frequency undefined
and numbers. Otherwise, accented or any other non-
→ 8908.015625 → -1.000000 4.000000 → 4.500000 → Low
Latin characters may cause the file to not import. If you
frequency 1484.669312 Hz, High frequency
use a Windows application to create the file, you may
2969.338523 Hz
have to use "Save As" and look for a specific option that
→ 1484.669312 → 2969.338523 In the example above,
saves with UTF-8 encoding.
there is a point label at 1 second, then three region la-
bels each starting one second further along. After the |< Label Tracks
This page contains five examples of how to remove la- Special > Split Delete (shortcut Ctrl + Alt + K) or their
bels: Cut/Split Cut alternatives cannot be used to remove point
labels because there is no audio region associated with
• Delete Label using the label dropdown menu
them.
• Removing labels without moving any following la-
bels - Split method
• Label text removal method
5.12.1 Delete Label
• Removing labels (or regions of label track), moving The simplest way to delete a single label is to right-click
back any following labels - Delete method inside the label’s text box, then choose Delete Label from
• Removing labels together with their associated au- the dropdown menu. Any labels lying to right of the re-
dio moved labels stay where they are, still associated with
their original audio. Suppose you have labeled different
song tracks in the Audio track and you’ve also labeled
Edit > Delete (shortcut Ctrl + K), Edit > Remove some noise in the middle of Track 2. You have removed
198 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
the noise so you need to delete the label without moving the selection up into the audio track.
any other labels.
Use Edit > Remove Special > Split Delete or its key-
Right-click in the label’s text box to show the label drop-
board shortcut Ctrl + Alt + K. The two labels are removed
down menu.
and the labels for Track-3 and Track-4 remain where they
were previously. Note that the selection remains after
performing this split delete in the label track.
5.12.4 Removing labels (or regions of la- This is like removing part of a paper chain, making the
bel track), moving back any follow- following parts move back.
ing labels (Delete method)
Select in the audio track from one edge of the label to the
Select in the label track over the label to be removed.
other then drag down into the label track, or simply click
Only drag horizontally, so as to avoid extending the se-
in the text of the "clap" label.
lection up into the audio track or the other label track. The
labels following the removed label will move back by the
length of region removed from the label track. It does not
matter exactly where that region starts and ends, provid-
ing the selected length is correct and providing we select
over the "Vivaldi" label point but do not let the selection
touch the "Mozart" label.
Labels Editor lets you add or remove Label Tracks and Command for these key presses, even on Mac). Opening
edit their labels entirely using the keyboard, so is partic- the Start Time or End Time cell for editing lets you use
ularly useful for visually impaired users. Edit > Labels Left or Right arrow keys to move between selected time
> Edit Labels... launches a keyboard-accessible Labels digits, then Up or Down arrow keys to increment the dig-
Editor. This shows all the labels at once in a tabular view, its. Alternatively you can type the number wanted for the
similar to a spreadsheet. Each row represents a single selected digit. Labels Editor shows the selection format
individual label: currently chosen in Selection Toolbar . To change the for-
mat temporarily to some other unit of time or to samples
, audio CD frames or film frames, use the context key
on your keyboard or click the downward-pointing arrow to
right of the digits.
• If you do not yet have a label track with labels, you 5.13.2 Inserting and removing labels
can open Labels Editor where a row for a new label
track will be available for editing. Navigating into any cell in the row for that label (or select-
• If you already have a label track with labels and the ing that cell with the mouse) selects that label for action
editing cursor is at one of those labels, Labels Ed- by the following three buttons:
itor opens with that label selected. Otherwise La- • Insert After: Insert a single label into the list after
bels Editor opens with the label to left of the editing the selected label
cursor selected and moves the cursor to that label
(or if the cursor is to left of the first label, it opens • Insert Before: Insert a single label into the list be-
with the first label selected and moves the cursor fore the selected label
to the first label). On closing Labels Editor, the cur-
• Remove: Remove the selected label without mov-
sor is placed at the label that was selected when
ing back any following labels. This command never
closing the editor.
removes the Label Track, even if no labels remain
Alternatively you can open a single label in Labels Editor in that track.
by selecting and right-clicking the label (or use the Menu
key) then choose "Edit...". After using either Insert button, type the label name, then
Tab into and open the Start Time and End Time cells in
turn to set the position of the new label. Moving a label
to a new label track: In the row for the label you want
5.13.1 Navigation to move, open the cell under the "Track" column. Then
select New... , press Enter on your keyboard (or use
Use the Arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate eas- the Label Editor’s OK button), type the name of the new
ily left, right, up or down between the table cells and track then press Enter. This will move the label in that row
rows. Closing the editor with a label row selected se- to the new track. The new label track is now selectable
lects that label in the label track (without opening it for in the Track cells in all rows. Selecting different tracks in
editing). Pressing Space will then move the view to the the Track cell only changes the track to which that label
start of that label and play the audio from the start of that belongs. So if you select the track from which you moved
label. To open a cell for editing, use F2 or double-click. a label.as above, the Label cell to right does not present
To confirm the edit, press Enter to move down into the an empty label ready to be created; you must insert a
same cell in the next label, or Tab to move into the fol- new label row if you want to create a new label in that
lowing cell for the current label. Similarly, hold Shift and track.Creating a new empty label track and editing its
press Tab to move back to the previous cell for that label. labels: Use either Insert button to add a new label row,
Holding Ctrl and pressing Tab moves directly out of the then open the Track cell in that row and choose New...
grid and cycles forward through the buttons , and hold- and press Enter as above to allocate that label to a
ing Ctrl and Shift and pressing Tab moves out of the grid new track. It is often easiest to do this by selecting the
and cycles backward through the buttons (use Ctrl nor top row then inserting before that row. The new row then
5.14. NOTE TRACKS 201
remains selected after naming the new track, then you click the downwards-pointing triangle to right of the digits
can Tab into the other fields as needed to name the first (or use the Menu key) to change between values in Hz
label and set its position. and kHz. After modifying either frequency value for one
or more labels, click OK in Labels Editor then reselect the
label to see the modified frequency range displayed in a
5.13.3 Importing and Exporting labels Spectrogram track with Spectral Selection enabled.
Note Tracks contain data from MIDI (and Allegro ) files 5.14.2 Playing and editing Note tracks
- these can be imported with the File > Import > MIDI...
command.
MIDI and Allegro playback
• Note Tracks can be useful to visually compare a
given MIDI (or Allegro) file with a sampled audio
file (such as WAV ) of the same music. Note tracks containing MIDI data (or Allegro data) can
now be played in Audacity. Loop Play and Play Cut
• They can be cut-and-paste edited.
Preview also work with Note tracks. But note that there
• They can then be exported using the File > Save will no use of the Playback meter while Note tracks are
Other > Export MIDI... command. When exporting played. In order to achieve MIDI playback on Mac and
so as to overwrite an existing GRO, MID or MIDI Linux you will need to install, and run, additional soft-
file, the original file is renamed with ".bak" suffix, ware, a software synthesizerPlease see these pages in
for example "keyboards.mid.bak". the Audacity Wiki:
5.14.3 Track Control Panel Preferences . One of these is to remove the Solo button,
leaving only a Mute button. Channel toggles:
• Hold Shift and rotate the mouse wheel to scroll up • Move Track Up: Moves track up.
and down at the same zoom level, using the same
visible range. • Move Track Down: Moves track down.
• Hold Ctrl and rotate the mouse wheel to zoom in or
out at the mouse pointer’s position. • Move Track to Top: Moves track to become the
topmost track in the project.
• Hold Shift and right-click to zoom out in one step to
show the entire range of notes (from C -1 to G 9).
• Move Track to Bottom: Moves track to become
All the above zooms are in the vertical direction, as op- the bottom track in the project.
posed to a horizontal zoom on the Timeline . See Zoom-
ing for more details of vertical and horizontal zooming. Note tracks can also be moved up or down by clicking be-
tween the controls in the track’s Track Control Panel then
dragging upwards or downwards.
5.14.5 Note Track Dropdown Menu
A Time Track is used in conjunction with one or more au- that were there before. Having changed the range, you
dio tracks to progressively increase or decrease playback can now move the warp line up or down anywhere within
speed (and pitch) over the length of the audio. Speed the new upper or lower limit of the range.
changes are controlled by manipulating the blue "time
• Only one Time Track can be used in a project, and
warp" line with the Envelope Tool used for making grad-
it affects all audio tracks on screen.
ual volume changes. If the blue line is dragged above
the horizontal, the audio plays faster; if dragged below, it • Time Track has no effect when audio is speed-
plays slower. adjusted using the Play-at-Speed slider in Tran-
scription Toolbar .
Preferences
6.1 Preferences
Preferences let you change most of the default behaviors ized. Exporting: how audio is mixed, if Metadata Editor
of Audacity. The Preferences dialog can be accessed us- appears, content of Allegro exports.
ing the Edit Menu (or by using the shortcut Ctrl + P). On a
Left-Floor Extended Import Specify different importers to
Mac, Preferences is under the Audacity Menu CloverLeaf
open specific audio file extensions .
+ ,.
Projects Whether to copy in dependent audio files when
saving projects, or ask.
6.1.1 The Preferences dialog Libraries Download and locate the optional LAME and
FFmpeg libraries.
The Preferences dialog is split into 17 sections. The
description page for each section (accessed by the links Directories Sets the location of the temporary files direc-
below) shows an image of the default preferences set- tory and displays how much space is available on that
tings for that section. drive.
SectionWhat it controls Warnings Warn or not when disk space is low on startup,
when saving projects, mixing down or importing uncom-
Devices Choose audio host, playback and recording de- pressed audio files.
vices and recording channels.
Effects Enable or disable effects by type: LADSPA, LV2,
Playback Length of previews for cuts and effects; play- Nyquist, VAMP, VST, Audio Units. Sort or group effects.
back seek times. Check for updated plug-ins or rescan all plug-ins.
Recording Settings for playthrough, latency, Sound Acti- Keyboard List, search for and set keyboard shortcuts for
vated Recording and naming newly recorded tracks. commands.
MIDI Devices Settings for MIDI playback on your system. Mouse Mouse shortcuts for commands.
Quality Choose sample rate , sample format and op- Modules Loadable Modules for Audacity. Note: Choice
tions for rate and format conversion. of export format ( WAV , MP3 and others) is made at
Interface Interface behaviors, dB display range, choose time of export in the Export Audio or Export Multiple di-
language and location of Manual, show initial "Help" dia- alogs by selecting the required export format then click-
log. ing the Options... button.
207
208 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
find audacity.cfg inside Audacity’s folder for application • You can then use the "Portable Settings" folder to
data as follows. store a different group of settings for a specific pur-
pose, then delete or rename the folder and restart
• Windows: Users Audacity when you want to use the previous set-
<username> tings as stored in Audacity’s folder for application
AppData data .
Roaming
Audacity • If you copy the "Portable Settings" folder to a USB
stick or CD this lets you take your current Audac-
ity settings with you if you use Audacity on another
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/
computer.
• Linux: ~/.audacity-data/
6.1.3 Portable Settings By default, Audacity settings are not changed when you
upgrade from a previous release of Audacity or explic-
You can create a folder called Portable Settings in a itly uninstall or reinstall Audacity. This allows you to up-
special location relative to the directory you installed or grade from a previous Audacity version (legacy 1.3.2 and
extracted Audacity to, so that audacity.cfg and Audac- later) and retain your previous preferences wherever cur-
ity’s other settings will be stored in that "Portable Set- rent Audacity still has an equivalent setting. Therefore it
tings" folder instead. The permitted locations are: is not necessary to reinstall the optional LAME or FFm-
peg libraries after upgrading Audacity unless the Release
• Windows: in the folder Audacity is launched from Notes for the current Audacity version indicate there is a
(for example, in Program Files (x86) new recommended version of LAME or FFmpeg.
Audacity on Windows 64-bit)
• macOS: in the "Contents" folder inside
Audacity.app (for example in /Applica-
tions/Audacity.app/Contents/ (to access the 6.1.5 Resetting Preferences
"Contents" folder, right-click or Ctrl-click over Au-
dacity.app and choose "Show Package Contents") Resetting Preferences can sometimes fix freezes,
• GNU/Linux: in the folder where the "audacity" bi- crashes or unexplained Audacity behavior. You can reset
nary is (for example, for Audacity installed by the Preferences to factory defaults by exiting Audacity, delet-
package manager for your distribution, in usr/bin/). ing the audacity.cfg settings file in Audacity’s folder for
application data then restarting Audacity. On Windows,
The "Portable Settings" folder becomes active after you can also reinstall Audacity, making sure you select
restarting Audacity. the "Reset Preferences" box during the installation.
6.2. DEVICES PREFERENCES 209
Reset Preferences using Windows installer 3. Launch Audacity then in the "Reset Audacity Pref-
erences" dialog, choose Yes.
If you run the installer but do not choose "Reset Pref-
1. Run the EXE installer from https://web.audacityteam.org/download/windows.
erences" (or say "No" when the "Reset Audacity Prefer-
2. Navigate to the "Select Additional Tasks" screen ences" dialog appears), Audacity’s installation files will be
then put a checkmark in the "Reset Preferences" updated with correct copies but the Audacity settings will
box and complete installation. remain as before.
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Devices (on a Mac emulated. As a result, the playback slider in Mixer
Audacity > Preferences > Devices ) Toolbar will only scale the system playback slider’s
current level up or down rather than directly manip-
ulating that system slider.
On Windows:
• Windows DirectSound may by default have only
slightly lower latency than MME.
• Selecting Windows DirectSound or Windows WAS-
API and enabling both "Exclusive Mode" boxes in
Windows Sound allows Audacity to request audio
direct from the device without resampling .
Mac: On Mac the only choice is Core Audio. Linux: On
Linux there is often only one option: ALSA . Other op-
tions could be OSS and/or Jack Audio Connection Kit
(also known as "Jack" or "Jackd").
Selects the particular host interface with which Audacity • Device: Selects the device used for recording.
communicates with your chosen playback and recording
devices. Windows: on Windows the choice is between On Windows, each entry for recording device consists
the following host audio interfaces: of the input type (such as microphone), followed by the
name of the audio device the input belongs to. If you
• MME : This is the Audacity default and the most have multiple audio devices, the list will be grouped so
compatible with all audio devices. that inputs of each device are grouped together. The in-
• Windows DirectSound : This is more recent than put level of the selected device can be adjusted in Mixer
MME with potentially less latency . Toolbar , but device selection is no longer made there.
• Windows WASAPI : This host is the most recent • Channels: 1 (Mono), 2 (Stereo) or the number of
Windows interface between applications (such as channels that are provided by the drivers of your
Audacity) and the soundcard driver. WASAPI was sound device. On most inbuilt sound devices, es-
first officially released in 2007 in Windows Vista. pecially on Windows, only mono or stereo will be
WASAPI is particularly useful for "loopback" record- available. For some devices on Windows, choos-
ing of computer playback . 24-bit recording devices ing Windows DirectSound in "Host" above may be
are supported using this host. Playback is usually more likely to reveal options for recording more than
210 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
two channels. On some devices capable of record- ready to process the shorter chunks as soon as re-
ing more than two channels, an explicit "multi" de- quired. Setting this value too low (for example to 1
vice may appear in the "Device" dropdown for ms) will mean the computer will not be able to keep
recording all the channels simultaneously. up, and neither recording or playback will work. 100
ms is a safe setting for most computers.
• Track shift after record: On most consumer sys-
6.2.4 Latency tems there will be a delay between singing or hitting
your note and it being laid down in the recording.
• Buffer length: A "buffer" is a chunk of audio wait- When the default Overdub setting is enabled, Au-
ing for the computer to process it. At the default dacity will push recorded tracks backwards by 130
100 milliseconds (ms) setting, the audio will take ms to compensate for this delay. If your latency is
0.1 seconds to travel through the soundcard when constant, you can adjust this correction value so
recording or playing. Decreasing this value means that your recorded tracks should end up properly
recordings will be laid down on disk with less la- synchronized with the other tracks after correction.
tency, and playback may respond faster. However, To set a custom latency value for your system, see
the computer will have to work faster so that it’s the Latency Test page.
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Directories (on a Mac tory you selected. Alternatively type the path re-
Audacity > Preferences > Directories ) quired for the temporary directory into "Location"
and Audacity will use that exact path, creating the
new directory if needed.Exit and restart Audacity
for changes to the temporary directory to take ef-
fect. Make sure the temporary directory is located
on a fast (local) disk drive with plenty of free space.
Avoid using network drives as these may be too
slow for reliable recording. A RAM drive will al-
ways be quicker than a hard or solid state drive for
recording and editing, but unless the RAM contents
are saved to a physical drive the data will be lost
when the computer powers down.
Default location of Temporary Folder:
• Windows:C:
Users
<your username>
AppData
Local
Directories Preferences dialog showing the default Audacity
temporary session data location on Windows.Click SessionData
on any other Preferences sections in the above image • macOS/Mac OS X:/Users/<your user-
to read about those Preferences. name>/Library/Application Support/SessionData
• GNU/Linux:/var/tmp/audacity-<your username>
6.3.1 Temporary files directory
Extended Import preferences let you designate the or- file with the given extension Audacity will choose the im-
der in which specific import libraries are tried when im- porter according to the rule starting at the top of the "Im-
porting audio files with named extensions , with an op- porter order" list and going down the list until it finds an
tion to over-ride the "Open" and "Import Audio" file type importer that accepts the file.
choice . Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Extended
• File extensions: If a file has this extension, use the
Import (on a Mac Audacity > Preferences > Extended Im-
importers listed, in the order shown in the "Importer
port )
order" list. Choose "Add new rule" as below to add
a rule, then either overtype in the selected rule, or
double-click or press F2 to open the rule for editing.
Always retain one or more asterisks * at the start of
the rule, then add the required extension. A single
asterisk at the start of the rule indicates that any file
with the extension following the asterisk will trigger
the rule. Note that spaces in the extension may dis-
play an error dialog. You can choose to ignore the
spaces or let Audacity trim the spaces.
EXAMPLES:
• *.MP3 or *MP3 with "MP3 Files" at the top of the
order tries the MP3 importer first when importing
any MP3 file.
• *w*.WAV with "FFmpeg-compatible files" at the
top of the order tries the FFmpeg importer first
when importing any WAV file with a "w" or "W" in
Extended Import Preferences.Click on any other Pref- the file name (or any WAV with "w" in the file name
erences sections in the above image to read about those on a case-sensitive operating system).
Preferences.Attempt to use filter in OpenFile dialog first:
• .MP3 with any order in the list ignores the rule be-
This checkbox controls the importer that is tried first when
cause there is no asterisk, so will try the MP3 im-
importing a particular file type using either File > Open...
porter first irrespective.
or File > Import > Audio... .
• If checked (default), the file type choice made in • Importer order: For the file extension selected in
the Open and Import Audio dialogs always deter- the "File extension" column, attempt to use these
mines which importer will try first to import a file. importers in the order listed.
This applies even if there is a rule set (see below) • Move rule up Move the selected rule up in the list
to try first a different importer for that file type. of rules.
• If unchecked, Audacity will always try first the de- • Move rule down Move the selected rule down in the
fault importer for the file type irrespective of the file list of rules.
type choice, unless a rule is set that asks for an-
other importer to be tried first. • Move filter up Move the selected filter up in the Im-
porter order list for this rule.
If using File > Recent Files or dragging in audio files, "At-
tempt to use filter in OpenFile dialog first" has no effect; • Move filter down Move the selected filter down in
Audacity will always try first the default importer for the the Importer order list for this rule.
file type, unless a rule is set that asks for another im- • Add new rule Creates a new rule. A default rule with
porter to be tried first. a single asterisk * is created with all filters listed in
• See Import Filtering and Importer Order for more their default order.
help. • Delete selected rule Removes the selected rule
from the list.
– Export Multiple will still export metadata for nifies the Allegro file format which exports the Audacity
Track Title and Track Number even if this Note Track as human-readable plain text. This prefer-
option is unchecked and Metadata Editor is ence controls whether the .gro file represents time and
empty. duration in seconds (default) or beats.
– Regardless if this option is checked, Metadata • Seconds: An example line in the .gro file would
Tags editor is always suppressed when ex- look like:T1.3330 V0 K66 P66 U0.6660 L127This
porting files in a Chain . instruction means "play key number 66 at time (T)
1.333 seconds for duration (U) 0.666 seconds."
– Regardless if this option is checked, Meta-
data Tags editor is always suppressed • Beats: An example line in the .gro file would look
when exporting using the (external program) like:TW0.5000 V0 K66 P66 Q1.0000 L127This in-
(command-line) save as type, because any struction means "play key number 66 at time (T) 0.5
metadata required should be added to the whole notes (W) for duration (Q) 1 quarter notes."
command string in that case.
6.5.3 Exported Allegro (.gro) file saves Audacity can import both .mid and .gro files for display,
time as editing and playback. The .gro files will be imported cor-
rectly whether they contain data in seconds or beats.
When using File > Save Other > Export MIDI you can However many general purpose MIDI applications will not
export to .mid or .gro extension. The .gro extension sig- play .gro files.
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Playback (on a Mac from the start of the selection region, and stops af-
Audacity > Preferences > Playback ) ter the preview length has elapsed, or at the end of
the selection region if that is shorter than the pre-
view length.
arrow) respectively. Holding Shift with , or . respec- and Cursor Short Jump commands when playback is
tively can be used instead for long skip backwards stopped. The shortcuts , (comma) or . (period) jump the
or forwards. cursor backwards or forwards respectively by the Short
Period interval; Shift + , or Shift + . jump the cursor back-
These two values also control the Cursor Long Jump wards or forwards by the Long Period interval.
You can view any audio track as a Spectrogram instead 6.7.1 Scale
of a waveform by selecting Spectrogram view from the
Audio Track Dropdown Menu . Spectrograms prefer- • Scale (in Spectrogram views):
ences lets you adjust some of the settings for these dif-
ferent types of Spectrum -based view. See the Spectro- – Linear The linear vertical scale goes linearly
gram View page for detailed descriptions and illustrations from 0 kHz to 8 kHz frequency by default.
of the effects of various Spectrograms Preferences set- – Logarithmic: This view is the same as the lin-
tings.Spectrograms preferences does not affect settings ear view except that the vertical scale is loga-
in the Frequency Analysis window accessed by Analyze rithmic. See Spectrogram View for a contrast-
> Plot Spectrum... .Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > ing example of linear versus logarithmic spec-
Spectrograms (on a Mac Audacity > Preferences > Spec- trogram view.
trograms )
– Mel: The name Mel comes from the word
melody to indicate that the scale is based on
pitch comparisons. See this Wikipedia page.
– Bark: This is a psychoacoustical scale based
on subjective measurements of loudness. It
is related to, but somewhat less popular than,
the Mel scale. See this Wikipedia page.
– ERB: The Equivalent Rectangular Bandwidth
scale or ERB is a measure used in psychoa-
coustics, which gives an approximation to the
bandwidths of the filters in human hearing. It
is implemented as a function ERBS(f) which
returns the number of equivalent rectangular
bandwidths below the given frequency "f". See
this Wikipedia page.
– Period: is the previously undocumented scale
used by Pitch (EAC) view. It is for making the
Spectrograms Preferences.Click on any other Prefer- same displays of Pitch possible as in earlier
ences sections in the above image to read about those versions of Audacity.
Preferences.The options in this window apply to the • Minimum Frequency: This value corresponds to the
Spectrogram View in the Audio Track Dropdown Menu bottom of the vertical scale in the spectrogram. Fre-
. Some options have no effect, or a different effect, when quencies below this value will not be visible. The
the Pitch (EAC) algorithm is selected - these will be noted default value of "0" here will be treated as "1" when
in the descriptions. using "Spectrogram Logarithmic" view mode be-
cause a logarithmic scale cannot start at zero.
• Maximum Frequency: This value corresponds to
the top of the vertical scale. The value can be set
to 100 Hz or any higher value. Irrespective of the
Be aware that it is possible to make settings for individ- entered value, the top of the scale will never exceed
ual Spectrogram view tracks that can over-ride the global half the current sample rate of the track (for exam-
settings that you make here in the Spectrograms Prefer- ple, 22050 Hz if the track rate is 44100 Hz) because
ences dialog. See Spectrogram Settings on the Spectro- any given sample rate can only carry frequencies
gram View page. up to half that rate. A good use of this setting is in
6.7. SPECTROGRAMS PREFERENCES 215
speech recognition or pitch extraction, where you separable in time and frequency with respect
can hide the visually unimportant highest frequen- to the analysis window.
cies and focus on the lower frequencies.
– Pitch (EAC): Highlights the contour of the
fundamental frequency (musical pitch) of the
audio, using the Enhanced Autocorrelation
6.7.2 Colors (EAC) algorithm. The EAC Algorithm was de-
veloped to produce a mathematical represen-
• Gain (dB): This enables you to increase / decrease tation of the changes of pitch in a piece of au-
the brightness of the display. For small signals dio. The aim was to allow automated compar-
where the display is mostly "blue" (dark) you can ison of sound files so that two versions of the
increase this value to see brighter colors and give same tune could be recognized as being sim-
more detail. If the display has too much "white", ilar, even if played in different keys, or on dif-
decrease this value. The default is 20dB and corre- ferent instruments.
sponds to a -20 dB signal at a particular frequency • Window Size: The dropdown menu lets you choose
being displayed as "white". This option has no ef- the size of the Fast Fourier Transform ( FFT
fect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC) algo- ) window which affects how much vertical ( fre-
rithm is selected. quency ) detail you see. Larger FFT window sizes
• Range (dB): Affects the range of signal sizes that give more low frequency resolution and less tem-
will be displayed as colors. The default is 80 dB and poral resolution, and are slower.
means that you will not see anything for signals 80 • Window type: Determines precisely how the spec-
dB below the value set for "Gain". This option has trogram is computed. ’Rectangular’ is slightly faster
no effect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC) than other methods, but introduces some artifacts.
algorithm is selected. All methods give broadly similar results.
• Frequency Gain (dB/dec): A positive value here • Zero padding factor: Larger values give finer inter-
gives some extra gain to higher frequencies (above polation of the colors along the vertical axis, at the
1000 Hz), as they tend to be smaller and so cannot expense of more computation time. Does not affect
be seen as well. You get less gain at lower frequen- the time vs. frequency resolution tradeoff. This op-
cies as well. The default is 0 dB. This option has no tion has no effect and is greyed out when the Pitch
effect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC) algo- (EAC) algorithm is selected.
rithm is selected.
• Grayscale: Shows gray shades in all spectrogram
views instead of full color. 6.7.4 Enable Spectral Selection
It is possible to temporarily change the Spectrogram to the default Spectrogram settings with which a new
settings for any particular Spectrogram track, overiding Spectrogram track will open. You can also preview what
whatever setting you have in Spectrograms Preferences your changes will look like in the track by clicking the Ap-
. ply button. If necessary you can tweak the settings and
click Apply again to view the result. If you do click Ap-
ply you cannot then discard changes made in the dialog,
6.8.1 Per track Spectrogram Settings even if you click the Cancel button. If you don’t click the
Apply button, Cancel discards your settings changes.
Open the Audio Track Dropdown Menu on the Spectro-
gram track you want to change, then choose Spectro-
gram Settings.... This opens the dialog below: 6.8.3 Use Preferences
6.8.4 Scale
Changes you make when you press the OK button only – Period: is the previously undocumented scale
persist for that track while the project window is open. used by Pitch (EAC) view. It is for making the
This is the case even if you save a project. Use Spectro- same displays of Pitch possible as in earlier
grams Preferences instead to make permanent changes versions of Audacity.
6.8. SPECTROGRAM SETTINGS 217
• Minimum Frequency: This value corresponds to the – Reassignment: The method of reassignment
bottom of the vertical scale in the spectrogram. Fre- sharpens blurry time-frequency data by relo-
quencies below this value will not be visible. The cating the data according to local estimates
default value of "0" here will be treated as "1" when of instantaneous frequency and group delay.
using "Spectrogram Logarithmic" view mode be- This mapping to reassigned time-frequency
cause a logarithmic scale cannot start at zero. coordinates is very precise for signals that are
separable in time and frequency with respect
• Maximum Frequency: This value corresponds to
to the analysis window.
the top of the vertical scale. The value can be set
to 100 Hz or any higher value. Irrespective of the – Pitch (EAC): Highlights the contour of the
entered value, the top of the scale will never exceed fundamental frequency (musical pitch) of the
half the current sample rate of the track (for exam- audio, using the Enhanced Autocorrelation
ple, 22050 Hz if the track rate is 44100 Hz) because (EAC) algorithm. The EAC Algorithm was de-
any given sample rate can only carry frequencies veloped to produce a mathematical represen-
up to half that rate. A good use of this setting is in tation of the changes of pitch in a piece of au-
speech recognition or pitch extraction, where you dio. The aim was to allow automated compar-
can hide the visually unimportant highest frequen- ison of sound files so that two versions of the
cies and focus on the lower frequencies. same tune could be recognized as being sim-
ilar, even if played in different keys, or on dif-
ferent instruments.
6.8.5 Colors
• Window Size: The dropdown menu lets you choose
the size of the Fast Fourier Transform ( FFT
• Gain (dB): This enables you to increase / decrease
) window which affects how much vertical ( fre-
the brightness of the display. For small signals
quency ) detail you see. Larger FFT window sizes
where the display is mostly "blue" (dark) you can
give more low frequency resolution and less tem-
increase this value to see brighter colors and give
poral resolution, and are slower.
more detail. If the display has too much "white",
decrease this value. The default is 20dB and corre- • Window type: Determines precisely how the spec-
sponds to a -20 dB signal at a particular frequency trogram is computed. ’Rectangular’ is slightly faster
being displayed as "white". This option has no ef- than other methods, but introduces some artifacts.
fect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC) algo- All methods give broadly similar results.
rithm is selected.
• Zero padding factor: Larger values give finer inter-
• Range (dB): Affects the range of signal sizes that polation of the colors along the vertical axis, at the
will be displayed as colors. The default is 80 dB and expense of more computation time. Does not affect
means that you will not see anything for signals 80 the time vs. frequency resolution tradeoff. This op-
dB below the value set for "Gain". This option has tion has no effect and is greyed out when the Pitch
no effect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC) (EAC) algorithm is selected.
algorithm is selected.
• Frequency Gain (dB/dec): A positive value here
gives some extra gain to higher frequencies (above 6.8.7 Enable Spectral Selection
1000 Hz), as they tend to be smaller and so cannot
be seen as well. You get less gain at lower frequen-
Check this box "on" if you want to enable spectral se-
cies as well. The default is 0 dB. This option has no
lections . These are used to make selections that in-
effect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC) algo-
clude a frequency range as well as a time range on tracks
rithm is selected.
in one of the Spectrogram views. Spectral selection is
• Grayscale: Shows gray shades in all spectrogram used with special spectral edit effects to make changes
views instead of full color. to the frequency content of the selected audio. Among
other purposes, spectral selection and editing can be
used for cleaning up unwanted sound, enhancing certain
6.8.6 Algorithm resonances, changing the quality of a voice or removing
mouth sounds from voice work.
• Algorithm:
– Frequencies (default): Audio frequency de-
termines the pitch of a sound. Measured 6.8.8 Links
in Hz , higher frequencies have higher pitch.
See this Wikipedia article. |< Spectrogram View
218 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Projects (on a Mac audio files directly from the original (faster)", you create
Audacity > Preferences > Projects ) a dependency on those files remaining accessible. This
option decides what happens the first time you attempt to
save that dependent project.
• Copy all audio into project (safest): All imported
files that your project depends on will be copied
automatically into the saved project. You can then
safely move, rename or delete those imported files
if you wish.
• Do not copy any audio: Every project will be saved
automatically, but will always depend on the contin-
ued presence of the imported files. You must not
move, rename or delete those files, or the folder
they are in.
• Ask: The Dependencies Dialog will always appear
when you first save a project that depends on im-
ported files. This dialog lets you choose which if
any of the dependent files should be copied into
the project before saving it.
Projects Preferences.Click on any other Preferences
sections in the above image to read about those Pref- You can check at any time if your project depends on im-
erences. ported files, and copy them in if desired. To do this, click
Help > Diagnostics > Check Dependencies... to open
Dependencies Dialog .
6.9.1 When saving a project that depends
on other audio files
sections in the above image to read about those Pref- the standard OGG Vorbis importer, irrespective of De-
erences. fault Sample Format. This is due to the design of the
OGG codec. However OGG can be imported at 32-bit
resolution using FFmpeg , as described at Using the file
6.10.1 Sampling type dropdown menu on the Importing Audio page.
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Interface (on a Mac – "From Internet" always opens your browser
Audacity > Preferences > Interface ) to display the online version of the Manual,
even if you have a local copy of the Manual
installed.
6.11.2 Show / Hide tion that extends from or outside one edge and
snaps to the other edge.
• Show ’How to get Help’ message at launch: – When this option is checked, a label included
Uncheck this to disable the default start up dialog in the selection is always retained if deleting
that lists our help resources. a selection that snaps to one or both label
• Show extra menus: Check this to see the extended edges. Even if this option is checked, the
menu bar . label will still be deleted if you select over a
point label or over both edges of a region label.
Checking this option also means that if you Ef-
fect > Repeat... an audio selection defined by
6.11.3 Behaviors a region label (for example, by clicking in the
label to select it), or extend that selection past
• Beep on completion of longer activities: Makes Au- one edge only, the selection will be extended
dacity play a beep when activities lasting longer to include a single label. Without this option
than a minute are completed. Visually impaired checked the selection would be extended to
users may find this useful. include extra labels.
• Retain labels if selection snaps to a label: • Blend system and Audacity theme: Adjusts the
theme provided by Audacity to be closer to the sys-
– By default this option is unchecked, in which tem theme, if they already are reasonably similar.
case a point label is deleted when you delete This may lighten or darken the buttons.
a selection that snaps exactly up to the la-
bel edge (as shown by the yellow Boundary Note: CleanSpeech Mode (a customized interface with
Snap Guides ) and includes the label in the reduced menus and stored effects presets) no longer
selection. Similarly, a region label included in exists in Audacity 2.x. It was last available in Audacity
the selection is deleted when deleting a selec- 1.3.13.
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Effects (on a Mac Au- 6.12.1 Enable Effects
dacity > Preferences > Effects )
All types of effect as below are enabled by default ac-
cording to your operating system, but individual effects of
any type that you add yourself must be enabled in Plug-in
Manager before they will appear in the Audacity menus.
Removing the checkmark from one or more boxes then
pressing OK will immediately remove all effects of that
type from the Audacity menus. The links in the list below
provide installation instructions for each type of effect.
• LADSPA : Enable LADSPA effects.
• LV2 : Enable LV2 effects.
• Nyquist : Enable Nyquist effects.
• VAMP : Enable VAMP analysis effects.
• VST : Enable VST effects.
• Audio Unit : Enable Audio Unit effects (Mac only).
Effects Preferences.Click on any other Preferences These options let you sort or group effects that appear in
sections in the above image to read about those Pref- the Generate , Effect or Analyze menus by effect name,
erences. type of effect or publisher. The "Grouped" options place
222 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
effects into submenus within each group, so substantially – Grouped by Type: Effects are grouped by ef-
shorten the menu. All the options place built-in effects fect type, with effects in each group in a sub-
above plug-in effects. menu. The "Audacity" group for built-in effects
is above the divider and groups for plug-ins
• Effects in menus are: are below the divider.
– Sorted by Effect Name: Effects are listed in • Maximum effects per group (0 to disable): If en-
one long menu sorted by effect name, built-in abled by setting a non-zero value, this controls
effects above the divider then plug-ins below for the "Sorted" options the maximum number of
the divider. plug-ins allowed in the main menu before they are
grouped into sub-menus. For the "Grouped" op-
– Sorted by Publisher and Effect Name: Ef-
tions this controls the maximum number of plug-ins
fects are listed in one long menu, built-in ef-
allowed in a sub-menu before being grouped into
fects sorted by name above the divider then
a secondary sub-menu. Each Group is named ac-
plug-ins sorted by publisher then name below
cording to the number of plug-ins it contains in nu-
the divider.
merical order. For example, if there were 10 plug-
– Sorted by Type and Effect Name: Effects ins and the value was set to "5", there would be two
are listed in one long menu, built-in effects groups "Plug-ins 1 to 5" and "Plug-ins 6 to 10".
sorted by name above the divider then plug-
Plug-ins of the same name may be grouped into a sub-
ins sorted by type then name below the di-
menu even when a "Grouped" option is not chosen. This
vider.
can occur:
– Grouped by Publisher: Effects are grouped • If you have the same plug-in in different locations
by effect publisher, with effects in each group that are searched by Audacity
in a sub-menu. The "Audacity" group for built-
in effects is above the divider and groups for • If there are separate mono or stereo versions of a
plug-ins are below the divider. plug-in that are given the same internal name.
6.13.1 View by the search results for your entered text will be updated.
Empty the text in the Search box to restore the complete
There are three ways of viewing the shortcut keys or Tree list.
"bindings" which you can select by clicking on the appro-
priate radio button. The view chosen when you click OK
to close Preferences is remembered when you access Name
Keyboard Preferences next time.
"Name" view lists on the left-hand side all the commands
in alphabetical order, with no grouping. On the right-hand
Tree side, the currently assigned shortcut for each command
is shown (if any). To navigate through all commands
This is the default view. On the left-hand side, it lists all starting with a particular letter, type that letter. Search
the commands to which keyboard shortcuts can be as- box: Typing in the "Name" view search box works sim-
signed. On the right-hand side, the currently assigned ilarly to search in "Tree" view, except that the text string
shortcut for each command is shown (if any). The com- you type is searched for only in command names and ti-
mands are grouped then listed within each group in the tle rows and not in shortcuts. This can give more focused
same order in which they appear in the Audacity Menu search results when you really only want to search in the
Bar . If a group of items are in a sub-menu within their command name. Name View Search Examples
Menu Bar, that group appears in the tree indented to
right as a sub-group within their group. There is a final • Entering Shift finds the Effect menu item "Sliding
"Command" category listed in alphabetical order for com- Time Scale / Pitch Shift" and the "Time Shift Tool"
mands which do not have a Menu Bar entry. The menu command, but excludes all the shortcuts that in-
groups and sub-groups ("branches" in this "tree" view) al- clude the Shift modifier.
ways open fully expanded. You can click on any branch’s
• Entering just b finds all menu items or commands
collapse button to collapse the branch. Any branch
that include the letter "b", but does not find the "Play
which is collapsed can be expanded by clicking on its
to Selection" command with its default shortcut of
expand button. Keyboard use:
"B". "Tree" view would find it but the quickest way to
• Use Left arrow when on a group or sub-group’s title find what the "B" command does would be to type it
row to collapse the group or sub-group, or when on into the "Hotkey" box when in "Key" view (see next
an item in an expanded group or sub-group to jump section).
to the title row of that group or sub-group.
• Use Right arrow to expand a collapsed group or
sub-group. Key
• Entering +j finds only shortcuts that include a mod- • Pressing Ctrl + Shift + E when you have default
ified "J", so by default Ctrl + J, Ctrl + Alt + J, Alt + J, shortcut assignments shows that the command
Alt + Shift + J and Shift + J. "Tree" View is the only "Export Audio..." is using this shortcut.
way to find all shortcuts that use a given modifier
• Pressing F6 when you have default shortcut as-
letter.
signments shows that the command "Multi Tool" is
If you have non-default shortcuts and press the De- using the F6 shortcut and also that "Ctrl + F6" and
faults button as below to restore the default shortcut set, "Ctrl + Shift + F6" are in use.
224 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
• Pressing D when you have default shortcut assign- • Clear:To remove a shortcut binding, select the item
ments shows that the command "Next Tool" is using as in step 1 above, then press Clear.
the "D" shortcut, and that one other command ("Ctrl
+ D" for Duplicate) uses the "D" key combined with
a modifier. You cannot set the main system shortcut for Es-
• Pressing Alt + Y when you have default shortcut as- cape, E on Windows or Alt + C on some Linux systems,
signments shows no result in the list, indicating this as a binding.
shortcut is available to assign to a command.
You cannot use shortcuts in the Hotkey box to 6.13.3 Export..., Import... and Defaults but-
empty the box, for example Delete. After switching back
tons
to "Tree" or "Name" view, you can then use the Delete
or any other method to empty the box and display the
complete list. • Export... and Import...: You can export and import
shortcut bindings (for example to keep a safe copy
of your custom settings, or to transfer them to Au-
6.13.2 Input box, Set and Clear buttons dacity on another machine). The Export... button
exports your bindings as an XML file, and Import...
• To change or add a shortcut binding: imports the XML file back again. You can also edit
the XML file in any text editor and re-import it, as an
1. Click in the list window to select the item you alternative to editing the shortcuts in Preferences.
want to change. The entry will be highlighted
and the current key combination for that com- Audacity does not check for shortcuts which are allocated
mand (if any) will now appear in the input box to more than one command when importing the file, so
to left of the Set button. edit carefully. The only entries you can usefully edit are
2. Either click in the input box, or press Tab once the actual key bindings themselves which are in the "key"
to switch focus to it. string at the end of each command. For example, to set
the key binding for "New" to Shift + N, the command in
3. Choose your binding by either holding any the XML file should read:<command name="New" la-
modifier key (or combination of modifiers) then bel="New" key="Shift+N"/>Be sure not to delete the
pressing any non-modifier key, or press any closing "/>" characters at the end of the command.
non-modifier key on its own. Valid modifiers
are: • Defaults: There are two sets of default shortcuts
available in Audacity. The default set is " Standard
– Shift
". This set is a reduced set to simplify the set of
– Ctrl( CloverLeaf on a Mac) shortcuts somewhat and to provide greater flexibilty
for users who wish to create their own shortcuts.
– Alt( Option on a Mac)
– Altgr or Right Alt (on Windows keyboards, The other available set of shortcuts is " Full ". This set is,
this key sends a combined Ctrl + Alt modi- as the name suggests the full and extensive set of short-
fier and can thus be used as an alternative cuts that were available in Audacity 2.1.3 and earlier. You
to call any binding that includes Ctrl + Alt). can choose to revert to the full set of shortcuts by select-
ing "Full" from the dropdown menu accessed from the
As an example, Shift + 6 or Ctrl + Shift + Defaults button in the Keyboard Preferences dialog.
P are both valid bindings. Your chosen key
or key combination will now replace the previ-
ous content of the input box.
4. Click Set to apply your desired change.
– If your chosen shortcut is already as-
signed to a command, Audacity will show
a dialog asking you to confirm the change.
Click OK to assign your chosen shortcut
to the chosen command. This will re- You can use the Defaults button to switch between the
move the shortcut for the command that two provided default sets of shortcuts at any time.This
originally used it, leaving that command button is also handy if you are making custom shortcuts
with no shortcut. Click Cancel to make no and decide you have not got your changes right and want
change of shortcut. to start over again.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE 225
6.13.4 OK and Cancel buttons • Cancel: If you press the Cancel button this aborts
the editing. All shortcuts will remain as they were
• OK: When you have completed your edits press the before you started to edit them and the Preferences
OK button to save the new shortcut bindings and dialog will be exited.
exit the Preferences dialog.
This page lists all commands in the menus and all key- single click in the white area either side of the hori-
board shortcuts. The default Standard set of shortcuts is zontal scrollbar. These shortcuts cannot be config-
a reduced set, compared to earlier versions of Audacity, ured in Keyboard Preferences.
to simplify the set of shortcust somewhat and to provide
• There are a number of key combinations that can
greater flexibilty for users who wish to create their own
be used in combination with mouse clicks. These
shortcuts. There is also an extended Full set of key-
cannot be configured. They are listed on Mouse
board shortcuts that can be selected from the Defaults
Preferences
button on the Keyboard Preferences dialog. This Full set
is the set that was available in Audacity 2.1.3 and earlier.
You can use Keyboard Preferences to change or remove
existing shortcuts or to assign a shortcut to commands 6.14.1 File Menu
that lack a default shortcut.
File
• Standard shortcuts are shown like so: Ctrl + A.
Action Shortcut Description
• Shortcuts that are only in the Full set are shown
like so: Ctrl + #. New Ctrl + NCreates a new and empty project window to
start working on new or imported Tracks.
• Shortcuts that have not been assigned, that you
Open... Ctrl + OPresents you with a standard dialog
can assign using keyboard preferences, are shown
box where you can select either audio files, a list of files
like so (unassigned).
(.LOF) or an Audacity Project file to open.
Some less commonly used commands are not in the de-
Close Ctrl + WCloses the current project window, prompt-
fault menus but they can be accessed by menu by en-
ing you to save your work if you have not saved.
abling Show extra menus in Interface Preferences .
Save Project Ctrl + SSaves the current Audacity
File Menu : Recent Files , Save Other , Import , Chains project.AUP file.
View Menu : Zoom , Track Size , Skip to , Toolbars Gen-
erate Menu : Help Menu : Tools , Diagnostics Save Project As... (unassigned)Same as "Save Project"
above, but allows you to save a copy of an open project
Edit Menu : Remove Audio , Clip Boundaries , Labels to a different name or location
Transport Menu : Play , Record , Scrubbing , Cursor to ,
Play Region , Transport Options Effect Menu : Audacity Page Setup... (unassigned)Opens the standard Page
, LADSPA , Nyquist Ext-Bar Menu : Transport , Tools , Setup dialog box prior to printing
Edit , Device , Mixer , Transcription , Scrub , Selection Print... (unassigned)Prints all the waveforms in the cur-
Select Menu : Tracks , Region , Spectral , Clip Bound- rent project window (and the contents of Label Tracks
aries Tracks Menu : Add New , Mix , Mute/Unmute , or other tracks), with the Timeline above. Everything is
Pan , Align Tracks , Sort Tracks Analyze Menu : Ext- printed to one page.
Command Menu : Focus , Cursor , Track Other Tips Exit Ctrl + QCloses all project windows and exits Audac-
and hints: ity. If there are any unsaved changes to your project,
Audacity will ask if you want to save them.
• Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf and Alt = Option. So,
for example, Ctrl + Alt + K = CloverLeaf + Option +
K.
File: Recent Files
• See Audacity Selection for examples of changing
track focus and selection. Lists the full path to the twelve most recently saved or
opened projects or most recently imported audio files
• PAGE UP scrolls the project rightwards and PAGE
DOWN scrolls the project leftwards, equivalent to a Action Shortcut Description
226 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
For exporting audio files Apply Chain... (unassigned)Creates a new Chain or edits
an existing chain.
Action Shortcut Description
Edit Chains... (unassigned)Show the existing chains and
Export as MP3 (unassigned)Exports to an MP3 file allows you to select and run one.
Export as WAV (unassigned)Exports to a WAV file
Export as OGG (unassigned)Exports to an OGG file 6.14.2 Edit Menu
Export Audio... Ctrl + Shift + EExports to an audio file.
Edit
Export Selected Audio... (unassigned)Exports selected
Action Shortcut Description
audio to a file.
Undo Ctrl + ZUndoes the most recent editing action.
Export Labels... (unassigned)Exports audio at one or
more labels to file(s). Redo Ctrl + YRedoes the most recently undone editing
action.
Export Multiple... Ctrl + Shift + LExports multiple audio
files in one process, one file for each track if there are Cut Ctrl + XRemoves the selected audio data and/or la-
multiple audio tracks, or labels can be added which then bels and places these on the Audacity clipboard. By
define the length of each exported file. default, any audio or labels to right of the selection are
shifted to the left.
Export MIDI... (unassigned)Exports MIDI (note tracks) to
a MIDI file. Delete Ctrl + KRemoves the selected audio data and/or
labels without copying these to the Audacity clipboard.
Save Compressed Copy of Project... (unassigned)Saves By default, any audio or labels to right of the selection
in the audacity .aup project file format, but compressed are shifted to the left.
(Suitable for mailing)
Copy Ctrl + CCopies the selected audio data to the Au-
dacity clipboard without removing it from the project.
File: Import Paste Ctrl + VInserts whatever is on the Audacity clip-
board at the position of the selection cursor in the project,
For importing audio files or label files into your project replacing whatever audio data is currently selected, if
any.
Action Shortcut Description
Duplicate Ctrl + DCreates a new track containing only the
Audio... Ctrl + Shift + ISimilar to ’Open’, except that the current selection as a new clip.
file is added as a new track to your existing project.
Metadata... (unassigned)The Metadata Editor modifies
Labels... (unassigned)Launches a file selection window information about a track, such as the artist and genre.
where you can choose to import a single text file into the Typically used with MP3 files.
project containing point or region labels . For more in-
Preferences... Ctrl + PPreferences let you change most
formation about the syntax for labels files, see Importing
of the default behaviors and settings of Audacity. On
and Exporting Labels .
Mac, Preferences are in the Audacity Menu and the de-
MIDI... (unassigned)Imports a MIDI (MIDI or MID ex- fault shortcut is CloverLeaf + ,.
tension ) or Allegro (GRO) file to a Note Track where
simple cut-and-paste edits can be performed. The result
can be exported with the File > Save Other> > Export Edit: Remove Special
MIDI command. Note: Currently, MIDI and Allegro files
cannot be played. For more "advanced" removal of audio
Raw Data... (unassigned)Attempts to import an uncom- Action Shortcut Description
pressed audio file that might be "raw" data without any
Split Cut Ctrl + Alt + XSame as Cut, but none of the audio
headers to define its format, might have incorrect head-
data or labels to right of the selection are shifted.
ers or be otherwise partially corrupted, or might be in a
format that Audacity is unable to recognize. Raw data in Split Delete Ctrl + Alt + KSame as Delete, but none of the
textual format cannot be imported. audio data or labels to right of the selection are shifted.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE 227
Silence Audio Ctrl + LReplaces the currently selected au- Edit: Labeled Audio
dio with absolute silence. Does not affect label tracks.
Trim Audio Ctrl + TDeletes all audio but the selection. If Labeled Audio commands apply standard Edit Menu
there are other separate clips in the same track these are commands to the audio of one or more regions that are
not removed or shifted unless trimming the entire length labeled. The labels themselves are not affected.
of a clip or clips. Does not affect label tracks.
Action Shortcut Description
Split New Ctrl + Alt + IDoes a Split Cut on the current se- Silence Audio Alt + LSame as the Silence Audio com-
lection in the current track, then creates a new track and mand, but operates on labeled audio regions.
pastes the selection into the new track.
Copy Alt + Shift + CSame as the Copy command, but
Join Ctrl + JIf you select an area that overlaps one or operates on labeled audio regions.
more clips, they are all joined into one large clip. Regions
in-between clips become silence. Split Alt + ISame as the Split command, but operates on
labeled audio regions or points.
Detach at Silences Ctrl + Alt + JIn a selection region that
includes absolute silences, creates individual non-silent Join Alt + JSame as the Join command, but operates on
clips between the regions of silence. The silence be- labeled audio regions or points. You may need to select
comes blank space between the clips. the audio and use Edit > Clip Boundaries > Join , to join
all regions or points.
Retrieve Selection (unassigned)Retrieves the end points Mixer Board... (unassigned)Mixer Board is an alterna-
of a previously stored selection. tive view to the audio tracks in the main tracks window.
Analogous to a hardware mixer board, each audio track
is displayed in a Track Strip.
Select: Spectral Extra Menus (on/off) (unassigned)Shows extra menus
with many extra less-used commands.
For making a selection of a frequency range.
Show Clipping (on/off) (unassigned)Option to show or not
Action Shortcut Description show audio that is too loud (in red) on the wave form.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE 229
View: Skip to
6.14.5 Transport Menu
Move forward/backwards through the audio
Action Shortcut Description Transport
Selection Start Ctrl + [When there is a selection, moves Action Shortcut Description
the cursor to the start of the selection and removes the Rescan Audio Devices (unassigned)Rescan for audio de-
selection. vices connected to your computer, and update the play-
Selection End Ctrl + ]When there is a selection, moves back and recording dropdown menus in Device Toolbar
the cursor to the end of the selection and removes the
selection.
Transport: Play
Scrub (unassigned)Scrubbing is the action of moving the Sound Activation Level... (unassigned)Sets the activation
mouse pointer right or left so as to adjust the position, level above which Sound Activated Recording will record.
speed or direction of playback, listening to the audio at
Sound Activated Recording (on/off) (unassigned)Toggles
the same time.
on and off the Sound Activated Recording option.
Seek (unassigned)Seeking is similar to Scrubbing except Pinned Play/Record Head (on/off) (unassigned)You can
that it is playback with skips, similar to using the seek but- change Audacity to play and record with a fixed head
ton on a CD player. pinned to the center of the Timeline.
Scrub Ruler (unassigned)Shows (or hides) the scrub Overdub (on/off) (unassigned)Toggles on and off the
ruler, which is just below the timeline. Overdub option.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE 231
Resample... (unassigned)Allows you to resample the se- Unmute All Tracks Ctrl + Shift + UUnmutes all the audio
lected track(s) to a new sample rate for use in the project tracks in the project as if you had released the mute but-
tons from the Track Control Panel on each track.
Remove Tracks (unassigned)Removes the selected
track(s) from the project. Even if only part of a track is
selected, the entire track is removed.
Tracks: Pan
Sync-Lock Tracks (on/off) (unassigned)Ensures that
length changes occurring anywhere in a defined group
Pans left right or center audio tracks in the project
of tracks also take place in all audio or label tracks in that
group. Action Shortcut Description
Left (unassigned)Pan selected audio to left speaker
Tracks: Add New Right (unassigned)Pan selected audio centrally.
Sorts all tracks in the project from top to bottom in the Effect
project window, by Start Time or by Name. Action Shortcut Description
Action Shortcut Description Add / Remove Plug-ins... (unassigned)Selecting this op-
tion from the Effect Menu (or the Generate Menu or Ana-
by Start time (unassigned)Sort tracks in order of start lyze Menu ) takes you to a dialog where you can enable
time. or disable particular Effects, Generators and Analyzers
in Audacity. Even if you do not add any third-party plug-
by Name (unassigned)Sort tracks in order by name.
ins, you can use this to make the Effect menu shorter or
longer as required. For details see Add / Remove Effects,
Generators and Analyzers .
6.14.7 Generate Menu Repeat Last Effect Ctrl + RRepeats the last used effect
at its last used settings and without displaying any dialog.
Generate
Pluck... (unassigned)A synthesized pluck tone with Compressor... (unassigned)Compresses the dynamic
abrupt or gradual fade-out, and selectable pitch corre- range by two alternative methods. The default " RMS "
sponding to a MIDI note. method makes the louder parts softer, but leaves the qui-
eter audio alone. The alternative "peaks" method makes
Rhythm Track... (unassigned)Generates a track with reg- the entire audio louder, but amplifies the louder parts less
ularly spaced sounds at a specified tempo and number than the quieter parts. Make-up gain can be applied
of beats per measure (bar). to either method, making the result as loud as possible
without clipping , but not changing the dynamic range
Risset Drum... (unassigned)Produces a realistic drum further.
sound.
Distortion... (unassigned)Use the Distortion effect to
Sample Data Import... (unassigned)Create audio from make the audio sound distorted. By distorting the wave-
imported numeric data. form the frequency content is changed, which will of-
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE 233
ten make the sound "crunchy" or "abrasive". Technically Reverb... (unassigned)A configurable stereo reverbera-
this effect is a waveshaper. The result of waveshaping tion effect with built-in and user-added presets. It can
is equivalent to applying non-linear amplification to the be used to add ambience (an impression of the space
audio waveform. Preset shaping functions are provided, in which a sound occurs) to a mono sound. Also use it
each of which produces a different type of distortion. to increase reverberation in stereo audio that sounds too
"dry" or "close".
Echo... (unassigned)Repeats the selected audio again
and again, normally softer each time and normally not Reverse (unassigned)Reverses the selected audio; after
blended into the original sound until some time after it the effect the end of the audio will be heard first and the
starts. The delay time between each repeat is fixed, with beginning last.
no pause in between each repeat. For a more config- Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift... (unassigned)This effect
urable echo effect with a variable delay time and pitch- allows you to make a continuous change to the tempo
changed echoes, see Delay . and/or pitch of a selection by choosing initial and/or final
Equalization... (unassigned)Adjusts the volume levels of change values.
particular frequencies. Truncate Silence... (unassigned)Automatically try to find
Fade In (unassigned)Applies a linear fade-in to the se- and eliminate audible silences. Don’t use with faded au-
lected audio - the rapidity of the fade-in depends entirely dio.
on the length of the selection it is applied to. For a more Wahwah... (unassigned)Rapid tone quality variations,
customizable logarithmic fade, use the Envelope Tool like that guitar sound so popular in the 1970’s.
on the Tools Toolbar .
Fade Out (unassigned)Applies a linear fade-out to the
Effect: LADSPA
selected audio - the rapidity of the fade-out depends en-
tirely on the length of the selection it is applied to. For a
more customizable logarithmic fade, use the Envelope "Linux Audio Plug-in Audio" effects
Tool on the Tools Toolbar . Action Shortcut Description
Invert (unassigned)This effect flips the audio samples SC4... (unassigned)This effect is a stereo compressor
upside-down. This normally does not affect the sound with a variable envelope follower for RMS (average) /
of the audio at all. It is occasionally useful for vocal re- peak behavior.
moval.
Noise Reduction... (unassigned)This effect is ideal for Effect: Nyquist
reducing constant background noise such as fans, tape
noise, or hums. It will not work very well for removing
talking or music in the background. More details here . Effects created using a LISP-variant called "Nyquist".
Action Shortcut Description
Normalize... (unassigned)Use the Normalize effect to set
the maximum amplitude of a track, equalize the ampli- Adjustable Fade... (unassigned)enables you to control
tudes of the left and right channels of a stereo track and the shape of the fade (non-linear fading) to be applied by
optionally remove any DC offset from the track. adjusting various parameters; allows partial (that is not
from or to zero) fades up or down.
Paulstretch... (unassigned)Use Paulstretch only for an
extreme time-stretch or "stasis" effect, This may be Clip Fix... (unassigned)Clip Fix attempts to reconstruct
useful for synthesizer pad sounds, identifying perfor- clipped regions by interpolating the lost signal.
mance glitches or just creating interesting aural textures. Crossfade Clips (unassigned)Use Crossfade Clips to ap-
Use Change Tempo or Sliding Time Scale rather than ply a simple crossfade to a selected pair of clips in a sin-
Paulstretch for tasks like slowing down a song to a "prac- gle audio track.
tice" tempo.
Crossfade Tracks... (unassigned)Use Crossfade Tracks
Phaser... (unassigned)The name "Phaser" comes from to make a smooth transition between two overlapping
"Phase Shifter", because it works by combining phase- tracks one above the other. Place the track to be faded
shifted signals with the original signal. The movement of out above the track to be faded in then select the over-
the phase-shifted signals is controlled using a Low Fre- lapping region in both tracks and apply the effect.
quency Oscillator (LFO).
Delay... (unassigned)A configurable delay effect with
Repair (unassigned)Fix one particular short click, pop or variable delay time and pitch shifting of the delays.
other glitch no more than 128 samples long.
High Pass Filter... (unassigned)Passes frequencies
Repeat... (unassigned)Repeats the selection the speci- above its cutoff frequency and attenuates frequencies
fied number of times. below its cutoff frequency.
234 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
Limiter... (unassigned)Limiter passes signals below a output from this effect will always be mono. Help text is
specified input level unaffected or gently reduced, while available from within the dialog.
preventing the peaks of stronger signals from exceeding
Vocoder... (unassigned)Synthesizes audio (usually a
this threshold. Mastering engineers often use this type
voice) in the left channel of a stereo track with a carrier
of dynamic range compression combined with make-up
wave (typically white noise) in the right channel to pro-
gain to increase the perceived loudness of an audio
duce a modified version of the left channel. Vocoding a
recording during the audio mastering process.
normal voice with white noise will produce a robot-like
Low Pass Filter... (unassigned)Passes frequencies be- voice for special effects.
low its cutoff frequency and attenuates frequencies
above its cutoff frequency.
6.14.9 Analyze Menu
Notch Filter... (unassigned)Greatly attenuate ("notch
out") a narrow frequency band. This is a good way to
remove mains hum or a whistle confined to a specific fre- Analyze
quency with minimal damage to the remainder of the au- Action Shortcut Description
dio.
Add / Remove Plug-ins... (unassigned)Selecting this op-
Nyquist Prompt... (unassigned)Brings up a dialog where tion from the Effect Menu (or the Generate Menu or Ana-
you can enter Nyquist commands. Nyquist is a program- lyze Menu ) takes you to a dialog where you can enable
ming language for generating, processing and analyzing or disable particular Effects, Generators and Analyzers
audio. For more information see Nyquist Plug-ins Refer- in Audacity. Even if you do not add any third-party plug-
ence. ins, you can use this to make the Effect menu shorter or
Spectral edit multi tool (unassigned)When the selected longer as required. For details see Add / Remove Effects,
track is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view, ap- Generators and Analyzers .
plies a notch filter , high pass filter or low pass Contrast... Ctrl + Shift + TAnalyzes a single mono or
filter according to the spectral selection made. This ef- stereo speech track to determine the average RMS dif-
fect can also be used to change the audio quality as an ference in volume (contrast) between foreground speech
alternative to using Equalization . and background music, audience noise or similar. The
Spectral edit parametric EQ... (unassigned)When the se- purpose is to determine if the speech will be intelligible
lected track is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view to the hard of hearing.
and the spectral selection has a center frequency and an Plot Spectrum... (unassigned)Takes the selected audio
upper and lower boundary, performs the specified band (which is a set of sound pressure values at points in time)
cut or band boost . This can be used as an alternative and converts it to a graph of frequencies against ampli-
to Equalization or may also be useful to repair damaged tudes .
audio by reducing frequency spikes or boosting other fre-
quencies to mask spikes. Find Clipping... (unassigned)Displays runs of clipped
samples in a Label Track , as a screen-reader accessible
Spectral edit shelves... (unassigned)When the selected alternative to View > Show Clipping . A run must include
track is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view, ap- at least one clipped sample, but may include unclipped
plies either a low- or high-frequency shelving filter or both samples too.
filters, according to the spectral selection made. This can
Beat Finder... (unassigned)Attempts to place labels at
be used as an alternative to Equalization or may also be
beats which are much louder than the surrounding audio.
useful to repair damaged audio by reducing frequency
It’s a fairly rough and ready tool, and will not necessar-
spikes or boosting other frequencies to mask spikes.
ily work well on a typical modern pop music track with
Studio Fade Out (unassigned)Applies a more musical compressed dynamic range . If you do not get enough
fade out to the selected audio, giving a more pleasing beats detected, try reducing the "Threshold Percentage"
sounding result. setting.
Tremolo... (unassigned)Modulates the volume of the se- Regular Interval Labels... (unassigned)Places labels in
lection at the depth and rate selected in the dialog. The a long track so as to divide it into smaller, equally sized
same as the tremolo effect familiar to guitar and keyboard segments.
players.
Sample Data Export... (unassigned)Reads the values of
Vocal Reduction and Isolation... (unassigned)Attempts successive samples from the selected audio and prints
to remove or isolate center-panned audio from a stereo this data to a plain text, CSV or HTML file. Further in-
track. Most "Remove" options in this effect preserve the formation may be added as a "header" at the top of the
stereo image. file.
Vocal Remover... (unassigned)(Legacy effect) Attempts Silence Finder... (unassigned)Divides up a track by plac-
to remove center-panned vocals from a stereo track. The ing point labels inside areas of silence.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE 235
Time Shift Tool F5Chooses Time Shift tool. Loop Play-at-Speed (unassigned)Combines looped play
and play at speed
Multi Tool F6Chooses the Mulit-Tool
Play Cut Preview-at-Speed (unassigned)Combines cut
Next Tool DCycles forwards through the tools, starting
preview and play at speed
from the currently selected tool: starting from Selection,
it would navigate to Envelope to Draw to Zoom to Time Adjust playback speed (unassigned)Displays the Play-
Shift to Multi-tool to Selection. back Speed dialog. You can type a new value for the
playback volume (between 0 and 1), or press Tab, then
Previous Tool ACycles backwards through the tools,
use the left and right arrow keys to adjust the slider.
starting from the currently selected tool: starting from
Selection, it would navigate to Multi-tool to Time Shift to Increase playback speed (unassigned)Each key press
Zoom to Draw to Envelope to Selection. will increase the playback speed by 0.1.
Decrease playback speed (unassigned)Each key press
will decrease the playback speed by 0.1.
Ext-Bar: Mixer
Move to Next Label Alt + RightMoves selection to the next
Extra commands related to volume label
Action Shortcut Description Move to Previous Label Alt + LeftMoves selection to the
previous label
Adjust playback volume (unassigned)Displays the Play-
back Volume dialog. You can type a new value for the
playback volume (between 0 and 1), or press Tab, then
Ext-Bar: Scrub
use the left and right arrow keys to adjust the slider.
Increase playback volume (unassigned)Each key press Extra commands related to scrubbing
will increase the playback volume by 0.1.
Action Shortcut Description
Decrease playback volume (unassigned)Each key press
will decrease the playback volume by 0.1. Short seek left during playback LeftSkips the playback
cursor back one second by default.
Adjust recording volume (unassigned)Displays the
Recording Volume dialog. You can type a new value for Short seek right during playback RightSkips the playback
the recording volume (between 0 and 1), or press Tab, cursor forward one second by default.
then use the left and right arrow keys to adjust the slider. Long seek left during playback Shift + LeftSkips the play-
Increase recording volume (unassigned)Each key press back cursor back 15 seconds by default.
will increase the recording volume by 0.1. Long Seek right during playback Shift + RightSkips the
Decrease recording volume (unassigned)Each key press playback cursor forward 15 seconds by default.
will decrease the recording volume by 0.1.
Ext-Bar: Device
Ext-Bar: Edit
Extra commands related to selecting a device
Extra commands related to editing Action Shortcut Description
Action Shortcut Description Change recording device Shift + IDisplays the Select
DeleteKey BackspaceDeletes the selection. When focus recording Device dialog for choosing the recording de-
is in Selection Toolbar , BACKSPACE is not a shortcut but vice, but only if the "Recording Device" dropdown menu
navigates back to the previous digit and sets it to zero. in Device Toolbar has entries for devices. Otherwise, an
recording error message will be displayed.
DeleteKey2 DeleteDeletes the selection.
Change playback device Shift + ODisplays the Select
Playback Device dialog for choosing the playback device,
Ext-Bar: Transcription but only if the "Playback Device" dropdown menu in De-
vice Toolbar has entries for devices. Otherwise, an error
message will be displayed.
Extra commands related to play at speed
Change audio host Shift + HDisplays the Select Au-
Action Shortcut Description
dio Host dialog for choosing the particular interface with
Play-at-Speed (unassigned)Play audio at a faster or which Audacity communicates with your chosen playback
slower speed and recording devices.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE 237
Selection Extend Right Shift + RightIncreases the size of Toggle Focused Track ReturnToggle focus on current
the selection by extending it to the right. The amount of track
increase is dependent on the zoom level. If there is no Toggle Focused Track NUMPAD_ENTERToggle focus on
selection one is created starting at the cursor position. current track
Set (or Extend) Left Selection (unassigned)If playing or
recording, sets the left selection edge to the current cur-
sor position. If stopped, increases the size of the selec- Ext-Command: Cursor
tion by extending it to the left.
Extra commands to move the cursorThe long and short
Set (or Extend) Right Selection (unassigned)If playing or
jump times are set by the long and short Seek Time when
recording, sets the right selection edge to the current cur-
playing values in Playback Preferences .
sor position. If stopped, increases the size of the selec-
tion by extending it to the right. Action Shortcut Description
Selection Contract Left Ctrl + Shift + RightDecreases the Cursor Left LeftWhen not playing audio, moves the edit-
size of the selection by contracting it from the right. The ing cursor one screen pixel to left. When a Snap To op-
amount of decrease is dependent on the zoom level. If tion is chosen, moves the cursor to the preceding unit of
there is no selection no action is taken. time as determined by the current selection format . If
the key is held down, the cursor speed depends on the
Selection Contract Right Ctrl + Shift + LeftDecreases the
length of the tracks. When playing audio, moves the play-
size of the selection by contracting it from the left. The
back cursor as described at "Cursor Short Jump Left"
amount of decrease is dependent on the zoom level. If
there is no selection no action is taken. Cursor Right RightWhen not playing audio, moves the
editing cursor one screen pixel to right. When a Snap To
option is chosen, moves the cursor to the following unit
6.14.12 Ext-Command Menu of time as determined by the current selection format . If
the key is held down, the cursor speed depends on the
length of the tracks. When playing audio, moves the play-
Ext-Command
back cursor as described at "Cursor Short Jump Right"
Action Shortcut Description
Cursor Short Jump Left ,When not playing audio, moves
Full screen (on/off) F11Toggle full screen mode with no the editing cursor one second left by default. When play-
title bar ing audio, moves the playback cursor one second left by
238 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
default. The default value can be changed by adjusting the pan value by 10% left.
the "Short Period" under "Seek Time when playing" in
Playback Preferences . Pan right on focused track Alt + Shift + RightControls the
pan slider on the focused track. Each keypress changes
Cursor Short Jump Right .When not playing audio, moves the pan value by 10% right.
the editing cursor one second right by default. When
playing audio, moves the playback cursor one second Change gain on focused track Shift + GBrings up the
right by default. The default value can be changed by ad- Gain dialog for the focused track where you can enter a
justing the "Short Period" under "Seek Time when play- gain value, or use the slider for finer control of gain than
ing" in Playback Preferences . is available when using the track pan slider.
Cursor Long Jump Left Shift + ,When not playing au- Increase gain on focused track Alt + Shift + UpControls
dio, moves the editing cursor 15 seconds left by default. the gain slider on the focused track. Each keypress in-
When playing audio, moves the playback cursor 15 sec- creases the gain value by 1 dB.
onds left by default. The default value can be changed Decrease gain on focused track Alt + Shift + DownCon-
by adjusting the "Long Period" under "Seek Time when trols the gain slider on the focused track. Each keypress
playing" in Playback Preferences . decreases the gain value by 1 dB.
Cursor Long Jump Right Shift + .When not playing au-
Open menu on focused track Shift + MOpens the Au-
dio, moves the editing cursor 15 seconds right by default.
dio Track Dropdown Menu on the focused audio track or
When playing audio, moves the playback cursor 15 sec-
other track type . In the audio track dropdown, use Up,
onds right by default. The default value can be changed
and Down, arrow keys to navigate the menu and Enter,
by adjusting the "Long Period" under "Seek Time when
to select a menu item. Use Right, arrow to open the "Set
playing" in Playback Preferences .
Sample Format" and "Set Rate" choices or Left, arrow to
Clip Left (unassigned)Moves the currently focused audio leave those choices.
track (or a separate clip in that track which contains the
Mute/Unmute focused track Shift + UToggles the Mute
editing cursor or selection region ) one screen pixel to
button on the focused track.
left.
Clip Right (unassigned)Moves the currently focused au- Solo/Unsolo focused track Shift + SToggles the Solo but-
dio track (or a separate clip in that track which contains ton on the focused track.
the editing cursor or selection region ) one screen pixel Close focused track Shift + CClose (remove) the focused
to right. trackonly.
Move focused track up (unassigned)Moves the focused
Ext-Command: Track track up by one track and moves the focus there.
Move focused track down (unassigned)Moves the fo-
Extra commands to operate on a track that has focus cused track down by one track and moves the focus
Action Shortcut Description there.
Change pan on focused track Shift + PBrings up the Pan Move focused track to top (unassigned)Moves the fo-
dialog for the focused track where you can enter a pan cused track up to the top of the track table and moves
value, or use the slider for finer control of panning than is the focus there.
available when using the track pan slider.
Move focused track to bottom (unassigned)Moves the fo-
Pan left on focused track Alt + Shift + LeftControls the cused track down to the bottom of the track table and
pan slider on the focused track. Each keypress changes moves the focus there.
6.16.1 Interface
6.16.2 Playback
No modules are yet shipped with Audacity. Nyquist 1. Add a "modules" folder to the Audacity installation
Workbench provides the ability to create and run arbi- folder
trary Nyquist code in Audacity from a graphical editor.
2. Add the file such as mod-nyq-bench.dll (Windows)
The Workbench can be compiled from our source code.
or mod-nyq-bench.so (Mac) to the Modules folder,
Nyquist Workbench is recommended (though not essen-
restart Audacity and open Modules Preferences
tial) for anyone interested in writing Nyquist plug-ins for
Audacity - good functionality to test Nyquist plug-ins is 3. You should see that file is marked as "New":
also available in Nyquist Prompt .
Horizontal scrolling and zooming using the mouse wheel key. Horizontal scrolling and pinch/expand should also
or ball requires the Shift or Ctrl key respectively to be work on most touchpads on Windows machines, but you
held down. On Mac Trackpads you can use two fingers to may need to apply this horizontal scrolling modification
scroll horizontally, or pinch/expand to zoom the waveform or to install special drivers for your touchpad.
in or out at the pointer position, without using a modifier
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > RecordingQ.E.D (on ing computer playback because it will create feedback
a Mac Audacity > Preferences > RecordingQ.E.D ) echoes.
Useful Tips:
• If you enable monitoring with software playthrough,
you can listen to the input without recording it.
• For some examples of setting up equipment to
record without playthrough latency, see this Tutorial
about Recording overdubs .
• When recording from a microphone, listen in head-
phones so that the microphone hears only what you
are actually recording.
use Keyboard Preferences to allocate a keyboard short- ing to each new track name, in hours-minutes-
cut to them. seconds format, 24-hour clock.
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Tracks Behaviors (on • Enable cut lines: Displays a light blue vertical line
a Mac Audacity > Preferences > Tracks Behaviors ) at the left edge of a cut edit, which changes to red
after clicking elsewhere in the track. Click on the
line at any time to restore the cut audio; if you re-
store in error, use Edit > Undo Expand to get the
cut line back. To remove the line without restoring
audio, right-click over it. Edit > Undo Remove will
restore the line if you make a mistake.
• Enable dragging selection edges: Lets you ex-
pand or contract existing selection regions with the
mouse after they have been created. If unchecked
you must use the Selection Bar or keyboard to mod-
ify existing selection regions. See Audacity Selec-
tion for further details.
• Editing a clip can move other clips: If the track has
been split into more than one clip , any clips fol-
lowing to right of the edit point can always move as
necessary in response to pasting , cutting , delet-
ing or other change that adds or removes con-
Tracks Behaviors Preferences.Click on any other Pref- tent.Unchecking "Editing a clip can move..." pins
erences sections in the above image to read about those clips so that they cannot move in response to an
Preferences. edit in another clip. When removing content, any
following clips will not be allowed to move back.
When pasting, an error message will display if there
is not enough room to paste without moving the fol-
6.20.1 Behaviors lowing clips.
• Auto-select, if selection required: If you select no • "Move track focus" cycles repeatedly through
audio before applying an effect, the effect will be tracks: When using the up and down arrow keys
automatically applied to all audio in all tracks. This to change which track is focused, moving the focus
also applies to other menu items requiring an audio off one end (top or bottom) makes the focus jump
selection to be made. If you have a Time selec- to the other end.
tion, made by using the Selection Toolbar , but with • Type to create a label: When enabled (default), if
no audio tracks selected, then the Auto-select will there is already a label track that has the yellow fo-
operate on just that time range in all audio tracks. cus border, you do not need to use "Add Label at
244 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
Selection" or its Ctrl + B shortcut to create a new fault setting is "off". This can be make Scrubbing
label. Just type your required label text to create from the start or end of the track easier when using
a new label at the position of the editing cursor or pinned playhead .
selection region. If the label track does not have
If you select "Enable scrolling left of zero" then the nega-
focus, use the Up or Down arrow keys on your key-
tive numbers on the Timeline will be rendered in blue to
board to move focus into the label track. When this
act as a visual cue that this has been turned on.
preference is disabled, typing never creates a label
in the focused label track. This lets you use short- • Solo Button: The Solo button on the Track Control
cuts (for example, transport shortcuts to play audio Panels can behave in three different ways:
related to the editing cursor or selection) without
– In "Simple" mode (default), "Solo" means as
accidentally creating an unwanted label. When you
it does in common parlance - a track made
want to create a new label, use "Add Label at Se-
solo is the only one that can be heard. If a
lection" or Ctrl + B or "Add Label at Playback Posi-
track is solo, the mute buttons are set down
tion" Ctrl + M.
on all the other tracks, so that solo is just a
Even if "Type to Create a Label" is enabled, you cannot shortcut way of muting all tracks except one.
type to create a new label, if: If on any occasion you want the Solo button to
select multiple tracks for listening, hold down
• audio is playing, recording or paused, and the cur-
Shift when clicking Solo.
sor or selection is at the same position in waveform
and label track – "Multi-track" will suit those used to mixing
desks and other professional audio software.
• there is already a label at the exact same position Any number of tracks can be made solo so
in the label track. that they mix together, but if any solo button
You can still use Ctrl + B to add a new label even if it’s at is down, the mute buttons have no effect. If
the same position, or Ctrl + M to add a label at the play- on any occasion you want the Solo button to
back, recording or paused position. You can also create a play only one track at a time (so that clicking
label at the same position by moving focus to and typing it releases any other solo buttons), hold down
in another label track, as long as there is no label yet at Shift when clicking Solo.
that position, and if audio is playing, as long as the cursor – "None" mode has no solo buttons, so you se-
or selection in the waveform is at a different position. lect the tracks you want to play by unmuting
• Enable scrolling left of zero: Enables you to scroll them (clicking the mute buttons so that they
to the left of time zero on the Timeline . The de- are up).
ences.
3. Let you turn off this warning (this still respects the
button selected above for copy in or read directly,
even if you have changed it)
File Menu
The File Menu provides commands for creating, opening If an empty project window exists, that window will be
and saving Audacity projects , importing and exporting used for the first project or imported file. Any subsequent
audio files and performing batch operations using Chains opened projects or audio files will create new project win-
. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read dows. If instead you want to add the content of an audio
about that command. Skip the image file into a project that already contains one or more audio
tracks (for example, to mix two audio files together), use
File > Import > Audio... instead. Import means bringing
new content into an Audacity project by any means, such
as File > Open, File > Import or dragging files into the
project window. The content would typically be an audio
file like WAV or MP3 , but (using File > Import) could
also be a label track , a MIDI file or Raw Data . For
audio files, the importer used depends on the currently
selected file type in File > Open or File > Import > Au-
dio... and on settings in Extended Import Preferences .
See Importing Audio for more information.
Launches a file selection window where you can: • To manually remove an individual item from the list,
• Open one or more Audacity Project files (.aup) or exit Audacity, open audacity.cfg in a text editor and
delete the unwanted item below the [Recent Files]
• Import one or more audio files or lists of files line. Take care not to delete the [Recent Files] line
(.LOF) . itself.
247
248 CHAPTER 7. FILE MENU
Closes the current project window, prompting you to save The Import submenu enables you to import audio files or
your work if you have not already saved. label files into your project. Files in various audio formats
can be imported into Audacity. For details of the available
imports see this page .
7.1.5 Save Project Ctrl + S
A Chain is a sequence of preconfigured commands in a • To create an audio file as part of the Chain process
set order (mainly effects) that can be applied automati- you must include an "Export" command (such as
cally to projects or audio files. Any built-in , LADSPA , ExportWAV).
LV2 , Nyquist , VST or Audio Unit (Mac) effect shown in
• In many cases the parameters for each command
the Effect Menu can be added to a Chain. You can also
in the Chain can be specified within the Edit Chains
add plug-ins in any format that are shown in the Gener-
dialog.
ate or Analyze Menus (including VAMP analysis effects),
the built-in Find Clipping analyzer and a number of ex-
port commands. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
image to read about that command. Skip the image
Use File > Chains > Apply Chain... to show the existing
7.2.2 Edit Chains chains. Select the chain you require by using left-click (or
using the Up or Down arrow on the keyboard) to select
the Chain you want to work on, then either:
Use File > Chains > Edit Chains... if you need to create
a new Chain or to edit an existing Chain. • choose Apply to Current Project to run the Chain
on the entire project in the current window or
• The Chain can include a number of common Au-
dacity functions and effects to be executed in any • choose Apply to Files... to run the Chain on se-
order you specify. lected external audio files in a single directory
250 CHAPTER 7. FILE MENU
Example 2: NR&EQ
1. Insert Compressor to reduce the dynamic range • If a Noise Profile does not exist:
of each WAV, also normalizing them to maximum
– If the Chain is applied to the current project (as
amplitude of 0 dB
above), the current selection is used to create
2. Insert ExportMP3 to convert them to MP3 format the Noise Profile. Therefore, other effect com-
mands in the Chain will also only apply to that
3. Click OK to close the "Edit Chains" window
selection. If an export command is added, the
entire file will be exported.
Enables you to import audio files or label files into your 7.3.4 Raw Data...
project. Files in various audio formats can be imported
into Audacity. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
image to read about that command. Skip the image
The File Menu provides commands for creating, opening 7.4.3 Recent Files ("Open Recent" on Mac)
and saving Audacity projects , importing and exporting
audio files and performing batch operations using Chains
. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read Lists the full path to the twelve most recently saved or
about that command. Skip the image opened projects or most recently imported audio files.
The oldest item at the bottom is removed when a new
item is added to the top. When you delete an Audacity
project or audio file it will remain in the list, but will be
removed from the list if you select it.
7.4.6 Save Project As... working with chains, one to create and Edit chains and
the other to Apply the chain .
Same as "Save Project" above, but allows you to save a
copy of an open project to a different name or location.
This can be useful if you want to preserve a snapshot of 7.4.10 Page Setup...
the state of a project at a particular time, then proceed to
make further changes to the project you just saved. Opens the standard Page Setup dialog box prior to print-
ing.
7.5.1 Exports to specific audio file formats and end time of the label (in seconds). If you have mul-
tiple label tracks, the labels in the uppermost label track
If there are multiple tracks in your project, they will be appear first in the file. To import the labels into an Au-
automatically mixed in the exported data. For more infor- dacity project later, use the File > Import... command.
mation about mixing, see Mix and Render on the Tracks Export Labels is commonly used in speech transcription
Menu . or speech recognition research, after which the files can
be manipulated in any application that accepts text files.
Labels can also be modified after export for use as Cue
For all types of audio export including Export Se- Sheets for CD burning or as movie subtitles. If a label
lected Audio and Export Multiple , tracks that are muted is created from a point or region in a Spectrogram track
are not exported. where Spectral Selection is enabled (or if a label is other-
wise created when a low frequency and high frequency
value are already stored in the project), the exported la-
Export as MP3 bels file also contains the frequency range for that label.
sending projects to others. There will be some resulting than opening a standard project, because the OGG files
loss of quality. Note that the quality loss will be increased in the _data folder will be decompressed into Audacity’s
each time a compressed project is resaved as a com- AU file format in order to work with the data. The AU files
pressed project (for example, if you send a compressed will be in a separate folder inside the _data folder. The
project to someone else, and they then edit it and send it OGG files will remain in the _data folder after opening
back to you as a compressed project). Most project data the project, but they can be deleted to save disk space.
will be retained, including labels, gain and pan settings, Similarly when sending a saved compressed project to
track positions on the timeline, track order and metadata. someone, you can delete any folders containing AU files
Clips will not be retained - spaces between clips will be that are inside the _data folder, because all the neces-
converted to silence. Volume envelopes present when sary data is in the AUP file and the OGG file(s).
saving will be rendered, but the actual envelope points
will be lost. Opening a compressed project will be slower < Back to: File Menu
The Export Audio dialog (for export of a single audio • Choose the folder to export to in Save in: then type
file from the whole project) is accessed from File > Save the file name you want.
Other > Export Audio... . When you use File > Save
• Select the type of audio file to export to.
Other > Export Selected Audio... to export a single audio
file from a selection , the Export Selected Audio dia- • Set the Format Options (if those are available for
log appears. Both these dialogs are identical and let you your selected format) if you want to change the
specify folder location, file name, format and encoding size, quality or other encoding choices for that se-
options for your exported file. You can use File > Save lected file format.
Other > Export Multiple... to export multiple audio files
• Press Save.
(based on labels or multiple audio tracks ) in one process.
When you use the the Export Multiple dialog appears. • The Metadata Editor dialog will then appear (un-
less you have disabled it for the export step in the
Import/Export Preferences ). Edit Metadata lets
you enter embedded information in the file such
as artist, year or genre. Either leave the metadata
blank or complete the fields you require, then press
OK (not "Save...").
File name
Editing
The Edit Menu provides standard edit commands (Undo, 8.1.2 Redo Ctrl + Y
Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete) plus many other
commands specific to editing audio or labels. There are
Redoes any editing operations that were just undone.
many commands available from this menu so some com-
After you perform a new editing operation, you can no
mands are grouped into submenus.Click, or hover, on
longer redo the operations that were undone.
any menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
258
8.2. EDIT MENU: CLIP BOUNDARIES 259
8.1.7 Duplicate Ctrl + D useful for visually impaired users. It brings up a dialog
box showing all of your labels in a keyboard-accessible
Creates a new track containing only the current selection tabular view. Handy buttons in the dialog let you insert or
as a new clip. delete a label, or import and export labels to a file. See
Labels Editor for more details. See Edit Menu: Labels for
details of this sub-menu.
8.1.8 Remove Special
The Remove Special submenu has commands for more 8.1.11 Labeled Audio
"advanced" removal of audio and labels:
The Labeled Audio submenu has commands that offer
• Split Cut and Split Delete are a "special" cut or
a time saving way of performing Edit Menu operations
delete which make the audio or labels to right of the
on the audio of multiple fully selected range labels. The
selection stay in current position instead of moving
commands apply to all labeled audio regions that are fully
leftwards.
inside a selection drawn in a label track. The selection
• Silence Audio replaces the current selection with may extend beyond the label boundaries, but audio that
silence. is not labeled and audio whose region label is only partly
within the selection will not be acted on. If none of the
• Trim Audio removes all audio from the current clip
audio tracks are included in the selection, the Labeled
except the selected part, creating its own clip from
Audio commands apply to all audio tracks in the project.
the remaining, selected, audio.
However if you include only certain audio tracks in the
selection, the Labeled Audio commands will only affect
those selected audio tracks. See Edit Menu: Labeled
8.1.9 Clip Boundaries Audio for details of this sub-menu.
8.1.10 Labels
8.1.13 Preferences... Ctrl + P
The Labels submenu has commands that enable you to
add and edit labels. This command invokes the Labels Displays the Preferences dialog. Preferences enable you
Editor which lets you add or remove Label Tracks and edit change most of the default behaviors and settings of Au-
their labels entirely using the keyboard, so is particularly dacity.
Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf and Alt = Option. So, for 8.2.3 Join Ctrl + J
example, Ctrl + Alt + J = CloverLeaf + Option + J
If you select an area that overlaps one or more clips, they
are all joined into one large clip. Regions in-between clips
8.2.1 Split Ctrl + I become silence.
New > Stereo Track), place the cursor where you want to
paste, then make the paste.
Find Zero Crossings has been moved (for Audacity Crossings.Accessed by: Select > At Zero Crossings or
2.2.0 and onwards) from the Edit menu to the Region its Z shortcut.
submenu of the Select Menu and renamed to At Zero
Note that the audio associated with "Label 2" and Label
3" has been cut, but the audio associated with "Label 1"
Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf and Alt = Option. So, for and "Label 4" remains because Labels 1 and 4 were not
example, Ctrl + Alt + V = CloverLeaf + Option + V fully inside the selection.
Removes the selected labeled audio data and puts it on 8.5.5 Split Delete Shift + Alt + K
the Audacity clipboard. Any audio data to the right of the
selected labeled audio regions is shifted to the left. Only
one item can be on the clipboard at a time, but it may Same as Split Cut, but the audio is not copied to the Au-
include multiple audio tracks and multiple audio clips . dacity clipboard.
264 CHAPTER 8. EDITING
Note that "Label 2" and "Label 3" are touching but not
overlapping, so they are still treated as separate labels
and the boundary between them is marked with a split
line.
... then create a new audio track, press the Skip to Start
button and paste, the two audio regions associated with
Labels 2 and 3 are pasted starting from the start of the
new track, separated by blank space.
8.5.10 Detach At Silences Shift + Alt + J
8.5.11 Examples Result: Audio has been cut only in the regions where
the labels are fully inside the selection. Part of the first
Example 1 - selection in the Label Track only label is outside the selection so its audio is not affected
by the Split Cut operation. The final two labels overlap
each other, so are treated as one label.
Items in the Labels cascading Edit menu enable you to Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf and Alt = Option. So, for
add and edit labels.Click, or hover, on any menu item in example, Ctrl + Alt + V = CloverLeaf + Option + V
the image to read about that command. Skip the image
When the label track has the yellow focus border as in the
image above you can, if preferred, just type to create a
label containing that text rather than first using the menu
8.6.3 Add Label At Playback Position Ctrl + or shortcut to create the label. This default behaviour
M can be turned off, if required, in Tracks Preferences by
unchecking the "Type to create label".
• When enabled (default), if there is already a label
This command will place a new label at your current play- track that has the yellow focus border, you do not
back or recording position. See this page for more de- need to use "Add Label at Selection" or its Ctrl +
tails. Like Add Label at Selection but the label is added B shortcut to create a new label. Just type your re-
at the current position during playback or recording. On quired label text to create a new label at the position
a Mac the shortcut for this command is (CloverLeaf + .). of the editing cursor or selection region. If the label
track does not have focus, use the Up or Down ar-
row keys on your keyboard to move focus into the
label track.
• When this preference is disabled, typing never cre-
8.6.4 Paste Text to New Label Ctrl + Alt + V ates a label in the focused label track. This lets
you use shortcuts (for example, transport shortcuts
to play audio related to the editing cursor or se-
Pastes the text on the system clipboard (or text from a lection) without accidentally creating an unwanted
label stored in the Audacity clipboard) to a new label at label. When you want to create a new label, use
the cursor or region position in the currently selected la- "Add Label at Selection" or Ctrl + B or "Add Label
bel track. If there is no selection in the label track a point at Playback Position" Ctrl + M.
label is created. If a range is selected in the label track Even if "Type to Create a Label" is enabled, you cannot
a range label is created. A new label track is created if type to create a new label:
none exists. The most recent text cut or copied to ei-
ther clipboard is pasted. If you have copied or cut a la- • if audio is playing, recording or paused, and the cur-
bel to the Audacity clipboard, the text of that label will be sor or selection is at the same position in waveform
pasted. If you have cut or copied text to the system clip- and label track
board from an application other than Audacity, that text • if there is already a label at the exact same position
will be pasted. In the example below, the text "Question in the label track.
1" was copied from a word processing document then the
"Paste Text to New Label" command was executed. You can still use Ctrl + B to add a new label even if it’s at
the same position, or Ctrl + M to add a label at the play-
back, recording or paused position. You can also create
a label at the same position by moving focus to and typ-
ing in another label track, as long as there is no label yet
at that position, and if audio is playing, as long as the cur-
sor or selection in the waveform is at a different position.
< Back to: Edit Menu
8.7. EDIT MENU: REMOVE SPECIAL 267
Items in the Remove Special cascading Edit menu re- to select only in the label track unless you want to cut
move audio or labels (or audio with labels if both are se- the audio as well as the label). The labels following the
lected ) by Split Cut and Split Delete. These removal deleted section do not move to the left. The labels still
methods do not affect the audio or labels to right of the correspond to the same audio regions. This is a quick
selection. You can also silence or trim audio only, not way to delete a label without affecting any other labels on
affecting labels.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the the Label Track. Split Cut with label selected:
image to read about that command. Skip the image
You may hear a click at the edit points when you re-
move or paste audio. This can be caused by DC offset in
the waveform or by poor selection of the edit points. See
this Editing Frequently Asked Question for how to deal 8.7.2 Split Delete Ctrl + Alt + K
with this.
Same as Edit > Split Cut but the audio and/or labels are
not put on the clipboard. The following two commands af-
8.7.1 Split Cut Ctrl + Alt + X fect the audio in the selection but do not affect any labels
that are in the selection.
Same as Edit > Cut , but none of the audio data or la-
bels to right of the selection are shifted. A gap is thus left
behind in the audio track which splits the existing audio
clip into two clips that can be moved independently using 8.7.3 Silence Audio Ctrl + L
Time Shift Tool . Split Cut with audio selected:
Removes all audio from the current clip except the se-
lected part, creating its own clip from the remaining au-
dio. If there are other separate clips in the same track
these are not removed or shifted. Result: the audio in the clip to the right is unaffected.If an
entire clip (or clips) is selected then all other clips on the
track will be deleted. < Back to: Edit Menu
For 2.2.0 Select has been moved from the Edit Menu and selection.
given its own Select Menu . See this page for details on
Before After
Before After
You can adjust the junction point where two labels meet
by clicking and dragging their shared circle handle:
Before After
Before After
Do Edit > Cut - the text of the label is cut to the clipboard,
leaving a label with no text. Press Delete to delete the
label. Click in the new location for the label and do Edit >
Labels > Paste Text to New Label :
The text "Question" will be pasted into the label, and all
you have to type is " 2" to complete the label. Alterna-
tively you could select the range in the label track instead
of the audio track, then Edit > Labels > Paste Text to New
Label to create the label with that text.
|< Label Tracks
Chapter 9
Selecting
This page explains only the basics of selecting audio for sure that you click in a neutral area of the Track Control
typical Audacity use. This involves either: Panel, not inside one of the buttons or sliders.
• selecting the entire project , or
• mouse selecting only a region of audio in one or
more tracks . 9.1.3 Selecting the entire project
Once all or a region is selected, you can then change
that selection’s sound with an effect . Another common You can select the entire length of all tracks on screen
action is to delete or move the region of audio. This page with Select > All or use the shortcut Ctrl + A(or Clover-
is only a brief summary of how to make selections in your Leaf + A on a Mac).
project. For further details and visual examples please
see the Selecting Audio page.
9.1.4 Auto-Select
9.1.1 Selecting a region using the There is a setting in Tracks Behaviors Preferences called
mouse "Auto-select, if selection required" that saves the need
to make a time selection where you want to apply the edit
The easiest way to select a region of audio is to click the to entire tracks.
left mouse button anywhere inside of an audio track, then • If you issue an editing command that depends on
drag (in either direction) until the other edge of your se- having a time selection but there is no time selec-
lection is made, then release the mouse. If Selection tool tion present, the entire project is auto-selected.
is not selected (default setting), choose from Tools • If some audio tracks are selected but not others,
Toolbar, below: the entire time range of just those selected tracks
is auto-selected.
273
274 CHAPTER 9. SELECTING
Typical Audacity use involves either: Now click the left mouse button anywhere inside of an au-
dio track, and click and drag to the other edge of your se-
• selecting or autoselecting the entire project , or
lection, and release. Normally, you select both the tracks
• mouse -selecting only a range of audio in one or and the range simultaneously, by clicking and dragging.
more tracks , then modifying the selection’s sound For example, to create the selection in the image below,
with an effect or deleting or moving the range of
audio.
make sure you’re using Selection Tool , click in the
You can also read here about selecting using only the track just after 7.0 seconds in the first track, then drag
keyboard . An exact range accurate to various selection rightwards to 20.5 seconds as displayed on the Timeline
formats (time units, samples or media frames) can be , then downwards so that the gray selection region now
selected using Selection Toolbar . You have advanced includes the second track:
flexibility to select only some of multiple tracks then to
select the entirety of those tracks or only a range within
them . Rather than change each track the same way, you
could instead select all or part of an individual track, and
then change each track in a different way.
Some tips:
• You can drag from left to right or from right to left, it
9.2.2 Selecting regions using the
does not matter.
mouse
• You can start your selection in one track, and end
The easiest way to select a region of audio is to click it in another track, and both tracks (plus the tracks
the left mouse button anywhere inside of an audio track, in-between) will all end up selected.
then drag (in either direction) until the other edge of your • If you move the mouse past the left or right edge
selection is made, then release the mouse. If it’s not of the window while dragging, Audacity will scroll
the window in that direction as long as the mouse
already selected, choose the Selection tool from button is down.
Tools Toolbar, below:
• Esc key aborts selection drags, and restores the
previous time selection, frequency selection (see
later on this page), and set of selected tracks.
• After making a selection you can modify it by going
back and dragging the left or right edge.
9.2. SELECTING AUDIO 275
9.2.3 Snap To was present (as a selection previously) will remain visi-
ble in the Timeline.
The Selection Toolbar has an Snap To option which force- • This gives you a way to play this selection even
snaps the cursor or selection edges to the closest posi- though no tracks are selected.
tion of the current selection format .
• Also you can restore selectedness of that region to
• Selecting Nearest from the Snap To dropdown
any of the tracks by holding Ctrl and clicking in the
menu will force-snap the cursor or selection edges
track’s Track Control Panel.
to the closest.
• Selecting Prior from the same menu will force-
snap the cursor or selection edges to the immedi- 9.2.6 Selecting using the keyboard
ately preceding position.
You can modify the selection entirely using the keyboard.
The currently focused track is indicated with a glow-
9.2.4 Boundary Snap Guides ing yellow border, as you can see from the track called
"Guest" in this image:
Boundary Snap Guides make it easy to make a selection
that starts or ends at a physical boundary, like a label or
clip. Whenever snapping is taking place, a yellow vertical
line appears to indicate the snap location.
the selection from the right or left edge respectively. Sometimes you may want to create a new selection us-
ing the start point (left boundary) of the current selec-
You can always use Selection Toolbar if necessary to find
tion as the new end point, or using the current end point
out if you have a selection (if there is only a cursor, the
(right boundary) as the new start point. To do this, press
"Length" radio button will show a zero time value).
Left arrow to place the cursor where the beginning of the
selection was, or Right arrow to place the cursor where
the end of the selection was, in both cases removing the
Keyboard selection tips
selection. Now create and adjust the new selection as
above. If you select "Nearest" (or "Prior") in the Snap To
Some tips: Once you have a selection, hold Shift while dropdown menu in Selection Toolbar , then using Left,
pressing Up or Down arrow to extend or contract the se- Right, Shift and Ctrl as above will move the cursor or se-
lection up or down tracks. lection edge to the nearest (or previous) second, hun-
• Shift + Home creates a selection region from time dredth of a second, CDDA frame or any chosen selection
zero in the project (on the timeline above the wave- format.
form) to the cursor point.
• Use [ or ] as above to force the cursor or selection
• Shift + End creates a selection region from the cur- to a position outside the current selection format,
sor point to the end of the project. even if Snap To is enabled.
• Select > Region > Track Start to Cursor (or short-
cut Shift + J) creates a selection region in the se-
lected tracks from the start of the leftmost audio 9.2.7 Selection Toolbar
track to the cursor point. The start of an audio track
(the point where its blue waveform begins) does not
have to be time zero.
• Select > Region > Cursor to Track End (or shortcut One handy way to keep track of what you’ve selected
Shift + K) creates a selection region in the selected and to make very precise modifications is to use the Se-
tracks from the cursor point to the end of the right- lection Toolbar . For our purposes here, let’s concentrate
most audio track. on its main purpose, the Selection boxes. By changing
the dropdown menu selection from "Start and End of
Selection" to "Start and Length of Selection", you can
Creating selections at an exact time display and control the length of the selection instead of
the endpoint. Which one is useful for you depends on
If you already know the exact times at which the selection the circumstances: if you need a clip from a song that’s
should start and end, you can use the [ shortcut when the exactly 30 seconds long, you may want to set the length
track is not playing, recording or paused to open the "Set to 30, and then modify the start until you have just what
Left Selection Boundary" dialog. Use the time digits to you want. Other times you may know the exact end time
set the left-hand boundary of the selection as below. To but need to figure out where to start, independent of the
change the Selection Format of the time units or frame resulting length. Selection Toolbar also displays and can
boundaries, right-click (or use the keyboard Context Key) move the cursor position without there being a region se-
or left-click the downward-pointing triangle to right of the lected. To move the cursor to an exact position using Se-
time digits. lection Toolbar, set the "Selection Start" and "End" boxes
to the same value. You can set the values displayed in
• If the cursor is currently to left of where the selec- the Selection Toolbar boxes using the mouse and/or key-
tion should start, advance the current position of board. To change a particular digit in a box, click on it, or
the time digits to move the cursor rightwards to the you can navigate to it using only the keyboard: Navigat-
correct start position. Then use the ] shortcut to ing into and through the Selection Toolbar controls
bring up the "Set Right Selection Boundary" dialog.
Here you can set the time at which the selection Key Action
should end, which draws the selection. Ctrl + F6 Move the focus to/from Selection Toolbar
• If the cursor is currently to right of where the selec-
Tab Move forwards through the Selection Toolbar con-
tion should start, use [ if necessary to advance the
trols
time digits so as to place the cursor at the intended
end of the selection. Then use [ again to set the left Shift + Tab Move backwards through the Selection Tool-
boundary of the selection which will draw the se- bar controls
lection from that left boundary to your chosen end
Left / Right Move cursor between digits or to/from
position.
End/Length Once you have clicked on or navigated to a
Exact selections can also be created directly within Se- digit, it will highlight in white to show it is active, as shown
lection Toolbar by similarly manipulating the time digits. in the image below:
9.2. SELECTING AUDIO 277
• Hover the mouse pointer near the edge of a se- You can also change which tracks are selected indepen-
lection, when you hover close enough to the edge dently of the range, so that selecting an extra track in-
the mouse pointer changes to a hand with pointing cludes the selected range in that track, and deselecting a
finger (indicating you can now click and drag the selected track moves the selected range out of that track.
selection). Then click and drag with the mouse to This gives you complete flexibility to extend, contract or
move that edge of the selection. move the existing range up or down between multiple
278 CHAPTER 9. SELECTING
tracks. To change which tracks are selected without stop playback and then press Space again to hear just
affecting the range, there are multiple methods. the selection. There are additional keyboard shortcuts
that let you listen to just the beginning or end of a se-
• Hold Shift while clicking on the Track Control Panel
lection - see Special Playback Keyboard Commands for
to the left of the waveform to toggle its selected-
details.
ness.
• Press Up or Down to change the focused track,
then press Enter to toggle its selectedness. 9.2.11 Label Tracks
• Hold Shift while pressing Up or Down arrow to ex-
tend or contract the selection up or down into adja- A useful way to retain a selection for future use is to la-
cent tracks. bel it. While the selection is highlighted press Ctrl + B to
label the selected region. For more information see La-
Use the first two of the above methods when you want to bel Tracks . The audio defined by a region label can be
select or deselect non-adjacent tracks. Note that it is pos- quickly selected by left-clicking in the label. Tabbing like
sible to have a range selected but no tracks selected. In this will always ensure that at least part of your revised
that case, you will only see the evidence of the selected selection is shown on-screen.
range in the Timeline. Advanced: If you enable Sync-
Locked Track Groups you do not need to explicitly select
other tracks so as to maintain synchronization when in- Shortcuts
serting, removing or time-shifting audio.
There are also two shortcut commands to aid navigation
between labels that have no menu item or button associ-
9.2.9 Menu commands for selecting ated with them, they exist just as shortcuts:
• Alt + Right moves the cursor to the next labeled se-
The Select menu has several commands that are use-
lection (or point label)
ful for selecting. Please see the Select Menu page for
details. • Alt + Left moves the cursor to the previous labeled
selection (or point label)
When the final label is reached in either direction Audac-
9.2.10 Listening to the selection ity cycles around the label track. If you have multiple la-
bel tracks then these shortcut commands work on the
With audio, it usually isn’t obvious from the waveform currently focused label track (the one with the yellow bor-
what you want to select, so you really want to listen just der). If there is more than one label track and none have
to the left and right edges of a selection to make sure focus, then the first label track downwards from the fo-
you are editing the correct part. Also because the pur- cused audio track is used.
pose of multiple tracks is usually to mix them together as
combined audio, by default the selected range plays for
all the visible tracks, selected or not. To change this you Note that this may have the effect of not having your
can mute or solo individual tracks in the Track Control revised selection showing on-screen as these shortcuts
Panel . But if you are new to audio editing, do not worry. do not update the display accordingly.
For now, you can just click and drag to create a selection
on a single track, and press Space to listen to all of it.
Come back here for more help when you start to work on 9.2.12 Spectral Selection
more advanced projects and are having trouble selecting
what you want. Spectral selection is used to make selections that in-
clude a frequency range as well as a time range on
tracks in spectrogram view . Spectral selection is used
Selecting while audio is playing with special Spectral edit effects to make changes to the
frequency content of the selected audio. Among other
Sometimes the easiest way to select an exact portion of purposes spectral selection and editing can be used for
audio is to mark the selection boundaries while you’re cleaning up unwanted sound, enhancing certain reso-
playing (or recording) audio. To do this, press the [ short- nances, changing the quality of a voice or removing
cut to mark the left edge of the audio, then the ] short- mouth sounds from voice work. All of the time-based se-
cut to mark the right edge and draw the selection. After lection techniques (horizontal selection) are still available
you’ve done that, you’ll definitely want to listen to the se- when doing spectral selection. See the Spectral Selec-
lection to make sure it was right. Press Space once to tion page for more details.
9.3. SELECT MENU 279
The Select Menu provides a set of commands for defin- 9.3.6 Clip Boundaries
ing selection regions (prior to acting on those regions with
edits, effects and exports) or the position of the editing The Clip Boundaries submenu lets you select between
cursor. You can also select between and navigate clips the editing cursor and clip boundaries or to navigate
.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read though clips, selecting all of the current clip.
about that command. Skip the image
The Tracks submenu has commands to extend the cur- Stores a cursor position as defined below, which can then
rent selection up and/or down into all tracks, or into all be used with the Select > Cursor to Stored Cursor Posi-
Sync-Locked tracks in the project. tion command to create or modify a selection region.
• If audio is not actively playing, recording or
paused: the stored cursor position is the position
9.3.4 Region of the editing cursor or of the left edge of the selec-
tion region.
The Region submenu has commands for defining selec- • If audio is active: the stored cursor position is
tion regions and lets you store and retrieve the position the position of the Playback cursor or Record-
of the editing cursor or selection region. ing cursor at the time you issue the command
to store. For easier use without having to Pause,
you may want to add a shortcut for "Store Cursor
9.3.5 Spectral Position".
If you want to store the position of the editing cursor (or
The Spectral submenu has contains to enable you to both boundaries of a selection) while audio is active, use
make Spectral selection which can be used to make se- the Select > Region > Store Selection command.
lections that include a frequency range as well as a time
range on tracks in Spectrogram view. Spectral selection
is used with special spectral edit effects to make changes There is no visual cue marker to remind you what
to the frequency content of the selected audio. position you saved, you will need to remember it.
280 CHAPTER 9. SELECTING
A set of commands to enable you to make selections 9.5.1 Previous Clip Boundary to Cursor
based on any Clips that you may have in the project.
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that command. Skip the image
9.5.2 Cursor to Next Clip Boundary after the second command the previous clip is selected:
after the first command the selection is extended from the Moves or creates a selection so as to fully select in the
editing cursor position to the end of the clip: next clip. If the editing cursor is exactly at the start of a
clip, this command selects all of that current clip. Exam-
ple:Starting with this selection ...
This set of commands let you define selection regions or recording to use the equivalent keyboard shortcuts (
and store and retrieve the position of the editing cursor by default, [ and ] ) to set the left and right boundary
or selection region. Click, or hover, on any menu item in respectively.When there is no audio playing or record-
the image to read about that command. Skip the image ing: Opens the "Set Right Selection Boundary" dialog.
Move the dialog’s time digits forwards to create a selec-
tion rightwards from the cursor position or to extend the
current selection rightwards. Move the time digits back-
wards to move the cursor backwards to an exact point or
to contract the current selection from the right.
When playing or recording: Sets the left boundary of 9.6.4 Cursor to Track End Shift + K
a potential selection by moving the cursor to the current
position of the green playback cursor (or red recording Selects a region in the selected track(s) from the cursor
cursor). The selection can then be drawn by using "Right position to the end of the track (or extends the current
at Playback Position" (below). When there is no au- selection so that it ends at the end of the track).
dio playing or recording: Opens the "Set Left Selection
Boundary" dialog. This is useful for keyboard users or for
time-exact manipulation of the selection instead of using 9.6.5 Store Selection
Selection Toolbar . Move the selection boundary dialog’s
time digits backwards to create a selection leftwards from
the cursor position or to extend the current selection left- Stores the current position of the selection region or cur-
wards. Move the time digits forwards to move the cursor sor, as observed on the Timeline . The position of this
forwards to an exact point or to contract the current se- region or cursor can then be recalled by using Retrieve
lection from the left. See " Creating selections at an exact Selection (see below). Using this command again will
time " for more details. overwrite the previously stored position information. The
position is saved in memory for each project. Therefore
using Retrieve Region will not have any effect in another
project unless you have already used Store Region in
9.6.2 Right at Playback Position ]
that project. When you close a project, its stored region
is discarded. The Store Region command is grayed-out
When playing or recording: Sets the right boundary of if there are no audio tracks .
the selection, thus drawing the selection from the cursor
position to the current position of the green playback cur-
sor (or red recording cursor). This is a quick way to mark
a selection for future editing while playing or recording. 9.6.6 Retrieve Selection
Selections can be labeled while playing or recording us-
ing Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection or shortcut Moves the selection region or cursor to the position
Ctrl + B. It will usually be more convenient while playing stored by the last Store Selection command (see above).
9.7. SELECT MENU: SPECTRAL 283
If a region is retrieved, this is only explicitly placed inside position, so you may need to zoom out or scroll the
those tracks which are currently selected . project to see the retrieved position.
• If the region was stored when in Spectrogram view
, the spectral selection within the region is also re-
trieved, even if the region is retrieved when in an-
• Only the position of the region or cursor is retrieved. other view. If the cursor position was stored when in
No audio content is retrieved. Labels or split lines Spectrogram view, the vertical position (and hence
that were associated with the region or cursor are center frequency) of the click that placed the cursor
not retrieved. is retrieved.
• The screen focus does not return to the retrieved < Back to: Select Menu
Spectral selection is used to make selections that include 9.7.1 Toggle spectral selection Q
a frequency range as well as a time range on tracks in
Spectrogram view. Spectral selection is used with special Changes between selecting a time range (and hence all
spectral edit effects to make changes to the frequency the frequencies in that range) and selecting the last se-
content of the selected audio. Among other purposes, lected spectral selection in that time range. This com-
spectral selection and editing can be used for cleaning up mand toggles the spectral selection even if not in Spec-
unwanted sound, enhancing certain resonances, chang- trogram view.
ing the quality of a voice or removing mouth sounds from
voice work. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the im-
age to read about that command. Skip the image 9.7.2 Next Higher Peak Frequency
9.8.1 In All Tracks Ctrl + Shift + K 9.8.2 In All Sync-Locked Tracks Ctrl + Shift
+Y
Extends the current selection up and/or down into all Extends the current selection up and/or down into all
tracks in the project. Sync-Locked tracks in the currently selected track group.
Transport Menu
Transport Menu commands let you play or stop, loop 10.1.3 Scrubbing
play, scrub play or record (including timed and sound ac-
tivated recordings). Except for Scrub play , these play- Opens a cascading submenu where you can start, stop
back commands play at standard speed, or as speeded or switch to Scrub play or Seek play, or toggle the Scrub
up or slowed down over time by adding a Time Track en- Ruler on/off. Find out more about the Scrubbing sub-
velope. The easiest way to play at a fixed faster or slower menu here .
speed is to use Transcription Toolbar .Click, or hover, on
any menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image 10.1.4 Cursor to
10.1.1 Play
10.1.6 Rescan Audio Devices
The Play submenu commands control playback in Audac-
ity. You can Start, Stop or Pause playback of the audio in Rescan for audio devices connected to your computer,
your project. and update the playback and recording dropdown menus
in Device Toolbar .
10.1.2 Record
10.1.7 Transport Options
The Record submenu commands control recording in Au-
dacity. You can Start, Stop or Pause recording in your The Transport Options submenu lets you manage and
project. You can either start a recording on your existing set various options for transport (playing and recording)
track or an a new track. in Audacity.
285
286 CHAPTER 10. TRANSPORT MENU
These commands let you move the cursor to the start or Cursor moved to the end of the previously selected re-
end of the selection, track or any adjacent Clip that you gion with the selection removed.
may have. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image
to read about that command. Skip the image
Operating on the same track selection as above, the cur- • If the cursor is between clips, this command will
sor is moved to the 1:28 mark at the end of the shorter move the cursor to the left boundary of the next clip.
selected track with the selection removed. • If the cursor is at the right edge of the last clip in the
track, this command does nothing.
10.2.5 Previous Clip Boundary Both Previous Clip Boundary and Next Clip Boundary
will scroll the display to show the cursor if the result of the
Moves the cursor position backwards to the previous clip command moves the cursor out of view.
boundary.
• If the cursor is inside a clip, but not exactly on the
left boundary, this command will move the cursor to 10.2.7 Project Start Home
the left boundary of the clip.
• If the cursor is exactly on the left boundary of a Moves the cursor to the beginning of the project. This
clip, this command will move the cursor to the right is useful if you want to play everything, or record a new
boundary of the previous clip. track starting from the beginning. Same as clicking the
Skip to Start button in Transport Toolbar .
• If the cursor is between clips, this command will
move the cursor to the right boundary of the pre-
vious clip.
10.2.8 Project End End
• If the cursor is at the left edge of the first clip in the
track, this command does nothing.
Moves the cursor to the end of the project. Same as
Both Previous Clip Boundary and Next Clip Boundary clicking the Skip to End button in Transport Toolbar .
(below) use the clips in the selected track or tracks. If no
tracks are selected, the clips in all tracks are used. < Back to: Transport Menu
These commands control playback in Audacity. You can 10.3.1 Play/Stop Space
Start, Stop or Pause playback of the audio in your
project. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image
to read about that command. Skip the image Starts and stops playback. If a region of a track is se-
lected , this command will play only that selection then
playback will stop. Otherwise, playback begins wher-
ever the editing cursor is and continues until the end of
the project is reached. Starting playback with this com-
mand is the same as clicking the Play button in Trans-
port Toolbar . When there is already playback or record-
ing (or playback or recording is paused ), this command
stops playback or recording immediately without chang-
ing the selection region or the position of the editing cur-
sor. Therefore using any play or record command after
288 CHAPTER 10. TRANSPORT MENU
stopping with "Play/Stop" will start playback or recording 10.3.3 Loop Play Shift + Space
from the same Timeline position it last started from. Stop-
ping playback with this command is the same as clicking Plays the selection over and over again. Same as holding
the Stop button in Transport Toolbar . If you want to the Shift key while clicking the Play button in Transport
set separate keyboard shortcuts for Play and Stop you Toolbar .
can do this in Keyboard Preferences .
10.3.4 Pause P
10.3.2 Play/Stop and Set Cursor X
Temporarily pauses playing or recording without losing
Starts playback exactly like "Play/Stop", but stopping
your place. Same as clicking the Pause button in
playback (or recording) sets the editing cursor, or the left
Transport Toolbar .
edge of the selection region, to the stop point so that
playback can be resumed from there. < Back to: Transport Menu
These commands enable you lot lock a play region and is indicated by a red region in the Timeline instead of the
unlock it.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image normal gray region in the Timeline. The locked region is
to read about that command. Skip the image then always used when starting playback with a play but-
ton or with Space, instead of starting from the cursor or
region position in the waveform . See Play Region Lock
on the Timeline page for details. This menu item is only
active when there is a playback region or Quick-Play re-
gion in the Timeline displaying in normal gray (unlocked)
color.
10.4.2 Unlock
10.5.2 Record New Track Shift + R Brings up the Timer Record setup dialog for scheduling
when a recording ends and optionally, when it begins.
Pressing "OK" starts the process of recording, or wait-
ing for the recording to start. For full details of the timer
recording function please see the Timer Record page.
A cascading submenu where you can start, stop or switch 10.6.1 Scrub
to Scrub play or Seek play, or toggle the Scrub Ruler
on/off.Scrubbing or Seeking is the action of moving the Selecting Scrub play will put you into Scrub Play mode.
mouse pointer right or left so as to adjust the position, Scrub play will not start until you move the cursor hor-
speed or direction of playback, listening to the audio at izontally. Scrubbing is the action of moving the mouse
the same time - a convenient way to quickly navigate the pointer right or left so as to adjust the position, speed or
waveform to find a particular event of interest. Click, or direction of playback, listening to the audio at the same
hover, on any menu item in the image to read about that time - a convenient way to quickly navigate the waveform
command. Skip the image to find a particular event of interest. Speed changes are
made by rotating the mouse wheel while scrubbing.
10.6.2 Seek
Selecting this will put you into Seek play mode. Seeking
in the audio will start once you move the cursor horizon-
tally. Seeking is similar to Scrubbing except that it is play-
back with skips, similar to using the seek button on a CD
player. Even if you move the mouse pointer a long way
from the current position of the playhead, the playhead
290 CHAPTER 10. TRANSPORT MENU
will immediately move very close to the mouse pointer, If you have turned it off you can get it displayed again by
letting you move across the audio rapidly. right-clicking in the Timeline and selecting Enable Scrub
Ruler from the dropdown menu .
This submenu lets you manage and set various options Activated Recording session. Recording will now occur
for transport (playing and recording) in Audacity.Click, or whenever the received input is above the Sound Acti-
hover, on any menu item in the image to read about that vation Level you specify (see the menu item below ).
command. Skip the image Recording will pause whenever the received input falls
below that level. Press the Stop button to stop the record-
ing session. Sound Activated Recording can be com-
bined with Timer Record to set the start and end time of
a Sound Activated recording.
10.7.1 Sound Activation Level... You can change Audacity to play and record with a fixed
head pinned to the center of the Timeline. In this mode
the head remains static and the waveforms will move as
the audio is played or recorded. Clicking on this com-
mand cause the triange button at the left of the Time-
line to change to a drawing-pin. This indicates that the
play or record head is now pinned to the center of the
Timeline and when playing or recording takes place the
waveform will move continuously under the fixed head.
Clicking on this command againg will revert to unpinned
play and record head and the drawingpin changes back
to the triangle. See this section on the Timeline page for
more details.
Sets the activation level above which Sound Activated
Recording will record.
Toggles on and off the Sound Activated Recording op- Toggles on and off the Overdub option in Recording Pref-
tion in Recording Preferences . This option can be useful erences . When turned on (indicated by the check mark
to save disk space when recording an intermittent input, in the menu item), any existing audio tracks will play
such as a call recording system. When turned on (indi- when you start recording, according to the state of their
cated by the check mark in the menu item), press the Mute/Solo buttons . Overdub is "on" by default in Audac-
Record button in Transport Toolbar to start the Sound ity.
10.7. TRANSPORT MENU: TRANSPORT OPTIONS 291
Tracks Menu
292
11.2. TRACKS MENU: ADD NEW 293
The Align Tracks submenu provides a set of commands the selected tracks in that group may become desynchro-
to help you align your selected tracks in various ways. In nized.
particular there are two very useful commands that en-
able you to align tracks end-to-end, one after the other, If a track contains multiple clips and one of the Align com-
or align them all together. Click, or hover, on any menu mands is applied to that track then all the clips move and
item in the image to read about that command. Skip the maintain their relative positions to each other within the
image track. The start of the first clip is the "start of the track"
and the end of the last clip is the "end of the track".
Note that zoom level has changed to display the entire 11.3.7 End to Selection End
project, and that the original selection has been retained.
Aligns the end of selected tracks with the end of the cur-
11.3.2 Align Together rent selection.
Note that the three tracks now start at the same time, and After doing Tracks > Align Tracks > Start to Zero, with
the start time is the average of the original start times of Move Selection with Tracks off.
the three tracks.
Aligns the start of selected tracks with the end of the cur-
rent selection.
These commands provide tools for mixing and render- into separate tracks
ing your selected tracks to a singlestereo or mono track.
2. Close the unwanted track using the X button at the
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
top left of the Track Control Panel .
about that command. Skip the image
Pans the selected audio tracks (or all tracks if none is Pans the selected audio tracks (or all tracks if none is
selected) to the extreme left. selected) to the center.
< Back to: Tracks Menu
11.5.2 Right
11.6.2 by Name
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Tracks (on a Mac Au- Tracks Preferences.Click on any other Preferences sec-
dacity > Preferences > Tracks ) tions in the above image to read about those Prefer-
ences.
11.7.1 Display
setting enabled. Turning it off: draws a vertical line from the track center line
to the sample dot, giving a clearer impression
– may prevent interrupted playback or recording
of the relative amplitude of the samples. As
on slower computers
seen in the images below, when zoomed out
– lets you drag the horizontal scrollbar at the close to the minimum for a stem plot, the hor-
bottom of the window to a new position then izontal distance between sample dots may be
restart playback from there more uneven than seen with the connect dots
default. Uneven spacing is due to "aliasing",
– halts Scrubbing and Seeking playback when but zooming in further will equalize the spac-
the playhead reaches either edge of the visi- ing whether choosing Connect dots or Stem
ble project plot.
– prevents losing sight of a selection edge when – Connect dots: This is alternative setting
making loops yields a waveform where each sample dot is
– makes it easier to listen repeatedly from a par- connected to the next sample by a line drawn
ticular start point without its visible surround- between them.
ings changing.
This preference may also be turned on and off dur-
ing playback using the Timeline right-click menu .
• Auto-fit track height: Tracks will be automatically re-
sized to fit in the vertical space of the project win-
dow if possible. All tracks that have not been col-
lapsed using the Track Collapse Button or Collapse
All Tracks menu item are resized so that each sep-
arate waveform has the same height. Accordingly
mono tracks will have the same height as each • Default audio track name: The default name that
other and stereo tracks will have the same height Audacity will use for new audio tracks other than
as each other (twice the height of the mono tracks). imported files. The Audacity default name is "Audio
Track".
• Default view mode: Choose the default view for all
newly-created audio tracks. The choices are the • Show audio track name as overlay: When this is
same as those available in the Audio Track Drop- enabled the audio track name is displayed superim-
down Menu . posed in yellow at top left of all audio tracks. Note
that the track name is always shown in the Track
• Display samples: This setting changes how Wave- Control Panel but will be truncated if the name is
form and Waveform dB views are displayed. It only too long to fit.
affects the appearance of the waveform when you
are so far zoomed in that you can see the individ-
ual sample dots. At lower zoom levels it makes no
difference.
– Stem plot: This is the default setting which
Chapter 12
View Menu
View Menu has commands that determine the amount 12.1.3 Skip To
of detail you see in all the tracks in the project window.
It also lets you show or hide Toolbars and some addi-
tional windows such as Undo History .Click, or hover, on
any menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
12.1.1 Zoom
299
300 CHAPTER 12. VIEW MENU
If you discard Undo levels you can reclaim the disk space 12.1.8 Show Clipping
used by the project. To save the most space (removing
ability to undo or redo any past edits), select the bot- Click this menu item to turn display of clipped samples
tom Action in the list using the mouse or keyboard Up on and off - a check mark in the item indicates that dis-
or Down arrow, increase "Levels to Discard" to the high- play is turned on. If turned on (the default is off), individ-
est possible number then click "Discard". You can also ual or multiple clipped samples display as a red vertical
easily jump back and forth between editing steps by se- line when in one of the waveform views . A sample is dis-
lecting the entries in the window. This can be quicker played as clipped if it touches or exceeds 0 dB and so
than choosing Undo and Redo multiple times from the touches or exceeds the volume envelope defined by +1.0
Edit Menu . See Undo, Redo and History for details to - 1.0 on the vertical scale to left of the waveform. A
on using the Undo History window. run of four or more consecutive clipped samples will also
trigger the red clipping indicator in Meter Toolbar . A solid
block of red in the waveform will almost certainly indicate
multiple or extended runs of lost audio information above
0 dB, resulting in severe distortion. Avoid clipped sam-
12.1.5 Karaoke... ples where possible, for example by setting the recording
level correctly. You may turn "Show Clipping" off if it be-
Karaoke... shows a bouncing ball that follows text as haves sluggishly on slower machines.
audio plays. The Karaoke... command is enabled when-
ever you have at least one label track . If you have multi-
ple label tracks, it uses only the first one. For more details
see the Karaoke page.
at the top of the monitor to show the menu bar and win- COMMAND + / for "Full screen on/off" which performs
dow buttons then access View > Exit Full Screen or click the same full screen function.
the green window button. The Mac keyboard shortcut
Ctrl + CloverLeaf + F to toggle full screen does not work
in Audacity and so does not appear alongside the En- "Full screen on/off" is not interchangeable with the
ter / Exit Full Screen menu items. Separate "App Short- menu item or full screen button. Thus the Audacity short-
cuts" for "Enter Full Screen" and "Exit Full Screen" can cut cannot exit full screen entered by other methods, and
be added for Audacity in the Mac Keyboard Preferences, the other methods cannot exit full screen entered by us-
but it is probably easier to use Audacity’s own shortcut ing the Audacity shortcut.
These commands enable you to readily skip the cursor level. This is useful if you are zoomed far in at the left
position to the beginning or end of your current selection. edge of the selection and then wish to view the right
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read edge.which may be currently off screen. Also if you have
about that command. Skip the image lost sight of the selection entirely by scrolling too far, ei-
ther this or the companion command "Go to Selection
Start" ( above ) will always bring the selection back on
screen. Tips for usage of Selection Start and Selec-
tion End:
• Using either command after zooming in or out pro-
vides a keyboard method to zoom in or out on a se-
lection edge. To enable the keyboard shortcuts for
these commands go to the Keyboard Preferences
page and set the Defaults to Full. This is other-
wise possible only by Ctrl and mouse wheel scroll
while the mouse pointer is positioned at either se-
lection edge.
12.2.1 Selection Start Ctrl + [ • In some cases. either command may have no effect
or the selection edge may not move fully to center if
Attempts to move the left edge of the current selection the selection is over to left or right so that the Time-
to the center of the screen, without changing the zoom line position cannot move sufficiently. For exam-
level. This is useful if you are zoomed far in at the right ple, a selection wholly to left of the waveform cen-
edge of the selection and then wish to view the left edge, ter point cannot move if the visible left edge of the
which may be currently off screen. Also if you have lost waveform starts at time zero. If "Enable scrolling
sight of the selection entirely by scrolling too far, either left of zero" is enabled in Tracks Behaviors Pref-
this or the companion command "Selection End" (below) erences then it will always be possible to scroll the
will always bring the selection back on screen. display so the cursor or selection edge is at the cen-
ter of the track display.
< Back to: View Menu
12.2.2 Selection End Ctrl + ]
Toolbars provide quick access to many functions in Au- 12.3.3 Tools Toolbar
dacity. In some cases the functions provided by a tool-
bar are available only through that toolbar. Other than
the Spectral Selection Toolbar and the Scrub Toolbar , all
toolbars are enabled by default. If your desired toolbar
is not visible, choose View > Toolbars and click to put a
checkmark by the toolbar you wish to enable.
• The Meter toolbars are a special case. You may • Chooses various tools for selection, volume adjust-
have one or both of the separate Recording and ment, zooming and time-shifting of audio.
Playback Meter toolbars visible (both are visible by
default). Alternatively you can have only the Com-
bined Meter Toolbar visible (which displays record- 12.3.4 Recording Meter Toolbar
ing and playback levels in a single meter).
12.3.2 Transport Toolbar • Cut, copy, paste, trim audio, silence audio, undo,
redo, four zoom tools.
• Plays audio at a slower or faster speed than nor- of Selection Toolbar is at the bottom of the main Au-
mal, affecting pitch. dacity window, thus it is not visible in the Toolbars
image at the top of this page.
These commands help you to fit your project to the 12.4.1 Fit to Width Ctrl + F
screen horizontally and vertically. Click, or hover, on any
menu item in the image to read about that command. Zooms out until the entire project just fits in the width of
Skip the image the project window.
mono tracks with considerable space underneath them 12.4.4 Expand Collapsed Tracks Ctrl +
you can use this command to expand each track to fill Shift + X
half the available vertical space. If you want tracks to
automatically fit the vertical space without the need to Expands all tracks that were collapsed using the Col-
use the Fit Vertically command, enable Automatically fit lapse button or Collapse All Tracks menu item to the
tracks vertically zoomed in Tracks Preferences . height the tracks had before their last collapse.
The Zoom commands enable you to control the amount ways be possible for the zoom in or zoom out com-
of audio, longer or shorter periods of time, that is visible mands to place the editing cursor or selection at the
on your screen. See Also: Zooming for details about center of the track display.
other ways to zoom in and out, for example, using the
magnifier icons on the edit toolbar. Click, or hover, on
any menu item in the image to read about that command. 12.5.1 Zoom In Ctrl + 1
Skip the image
• View > Zoom > Zoom In: Doubles the current zoom
level.
Zooms in on the horizontal axis of the audio, displaying
more detail over a shorter length of time. You can also
use the Zoom tool from the Tools Toolbar to zoom in on
a particular part of the window.
Zooms out, displaying less detail over a greater length of lection just fits in the window.
time.
Zooms in or out so that the selected audio fills the width
of the project window. Its most useful purpose is to
zoom in when the selection is only a small part of the
12.5.4 Zoom to Selection Ctrl + E visible waveform. If there is a region of audio selected
and it is not visible on the screen, the Zoom to Selection
• View > Zoom > Zoom to Selection: If you have au- command will move the selection to fill the track display.
dio selected, this zooms and scrolls so that the se- < Back to: View Menu
Chapter 13
Effects
Audacity includes many built-in effects and also lets port real-time preview - you can change the effect
you use a wide range of plug-in effects. You can settings while listening then press Apply to apply
download many free plug-ins for Audacity from our web- the effect to the waveform.
site. Plug-ins always appear underneath the divider in
the Effect menu. Released builds of Audacity include
sample Nyquist and/or LADSPA effects. Effects in the Effect menu that do not support real-
time preview will appear grayed out when playing or
recording.
306
13.2. EFFECT MENU: AUDACITY 307
13.1.4 Audacity built-in effects Mac and Linux. Please see the LADSPA section of the
Download page on the Audacity Website for more details
Audacity’s built-in effects (those that appear in the appli- and links. LADSPA effects support real-time preview
cation irrespective of the contents of your Audacity and . They do not support import/export of presets but do
other "Plug-Ins" folders) are above the divider in the Ef- support saving presets for use in Audacity only. A few
fect menu. Built-in effects support saving of user presets LADSPA plug-ins have an "Effect Output" section which
but do not yet support real-time preview or import/export is populated after the effect is applied. Find out more
of presets from/to other machines. Find out more about about the ’LADSPA’ submenu for plug-in effects here .
the ’Audacity’ submenu for built-in effects here . The following effect classes: LV2 and VST are always
third-party plug-ins added by the user.Audio Units (Mac
only), are added by the operating system, macOS, on
13.1.5 Nyquist effects Apple Mac computers.
Audacity’s built-in effects (those that appear in the appli- Change the speed of a selection, also changing its pitch.
cation irrespective of the contents of your Audacity and
other "Plug-Ins" folders) are above the divider in the Ef-
fect menu. Most of the built-in effects (and most Nyquist
effect plug-ins shipped with Audacity) have a Preview but- Change Tempo...
ton. This allows you to listen to how the first six sec-
onds (by default) of the selected audio would sound if Change the tempo and length (duration) of a selection
you pressed OK to apply the effect. The preview length without changing its pitch.
can be changed on the Playback tab of Preferences .
All selected tracks are previewed irrespective of whether
the tracks are muted or soloed . This is because the ef-
fect is applied to the selected audio. If Preview does not Classic Filters...
sound quite as you want, adjust the controls of the effect
and Preview again.Built-in effects support saving of user Provides three different types of filters which together
presets but do not yet support real-time preview or im- emulate the vast majority of analog filters, and provides
port/export of presets from/to other machines.Most of the useful tools for analysis and measurement. Classic Fil-
ters is not loaded into the Effect Menu by default but you
effects that are included with Audacity have a help can use Add / Remove Plug-ins... from the Effect Menu
button in the bottom left corner. Clicking on it will take to load it if required.
you to help in the manual about that effect. The titles
below are also links to more detailed information about
each effect.
Click Removal...
Compressor...
Auto Duck...
Compresses the dynamic range by two alternative
methods. The default " RMS " method makes the louder
Reduces (ducks) the volume of one or more tracks when-
parts softer, but leaves the quieter audio alone. The al-
ever the volume of a specified "control" track reaches a
ternative "peaks" method makes the entire audio louder,
particular level. Typically used to make a music track
but amplifies the louder parts less than the quieter parts.
softer whenever speech in a commentary track is heard.
Make-up gain can be applied to either method, making
the result as loud as possible without clipping , but not
changing the dynamic range further.
Bass and Treble...
Echo... Paulstretch...
Repeats the selected audio again and again, normally Use Paulstretch only for an extreme time-stretch or "sta-
softer each time. The delay time between each repeat is sis" effect. This may be useful for synthesizer pad
fixed, with no pause in between each repeat. For a more sounds, identifying performance glitches or just creating
configurable echo effect with a variable delay time and interesting aural textures. Use Change Tempo or Sliding
pitch-changed echoes, see Delay... Time Scale rather than Paulstretch for tasks like slowing
down a song to a "practice" tempo.
Equalization...
Phaser...
Adjusts the volume levels of particular frequencies.
The name "Phaser" comes from "Phase Shifter", be-
cause it works by combining phase-shifted signals with
the original signal. The movement of the phase-shifted
Fade In signals is controlled using a Low Frequency Oscillator
(LFO).
Applies a fade-in to the selected audio, so that the am-
plitude changes gradually from silence at the start of the
selection to the original amplitude at the end of the selec- Repair
tion. The shape of the fade is linear . The rapidity of the
fade-in depends entirely on the length of the selection it
Fix one particular short click, pop or other glitch no more
is applied to.
than 128 samples long.
Fade Out
Repeat...
Applies a fade-out to the selected audio, so that the am- Repeats the selection the specified number of times.
plitude changes gradually from the original amplitude at
the start of the selection down to silence at the end of the
selection. The shape of the fade is linear . The rapid-
ity of the fade-out depends entirely on the length of the Reverb...
selection it is applied to.
Adds ambience or a "hall effect".
Invert
Reverse
Flips the audio samples upside-down. This normally
does not affect the sound of the audio at all. It is oc- Reverses the selected audio, so that it will sound as if it
casionally useful for vocal removal. is playing from the end to the start.
Reduces constant background noise such as fans, tape Allows you to make a continuous change to the tempo
noise, or hums. It will not work for removing talking or and/or pitch of a selection by choosing initial and/or final
music in the background. change values.
Time Tracks can be used to bend tempo more flexibly
(also affecting pitch) using Envelope Tool .
Normalize...
Use the Normalize effect to set the maximum amplitude Truncate Silence...
of a track, equalize the amplitudes of the left and right
channels of a stereo track and optionally remove any DC Automatically try to find and eliminate audible silences.
Offset from the track. Don’t use with faded audio.
310 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Wahwah... the frequency spectrum . The phase of the left and right
channels is automatically adjusted when given a stereo
Rapid tone quality variations, like that guitar sound so track, so that the effect seems to travel across the speak-
popular in the 1970’s. Wahwah uses a moving bandpass ers.
filter to create its sound. A low frequency oscillator (LFO)
is used to control the movement of the filter throughout < Back to: Effect Menu
Audio Unit (AU) is a system-level plug-in architecture pro- between computers. To export a saved User Preset, se-
vided on Mac computers.It supports real-time preview
.Import/export of presets is supported (see the descrip-
tion below of how it works) and the saving of presets for lect Export... from the Manage menu in the effect
use in Audacity only. dialog which brings up the following dialog:
Save Preset...
lect Save Preset... from the Manage menu in the Select the user preset(s) you want to export then click
effect dialog which brings up the following dialog: OK to export each selected preset to a file. If there is
only one preset in the list you must still select it, or noth-
ing will be exported.
Import...
Export...
or more presets does not load new settings into the ef- • Latency Compensation: This setting (enabled by
fect. You must select one of the imported presets from default) compensates for waveform delay caused
by Audio Unit effects which preload audio data to
a buffer. Compensation may not work in all cases,
User Presets... in the Manage menu to load its and for it to work, any compensation or latency re-
settings into the effect. porting settings in the effect itself must be enabled.
If compensation fails or if this Audacity setting is
unchecked, effects that buffer audio will insert si-
13.3.3 Audio Unit Effect Options lence at the start of the processed selection and
remove a corresponding amount of audio from the
end of the selection. Enabling or disabling compen-
sation is effective immediately.
In the effect’s dialog, click the Manage button then
choose Options... to bring up the dialog illustrated • User Interface: The "Full" setting, enabled by de-
below. When you change the options in this dialog, the fault, allows most Audio Unit effects to display a
changes apply only to the current effect that’s open. All graphical (instead of a plain text) interface. If you
other Audio Unit effects will remain at the default options change this setting you must close the settings di-
shown below until you change their options. alog, then close and reopen the effect to see the
change.
< Back to: Effect Menu
LV2 is a more advanced evolution of the LADSPA plug- fects do not allow directly embedding their interface into
in architecture. Note that LV2 effects in Audacity cannot our effect dialog, so those effects will only show a textual
yet display a full graphical interface. LV2 effects support interface in Audacity. Some LV2 effects require features
real-time preview . They do not support import/export of that are not yet supported in Audacity, so display an error
presets but do support saving presets for use in Audacity message when applying the effect.
only. Most LV2 effects that have a graphical interface will
show that interface by default in Audacity. Some LV2 ef- < Back to: Effect Menu
Nyquist plug-ins provide most of the optional effects un- Nyquist effect has an interface, its description page (ac-
derneath the divider in the Effect menu. They are also cessed by the links below) shows an image of the inter-
used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio gen- face and its default settings.Click, or hover, on any menu
erators and analysis tools . A wide range of addi- item in the image to read about that command. Skip the
tional Nyquist effect, generation and analysis plug-ins image
can be obtained from Download Nyquist Plug-ins on our
Wiki.Nyquist effects support saving of user presets but do
not yet support real-time preview or import/export of pre-
sets from/to other machines.Where a built-in or shipped
13.6. EFFECT MENU: NYQUIST 313
Adjustable Fade...
Clip Fix...
13.6.2 Nyquist Workbench Limiter passes signals below a specified input level un-
affected or gently reduced, while preventing the peaks of
For advanced users who can compile Audacity, Nyquist stronger signals from exceeding this threshold. Limiting
Workbench gives the ability to run arbitrary Nyquist code is a type of dynamic range compression. Mastering en-
in Audacity from a graphical IDE (Integrated Develop- gineers often use limiting combined with make-up gain
ment Environment). See Nyquist Workbench in the Wiki to increase the perceived loudness of an audio recording
for details. during the audio mastering process.
314 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Passes frequencies below its cutoff frequency and atten- Produces a smooth and musical sounding fade out, by
uates frequencies above its cutoff frequency; this can be applying a sinusoidal fade with a progressive low pass
used to reduce high pitched noise. filter from full spectrum at the start of the selection to 100
Hz at the end.
Notch Filter...
Tremolo...
Greatly attenuate ("notch out") a narrow frequency band. Modulates the volume of the selection at the depth and
This is a good way to reduce mains hum or a whistle con- rate selected in the dialog. The same as the tremolo ef-
fined to a specific frequency with minimal damage to the fect familiar to guitar and keyboard players.
remainder of the audio.
VST effects support real-time preview .They support Type a name for the preset then click OK after which the
import/export of presets (where the particular effect sup- saved preset will appear in the "User Presets" list in the
ports this) and support saving presets for use in Audacity Manage menu.
only.
Export...
13.7.1 Installing VST effects
Presets for VST effects are exported to a file. A presets
For detailed instructions on installing VST plug-ins for Au- file lets you move settings for a particular effect between
dacity see: Windows , Mac or Linux computers on any operating platform that supports that
Real-time preview enables you to change effect set- effects, almost all of which will support real-time preview.
tings while playing and listening to the result in real-time,
rather than having to preview, tweak settings then pre-
view again. A real-time preview effect therefore includes
Play/Stop, Skip Backward and Skip Forward buttons in-
13.8.1 Real-time preview differences
stead of a Preview button. Currently, the only effects
shipped with Audacity that support real-time preview are An effect that supports real-time preview is different from
Phaser , SC4 and Wahwah , but you can download ad- regular effects in the following ways.
ditional LADSPA , LV2 , VST and Audio Unit (for Mac)
• It can be opened when audio is playing or paused.
13.8. REAL-TIME PREVIEW OF EFFECTS 317
• It can be opened even when no audio is selected , – Save As... Select this option to save the cur-
as long as the track is selected. rent settings as a user preset.
• One regular effect can be opened and applied while – Import... Select this option to import a pre-
a real-time preview effect is open but not playing. sets file (or multiple files for Audio Unit effects
on Mac).
• Real-time preview settings can be changed while
audio is playing. – Export... Select this option to export a pre-
sets file (or multiple files for Audio Unit ef-
• When in Graphical Mode, live meters or graphs fects on Mac). Export lets you share presets
should respond when audio is playing. for this effect with other users on your com-
• You can start and stop audio playback, change the puter or to move them to another computer.
selection, apply gain or pan to tracks or Mute or Many VST effects support import and export
Solo them while the effect dialog is open. You can of named factory presets in a single FXB file,
use the shortcuts Alt + F6 or Alt + Shift + F6 (use but LADSPA and LV2 effects do not support
the Option key instead of Alt on Mac) to move for- import and export of presets at all. Please
ward or backward respectively between the effect click the links in the Options... section below
and the main project window. to see a full explanation of presets features for
each type of real-time preview effect.
• A selection must be present to apply the effect.
– Options... Displays the options dialog for this
• You will hear a preview of applying the effect to the type of effect. See the sections for each type
selected track(s). Unselected tracks will not have of effect for a description of the options avail-
the effect applied to them but unlike in regular ef- able.
fects, unselected tracks will still be heard unless
you use the Mute/Solo state to silence them. * LADSPA Options
• The effect may be applied without closing the effect. * LV2 Options
• User presets may be saved and loaded. As long as * VST Options
you apply the effect, changes you make to an ef- * Audio Unit Options
fect’s settings will be restored for use next time you
launch Audacity. – About: Displays the effect type, effect name,
version, vendor, and description.
• Play/Stop: Click this button to begin playback. It
13.8.2 Real-Time preview with graphical in- changes to the Stop button . Click it again to stop
terface playback. If there is no selection in the track(s),
restarting playback with this button will restart from
the original cursor point, just like pressing Play in
When you open an effect that supports real-time preview
Transport Toolbar . However if there is a selection
with graphical interface it will have these control icons at
you can use the real-time preview Play/Stop button
the bottom of the effect dialog.
as a Pause button, pressing Stop to stop playback
then Play to resume from where you stopped play-
back inside the selection.
If you stop playback inside a selection with this but-
ton then do want to restart playback from the start
of the selection, either click the "Skip Backward"
button (see below) followed by the real-time pre-
view Play button, or use the Play button in Transport
• Manage Effect menu: Toolbar in the main project window.
– User Presets: If any user presets exist for this • Skip Backward: When playback is stopped,
effect this menu will list them. Select one of clicking this button will cause the next playback in
the user presets to load it into the effect. the effect to start from the start of the selection.
During playback, each click of this button will per-
– Factory Presets: If any factory presets exist form a short seek back . You cannot seek back
for this effect this menu will list them. Select behind the editing cursor or behind the start of the
one of the factory presets to load it into the selection.
effect.
• Skip Forward: When playback is stopped, click-
– Delete Preset: Select this option to delete a ing this button will cause the next playback in the ef-
previously saved user preset. fect to start from the end of the selection. You can
318 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
use this to compare subsequent audio which you As with the graphical interface, a single button starts and
may not want to apply the effect to. During play- stops playback, reading Start Playback when there is
back, each click of this button will perform a short no playback and Stop Playback when there is playback.
seek forward . Text-based controls and textual interface will display au-
tomatically even if graphical interface is chosen if the ef-
• Enable: This checkbox contains a checkmark by
fect does not provide a graphical interface of its own.
default Enable, which enables the effect.
On Windows only, you can use the following single key
Remove the checkmark Enable to disable the ef- presses to operate the effect whenever focus is in either
fect (also known as bypassing the effect). Dis- the graphical or text-based interface:
abling makes the audio play as if the effect was
closed and the effect’s controls will no longer • M to open the Manage menu, P to Start or Stop
change the audio. Disabling and enabling is a con- playback, B to skip backward, F to skip forward, E
venient way to compare the "dry" (non-affected) to enable/disable the effect.
sound with the "wet" (affected) sound while it plays
in real-time.
• Close Click this button to close the effect dialog. 13.8.4 Notes and Limitations
Closing the effect without pressing "Apply" (below)
does not save the current settings of the effect for • Currently, real-time preview does not compensate
use next time you launch Audacity. for the latency many plug-ins introduce in order to
provide smooth processing of audio. Real-time pre-
• Apply Click this button to apply the effect to the se-
view therefore may have small gaps in the audio,
lected audio and save the current settings of the
or timing artifacts may be audible when preview-
effect for next time you launch Audacity. The effect
ing multiple tracks. However by default Audacity
dialog will remain open after the effect is applied.
compensates for latency when applying the effect
(unless you disable compensation in the options for
the effect). Therefore if you hear latency problems
13.8.3 Real-Time preview with text-based in real-time preview, apply the effect and close it,
controls then listen to the result. If you do not like the result
you can simply use the Edit > Undo command, or
its shortcut Ctrl + Z(on Mac CloverLeaf + Z), open
If you use the Manage button then Options... the effect and try a different setting.
to disable graphical interface, the Manage button and • So that real-time preview plays how the audio will
the Real-Time Preview playback controls display as text- sound immediately after applying the effect, any ex-
based buttons instead, as in the below image: isting volume envelopes or Time Tracks and the po-
sitions of gain or pan sliders are applied before pre-
view is heard.
This page is a quick index to the Effects, Generators and see Keyboard Preferences . See this page for tips on
Analyzers shipped with Audacity. You may also add new Navigating Effects without using a mouse.
plug-ins in various popular formats.
• An Effect changes the audio in some way. When playing, recording or paused, the Effect
• A Generator creates new audio, either in an exist- menu will appear grayed out, because changes to the
ing track or in a new track. audio data cannot be made until you press the Stop
button .
• An Analyze tool performs analysis on a selection of
audio - it does not change the audio and does not
create new audio.
13.9.1 Alphabetical Index of Effects , Gen-
Although by default, no keyboard shortcuts are provided
for most Effect, Generate or Analyze commands, it is erators and Analyzers
possible to set up your own shortcut for any of these
commands. For instructions on how to do this please Adjustable Fade
13.9. INDEX OF EFFECTS, GENERATORS AND ANALYZERS 319
Contrast Chirp
Limiter Fade In
Repeat Phaser
Spectral edit parametric EQ Silence
Amplify Vocoder
Crossfade Clips Classic Filters
Low Pass Filter Fade Out
Reverb Plot Spectrum
Spectral edit shelves Silence Finder
Auto Duck Wahwah
Crossfade Tracks Click Removal
Noise Find Clipping
Reverse Pluck
Studio Fade Out Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift
Bass and Treble Clip Fix
Delay High Pass Filter
Noise Reduction Regular Interval Labels
Rhythm Track Sound Finder
Tone Compressor
Beat Finder Invert
Distortion Repair
Normalize Spectral edit multi tool Where an effect, generator or an-
Risset Drum alyzer has settings, its description page (accessed by the
links below) shows an image of the interface and its de-
Tremolo fault settings.
Change Pitch
DTMF Tones 13.9.2 Add / Remove Plug-ins...
Notch Filter
Selecting this option from the Effect Menu (or the Gener-
Sample Data Export
ate Menu or Analyze Menu ) takes you to a dialog where
Truncate Silence you can enable or disable particular Effects, Generators
and Analyzers in Audacity. Even if you do not add any
Change Speed
third-party plug-ins, you can use this to make the Effect
Echo menu shorter or longer as required. For details see Add
/ Remove Effects, Generators and Analyzers . By default
Nyquist Prompt all the built-in effects, with the exception of Classic Filters,
Sample Data Import are enabled in Audacity. Additional plug-ins can also be
loaded into Audacity:
Vocal Reduction and Isolation
• Installing Nyquist plug-ins on Windows , Mac or
Change Tempo Linux
Equalization – See also this list of downloadable Nyquist
Paulstretch plug-ins
mance glitches or just creating interesting aural tex- move mains hum or a whistle confined to a specific
tures. Use Change Tempo or Sliding Time Scale frequency with minimal damage to the remainder of
rather than Paulstretch for tasks like slowing down the audio.
a song to a "practice" tempo.
• Repair : Fix one particular short click, pop or other
• Phaser : The name "Phaser" comes from "Phase glitch no more than 128 samples long.
Shifter", because it works by combining phase-
shifted signals with the original signal. The move- • Spectral edit multi tool : When the selected track
ment of the phase-shifted signals is controlled us- is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view, ap-
ing a Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO). plies a notch filter , high pass filter or low pass
filter according to the spectral selection made.
• Spectral edit parametric EQ : When the selected This effect can also be used to change the audio
track is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view quality as an alternative to using Equalization .
and the spectral selection has a center frequency
and an upper and lower boundary, performs the
specified band cut or band boost . This can Make the sound faster, slower, lower pitched or
be used as an alternative to Equalization or may higher pitched
also be useful to repair damaged audio by reduc-
ing frequency spikes or boosting other frequencies
• Change Pitch : Change the pitch of a selection
to mask spikes.
without changing its tempo.
• Spectral edit shelves : When the selected track
is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view, ap- • Change Speed : Change the speed of a selection,
plies either a low- or high-frequency shelving filter also changing its pitch.
or both filters, according to the spectral selection • Change Tempo : Change the tempo and length
made. This can be used as an alternative to Equal- (duration) of a selection without changing its pitch.
ization or may also be useful to repair damaged au-
dio by reducing frequency spikes or boosting other • Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift : This effect al-
frequencies to mask spikes. lows you to make a continuous change to the tempo
and/or pitch of a selection by choosing initial and/or
• Tremolo : Modulates the volume of the selection at final change values.
the depth and rate selected in the dialog. The same
as the tremolo effect familiar to guitar and keyboard • Paulstretch : Use Paulstretch only for an extreme
players. time-stretch or "stasis" effect, This may be use-
ful for synthesizer pad sounds, identifying perfor-
• Vocoder : Synthesizes audio (usually a voice) in mance glitches or just creating interesting aural tex-
the left channel of a stereo track with a carrier wave tures. Use Change Tempo or Sliding Time Scale
(typically white noise) in the right channel to pro- rather than Paulstretch for tasks like slowing down
duce a modified version of the left channel. Vocod- a song to a "practice" tempo.
ing a normal voice with white noise will produce a
robot-like voice for special effects. • Truncate Silence : Automatically try to find and
eliminate audible silences. Don’t use with faded au-
• Wahwah : Rapid tone quality variations, like that dio.
guitar sound so popular in the 1970’s.
use it to increase reverberation in stereo audio that • Tone : Generates one of four different tone wave-
sounds too "dry" or "close". forms: Sine, Square, Sawtooth or Square (no
alias), and a frequency between 1 Hz and half the
For details of the underlying principles of delay and re-
current project rate.
verb effects please see this page in the Wiki.
information may be added as a "header" at the top gion labels for areas of sound that are separated by
of the file. silence.
• Regular Interval Labels : Places labels in a long • Beat Finder : Attempts to place labels at beats
track so as to divide it into smaller, equally sized which are much louder than the surrounding audio.
segments. It’s a fairly rough and ready tool, and will not nec-
essarily work well on a typical modern pop music
• Silence Finder : Divides up a track by placing
track with compressed dynamic range . If you
point labels inside areas of silence.
do not get enough beats detected, try reducing the
• Sound Finder : Divides up a track by placing re- "Threshold Percentage" setting.
You can download and install plug-ins to add extra func- sions.
tionality to Audacity. Plug-ins can give you extra effects,
1. If it does not already exist, create a folder called
or more audio generation and analysis capabilities. Au-
.audacity-files in your home directory. Note that
dacity on GNU/Linux supports a large number of Nyquist
the dot as the first character indicates that this
, LADSPA , LV2 and VAMP effects. VST effects are now
will be a hidden folder, so if using a graphical
supported in Audacity on Linux and can be installed as
file browser, enable viewing hidden files (for most
described at VST Effects . However native Linux VST
graphical file browsers, this is an option in the
effects are quite rare. Consequently, if a specific VST ef-
"View" menu).
fect is required on Linux, it may be necessary to employ
workarounds such as running Audacity for Windows in a 2. Add a sub-directory to .audacity-files and name
virtual machine. it plug-ins. The location of this folder may be
Audacity supports 64-bit effects in VST, LADSPA and described as ~/.audacity-file/plug-ins, where "~/"
VAMP format on 64-bit Linux systems (conversely, 32- means your home folder.
bit plug-ins in those formats will not load into Audacity on 3. Copy or move the Nyquist plug-in file (with ny
64-bit Linux). or NY file name extension ) into the ~/.audacity-
files/plug-ins folder.
13.10.1 Installing Nyquist plug-ins • If the plug-in includes a help file or help folder,
that file should usually be copied or moved to
the same location as the NY file. Check the
Nyquist plug-ins provide most of the optional effects un-
plug-in documentation for details.
derneath the divider in the Effect menu . They are also
used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio gen- 4. To enable the new effects so they are available in
erators and analysis tools . A wide range of additional the Audacity menu, use the Plug-in Manager: Ef-
Nyquist effect, generator and analysis plug-ins can be fects, Generators and Analyzers dialog.
obtained from Download Nyquist Plug-ins on our Wiki. If
the plug-in is downloaded as a ZIP archive, the contents
of the package must be extracted. This can usually be System-wide installation
achieved with the command:
unzip file.zip -d destination_folder This will install the plug-in for all users and requires root
permissions.
Alternatively, most Linux distributions include a GUI ap-
plication for extracting ZIP archives. 1. Copy or move the Nyquist plug-in file (with ny or NY
file name extension ) into:
• ~/.vst (plug-ins can be added here with standard The LADSPA plug-in architecture which was originally
user permissions) developed on Linux. Audacity supports both LV2 and
• LIBDIR/vst (where LIBDIR is defined at build time) LADSPA effects on GNU/Linux. You can download and
install a set of over 90 LADSPA plug-ins for all operating
• /usr/lib/vst systems. You can then choose which LADSPA plug-ins to
enable in the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and
• /usr/local/lib/vst
Analyzers dialog. LADSPA plug-ins can be installed for
• ~/.audacity-data/Plug-Ins (deprecated). all users by putting the plug-ins into the Audacity "Plug-
Ins" folder:
All the directories where you can place VST plug-ins are
searched recursively, which means that plug-ins that are • /usr/share/audacity/plug-ins if Audacity was in-
inside their own folder in that directory should still be stalled from a repository package
found by Audacity. You can install new VST effects into
• /usr/local/share/audacity/plug-ins if you com-
Audacity by using the Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins...
piled Audacity from source code.
menu item. This opens the Plug-in Manager: Effects,
Generators and Analyzers dialog where you can select These locations are usually set as read-only, so the plug-
and enable the new effects then click OK to load them. ins will need to be copied as root (for example, by issuing
Next time you launch Audacity the enabled effect(s) will an appropriate root command in the terminal, or by us-
be cached and you will not need to re-enable them. ing the terminal to open a file manager application with
13.10. INSTALLING EFFECT, GENERATOR AND ANALYZER PLUG-INS ON LINUX 325
root permissions). To enable the new effects so they are add a new LV2 effect, place its complete ".lv2" folder
available in the Audacity menu, use the Plug-in Manager: (not the files alone) at the top level of any of the following
Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog. Audacity can searched for locations:
also load LADSPA plug-ins from other system and user
• ~/.lv2
locations including:
• /usr/local/lib/lv2 or /usr/local/lib64/lv2
• All paths specified by the LADSPA_PATH environ-
ment variable • /usr/lib/lv2 or /usr/lib64/lv2
• ~/.ladspa (plug-ins can be added to here with stan- Search paths where Audacity looks for LV2 plug-ins may
dard user permissions) also be specified by setting the LV2_PATH environment
variable. The path listed below is legitimate.
• /usr/local/lib/ladspa
• $HOME/.lv2:/usr/local/lib/lv2:/usr/lib/lv2 (as-
• /usr/lib/ladspa suming $PREFIX is /usr/local as it should be by
• $LIBDIR/ladspa default)
• ~/.audacity-data/Plug-Ins (deprecated). Then use Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins... to enable the
LV2 effects and load them into Audacity, For details see
Audacity installed from a repository package or compiled Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyzers .
from source should automatically find LADSPA plug-ins
installed in /usr/lib/ladspa. This may not be the case if
you are compiling older source code. If necessary you 13.10.5 Installing VAMP plug-ins
can set an environment variable to indicate to Audacity
where LADSPA plug-ins are installed. For Debian-based
VAMP plug-ins are usually for analyzing audio so will ap-
distributions this can be done by entering the following
pear under Audacity’s Analyze Menu . You can do in-
code at the command prompt (change <user> to your ac-
teresting things like attempt to track beats, note pitches,
count username):
chords or frequencies. Any VAMP plug-ins whose output
export LADSPA_PATH=$LADSPA_PATH:/home/<user>/.ladspa:/usr/local/lib/ladspa:/usr/lib/ladspa
is suitable for a label track should work in Audacity on
If you wish this path to be set each time you boot, the GNU/Linux. To add a new VAMP analysis tool, add the
LADSPA_PATH environment variable may be added to plug-in’s DLL, DYLIB or SO file and any supplied cate-
~/.profile or this file may be created if it does not exist. gory or RDF files to any of the VAMP search locations
An example of how to add the LADSPA_PATH environ- then enable the tool in the Plug-in Manager: Effects,
ment variable: Generators and Analyzers dialog. VAMP plug-ins may
be installed in
LADSPA_PATH=$LADSPA_PATH:/home/<user>/.ladspa:/usr/local/lib/ladspa:/usr/lib/ladspaexport
LADSPA_PATH For OpenSuse 64, LADSPA plug-ins may • $HOME/vamp
be found in /usr/lib64/ladspa. This path can be set by
• $HOME/.vamp
adding the following line to your /etc/environment file:
• /usr/local/lib/vamp
LADSPA_PATH=/usr/lib64/ladspa LV2 and VAMP plug-
ins cannot be placed in the Audacity "Plug-Ins" folder • /usr/lib/vamp.
or your .audacity-files folder. LV2 plug-ins should
Alternatively the VAMP_PATH environment variable may
be installed by placing the complete .lv2 folder (not
be set to any of those specified VAMP installation direc-
the individual files in that folder) in the root of
tories. VAMP plug-ins will normally be placed in the An-
~/.lv2, /usr/local/lib/lv2, /usr/local/lib64/lv2, /usr/lib/lv2 or
alyze Menu of Audacity.
/usr/lib64/lv2. Alternatively the environment variable may
be set as in this example:
export LV2_PATH=$HOME/.lv2:/usr/local/lib/lv2:/usr/lib/lv2 13.10.6 How can I solve Audacity crashing
after I add a plug-in?
13.10.4 Installing LV2 plug-ins Please see this FAQ If you discover a specific plug-in that
misbehaves in Audacity, please email our feedback ad-
LV2 is a more advanced evolution of the LADSPA plug-in dress. Please include any available Debug report that
architecture which was originally developed on Linux. To Audacity generates.
326 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
You can download and install plug-ins to add extra func- • ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST
tionality to Audacity. Plug-ins can give you extra effects,
or more audio generation and analysis capabilities. • /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST
All the directories where you can place VST plug-ins are
Audio Unit (AU) is a system-level plug-in architecture pro-
searched recursively, which means that plug-ins that are
vided on Mac OS X and macOS computers.
inside their own folder in that directory should still be
• Audio Unit effects support real-time preview . found by Audacity. You can install new VST effects into
Audacity by using the Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins...
To add a new Audio Unit effect, place it in either of the
menu item. This opens the Plug-in Manager: Effects,
following system plug-in directories:
Generators and Analyzers dialog where you can select
• ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (user and enable the new effects then click OK to load them.
plug-ins) Next time you launch Audacity the enabled effect(s) will
be cached and you will not need to re-enable them.
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (system-
wide plug-ins)
Then use Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins... to enable The list of effects in the dialog will include any de-
the Audio Unit effects and load them into Audacity, For tected VST instrument (VSTi) plug-ins (such as synths)
details see Manage Effects . and any real-time VST effects that are capable of chang-
ing audio data while it’s being written to disk. Neither of
these are yet supported and they will not load even if
13.11.2 Installing Nyquist plug-ins you enable or re-enable them in the dialog.
You can download and install plug-ins to add extra func- 13.12.1 Installing Nyquist plug-ins
tionality to Audacity. Plug-ins can give you extra effects,
or more audio generation and analysis capabilities. Nyquist plug-ins provide most of the optional effects un-
derneath the divider in the Effect menu . They are also
used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio gen-
erators and analysis tools . A wide range of additional
Nyquist effect, generation and analysis plug-ins can be
328 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
obtained from Download Nyquist Plug-ins on our Wiki. inside their own folder in that directory should still be
To add a new Nyquist plug-in, put it in the Audacity "Plug- found by Audacity.You can install new VST effects into
Ins" folder. The "Plug-Ins" folder is in the directory where Audacity by using the Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins...
Audacity resides - usually: menu item. This opens the Plug-in Manager: Effects,
Generators and Analyzers dialog where you can select
• C:
and Enable the new effects then click OK to load them.
Program Files or,
Next time you launch Audacity the enabled effect(s) will
• C: be cached and you will not need to re-enable them.
Program Files (x86) on 64-bit machines.
You may also install Nyquist plug-ins to the Plug-Ins The list of effects in the dialog will include any de-
folder in Audacity’s folder for application data . To load tected VST instrument (VSTi) plug-ins (such as synths)
the new effects into Audacity so they are available in the and any real-time VST effects that are capable of chang-
menu, use the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and ing audio data while it’s being written to disk. Neither of
Analyzers dialog. these are yet supported and they will not load even if
you enable or re-enable them in the dialog.
Some Nyquist plug-ins could crash while process-
ing very long audio selections (typically an hour or more).
Why do some VST plug-ins not work or display incor-
This is due to the plug-in using a large amount of mem-
rectly?
ory and is a known issue in Audacity’s current Nyquist
implementation. Try using the plug-in on shorter selec-
tions instead. Audacity will by default display VST effect plug-ins with
a full graphical interface where the plug-in supplies this.
VST instruments (VSTi) (such as synths) and real-time
VST effects (that change the audio data while it’s being
13.12.2 Installing VST plug-ins written) are not yet supported. These will not load even
if you enable or re-enable them in the Plug-in Manager:
Audacity supports almost all VST effect plug-ins on Win- Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog. VST 3 plug-ins
dows including "shell" VST’s that host multiple VST ef- are not supported. If any plug-in displays incorrectly, you
fects. To install new VST effects, place them in the "Plug-
Ins" folder inside the Audacity installation folder. On Win-
dows, this is usually under C: can use the Manage button in the effect’s dialog
Program Files (or C: then choose Options... to open the
Program Files (x86) on 64-bit Windows). Other possible VST Effect Options for that effect. Then remove the
locations on Windows are checkmark from the "Enable graphical interface" check-
• The Plug-Ins folder in Audacity’s folder for applica- box Enable graphical interface and click OK. When you
tion data reopen the effect it will display a simpler tabular interface.
• C:
Program Files On Windows Audacity is a 32-bit application so will
Steinberg not see 64-bit versions of VST plug-ins, even on 64-bit
VSTPlugins (or C: operating systems. If you experience a problem with a
Program Files (x86) specific VST effect plug-in in Audacity, please contact us.
Steinberg
VSTPlugins on 64-bit systems).
• Windows Registry key HKCU 13.12.3 Installing LADSPA plug-ins
Software
VST The LADSPA plug-in architecture was originally devel-
VSTPluginsPath oped on Linux. Audacity supports LADSPA effects on
Windows as well as GNU/Linux. You can download and
• Windows Registry key HKLM
install a set of over 90 LADSPA plug-ins for Windows.
Software
You can then choose which LADSPA plug-ins to enable
VST
in the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyz-
VSTPluginsPath
ers dialog. To add a new LADSPA plug-in, put it in the
• All paths specified by the "VST_PATH" environ- Audacity "Plug-Ins" folder. The "Plug-Ins" folder is in the
ment variable. directory where Audacity resides - usually:
All the directories where you can place VST plug-ins are • C:
searched recursively, which means that plug-ins that are Program Files or,
13.13. NAVIGATING EFFECTS WITHOUT USING A MOUSE 329
Here are a few tips to make it easier to access the effect its last used settings. If you obtain a noise profile
you want from the Effect menu without using a mouse. with Noise Reduction and then use "Repeat Last
Effect", noise will be reduced at the current settings
rather than obtaining a new noise profile.
13.13.1 Accessing effects with shortcuts
Shortcuts can be added, or changed, in Keyboard Prefer- 13.13.2 Other keyboard methods
ences to items in the Generate, Effect or Analyze menus,
including plug-ins that you added yourself. The shortcut • On Windows and Linux, pressing Alt then C
activates the effect if the effect has no dialog, or opens opens the Effect menu and takes you to the top of
the effect dialog. the list without having to use a mouse
• – On Linux you may have to hold down Alt.
• Repeat Last EffectCtrl + R(or CloverLeaf + R on • You can scroll up and down the menu one item at a
Mac) can be used to repeat the last used effect at time with the up and down arrow keys. If you are al-
330 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
ready at the top of the menu, the up arrow will skip Keyboard Access", choose the radio button
to the bottom item of the menu. "All controls".
– On Linux, effects underneath the divider are
grouped as "Plugins 1 - 15", "Plugins 16 - 30"
and so on. Use Right Arrow to move into the 13.13.3 Advanced: Scripting methods
list of plug-ins in the group.
The following applications allow you to write a script that
• Press Enter on the keyboard to open the high-
can execute a single or multiple Audacity commands in
lighted effect.
response to any key press or other trigger such as a sys-
• Once in the Effect, you can use Tab to navigate for- tem event. Windows:
wards through the text boxes, sliders and buttons.
• Actiona (freeware)
Hold Shift while pressing Tab to skip backwards.
You can use the arrow keys, Home, End. Page Up • AutoHotKey (open source)
or Page Down to control a slider.
• Macro Creator (freeware)
– On Mac, use Page Up or Page Down to move
to the start or end of the slider respectively. • PowerPro (freeware)
Home and End do not work with sliders. • Robotask (paid for)
• Once you have used an effect, you can use "Re- Mac:
peat Last Effect" at the top of the menu to repeat
that effect with those last used parameters. This • Automator (built into OS X and macOS)
also has a shortcut Ctrl + R(or CloverLeaf + R on • Apple UI Scripting: Audacity does not directly
a Mac). You can change this shortcut to something support AppleScript but you can use UI script-
else in the Keyboard Preferences . ing instead. This must be enabled in the Ac-
cessibility section of your Mac’s System Prefer-
ences (in OS X Mavericks, you have to go to
Faster navigation the Accessibility section of the Security & Pri-
vacy Preferences then drag Audacity from /Ap-
• On Windows, at any stage when the menu is open plications into the applications list in Accessi-
you can navigate to the next effect starting with a bility). See this Forum topic for more help:
particular letter by typing that letter. For example, https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?p=163988#p16
from the top of the menu:
• Keyboard Maestro (paid for)
– press H then H to reach "High Pass Filter" (un-
derneath the divider, because the effect is in • QuickKeys (paid for)
Audacity’s Plug-Ins folder) GNU/Linux:
– press C then C to reach "Change Speed". • Actiona
• On Linux, seeking effects by letter does not work
• autokey
but you can use Page Up or Page Down instead
(which do not work on Windows) to skip items, fol- Example in AutoHotKey#u:: ; After launching this
lowed by up or down arrow. script, hold WIN and press U to run the actions below
Send !{c}f{Enter} ; Send keystrokes Alt, C then F to run
• On Mac, hold Ctrl and press F2 then type the first
Fade In sleep, 3000 ; wait 3 seconds to allow Fade In
few letters of the root menu item, then type the first
to complete Send !{c}a{Enter}{Enter} ; Send Alt, C, Enter
few letters of the item required in that menu.
and Enter to launch and execute Amplify See more ex-
– Tabbing between buttons in dialogs is off by amples.To run multiple effects on a project or a batch of
default. Tabbing can be enabled by open- audio files you can instead create and apply an Audacity
ing the System Keyboard Preferences, choose Chain . Advanced users who can compile Audacity can
the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab, then under "Full use Scripting .
13.14. AMPLIFY 331
13.14 Amplify
Use the Amplify effect to change the volume of the se- 13.14.2 New Peak Amplitude (dB)
lected audio track(s) . Amplify always preserves the rel-
ative volumes of the tracks and/or channels . You can Type in the value you would like for the new peak ampli-
also use the "Amplification (dB)" box in Amplify as a quick tude of your track. As you type, the Amplification input
check of the current peak level of the selection.Accessed box will be updated.
by:Effect > Amplify...
Amplify and Normalize are very similar effects, but have effect with "Remove any DC offset" selected. Using Nor-
some subtle differences. Normalize has its own option for malize with this selected (but with "Normalize maximum
correcting DC offset . Amplify has its own option to enter amplitude to" not selected) will correct this offset without
the volume change to be applied and to allow "clipping" making any other changes to the amplitude - the result
by amplifying to above 0.0 dB. The two effects behave will look like the lower track.
differently if used on multiple tracks or channels.
Advantages of Normalize
• Correct DC offset
• Adjust multiple audio tracks or channels to the
same peak level, removing any level disparity
between them
Figure 3In Figure 4 below we can see the clear dif- – There is an option to normalize stereo
ference between the processed tracks after Amplifying channels as a pair (retaining the balance be-
the upper track to 0.0 dB, and Normalizing the lower tween the channels) instead of independently.
track to 0.0 dB (with stereo channels normalized inde-
pendently; you can choose to "Normalize stereo chan- • Normalization above the clipping level of 0 dB
nels independently" or not. is disallowed
334 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
For example, if you have accidentally recorded one chan- being applied automatically it can only apply the "Ampli-
nel quieter than the other in a stereo recording (a com- fication (dB)" amount as saved in the "Ratio" parameter.
mon scenario with LP or tape recordings), normalizing
the channels independently will go a long way toward
restoring a correct balance. Note because normalization
is based on "peak" rather the "average" level, it does not When not to use Normalize
necessarily result in processed tracks actually sounding
equally loud. If multiple tracks contain intentional differences in peak
levels, you should never normalize any of them. The only
way to preserve the relative balance between them is to
When not to use Amplify select them all as a group and amplify them, so they are
all scaled up by the same amount. You *can* normal-
If your audio has DC offset present, you should use Nor- ize stereo tracks without changing their channel balance,
malize to correct that offset. If you are applying a Chain but only if a) the stereo track is not split into Left and
and want to bring a track or files to a specific level, use Right and b) "Normalize stereo channels independently"
Normalize instead. Amplify in a Chain will not make the is unchecked. If tracks with intentional peak differences
track or file as loud as possible if "New Peak Amplitude have DC offset that needs correction, then you can and
(dB)" is set to 0 dB and will not set the amplitude to any should use Normalize, but with "Normalize maximum am-
other chosen amount in that box. Because Amplify is plitude to" unchecked.
Fade Down and Fade Up lengths by dragging the "con- 13.16.3 Buttons
trol points" (the small white circles) on the graph. Simply
hover over a control point with the mouse and drag in the Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
direction indicated by the cursor arrows. sults:
• Duck Amount: The amount (default: -12 dB ) of • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
volume reduction in the selected track when a sig- manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
nal above the threshold level is detected about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Maximum Pause: Avoids over-rapid volume • Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
changes by setting a length of time following the would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
ramp down that must be exceeded before the vol- rent settings, without making actual changes to the
ume is ramped up again. The default value is 1 audio. The length of preview is determined by your
second, but irrespective of the setting, volume will setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
not ramp up unless the pause is at least as long as fault setting is 6 seconds.
the fade down length plus the fade up length.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
• Fade Down Lengths: The length of time over current effect settings.
which the selected tracks fade down to the ducked
volume (default: 0.5 seconds). • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• Fade Up Lengths: The length of time over which
the selected tracks fade up from the ducked volume
(default: 0.5 seconds) • brings you to the appropriate page in the
The "outer" and "inner" fade lengths both adjust the per- Manual, this page.
ceived speed of the fade. In effect, the inner length con-
trols the length of time the ducked track is attenuated by
the full Duck amount. If you play with the fade lengths 13.16.4 Links
you will be able to see this in the graph.
• Threshold: The level (default: -30 dB) used for de- |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
tecting a signal in the control track. |< Effect Menu
Bass and Treble increases or decreases the lower fre- quencies lower than 1000 Hz, with the most gain being
quencies and higher frequencies of your audio inde- applied to frequencies about 100 Hz or lower.
pendently. It behaves just like the bass, treble and vol-
ume controls on a domestic stereo system.Accessed
by:Effect >Bass and Treble... 13.17.2 Treble (dB)
Use Change Pitch to change the pitch of a selec- • "from" and "to" controls: The "from" and "to"
tion without changing its tempo (speed). To change pitch controls each have a dropdown menu for selecting
and tempo simultaneously, use Effect > Change Speed... the musical note, then to right of that menu, a text
.Accessed by:Effect > Change Pitch... box for selecting the octave of that note.
2. Change "to" pitch to C#/Db by clicking in the drop- Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
down menu. sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
3. Observe the octave text box to right of "to" pitch is manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
still at 4, indicating a pitch change down of 8 semi- about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
tones.
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
4. Click the upward-pointing arrow to right of the "to"
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
octave text box (or click in or select the box and
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
press Up arrow) to change the octave to 5. This is
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
necessary because the octave number always in-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
creases by 1 when moving up through C.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
5. We now have the change we want from A4 to current effect settings.
C#/Db5, so we could click OK to make the change. • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
Before changing the pitch, observe that the pitch change
could have been entered in other ways. Had we realised
that A to C#/Db was 4 semitones, we could have left • brings you to the appropriate page in the
the pitch controls alone and just entered 4 in "Semitones Manual, this page.
(half-steps)". It does not matter that the pitch change in-
dicated would have been from B4 to D#/Eb5, because
it is the interval of 4 semitones that Audacity is apply- 13.18.7 Links
ing.We could also have achieved an identical result by
simply setting the "Percent Change" to 25.992 (if we hap-
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
pened to know that 4 semitones upwards is equivalent to
25.992%). |< Effect Menu
13.19. CHANGE SPEED 339
Use Change Speed to change the speed of a selec- 3. A change of +20 % is the same as multiplying the
tion , affecting its tempo, pitch and frequency con- speed by 1.2.
tent. When reducing speed, all frequencies become
lower. When increasing speed, all frequencies become 4. A change of -20 % is the same as multiplying the
higher. To change tempo without affecting pitch or fre- speed by 0.8
quency range, use Effect > Change Tempo or Effect >
Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift .All controls are linked, so
changing one will change the others.Accessed by:Effect 13.19.3 Standard Vinyl rpm
> Change Speed...
If you have a recording of a record that was played back
and recorded at the wrong speed you can correct that
using these two dropdown menus. In the from dropdown
choose the speed the record was played back at then in
the to dropdown choose the speed it should have been
played back at.
13.19.2 Percent Change Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
If you know how much you want to change the speed of • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
the audio in percent, enter that value here. You can also manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
drag the slider to choose a Percent Change - the input about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
box and the Speed Multiplier will update as you drag the
slider. Values between -99.000 % (equivalent to 1/100th • Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
of the original speed) and 4900.000 % (equivalent to 50 would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
times faster) are permitted. Values outside of this range rent settings, without making actual changes to the
will gray out the OK and Preview buttons and cannot be audio. The length of preview is determined by your
applied. Examples: setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
1. A change of +100 % (double speed) is the same as
multiplying the speed (Speed Multiplier setting) by • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
2. current effect settings.
2. A change of -50 % (half speed) is the same as mul- • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
tiplying the speed by 0.5. changed.
340 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.19.6 Links
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page. |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
Use Change Tempo to change the tempo and thus the from box shows the current length of the selection and
length (duration) of a selection , without changing its cannot be changed. This is useful if you have a piece of
pitch . To change tempo and pitch simultaneously, use narration that is just a little bit too long or too short to fit
Effect > Change Speed .Accessed by:Effect > Change where you want it.
Tempo...
13.20.5 Limitations
The input boxes are linked. Therefore changing the value Change Tempo is a time-stretching effect, because it de-
in one box will change the values in other boxes as ap- fies the normal expectation that reducing the speed of the
propriate. audio (thus increasing its length) will reduce the pitch and
vice versa. As with any time-stretching effect, some audi-
ble distortions will be expected at more extreme settings.
When using the default (fast) algorithm, Change Tempo
13.20.1 Percent Change may remove some audio from the start or end of the se-
lection, or not stretch the end of the content to the end
If you know the amount you want to change the tempo of of the selection when slowing down. Both of these symp-
the selection, enter that value in the input box. You can toms may leave a short silence at the end of the resultant
also drag the slider to select a value: the input box will selection. If the exact length of the audio is important, se-
update as you drag the slider. lect the Use high quality stretching (slow) option. The de-
fault (fast) algorithm may sometimes sound echoey, es-
pecially when slowing down percussive music. For small
13.20.2 Beats per minute (BPM) to moderate tempo changes, use the "high quality" op-
tion to avoid this problem. The "high quality" algorithm is
If you know the BPM of the selection and the BPM you only suitable for small to moderate tempo changes and
want to change it to, enter those values here. The the sound quality will deteriorate very badly for extreme
BPM "to" value will then update the Percent Change and changes. For extreme slowing down, consider using the
Length "to" values. Paulstretch effect.
If you know what you would like the new length of the Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
selection to be, enter that value in the to input box. The sults:
13.21. SLIDING TIME SCALE / PITCH SHIFT 341
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail changed.
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio • brings you to the appropriate page in the
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur- Manual, this page.
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de- 13.20.7 Links
fault setting is 6 seconds.
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings. |< Effect Menu
Bold textSliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift... allows you 13.21.1 Tempo Change
to make a continuous change to the tempo and/or pitch
of a selection by choosing initial and/or final change val- Initial and final tempo change values can be managed
ues. Tempo changes made without selecting a pitch using the slider (which will move in whole number val-
change preserve the original pitch, and pitch changes ues only) or by entering a value in the box, which can be
made without selecting a tempo change preserve the either a whole number or a number including a fraction.
original tempo. By changing only one of tempo and pitch
and choosing the same initial and final value, you can
use Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift in the same way as Initial (%)
Change Tempo or Change Pitch to produce a high qual-
ity fixed change. However Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift
The percentage of the original rate required for the begin-
lets you for example set the initial tempo change to -50%
ning of the processed audio. Positive percentages speed
while also setting the final tempo change to +20%, the
the audio up and negative percentages slow the audio
initial pitch change to +3 semitones and the final pitch
down: -50% is half-speed, 0% is unchanged, 50% is 1.5
change to +1 semitones.
times the original speed, 100% is double speed and so
on.
Initial (semitones)
Final (semitones) • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
Enter the pitch shift in semitones (half steps) required for
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
the end of the processed audio.
changed.
Final (%)
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Alternatively, enter the pitch shift as a percentage of the Manual, this page.
original frequency as required for the end of the pro-
cessed audio. Time Tracks can be used to bend tempo more flexibly
(also affecting pitch) using the Envelope Tool .
13.21.3 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re- 13.21.4 Links
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets . |< Effect Menu
13.22.1 An alternative Free Compressor mat. Right-click and "Save Link As" or "Save Tar-
get As" may also work in some browsers. Archived
Chris’s dynamic compressor by the late Chris Capel documentation can be found here.
is a popular Nyquist plug-in that tries to even out abrupt • A more advanced 1.2.6 version of this plug-in can
changes of volume by employing "lookahead" (this at- be downloaded here. You can also listen to an au-
tempts to anticipate volume changes by starting to ap- dio podcast explaining how to use the effect.
ply compression before the volume rises to the threshold
level). There are options to soften the softer audio and • Neither of the above versions can be mod-
invert loudness. ified or redistributed. We hope to make a
freely-licensed version of this plug-in available
for separate download later, based on Chris’s
13.22.2 Several versions of this plug-in 1.2.7 Beta version which has a free MIT Li-
may be downloaded cense. For more information, please visit
https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=58958
.
• An archived 1.1 version of this plug-in can be
downloaded by left-clicking this link, then use the See instructions for Nyquist plug-in installation in the Au-
browser feature to save the web page in text for- dacity Wiki.
13.23. CLASSIC FILTERS 343
Classic Filters offers three different types of filter (usually small), b) at the cutoff frequency the mag-
which together emulate the vast majority of analog filters, nitude response is equal to the ripple value, and c)
providing a useful graphical tool for analysis and mea- above (below for highpass) the cutoff frequency, the
surement. Accessed by:Effect > Classic Filters.... This stopband attenuation increases more rapidly, for a
effect is not enabled by default. To enable it, use Effect given filter order, than Butterworth.
> Add / Remove Plug-ins... to open the Add / Remove
Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog. • Chebyshev Type II: Chebyshev Type II filters are
similar to Butterworth, including the flat passband
response, except that a) at the cutoff frequency the
magnitude response is equal to the ripple value, b)
above (below for highpass) the cutoff frequency, the
stopband attenuation increases more rapidly, for a
given filter order, than Butterworth, and c) the stop-
band attenuation varies from infinite to the ripple
value. (Here it’s common to use a ripple value of
20, 30 or more dB).
13.23.3 Subtype
13.23.1 Graph Scale and Sliders • Lowpass: The filter passes low frequencies and
attenuates high frequencies.
• Vertical Scale: This scale is in dB and shows the
• Highpass: The filter passes high frequencies and
amount of gain (amplification above 0 dB or atten-
attenuates low frequencies.
uation below 0 dB) that will be applied to the audio
at any given frequency .
• Horizontal Scale: This shows the frequencies in
Hz to which volume adjustments will be applied. 13.23.4 Order
Dragging the Classic Filters window wider displays
some additional points on the scale. Choose a value between 1 and 10. "1" - first-order filters
• Vertical scale sliders: By default the vertical scale - have the most gradual cutoff slope
reads from 0 dB to -10 dB, but these two sliders to
left of the scale let you adjust the upper and lower
dB values so as to change the visible range on the
graph. Note that moving either slider may change
13.23.5 Cutoff
the horizontal position of the 0 dB line.
Enter the cutoff frequency.
13.23.7 Minimum Stopband Attenuation would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
• For Butterworth filters no value can be entered and audio. The length of preview is determined by your
any value displayed is ignored. setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• For Chebyshev Type I filters no value can be en-
tered and any value displayed is ignored. • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• For Chebyshev Type II filters type in the desired
amount of stopband ripple. • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
13.24.3 Limitations
on those individual clicks. Repair can work on • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
a selection up to 128 samples wide (about manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
three milliseconds at 44100 Hz project rate). about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
– Broader clicks of 10 milliseconds or longer • Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
may not be removed. In this case there are would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
a couple of optional Nyquist Plugins that you rent settings, without making actual changes to the
can install. Use PopMute to heavily attenuate audio. The length of preview is determined by your
loud clicks and pops to make them less ob- setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
trusive. Really loud and wide glitches that still fault setting is 6 seconds.
sound too bad can be repaired by using EZ- • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
Patch to replace the glitch with adjacent un- current effect settings.
damaged audio.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
– Also see Sample workflow for LP digitiza- changed.
tion which lists some alternative click removal
methods or alternative click removal software
that you can use as part of your audio restora- • brings you to the appropriate page in the
tion routine. Manual, this page.
Clicks are pink Now zoom in to see the clicks in the selection more
clearly (spot the little vertical spikes in the waveform). Se-
lect a little more than the exact part of the selection that
contains clicks by clicking and dragging with your mouse:
In the Spectrogram view the clicks will normally show up
as vertical pink (or possibly vertical red) lines. Note that
the Spectrogram view has identified two regions of clicks
between 55.70 and 55.80 seconds that do not look like
clicks in Waveform view. Because we want to zoom in on
these regions later, we will not select from 55.70 to 55.80
seconds but for now, just select the second clicky region.
To select this region, click and drag with your mouse and
then label the region by using Ctrl + B(on a Mac Clover-
Leaf + B ) and typing a label name.
on the center line). This helps to avoid a click at the new Select the discontinuity
join after deleting the selection, but a residual click is still
possible. Therefore the next step coming up will be to
listen to the audio after the deletion. Deletion removes a Select the waveform around the discontinuity; a maxi-
very small portion of the audio; you may instead prefer to mum of 128 samples (the maximum length for the Repair
retain the original audio length, not least because remov- effect).
ing longer selections may be audible. As an alternative
to deletion, zoom in much closer to each click and then
for each click, use either of the following techniques:
Now use Effect > Repair to fix the discontinuity; note the
resulting smooth curve.
If a residual click is heard after deletion despite using 13.25.7 Final test of the repaired region
Zero Crossings, the click will probably be in one of
the channels in a stereo track. The zoomed in exam-
ple below shows a very obvious visual discontinuity in As a final step you should audibly test all repairs in the
both channels of the stereo track resulting from not us- region chosen in Spectrogram view, again preferably on
ing Zero Crossings before deletion. Any residual clicks headphones. Zoom out sufficiently and start playback a
heard must be repaired. You could use Draw Tool as little earlier, so you can play a reasonable amount of au-
above, but we will repair the discontinuity shown below dio either side of the label (which we’ve still retained to
automatically using the Repair effect. identify the repaired location):
348 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
If you are unhappy with your results you can use Edit >
Undo repeatedly to revert back to your original unedited
audio. Alternatively you may use the View > History...
command to choose or compare several previous editing
states.
How close to the maximum sample magnitude any sam- • Debug applies the effect to the selected audio with
ple must be to be considered clipped. the current effect settings, but unlike OK the effect
runs in debug mode. This is primarily of use when
• If processing is slow, select only a few seconds of
writing or editing Nyquist plug-ins.
clipped audio at a time.
• This effect assumes that the audio is clipped at the – In addition to the normal plug-in behavior, a
same dB level for both positive and negative peaks. "debug window" opens to display error mes-
If either the top or bottom of the waveform is suc- sages, normally the debug window will be
cessfully reconstructed but not both, try applying empty..
DC offset correction before applying Clip Fix. • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
13.26.2 Reduce amplitude to allow for re- • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
stored peaks (dB) changed.
13.27 Compressor
13.28 Contrast
Result:
13.28.1 Instructions
13.28.2 The Buttons
With a single audio track selected, choose Analyze >
Contrast... then: • Reset Clears all the parameters and result values.
13.28.3 Limitations that looks like a "flat line" is taken into account by
the analysis).
• Contrast does not include any audio behind time
• For correct measurement of stereo tracks, audio
zero (0.0 on the Timeline ) in its RMS calculation.
data must be present in both left and right channels
Audio behind zero is indicated by two left-pointing
of the selection.
arrows at the start of the waveform.
• Although Contrast can only display the RMS val-
ues of two selections at once, you may open a new
project and analyze two different selection in that
13.28.4 Links
project.
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
• Empty track space within the selected region is ig-
nored by the analysis ("silent" or low volume audio |< Analyze Menu
13.29 DC offset
DC offset is a mean amplitude displacement from zero. • A sound that has DC offset will not be at its loud-
In Audacity it can be seen as an offset of the recorded est possible volume when amplified or normalized.
waveform away from the center zero point. DC offset is This is because the offset reduces the headroom
a potential source of clicks, distortion and loss of audio between the peak level of the audio and the maxi-
volume. mum possible level without clipping . This problem
can possibly extend to the mix as a whole, since a
sound with DC offset and a sound without DC offset
13.29.1 Background will have DC offset when mixed.
DC offset is an offsetting of a signal from zero. On the • DC offset can cause inaudible low level distortion.
Audacity waveform it would mean that the waveform in The distortion may become audible when effects
default view appears not to be centered on the 0.0 hori- that change the frequency content are applied, or
zontal line, as in the upper track in this image: when exporting the audio to a size-compressed for-
mat like MP3 .
The cause is almost always a fixed voltage offset some- 13.29.2 Removing DC offset
where in the audio chain before the analog signal is con-
verted to digital values. For example, the voltage may be
directly caused by a faulty soundcard, or may come from Audacity’s Normalize Effect
some other device that is attached to the card. Any off-
set is normally so small as to not be noticeable, but with
defective or poor quality hardware it may become large Audacity’s DC removal method performs a calculation to
enough to be a problem. make the average positive and negative sample values
equal. To perform removal, choose Effect > Normalize...,
with the option checked "Remove any DC offset (center
You should check for and remove offset in any audio on 0 vertically)". Uncheck the "Normalize maximum am-
you are working with before editing it, even if the audio plitude..." box unless you want to run Normalize as well
is not your own recording but an audio file you have ob- (see Amplify and Normalize for what Normalize does and
tained elsewhere. when to use it).
13.30. DELAY 353
13.30 Delay
Use Delay to create a multiple echo effect with op- 13.30.1 Delay type
tions for variable delay times between successive echoes
and the number, amplitude and pitch of successive re-
• Regular: Each echo is delayed by the same
peats.Accessed by:Effect > Delay...
amount.
13.30.4 Pitch change effect Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Pitch/Tempo: Changes the pitch in the same • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
way that the Change Speed effect causes a change manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
in pitch. The sound quality of each echo is very about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
good, but an increase in pitch speeds up the
delayed audio and a decrease in pitch slows it • Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
down. The echoes will be noticeably desynchro- would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
nized with any comparable echoes in other tracks rent settings, without making actual changes to the
where "Pitch/Tempo" was not applied. audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
• LQ Pitch Shift: Changes the pitch while maintain- fault setting is 6 seconds.
ing the same tempo in a similar way to the Change
Pitch effect. The sound quality of each echo is of • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
lower quality than the "Pitch/Tempo" effect (includ- current effect settings.
ing a short additional echo on percussive sounds) • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
and the delay time will often be a little longer than changed.
specified. However, interesting "spiraling" effects
can be produced.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.30.5 Pitch change per echo (semitones)
13.31 Distortion
Use the Distortion effect to make the audio sound dis- • Drive (0 to 100): When set to greater than 0, the
torted. By distorting the waveform the frequency content waveform is amplified this amount (dB) prior to be-
is changed, which will often make the sound ’crunchy’ or ing clipped.
’abrasive’.Technically this effect is a waveshaper. The re-
sult of waveshaping is equivalent to applying non-linear • Make-up Gain (0 to 100): When set greater than 0,
amplification to the audio waveform. Preset shaping the output from the effect is amplified. When set to
functions are provided, each of which produces a dif- 100, the amplification is such that an input level of
ferent type of distortion. Presets are provided in the 0 dB (full track height) will produce an output level
Manage menu, which suggest typical settings for a wide of 0 dB.
range of uses.Accessed by:Effect > Distortion...
Soft Clipping
This type of distortion cuts off peaks at the top and bot- This is the "softest" of the overdrive types and produces
tom of the waveform. Note that hard clipping is very likely the least amount of high harmonics. It can be useful for
to cause aliasing distortion , which may be undesirable. reducing the dynamic range (thus increasing the sustain
of musical instruments) while adding the least amount of
• Clipping level (-100 to 0 dB): Peaks greater than "crunch" to the sound.
this level are cut off. The slider control has a log-
arithmic scale to allow settings close to 0 dB to be • Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount /
made more easily and accurately. strength of the distortion.
356 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Output level (0 to 100): An output level adjust- • Output level (0 to 100): An output level adjust-
ment. When set to 0 the output is silent. ment. When set to 0 the output is silent.
• Repeat processing (0 to 5): The number of times
Medium Overdrive to repeat the distortion algorithm. When set to 0
the effect is applied once only.
• Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount /
strength of the distortion.
Even Harmonics
• Output level (0 to 100): An output level adjust-
ment. When set to 0 the output is silent.
This type of distortion produces a series of harmonics
that are 2, 4, 6... times the frequency of the original
Hard Overdrive waveform (even numbers). Producing even harmonics
requires that the waveform is distorted asymmetrically,
This is the "hardest" of the overdrive types and produces which if not corrected will produce substantial DC offset .
the greatest amount of high harmonics. This would typi- To counter the DC offset, a DC blocking filter is provided.
cally be used for producing a heavily distorted effect.
• DC blocking filter (checkbox) When checked, a
• Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount / low frequency filter is applied which will reduce the
strength of the distortion. DC component of the processed audio.
• Output level (0 to 100): An output level adjust- • Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount /
ment. When set to 0 the output is silent. strength of the distortion.
• Harmonic brightness (0 to 100): Higher values
Harmonic Distortion produce a greater number of harmonics.
that are even number multiples of the original fre- • Full-wave Rectifier (DC blocked) Equivalent to
quencies. full-wave rectification with a high pass filter to re-
duce DC offset
• 2nd Harmonic (Octave) When applied to a sine
tone , adds one harmonic that is double the fre- • Percussion Limiter A hard clipping limiter that re-
quency of the original tone (one octave above). stores a portion of the clipped peaks to make the
distortion less harsh. Can be effective for limiting
• Gated Expansion Distortion Heavily distorts both peaks and adding "bite" to percussive sounds like
high and low level signals, making peaks "crunchy" snare drums and hi-hats.
and quiet parts much quieter.
• Start Playback ...
• Leveller, Light, -70dB noise floor The same as
the "Leveller" effect that was shipped in earlier ver- • Skip Backward ...
sions of Audacity. • Skip Forward ...
• Leveller, Moderate, -70dB noise floor • Enable
• Leveller, Heavy, -70dB noise floor • Close ...
• Leveller, Heavier, -70dB noise floor • Apply ...
• Leveller, Heaviest, -70dB noise floor
• Half-wave Rectifier Equivalent to half-wave rectifi- 13.31.3 Links
cation.
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
• Full-wave Rectifier Equivalent to full-wave rectifi-
cation. |< Effect Menu
13.32 Echo
This effect repeats the audio you have selected again to select both the original audio and the inserted silence
and again, normally softer each time. The delay time (or hold Shift and press Home).
between each repeat is fixed, with no pause in between
each repeat.Accessed by:Effect > Echo...
13.32.1 Delay time (seconds)
can be used to create a simple loop with volume changes audio. The length of preview is determined by your
without any problem about gaps between each segment setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
of the loop. fault setting is 6 seconds.
• If you want a loop with no volume changes, use Ef- • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
fect > Repeat... instead. current effect settings.
• You can also create echoes with Effect > Delay... • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
which generates the additional audio needed for changed.
your chosen delay time and number of echoes.
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re- • brings you to the appropriate page in the
sults: Manual, this page.
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets . 13.32.3 Links
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the |< Effect Menu
13.33 Equalization
Equalization is a way of manipulating sounds by Fre- 13.33.1 Graph Scale and Sliders
quency . It allows you to increase the volume of some
frequencies and reduce others. This is a more advanced • Vertical Scale: This scale is in dB and shows the
form of the EQ and Tone controls on many audio sys- amount of gain (amplification above 0 dB or atten-
tems. As an example of equalization, the curve shown uation below 0 dB) that will be applied to the audio
below changes the balance of high and low frequencies at any given frequency .
in the audio to make it sound like an AM radio broadcast.
High frequencies (above 6000 Hz) and low frequencies • Horizontal Scale: This shows the frequencies in
(below 100 Hz) are reduced in volume by 20 dB . Ac- Hz to which volume adjustments will be applied.
cessed by:Effect > Equalization... Dragging the Equalization window wider displays
some additional points on the scale and makes it
easier to plot the graph accurately.
• Vertical scale sliders: By default the vertical scale
reads from + 30 dB to - 30 dB, but these two sliders
to left of the scale let you adjust the upper and lower
dB values so as to change the visible range on the
graph. Note that moving either slider changes the
horizontal position of the 0 dB line. Reducing the
visible range lets you make a finer adjustment to
how loud the frequencies sound, but the changes
will be more subtle because the volume adjustment
will be less.
• Graphic EQ: This button switches to the simpler (where the scale starts at 0 Hz) then switch to log-
"Graphic EQ" mode, in which the equalization arithmic view (where the scale starts at 20 Hz), the
curve is drawn by adjusting the frequency sliders. curve will switch to "unnamed". In that case Audac-
ity will put a point in at 20 Hz at the dB level you
• Length of filter: How many samples of audio wanted at 10 Hz.
Audacity processes in each analysis step. Gener-
ally, it’s best left at the default value of 4001. If the • Save/Manage Curves: This opens the "Manage
green curve Audacity uses to perform the effect is Curves" dialog described below .
very different from the blue curve you created, try
increasing the length of the filter . Higher settings • Flatten: A quick way to set a "level response curve".
will process the audio in a greater number of nar- This means the curve on the graph is drawn from
row frequency bands, but may introduce ringing ar- left to right at 0 dB on the vertical scale, so that no
tifacts at very high settings. frequencies will have their volume level modified.
– At high sample rates the actual time repre- • Invert: Turns the current curve in the window up-
sented by a given number of samples will be side down, changing positive gains at a particular
less and the frequency bands will be broader frequency into negative, and vice versa. To negate
so as to cover the increased frequency range. incorrect RIAA equalization of a 78 rpm record that
As a result, the green curve will fit to the blue was recorded with a modern turntable, you can ap-
line less closely at any given "Length of filter" ply the already supplied "Inverse RIAA" curve in the
than for lower sample rates. "Select Curve" dropdown, without using the "Invert"
button.
– A shorter filter length may sometimes be
preferable. It will take less time to process the
effect, and the smoother curve produced may
actually sound better, unless you are modify- 13.33.5 Manage Curves
ing very low frequencies.
• Select curve: Click the dropdown triangle to se-
lect from a list of preset equalizations. These are
either your own saved presets (see "Save/Manage
Curves" below) or built-in presets, such as filters
to remove unwanted low frequencies that could
cause poor sound, or the RIAA curve to equalize
an LP recorded into Audacity without equalization.
A curve will display as an "unnamed" curve if it is
not yet saved as a preset, or if it is a modified pre-
set.
There will also be the following instances where curves
can only be matched approximately, so will display as
"unnamed":
• In "Graphic EQ" mode, built-in presets will display
as "unnamed" because they were built using the
differently calculated "Draw curves" mode.
• Your own saved presets will always display with
their saved name if loaded in the same mode you
saved them in. In "Graphic EQ" mode, only pre-
sets saved in that mode will display with their saved
name. In "Draw Curves" mode, a curve created in
"Graphic EQ" mode can be displayed as its saved
name if loaded from within "Draw Curves". If that
curve is loaded in "Graphic EQ" mode and then
switched to "Draw Curves", it will display as "un- • Move Up Move the selected preset up in the list.
named". • Move Down Move the selected preset down in the
• Any curve in either mode will display as "unnamed" list.
if there are points in the curve that are outside the • Rename Give the preset a new name.
range of the Horizontal Scale. For example, if you
have a point at 10 Hz in a curve saved in linear view • Delete Remove the preset from the list.
362 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Import Import new presets from an XML file, adding • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
them to the current list. click "About" to see some details about the effect.
• Export Export the curves selected in "Manage
Curves" to a new XML file. Be sure to add ".xml" The Presets features are not working yet. Use Save
to the end of the file name on Mac and Linux. You / Manage Curves to save, rename, export and import pre-
could use this to export your custom EQ curves to defined curves.
share them on the EQ Curves Download page on
the Audacity wiki. • Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
• Get More Clicking this button takes you to the EQ rent settings, without making actual changes to the
Curves Download page on the Audacity wiki, where audio. The length of preview is determined by your
you can download the latest default curve set, or setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
other curve sets created by users for specific pur- fault setting is 6 seconds.
poses such as applying the proper equalization to
78 rpm records. • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Defaults Restore the list to the default setting.
Warning: you will lose any custom presets you have • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
created. changed.
• Cancel Close the dialog without making any EQCurves.xml file: This is a text file located in Audac-
changes. ity’s folder for application data . This file stores:
• OK Close the dialog and accept the changes. • the last "unnamed" curve visible on the graph (the
Examples:To save a new preset, modify the curve then: save is made whenever you press "OK" in Equal-
ization)
1. Click "Save/Manage Curves..." ("unnamed" will al-
ready be selected) • all the named presets.
2. Click the "Rename" button While you can edit this file manually, for example to cre-
3. Give the new preset a name not already in the ate closely spaced points or points below 20 Hz, the
"Curve Name" list syntax of the file must be completely correct. It is usu-
ally easier to make curve changes directly inside Equal-
4. Click the "OK" button. ization. EQDefaultCurves.xml file: This text file which
To modify and save an existing preset, save in the ships with Audacity is located outside Audacity’s folder for
same way by renaming the resulting "unnamed" curve application data. The file contains the default curves Au-
as the original name: dacity ships with and which are restored when you press
"Defaults" in "Save/Manage" Curves...". This file should
1. Click "Save/Manage Curves..." ("unnamed" will al- not be edited. Doing so may prevent new or updated
ready be selected) curves in future versions of Audacity from being installed
2. Click the "Rename" button correctly.
13.33.8 Links
13.33.6 Other buttons
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults: |< Effect Menu
13.34. FADES 363
13.34 Fades
Audacity ships with several types of fade effects: a pair 13.34.2 Studio Fade Out
of simple linear fades , a pair of fades to help you make a
crossfade , a more musically pleasing fade out (similar to Accessed by:Effect > Studio Fade OutProduces a
that used in many recording and mastering studios) and smooth and "musical" sounding fade out from original
a powerful customizable fade. For more detail on fading volume to silence by applying a doubly-curved (S-shape)
please see Fade and Crossfade fade and fading out the higher frequencies a little quicker
than the lower frequencies. It gives a "going off into the
distance" type of sound rather than sounding like a "me-
chanical" fade out. This technique has found favor in
13.34.1 Linear Fades recording studios for CD and LP tracks.
This has a dialog box where you can choose the shape of
the fade in or fade out to be applied. You can also create
"partial" fades to and from other than silence and origi-
nal volume. An example of this might be a fade in from
20% of the original volume to 80% of the original vol-
ume. The "Handy Presets" at the bottom offer a choice
A fade in is often applied over a very short audio selec- of six pairs of fade in or fade out shapes, fading between
tion (less than a second). You may get a more "musical" silence and original volume. Accessed by:Effect > Ad-
result by applying a linear fade in three times to the same justable Fade...
audio selection. This approximates an exponentially
shaped fade in.
Fade Out
A fade out is often applied to a longer selection than a Choosing a preset disables all the other controls ir-
fade in, typically to a selection up to about ten seconds respective of their setting. Therefore to make a partial
long. fade you must choose the Start and End values then use
364 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
the other controls above to determine the fade shape and 13.34.4 Crossfades
direction.
While you can manually create a custom crossfrade us-
ing the fades on this page, the esiest way to make a
crossfade between two tracks is to use on of the two
crossfade effects available in Audacity.
Example of fading using Adjustable Fade • Crossfade Clips : This is a simple tool which cross-
fades between two adjacent clips in the same track.
• Crossfade Tracks : The second is a more precise
The image below shows the result of a partial fade down tool that crossfades between two separate audio
from original volume to 30%, applied to a the selected tracks. The tracks should be positioned one above
part of a constant amplitude sine tone. The shape is ex- the other, with the start of the lower track overlap-
ponential (the fade down becomes slower with time), as ping the end of the upper track. Select the overlap-
produced by setting "Mid-fade Adjust" to a value of -50%. ping region in both tracks and apply the effect. The
selected region of the upper track will fade out, and
the selected part of the lower track will fade in. For
detailed information and advanced techniques see:
Creating a Crossfade .
13.34.5 Links
By using Adjustable Fade with different settings on dif- > Fade and Crossfade
ferent sections of the audio, almost any fade shape or
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
combination of shapes can be produced, entirely using
the keyboard. |< Effect Menu
Fade effects are among the most common effects used in arbitrary level to any other level.
audio production. They can be used to create a smooth
lead in or a gradual end to a musical recording. Short This is the most simple type of fade where the level rises
fades can be useful for avoiding clicks at the beginning or falls at a constant rate. A linear fade in from silence
of an audio clip. They may be used to create a smooth is easily created in Audacity using Effect > Fade In . A
transition from one piece of audio to another. Fade ef- linear fade out to silence is created using Effect > Fade
fects frequently produce a transition from silence (fade Out . The "shape" of a fade is commonly described in
in) or a transition to silence (fade out) but may equally terms that suggest the appearance of a constant level
refer to a transition from one volume level to another qui- signal that has had the effect applied to it. For example,
eter or louder level. A crossfade is when one section of if a linear fade in is applied to a generated tone, the fade
audio fades out while another fades in.The standard fade can be seen to follow a straight line from silence up to the
types described on this page may be produced quickly original level.
and easily using the presets in the Adjustable Fade ef-
fect.
The Adjustable Fade effect has Logarithmic presets for The "S-Curve" presets in the Adjustable Fade effect pro-
fading in or out. Essentially the same as an exponential duce this type of fade. A raised sine curve (or cosine
fade, but curving the other way. curve) is based on the shape of a sine wave. This fade
type is often used for fading out music as it produces a
smoother, more musical sounding fade out than a linear
fade. It is also sometimes used as an alternative to the
Equal Power Fade for crossfading as it avoids the possi-
bility of the peak level increasing during the crossfade
(Like linear fades, it produces an "Equal Gain" cross-
fade).
366 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.35.10 Examples
13.35.7 Adjustable Fade Example 1: Using a fade to remove a click from the
start of a sound When editing sounds, clicks can of-
ten be avoided by ensuring that edit points occur at zero
This is a more sophisticated and advanced fade that of- crossing points (where the waveform crosses the center
fers you settings to control the shape of the fade. It en- zero line).If a sound starts suddenly, there will often be
ables you to increase or reduce the audio volume by a a noticeable click at the beginning. This is due to the
varying amount. This effect is more versatile than Fade waveform suddenly jumping from silence to the start of
In and Fade Out in that it can fade to or from any am- the waveform. This "jump" is often visible by zooming
plification level rather than only between silence and the in closely on the start of the sound so you can see the
original level. original sample dots:
13.36. ADJUSTABLE FADE 367
Adjustable Fade increases or reduces the audio vol- to a higher level) or "Down" (from high level to a lower
ume by a varying amount. This effect is more versatile level).
than Fade In and Fade Out in that it can fade to or from
any amplification level rather than only between silence
and the original level.Accessed by: Effect > Adjustable 1. Fade Up: provides a linear or simple curve fade up
Fade... from a low gain setting to a higher gain setting.
This slider control has a range of +/- 100 (default 0). It al- This dropdown enables you to choose between percent-
lows the shape of the fade that has been selected in the age or dB as the units to be used in the Start and End
"Fade Type:" menu to be modified. Setting this control gain parameter boxes below.
greater than zero will tend to push up the center of fade,
whereas negative values will tend to pull down the level
in the middle of the fade. The final two text boxes must contain one number
each. They define the initial and final gain (amplification
• When used with "Fade Type: = Fade Up", a value amount) of the fade. It is unimportant if these are entered
of zero (default) will produce a linear fade. with the initial gain in the first text box and the final gain
– Values greater than zero will cause the fade to in the last, or the other way around as the direction of the
rise more rapidly at first before leveling out to fade is determined by the Fade Type: selection.
the higher amplification level.
– Values less than zero will cause the fade to 13.36.4 Start (or end)
rise slowly at first then gradually rise more
rapidly. Enables you to set the Start (or end) gain. If you are us-
– The further away from zero that this is set, the ing percentage units, the default value of 0 (silence) will
more curved the fade will be. give you the start of a fade up from silence.
– The mid fade amplification will never be less
than the start of the fade or greater than the
13.36.5 End (or start)
end of the fade.
• When used with "Fade Type: = Fade Down", a Enables you to set the End (or start) gain. If you are us-
value of zero (default) will produce a linear fade. ing percentage units, the default value of 100 (the original
level or unity gain) will give you the final gain for a fade
– Values greater than zero will cause the fade to
up to full volume. . A good way to get a feel for how the
fall gradually at first then progressively more
controls work is to try them out on generated white noise
steeply as it approached the final level.
.
– Values less than zero will cause the fade to fall
rapidly at first then progressively level out.
– The further away from zero that this is set, the
13.36.6 Handy Presets
more curved the fade will be.
A number of fixed preset curve shapes are available from
– The mid fade amplification will never be this dropdown selector: Linear, Exponential, Logarithmic,
greater than the start of the fade or less than Rounded, Cosine and S-Curve.
the end of the fade.
• Exponential In: The level rises exponentially, sim- Exponential fade-out similar to using Envelope Tool Fade
ilar to using the Envelope Tool . Down Less than 0 0 100
• Exponential Out: The level falls exponentially, Fade-out for ’Equal Power’ crossfade Fade Down +50 0
similar to using the Envelope Tool . 100
• Logarithmic In: A "convex" curve that rises mod- Fade-in for ’Equal Power’ crossfade Fade Up +50 0 100
erately steeply from silence and progressively less
Similar to ’Studio Fade Out’ effect S-Curve Down 0 0 100
steeply.
Smooth change from half of original volume to twice orig-
• Logarithmic: A "convex" curve that falls gently ini-
inal volume S-Curve Up 0 50 200
tially then progressively more rapidly.
• Rounded In: A "convex" curve that rises abruptly
from silence then progressively less steeply. 13.36.8 Buttons
• Rounded Out: A "convex" curve that falls gradu-
ally from the initial level, then progressively more Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
steeply to a fairly abrupt end. sults:
• Cosine In: A "convex" curve that rises moderately • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
steeply from silence and gradually levels out to cre- manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
ate a smooth transition to the original level about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Cosine Out: A "convex" curve with a smooth tran- • Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
sition from the original level, progressively falling would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
more steeply to silence. rent settings, without making actual changes to the
• S-Curve In: A "double" curve that creates a audio. The length of preview is determined by your
smooth transition from silence, gradually rising setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
more steeply, then leveling out to create a smooth fault setting is 6 seconds.
transition to the original level. • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
• S-Curve Out: A "double" curve that creates a current effect settings.
smooth transition from the original level, gradually
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
falling more steeply, then leveling out to create a
changed.
smooth transition to silence. Similar to the Studio
Fade Out effect.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.36.7 Example Settings
These settings assume that Start and End are set as "%
of Original". Note that the order of the ’Start’ and ’End’ 13.36.9 Links
settings is unimportant.
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Desired EffectFade TypeMid-Fade Adjust (%)Start (or
End)End (or start) |< Effect Menu
370 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
The purpose of a crossfade is to produce a smooth tran- 13.37.3 Align tracks more precisely
sition between two sections of audio. The two sections
overlap and as one section fades out the other fades in.
This technique is commonly used by DJ’s, for "compi- Tracks will often begin and end with a short period of si-
lation" tracks and mashups. The use of crossfades is lence. Leading/trailing silence may be removed by select-
not limited to joining pieces of music, but can be used in ing and deleting. Audacity’s Cut Preview can be useful to
many other situations where a smooth transition is re- check that the selection to be deleted is correct. The end
quired, including editing speech recordings, extending of the first track will be the point at which the first track fi-
songs, creating loops for audio sequencers, repairing nally stops (has faded to silence). The start of the second
damaged recordings and much more. track will be the point at which the second track starts to
fade in.
Drag the second track to roughly the right place using the
Time Shift tool . Don’t worry about getting the position
too precise at this stage as we will adjust the position
later. For crossfading two music tracks, an overlap of
around 5 seconds is usually suitable, though sometimes
a much shorter, or longer crossfade may sound better.
How long the crossfade transition lasts is largely a mat-
ter of personal taste. After selecting the region to be crossfaded, create a split
at both ends of the selection using Ctrl + I. The split
marks will greatly facilitate selecting the appropriate ar-
eas in each track.
13.37.4 Trim the tracks a fade-out to the overlapping section in the first track, and
a fade-in to the overlapping section of the second track.
If, as in the images above, it is necessary to trim the
tracks further, select the unwanted region after the fade
out (in the upper track in this case) by double-clicking in
it, then delete it. When deleting the audio before the fade
in (in the lower track in this case) use Edit > Remove Spe-
cial > Split Delete , or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt +
K so as to avoid moving the remaining part of the track.
The principal advantage of creating fades with the Enve- to occur when something decreases at an ever decreas-
lope Tool is that it is non-destructive. The envelope may ing rate. Logarithmic is the inverse of exponential, so if
be changed or removed at any time with no loss to the something is growing exponentially over time, then the
audio data.Because the Envelope Tool uses exponential time taken for a given amount of growth is shortened log-
fades, creating a precise fade shape can be very fiddly, arithmically. Within this article the term exponential is
but with patience almost any type of fade shape can be used in the sense of "exponential decay", where the level
achieved. gets closer and closer to a target level without ever reach-
ing it. For an exponential fade out, this means that the
• The fade shape does not need to look exactly audio level will get quieter and quieter but will never be to-
smooth to provide an effective fade. Check what tally silent. In practice, it is usual that an exponential fade
the fade sounds like before spending an unneces- out will only actually follow the logarithmic/exponential
sary amount of time trying to make the fade look scale until it is very close to silence and will then be made
right. The sound is far more important than what it to go silent by either dropping directly from the very low
looks like. level to silence, or via a short linear fade to silence.
• To make small adjustments to the envelope it can
be useful to expand the track vertically .
13.38.1 Tips for drawing fades with the En-
When related to fades, the terms exponential and loga-
rithmic are frequently interchanged, which can be confus- velope Tool:
ing, but it is really just a matter of perspective. Exponen-
tial growth is said to occur when something increases at In this example we will create a fade that starts at full
an ever greater rate, whereas exponential decay is said volume, then starts to fade slowly, then gradually more
372 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.39.2 Limitations
13.39.1 Instructions
13.39.3 Examples
1. Place two audio clips into the same track.
2. Select (approximately) the same amount of audio Example of using the effect for a simple crossfade1)
from the end of one clip and the start of the other. Place your audio clips end to end in a track.
13.40. CROSSFADE TRACKS 373
3) Select the part that you want to crossfade (does not 2) Using Effect > Crossfade Clips repairs the glitch.
matter if the tracks are right up against each other or not
- just select the parts to crossfade).
13.39.4 Links
Use the Crossfade Tracks effect to make a crossfade or Clips .Accessed by:Effect > Crossfade Tracks...
smooth transition across two tracks. The tracks should
be positioned with the track to be faded out above the
track to be faded in, and with the start of the lower track
positioned before the end of the upper track so as to cre-
ate an overlap between them. Select the overlapping re-
gion in both tracks (see example below) and apply the
effect. To apply a simpler (non-configurable) crossfade
between audio clips on the same track, see Crossfade
374 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
The preset options will cater for most crossfading tasks, Alternating In / Out
but if fine control over the effect is required, the custom
curve option may be useful. This option enables the The selected region in the first selected track will fade
"Custom Curve" slider control, which allows the rate at in. If more than one track is selected, the selected re-
which the tracks crossfade to be manually adjusted. gion in the next selected track will fade out. If more than
13.40. CROSSFADE TRACKS 375
two tracks are selected, the fade direction will continue to The Crossfade Tracks effect can then be applied to com-
alternate fade-in / fade-out / fade-in ... . plete the fade out and fade in.
13.40.4 Buttons
13.40.6 Links
This page lists some downloadable or more advanced 13.41.3 Creating Fades from the Nyquist
tools for making fades . Prompt
High Pass Filter passes frequencies above its cutoff fre- cutoff frequency. For example, with a rolloff of 6 dB per
quency and attenuates frequencies below its cutoff fre- octave, the sound decreases by 6 dB in amplitude for
quency. This effect can therefore be used to reduce low each octave below the cutoff frequency (an octave above
frequency noise.Accessed by:Effect > High Pass Filter... is double the frequency).
To achieve more attenuation, run the effect again or use • brings you to the appropriate page in the
a greater rolloff. Manual, this page.
Low Pass Filter passes frequencies below its cutoff fre- 13.43.2 Cutoff frequency (Hz)
quency and attenuates frequencies above its cutoff fre-
quency. This effect can therefore be used to reduce high Sound above this cutoff frequency in Hz is not elimi-
pitched noise.Accessed by:Effect > Low Pass Filter... nated but increasingly attenuated as the frequency rises
further above the cutoff. The cutoff frequency (some-
times also called corner frequency ) defines the point at
which the audio is reduced by 3 dB. Thus there will also
be a small and decreasing amount of attenuation just be-
low the cutoff frequency as in the following image.
a greater rolloff. • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
13.43.3 Buttons • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to Manual, this page.
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur- 13.43.4 Links
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds. |< Effect Menu
13.44 Invert
13.44.1 Links
Noise Reduction can reduce constant background Duplicating a very short sample of noise in order to get a
sounds such as hum, whistle, whine, buzz, and "hiss", long enough sample for the noise profile will not help.
such as tape hiss, fan noise or FM/webcast carrier noise. Noise Reduction calculates the statistics of the noise.
It is not suitable for individual clicks and pops, or irregu- Examining repeated blocks of the same noise will not
lar background noise such as from traffic or an audience. change the statistics.
To use Noise Reduction, you need a region in the wave-
form that contains only the noise you want to reduce. Be
aware that it may be impossible to get a satisfactory re- 13.45.2 Step 2 - Reduce the Noise
moval when the noise is very loud, when the noise is
variable, when the music or speech is not much louder
than the noise or when the noise frequencies are very 1. Select the entire region of waveform from which
similar to those of the music or speech. you want to reduce the noise, then set the Noise
Reduction parameters. This is often best done by
If your problem is mains hum or a high-pitched whis- trial and error, adjusting the sliders and using the
tle, the use of a Notch Filter may help, which should be Preview button to listen to a few seconds of audio
carried out before applying Noise Reduction.Accessed after noise reduction. Listening to the Residue (the
by:Effect > Noise Reduction... sound that will be filtered out when you apply "Re-
duce") can also be useful in determining how much
damage is being done to the desired (non-noise)
sound.
2. Click Effect > Noise Reduction....
• Noise Reduction (dB): Controls the amount
of volume reduction to be applied to the iden-
tified noise. Use the lowest value that reduces
the noise to an acceptable level. Higher val-
ues than necessary may make the noise even
quieter, but will result in damage to the audio
that remains.
• Sensitivity: Controls how much of the au-
dio will be considered as noise, on a scale of
0 (off) to 24 (maximum). Greater sensitivity
means that more noise will be removed, pos-
sibly at the expense of removing some of the
desired signal as well. Lower values may re-
sult in the appearance of artifacts in the noise-
reduced audio. Set this control to the low-
13.45.1 Step 1 - Get Noise Profile est value that achieves effective noise removal
without the introduction of artifacts.
This first step teaches Audacity about the noise you want • Frequency Smoothing (bands): At values of
to remove by identifying the noise floor of the different 1 or higher, this control spreads the noise re-
frequencies that make up the noise. duction into the specified number of neighbor-
ing bands. This modifies the signal you were
1. Select a region of the waveform which contains intending to keep, but if artifacts remain in the
only noise. A minimum of 2048 samples (0.05 sec. noise-reduced audio the smoothing can make
at 44100 Hz sample rate ) is needed, below which those artifacts sound more acceptable. There
an error will be shown. A longer profile is better. is a chance that smoothing will make the de-
If there are very different types of noise in different sired audio less clear, so where your desired
places in the track, they are best dealt with by grab- signal is strong and of wide frequency range
bing the profile for the first type, reducing the noise and the noise is light, try leaving this control
for it, then grabbing the profile of the next type of at 0 (off). If you hear artifacts in the noise-
noise and reducing that. reduced audio after setting Sensitivity as high
2. Click Effect > Noise Reduction.... as possible without eliminating desired audio,
try setting Frequency Smoothing to a value be-
3. Click Get Noise Profile. tween 1 and 6 bands. The width (in Hertz) of
380 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.46 Normalize
Use the Normalize effect to set the peak amplitude of to some extent. Newer Windows PCs may have a DC off-
a single track, make multiple tracks have the same peak set cancellation feature when recording from the built-in
amplitude and equalize the balance of left and right chan- sound inputs. To check or enable:
nels of stereo tracks. Optionally you can remove any DC
1. Right-click over the speaker icon in the System Tray
offset from the tracks.Accessed by:Effect > Normal-
> Recording Devices, or click Start > Control Panel
ize...
> Hardware and Sound > Sound, then the "Record-
ing" tab
2. Right-click over empty space, show disabled and
disconnected devices, then right-click over each
device and enable it
3. Right-click or select each device, choose "Proper-
ties" then look in the "Enhancements" tab
4. If there is no "Enhancements" tab, look in the
sound device’s own control panel in "Hardware and
13.46.1 Remove DC offset Sound".
Tips
preferred. You might want to notch the visible spikes at In this case the frequency analysis at Analyze > Plot
about 100 and 350 Hz as well. As always with Audacity, Spectrum... is fairly smooth except for a tall peak on
you can Edit > Undo and experiment with different notch the right. Place the mouse’s cross-hair pointer over that
filter settings. peak. Audacity shows the peak more accurately to be at
18996 Hz which will be the frequency to enter in Notch
Filter.
Example 2: High pitched whistle
13.47.5 Links
13.48 Paulstretch
Use Paulstretch to slow down audio by extreme have good time resolution, but poor frequency resolu-
amounts without changing the pitch. Accessed by:Effect tion, so you may still be able to detect a rhythm (albeit
> Paulstretch... a very slow rhythm). Large values have poor time reso-
lution, but have great frequency resolution, so transients
will disappear but pitch differences may be better pre-
served. Usually, a value of 0.25 seconds is good for most
music. Very large values (greater than 2 seconds) can be
used for special effects such as "smearing" a song into a
sound-texture, even if the Stretch Factor is close to 1.0.
13.48.3 Buttons
13.48.1 Stretch Factor Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
This sets how much longer the processed sound will be
relative to the original. For example, setting this to 10 will • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
stretch 1 minute of audio into approximately 10 minutes manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
of audio, somewhat less at higher Time Resolutions. about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
13.48.2 Time Resolution (seconds) rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
In order for the effect to work, this value must be smaller setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
than the selected area in the waveform. Small values fault setting is 6 seconds.
13.49. PHASER 385
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the Manual, this page.
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
13.48.4 Links
changed.
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
• brings you to the appropriate page in the |< Effect Menu
13.49 Phaser
The name "Phaser" comes from "Phase Shifter", be- 13.49.2 Dry/Wet
cause it works by combining phase-shifted signals with
the original signal. The movement of the phase-shifted When set to 0, only the "Dry" (unprocessed) signal is pro-
signals is controlled using a Low Frequency Oscilla- duced. When set to 255 (maximum), only the delayed
tor (LFO).The interaction of the phase shifted signal with signals are produced. Because the effect’s sound re-
the original signal creates a sweeping notch filter effect sults from phase interaction, the effect sounds strongest
that sounds similar but more subtle than a flanger ef- when the Dry/Wet mix is set at the default halfway posi-
fect.Accessed by:Effect > Phaser... tion (128).
This effect supports Real-time preview - effect settings • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
can be changed while playing and listening to the result current effect settings.
in real-time. Text-based button controls are provided as • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
in the image above. The Enable checkbox acts like a changed.
live "Bypass" control. Uncheck the checkbox Enable
to hear the audio without the effect applied, and recheck
the box Enable to hear the effect applied at its current
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
settings. The Manage button accesses choices to add,
Manual, this page.
delete, import or export presets for this effect and to set
options for this effect. For details see Manage presets .
13.49.10 Links
13.49.9 Buttons
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults: |< Effect Menu
13.50 Repair
Repair removes a very short region of damaged or de- may not be enough information to make the interpolation,
stroyed audio, replacing it with an estimated region of au- and an error message will be shown. For example, it is
dio based on what is happening either side of the region. not possible to select a region up to 128 samples long
It may be used for example to repair a click on a vinyl in one track, paste or duplicate it into a new empty track
record, or a tape dropout.Accessed by:Effect > Repair and then repair it, because there will then be no audio
either side of the region to examine. When using Repair
it is often convenient to set Selection Toolbar bar to show
13.50.1 Requirements hh:mm:ss + samples, then click the Length radio but-
ton to ensure you are only selecting up to 128 samples.
The Repair effect can only be used on selection regions
up to 128 samples long (for most audio, only a few
thousandths of a second). Above this length, it becomes 13.50.2 Usage
too hard to guess what should be going on in the section
under repair. You will get an error message if you select 1. Select the approximate region of audio. Zoom in
too much audio to try and repair. In general, the shorter until you can start to see the individual dots (sam-
the section of audio you select to repair, the better the ples) in the waveform , and then reselect the short-
results will be. The Repair effect is unusual because it est possible piece of audio for replacement.
requires there to be audio outside the selection region
2. Click Effect > Repair to replace the selected audio
on at least one side of the section to be repaired. Ex-
with the repaired audio.
amining this audio lets Audacity interpolate (make an
informed guess about) the bad section. If the surround- 3. Zoom back out (or grab the handle on the horizontal
ing audio in the track is very short or non-existent there scrollbar at the bottom of the screen and drag left-
13.51. REPEAT 387
wards), click a few seconds before the region you cate clipped samples. If there is still clipped audio
were repairing, and play from there to hear if the after Repair, Edit > Undo, extend the region a lit-
repair sounds OK. If not, click Edit > Undo and try a tle further either side of the clipping, then Repair
different region to repair. Include a little more on ei- again.
ther side of the problem if the original damage was
• If only one channel of a stereo track is damaged,
still obvious, or less if the repaired region sounded
you can repair only the relevant channel by click-
different, but incorrect.
ing on the Audio Track Dropdown Menu and select-
ing "Split Stereo Track". After repairing the sin-
gle channel, you can rejoin the channels by using
"Make Stereo Track" in the same menu in the up-
per track.
Tips:
13.51 Repeat
Repeat repeats the selection the specified number of • If the selection to be repeated borders the right
times. Accessed by:Effect > Repeat edge of an audio clip , each repeat becomes a sep-
arate clip bordered by black vertical split lines .
• Any audio to right of the inserted repeats is moved
to right, and so not overwritten. However the re-
peat will not be allowed if it would move other clips
and "Editing a clip can move other clips" in Tracks
Preferences is unchecked.
• Repeat does not copy the original or resultant se-
lection to the Audacity clipboard.
13.51.5 Links
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page. |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.52 Reverb
Reverb adds reverberation (rapid, modified repetitions The maximum pre-delay is 200 milliseconds. Care-
blended with the original sound that gives an impression ful adjustment of this parameter can improve the
of ambience). The Reverb effect is based on the original clarity of the result.
"freeverb" algorithm. Adding reverberation is sometimes
desirable for concert halls that are too small or contain • Reverberance (%): Sets the length of the rever-
so many people that the hall’s natural reverberance is di- beration tail. This determines how long the rever-
minished. Applying a small amount of stereo reverb to beration continues for after the original sound being
an untreated mono signal duplicated into a two-channel reverbed comes to an end, and so simulates the
stereo track will usually make it sound more natural. This "liveliness" of the room acoustics. For any given re-
effect has factory presets .Note that this effect may in- verberance value, the tail will be greater for larger
crease the volume, so the "Dry Gain" should normally be room sizes.
set below 0 dB in order to prevent clipping . To allow • Damping (%): Increasing the damping produces a
the effect’s reverb tail to be audible, the selection must more "muted" effect. The reverberation does not
be extended beyond the end of the audio, which may re- build up as much, and the high frequencies decay
quire adding silence to the end of the track.Accessed faster than the low frequencies. Simulates the ab-
by:Effect > Reverb... sorption of high frequencies in the reverberation.
• Tone Low (%): Setting this control below 100% re-
duces the low frequency components of the rever-
beration, creating a less "boomy" effect.
• Tone High (%): Setting this control below 100%
reduces the high frequency components of the re-
verberation, creating a less "bright" effect.
• Wet Gain (dB): Applies volume adjustment to the
reverberation ("wet") component in the mix. In-
creasing this value relative to the "Dry Gain" (be-
low) increases the strength of the reverb.
• Dry Gain (dB): Applies volume adjustment to the
original ("dry") audio in the mix. Increasing this
value relative to the "Wet Gain" (above) reduces
the strength of the reverb. If the Wet Gain and Dry
Gain values are the same, then the mix of wet ef-
fect and dry audio to be output to the track will be
made louder or softer by exactly this value (assum-
ing "Wet Only" below is not checked).
13.52.1 Settings • Stereo Width (%): Sets the apparent "width" of the
Reverb effect for stereo tracks only. Increasing this
• Room Size (%): Sets the size of the simulated value applies more variation between left and right
room. 0% is like a closet, 100% is like a huge cathe- channels, creating a more "spacious" effect. When
dral or large auditorium. A high value will simulate set at zero, the effect is applied independently to
the reverberation effect of a large room and a low left and right channels.
value will simulate the effect of a small room.
• Wet Only: When this control is checked, only the
• Pre-delay (ms): Delays the onset of the reverber- wet signal (added reverberation) will be in the re-
ation for the set time after the start of the original sulting output, and the original audio will be re-
input. This also delays the onset of the reverb tail. moved. This can be useful when previewing the
13.52. REVERB 389
effect, but in most cases you should uncheck this 13.52.4 Examples
when applying the effect. Wet Only may be used
however to create a "reverb only" track that you can
then mix in greater or lesser proportion with the
original track. See Examples below for complete
steps.
Always add a few seconds of silence to any track to which
you intend to apply the Reverb effect. The reverb tail will
continue for several seconds after the sound ends. If you
13.52.2 Factory Presets do not add silence to the end of the track the reverb will
cut off unnaturally.
The following presets are provides available from the
Manage menu:
Apply a rich and bright reverb to a "dry" vocal record-
• Defaults (the default settings) ing
• Vocal I
This method uses the built-in preset Vocal II. Alterna-
• Vocal II tively, Vocal I produces a softer, less noticeable reverb.
For advanced users, any preset can be used as a starting
• Bathroom point for creating new presets.
• Small Room Bright 1. Ensure that there is a few seconds of silence at the
• Small Room Dark end of the audio so that the final note can fade away
naturally. If necessary, add a few seconds of si-
• Medium Room lence to the end of the track (see steps 1.1 to 1.4 in
the example below ).
• Large Room
2. Select the audio track that contains the vocal
• Church Hall recording.
• Cathedral 3. Click Effect > Reverb to launch the Reverb effect.
Custom presets may also be defined by the user. 4. In the "Presets" panel, click the Load button, select
Vocal II from the list then click OK. The controls will
now have been adjusted according to the selected
preset.
13.52.3 Buttons
5. Click on the OK button.
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re- If the vocal track was a mono track, a more "spacious"
sults: reverb effect can be created by making the track into
a stereo track before applying the Reverb effect as de-
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to scribed in steps 1 to 4 below .
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio Keep the reverb effect on a separate track
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the With this method, you duplicate the track to want to apply
audio. The length of preview is determined by your reverb to, then apply the Reverb effect to the duplicate
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de- track, checking the "Wet Only" checkbox in the Reverb
fault setting is 6 seconds. dialog. You can then control the amount of reverb in the
final mix by adjusting the Track Gain Sliders on the re-
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the verbed and original track. This gives you the flexibility to
current effect settings. tweak the proportion of reverb at any time after applying
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un- the effect.
changed. 1. Add a few seconds of silence to the end of the track:
(a) Click the Skip to End button on Transport Tool-
• brings you to the appropriate page in the bar or press the shortcut K
Manual, this page. (b) Click Generate > Silence
390 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
(c) Choose how much silence to add (20 seconds 5. Apply the Reverb effect to the track, choosing a
is the most you will ever need, 5 second will pleasing value for "Stereo Width" and making sure
often be adequate) to uncheck the Wet Only checkbox.
(d) Click OK to add the silence to the end of the This method can be expanded to incorporate the re-
track. verb on a separate track, as follows.
2. Select the entire track by clicking on the empty 1. Add a few seconds of silence to the end of the track
space in the Track Control Panel or use Shift + J. (steps 1.1 through 1.5 in the first example).
3. Click Edit > Clip Boundaries > Join or use its short- 2. Duplicate the track (select the track then click Edit
cut Ctrl + J. > Duplicate).
4. Duplicate the track by selecting the track then click- 3. From the Audio Track Dropdown Menu on the upper
ing Edit > Duplicate. track, select Make Stereo Track .
5. Select the duplicate track on its own. 4. Select the new stereo track.
6. Apply the Reverb effect to the duplicate track, mak- 5. Duplicate the track by selecting the track then click-
ing sure the Wet Only checkbox has the check- ing Edit > Duplicate.
mark. 6. Select the duplicate track on its own.
7. Play the tracks then use the Gain Slider on the re- 7. Apply the Reverb effect to the duplicate track, mak-
verbed (wet) track and on the original track to mix in ing sure the Wet Only checkbox has the check-
a pleasing amount of reverb. Make sure the com- mark.
bined gain is low enough so that the red clipping
indicators at the end of the Playback Meter’s play- 8. From the Audio Track Dropdown Menu of the origi-
back bars do not come on. nal track, select Split Stereo to Mono .
9. Delete one of the two resulting mono tracks by
clicking the Track Close Button or selecting that
Adding stereo reverb to a mono track track then choosing Tracks > Remove Tracks(this
last step is not strictly necessary, but reduces track
It is often desirable to add reverb to a mono track (such clutter and makes it clear that the original track is
as a vocal) but add a stereo "spread" to the reverb. This mono.)
is generally more pleasing and sounds better when the
10. Play the tracks then as in the first example, adjust
final mix is in stereo.
the Gain Sliders of the reverbed (wet) and original
1. Add a few seconds of silence to the end of the track tracks to mix in a pleasing amount of reverb, ensur-
(steps 1.1 through 1.5 in the example above). ing that the result does not clip.
2. Duplicate the track by selecting the track then click-
ing Edit > Duplicate.
13.52.5 Links
3. From the Audio Track Dropdown Menu on the upper
track, select Make Stereo Track . |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
4. Select the new stereo track. |< Effect Menu
13.53 Reverse
Reverse reverses the selected audio, so that the end (as they are nor really audio, merely a form of musical
of the audio will be heard first and the beginning last. "score")Accessed by:Effect > ReverseThere are no pa-
Some people reverse small portions of audio to make in- rameters to set for this effect; the effect operates on the
appropriate language unintelligible, while others believe audio that is currently selected. A Label Track can only
you can hear subliminal messages if you listen to speech be reversed, in full or in part, if it is selected along with
backwards. You can also create interesting sound effects some associated audio.If the reversal takes an apprecia-
by recording natural events and reversing the audio. ble time, a progress dialog will appear as below:
13.53.1 Links
of the track. In this case there is no longer a spectral se- Spectral edit parametric EQ
lection (all frequencies are selected which is the same as
making a time selection in waveform view). Press the Q
key again to restore the previous upper and lower bound-
aries. This command works whether in a Spectrogram
view or not.
13.54.4 Example of using spectral editing Hover the mouse over the upper or lower boundary until
to remove an unwanted whistle the double-triangle cursor appears, then click and drag
noise to adjust the bandwidth of the selection to just cover the
whistle:
Finally, select Effect > Spectral edit multi-tool which per- 13.54.5 Limitations
forms a notch filter effect on the selected frequencies.
The permitted upper frequency of the spectral selection
is determined by the Project Rate and not by the track
sample rate. Therefore if a project includes a track that
has a lower sample rate than the project rate, Spectral
Selection Toolbar could display an "illegal" frequency
selection above the Nyquist frequency for the track at the
lower project rate. Audacity will disregard this "illegal" se-
The whistle is gone. lection when running Spectral edit effects.
The Spectral edit multi tool is used with a Spectral Se- 13.55.1 Examples
lection to apply either a notch filter , high-pass filter
or low-pass filter to the selection, depending on the
type of selection made. Accessed by:Effect > Spectral Notch Filter
edit multi tool...Depending on how the track is displayed
and what spectral selection has been made, this effect If you make a spectral selection that has both an upper
will do one of the following: and lower boundary, selecting Effect > Spectral edit multi
tool will apply a notch filter. In the following example the
• When the track is not in a Spectrogram View with spectral selection had a center frequency of 2000 Hz and
Spectral Selection enabled, an error message will a bandwidth of 0.5 octave.
be displayed
The Spectral edit parametric EQ tool is used with a error message will state that the lower frequency
Spectral Selection to apply either a band boost filter , must be above 0 Hz.
or band-cut filter to the selection. Accessed by:Effect
> Spectral edit parametric EQ...
Due to a limitation in Nyquist effects, the effect dia-
log will be displayed before any error message.
13.56.1 Buttons
The Spectral edit shelves effect is used with a Spectral quency (the mid-point of the gain section of the
Selection to apply either a low-shelving filter or a high- curve) defined by the upper boundary of the spec-
shelving filter to the selection, depending on the type tral selection. The gain control sets the amount of
of selection made. Accessed by:Effect > Spectral edit low-frequency boost or cut. This is similar to adjust-
shelves... ing the bass control on a stereo.
13.57.1 Buttons
13.57.2 Examples
Low-shelving filter
13.58 Tremolo
Tremolo modulates the volume of the selection at the 13.58.4 Frequency (Hz)
depth and speed selected in the dialog. This is the same
as the tremolo effect familiar to guitar and keyboard play- Controls the speed of the oscillation; use higher frequen-
ers. Accessed by:Effect > Tremolo... cies for faster oscillation.
13.58.5 Buttons
Truncate Silence automatically reduces the length of removed if at least as long as the specified time du-
passages where the volume is below a specified level. ration.
There are two controls that determine which audio will be Truncate tracks independently
treated as "silence":
When the effect is run on multiple selected tracks the
1. Level (dB): To be treated as silence, the audio must Truncate tracks independently checkbox determines
be below this level. If not enough silences are being whether to treat the tracks as a mix that must be kept
reduced, increase the level to a higher (less nega- synchronized or to process the tracks independently one
tive) number. Note that due to rounding, audio may after the other.
be truncated that appears in the Amplify effect to
be exactly at the level you enter here. • When checked "off" (default), silence is only re-
moved where it occurs in the same place in all the
2. Duration (seconds): The minimum duration that selected tracks. If the silence is in different places
will be treated as silence. To be treated as silence, in each selected track, running the effect with this
the audio must remain below the "Level (dB)" en- option enabled will not remove any silence.
tered for at least this amount of time. If not enough
silences are being reduced, reduce this duration • When checked "on", each selected track is pro-
level. The shortest duration value you can enter cessed individually. All the specified silence will be
is 0.001 seconds. removed but different parts in each track may no
longer be synchronized with each other. Choose
this option to truncate silence in multiple different
songs which you imported into separate Audacity
13.59.2 Action tracks, and so are not part of a mix.
There are two methods available for shortening the si- Usage with Sync-Locked Track Groups enabled:
lence. The simplest method is by truncating the silence • If you do not select all audio tracks in the Group,
(default mode) and a more advanced method is by com- the unselected tracks will have the same sections
pressing the length of the silence. removed as are removed from the selected tracks,
whether those sections in the unselected tracks are
silent or not.
Truncate Detected Silence
• If truncating tracks independently, only one audio
track in each Group can be selected, because inde-
When this method is selected, silences are simply short- pendent truncation of multiple tracks would desyn-
ened to the "Detect Silence" duration (see example be- chronize the tracks.
low ). When this method is selected, the "Truncate to:"
(seconds) control is available lower down the interface
and the "Compress to:" (percent) control is grayed out.
All detected silences are shortened to the same dura- 13.59.3 Buttons
tion. When the audio remains below the "Detect Silence"
level for at least the "Detect Silence" duration, it will be Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
reduced to the "Truncate to" duration entered here. sults:
13.59. TRUNCATE SILENCE 401
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to Shorten silences that are 20 seconds or longer to 5
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail seconds
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio This may be useful for removing long pauses in a speech
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur- recording, without affecting the natural rhythm of the
rent settings, without making actual changes to the speech.
audio. The length of preview is determined by your 1. Set the Operation mode in the dropdown to " Trun-
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de- cate Detected Silence ".
fault setting is 6 seconds.
2. Set the detection " Level: " control.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings. 3. Set the detection " Duration: " control to 20 sec-
onds. Silences of 20 seconds or more will be cho-
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un- sen by the effect for truncation.
changed.
4. Set the " Truncate to: " control to 5 seconds. Si-
lences of 20 seconds or more will be truncated to
• brings you to the appropriate page in the 5 seconds. Silences of less than 20 seconds will
Manual, this page. remain unchanged.
5. Click OK.
13.59.4 Limitations
Compress Excess Silence examples:
Truncate Silence only removes audio, it does not reduce
or eliminate noise in the silent sections that it keeps. Compress silences that are longer than 2 seconds
Using Truncate Silence on selections which have This may be useful when a subtle reduction of longer si-
fade outs or fade ins may remove the quietest part of lences is required while maintaining a sense of the rela-
fades. If you need to add fades, it is usually best to apply tive length of each silence. In this example we will use a
Truncate Silence before adding fades. compression setting of 50% for simplicity.
1. Set the Operation mode in the dropdown to " Com-
press Excess Silence ".
13.59.5 Examples 2. Set the detection " Level: " control.
3. Set the detection " Duration: " control to 2 seconds.
Truncate Detected Silence examples:
4. Set the " Compress to: " control to 50 percent.
Shorten all silences that are longer than 2 seconds
5. Click OK.
to 2 seconds
• Silences that were originally less than 2 seconds
This may be useful for shortening inter-track gaps from duration will be unaffected.
an LP or cassette recording. • Silences that were originally exactly 2 seconds du-
1. Set the Operation mode in the dropdown to " Trun- ration will be detected, but the excess silence is
cate Detected Silence ". zero so no shortening will occur.
2. Set the detection " Level: " control. If there is no- • All silences that were longer than 2 seconds are
ticeable background noise you may need to set this shortened.
as a higher (less negative) value than the default. • The new length of the silence will be comprised of
3. Set the detection " Duration: " control to 2 seconds. 2 seconds (the ignored duration) plus half (50%) of
Silences of 2 seconds or more will be chosen by any additional silence.
the effect for truncation. Example: With the above settings, for an 8 second si-
4. Set the " Truncate to: " control to 2 seconds. All lence, there are 6 seconds beyond the 2 second detec-
detected silences will be truncated to 2 seconds. tion period: The 8 second silence will therefore be re-
duced to 2 seconds plus 50% of 6 seconds, that is 2 + 3
5. Click OK. = 5 seconds.
402 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Compress all silences to half their original duration onds. Note that if set to 0 the Preview and OK but-
tons are grayed out and a message is shown above
Strictly speaking all silences cannot be selected because the buttons: Minimum detection duration: 0.001
there is a fixed minimum length of silence that can be seconds..
detected of 0.001 seconds. However, 0.001 seconds (1
4. Set the " Compress to: " control to 50 percent.
millisecond) is an extremely short period, so we are able
to compress all noticeable silences to half their original 5. Click OK.
length. This may be useful to shorten a recorded lecture
or dictated notes without affecting the words.
1. Set the Operation mode in the dropdown to " Com- 13.59.6 Links
press Excess Silence ".
2. Set the detection " Level: " control. |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
3. Set the detection " Duration: " control to 0.001 sec- |< Effect Menu
Vocal Reduction and Isolation attempts to remove or • Isolate Vocals: If the audio is center-panned, ex-
isolate center-panned audio from a stereo track. Vo- tracts the slider-defined vocal range and returns it
cals are sometimes (but not always) recorded in this as a (dual) mono track.
way. The simplest and quickest removal method sub-
tracts one channel from the other, but the result will be • Isolate Vocals and Invert: If the audio is center-
(dual) mono. This method is available at "Remove Center panned, extracts the slider-defined vocal range and
Classic: (Mono)" under Action . All other "Remove" op- returns it as an inverted (dual) mono track.
tions in this effect preserve the stereo image. The Isolate Inverting a waveform is the action of flipping the audio
options all return (dual) mono output. The narrowness of samples upside-down, reversing their polarity. The posi-
the center slice can be adjusted with the "Strength" slider. tive samples (above the horizontal zero line in the Audac-
Center isolation is not possible using the classic subtrac- ity Waveform) are moved below the zero line (so becom-
tion method. The Analyze option displays the amount of ing negative), and negative samples are made positive.
correlation between the stereo channels and the degree
of likelihood that center removal or isolation will work ef- • The "and Invert" options may be useful when pro-
fectively. cessing using duplicated tracks. See the examples
below.
• See also the tutorial on Vocal Removal and Isola-
tion • Remove Center: Removes all audio (the whole fre-
quency spectrum ) that is common to both left and
Accessed by:Effect > Vocal Reduction and Isolation...
right channels and returns a true stereo track.
The Low Cut and High Cut sliders have no effect when
"Remove Center" is selected.
• Isolate Center: If the audio is center-panned, ex-
tracts the whole frequency spectrum and returns it
as a (dual) mono track.
• Isolate Center and Invert: If the audio is center-
panned, extracts the whole frequency spectrum
from and returns it as an inverted (dual) mono track.
13.60.1 Action The Low Cut and High Cut sliders have no effect when
either "Isolate Center" action is selected
• Remove Vocals: (default). If the audio is center- • Remove Center Classic: (Mono): Removes all
panned, removes the vocal range defined by the audio (the whole frequency spectrum ) that is com-
Low Cut and High Cut sliders, and returns it as a mon to both left and right channels and returns a
stereo track. Audio is said to be "center-panned" if (dual) mono track. This is identical to full frequency
it is common to both left and right channels. removal in the legacy Vocal Remover effect.
13.60. VOCAL REDUCTION AND ISOLATION 403
This option is usually much quicker than the other actions 13.60.3 Low Cut for Vocals
because the processing is much simpler.
All actions with Vocals in the name use this value. The
• The "Strength", "Low Cut" and "High Cut" slid-
frequencies below will either not be removed or not be
ers have no effect when "Remove Center Classic:
included in the isolated audio. It is useful to exclude bass
(Mono)" is selected.
and kick drum. The default value of 120 Hz is good for
• Analyze: Tells you how great the chances are of most lead vocals, or even low male voices. You can enter
a successful vocal reduction or isolation. It returns a higher value around 170 Hz for female voices and about
also the average Pan position for the selected au- 230 Hz for those of children. This control only affects "
dio. See below for an in-depth explanation. Actions " that contain the word Vocals in their name.
• Less than 1.0: Produces a notch with a V shape Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
like a ship’s keel, but also with a sharp point. Use sults:
this setting to preserve some amount of the center. • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
• 1.0 - the default: Produces a notch with a V shape.
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
The power distribution is preserved. This is the
ideal setting for most cases. • Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
• Greater than 1.0: Produces a notch with a U
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
shape. This removes some audio adjacent to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
center, as well as the center. Note that this will not
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
remove stereo reverberation since it is distributed
fault setting is 6 seconds.
over the entire pan width.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
Isolate • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• Less than 1.0: Produces a peak like a U shape
upside down, similar to an arch. Only extreme left
and right are eliminated. • brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
• 1.0 - the default: Produces a peak like a V shape
upside down. The power distribution is preserved.
You might want a higher value when a lot of side au- 13.60.6 Interpreting the analysis results
dio leaks in. This is also the recommended setting
when working with two tracks (options with ...and It is recommended to analyze the audio prior to actual
Invert). processing of the effect. Analysis is very fast compared
• Greater than 1.0: Produces a peak with an A to the time needed for processing. The two important
shape like the Eiffel Tower (with a sharp point). This values are:
will attenuate most of the side energy but might pro- • Pan Position: This gives the average pan position
duce artifacts or musical noise. Normalize the au- for the whole selected audio. The value of the track
dio after using Isolate with a high strength setting. pan slider is not included in this calculation.
404 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Correlation: This is a measure for the similarity Choose Isolate Vocals with a high Strength value. The
of the two channels. Values of +/-100 mean that result will probably still have some music in it. It is there-
the channels are exactly the same, even if one is fore better suited for a remix with a different accompa-
inverted. A value of 0 means no relationship. It niment. Pure vocal versions have to be post-processed
is fruitless to attempt removal or isolation in these with other tools.
cases. The ideal value is normally around +50. Val-
• Alternative to "Auto Duck" with podcasts
ues below 0 are rare and indicate that the stereo
width is more than 100%. Inverting one channel Duplicate the track and choose Isolate Center and In-
makes the correlation positive. vert on the second track. Record your voice. Silence the
second track where you don’t speak and the original mu-
Sometimes the lead vocals are not exactly in the middle.
sic should be heard. On the same track, make fades at
In this case, select a short portion of audio where only
the boundaries (where the speech starts or stops).
the voice is audible and no other instrument. Choose
Analyze. • Removing excessive stereo reverb from a vocal or
instrument track.
1. The correlation should be fairly high (around 100)
which would indicate that there is indeed only the Use Isolate... to make a single vocal or instrument track
voice. "dry" again.
2. Copy the value for the Pan Position. Double-click in • Removing random system noise from a two chan-
the Pan slider to open the adjustment dialog then nel recording of a mono source.
paste in the value with reversed sign (that is, put a
minus sign in front of a positive value and a positive use Isolate... to remove random noise produced by the
sign in front of a negative value). soundcard, the cables or the computer itself.
3. Mix and render the track. The voice will now be • Removing single words or phrases
exactly centered and you can remove or isolate it. You can remove offending content from a song or movie
4. Don’t forget to readjust the selection. dialog by selecting it and choosing Remove Vocals.
Mask it with other sounds, if necessary.
• Amplifying dialogs in a movie.
13.60.7 Limitations
Duplicate the track, isolate the vocals and adjust the gain.
• The input must be a true stereo track and not mere • Converting stereo files into 3.1, 5.1 and other multi-
(dual) mono. channel formats.
• Stereo Reverberation will not be fully removed be- Duplicate the track and choose "Isolate Center and In-
cause it is independently distributed over the whole vert" on the second track. Render all to a new track.
stereo image. Delete the first track, invert the second track and split
the third track. Rearrange the tracks accordingly. Thus
• Naturally the plug-in does not know what kind of you end up with "Front Left", "Center" and "Front Right"
audio is in the center. All is removed or isolated eventually.
equally, whether vocals, bass or solo instruments.
• Extracting instrument solos
• This effect is quite slow, except for the "Remove
Center Classic: (Mono)" and "Analyze" actions. Isolate the center if the solo is there, otherwise remove
the center, split to mono and delete the superfluous track.
• Blending between original, karaoke version and vo-
The whole processing is done in memory. Long se-
cals only
lections (over half an hour) might therefore cause Audac-
ity to crash. Duplicate the track and choose Isolate Vocals and In-
vert on the second track. Choose the envelope tool or
fade effects to gradually change from one mode to the
13.60.8 Examples other. Silencing the first track results in the vocals being
isolated. Silencing the second track produces the original
audio. Playing both tracks together removes the vocals.
This effect can be used in a variety of ways:
• Correcting the pan position
• Creating a Karaoke version from an original song
Analyze the whole track and copy the value for the pan
Choose Remove Vocals if you want to keep some bass
position. Paste the value into the pan dialog and reverse
and drum beat.
the sign, that is, set a minus sign in front of positive val-
• Creating an acapella version from an original song ues and vice-versa.
13.61. VOCAL REMOVER 405
• Measuring similarity between two mono tracks stop filtering. Adjust the frequencies accordingly.
Make the two tracks stereo and choose Analyze. The
correlation value is the measure for the similarity in per-
cent. 13.60.9 Links
• Applying a brick wall filter to mono tracks
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Duplicate a mono track, make it stereo and choose Iso-
late Vocals for band pass and Remove Vocals for band |< Effect Menu
Vocal Remover (for center-panned vocals)... attempts with stereo reverberation. It is possible to find plug-ins
to remove center-panned audio from a stereo track. Vo- that can be run in Audacity that may be able to attenuate
cals are sometimes (but not always) recorded in this way. vocals by other than inversion. See the Wiki page Vocal
Note that although two channels of output are produced, Removal for details. Vocal Remover (for center-panned
the result is mono because both channels will be panned vocals)... requires a stereo track and works best on au-
to center. dio in a lossless format like WAV or AIFF rather than a
compressed, lossy format like MP3 . If your song is on a
• See also the tutorial on Vocal Removal and Isola-
CD, use a application like CD-ex to rip it to WAV or AIFF
tion
before using Vocal Remover.
methods. Enter the approximate frequency range of the • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
audio you wish to retain. manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
13.61.4 Frequency band lower and upper • Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
limit (Hz) rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
This control must contain two numbers, sepa- fault setting is 6 seconds.
rated by one or more spaces (default: 500 2000). When
using either the Remove frequency band or Retain fre- • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
quency band option, the lower and upper limits of the current effect settings.
frequency band in Hz are defined by this control. The • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
two defining frequencies must be typed as numbers with changed.
no additional text. Neither frequency should exceed half
of the track sample rate (as indicated in the Track Control
Panel ). As a rough guide, the range of the human voice
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
is approximately 150 to 7000 Hz, though the strongest
Manual, this page.
components are usually in a narrower range of approxi-
mately 300 to 3000 Hz.
13.61.6 Links
13.61.5 Buttons
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults: |< Effect Menu
13.62 Vocoder
13.62.6 Amplitude of Radar Needles (per- 2. Add some low-frequency radar needles - this will
sound like a tremolo.
cent)
This section uses the terms "modulator" and "carrier". In
The amplitude of "radar needles" that are added to the a vocoder, the modulator is the signal that modulates or
right channel before applying the vocoder. The default controls the carrier signal. In audio context, the modula-
setting is 0%. "Radar needles" are a series of very short tor is the sound you want to change (often a voice talk-
pulses (clicks), also known as "pulse train" in speech syn- ing or singing), and the carrier you use to change that
thesizers. They have a pulse width of only one sample sound is often a steady musical tone or note, or some-
and a spectrum ranging from the frequency specified by times a natural sound like some kind of noise. So for
the Frequency slider (below) up to much greater than 20 the purposes of the steps in all the following examples,
kHz. we assume the modulator to be a "voice" track and the
carrier to be a "music" track. The modulator and car-
rier will thus usually be two separate audio tracks. Self-
made voice or speech recordings are usually mono, but
13.62.7 Frequency of Radar Needles (Hz) voice or speech recordings from radio or CD often con-
tain stereo reverb effects. Music signals can be either
The number of "radar needles" per second where only mono or stereo. There are thus four different practical
one sample per period has a non-zero value. This is the cases:
most-broadband signal possible, even more broadband
• Case 1: Applying a mono modulator to a mono car-
than white noise. The default setting is 30.0 Hz. See also
rier - the simplest case
Wikipedia Dirac Comb for a detailed description.Best re-
sults may be obtained if you first mix the radar needles • Case 2: Applying a mono modulator to a stereo
with another sound, then apply Vocoder. carrier - the most common case
408 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Case 3: Applying a stereo modulator to a mono 4. Select only the upper stereo track and apply the
carrier Vocoder with "Output choice" set to "right only".
This processes the "Left" channel of the original
• Case 4: Applying a stereo modulator to a stereo music track, and lets us retain the mono voice track
carrier for reuse in step 8.
To apply the Vocoder effect, Audacity needs to combine 5. In the upper stereo track, open the Track Dropdown
the modulator and carrier signals into a stereo audio track Menu and choose "Split Stereo Track"
where the modulator is in the left channel (the upper
waveform of the stereo track) and the carrier is in the 6. Move the first track down one track so that it is
right channel (the lower waveform). The remainder of above the right music track
this section thus describes the steps needed to combine
7. Open the Track Dropdown Menu in the second
the signals in the four cases above. "Stereo" means two-
track and choose "Make Stereo Track".
channel stereo, because in Audacity stereo signals with
more than two channels are handled as multiple mono 8. Select only the resulting stereo track and apply
tracks - there is no standard way to handle audio signals Vocoder with "output choice" set to "both channels".
with more than two channels. Vocoding a Dolby 5.1 sig- This now processes the "Right" channel of the orig-
nal in Audacity means "Applying a mono modulator to a inal music track.
mono carrier" six times on six mono tracks.
9. Select the stereo track, and choose Tracks > Mix >
Mix Stereo down to Mono .
Case 1: Applying a mono modulator to a mono car- 10. In the upper mono track, open the Track Dropdown
rier Menu and choose "Make Stereo Track". Now we
have the two processed music channels combined
into a stereo track.
This means that the modulator (voice) and carrier (music)
initially are two separate Audacity mono audio tracks.
1. If necessary, move the voice track directly above Case 3: Applying a stereo modulator to a mono car-
the music track. rier
2. In the upper track (voice), open the Audio Track
Dropdown Menu and choose "Make Stereo Track". This means that the modulator (voice) is a stereo track
and carrier (music) is a mono audio track.
3. Select the stereo track and apply Vocoder with "out-
1. If necessary, move the stereo voice track above the
put choice" set to "both channels". You now have a
mono music track.
"dual mono" track where the same content is in left
and right channels of the stereo track. 2. Select the (upper) stereo voice track, open the Au-
dio Track Dropdown Menu and choose "Split Stereo
4. Select the stereo track and choose Tracks > Mix >
Track".
Mix Stereo down to Mono to make a mono track
again. 3. Select the mono (third) music track, and choose
Edit > Duplicate.
4. Move the first music track (the third track on screen)
Case 2: Applying a mono modulator to a stereo car- up one track so that you now from top to bottom of
rier the screen:
(a) "Left" voice track
This means that the modulator (voice) is a mono audio
track and carrier (music) is a stereo audio track. This is a (b) The original mono music track
very common case because voice recordings are usually
mono while music recordings are most often stereo. (c) "Right" voice track
(d) The duplicated mono music track.
1. Open the Audio Track Dropdown Menu of the
stereo music track and choose "Split Stereo Track". 5. Select the "Left" voice track, open the Track Drop-
We now have a "Left" music track above a "Right" down Menu and choose "Make Stereo Track".
music track.
6. Select only the track you just made into stereo
2. If necessary, move the voice track directly above (the upper stereo track) and apply the Vocoder with
the left music track. "Output choice" set to "both channels".
3. In the voice track, open the Track Dropdown Menu 7. Select only the stereo track you just processed, and
and choose "Make Stereo Track". choose Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo down to Mono .
13.63. WAHWAH 409
8. Select the "Right" voice track, open the Track Drop- 5. Select the "Left" of the voice track (the uppermost
down Menu and choose "Make Stereo Track". track), open the Track Dropdown Menu and choose
"Make Stereo Track".
9. Select only the track you just made into stereo
(the lower stereo track) and apply the Vocoder with 6. Select only the track you just made into stereo
"Output choice" set to "both channels". (the upper stereo track) and apply the Vocoder with
"Output choice" set to "both channels".
10. Select only the stereo track you just processed, and
choose Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo down to Mono . 7. Select the "Right" of the voice track (the third track),
open the Track Dropdown Menu and choose "Make
11. Open the Track Dropdown Menu in the upper track
Stereo Track".
and choose "Make Stereo Track". Now we have
a stereo track, containing processed left and right 8. Select only the track you just made into stereo
channels of the original stereo voice and mono mu- (the lower stereo track) and apply the Vocoder with
sic track. "Output choice" set to "both channels".
9. Select both stereo tracks. You can do this by hold-
Case 4: Applying a stereo modulator to a stereo car- ing Shift on the keyboard while clicking in the upper
rier (unselected) stereo track, or hold Shift while press-
ing Up arrow on the keyboard. With both tracks
This means that the modulator (voice) and the carrier selected, choose Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo down
(music) are both stereo audio tracks. to Mono .
1. If necessary, move the stereo voice track above the 10. Open the Track Dropdown Menu in the upper track
stereo music track. and choose "Make Stereo Track". Now we have
a stereo track, containing processed left and right
2. Select the (upper) stereo voice track, open the Au- channels of the original stereo voice and stereo mu-
dio Track Dropdown Menu and choose "Split Stereo sic track.
Track".
3. Select the (lower) stereo music track, open the
Track Dropdown Menu and choose "Split Stereo 13.62.9 Links
Track".
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
4. Move the "Left" music track up one track so that you
now have two "Left" tracks above two "Right" tracks. |< Effect Menu
13.63 Wahwah
13.63.2 LFO Start Phase in real-time. Text-based button controls are provided as
in the image above. The Enable checkbox acts like a
The start position of the LFO cycle. This determines live "Bypass" control. Uncheck the checkbox Enable
whether the bandpass filter starts at its lowest, mid or to hear the audio without the effect applied, and recheck
highest frequencies. Another way to look at it is that it the box Enable to hear the effect applied at its current
determines whether at the start of the effect the pitch is settings. The Manage button accesses choices to add,
rising or falling. delete, import or export presets for this effect and to set
options for this effect. For details see Manage presets .
13.63.3 Depth
13.63.8 Buttons
Determines the range of frequencies that are swept
through by the bandpass filter. Higher values will sweep Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
the filter to higher frequencies and so give more variation sults:
to the sound quality over a complete LFO cycle. Lower
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
values will give a more constant sound effect.
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
13.63.4 Resonance • Start Playback starts playback of the effect preview
• Skip Backward skips forward through the effect pre-
Determines the degree of resonance in the bandpass fil-
view
ter. Higher values give a more "peaky" effect.
• Skip Forward skips forward through the effect pre-
view
13.63.5 Wah Frequency Offset • Enable listen to the preview with and without the
effect applied
Determines the "base" frequency of the bandpass filter.
Higher values will shift the filter’s frequency range up- • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
wards. To achieve a Wah effect that’s in the low frequen- current effect settings.
cies the frequency offset needs to be set to a low value. • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
13.63.6 Output gain (dB)
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Controls the amount of gain (volume) positive or negative Manual, this page.
that will be applied by the effect.
13.63.9 Links
13.63.7 Real-time preview
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
This effect supports Real-time preview - effect settings
can be changed while playing and listening to the result |< Effect Menu
13.64 SC4
RMS/peak Displays the degree of gain reduction that the effect ap-
plied to the original selection, in dB. The Effect Output
The balance between the RMS and peak envelope fol- values are not editable and only change on applying the
lowers. The followers use the amplitude variation in- effect, so will appear as zero when you first open the ef-
formation in the waveform to affect the gain applied by fect. If you close and reopen the effect, the Amplitude
the compressor. The RMS follower is generally better for (dB) always displays the input level prior to the last ap-
subtle, musical compression and the peak follower is bet- plication of the effect, not the current RMS level of the
ter for heavier, fast compression and percussion. selection.
How soon the compressor starts to compress the dynam- This effect supports Real-time preview - effect settings
ics after the threshold is exceeded, in milliseconds. can be changed while playing and listening to the result
in real-time. Text-based button controls are provided as
in the image above. The Enable checkbox acts like a
Release time (ms) live "Bypass" control. Uncheck the checkbox Enable
to hear the audio without the effect applied, and recheck
How soon the compressor starts to release the volume the box Enable to hear the effect applied at its current
level back to normal after the level drops below the settings. The Manage button accesses choices to add,
threshold, in milliseconds. delete, import or export presets for this effect and to set
options for this effect. For details see Manage presets .
Knee radius (dB) • Skip Forward skips forward through the effect pre-
view
The distance from the threshold where the knee curve • Enable listen to the preview with and without the
starts. effect applied
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
Makeup gain (dB) current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
The amount of gain added to the processed result. changed.
412 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.64.5 Links
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page. |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
Chapter 14
Generator Menu
14.1.1 Example 1: Insert two seconds of si- 2. Drag your mouse to the right to select 30 seconds
lence at the start of the track as a of audio, then release the mouse button.
"lead-in" • Or for greater accuracy, select the End but-
ton in the End/Length box of Selection Tool-
1. Click the the "Skip to Start" button or press Home bar , then enter 1 minute 45 seconds in that
to place the cursor at the start of the track. box.
2. Choose Silence from the Generate menu, ac- • Alternatively, select the Length button and
cessed by: Generate > Silence... . enter 30 seconds.
3. Specify two seconds of silence by clicking on the 3. Choose Tone from the Generate menu, accessed
final digit of the two digits that represent seconds, by: Generate > Tone... .
then overtype it with "2". The highlight then moves
to the next digit. • If you used the mouse and now see in "Du-
ration" that the selection is a little too short
• If the value is showing at 30.000 seconds with or long, move the highlighted digit as required
"3" highlighted, type "02". using the Left or Right arrow keys on your key-
• To change the digit that is highlighted, either board, then type over that digit. To generate
click on the one you want to highlight, or move exactly 30 seconds, all the digits for samples
the highlighting by using the Left or Right ar- should be zero.
row keys on your keyboard.
4. Specify the Waveform type, Frequency and Am-
4. Click the OK button or press Enter on your key- plitude required in the dialog box.
board.
5. Click the OK button or press Enter on your key-
board.
14.1.2 Example 2: Replace a 30 second Advanced: To insert or replace audio whose length must
section of audio starting at 1 minute be specified in CDDA or film frames:
15 seconds with a tone 1. Open the context menu by clicking the triangle to
right of the Duration digits
1. Click in the track at 1 minute 15 seconds (under-
neath "1:15" in the Timeline above the track). 2. Choose the required Selection Format .
• Or for greater accuracy, enter 1 minute 15 sec- You can also open the context menu by hovering over
onds in the Selection Start box of Selection or selecting in the Duration digits, then right-clicking or
Toolbar . using a keyboard equivalent. |< Generate Menu
413
414 CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
14.2 Chirp
14.2.4 Interpolation
14.2.7 Links
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page. |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Generate Menu
DTMF Tones generates dual-tone multi-frequency • When generating at the cursor, Duration initial-
(DTMF) tones like those produced by the keypad on tele- izes to 30.000 seconds (except for the DTMF gen-
phones. Accessed by:Generate > DTMF Tones... erator which defaults to 1.000 second). However,
your last entered Duration is always remembered.
14.3.2 Amplitude Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
Lets you type an amplitude value for the loudness of • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
the generated audio. Permitted values are between 0 manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
(silence) and 1 (the maximum possible volume without about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
clipping ), with a default of 0.8.
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
14.3.3 Duration rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
Type (or use the keyboard arrows) to enter the required setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
Duration. If the first digit you want is highlighted, just fault setting is 6 seconds.
type the whole number. If the required first digit is not • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
highlighted, use Left or Right arrow on your keyboard to current effect settings.
move to the first digit, then type. You can also increment
a highlighted digit with keyboard Up or Down arrow in- • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
stead of typing. changed.
416 CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
14.3.6 Links
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page. |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Generate Menu
Generate Menu lets you create audio containing tones, 14.4.3 Using Audacity’s Generators
noise or silence. Generated audio can be inserted at the
cursor position so as to extend the track, or can replace • Generate audio into a new track: If there are no
an existing selection with the newly generated audio. Al- existing tracks, choose the required generator. If
though by default, no keyboard shortcuts are provided for there are existing tracks, click outside the tracks (in
the generators, it is possible to create your own shortcut the gray background) to deselect them, then Gen-
for any Generate command. See Keyboard Preferences erate.
for help with creating shortcuts.Click, or hover, on any
menu item in the image to read about that command. • Insert generated audio at the cursor position:
Skip the image Place the cursor in the track then Generate. The
specified duration of audio will be inserted into the
selected track(s) at the cursor position. The total
length of the selected track(s) will therefore be in-
creased.
• Replace an existing selection with generated
audio: Select the region then Generate. The se-
lected region(s) will be replaced with the generated
audio. The total length of the selected track(s) will
remain the same, unless you change the length in
the generator to replace the selection with a longer
or shorter one.
Having placed the cursor or selected the region, there
are several ways to select extra tracks so as to generate
14.4.1 Audacity’s Generators into those at the same time. The simplest method is to
hold down Shift then use Up or Down arrow on the key-
• The built-in generators are: Chirp , DTMF , Noise , board. See How do I extend or move the selected region
Silence and Tone . into other tracks? .
Selection Format for Duration Generates one of four different tone waveforms : Sine,
Aquare, Sawtaooth and Square (no alias). The name
Whether generating in a selection or not, you can change of each tone roughly describes its appearance when
the Selection Format to another unit of Duration so that zoomed in sufficiently to see each cycle of the wave-
the generation will be in those units. To do this, open the form.
context menu by clicking the triangle to right of the dig-
its. You can also open the menu by hovering over or se-
lecting in the Duration digits, then right-clicking or using 14.4.5 Plug-in Generators
a keyboard equivalent. Examples of Generator Usage:
see Examples of Generator Usage for some examples of Any additional generators which appear underneath the
using the Audacity generators. menu divider are Nyquist , LADSPA or LV2 plug-ins. Click
the links in the preceding sentence to see how to add
new plug-ins of each type. Audacity includes the follow-
14.4.4 Built-in Generators ing Nyquist generators, but more are available on Down-
load Nyquist Plug-ins on our Wiki.
Chirp...
Nyquist generators do not usually take the
Chirp produces four different types of tones like the Tone length of selected audio as the length of the audio
Generator but additionally allows setting of the start and to be generated. Instead, specify the length required
end amplitude and frequency. Short tones can be made in the appropriate input field(s) of the plugin. Any se-
to sound very much like a bird-call. As with Tone, fre- lected audio will be replaced by the length of audio spec-
quencies can be specified anywhere between 1 Hz and ified in the plug-in, thus the total length of the track(s)
half the current project rate as shown in Selection Tool- will change unless the selected and specified lengths are
bar . identical. The description page for each plug-in genera-
tor (accessed by the links below) shows an image of the
interface and its default settings.
DTMF Tones...
Pluck...
Generates dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones like
those produced by the keypad on telephones. For each
A synthesized pluck tone with abrupt or gradual fade-out,
tone you wish to generate, enter numbers from 0 to 9,
and selectable pitch corresponding to a MIDI note.
lower case letters from a to z, and the * and # characters.
You can also enter the four "priority" tones used by the
US Military (upper case A, B, C and D). Rhythm Track...
14.5 Limiter
Use the Limiter effect to pass signals below a speci- same way as "Hard Clipping", but is less fierce in that
fied input level unaffected or gently reduced, while pre- it "squashes" the peaks rather than cutting them off flat.
venting the peaks of stronger signals from exceeding this Soft clipping starts to reduce the peaks a little below the
threshold. Mastering engineers often use limiting com- threshold level and progressively increases its effect as
bined with make-up gain to increase the perceived loud- the input level increases such that the threshold is never
ness of an audio recording during the audio mastering exceeded. When applied heavily, the effect is similar to
process. This limiter effect provides two basic types of a "Fuzz Box" effect. The difference between "Hard" and
effect; "limiting" and "clipping". The "limiting" effect is a "Soft" clipping is that "Hard" clipping cuts off the peaks
special kind of dynamic compression that responds very flat, whereas "Soft" clipping rounds the corners where the
rapidly to peaks in the waveform. The "clipping" effect is a waveform has been clipped, resulting in a softer sound-
kind of distortion that changes the shape of the waves by ing distortion.
"clipping" off the high and low peaks.Accessed by:Effect
> Limiter...
14.5.2 Input Gain
amount of distortion. The shorter the "Hold" duration, the • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
faster the limiter responds to changes in input level. It is changed.
generally desirable for the limiter to respond very rapidly,
but responding too rapidly will produce distortion, espe-
cial when processing low frequency sounds such as a • brings you to the appropriate page in the
double bass. Normally this control can be left at the de- Manual, this page.
fault (10 ms) setting.
Basically, a limiter reduces the gain (negative amplifica-
tion) when the audio exceeds the "threshold" ("Limit to")
level. The "Hold" time is how long (in milliseconds) the
14.5.5 Apply makeup gain gain remains at the reduced level before returning back to
normal. Usually you would want the gain to return back to
Amplifies the output (post limiter) close to 0 dB (usually normal pretty quickly after the peak has passed because
just a little below 0 dB). This is useful when using the you normally only want to limit the peaks and then return
limiter to maximize loudness. back to normal as quickly as possible. However, there
is a problem if the limiter responds too quickly, and this
is most noticeable when processing bass instruments. If
14.5.6 Buttons there is a very low note, say below 100 Hz, then the time
from one peak to the next may be longer than the "hold"
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re- time. Thus the gain will start to reduce as the peak level
sults: rises, then will start to "release" (return to normal gain)
between one peak and the next. This rapid "fluttering"
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to of the gain level distorts the waveform, which is usually
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail undesirable. The solution to the problem is simple - just
about the tool. For details see Manage presets . hold the gain at the reduced level for a little while so that
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio the limiter is responding to the overall shape of the note
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur- and not the individual waveform peaks.
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de- 14.5.7 Links
fault setting is 6 seconds.
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings. |< Effect Menu
Use the Effects, Generators and Analyzers Plug-in plug-ins must be enabled using this dialog.
Manager to add or remove shipped effects and plug-ins
and third-party plug-ins of supported types , without the
need to restart Audacity.Accessed by:Effect > Add / Re- 14.6.1 Radio buttons
move Plug-ins..., Generate > Add / Remove Plug-ins... or
Analyze > Add / Remove Plug-ins... .
Every time you open the dialog, Audacity scans for all
detected plug-ins and lists these together with the built-in
effects it ships with. Select the All button to see all those
built-in effects and plug-ins and their current disabled, en-
abled or "new" state (see below). The buttons Disabled,
Enabled and New enable you to list only those effects,
generators and analyzers in that respective state.
By default all the Built-in effects, with the exception of All effects shown in the dialog as Enabled will be visible
Classic Filters , are loaded in Audacity. The shipped in the appropriate menu: Effect, Generate or Analyze.
420 CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
New relates to those effects that have never been reg- Once enabled, an effect can only be disabled (which re-
istered as Enabled in your installation of Audacity. Use moves it from the menu) or re-enabled. Unless you are
this New view to quickly locate an effect that you have in the "All" view, changing the state of an effect always
just added to your system and wish to enable. To change removes it from the view you are in. The effect can then
the state of any effect, generator or analyzer select it by be seen in the appropriate view for its current state. Dis-
clicking on it in the list in the dialog, then use either the abling an effect only disables it in Audacity, and does not
Enable or Disable button and click the OK button. Note uninstall it from your system.
that escaping, clicking Cancel or the window close but-
ton will discard your changes. Alternatively you can use
Space to toggle the state of the effect from New to En- 14.6.3 Resetting effects
abled and thence between Enabled and Disabled.
• Press Select All to select all items in the view you Resetting your Audacity settings (for example, by rein-
are in. The items will now appear with light gray stalling Audacity using the Windows installer with "Reset
background. The Clear All button deselects all Preferences" enabled) does not change the enabled or
items and can be used to change your mind and disabled state of your effects. If you want to go back to
quickly enable only one or two individual effects. the enabled effects, generators and analyzers that Au-
dacity was installed with (Classic Filters and all shipped
• Multiple individual items from the list can be se- or third-party plug-ins are "New" and not in the menus),
lected using Ctrl + Click to select each additional exit Audacity, open Audacity’s folder for application data
item or Shift + Click to select a range of items. and delete the file "pluginregistry.cfg".
Most effects, generators and analyzers in Audacity have 14.7.1 User Presets
a Manage button in their dialog. Clicking this button
opens a dropdown menu enabling you to manage pre- Lets you choose from presets that you have already
sets for the tool and to see some details about the tool. saved in Audacity (see below). In the image above, this
option is grayed out because no user presets have yet
Accessed by: The Manage or button at the bot- been saved.
tom left of effects, generators and analyzers dialogs:
14.7.5 Import... options available (as in the Normalize image above) then
this menu item will be grayed out.
Imports presets which you have exported using the Ex-
port option (below) on this or other machines or which
you have exported from other software that supports a 14.7.8 About
compatible preset. Available only for VST and Audio Unit
(Mac) effects. Selecting "About" from the Manage button displays an
information dialog for the tool.
• Type: Indicates whether this is a built-in Audacity
14.7.6 Export... tool (as the Normalize example is) otherwise indi-
cates the type of plug-in it is, for example, Nyquist,
Exports presets for use in Audacity on other machines LADSPA or VST.
or for use in other software that supports import of a • Name: The name of the effect, generator or ana-
compatible preset. Available only for VST and Audio Unit lyzer.
(Mac) effects.
• Version: Where available, shows the version num-
ber of the tool.
Many commands in Audacity appear in one of the menus View Change Zoom levels. Show clipping , Undo His-
and are documented on the following pages. Other func- tory , Mixer Board , Toolbars and Karaoke window .
tions can be found in Toolbars or run by using the ap-
Transport Control recording and playback.
propriate keyboard shortcut listed in Keyboard Shortcut
Reference . Shortcuts can be changed or added in Key- Tracks Adding, aligning and labeling audio tracks.
board Preferences .
Generate Creating new audio in your project. Audio gen-
erating plug-ins will also appear here.
14.8.1 The Menu bar Effect Processing the audio in your project. External Ef-
fects plug-ins will also appear in this menu.
Image of the Menu bar as it appears on Windows Analyze Analyzing the audio in your project. External
plug-ins that act on audio but do not produce audio out-
put will appear here, as well as tools like Silence Finder
and spectrograms.
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that menu entry. Window (Mac Only)Minimize and zoom windows, choose
the project window to bring to the front.
Menu What you’ll find there
Help Short and full Help; capture Audacity screenshots;
Audacity (Mac Only)About Audacity, Preferences, Sys- download current Audacity; audio device information;
tem Services, Show and Hide Audacity and other appli- show the Log and generate support data; Audacity ver-
cations, and Quit. sion number, license and build information.
File Working with Audacity project files and other audio
files.
14.8.2 The Extended Menu bar
Edit Altering the audio in your project.
Select Making selections of tracks, or within tracks, in There are two additional menu items that are hidden by
your project. default. They can be turned on at View > Extra Menus
422 CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
(on/off) or the Interface pane of Preferences . The Ex- operations that are not available in the default Audac-
tended Menu bar adds menu access to many less fre- ity menus. These will be of most interest to visually-
quently used commands. These are particularly useful impaired users or those who have difficulty using the
to visually-impaired or motion-impaired users, but others mouse. Shortcuts can be assigned to these commands
may find them useful too. Image of the Extended Menu if required.
bar as it appears on Windows
Ext-Command The Ext-Command menu provides access
to extra commands for track focus and movement of the
editing or playback cursor that are not available in the
default Audacity menus. These will be of most interest to
Click, or hover, on either of the Ext- items at the end of visually-impaired users or those who have difficulty using
the image to read about those menu entries. the mouse. Shortcuts can be assigned to these com-
Menu What you’ll find there mands if required.If you only require regular access to a
small set of these commands you can set shortcuts for
Ext-Bar The Ext-Bar menu provides access to Toolbar them and leave the extra menus hidden.
14.9 Noise
Noise generates one of three different types of noise: (silence) and 1 (the maximum possible volume without
white, pink or brownian. Accessed by:Generate > clipping ), with a default of 0.8.
Noise...
14.9.3 Duration
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the Manual, this page.
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
14.9.5 Links
changed.
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
• brings you to the appropriate page in the |< Generate Menu
Nyquist Prompt lets you run and debug code snippets 4 the S variable has been replaced by *TRACK*. Full de-
for your own plug-ins created using the Nyquist program- tails about the difference between version 3 and version
ming language. See Nyquist Plug-ins Reference - Au- 4 code can be found in the Audacity wiki.
dacity Wiki for more information about writing Nyquist
code.To use Nyquist Prompt, first select some audio.
If the code you want to test generates audio, you can
avoid the initial steps of preparing an audio selection
14.10.3 Buttons
by installing the Nyquist Generate Prompt plug-in in-
stead.Accessed by:Effect > Nyquist Prompt... • Load Load a Nyquist plugin or script file saved with
.ny extension.
• Save Save the current contents of the editor win-
dow as an .ny file.
• Manage Opens a dropdown menu where you can
save the window contents as a preset then reload
those contents by selecting the preset. You can
also see some descriptive text about the plugin. For
details see Manage presets .
• Preview Previews what the code would sound like
if applied. As with preview in all effects, playback
lasts for the length of preview specified in Playback
Preferences .
Plugin authors should use this button to test if a Preview
button in their plug-in would accurately preview the ef-
14.10.1 Enter Nyquist Command fect as applied to the waveform . Preview should not be
used in effects that change over time (such as a fade
Type the command as required. Enter on the keyboard effect) because Audacity’s preview as currently imple-
moves the cursor to a new line. The last entered code mented only applies the effect to the length of the pre-
is stored in the pluginsettings.cfg file in Audacity’s folder viewed selection.
for application data so is retained after exiting Audacity.
Plugin GUI can be tested if you include complete Nyquist • Debug The Debug button works as it does in all
Plug-in Headers. Nyquist effects . Clicking this button shows a
progress dialog for processing the code, followed
by an uneditable "Nyquist Output" window listing
14.10.2 Use legacy (version 3) syntax any errors or other output. Click OK to close the
output window and process the command, or use
Enter on the keyboard. Hold Ctrl on Windows or
When selected, commands entered in the main text win- CloverLeaf on Mac before pressing Enter.
dow will be interpreted as the "version 3" code. When not
selected (default), commands entered in the main text • OK Applies the code to the waveform selection
window will be interpreted as "version 4" code. Version without debug output. Your entered code will be
4 code includes a number of variables that are not avail- retained next time you open Nyquist Prompt in the
able in version 3. In particular, the S variable is no longer Audacity session. Using the keyboard, hold Ctrl on
used to pass sound from Audacity to Nyquist. In version Windows (or CloverLeaf on Mac) then press Enter.
424 CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
• Cancel No code is processed or debugged. Any Advanced users: An experimental "Nyquist Workbench"
code you entered after opening the window this graphical editor module is available if you compile the
time will be discarded. module and Audacity from source code, then enable the
module in Modules Preferences .
The Nyquist prompt supports both LISP syntax and SAL
syntax. If the code you enter cannot be recognized as
valid Nyquist code in either LISP or SAL syntax, an error
message will appear with a hint about making a correc- 14.10.4 Links
tion.
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Plot Spectrum takes the selected audio (which is a set 14.11.1 Algorithm
of sound pressure values at points in time) and con-
verts it to a graph of frequencies (the horizontal scale Determines what type of processing is done on the audio
in Hz ) against amplitudes (the vertical scale in dB data.
).Accessed by:Analyze > Plot Spectrum...
• Spectrum: (default) - Plots the FFT of the data as
described above.
• Autocorrelation: These options measure to what
extent the sound repeats itself. This is done by tak-
ing two copies of the audio, and moving one forward
by one sample. The two copies are then multiplied
together, and all the values added up. This is re-
peated for two samples difference and so on, up
to the number of samples in the size option. This
gives a small result if the waveform is random (for
example, noise) and a large result if it is repetitive
(like a musical note). By looking at the peaks in
the plot, the key frequencies present can be deter-
mined even if there is a lot of noise.
• Cepstrum: The cepstrum of an audio signal is
related to the spectrum, but presents the rate of
change in the different spectrum bands. It’s par-
ticularly useful for properties of vocal tracks and is
used, for example, in software to identify speakers
by their voice characteristics.
14.11.2 Size
is too short for the chosen size. There is an au- 14.11.5 Zooming
dio version of the Uncertainty Principle that says "Fre-
quency_Resolution*Time_Resolution = 2." Size lets you To the right of the spectrum are two sliders to control
choose the FFT size which is the number of consecu- zooming of the spectrum plot:
tive audio samples to be analyzed. If you choose 1024
samples, you will get 512 frequency bins covering the • The zoom slider on the far right with the magnify-
frequency range up to half the sampling frequency. Most ing glass icons. Move this up to increase the verti-
projects use 44100 Hz sampling frequency. Thus, in this cal magnification of the plotted spectrum and down
example, Time_Resolution = 1024/44.1 = 23.2 millisec- again to reduce it.
onds and the frequency resolution is 44100/2/512 = 43 • The scroll bar, to the left of the zoom slider. At de-
Hz . fault normal zoom this fills the slider and is inop-
erable but as you increase the vertical magnifica-
tion the scrollbar shrinks and can be moved up and
down to show different parts of the magnified spec-
14.11.3 Function trum plot.
When using the Spectrum, the frequencies can be dis- Grids (checkbox)
played on a logarithmic scale (default)or a linear
scale. The default log scale gives greater display width to Turns the measurement grids on and off.
low and mid-range frequencies with "mid range" frequen-
cies occurring close to the middle of the graph. Linear
view (which gives equal width to each "Hz" increment 14.11.7 Links
on the scale), can be useful to show high harmonics (a
component frequency of the sound that is a whole num-
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
ber multiple of the fundamental frequency) or other very
high frequency content. |< Analyze Menu
426 CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
14.12 Pluck
MIDI values indicate what pitch to use. Examples: • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• C notes are: 24, 36, 48, 60 (middle C, default), 72,
84, 96, 108 • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• C# (C sharp) above middle C is 61.
14.12.5 Links
14.12.3 Duration [seconds]
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Specifies the length of the specified pluck. The default is
1.0 seconds. |< Generate Menu
Choose "Generate Track" unless you want to select ei- Choose which sound to use for the beats. The default is
ther of the two help screens. "Metronome tick".
14.13.2 Tempo (beats per minute) 14.13.9 MIDI pitch of strong beat
When set to zero, each beat has the exact length speci- • When exporting your finished work, use the Track
fied by the Tempo (beats per minute). When set to a non- Control Panel to either close or mute the Rhythm
zero amount, alternate beats are delayed or advanced to Track, so that it’s not audible in the exported file.
give a swing feel. At maximum / minimum settings the
rhythm plays with triplet timing.
14.13.11 Buttons
14.13.5 Number of measures (bars) Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
Beats per measure is repeated for the chosen number of • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
measures. The default is 16 measures. The combination manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
of tempo, beats per measure and number of measures about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
determines the length of the generated track unless the • Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
rhythm track duration is specified (see the next control). would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
14.13.6 Optional rhythm track duration setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
(minutes seconds) fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
If you enter a value into this field either [minutes seconds] current effect settings.
separated by a space or simply [seconds], the generated
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
rhythm track will be at or slightly longer than this duration.
changed.
The end of the track is extended into a whole measure if
the entered duration does not produce a complete final
measure. Use whole numbers only.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
Risset Drum produces a sound based on work by the 14.14.5 Amount of noise in mix (percent)
composer of electronic music, Jean Claude Risset. It
consists of band-pass filtered noise, an enharmonic tone The amount of noise in the drum sound as a percentage
and a relatively strong sine wave at the fundamen- of the mix. Values near maximum can sound like a gun
tal.Accessed by:Generate > Risset Drum... shot if other controls are left at default values.
14.14.7 Buttons
14.15 Silence
Silence generates audio of zero amplitude; that is, si- ways displays the exact duration of that selection to
lence. The only configurable setting being duration.When the nearest audio sample .
applied to an audio selection, the result is identical to
Edit > Remove Special > Silence Audio . Accessed
by:Generate > Silence... 14.15.2 The command buttons
14.16 Tone
and RMS levels and so their waveforms show as a highlighted digit with keyboard Up or Down arrow in-
entirely light blue when zoomed out. stead of typing.
• Sawtooth: Has a gradual upwards slope followed • When generating at the cursor, Duration initial-
by a shorter downwards slope. It contains all over- izes to 30.000 seconds (except for the DTMF gen-
tones, so sounds very "nasal", "bright" and pene- erator which defaults to 1.000 second). However,
trating. your last entered Duration is always remembered.
• Square (no alias): Similar to the Square wave but • When replacing a selection region, Duration al-
does not produce aliasing distortion. This makes it ways displays the exact duration of that selection to
take longer to generate the tone. the nearest audio sample .
Type (or use the keyboard arrows) to enter the required 14.16.6 Links
Duration. If the first digit you want is highlighted, just
type the whole number. If the required first digit is not
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
highlighted, use Left or Right arrow on your keyboard to
move to the first digit, then type. You can also increment |< Generate Menu
Chapter 15
Analysis Menu
The Analyze Menu contains tools for finding out about 15.1.1 Audacity’s Analysis Tools
the characteristics of your audio, or labeling key features.
Plug-ins that accept audio input but produce no audio • There are three built-in LADSPA analysis tools:
output will be placed in the Analyze menu, with the anal- Contrast , Plot Spectrum and Find Clipping
ysis results being provided by labels (or in some optional
LADSPA plug-ins by an "Effect Output" section in the • There are five Nyquist plug-in analysis tools
plug-in itself). Although by default, no keyboard shortcuts shipped with Audacity: Beat Finder , Regular Inter-
are provided for most of the analysis tools, it is possible to val Labels , Sample Data Export , Silence Finder
set up your own shortcut for any Analyze command. For and Sound Finder
instructions on how to do this please see Keyboard Pref-
• Vamp Analysis Plug-ins can also be added.
erences .Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image
to read about that command. Skip the image
Selecting this option from the Analyze Menu (or the Effect
Menu or Generate Menu ) takes you to a dialog which
enables you to load and unload Analyzers (and Effects
and Generators) from Audacity. This enables you to cus-
tomize your Analyze Menu making it shorter or longer as
required. For details see Plug-in Manager: Effects, Gen-
erators and Analyzers . Additional plug-ins can also be
loaded into Audacity. For details see the following FAQs:
Windows , Mac and Linux See also this list of available
Nyquist analyzer plug-ins on the Audacity Wiki, that you
can easily download and add to Audacity.
• Many of the analysis tools shipped in Audacity are
Nyquist plug-ins which can be edited in any text ed-
itor. See Nyquist Plug-ins Reference on our Wiki
15.1.3 Built-in LADSPA analysis tools
for more details about the Nyquist format. You can
download additional Nyquist analysis plug-ins. The
built-in analyzers are LADSPA effects. Some ad- Contrast... Ctrl + Shift + T
ditional LADSPA analysis plug-ins for Linux can be
downloaded from http://www.ladspa.org/. Analyzes a selected, single non-stereo audio track to de-
termine the average rms difference in volume (con-
trast) between foreground (the speech) and background
• The description page for each shipped analysis ef- (music, audience noise or similar). The purpose is to
fect (accessed by the links below) shows an image determine if the speech will be intelligible to the hard of
of the interface and its default settings. hearing.
431
432 CHAPTER 15. ANALYSIS MENU
Plot Spectrum... between them. Each label produced contains the chosen
label text.
Takes the selected audio (which is a set of sound pres-
sure values at points in time) and converts it to a graph
of frequencies (the horizontal scale in Hz ) against am- Sample Data Export...
plitudes (the vertical scale in dB ).
Reads the values of successive samples from the se-
lected audio and prints this data to a plain text, CSV or
Find Clipping... HTML file. The following two related "Silence Finder"
and "Sound Finder" tools are very useful to label the
Displays runs of clipped samples in a Label Track , as different songs or sections in a long recording, such as
a screen-reader accessible alternative to View > Show the tracks from an LP or cassette.
Clipping . A run must include at least one clipped sam-
ple, but may include unclipped samples too.
Silence Finder...
15.1.4 Nyquist Plug-in analysis tools Divides a track up by placing point labels inside areas of
shipped with Audacity silence. Use this if you just want to split the recording into
tracks at a specific point without removing the silences
To add a new Nyquist plug-in, put it in the Audacity "Plug- between them.
Ins" folder.
• On Windows the "Plug-Ins" folder is in the direc- Sound Finder...
tory where Audacity resides - usually C:
Program Files on 32-bit Windows or C:
Program Files (x86) on 64-bit Windows. Divides a track up by placing region labels for areas of
sound that are separated by silence. Use this to make
• On Mac the "Plug-Ins" folder is at ~/Li- the labels show the exact region of each track to be ex-
brary/Application Support/audacity/Plug-Ins. ported. This lets you remove some or all of the silence
between the tracks.
• On Linux, the "plug-ins" folder is in
usr/share/audacity if you installed an Audac-
ity package supplied by your distribution, or
usr/local/share/audacity if you compiled Audacity 15.1.5 Vamp Analysis Plug-ins
from source code. Optionally a "plug-ins" folder can
be created in the home directory thus: ~/.audacity- You can also add some additional analysis tools in the
files/plug-ins (you can also call the folder "plug- Vamp plug-in format for viewing and analysing the de-
ins"). scriptive contents of music audio files. Typical things that
To load the new effects into Audacity so they are available a Vamp plug-in might calculate include the locations of
in the menu, use the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Genera- moments such as note onset times and power or funda-
tors and Analyzers dialog. mental frequency data. Plug-ins that produce graphs or
other visuals will not work in Audacity, only plug-ins that
are suitable for writing to labels . To add a new VAMP
analysis tool, add the plug-in’s DLL, DYLIB or SO file (and
Beat Finder...
any supplied category (CAT) or RDF (TTL or N3) files) to
one of the paths listed in the green box below. To run a
Attempts to place labels at beats which are much louder Vamp plug-in, select the audio and run the plug-in from
than the surrounding audio. It’s a fairly rough and ready the menu. An annotated label track appears showing the
tool, and will not necessarily work well on a typical mod- result. {{note|
ern pop music track with compressed dynamic range
.
Currently Audacity cannot load Vamp plug-ins from
the Audacity "Plug-Ins" folder. Vamp plug-ins are loaded
Regular Interval Labels... from the following standard directories each time you
launch Audacity:
Places labels in a long track so as to divide it into smaller, • On all platforms: any directories listed in the
equally sized segments. For example, this can be useful VAMP_PATH environment variable
for distributing a large file on the internet. You can either
choose the number of labels to be created, or the interval • additionally on Windows:
15.2. BEAT FINDER 433
– C: plug-ins)
Program Files
Vamp Plugins on Windows 32-bit or C: • additionally on Linux/Unix:
Program Files (x86) – $HOME/vamp
Vamp Plugins on Windows 64-bit.
– $HOME/.vamp
• additionally on OS X:
– ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Vamp (user plug-ins) – /usr/local/lib/vamp (user plug-ins)
Beat Finder attempts to place labels at beats which are • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
much louder than the surrounding audio. It’s a fairly manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
rough and ready tool, and will not necessarily work well about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
on a typical modern pop music track with compressed
dynamic range .Accessed by:Analyze > Beat Finder... • Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
Sets the beat detection threshold. The default setting is • brings you to the appropriate page in the
65%. The setting can be changed by typing directly into Manual, this page.
the box or by using the slider. If you do not get enough
beats detected, try reducing the "Threshold Percentage"
setting.
15.2.3 Links
15.2.2 Buttons
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults: |< Analyze Menu
15.3.1 Start Threshold the existing label track - close the label track using the
[X] on the left of the track if you want to view only labels
This is the number of contiguous clipped samples (de- for current clipping.
fault 3 samples) that must be present before they will be
labeled as an individual run. The higher the threshold,
the less likely a clipped region will be recognized and the 15.3.3 Buttons
fewer labels that will be generated.
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
15.3.2 Stop Threshold • Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
This is the number of contiguous unclipped samples about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
(default 3 samples) that must be present before the run
of clipped samples will be terminated. The higher the • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
threshold, the longer a clipped region will be and the current effect settings.
fewer labels that will be generated.Each individual run • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
of clipped samples is marked in the format "number of changed.
number". For example, "11 of 11" means there are 11
samples in this run of clipped samples and all of them
are clipped, while "9 of 11" means only nine samples in • brings you to the appropriate page in the
the run of 11 are clipped. In the case of a stereo track Manual, this page.
each channel will have its own label; if at one point both
channels are clipped two labels will appear one above
the other.Unlike View > Show Clipping and Meter Tool- 15.3.4 Links
bars "Find Clipping" is not automatically updated. After
any editing that affects volume, or after import or record-
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
ing of a new track, Find Clipping must be run again. La-
bels from another run of Find Clipping will be added to |< Analyze Menu
15.4.1 Use "Number of labels" OR "Label intend to use the labels with Export Multiple , some char-
interval" acters may not be valid for file names .
Silence Finder and Sound Finder are two related tools Example with Sound Finder
which can useful to label the different songs or sections
in a long recording, such as the tracks from an LP or cas- If instead we run Analyze > Sound Finder... on the same
sette.This page provides examples comparing and con- selected audio we can see that Audacity has again iden-
trasting the use of the two tools.The main difference is tified the six songs giving them numerical labels. The
that Silence Finder divides up a selection by placing point labels exclude a small amount of the gaps between the
labels inside areas of silence, wherwas Sound Finder di- songs (seen most clearly between labels 5 and 6) so the
vides up a selection by placing region labels for areas lead-in and lead-out for each song would be shorter.
of sound that are separated by silence.Here is a stereo
track with six songs. The entire project is selected prior
to using the Analyze functions.
Silence Finder and the related Sound Finder are tools 15.7 Silence Finder...
which can useful to label the different songs or sections
in a long recording, such as the tracks from an LP or cas-
sette. Silence Finder - Setting Parameters has more help
on adjusting the Silence Finder slider settings.After typ-
ing the name of the track or section in each label, File
> Save Other > Export Multiple... will export audio files
in one process corresponding to each label’s audio. See
Splitting a recording into separate tracks .
Sound Finder and the related Silence Finder are tools the silence between the tracks. If any album tracks have
which can useful to label the different songs or sections more than one label, increase the silence level and dura-
in a long recording, such as the tracks from an LP or cas- tion. If any labels extend into other album tracks, reduce
sette.After typing the name of the track or section in each the silence level and duration.
label, File > Save Other > Export Multiple... will export
audio files in one process corresponding to each label’s
audio. See Splitting a recording into separate tracks .
15.10.1 Buttons
15.10 Sound Finder...
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
Accessed by:Analyze > Sound Finder... sults:
Help Menu
The Help Menu lets you find out more about the Audac- 16.1.3 Tools
ity application and how to use it. It also includes some
more advanced tools such as for taking Audacity screen- The Tools submenu provides tools for screen image cap-
shots, or viewing log messages generated by the appli- ture and benchmarking for diagnostic purposes.
cation.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to
read about that command. Skip the image
16.1.4 Diagnostics
440
16.2. HELP MENU: DIAGNOSTICS 441
Audacity’s diagnostic tool-box. Click, or hover, on any • If Audacity crashes and the Automatic Crash Re-
menu item in the image to read about that command. covery dialog appears on restarting Audacity, or if
Skip the image Audacity encounters a problem when opening an
AUP project file , the log may contain additional
useful error details.
Buttons
16.2.1 Audio Device Info...
You can then attach the ZIP file to any bug report or is-
sue that you report. Please submit your report to our
feedback address or to the Audacity Forum.
The Audacity menu only appears on macOS / OS X. It on what applications the user has installed and what ser-
includes some commands which are in other menus on vices they provide.
non-Mac systems, plus some menu items which are gen-
erated by the operating system.
16.5.4 Hide and Show
16.5.1 About Audacity...
• Hide Audacity:
Has the same version, credits, build and license informa- Hides Audacity and all its windows without minimizing
tion as at Help > About Audacity... on other operating into the Dock.
systems.
• Hide Others:
Hides all applications other than Audacity.
16.5.2 Preferences...
• Show All:
Has the same choices as at Edit > Preferences... on Shows all applications and their windows.
other operating systems.
This is a system-generated menu, including system tools Closes all project windows and exits Audacity, as at File
like Finder and Disk Utility. Its exact contents will depend > Exit on other operating systems.
16.6. WINDOW MENU 445
The Window menu appears only on macOS and Mac • If the window was previously expanded with this
OS X. It contains commands for displaying and zooming command, clicking the Zoom item again will return
project windows. the window to its previous size and position.
This menu item is the same as Option-clicking the green
16.6.1 Minimize zoom button at upper left of the project window (or
unmodified-clicking the zoom button on OS X Snow
Leopard). On OS X Lion and later, unmodified-clicking
Minimizes the front project window into the Dock. Same
the green zoom button does the same as View > Enter /
as clicking the yellow minimize button at the upper left of
Exit Full Screen .
the window.
• If the front window does not fill the entire screen If any Audacity windows are minimized or covered by
between the Dock and the Audacity Menu Bar, ex- other windows, this command will make those windows
pands the window to fill that space. visible.
The Audacity Manual is included with the current release extract to (for example, C:
of the software if you obtain the Windows .exe or Mac OS or D:
X .dmg installers. The following instructions are for users ).
who obtained a zip download of Audacity or are on Linux
3. Place the "help" folder in the correct location.
and who want a Manual relating to the current release.
• On Windows or Mac OS X, it should go inside
1. Download the zipped Manual by left-clicking this the folder containing the Audacity application.
link http://www.fosshub.com/Audacity.html/audacity- In an Audacity installation, this would usually
manual-2.1.3.zip. be under "Program Files" on Windows, or un-
der "Applications" on Mac OS X.
2. Extract the zip file to a folder called "help" with
the "manual" folder inside that. Some extraction • On Linux, the "help" folder should usu-
tools will do this by default, especially on Linux. On ally go in /usr/share/audacity if Audacity
Windows, many tools will extract by default to an was installed from a repository package, or
"audacity-manual" folder that has the "help" folder /usr/local/share/audacity if you compiled Au-
inside. If that happens, you must open the ex- dacity from our source code.
tracted "audacity-manual" folder and use that "help"
– Note: Root permission will normally be
folder inside.
required to modify the /usr directory. Try
• Tips for Windows: To produce the correct running a sudo unzip command from
"help" folder, use 7-Zip then right-click over the a terminal ( for example, sudo unzip
zipped Manual and choose "Extract Here", or ~/Desktop/audacity-manual-2.1.3.zip -d
in any extraction utility, choose a root folder to /usr/share/audacity/ ).
Chapter 17
Extended Menus
The Ext-Bar menu provides access to Toolbar opera- 17.1.3 Edit SubMenu
tions that are not available in the default Audacity menus.
These will be of most interest to visually-impaired users Extended commands related to editing. Find out more
or those who have difficulty using the mouse. Short- about the ’Edit’ submenu here .
cuts can be assigned to these commands if required.This
menu can be turned on (or off) at View > Extra Menus
(on/off) or the Interface pane of Preferences .Click, or 17.1.4 Device SubMenu
hover, on any menu item in the image to read about that
command. Skip the image Extended commands related to selecting a device. Find
out more about the ’Device’ submenu here .
446
17.2. EXT-BAR MENU: DEVICE 447
The Ext-Bar > Device Menu provides commands for 17.2.2 Change playback device Shift+O
changing the playback and recording devices and set-
tings, instead of using the dropdown menus on the De-
Displays the Select Playback Device dialog for choos-
vice Toolbar . Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
ing the playback device, but only if the "Playback De-
image to read about that command. Skip the image
vice" dropdown menu in Device Toolbar has entries for
devices. Otherwise, an error message will be displayed.
The Ext-Bar > Edit Menu provides menu access to the 17.3.1 DeleteKey Backspace
backspace and delete keys. Click, or hover, on any menu
item in the image to read about that command. Skip the
image Removes the audio data and/or labels that are currently
selected without copying them to the Audacity clipboard.
The Ext-Bar > Mixer Menu provides commands for ad- 17.4.2 Increase playback volume
justing the playback and recording volumes. You can use
these commands instead of manipulating the recording Each key press will increase the playback volume by 0.1.
and playback sliders on the Mixer Toolbar . Click, or
hover, on any menu item in the image to read about that
command. Skip the image 17.4.3 Decrease playback volume
17.4.1 Adjust playback volume Each key press will increase the recording volume by 0.1.
Displays the Playback Volume dialog. You can type a 17.4.6 Decrease recording volume
new value for the playback volume (between 0 and 1), or
press Tab, then use the left and right arrow keys to adjust Each key press will decrease the recording volume by
the slider. 0.1.
The Ext-Bar > Selection Menu provides commands for 17.6.6 Selection Extend Left Shift+Left
changing the Snap-To settings, and for extending and
contracting the selection. Click, or hover, on any menu
item in the image to read about that command. Skip the Increases the size of the selection by extending it to the
image left. The amount of increase is dependent on the zoom
level. If there is no selection one is created starting at the
cursor position.
Decreases the size of the selection by contracting it from Decreases the size of the selection by contracting it from
the right. The amount of decrease is dependent on the the left. The amount of decrease is dependent on the
zoom level. If there is no selection no action is taken. zoom level. If there is no selection no action is taken.
17.7.4 Envelope F2
This menu duplicates the functionality of the Tools Tool- Allows smooth volume changes to be made over the
bar , in menu form length of a track by means of embedded volume "control
points". Click in the track to create a control point, then
set the volume of that point by dragging one of its four
vertically arranged "handles". When you create other
17.7.1 Tools Toolbar control points at different levels, a smooth curve is inter-
polated between them. Dragging either the top or bottom
handle ensures you can never distort the track by drag-
ging outside its original volume envelope. Dragging an
inner handle allows you to amplify a quiet piece of audio
beyond the original volume envelope of the track.
• Shift and left-click or right-click zooms out one step quired direction. Dragged audio cannot paste into other
at the position of the mouse pointer. audio, so the area being dragged into must have suffi-
cient space to accommodate the drag.See this page for
• Shift and drag zooms out based on the dragged re-
more details.
gion. The drag draws a dotted region in the wave-
form and when you release the drag, the audio at
the left edge of the dotted region is repositioned
at the start of the visible waveform. The smaller
the dragged region, the farther the audio will be 17.7.8 Multi-Tool F6
zoomed out. No Audacity selection region is cre-
ated. Combines all five tools in one. One tool is available at
a time, according to the mouse position and modifier key
• Middle button zooms in or out to Audacity’s default chosen. The shape of the pointer changes to show which
zoom level of about one inch per second. tool is active. If you exit Audacity with Multi-Tool Mode
• If you commence a drag to zoom by mistake, you selected, it will be also be enabled next time you launch
can press Esc before releasing the mouse to can- Audacity. More details on Multi-Tool Mode here .
cel the zoom operation.
• You can also zoom without using Zoom Tool by us- 17.7.9 Previous Tool A
ing keyboard shortcuts , or the zoom buttons on
Edit Toolbar .
Cycles backwards through the tools, starting from the
currently selected tool: starting from Selection, it would
navigate to Multi-tool to Time Shift to Zoom to Draw to
Envelope to Selection.
17.7.7 Time Shift F5
Selecting this tool lets you synchronize audio in a project 17.7.10 Next Tool D
by dragging individual or multiple audio tracks , note
tracks or audio clips left or right along the Timeline . Cycles forwards through the tools, starting from the cur-
Also use this tool to drag individual tracks or clips up or rently selected tool: starting from Selection, it would nav-
down into another track. To use Time Shift Tool, click in igate to Envelope to Draw to Zoom to Time Shift to Multi-
the track or clip you want to move, then drag in the re- tool to Selection.
The Ext-Bar > Transcription Menu provides commands 17.8.2 Loop Play-at-Speed
for manipulating the Transcription Toolbar and for
moving between labels. Click, or hover, on any menu
item in the image to read about that command. Skip the Combines looped play and play at speed
image
Each key press will increase the playback speed by 0.1. Moves selection to the previous label.
Each key press will decrease the playback speed by 0.1. Moves selection to the next label.
The Ext-Bar > Transport Menu provides playback com- 17.9.5 Play Before Selection Start Shift+F5
mands that are not available in the default Audacity
menus.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image Plays a short period before the start of the selected au-
to read about that command. Skip the image dio.
The Ext-Command > Cursor Menu provides commands tracks.When there is a selection, moves the cursor to the
for moving either the editing cursor, playback cursor or an beginning of the selection, removes the selection, and
audio track or clip . Click, or hover, on any menu item in scrolls the track to display the cursor (if needed).When
the image to read about that command. Skip the image playing audio, moves the playback cursor as described
at "Cursor Short Jump Left" (below).
17.11.3 Cursor Short Jump Left , 17.11.6 Cursor Long Jump Right Shift+.
When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor one When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor 15 sec-
second left by default. When playing audio, moves the onds right by default. When playing audio, moves the
playback cursor one second left by default. The default playback cursor 15 seconds right by default. The default
value can be changed by adjusting the "Short Period" un- value can be changed by adjusting the "Long Period" un-
der "Seek Time when playing" in Playback Preferences . der "Seek Time when playing" in Playback Preferences .
When not playing audio and there is a selection region,
all the above "Cursor" commands remove the region and
17.11.4 Cursor Short Jump Right . place the editing cursor at the left or right boundary re-
spectively of the former selection.
When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor one
second right by default. When playing audio, moves the
playback cursor one second right by default. The default 17.11.7 Clip Left
value can be changed by adjusting the "Short Period" un-
der "Seek Time when playing" in Playback Preferences . Moves the currently focused audio track (or a separate
clip in that track which contains the editing cursor or se-
lection region ) one screen pixel to left.
17.11.5 Cursor Long Jump Left Shift+,
When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor 15 sec- 17.11.8 Clip Right
onds left by default. When playing audio, moves the play-
back cursor 15 seconds left by default. The default value Moves the currently focused audio track (or a separate
can be changed by adjusting the "Long Period" under clip in that track which contains the editing cursor or se-
"Seek Time when playing" in Playback Preferences . lection region ) one screen pixel to right.
The Ext-Command > Focus Menu provides provides 17.12.2 Move forward from toolbars to
access to extra commands for track focus that are not tracks Ctrl+F6
available in the default Audacity menus.Click, or hover,
on any menu item in the image to read about that com-
Move forward through currently focused toolbar in Up-
mand. Skip the image
per Toolbar dock area , Track View and currently focused
toolbar in Lower Toolbar dock area . Each use moves the
keyboard focus as indicated.
17.12.6 Move Focus to Last Track 17.12.8 Move Focus to Next and Select
Ctrl+End Shift+Down
The Ext-Command > Track Menu provides access to 17.13.2 Pan left on focused track
extra commands for manipulating the controls in the Alt+Shift+Left
Track Control Panel and for moving tracks up and
down, that are not available in the default Audacity
Controls the pan slider on the focused track. Each key-
menus. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to
press changes the pan value by 10% left.
read about that command. Skip the image
Brings up the Gain dialog for the focused track where you
can enter a gain value, or use the slider for finer control
of gain than is available when using the track pan slider.
Toggles the Mute button on the focused track. 17.13.13 Move focused track to top
18.1 Export
To hear your work in other media applications, export it to or Export Multiple, tracks on which the Mute button is
an audio file. Audacity as shipped can export to a num- pressed are not exported. There will be a warning if you
ber of common audio formats including WAV , AIFF , export with all audio tracks muted. See Export Audio Di-
Ogg Vorbis , FLAC and MP2 . To export as MP3, alog for more help with exporting.
the optional Lame MP3 encoder must be installed. You
can install the optional FFmpeg library to export to many
more audio formats including AC3, AMR(NB), M4A, MP4 18.1.1 Export Formats
and WMA.
• To export, choose File > Save Other > Export Au- There are a number of audio formats that Audacity, as
dio... then choose the file format you want to export shipped, can export to; others can be added with addi-
to in the "Save as type" dropdown. To burn a CD tional software.
for standalone CD players, choose WAV or AIFF. • As shipped available exports include WAV , AIFF
, Ogg Vorbis , FLAC and MP2 .
• Use File > Save Other > Export Selected Audio...
to export only a selected area of audio. • To export as MP3 , the optional Lame MP3 encoder
must be installed.
• Use File > Save Other > Export Multiple... to export
multiple files at the same time, either one for each • You may install the optional FFmpeg library to ex-
audio track, or one for each labeled area in a single port to many more audio formats including AC3,
track. AMR(NB), M4A(AAC), MP4 and WMA .
– Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection lets you Alternatively, saving an Audacity project creates a project
split the tracks from an album for multiple ex- file (and linked _data folder) containing all your track con-
port as separate files. tents, including labels and envelope points , so you can
return to your work later exactly as you left it. However,
other applications cannot read Audacity projects. |< Back
For either Export Audio, Export Selected Audio to: Getting Started
457
458 CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
You must use one of the Export commands to make an 2. Type the name of your audio file in the File name
audio file for playing on your music player, burning CDs or box.
for use in other applications. Saving an Audacity project
only makes a text file that tells Audacity how to work with
the audio you see in Audacity itself.
This page is about importing audio files into Audacity (like header information, you can normally import them
WAV or MP3) that other applications on the computer can using File > Import > Raw Data... .
play.
• WAV files from portable recorders may contain pro-
prietary compressed audio. These should not be
If you have already saved your audio as an Audac- imported as Raw Data, but by installing the FFm-
ity Project, use File > Open or File > Recent Files to open peg library .
the <my_project_name>.aup. Do not attempt to open, • LOF files (lists of files) are also supported if the list
import or manipulate any individual AU files. See Audac- is correctly formatted and contains supported files.
ity Projects for more information.
and AIFF files using standard importer As with the other three import methods, Open does not
directly open your selected file(s). The imported audio
Default Sample Format File bit depthResolution im-
data is converted into a large number of small files in AU
ported at
audio format, preserving the current quality of the data.
16 16 16 Conversion occurs even if you never explicitly save your
work as an Audacity project .So to save your edits to an
16 24 32 audio file for the computer you always have to choose an
16 32 32 Export command from the File Menu , even if you want
to overwrite the exact same file that you imported.3. File
24 16 24 > Recent Files (Open Recent on Mac) This command
imports a single file from a list of the 12 most recently im-
24 24 32
ported files or recently saved projects. The file opens in
24 32 32 a new window exactly as File > Open.4. Drag and drop
32 (default) 16 32
• On Windows and Mac
32 (default) 24 32
– Drag and drop one or more audio files into an
32 (default) 32 32
open Audacity project window: this is equiva-
OGG is unusual in that it will always import at 16-bit reso- lent to File > Import > Audio.
lution using the standard OGG Vorbis importer, irrespec-
tive of Default Sample Format. This is due to the design – Drag and drop one or more audio files onto
of the OGG codec. However OGG can be imported at the Audacity icon: this is equivalent to File >
32-bit resolution using FFmpeg , as described at Using Open.
the file type dropdown menu .
• On Linux:
18.3.3 Four Ways to Import Audio – Drag and drop files into an open Audacity
Project window: this is equivalent to File > Im-
No matter which method you use to bring an audio file port > Audio.
into Audacity, the file is always imported into a saved or
unsaved Audacity project . The imported file always ap- – Drag and drop one or more audio files onto
pears in a new track in that project. 1. File > Import > the Audacity icon: only the first file will open.
Audio... If you select the File > Import > Audio... com- More than one file dragged and dropped onto
mand, then choose one or more audio files, Audacity will the icon will do the same as the File > Open
import the selected file(s) into the existing project. This command for the first file, but the other files will
is useful to bring the content of one or more audio files generate an error message saying that Audac-
into a project that already contains audio (for example, to ity is already running.
mix several audio files together).2. File > Open... This
command behaves differently according to whether the
project window in which you use the Open command has Metadata: Each time an audio file is imported into
ever contained tracks of any type. the same project window, the metadata tags for that file
• If the project contains or has ever contained tracks replace the previously stored metadata for the project. So
at some point in its history (so that Edit > Undo and if the last imported file has no metadata, the project will
Edit > Redo are not empty), Open imports each file no longer have any stored metadata. Using one of the
you select into its own new project window. For ex- above methods that imports each file into its own project
ample, selecting three files would create three new window will ensure each file’s metadata is stored.
project windows, each containing one of the files
and each a separate project with its own history.
This is handy if you want to apply different actions
to different (or even the same) files and easily com-
pare the results of each. 18.3.4 Using the file type dropdown menu
• If the project is empty and has never contained any in the Open and Import Audio Di-
tracks (for example, you used File > New to create alogs
a new, empty project or used File > Close to close
an existing project), Open imports the first file into
the empty project window, then imports each sub- This menu (called "Format" on Mac) contains a list of dif-
sequent file into its own new project window. ferent file types.
18.3. IMPORTING AUDIO 461
Import Methods
Dependencies
. See the Dependencies Dialog page for details. When import a lossy compressed audio file into Audacity, edit
you save a project you can choose whether or not to copy it then export it as a lossy compressed audio file, you
dependent files into the project. See the Projects Prefer- will lose quality twice, once in the original encoding of
ences page for details. the imported audio, then again when you export it from
Audacity as a compressed file. So never do production
work in lossy compressed audio formats, instead work
18.3.6 Importing Compressed Audio Files with a lossless format such as WAV, AIFF or FLAC and
for final use then export to compressed formats. See this
When you import a compressed audio file into your page in the Audacity Wiki for other applications that can
project on Windows or Mac, either a lossy format like be used to directly edit MP3 audio files, thereby avoiding
MP3, MP2, M4A or Ogg Vorbis or the lossless com- lossy re-encoding.
pressed FLAC format, there is no choice between "safer"
and "faster" - the file’s data is always copied into the
project. However by default on Linux, FLAC is imported 18.3.7 Importing audio from CDs
by the Audacity importer for uncompressed files, so the
warning for "Importing uncompressed audio files" will ap-
pear with the choice to copy in the audio or read it directly. Audacity does not contain any function for importing (rip-
Reading directly permits faster On-Demand Loading . ping) audio from CDs. This can, however, be achieved
by using other applications to extract the data into a file
format Audacity does support. See the tutorial How to
Re-encoding lossy compressed audio filesIf you import CDs .
18.4.1 Using the Files of type: ... or Format – Only Audacity project files (.aup) are se-
dropdown menu in the Open and Im- lectable
port Audio Dialogs – No importer is involved, since you are opening
an Audacity project, not importing an audio file
The choice made in the "Files of type:" (Windows) or
"Format" (Mac OS/X) dropdown menu in these dialogs • WAV, AIF and other uncompressed types
does two things.
– Only uncompressed files are selectable
1. It restricts the file list to files of that type (or those
supported by that importer), according to the file – The built-in Audacity importers will be tried
extension. first, then FFmpeg (if installed)
2. It chooses which importer to use. * If the built-in Audacity importers are used
and "read directly" is chosen in Import
The choices in the "Files of type:" or "Format" dropdown / Export Preferences then On-Demand
menu are: Loading will be used. If the FFmpeg im-
• All files porter is used, On-Demand Loading will
not be used.
– All files in the list are selectable, even those
not supported by Audacity or FFmpeg • Ogg vorbis files, FLAC files, MP3 files
– The built-in Audacity importers will be tried – Only files of the specified type are selectable
first, then FFmpeg (if installed)
– The built-in Audacity importers will be tried
• All supported files first, then FFmpeg (if installed)
– Only those files supported by Audacity or
• List of files in basic text format
FFmpeg (if installed) are selectable
– The built-in Audacity importers will be tried – Only files ending in .lof are selectable. See
first, then FFmpeg LOF Files for how to create and use LOF files.
• Audacity Projects - This option is available only – The importer used will depend on the files
when you use the File > Open command pointed to by the LOF file.
18.5. SAMPLE DATA EXPORT 463
• FFmpeg compatible files - this option is only avail- * Note that if this option is chosen and an
able if you have installed the optional FFmpeg ex- uncompressed file type is selected from
tension. the list, On-Demand Loading will not be
used.
– Any file types supported by FFmpeg are se-
lectable • QuickTime files - Mac only
– Any file type supported by QuickTime is se-
– The FFmpeg importer will always be tried first lectable
if "Attempt to use filter in OpenFile dialog first"
in Extended Import Preferences is checked, – QuickTime will be used to decode the file and
otherwise the native importer will be tried first. send it to Audacity
Sample Data Export reads the values of successive output it may be advisable to limit the number
samples from the selected audio and prints this data of samples to a maximum of a few hundred.
to a plain text, CSV or HTML file. Further information
– The track sample rate as indicated on the
may be added as a "header" at the top of the file.See
Track Control Panel indicates the number of
also the companion tool Sample Data Import .Accessed
samples per second. If the track and project
by:Analyze > Sample Data Export...
rates are the same, the number of samples in
a selection may be viewed in Selection Tool-
bar if you choose one of the selection formats
that includes samples.
• Web Page (html): produces an HTML 5 document • Alternate Lines: Prints a sample value from the
that contains all of the header information and a ta- left channel followed by a sample value from the
ble of sample data with sample number, time, linear right channel on the same line:1 0.59528 1 0.59528
and dB values. Web browsers that are not HTML 5 2 0.56063 2 0.56063 3 0.52377 3 0.52377 ...
compliant may not display the page correctly.
• L Channel First: All the left channel samples are
listed, followed by all of the right channel samples.
18.5.4 Include header information For .CSV files this will produce a row of values for
each channel:Left Channel. 1 0.59528 2 0.56063 3
• None: Prints only the sample data, preceded by 0.52377 ... Right Channel. 1 0.59528 2 0.56063 3
any text you entered in the optional header text box 0.52377 ...
(leave blank for none).
• Minimal: Prints a minimal header that contains:
– Sample rate 18.5.7 Show messages
– Units (linear or dB)
• Yes: (default) Confirmation, error and warning
– Optional header text (leave blank for none)
messages will be shown after processing.
• Standard: In addition to the Minimal header infor-
mation, the following is also included: • Errors Only: Only error messages will be shown
after processing.
– File name
– Number of samples • None: No messages will be shown after process-
ing.
– Duration (seconds)
If you press the Debug button, you can view Standard in-
– Mono or stereo
formation in a separate text window even if confirmation
• All: In addition to the Standard header information, messages are disabled.It may be useful to disable confir-
the following is also included: mation messages if Sample Data Export is to be used in
a Chain for batch processing .
– Peak amplitude (linear and dB)
– Unweighted RMS level (dB)
– DC offset
18.5.8 File name
Irrespective of the header information chosen for the file,
by default the Standard information above plus the file
name and folder is displayed in a confirmation message The desired name of the output file. A file name exten-
on successful completion of the export. sion is not required as it will be added automatically.
• Windows: <root>
18.5.6 Channel layout for stereo Users
<username>
The following examples are shown in "Indexed List" for-
mat (with index numbers preceding the sample values), • Mac: /Users/<username>
not the default "Sample List" format.For TXT and CSV
files, provides a layout choice for stereo tracks. • Linux: /home/<username>
• L-R on Same Line: Prints a list of alternate left To select a different output folder, enter the full path
channel sample followed by right channel sample. name, for example D:
For .CSV files this will produce a column of sam- Samples Text Files. The output folder must exist. On
ple values for each channel:1 0.59528 1 0.59528 2 Linux, the abbreviation ~/ may be used for the home di-
0.56063 2 0.56063 3 0.52377 3 0.52377 ... rectory.
18.6. SAMPLE DATA IMPORT 465
Sample Data Import reads numeric values from a plain 18.6.1 File name
ASCII text file and creates a PCM sample for each nu-
meric value read. The values are read as 32-bit floating
The name of the file to import the data from. A file name
point numbers, where a range of +/- 1.0 represents 0 dB
extension of .txt is required.
(full scale).
• The file MUST be plain ASCII text, and values
should be separated by spaces, tabs or line-breaks. The file to be imported must contain only plain
• The file name must have a ’.txt’ file extension. ASCII text. Files other than plain ASCII text are NOT
SUPPORTED.
See also the companion tool Sample Data Export
.Accessed by:Generate > Sample Data Import...
Sample data must be plain ASCII text only and should • File name: must end with ".txt" or leave empty for
be numeric values only. The decimal separator must be ".txt" to be added automatically
a period. The values are read as 32-bit float numbers,
where a range of +/- 1.0 represents 0 dB (full scale). Val-
ues must be separated by one of: 18.6.6 Buttons
1. One or more spaces.
2. One or more tabs. Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
3. One or more line breaks.
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
4. Any combination of the above. manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
Assuming that no errors are encountered, data import about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
terminates at the end of the file. • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
Number of channels • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
If a stereo track is selected before opening the effect,
then the data is assumed to be stereo, otherwise the data
will be treated as mono. Stereo data must be interleaved • brings you to the appropriate page in the
(alternate left/right sample values). Manual, this page.
18.7. EXPORTING TO AN EXTERNAL PROGRAM 467
Exporting to an External Program sends audio via a 18.7.1 Specify Export location
command-line to an external application, either for pro-
cessing or for encoding as a file. This is a way to export
From the Export Audio dialog, choose the file name and
to the installed LAME MP3 encoder or FFmpeg en-
suitable extension .
coder with additional parameters not supported in the op-
tions dialogs in the Export Audio Dialog . Command-line
export could also be used to export to the very latest ver-
sions of LAME or FFmpeg, to an alternative MP3 encoder
or to a specialised encoder in a format not otherwise sup- 18.7.2 Format Options
ported by Audacity.Accessed by: File > Save Other > Ex-
port Audio... , then choose (external program) from the In the Command: box type:
Save as type dropdown menu.
1. The path to the program
3. Space, hyphen
18.7.3 Setting the path to the encoder The following command specifies a VBR quality range in-
stead of bit rate:
Accessing the LAME or FFmpeg command-line program
ffmpeg -i - -strict experimental -c:a aac -q:a 10 "%f"
with just the "lame" or "ffmpeg" command only works on
Windows and Linux, assuming LAME or FFmpeg are in- Here is an example of a command to FFmpeg in an ar-
stalled on the system in the standard location. On Win- bitrary location on Windows, forcing the exported codec
dows, this requires that you used the LAME or FFmpeg to Apple lossless. When specifying the file name above
EXE installer and did not change the installation direc- the command, add the extension ".m4a" (without quotes),
tory. For using a zip version of LAME or FFmpeg and on not .alac:
Mac, the full path to the command-line program must be
given. The path must be enclosed inside quotes if there "E:
are any spaces in the path. You can use the Browse but- FFmpeg for Audacity
ton Browse... to find and open the executable application ffmpeg.exe" -i - -acodec alac "%f"
which will add the correct path to the command.
Finally, here is an example command to FFmpeg in an
arbitrary location on Mac, setting metadata for genre and
artist/composer in an exported M4A file with the standard
18.7.4 LAME examples AAC ( lossy ) codec:
This page describes audio file formats which can be ex- users. AIFF 16-bit PCM is suitable whenever you
ported to using the Export Audio / Export Selected Au- want to burn your exported file to an audio CD .
dio and Export Multiple dialogs. To export to MP3 you
• WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM No options
must install the optional LAME encoder and to export to
for this format: WAV is a lossless format that can
formats listed as "FFmpeg" you must install the optional
both be played on Windows or Mac computers.
FFmpeg library .
WAV 16-bit PCM is eminently suitable whenever
you want to burn your exported file to an audio CD
Many format types have size, quality or encoding .
options. Select the format type then click the Options... • WAV (Microsoft) 32-bit float No options for this
button in the Export Audio / Selected Audio or Export format: 32-bit float WAV is a lossless format, a
Multiple dialog to view the options for that selected for- maximum quality "raw capture" file. 32-bit float res-
mat.You can click the first link in each format listed below olution gives the highest quality of the three uncom-
to view the Options page for that format. pressed choices, but takes twice the storage space
on disk compared to 16-bit resolution. It will not
play on many players or player apps. It is mostly
18.8.1 Uncompressed format types useful as a backup archive of raw captured record-
ings or finished projects.
The following are all uncompressed audio formats in 16-bit WAV and AIFF formats produce large files and are
which every sample of sound is represented by a bi- best-suited for use on computers rather than portable
nary number. The most common uncompressed formats players or devices.
are WAV and AIFF . There is no loss of quality com-
pared to the original audio when playing uncompressed
formats, except for some possible loss of low frequen- 18.8.2 Compressed format types
cies in the 4-bit (A)DPCM formats. Those 4-bit formats
and the lossless 8-bit U-Law/A-Law formats save file size
Size-compressed formats produce files that are usu-
by reducing their bit depth , in a similar way that any
ally significantly smaller than uncompressed formats, as
of the uncompressed formats can be made proportion-
seen in the table below. The file formats that are signifi-
ately smaller by reducing their sample rate (and thus
cantly smaller are always of lower quality than the origi-
reducing the high frequencies they can contain). GSM
nal audio, but are well suited for use on portable devices
6.10 WAV (mobile) will also exhibit considerable loss of
where storage space is limited.
quality as it was a format designed for mobile telephony.
• MP3 Files : MP3 is a popular compressed ,
• Other uncompressed files : includes all the un-
lossy format producing much smaller files than
compressed audio formats that Audacity can ex-
WAV or AIFF, at the expense of some loss of qual-
port, including 4-bit (A)DPCM, 8-bit U-Law/A-Law,
ity. You must download the optional LAME encoder
24-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit options. Also GSM 6.10
to export to MP3.
WAV (mobile) which produces a mono WAV file
encoded with the compressed, lossy GSM 6.10 • OGG Vorbis Files : Ogg Vorbis is the com-
codec as used in mobile telephones. This menu pressed, lossy Vorbis codec in an OGG container.
item defaults to WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM Vorbis offers higher quality than MP3 for the same
on Windows and Linux and to AIFF (Apple/SGI) file size, and is useful for good quality small-sized
signed 16-bit PCM on Mac. mono files, but fewer applications can play the OGG
format.
• AIFF (Apple/SGI) signed 16-bit PCM No options
for this format: AIFF is a lossless format that can • FLAC Files : FLAC is a compressed but lossless
both be played on Mac and Windows computers, format, giving much larger file sizes than MP3 and
though it is far more likely to be selected by Mac OGG but only about half the size of WAV.
470 CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
• MP2 Files : MP2 is a compressed, lossy format (or using any alternative encoder of your choice)
similar to MP3, producing slightly larger files than is therefore to select (external program) as above
MP3 for the same quality. and use the command-line encoder. See How can
I export to formats not listed in the Export Audio
Dialog? for more information.
18.8.3 External program
• (external program) : sends audio via the 18.8.5 File size and channel comparisons
command-line to any executable binary application by export format
either for processing or for encoding as a file. This
is a method to export using an alternative com- The following table gives typical achieved mono and
pressed or uncompressed encoder or to a format stereo file sizes with different formats at default Audac-
not otherwise supported by Audacity. ity settings (that is, 44100 Hz sample rate and default
bit rate or quality settings in the case of compressed
formats). Where VBR compression is employed, the
18.8.4 FFmpeg format types (mostly com- achieved size will vary depending on the content. Some
pressed) formats can be exported as multi-channel files containing
more than two channels, if you enable this at "Use cus-
The following export types are listed in released builds tom mix" in the Import / Export Preferences . The final
of Audacity on Windows and Mac, and in other builds column in the table shows the maximum number of chan-
where FFmpeg is enabled. They will only function if you nels Audacity can export for each format. Some formats
install the optional FFmpeg library . The following four may theoretically support more channels than Audacity
formats are small-sized compressed formats giving file can export.
sizes comparable to or smaller than MP3. FormatLossyCompressionFile size (MB per
• M4A (AAC) Files (FFmpeg) : Advanced Audio minute):File size limit:Channels
Coding is a compressed, lossy format used in Ap- mono stereo
ple applications, generally achieving slightly better
quality than MP3 for the same file size. By default, WAV 16-bit PCM No None 5.0 10.0 4 GB(1)32
the exported file will be given an "m4a" extension. AIFF 16-bit PCM No None 5.0 10.0 4 GB(1)32
Optional permitted extensions: .mp4, .m4r (ring-
tone) and .3gp (mobile). FLAC 16-bit No VBR 2.5 5.0 8
• AC3 Files (FFmpeg) : the common name used for M4A (AAC) Yes VBR - 1.1 32(2)
the compressed, lossy format used in Dolby Digital. WMA v2 Yes CBR 1.3 1.3 8(3)
• AMR (narrow band) Files (FFmpeg) : the Adap-
AC3 Yes CBR 1.1 1.1 7
tive Multi-Rate codec is a patented compression
scheme optimized for speech, but also used for mo- MP2 Yes CBR 1.1 1.1 2
bile telephone ringtones. The wide band variant
MP3 Yes CBR (optional VBR) 1.0 (CBR) 1.0 (CBR) 2
uses higher bandwidth for higher quality.
Ogg Vorbis Yes VBR 0.5 1.0 32
• WMA (version 2) Files (FFmpeg) : Windows Me-
dia Audio v2 is a compressed, lossy format devel- GSM 6.10 WAV Yes CBR 0.5 - 1
oped by Microsoft. Optional permitted extensions:
.asf or .wmv. AMR (NB) Yes CBR 0.1 - 1
(1)The practical file size limit is 2 GB in many player appli-
cations due to their interpretation of the file size header.
Custom FFmpeg Export This also applies to 24-bit and 32-bit files where those bit
depths are valid.
• Custom FFmpeg Export : Allows interface-based
(2)More than 2 channels output is not supported with the
export of some additional compressed or uncom-
recommended FFmpeg 2.2.2 library, unless you export
pressed formats not listed above, and options for
using (external program) with a command that tells Au-
exporting formats containing alternative codecs (for
dacity to explicitly use the native FFmpeg encoder. This
example, WAV format containing MP3 or OGG for-
produces maximum 6 channels. For up to 8 channels,
mat containing FLAC). Note: not all formats and
point the same command to the latest FFmpeg-git.
codecs are compatible, and some exports might re-
sult in zero-byte or invalid files if FFmpeg does not (3)A maximum of 2 channels can be written using the
support the combination chosen. The most flexible "WMA (version 2) Files (FFmpeg)" export choice or FFm-
method to export to more formats using FFmpeg peg at the command-line using (external program) . To
18.9. EXPORT MULTIPLE 471
encode other WMA formats, export using (external pro- you do not see a choice for one of those specific FFm-
gram) and point to a command-line WMA encoder. lvqcl’s peg formats, then the build of FFmpeg you are linking
command-line WMA encoder can export as WMA V9, to was not compiled to support encoding in that format.
WMA Lossless and WMA 10 Professional (but limited to The most flexible method to export to more formats is
maximum 6 channels, despite WMA 10 Professional sup- to choose (external program) in the Export Audio Dialog
ports 8 channels). which opens the dialog for Audacity’s command-line en-
coder . Point your command to an encoder that supports
the format you want to write to, which could be FFmpeg
18.8.6 Exporting to formats not listed in or some other encoder (for example, an alternative AAC
the Export Audio Dialog or MP3 encoder). On Windows, the recommended EXE
installer of FFmpeg includes an ffmpeg.exe which you
If you install the optional FFmpeg library you can use the can use for this purpose. On Mac, you can download a
(FFmpeg) choices in the Export Audio Dialog to export standalone "ffmpeg" binary if you search online. Please
M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA . If see formats supported by FFmpeg on the Audacity Wiki.
The Export Multiple dialog appears in response to the tory will be created in the same folder in which the
File > Save Other > Export Multiple... command. This Audacity application resides. For example, typing
command exports multiple files at once, either one file "myLP/myTracks" in the Export Location box and
for each Audacity audio track , or one file for each label then clicking the Create button will create the folder
placed below audio tracks. Exporting Multiple by labels "myLP" in the same directory as the Audacity appli-
is a convenient way to export separate files for each track cation, and the folder "myTracks" inside the "myLP"
in a long recording .For Export Multiple, selections in the folder.
waveform play no part in determining the audio that is ex-
ported.See the Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs
to CD for an example of how this is used.
Use the Create function with caution and only if you
know what you are doing - it is possible to create fold-
ers in non-standard locations for your operating system.
Note that you will receive a "success" message even
when you specify an existing file path or directory.
18.9.7 Export progress dialog 18.9.9 Examples of use of labels with Ex-
port Multiple
Once you have clicked the Export button, or the final
metadata OK button, Audacity will display a dialog en- In the following examples the choices in the dialog would
abling you to monitor the progress of the export: be: "Split files based on: Labels" and "Name files: Using
474 CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
Label/Track name". This is a case where you would want to check "Include
audio before first label" and supply a file name in the
"First file name" text box.
Case 1: A point label marking each song • The first file will be named whatever is typed into
the "First file name" text box and will contain the
audio between the start of the track and the "Sec-
ond song" label.
• Similarly the second file will be named "Second
song" and will contain the audio between the "Sec-
ond song" label and the "Third song" label, and so
on for the rest of the labels.
• The last file will contain the audio from the last label
• In this case the first file will be named "First song"
to the end of the audio track.
and will contain the audio between the "First song"
label and the "Second song" label.
• Similarly the second file will be named "Second Case 4: Region labels marking two chosen songs
song" and will contain the audio between the "Sec-
ond song" label and the "Third song" label, and so
on for the rest of the labels.
• The last file will contain the audio from the last la-
bel to the end of the audio track and will be named
according to the last label in the label track.
Case 2: A region label marking each song In this case we want to export only two songs - perhaps
songs by the same artist from a compilation album. Each
song is marked with a region label.
• Only two files will be exported - "Second Song"
and "Fourth Song" - corresponding to the audio
spanned by those labels. No other audio will be
exported.
• In this case the first file will be named "First song" Case 5: A mix of point and region labels
and will contain the audio spanned by the "First
song" label.
• Similarly the second file will be named "Second
song" and will contain the audio spanned by the
"Second song" label, and so on for the rest of the
labels.
• Any audio beyond the last region label will not be
exported
In the case above we have an interview with a series of
questions (upper track) and answers (lower track), and
Case 3: A point label marking each song except the a concluding statement by the interviewer. We want to
first export the question-answer pairs and the interviewer’s
conclusion as separate files. In most cases the question-
answer pairs follow one after another, so point labels are
a quick and convenient way to mark them. However after
the third answer, the interviewer is told by the studio man-
ager that time is running out, and the two parties discuss
this. We want to omit this exchange.
• We mark the start of the first two question-answer
pairs with point labels "QA1" and QA2".
18.10. EXPORT OPTIONS 475
• We mark the third pair with a region label "QA3" the audio between the "QA4" and "QA5" point la-
since we want to omit the discussion about running bels. Note that the audio between the end of the
out of time. "QA3" region label and the "QA4" point label is not
exported.
• We mark the start of the fourth pair with point label
"QA4" and the start of the interviewer’s conclusion
• The final file will be named "Outro" and will include
with point label "Outro".
the audio between the "Outro" label and the end.
So this is what will be exported: Had we decided to cut off the conclusion half way
through, we would have selected what we wanted
• The first file will be named "QA1" and will include
to keep and labeled that, producing a region label
the audio between the "QA1" and "QA2" point la-
"Outro" instead. Then the audio beyond the "Outro"
bels.
label would not have been exported.
• The second file will be named "QA2" and will in-
clude the audio between the "QA2" point label and Note that in order to export the pairs and the conclusion
the start of the "QA3" region label. excluding the interruption, we could equally have drawn
region labels for each, similarly to Case 4 above. Had
• The third file will be named "QA3" and will include
we needed to edit each of these regions individually be-
the audio spanned by the "QA3" region label.
fore export, it might have made sense to label them as
• The fourth file will be named "QA4" and will include regions in any case.
This screenshot shows the Export Audio dialog with op- • FLAC Export Options
tions for MP3 format export:
• MP2 Export Options
• Ogg Vorbis Export Options
• Other uncompressed files Export Options
• WMA Export Options
• Advanced Mixing Options
By default, all exports are mixed down to mono (one
channel) or stereo (two channels). If you want to ex-
port to more channels, enable "Use custom mix" in Im-
port / Export Preferences . After pressing "Save" in the
export dialog, the Advanced Mixing Options dialog ap-
pears where you can map the Audacity tracks to chan-
nels. Metadata Editor (if enabled) appears after OK’ing
the Advanced Mixing Options.
need to manually add the extension to the file name after export.
AAC is a lossy , compressed audio format. It is Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
the default audio format for Apple iTunes®, iPod® and then choosing M4A(AAC) Files FFmpeg from the Save
iPhone®. Accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Au- as type dropdown menu. In this case the options dialog
dio... then choosing M4A(AAC) Files FFmpeg from the will appear in the center of the Export Multiple dialog.
Save as type dropdown menu
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple... instructions .
} then choosing AC3 Files (FFmpeg) from the Save as
type dropdown menu. In this case the options dialog will
appear in the center of the Export Multiple dialog. 18.12.1 AC3 Export Setup
The Advanced Mixing Options dialog appears if you channel files when using File > Save Other > Ex-
have chosen "Use custom mix" in the Import / Export port Multiple... .
section of Preferences . Use this dialog to export multi-
The tracks from your project shown on the left will be
channel (surround sound) files or to make customised as-
mixed down into the output channels shown on the right:
signments between Audacity tracks and the channels in
the exported file. • The tracks in your project are shown in blue boxes.
• The output channels are shown in gray boxes.
• Adjust the Output Channels slider as desired to
change the number of output channels.
• Click to select or deselect any box. A selected box
is outlined in red.
• Clicking to select a box when another is already se-
lected will link the boxes if they are not linked, or
remove the link if they are linked.
Connect the tracks to the channels in the way that you
want, then click "OK" to export to the multi-channel file.
• There is no support at the moment for multi-channel
playback of audio in Audacity - playback of a multi-
channel file in Audacity will always be mixed down
to stereo. Similarly, the Tracks > Mix > Mix and
• When you click File > Save Other > Export Audio... Render and Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render to New
and have chosen the name and format of your ex- Track commands only mix down to mono or stereo.
ported file, this dialog appears which presents you
• Audacity does not perform mapping of the channels
with the number of tracks you have in your project
in exported files to specific playback channels. Use
and allows you to map these as desired to each of
the Audio Track Dropdown Menu or mouse drag on
up to 32 output channels ( WAV , AIFF or OGG )
the Track Control Panel of tracks to move tracks up
or 8 output channels ( FLAC ). AAC multi-channel
and down so they match the channel layout of the
export is subject to the FFmpeg encoder used, as
format you are exporting to. In addition, 5.1 files in
described in our file formats comparison table .
OGG and AC3 formats are often FL, FC, FR, SL,
• To include only specific tracks in the exported file, SR, LFE.
select those tracks then use File > Save Other >
Export Selected Audio... , or mute the tracks you
do not want to export. There is no guarantee that a sound device or any
particular file will follow recommended channel mapping
• Currently there is no support for exporting multi- for the format.
478 CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
AMR the Adaptive Multi-Rate codec is a patented com- Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
pression scheme optimized for speech, but also used for then choosing AMR (narrow band) Files (FFmpeg) from
mobile telephone ringtones. The wide band variant uses the Save as type dropdown menu. In this case the op-
higher bandwidth for higher quality. Accessed by: File > tions dialog will appear in the center of the Export Multi-
Save Other > Export Audio... then choosing AMR (nar- ple dialog.
row band) Files (FFmpeg) from the Save as type drop-
down menu.
FFmpeg is not shipped with Audacity but you can
download it and then export as AMR (NB) by following
these instructions .
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple... from 0 to 8. Level 0 is optimized to encode as fast
then choosing FLAC Files from the Save as type drop- as possible. Level 8 is optimized to pack as ef-
down menu. In this case the options dialog will appear in ficiently as possible, so produces slightly smaller
the center of the Export Multiple dialog. files than level 0 at the expense of taking longer to
encode. Files encoded at level 8 are rarely more
than a few percent smaller than those encoded at
18.15.1 FLAC Export Setup level 0, but can take three or four times longer to
encode.
• Level: The amount of file size compression used
to losslessly pack the audio data, similar to com- • Bit depth : Choose from 16-bit (default) or 24-bit
pression levels in ZIP files. The level settings range (approximately 50% larger file size).
WMA is a compressed , lossy audio format developed Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
by Microsoft. It is the default audio format for Windows then choosing WMA (version2) Files (FFmpeg) from the
Media Player. Accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Save as type dropdown menu. In this case the options
Audio... then choosing WMA (version2) Files (FFmpeg) dialog will appear in the center of the Export Multiple di-
from the Save as type dropdown menu. alog.
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
then choosing MP2 Files from the Save as type drop-
down menu. In this case the options dialog will appear in
the center of the Export Multiple dialog.
• Audacity uses LAME for encoding MP3s, which is Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
generally considered to be the best MP3 encoding then choosing MP3 Files from the Save as type drop-
library, and is the only MP3 encoding library that is down menu. In this case the options dialog will appear in
still being actively developed the center of the Export Multiple dialog.
Accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Audio... then
choosing MP3 Files from the Save as type dropdown
menu. Re-encoding to MP3If you import an MP3 into Audac-
18.18. MP3 EXPORT OPTIONS 481
ity, edit it then export it as an MP3, you will lose quality tuations in bit rate to reflect the relative difficulty of
twice, once in the original MP3 encoding of the imported encoding the file. This does not provide as con-
audio, then again when you export it from Audacity as sistently high a quality as variable bit rate, but is
MP3. So never do production work in MP3, instead work generally preferable to constant bit rate if you need
with a lossless format such as WAV, AIFF or FLAC and to know more or less how large your files will be; it
for final use then export to MP3. See this page in the offers bit rates from 8 kbps to 320 kbps.
Audacity Wiki for other applications that can be used to
• Constant: This sets a constant bit rate for the en-
directly edit MP3 audio files, thereby avoiding lossy re-
coding, regardless of its complexity. Of the four bit
encoding.
rate modes, this usually gives the worst, least con-
sistent quality for a given file size, but that size itself
is completely predictable (note that if you choose
18.18.1 MP3 Export Setup a high bit rate, the LAME encoder may use a
lower constant bit rate if you choose 11025 Hz or
Bit Rate Mode lower project rate). Use constant bit rate if you are
streaming the file over the internet, as it ensures the
These offer four different ways to control the trade-off be- audio cannot stutter due to sudden peaks in the bit
tween the size and quality of the exported files. rate. The available bit rates are the same as for av-
erage bit rate - the default rate (128 kbps) gives you
• Preset: These are the settings recommended by
a known file size of about 1 MB per minute of mono
the LAME developers for encoding music. De-
or stereo audio.
tailed descriptions of these settings are given in this
article on hydrogenaudio.io. If you are exporting a constant bit rate spoken word MP3
such as an audiobook and have a stereo track in Audac-
– Insane: The best possible encoding qual-
ity where both channels are identical, it’s preferable to
ity. This preset has a constant bit-rate of
use Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo down to Mono to convert
320 kbps, which is equivalent to 2.4 MB per
to a single mono track before export. This will still sound
minute. This setting is generally considered to
the same on stereo equipment, but have higher quality
be overkill as there is little if any difference in
because the fixed number of bits have less audio to pro-
sound quality from the "Extreme" preset, but
cess.
with much greater file size.
– Extreme: Extremely high quality. This setting
will normally produce transparent results, but Quality
with considerably smaller file size than the "In-
sane" preset. This list lets you select the bit rate in kbps (kilobits per
second) for encoding your file. A higher bit rate always
– Standard: Very good quality encoding.
gives better quality but at the expense of a larger file size
– Medium: Good sound quality suitable for ca- and vice versa. The bit rates are absolute for average
sual listening or portable devices. and constant bit rate modes, but expressed as a range
for the variable and preset modes (except for the Insane
• Variable: This mode continuously varies the bit preset).
rate used according to the complexity of the sound,
in an attempt to maintain the quality of the record-
ing at a consistent level. The settings range from Variable Speed
0 (highest quality) to 9 (smallest file size). Each
setting defines a range of bit rates within which it
Choice of speed is available when using variable bit rate
will generally operate, assuming a stereo track. For
encoding. It determines the speed and bit allocation rou-
a mono track, the achieved bit rate for each set-
tines of the encoding algorithm . The default "Fast"
ting will usually be below the range indicated above.
option is equivalent to –vbr-new and is generally rec-
Level 0 is comparable to the Extreme preset men-
ommended for both speed and quality. The "Standard"
tioned above, level 2 is comparable to Standard and
slower option is equivalent to –vbr-old. It is possible that
level 4 to Medium presets. Variable bit rate offers
this may give more consistent encoding quality in some
the best quality compared to the Average and Con-
material or if you need to use an earlier 3.9x version of
stant bit rate options in most circumstances (ex-
LAME.
tremely quiet music is one exception). It will tend
to give you somewhat smaller file sizes for a given
degree of quality, but the actual file sizes cannot be Channel Mode
accurately predicted in advance.
• Average: This sets a known, average bit rate for These controls determine how the two channels of a
the file, but within this average permits some fluc- stereo MP3 are encoded or if the exported MP3 should
482 CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
always be mono. port time, click Edit > Preferences, then the Import / Ex-
port tab, and in the "When exporting tracks..." section,
• Joint Stereo: Enabled by default, this button lets uncheck "Show Metadata Editor prior to export step".
the encoder switch from frame to frame between The tags can still be viewed or edited at any time prior
"Stereo" (which just encodes the left and right chan- to export at Edit > Edit Metadata... , and the tags in the
nels independently) and Mid/Side stereo. Mid/Side editor at export time will still be exported.
stereo converts the Left and Right channels into
two different signals: a "Mid" or "Sum" channel
(Left plus Right, mono) and a "Side" or "Difference" Metadata tags with Export Multiple
channel (the difference between the two channels,
Left minus Right). This allows recordings with rel-
When using Export Multiple , Metadata Editor pops up
atively little stereo separation to be encoded more
as many times as there are files to export. This gives
efficiently - more bits can be allocated to the Sum
flexibility to adjust the tags separately for tracks which
channel because there is relatively little difference
form compilations with different artists or genres. If all
information to encode. As a result, files encoded as
the tracks to be exported have common information ex-
Joint Stereo with variable or average bit rate will be
cept for Track Title and Track Number, you may prefer to
slightly smaller than comparable files encoded as
set Preferences as above so that Metadata Editor does
Stereo, but the file size difference will be less no-
not appear prior to export. Then make any necessary
ticeable at higher bit rates. For all bit rate modes
edits to the common tags at Edit > Metadata... prior to
(variable, average or constant) there will also be
export, and the multiple export will proceed silently with
less audible difference between Joint Stereo and
the Track Title and Track Number tags added automat-
Stereo at higher bit rates.
ically. The Track Title tag will be the same as the file
• Stereo: If this button is enabled, the left and right name chosen in the label or track name , and the Track
signals are encoded independently of each other. Number tag will be generated according to the order of
the labels or tracks.
• Force export to mono: Enabling this checkbox al-
ways produces a mono (single channel) MP3 file,
mixing down to mono if the Audacity content is
stereo or would otherwise produce a stereo file.
18.18.3 Recommended settings
– If you are only exporting one mono Audacity The default MP3 encoding options in Audacity are 170 -
track and providing that track is panned to cen- 210 kbps VBR (preset "Standard"). While this is a good
ter, Audacity will automatically export as mono choice for stereo music, it is not generally recommended
without enabling this checkbox. In that case for Podcasts.
the Joint Stereo and Stereo buttons have no
effect.
Podcast settings
– If you do enable this checkbox, the Joint
Stereo and Stereo radio buttons are disabled.
For podcasts, "CBR" (constant bit-rate) is recommended,
• When forcing export to mono and you choose vari- and not "VBR" (variable bit-rate). The choice of
able or average bit rate or a Preset other than "In- mono/stereo depends on the type of podcast. For voice
sane", the bit rate and the exported file size will be only podcasts, mono is usually preferred as you can
reduced compared to a stereo export. This can be achieve better sound quality with less data. If the pod-
done without affecting the quality of the export be- cast contains a lot of music you may prefer to use stereo,
cause less bits are needed for mono encoding than but higher bit-rates will probably be required (bigger file
stereo. size).
• 64 kbps CBR mono can give reasonable quality
for voice if you are wanting to minimise the file size.
18.18.2 ID3 Metadata Tags
• 96 kbps CBR mono can give excellent quality for
voice.
MP3 files contain "metadata" at the start of the file as
ID3 tags. These tags typically contain information such • 128 kbps CBR stereo can give reasonable quality
as Track Title, Artist Name, Year and Genre. Some of where stereo is required.
this information may be visible in the playing window of
• 192 kbps CBR stereo can give very good quality
software and hardware players. The tags can be edited
where stereo is required.
with Audacity’s tag editor. By default, the Metadata Tags
Editor will always appear at export time. Enter any meta- • 256 kbps VBR stereo can give excellent quality
data you require in the editor, then click the OK button stereo music, though not recommended for stream-
(notSave). To prevent Metadata Editor appearing at ex- ing.
18.19. CUSTOM FFMPEG EXPORT OPTIONS 483
See Export Audio for how to set the MP3 export op-
tions.
The custom FFmpeg exporter is available if you have in- – Windows: Users
stalled the optional FFmpeg library . The dialog lets you <username>
export a specific codec in a specific format container.The AppData
Custom FFmpeg format options dialog appears in re- Roaming
sponse to the Open custom FFmpeg format options but- Audacity
ton in the Export Audio or Export Multiple dialog’s Op-
– Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/
tions pane when you have chosen Custom FFmpeg Ex-
port in the Save as type dropdown. – Linux: ~/.audacity-data/.
• Delete Preset: Removes the selected preset in the
Preset: dropdown from Audacity’s internal storage.
• Import Presets: Imports an existing set of one or
more presets from an external XML file. Imported
presets will be added to your existing list of pre-
sets. If an imported preset has the same name as
an existing preset, Audacity will ask if you want to
overwrite that existing preset with the settings of the
imported preset.
• Export Presets: Exports all the currently saved pre-
sets as an external XML file to a file name and
folder of your choice. To export a new or modified
preset you must first use Save Preset to save it.
Export Audio dialog to perform your custom FFmpeg ex- pane’s options will be grayed out.
port, you must add the extension relevant to the format
at the end of your chosen file name. For example, add
.wav extension for WAV format, irrespective of the codec 18.19.8 Example
chosen for the WAV file.
Custom FFmpeg Export provides a way to specify the bit
rate of exported M4A (AAC files) which is not currently
18.19.4 List of Codecs possible by choosing "M4A (AAC) Files" in the Export Au-
dio dialog.
In the adjacent Codecs list box, click to select the codec
you want to use with the selected format. You can click 1. Select mp4 in the Formats list.
to select a codec first but clicking on any particular codec 2. Select libvo_aacenc in the Codecs List.
may reduce the list of formats because not all formats
work with all codecs. If you cannot find the desired 3. In Bit Rate: in the General Options pane, enter
Codec, press the Show All Codecs button, but note that a bit rate up to 320 kbps expressed in bits per
the dialog will not allow selection of incompatible for- second. For example, to export at 280 kbps, enter
mat/codec pairs. "280000" (without quotes).
4. Click the OK button.
18.19.5 General Options 5. Back in the Export Audio dialog, enter your desired
file name then add "m4a" (without quotes) at the
This pane has options that are configurable for all for- end of the name.
mat and codec combinations. For any particular com-
bination of format and codec some options may not be
available and they will be grayed out. Hover over the 18.19.9 Limitations and Disclaimer
options (the input box not the text label) to see an ex-
planation of what they do, and recommended settings. If
an option is grayed out, it does not apply to the selected Audacity aims to provide the same export-
format/codec. ing/importing features as FFmpeg. That is, you should
be able to use Audacity to transcode audio with the same
results as using FFmpeg directly. This also means that
18.19.6 FLAC Options if FFmpeg cannot perform a particular conversion, Au-
dacity cannot do it either. The limitations apply to both
This pane has options that are only available when you specific formats and codecs and to their metadata. In
select FLAC as your codec. For all other codecs this particular, FFmpeg can only export about two-thirds
pane’s options will be grayed out. of the formats that it can import. Possibly incomplete
information about known limitations can be seen at
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/FFmpeg_integration#Functionalit
18.19.7 MPEG container Options One way to test if there is a problem in the Audacity im-
plementation of FFmpeg is to use a command-line ver-
This pane has options that are only available when you sion of FFmpeg separately to perform the same task. If
select mpeg as your format. For all other formats this it fails in FFmpeg, then Audacity has the same limitation.
Accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Audio... then as type dropdown menu. In this case the options dialog
choosing Other uncompressed files from the Save as will appear in the center of the Export Multiple dialog.
type dropdown menu.
Header
Encoding
higher quality audio for the same reduced file size can namic range of the audio when written to the file,
generally be obtained by using other lossy codecs like but restore it when played back.
MP3 , OGG or AAC . These use psychoacoustic mod-
elling to try and make the retained audio sound similar to • ADPCM, DPCM: ADPCM are 4-bit formats that
the original. sound near-identical to PCM except where there is
a lot of low frequency content. There are various
• Signed/unsigned PCM: These formats represent ADPCM choices according to the header chosen,
the audio data by integer numbers. There are 8-bit, such as IMA, Microsoft, G721, G723 and VOX. AD-
16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit choices. PCM and DPCM both save storage space by pre-
• Float: These formats represent the audio data by dicting the next sample, and encoding the PCM val-
floating-point numbers. This allows a much wider ues only as differences between the predicted and
range of sample values to be represented, further actual value. ADPCM saves further space by vary-
increasing its accuracy. There are "32-bit" and "64- ing the size of the quantization step.
bit" choices.
• GSM 6.10: A lossy voice codec producing small
• U-Law, A-Law: 8-bit formats using different types file sizes, used on GSM mobile digital telephone
of companding algorithms. These reduce the dy- networks.
Chapter 19
Additional Features
Timer Record operates in a manner similar to setting input device which would allow you to adjust the signal
your digital video recorder or cassette recorder to make a level during a Timer record session). Note that you can-
scheduled recording.The Timer Record setup dialog en- not initiate a Timer Record of you have any unsaved data
ables you to schedule when a recording begins and ends in your project , nor if you have more that one Audacity
and optionally: project open.
Accessed by: Transport Menu > Timer Record... "Start Date and Time" shows the current live time
on opening the dialog, meaning that the recording you
schedule will start immediately unless you change this
control to a time and date in the future.
487
488 CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
because this changes the End Date if necessary as "Start Date and Time". Alternatively you can abort the
well as the End Time. Timer Record by pressing the Cancel button.
If you had set the recording’s Start Date and Time in ad-
Automatic Export
vance of the current time, pressing OK in the setup dialog
will cause the Waiting for Start dialog to appear:
Checking the checkbox Enable Automatic Export en-
ables you to then use the Select button to select an audio
file format for the export and a location and file name for
the automatic export of the project when the recording
finishes. You can select both an Automatic Save and an
Automatic Export if required.
19.1.3 Starting the Timer Record 19.1.5 Timer Record Progress dialog
When you have made all your required settings simply
press the OK button to start the Timer Record which will
then either wait to start to record later or start immedi- When the recording starts, the Timer Record Progress
ately depending on your settings in the timer contols, the dialog appears:
19.1. TIMER RECORD 489
19.1.9 Insufficient disk space You may still choose to go ahead by clicking the Yes but-
ton, you will either need to free up some disk space be-
If you attempt to create a Timer Recording which for fore the Timed Recording starts. If you do not Timer
which there is insufficient disk space currently available Record will proceed with the recording and then stop
based on your current setings then the following error when your computer is about to run out of disk space,
message will appear: the remainder of the scheduled recording will not be
recorded. Pressing the No will abort the Timed Record-
ing setup.
19.2 Themes
19.2.4 Classic
19.2.2 Dark
This page documents the Track Control Panels and Ver- Track Control Panel
ical Scale rulers that are present with each type of Au-
dacity track.
Vertical Scale
19.3.5 Note Track Note Tracks display (and play) data from MIDI files. The
Track Control Panel and Vertical Scale are rather different
to all other tracks in Audacity:
• The Vertical Scale shows the pitch position of the
displayed notes shown on a piano keyboard. As
with the audio tracks you can zoom the scale of the
Vertical Scale piano keyboard using your mouse.
• The Track Control panel shows the channels, color
coded to tie in with the channels displayed, that
are to be played and allows you to toggle individual
channels by left-clicking or toggle all other channels
off by right-clicking.
For more details please see Note Tracks .
Mixer Board is an alternative view to the audio tracks Panels, double-click in either Mixer Board slider to enter
in the main tracks window, and is analogous to a hard- an exact gain or pan value in a text box. The meters
ware mixer board. Each audio track is displayed in are post-fade, like the Meter Toolbars , such that they
a Track Strip. Each Track Strip has its own pair of show the levels as modified by the track’s gain/pan slid-
meters, gain slider, pan slider, and mute/solo buttons, ers and mute/solo buttons. Mono tracks show in both
echoing that track’s controls in its Track Control Panel track meters, as in the Meter Toolbar. You can select a
.The Mixer Board... command is enabled whenever Mixer Board track by clicking its Track Strip on the image
there’s an audio track - it can even be brought up during near the top. Selection of a track in Mixer Board is indi-
playback.Accessed by:View > Mixer Board...The Mixer cated by the gray half-border that sits right and bottom of
Board... command is enabled whenever there is an au- an unselected track moves to left and top of a selected
dio track - it can even be brought up during playback. track; in the example above it is the "Horns" track that is
When there are no audio tracks it is grayed-out and un- selected. Deselect all tracks by clicking in the dark gray
available. between track strips or the dark gray at the bottom of the
Mixer Board, note that the shortcut Ctrl + Shift +A to de-
select all tracks does not work in Mixer Board. Similar to
Audacity Selection you can also add specific tracks to the
selection and remove specific tracks from the selection:
• Holding Ctrl and clicking in a track’s Track
Striptoggles the selectedness of that track only.
So if a track is not selected, Ctrl-clicking its Track
Strip selects it, or deselects it if it is already se-
lected.
• If you select a track by clicking on its Track Strip
and then use Shift and click in another track’s Track
Strip, all tracks between and including those two
tracks will be selected.
19.4.1 Mixer Board controls By default, the image at the top of each Track Strip is
the Audacity logo, but if you name the track in the Track
All Mixer Board controls update the controls in their re- Control Panel with an instrument name or abbreviation
spective Track Control Panel and vice versa. For exam- thereof, Mixer Board automatically shows an appropriate
ple, muting a track in the Mixer Board also mutes that image as listed below. A track name that contains any of
track in the main tracks window. As in the Track Control the keywords (in bold) will display the image that is as-
19.5. KARAOKE 495
sociated with those keywords. If the track name contains • string, violin, cello = generic stringed instrument
keywords for more than one instrument, the Mixer Board
• synth = synthesizer
will display the best match.
• tambo = tambourine
• acoustic, guitar, gtr = acoustic guitar
• trumpet, horn = generic brass instrument
• acoustic, piano, pno = acoustic piano
• turntable = record player
• back, vocal, bg, vox = backing vocal
• vibraphone, vibes = vibraphone
• clap = handclaps
• vocal, vox = lead vocal
• drums, dr = drum kit
Examples:
• electric, bass, guitar, bs, gtr = electric bass guitar
• "electric b" displays an standard electric guitar ("b"
• electric, guitar, gtr = (standard) electric guitar
is not a keyword), but "electric bs" displays an elec-
• electric, piano, pno, key = electronic keyboard tric bass guitar ("bs" is a keyword).
• kick = kick drum • "electric gtr" will display an electric guitar. Although
these keywords are also in the bass guitar list, in
• loop = loop track
the absence of the keywords bass or bs, the Mixer
• organ, org = organ Board sees the (standard) electric guitar as a better
match.
• perc = percussion
• "drums" will display a drum kit as it is a keyword.
• sax = saxophone
"drum" will also display a drum kit as it contains dr
• snare = snare drum which is a keyword.
19.5 Karaoke
The karaoke feature shows a bouncing ball that fol- Audacity automatically puts a space between words, so
lows along text as audio plays.Accessed by:View > you do not need to put them in your labels. You may want
Karaoke...The Karaoke... command is enabled when- to split up lyrics such that the ball bounces per syllable
ever you have at least one label track . If you have multi- rather than just for the whole word. To do this, create a
ple label tracks, it uses only the first one. The command label for each syllable, and end each with a hyphen ("-"),
brings up the Karaoke window, which displays the labels except the last syllable. For example, "Aud-" "a-" "ci-" "ty".
in a "bouncing ball" scrolling display. You can select a The hyphen tells Audacity to not put a space between the
playback start point in the main tracks window and the syllables, as it does between words. Note there may still
Karaoke window will start from there. be space between the syllables, depending on how far
apart they are in the timeline and the size of the Karaoke
window.
496 CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
A Chain is a sequence of preconfigured commands in a • To create an audio file as part of the Chain process
set order (mainly effects) that can be applied automati- you must include an "Export" command (such as
cally to projects or audio files. Any built-in , LADSPA , ExportWAV).
LV2 , Nyquist , VST or Audio Unit (Mac) effect shown in
• In many cases the parameters for each command
the Effect Menu can be added to a Chain. You can also
in the Chain can be specified within the Edit Chains
add plug-ins in any format that are shown in the Gener-
dialog.
ate or Analyze Menus (including VAMP analysis effects),
the built-in Find Clipping analyzer and a number of ex-
port commands. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
image to read about that command. Skip the image
Use File > Chains > Apply Chain... to show the existing
19.6.2 Edit Chains chains. Select the chain you require by using left-click (or
using the Up or Down arrow on the keyboard) to select
the Chain you want to work on, then either:
Use File > Chains > Edit Chains... if you need to create
a new Chain or to edit an existing Chain. • choose Apply to Current Project to run the Chain
on the entire project in the current window or
• The Chain can include a number of common Au-
dacity functions and effects to be executed in any • choose Apply to Files... to run the Chain on se-
order you specify. lected external audio files in a single directory
19.6. CHAINS - FOR BATCH PROCESSING AND EFFECTS AUTOMATION 497
Example 2: NR&EQ
1. Insert Compressor to reduce the dynamic range • If a Noise Profile does not exist:
of each WAV, also normalizing them to maximum
– If the Chain is applied to the current project (as
amplitude of 0 dB
above), the current selection is used to create
2. Insert ExportMP3 to convert them to MP3 format the Noise Profile. Therefore, other effect com-
mands in the Chain will also only apply to that
3. Click OK to close the "Edit Chains" window
selection. If an export command is added, the
entire file will be exported.
Edit Chains allows you to edit, remove or rename exist- • Defaults: This button is only active when the "MP3
ing Chains or add a new Chain. Any built-in , LADSPA , Conversion" Chain is selected in the "Chain" list on
LV2 , Nyquist , VST or Audio Unit (Mac) effect shown in the left, and will reset this Chain to its default val-
the Effect Menu can be added to a Chain. You can also ues.</ul>
add plug-ins in any format that are shown in the Gener-
ate or Analyze Menus (including VAMP analysis effects),
the built-in Find Clipping analyzer and a number of ex- Editing an existing command
port commands.Chains may be applied to either the en-
tirety of the current project or to a selection of files using To edit an existing command double-click it, or use the Up
the File > Chains > Apply Chain command.It is possible or Down keyboard arrow to select it then press Space.
to use Noise Reduction in Chains but see Noise Reduc- The "Select Command" dialog appears as below, but
tion Tips for how the Noise Profile is captured.Accessed with the command name and any current parameters dis-
by:File > Chains > Edit Chains... played and editable (using the Edit Parameters button - or
you can specify any previously created user preset with
the Use Preset for use with the effect). If you want to
replace the current command in its current order in the
sequence with another command, double-click the new
command (or select it then use Space) then choose OK.
For help with what the Chain effects do and how to set To insert a new command in a Chain, left-click or use
their parameters, see Effect Menu the Up or Down keyboard arrow to select an exist-
ing command; the new command to be inserted will
be placed above this selected command. Then press
Insert.
19.7.1 Chains
• The "Select Command" dialog appears, listing all
Chains contains a list of already defined Chains. You the available commands. Double-click a command
can define the name of a new Chain and select which from the list to insert it in the "Command" box, as
Chain is active. shown in the image below after inserting "Normal-
ize". Alternatively, use the Up or Down keyboard
• Add: Add a new Chain to the list. arrow to select the command, then press Space.
• Remove: Remove the selected Chain from the list. Note that the Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift effect
is listed as TimeScale.
• Rename: Rename the selected Chain.
19.7.2 Chain
– Choose OK in the effect dialog to accept the cel the export. An audio track must be on screen in
parameters you entered, or Cancel to revert order to open the Export Audio Dialog.
to the default parameters.
– Choose OK in the "Select Command" dialog
Sharing a Chain
to add the command to the Chain.
Apply Chain non-default image showing two user-added in the current project window, you must save and close
Chains as well as the as-shipped "MP3 Conversion" that project using File > Close before applying a Chain
Chain to files. The typical purpose of this option is batch pro-
cessing - apply the Chain to multiple audio files so as to
apply one or more effects to them, and/or convert them
19.8.1 Select Chain to another file format. You can convert from any file for-
mat supported by Audacity to WAV, MP3, OGG or FLAC.
In the "Chain" list, left-click (or use Up or Down arrow on The selected Chain must include an "export" step, or the
the keyboard) to select the Chain you want to apply. processed audio will not be saved.
19.8.2 Apply to Current Project It is recommended not to process more than 500
files at a time.
Apply the selected Chain to the current project window . • A standard File Open dialog box will appear.
The typical purpose of this option is effect automation Choose a directory then you can select one or any
- apply a sequence of effects to the project, using effect number of supported audio files in that directory,
parameters and an order of applying the effects that you but not Audacity AUP project files. You cannot se-
have found to work well for the type of audio you are pro- lect files outside that directory, and files in folders
cessing. This saves time and provides consistency in inside that directory will not be processed. It is con-
your workflow. The effects in the Chain are applied to the venient therefore to first put all the audio files you
selected region of waveform in the selected audio tracks want to process into one folder before applying the
. Usually the selected Chain would not include an export Chain.
command so as to use the greater flexibility of the Export
Audio Dialog . If an export command is included in the • After selecting the audio files you want to process,
Chain, the entire project audio is exported irrespective choose "Open".
of track or region selection. Therefore if the project con- • Each file will be imported into Audacity and pro-
tains multiple audio tracks, they will be mixed together, cessed, exported to the format you chose in the
unless any of the tracks are muted on the Track Control Chain, then the processed audio will be removed
Panel . The exported files will be saved in a folder named so as to clear the temporary disk space that had
"cleaned". been used.
• If the audio in the project came from an imported • The exported files will be saved in a folder named
file or files, the "cleaned" folder will be inside the di- "cleaned" in the same folder that the original files
rectory from which the first file was imported. The came from. The original files are not altered.
original files are not altered.
When a Chain is applied to files, the only option is to im-
• Otherwise, a message prompt will indicate the lo- port and process the entire file. Thus the entire file will be
cation of the "cleaned" folder that will contain the exported unless an effect in the Chain (such as Truncate
exported file. The "cleaned" folder will be in the last Silence or Repeat ) performs audio removal or insertion.
location that the Chain process exported to. If the Some optional Nyquist plug-ins have parameters to trim
Chain process has never been used for export be- or extend audio by a specific length and so could be used
fore, the "cleaned" folder will be in the location at for this purpose in a Chain.
which the File Export Dialog currently opens.
Metadata Tags editor is used to enter or confirm text de- 19.9.1 Tag and Value fields
scription ("tag" information, such as artist, year or genre)
that will be embedded in the Audacity project and passed • Tag Name: The first seven Tag names are perma-
through into exported audio files. Metadata that is em- nent and cannot be edited. You can add more tag
bedded in audio files displays in software applications rows and give them a customised name and value
like iTunes® or Windows Media Player, or portable play- using the "Add" button (see below).
ers like iPod®. Most export formats support at least
the seven default tags in Metadata Editor, but support – WAV files: Some applications such as iTunes
in player applications varies from almost universal for the will not see tags in WAV files. Some appli-
ID3 tags used by MP3 and MP2 to very limited for cations such as those made by Microsoft can
WAV . See this Frequently Asked Question for details. only read INFO tags in WAV files, in which
For both MP3 and MP2, only ID3v2.3 tags are exported. case the only customised tags they will see
ID3v1 can be exported using Cmd-line export .Accessed will be "Copyright" and "Software".
by:’Edit > Metadata...
• Tag Value: Type in the data you want for each
tag, or accept the data already present from an im-
ported file. You do not have to fill in every value.
When exporting multiple files, the "Track Title" and
"Track Number" tags are pre-filled automatically
from the names and ordering of the tracks or la-
bels. Single-clicking on a value field (or navigating
into it with the keyboard Arrow keys) selects that
field - typing will replace the contents. Tab can be
used too, and also permits navigation into the but-
tons below the Tag and Value fields. Holding Ctrl
and pressing Tab moves directly out of the grid and
cycles forward through the buttons , and holding
Ctrl and Shift and pressing Tab moves out of the
grid and cycles backward through the buttons (use
Ctrl not CloverLeaf for these key presses, even on
Mac).
•
• By default, Metadata Tags editor appears for
each exported file after choosing the file format • Double-clicking a field (or selecting it, then using
in the Export Audio or Export Multiple dialogs. keyboard F2) highlights the text in the field. This
allows the text to be edited rather than merely re-
placed, and permits cut, copy or paste using stan-
• When using Export Multiple, it’s often easier to
dard system shortcuts or a right-click context menu.
uncheck "Show Metadata Tags editor prior to ex-
Use keyboard Home, End or Arrow keys to navi-
port step" in Import / Export Preferences , then en-
gate to individual characters. Once a value field
ter any tags common to all tracks at Edit > Meta-
has been replaced or edited, press the Return key
data... before exporting. Audacity will then add the
to select the next value field, or click in any other
automatically generated Track Title and Track Num-
one to select it.
ber tags for each exported file without the editor ap-
pearing. The Genre field behaves slightly differently because it
contains a dropdown list of genre names. To use this
• Metadata Editor shows data for the most re- field, double-click it, or use F2 after selecting it. You may
cently imported track in the project, not the se- then type a custom genre name. To select from the list,
lected track. If you need the editor to show sepa- click the downward-pointing arrow to right of the drop-
rate data for each track, import the files into sepa- down, or use keyboard Up Arrow or Down Arrow keys.
rate projects. A custom genre typed into the dropdown is not added to
the list permanently - use the Edit button (see below) to
edit the list directly.
• Use the OK button in Metadata Tags editor to
complete the Export. The Save... button only • Add: Adds a new, empty row to the list for your
saves an optional template of tag names and val- own custom Tag (by default there is already one
ues. empty row at the bottom of the list). You can select
502 CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
and edit both the name and value fields exactly as • Reset: Resets the genre list to the default.
above.
• Remove: Removes the currently selected custom
row from the list, or the value data only from the 19.9.3 Template
currently selected permanent row.
• Clear: Returns the Editor to default state (seven • Load: Loads a previously saved list of tag names
permanent tag names with empty values, plus one and values into Metadata Editor.
empty row).
• Save: Saves the current list of tag names and val-
ues to a file on your drive.
19.9.2 Genres • Set Default: Makes the current list of tag names
and non-empty values the default state whenever
• Edit: Edits the dropdown list displayed in the Value opening a new, empty project. To clear the default,
field of the Genre tag. The entire list is selected on press Clear then Set Default. Even if you set a De-
open. To navigate it for editing, click the required fault, if you import a file containing metadata, that
item or use the keyboard Arrow keys. To add an metadata will appear in Metadata Editor. If you al-
entry, press keyboard End then type the name you ways want a fixed set of metadata to show after
want. The list will be automatically sorted when importing a file, you need to save that set as a tem-
saved. plate then load the template after importing the file.
The Sync-Locked Track Groups feature is enabled by 19.10.2 Sync-Locked Track Groups
the "Sync-Lock Tracks" menu item. It ensures that length
and position changes occurring anywhere in a defined
group of tracks also take place in all audio or label tracks Any audio track in Audacity can be in a group of one or
in that Sync-Locked track group even if those tracks were more adjacent tracks that can be Sync-Locked with other
not selected. This lets you keep existing audio or labels tracks in that group.
synchronized with each other even when carrying out ac-
tions like inserting, deleting or changing speed or tempo.
• To form a single Sync-Locked Track Group, the
tracks must be adjacent to each other. Optionally,
the group can be terminated with a Label Track .
This command does NOT let you select particu-
lar individual tracks then interlock those selected tracks, • If you require multiple Sync-Locked Track Groups,
rather Sync-Locking is based on Track Groups . the terminating label track is optional only for the
last Group. All the preceding Sync-Locked Track
Groups must be terminated with a label track to
delimit them from adjacent Groups.
19.10.1 Sync-Lock Tracks • A Sync-Locked Track Group may have multiple la-
bel tracks as long as the label tracks are together
at the bottom of the group.
Sync-Lock Tracks can be turned on or off at Tracks >
Sync-Lock Tracks. Sync-Lock Tracks is off by default. When Sync-Lock is on, an icon shows bottom right in
Turning on Sync-Lock Tracks does not immediately re- the Track Control Panel of each track in a Sync-Locked
align tracks or labels. It forces tracks and labels to remain Track Group, provided at least one of those tracks is se-
synchronized if they move after Sync-Lock Tracks is en- lected. The icon denotes all tracks that will be affected
abled. You need to look for the Sync-Lock icons in the when a menu operation in a selected track inserts or
Track Control Panels to know if tracks are Sync-Locked. deletes audio (or otherwise changes the audio’s position
The Sync-Lock Tracks setting that you choose is a global on the Timeline ). The unselected tracks in the Group that
one that applies to all Audacity projects, not just the cur- will be affected are denoted by a patterned "Sync-Lock"
rent one, unless and until you subsequently change the selection in the waveform (a wallpaper with clockfaces)
setting. instead of the dark gray of a normally selected track.
19.11. SYNC-LOCKED TRACK GROUPS - EDITING 503
• Cut
• Silence Audio
The Edit menu commands Cut, Delete and Paste will af-
fect all tracks in the currently selected Sync-Locked Track • Trim Audio
Group because these commands change the length of
the tracks(s). All other commands in the Edit menu will • Paste
not affect Sync-Locked tracks because these commands • Label track defined Sync-Locked Track Groups
do not change the length of the selected track(s). These
commands are: Split Cut, Copy, Trim Audio, Split • Selecting in label tracks
Delete, Silence Audio, Split, Split New, Detach at
Silences and Duplicate. • Reversing Audio
504 CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
19.11.2 Cut
19.11.5 Paste
Result: Audio is pasted into the top track moving the fol-
lowing audio to the right.Silence is inserted in the lower
track to keep it synchronized with the top track.
19.11.9 Links
19.12.4 Links
19.13.1 Time stretching operations on or by adding silence. Audio before and after the selection
Sync-Locked Track Groups will remain synchronized. Audio within the selection may
or may not remain synchronized, as the time stretching
effect is not applied to the Sync-Locked tracks. Any La-
The following effects, when applied to a region in a se- bel track that forms part of the Sync-Locked Track Group
lected track (or tracks) in a Sync-Locked group, will cause will be stretched positively or negatively, the same as the
the length of non-selected tracks in the group to be ad- selected track(s) - or in the case of Repeat will have that
justed to match the change in length of the selected track, section of the Label track repeated.
either by truncating the non-selected tracks from the right
19.13. SYNC-LOCKED TRACK GROUPS - TIME STRETCHING 507
• Change Speed : Sync-Locked tracks will be ad- After Effect > Change Speedwith a setting of 50%,
justed by having the selected region(s) shortened which makes the selection faster and shorter
from the right (if the change in speed is positive),
or have silence inserted after the selected region (if
the change in speed is negative).
• Change Tempo : Sync-Locked tracks will be ad-
justed by having the selected region(s) shortened
from the right (if the change in tempo is positive -
faster), or have silence inserted after the selected
region (if the change in tempo is negative - slower).
Result: Audio has been removed from the lower au-
• Repeat : If applied to a selection that does not end dio track. Note that in this case audio within the se-
on the end of a track, silence is inserted in the lection does not remain in synchronization since the
Sync-Locked tracks where the repeats are placed Change Speed effect is not applied to the Sync-Locked
in the selected track(s) track. Audio before and after the selection remains syn-
chronized.But note too that the Label track has been
• Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift : If the time-scale
stretched, shrunk, appropriately (and not truncated) to
changes shorten the selection then the Sync-
maintain synchronicity the the select track, the top track.
Locked tracks will be shortened from the right to
maintain time synchronization among the tracks; if
the time-scale changes lengthen the selection then
the Sync-Locked tracks will have silence inserted to 19.13.3 Example-2: Repeat
maintain time synchronization among the tracks.
• Truncate Silence : Removes audio from Sync- Before Effect > Repeat
Locked tracks to maintain time synchronization with
remaining sections of the selected track.
• Delay : If applied to a selection that does not end on
the end of a track, silence is inserted in the Sync-
Locked tracks where the delays are placed in the
selected track(s) to maintain time synchronization
among the tracks.
After Effect > Repeatwith 3 repeats
Paulstretch also changes the selection length
of any selected tracks in the Sync-Locked Track Group,
but currently does not observe the sync-locking and
does not cause changes to any un-selected Sync-Locked
tracks. Label tracks are not affected by Paulstretch
whether selected or not.
19.13.2 Example-1: Change Speed Result: Silence has been inserted into the lower audio
track and the Label track has had its synced "selection"
Before >Effect > Change Speed repeated three times.
19.13.4 Links
When you take any of the following actions: Snap Guides let you easily select from one physical
boundary to another. In the image below we changed
• Create a selection with the mouse
• Modify the selection boundaries with the mouse to Selection Tool . We can now hover the mouse
anywhere close to the boundary of any clip, so that click-
• Time Shift a track or clip by dragging ing at that point snaps the cursor to exactly the boundary
of that clip. In the image, we clicked to snap the cursor
to the left edge of the third clip in the "Host" track, then
then the selection boundary (or the boundary of the Time
dragged the selection until it snapped to exactly the right
Shifted track or clip) will snap to the closest of the follow-
edge of the third clip in the "Guest" track. We now see
ing physical boundaries:
two yellow vertical lines corresponding to the boundaries
we are snapping to, again extending through all tracks in
• The start or end of a track or clip the project.
19.14.2 Examples
More Tutorials
20.1 Play
• Press the Play button to start playback. There are other ways to to play specific regions or drag
the playback cursor and special playback commands that
• Press the Pause button once to pause playback, can make it easier to find and play the exact audio you
and again to resume. need. |< Back to: Getting Started
510
20.2. PLAYBACK 511
20.2 Playback
This page provides a detailed description of various from 9 to 31 seconds. This region will always play once
ways of controlling playback in Audacity, including key- when you press Space or a Play button.
board shortcut commands and how to play short periods
around selections.
20.2.1 Play button If there is only an editing cursor in the waveform, play-
back always starts from that cursor position and contin-
The easiest way to control Audacity playback is with ues until the end of the project (unless you stop play-
Transport Toolbar : back). Whenever audio is played, a green downward-
pointing triangle shows the current audio playback posi-
tion. In the image below, playback starts at 9 seconds
at the position of the editing cursor (represented in the
Timeline by a black vertical line with left-pointing arrow-
head). Playback had reached 14 seconds when the im-
age was taken.
Action Shortcut
Short seek backwards Left or , Suppose you’ve selected a range of audio (above), and
you want to make sure it’s exactly what you want to cut
Short seek forwards Right or . out. In order to determine whether you’ve selected ex-
actly the right range of audio, you can not only listen to
Long seek backwards Shift + Left or Shift + , the selection, but you can position the mouse pointer so
as to listen to any desired length of audio before or after
Long seek forwards Shift + Right or Shift + .
the selection. If you press Space, you’ll hear the whole
selection (indicated by the playback region shown in the
Timeline) (below).
You cannot seek backwards to left of the current po-
sition of the playback cursor.
Finally if the mouse pointer is to the right of the selec- Similarly, you can hold Ctrl(CloverLeaf on a Mac) then
tion and you press B, you’ll hear from the selection to the drag and release in the Timeline to Quick-Play before and
mouse pointer. after the dragged selection, simulating what a cut would
sound like. To hear that Cut Preview repeatedly so as to
judge it more easily, click Ctrl + Shift(CloverLeaf + Shift
on Mac) then drag in the Timeline.
Audacity offers many tools which allow the user to play 20.3.1 Controlling Playback and Recording
all or part of a sound. There are also many recording
options.
Transport Toolbar
Timer Recording If you turn on Transport > Transport Options > Sound Ac-
tivated Recording (on/off) you can make recording pause
until the input level exceeds the specified threshold level
Yet another way to record is using the Timer Record util- at Transport > Transport Options > Sound Activation
ity, found in the Transport Menu . Level .
20.4 Record
20.5 Recording
This page provides a detailed description of various ways 1. If you computer’s sound control panel supports
of controlling recording in Audacity, including how to con- sending the audio input to the computer’s audio
trol where and which track you record in and keyboard output then make this setting there.
shortcut commands.
2. If that is not possible, click on Transport > Transport
• If you have not made any recordings in Audacity Options > Software Playthrough (on/off) so that it is
before, you may want to try the the Audacity tutorial checked.
" Your First Recording " which includes step by step
details of how to set up your equipment too. Alternatively, if you are using an external soundcard or
mixer you may be able to monitor the signal directly from
that device. For further information on setting up see: Au-
dacity Setup and Configuration . Detailed step-by-step
instructions for setting up for recording are provided in
When making recordings, particular critical recordings, the Your First Recording and the Copying tapes, LPs or
you should consider shutting down all other applications MiniDiscs tutorials.
giving Audacity sole use of the computer. This can help
to avoid skips, small dropouts, and ticks in your record-
ings. And on Mac that means fully Quitting them not just
closing them, as otherwise Mac will leave them open con-
suming computer resources. As soon as you have made a recording it is strongly rec-
ommended to File > Save Other > Export Audio... it im-
mediately to WAV or AIFF (ideally to an external drive)
as a safety copy before you start editing the project.
20.5.1 Setting up
20.5.3 Recording a new track 1. Unless you wish to overdub from the previous
track(s) ensure Transport > Transport Options >
If you hold the Shift button down the Record button in Overdub (on/off) is disabled, "off", which is not the
Transport Toolbar will temporarily change to . Then default setting.
clicking on this modified Record button, or using the
• Use Tracks > Add New to create a new track if
shortcut Shift + R will cause Audacity to create a new
there are no tracks yet.
track and begin recording on that track from the current
cursor position (or from the left edge of a region on the 2. Drag-select a region in an existing track - or choose
Timeline ). There is no need to create a new track before the time range to be recorded in Selection Toolbar
starting to record. If you want recording to start from the .
beginning of the project, click the "Skip to Start" button
on Transport Toolbar or press the Home shortcut. Press 3. Then hold down Shift press the Record New Track
the Stop button (or use its shortcut Space) to Stop the button (or use the shortcut Shift + R ) to record
recording. in a new track for the duration of the selection you
made.
Continuing recording in a new track Alternatively, you can use Timer Record which operates
in a manner similar to setting your digital video recorder
Instead of stopping the recording with the Stop button or cassette recorder to make a scheduled recording.
or Space, you can stop the recording with the Play / Stop
and Set Cursor shortcut X. When you record again us-
ing the Shift key modifier, recording will start in a new
track at the end-position of the track above.
20.5.5 Arming Audacity for recording
20.5.4 Recording for a specific length of Once you are ready to start recording simply click the
time Pause button again, or its shortcut P(or the Record
button or its shortcut R) and recording will commence
To record for a specific length of time immediately.
This tutorial outlines the steps that are needed to process ple format and 44100 Hz Project Rate
the recording of 78 rpm records with Audacity:
• Processing to adjust equalization and reduce noise
• Ideally use a turntable with 78 rpm and adjustable - and review results.
speed - though you can use lower speed dubbing.
• Export to WAV/MP3 in the normal way.
• Use a proper 78 stylus - you may want a separate
headshell/cartridge.
20.6.1 Workflow overview
• Clean your records thoroughly.
• Audacity setup - use the defaults: 32-bit float sam- 1. Clean the records
20.6. RECORDING 78 RPM RECORDS 519
20.6.2 Use a special stylus or cartridge You should never attempt to play a shellac disc
when it is wet.
You should not use a normal stylus (needle) to play 78’s.
The grooves on a 78 are significantly wider and deeper
than the grooves on an LP, so a normal stylus will bottom
out in the grooves and also bounce from side to side in Capture
louder passages. This will result in:
• noisier, more hissy transfers Work with Audacity set to a project rate of 44100 Hz and
32-bit sample format (these are the default quality set-
• far less accurate reproduction of the music
tings ). Working with 78s you are likely to be doing a lot
• damage to the stylus which will then impair its fur- of processing and you will need the headroom that 32-bit
ther use for LP’s provides.Record both sides of the 78 into the project prior
to doing the processing. You can either Stop the record-
Check the website or manual for your turntable to see if ing after the first side using the button or Transport >
the manufacturer supplies a special 78 rpm stylus or car- Stop and then use Transport > Record (or use the short-
tridge. If not, search the web for "78 rpm stylus". A typical cut R) to restart recording when you are ready. Alterna-
good starter sapphire stylus size is 3 mil or 0.0762 mil- tively you can pause by pressing the button (or use
limeters, but watch how many sides you play as the stylus Transport > Pause ) at the end of the first side and then
does not last as long as a diamond one. Typical groove press the button again once you are ready to record
widths on 78’s prior to the 1940’s range from 2.5 mil to the second side. After recording you may find it helpful to
4 mil. There is wider variation with recordings from the zoom out to display the entire recording in the Audacity
1920’s and older. Use a separate cartridge If you can window. You may prefer to work with a single side at a
afford it, use a separate cartridge from the one you use time as the noise levels may vary from side to side.
for your LPs. You need one which will support tracking at
the heavier 4 or 5 gram weights that most 78 rpm record-
ings need. Ideally you should consider more than one
stylus width if you are playing really old shellac records, Export a WAV as a raw master backup
because there was no standardization of groove dimen-
sions until late in the 78 rpm era. Again, search on the
internet for advice. Use a spare headshell The safest Export a single WAV for this recording at 32-bit float (not
way to swap between stylus types (if you are doing this 16-bit). Retain this WAV file as a maximum quality "raw
often) is to use a separate headshell and cartridge. This capture" file that you can import back into Audacity later
way you will not be continually swapping the stylus on to start over (if you damage the project while working on
your cartridge - a risky procedure. it).
520 CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
the speed stamped on the label and they depended Use a rolloff of at least 12 dB per octave or even
on the early players which had a speed control. 24 dB per octave. Listen to the result to make sure
With the introduction of the synchronous AC mo- the sudden cutoff of high-frequency noise does not
tor, for detailed technical reasons, the standard was sound too artificial.
changed to 78.26 rpm. See this website for de-
tails: http://www.videointerchange.com/vintage_78s.htm. 3. Then deal with the low frequency noise - select a
Stanton T-series USB turntables still offer 78 rpm "noise sample" from the current audio track (that
working, and helpfully they have a wide speed ad- is, a section of the recording that is surface noise
justment range. If you know exactly what speed only) and copy it to a new track. Use Analyze > Plot
your records should spin at you can find a strobe Spectrum to see the frequency content of the noise.
disc on the Internet and print one out with ex- Use the low pass effect on this noise sample to iso-
actly the right spacing of bars. One example site late the lower frequency noise, (for a very rough
is: http://www.78rpm.com/rescat/strobe_info.htm.Note and ready setting, try a rolloff of 12 dB per octave
on actual EQ used: See 78 rpm playback curves on our at a cutoff frequency of 1000 Hz). Then open Effect
Wiki for an extensive list of 78 rpm playback equaliza- > Noise Reduction , select the low-passed noise
tion curves and a Nyquist plug-in that can generate XML sample and choose "Get Noise Profile". Finally, se-
files from these curves for use in Audacity’s Equalization lect the original track, open Noise Reduction again,
effect. choose the slider settings and run the effect.
Noise reduction
Click Removal
You may wish to more cleanly Effect > Fade Out the track
Filtering end and Effect > Fade In the track beginning. Normally
the fade out should be longer (typically a few seconds),
1. Make sure you have set the Audacity Default Sam- and the fade in, if required, quite short (typically a frac-
ple Format in the Quality Preferences to 32-bit float tion of a second). Consider using Effect > Studio Fade
(the default) because you are probably going to do Out instead of the linear Fade Out. It applies a more mu-
a fair bit of processing, and some of the filters ap- sical fade out to the selected audio, giving a more pleas-
pear to work better with 32-bit input. ing (more "professional studio") sounding result. You may
also get a more musical fade-in by applying Effect > Fade
2. Then run Effect > Low Pass Filter to reduce high In multiple times to the selcted audio; three times is a
frequency noise. Set the cutoff frequency to suit good guideline. This will produce a shaped, curved, fade
the vintage of the record as follows: rather than a linear one.
•
• 9000 Hz or 10000 Hz for recordings from the
1940s or later 20.6.9 Normalization & Compression
• 8000 Hz for electrical recordings (1926 to
1939)
As a final step you may wish to adjust the loudness of
• 7000 Hz for acoustic recordings (before 1926). you recording.
522 CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
20.7.2 Increasing disk space for longer minute. 44100 Hz and 32-bit are Audacity’s default
recordings quality settings
• 44100 Hz, 16-bit, stereo = 10 MB per minute. CD
To get more recording time: quality
1. Obviously, free up some more disk space. One • 22050 Hz, 8-bit, mono = 1.25 MB per minute. This
good way to do that is to ensure you delete your would be generally acceptable for speech record-
old Audacity Projects (the .aup and any .aup.bak ings from lower quality sources
files and the _data folders) as soon as you’ve fin-
ished the Project and are sure you will not need to Note that reducing the sample rate will reduce the au-
export any more files from it. dio frequency limit. 44100 Hz gives a theoretical max-
imum of less than 22050 Hz that can be captured. A
2. Save the Project you’re starting (or change the lo- sample rate of 22050 Hz gives you less than 11025 Hz.
cation of Audacity’s temporary folder) to a disk with For speech, you can take out the high frequencies with-
more space on it. The location of Audacity’s tempo- out much loss of intelligibility. Likewise, reducing the bit
rary folder can be changed on the Directories tab of depth reduces the dynamic range of the audio. For ex-
Preferences. ample, 16-bit gives a whopping 96dB of dynamic range.
8-bit recording reduces dynamic range to 48dB. A 22050
3. Audacity only uses uncompressed (so lossless)
Hz, 8-bit recording would rival the sound of a good qual-
PCM audio data for recording and editing, but the
ity cassette tape. Note that disk space usage above re-
amount of disk space consumed can be reduced by
lates solely to the size of audio data held by Audacity, not
changing the following settings in Preferences:
to the size of audio files exported from it. You need this
(a) on the Devices tab, record in mono instead of space to record and edit, but if you do not save an Audac-
stereo. This halves the disk space used. ity Project, the temporary data is deleted and the space
released as soon as you exit Audacity. When making a
(b) on the Quality tab, reduce the Default Sample longer recording of a few hours or more, other computer
Format (bit depth) from 32-bit float to 16-bit, resource issues may be involved apart from disk space.
which again halves the disk space used. In These include the need to have sufficient RAM and swap
speech recordings you may also be able to re- file space available, and ensuring automated events such
duce the Default Sample Rate without signif- as system or application updates or screen savers are
icantly affecting the quality. Generally for mu- not able to disrupt a recording. For details, see Managing
sic, leave the Sample Rate at 44100 Hz, but Computer Resources and Drivers in the Audacity Wiki.
if 22050 Hz gives acceptable quality, it takes Having stable, up-to-date sound device drivers properly
only half the disk space of 44100 Hz. matched to your hardware also becomes more important.
4. Note that because unlimited undo is available in an See this page in the Audacity Wiki for details.
Audacity session, editing a project itself uses disk
space. To reduce the space a project is taking, File
> Save Project , exit Audacity and relaunch it. This 20.7.3 Long recordings
will clear out the space being used by the Undo
mechanism. Alternatively, leave the project open, Audacity stores samples as 64-bit values (even on 32-bit
click View > History and discard the Undo levels machines); therefore there is no inherent 32-bit limitation
you do not need. that recordings may not exceed 23̂1 samples in length
(which is for example just over 13.5 hours at 44100 Hz
Examples of disk space usage when recording and
sample rate). 44100 Hz now offers a theoretical maxi-
editing at different quality settings:
mum recording length of a mere 58 billion hours or more
• 44100 Hz, 32-bit, stereo = 20 MB of space per than 6.6 years (if you have the disk space).
Audacity is often included with USB turntables, USB be burnt). This is very useful if your computer does not
cassette decks or USB soundcards, and is suitable for have the necessary line-in port for digitizing LPs or cas-
recording from any USB audio device using the instruc- settes with a conventional turntable or tape deck. USB
tions on this page.USB audio devices connect to the turntables often include a line input to which standard
computer’s USB port and are used to transfer records, tape decks or similar sources can be connected for trans-
or tapes, to digital audio files (from which audio CDs can fer to the computer.Much of the information on this page,
524 CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
and the pages linked to below, also apply to recording 20.8.3 Set up Audacity to record from the
with USB tape cassette decks and audio devices con- USB audio device
nected with external USB soundcards. Please see the
Audacity Wiki page on USB Turntables for a fuller discus-
sion of the operation of these devices. Some users with Connect the USB device
extensive experience of digitizing LPs and tapes believe
that connecting a good quality conventional turntable or Connect the USB cable of the device to the computer.
tape deck to an external USB interface or soundcard is Connect to an empty USB port on the computer, not to
an ideal solution. USB soundcards usually do not suffer a USB hub (a device that allows multiple USB devices to
from the transmission problems of USB turntables or tape be connected to one of your computer’s USB ports). Sys-
decks, and are also free from the random clicky noise tem settings needed for Windows and MacWindows:
that can afflict sound devices built into computer mother-
boards. Moreover their analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 1. By the system clock, right-click over the Speaker
may be superior to that provided with a USB turntable icon > Recording Devices then right-click over USB
Audio Codec > "Properties".
20.8.2 Manufacturer’s guides 2. If the Audio Devices window is not visible, select
Window > Show Audio Devices.
The guides provided with the devices might be confusing,
3. Select your USB input device in the list in the left
they are written by the device manufacturer rather than
pane of the Audio Devices window.
by Audacity. Sometimes the guides supplied with the de-
vices are out-of-date or have errors. Here are some er- 4. Set the Format to "44100.0 Hz" and "2ch-16bit".
rors that you may come across:
For a more detailed walk-through of the above steps for
• Many manuals state that you should "select stereo Mac, see Mac and USB input devices on the Audacity
mix for your input". This is not the case, rather you Wiki.
should be setting the USB device as your input.
• Audacity Preferences are not under the File
menu, as many manuals state, except in the legacy Launch Audacity
1.0.0 version of Audacity which is only appropriate
for Mac OS 9 and Windows 95. Preferences are
under the Edit menu, or under the Audacity menu If Audacity was already running when you connected the
on Mac. cable, restart Audacity or choose Transport > Rescan Au-
dio Devices .
• You do not need to select Start Monitoring each
time you launch Audacity, as some manuals urge
you to. Monitoring the input is optional and allows
you to hear the device through the computer speak- Project Rate
ers just like an ordinary turntable, or cassette deck,
whenever it’s playing, without having to record. If Set the Audacity Project Rate in Selection Toolbar at the
you want to select Start Monitoring, you need to bottom left of the Audacity screen to 44100 Hz :
have the Recording Meter enabled (note: NOT the
Mixer Toolbar that some guides state). Instructions
on this are below.
20.8. RECORDING WITH USB TURNTABLES OR USB CASSETTE DECKS 525
This is a very basic guide to recording with USB devices. device, the input is set to the USB turntable (usu-
More detailed information (and Mac instructions) can be ally called or including the phrase "USB Audio
found at Recording with USB turntables or USB cassette CODEC") and recording channels are set to stereo.
decks . Windows 10/8/7 calls most USB external devices
"microphones". Some higher-end USB recording
• Connect the USB cable of the turntable, or
interfaces may appear as their explicit manufac-
tapedeck, to the computer, then launch Audacity. If
turer’s name.
Audacity was already running when you connected
the cable, restart Audacity or choose Transport > • From the Transport Menu check "Software
Rescan Audio Devices . Playthrough" to be "on" to hear the turntable
• Use the Device Toolbar to set the recording and through the computer speakers; this setting can be
playback devices and set the channels to "2(stereo) toggled on/off easily from the Transport Menu.
Recording Channels": • Then, ignoring any instructions in the manufac-
turer’s guide to select "stereo mix", simply press the
Record button on Transport Toolbar .
• In this example on Windows, the output is set to
the named speakers of the built-in computer sound |< Back to: Getting Started
Mixing refers to the process of combining multiple Au- and you select them all and perform a Mix and Render,
dacity tracks which play simultaneously into a single you will end up with one stereo track: the left channel will
track. Audacity mixes automatically when playing or ex- contain a mix of tracks 1, 2, and 4 and the right channel
porting, but it can also physically mix selected multiple will contain a mix of tracks 3 and 4.Mixing can be done
tracks together into one within the project. All selected for a number of reasons, for example mixing speech with
tracks are mixed, regardless if the Mute or Solo buttons background music to make a podcast, or adding different
on any tracks are set to silence their playback. The chan- instruments into the same song. Concatenating songs
nel of a track being mixed affects whether it will be mixed (for example, playing three songs one after the other)
into the left channel of the resulting track(s), the right does not necessarily involve mixing, but if you wanted
channel, or both (mono). For example, if you have four the songs to fade into each other it would involve mix-
tracks: ing. Within an Audacity project, you can physically mix
selected multiple selected tracks into a single mono or
• Track 1: left channel stereo track using either of two explicit mix commands :
• Track 2: left channel
• Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render - which replaces the
• Track 3: right channel original track(s) with the mixed track, or,
• Track 4: mono channel • Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render to New Track -
20.10. MIXING AUDIO TRACKS 527
which adds the mixed track to the project, preserv- down while clicking the Solo button on the ad-
ing the original tracks. ditional tracks to be soloed. On the additional
tracks that are soloed, the Solo button over-
However in Audacity, mixing is automatic. You could
rides the Mute button.
just put audio into two different tracks, play to listen to the
result then export it as an audio file like MP3 or WAV – Selecting "Multi-track" setting will suit those
or burn the WAV to Audio CD . However once audio has used to mixing desks and other professional
been finally mixed (as in an audio file you might import audio software. Any number of tracks can be
into Audacity) it is essentially impossible to separate out made solo so that they mix together. If any
all the original parts again; it’s like trying to take the ba- Solo button is down this overrides the Mute
nana out of a banana milkshake after you’ve already put button. If on any occasion you want the Solo
it through the blender. There are a few occasions when button to play only one track at a time (so that
it actually is possible to separate sounds a bit - you can clicking it releases any other Solo buttons),
sometimes isolate the bass, or remove the lead vocals. hold down Shift when clicking Solo.
But these processes do not always work well and usually
A third option in Tracks Preferences, the "None" setting,
cause some quality loss. So remember, as long as the
removes the Solo button from all tracks, leaving just a
multiple tracks are inside an Audacity project, you can
Mute button which silences whichever track or tracks it is
manipulate them independently, but once you export as
applied to. If on any occasion you want the Mute button
a mixed down file you cannot expect to separate the dif-
to silence only one track at a time (so that clicking it re-
ferent parts again. So keep your Audacity project around
leases any other Mute buttons), hold down Shift while
if you plan to continue editing! Although Audacity by de-
clicking Mute. You can press the Mute and Solo but-
fault exports files as either two channel stereo or single
tons while tracks are playing. If you’re using the key-
channel mono (if exporting unpanned mono tracks), you
board, Shift+U toggles muting on the currently focused
can also export multi-channel files having more than two
track which has the yellow border, and Shift + S toggles
channels, such as a 5:1 file. To enable this, choose "Use
soloing. The solo shortcut works even if you hide the
custom mix" in the Import / Export Preferences .The con-
Solo button.
trols used for mixing are the Mute and Solo buttons and
the Gain (-.....+) and Pan (L.....R) sliders.
and drag downwards. You can use the button with the project window in Selection Toolbar ), they will be
upward pointing arrow (below the pan slider) to collapse resampled to match the project rate.
the track upwards to a minimal height.
• Any envelope points defining amplitude modifi-
cations will be applied and the previous envelope
points removed.
20.10.3 Explicit Mixing and Rendering
• Gain and panning changes will be applied and the
While mixing is automatic, there are times when you may sliders reset to normal in the mixed track.
want to explicitly tell Audacity to mix several tracks. This • Mute and Solo button states will be released.
is useful in several ways:
You can always Edit > Undo if you’re not happy with the
• You can consolidate tracks which you have finished results of Mix and Render, then make changes and try it
working on, making it easier to see the other tracks again.
without scrolling up and down
• Playback may respond more quickly with fewer
tracks 20.10.4 Mixing Levels
• You can see what the final mix will look like as a
The act of mixing multiple tracks adds the waveforms to-
waveform so as to check the overall level of the fi-
gether. In most cases this will cause the mixed track
nal mix before exporting it.
to have a higher peak and RMS (average) level than
To mix explicitly, select all the tracks you want to mix to- the individual pre-mixed tracks, though this is not always
gether then choose either Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render true by definition. How much (or whether) the peak level
or Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render to New Track (shortcut increases and how much louder it actually sounds de-
Ctrl + Shift + M). pends on how related the waveforms of the mixed tracks
are. When peaks or troughs in the waveform coincide,
the waveforms will reinforce each other, leading to an in-
creased signal level. In fact if you combined two identi-
cal tracks, the signal level would exactly double, leading
For mouse users, a quick way to select multiple tracks to an increase in peak level of 6 dB. But when a peak
is to select the first track by clicking on its Track Control in one track coincides with a trough in another track the
Panel , then hold Shift while clicking on the Track Con- waveforms will tend to cancel each other out, leading to
trol Panels of the other tracks you want to select. Several a lower level in the mix at that point. Also the more tracks
things happen when you choose either Mix and Render that have audio at the same point on the Timeline , the
command. higher the mix level is likely to be. The overall mix level is
indicated on the Playback Meter when the project is play-
• All selected tracks are mixed down to a single track
ing. You can see individual meters for each track (show-
called "Mix".
ing the levels as modified by the track’s gain/pan sliders
• If you choose "Mix and Render", the resulting "Mix" and mute/solo buttons) if you enable View > Mixer Board
track replaces the selected original tracks. .
• If you choose "Mix and Render to New Track", the
original tracks are preserved so that the result- Because mixing tracks is additive, the combined
ing "Mix" track becomes an additional track in the level may show clipping distortion in the Meter Tool-
project. bar. In that case, you should use the gain sliders on one
or more tracks to reduce the overall level.
• The "Mix" track is always placed underneath any
non-selected or remaining tracks. • If you already have the balance of the mix (the lev-
els of the tracks relative to each other) exactly as
• The new mixed track will be stereo unless the tracks
you want it, select all the tracks using Ctrl + A then
you mixed were mono tracks panned to center.
choose Effect > Amplify . Enter a negative value
• If any of the original tracks did not match the sam- in the "Amplification (dB)" box which will reduce the
ple rate of the project (set at bottom left of the level of all the tracks by the specified value.
20.11. SAVING 529
20.11 Saving
• To return later to your unfinished work in Audacity have any unsaved changes (for example, if the project is
with all tracks and edits as you left them, Save an empty or you just saved it), "Save Project" will be grayed
Audacity project. out. In that case, use File > Save Project As... instead.
"Save Project As" is the safe and recommended way to
• To play your current work in other media applica-
make a copy of a project with a new name or in a different
tions or send it to others, you need to Export an
location. This could serve either as a single backup copy
audio file such as WAV or MP3 .
of the project, or as one of several incremental copies of
If you have a problem saving a file, have a look at the the project in the state it had at a particular date and time.
FAQ on saving projects which answers some frequently
asked questions.
Scrubbing or Seeking is the action of moving the mouse audio to move more quickly.
pointer right or left so as to adjust the position, speed or
direction of playback, listening to the audio at the same
time - a convenient way to quickly navigate the waveform 20.12.1 Scrubbing
to find a particular event of interest. The term "Scrub-
bing" comes from the early days of the recording industry The primary method for scrubbing is with the Scrub
and refers to the process of physically rotating tape reels Ruler, the gray strip immediately below the Timeline .
to move the tape past the playhead to locate a specific The Scrub Ruler is set on and displayed by default in Au-
point in the audio track.In Audacity dacity, if you have turned it off you can get it displayed
• Scrubbing changes the audio position without again by right-clicking in the Timeline and selecting En-
skipping. able Scrub Ruler from the dropdown menu . If you hover
the cusor over the Scrub Ruler you will see green left-
• Seeking changes the audio position, skipping over and right-pointing scrub widget appear (along with a
530 CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
tooltip if you continue to hover). Clicking anywhere in the the mouse wheel are not remembered if you stop
Scrub Ruler and releasing the left mouse button will start playback and restart Scrubbing.
Scrubbing from there. Note that in this image the green
On MacOS Lion and later, the default scroll direction is
scrub widget is to the right of the green triangle playhead,
reversed, so that moving up with the mouse wheel or
indicating that forwards scrubbing towards the pointer is
Track Pad reduces scrub speed and moving down in-
taking place.
creases speed. You can change the scroll direction in
the System Preferences.
• You can zoom at the mouse pointer position while
Scrubbing or Seeking by holding the Ctrl key
(CloverLeaf on Mac) down and rotating the mouse
wheel, or by using the zoom buttons in Edit Toolbar
or their shortcuts, or by using the View Menu zoom
On starting scrub by clicking in Scrub Ruler, the green commands.
scrub widget will appear in the Scrub Ruler and the
green playhead cursor will appear in the Timeline. • For safety reasons, you cannot start Scrubbing or
Playback continues until the playhead in the Timeline Seeking while recording (or paused in recording
reaches the green Scrub widget , and restarts when mode).
the pointer is moved again. If you keep moving the
pointer slowly, this plays the audio slowly. If you move
the pointer a long way from the playhead, this plays at 20.12.2 Seeking
normal (1x) speed. When Scrubbing you can left-click
in Scrub Ruler and hold the button down to temporarily Seeking is similar to Scrubbing except that it is play-
change to Seeking . Once you release the mouse button back with skips, similar to using the seek button on a CD
you can move it to resume Scrubbing from the point at player. Even if you move the mouse pointer a long way
which you stopped Seeking. Right-clicking anywhere in from the current position of the playhead, the playhead
Scrub Ruler displays a menu identical to that in Transport will immediately move very close to the mouse pointer,
> Scrubbing where you can quickly start, stop (or change letting you move across the audio rapidly. Seeking with
between) Seeking or Scrubbing or turn Scrub Ruler off. unpinned playhead is always at 1x speed. You can con-
Using this menu to change between Seeking and Scrub- trol the maximum seek speed with by mouse position and
bing saves you having to move the pointer to Scrub Tool- mouse wheel when you are in pinned playhead mode. To
bar and so change the playhead position un-necessarily. enter Seeking or change from Scrubbing to Seeking, click
Adding and using shortcuts for Scrub and Seek has the
same benefit. the Seek button in Scrub Toolbar . Al-
ternatively you can use the Transport > Scrubbing menu
• Once Audacity is in scrub play mode it will remain in item and select Seek from the cascading menu, or set a
that mode until you explicitly stop playback (which shortcut for Seek in Keyboard Preferences . When Seek-
then allows you to restart in normal play mode). ing, the Seek widget will appear in the Scrub Ruler (or
– To stop scrub play and set the cursor at in the Timeline if the Scrub Ruler is not displayed). There
the current playback position, click the Stop is no need to drag the widget when in Seek - moving the
button (or its shortcut Space). It may be pointer seeks in the same way as drag. While Scrubbing
useful to label that position for future refer- or Seeking, you can still click in the track to set the edit-
ence. Alternatively click the Play button to ing cursor, or click and drag to make a selection . The
restart normal playback immediately from the point or region could then be labelled . For example, let
current playback position. These methods re- the playhead reach the mouse pointer at the start of a
move any selection that was present before region of interest. Then drag a selection which will play,
stopping scrub play. stop dragging and release the mouse when you hear the
end of the region you want, then label the selection.
– To stop scrub play, leaving the selection or
editing cursor where it is, use the Escape
Esc key. 20.12.3 Pinned playhead Scrubbing and
• The speed of scrub can be controlled by rotating Seeking
the mouse wheel (if your mouse is so equipped).
Each four steps upwards of the rotated wheel dou- If you use Scrubbing or Seeking with the playhead pinned
bles the speed, and each four steps downwards in the center of the project window, so that playback
halves the speed. This is equivalent to one oc- constantly scrolls the track, the speed of scrub or seek
tave of pitch change. The changed scrub speed playback behaves differently to when the playhead is un-
will be shown for a few seconds in ochre text su- pinned. In pinned playhead mode the mouse pointer po-
perimposed on the track. Changed speeds set by sition always directly determines the speed of scrub or
20.12. SCRUBBING AND SEEKING 531
seek. The further away you move the mouse pointer Scrubbing and Seeking using the Scrub Toolbar
from the Timeline playhead (in either direction), the faster
the scrub or seek. The current scrub or seek speed is
shown permanently in lime green text, superimposed on The Scrub Toolbar is not dispayed by de-
the track. The default maximum scrub speed is +1.00 fault, you can turn it on from View> Toolbars and select-
(for forwards play) and -1.00 (for backwards play), that ing Scrub Toolbar. Clicking the Scrub button in Scrub
is normal speed. The default maximum seek speed
is +10.00 (for forwards play) and -10.00 (for backwards Toolbar when stopped or using standard
play). The speed of scrolling scrub or seek as deter- playback will put you into scrub play mode. Alternatively
mined by the mouse position can be varied by rotating you can use the Transport > Scrubbing menu item and
the mouse wheel (if your mouse is so equipped). Move select Scrub from the cascading menu, or set a shortcut
the wheel upwards to increase the speed or downwards for Scrub in Keyboard Preferences . Similarly the Seek
to reduce the speed. This works at the same time as
modifying the speed by moving the pointer left or right. button in Scrub Toolbar can be clicked
The maximum possible speed with the pointer at either to start seeking. On starting scrub or seek, the green
edge of the window and the wheel at maximum speed is playhead cursor will appear but otherwise nothing will
32.00x for Seeking and 320.00x for Scrubbing. Changed happen until you move the mouse pointer to right or left to
speeds set by the mouse wheel are not remembered play forwards or backwards respectively. Playback con-
if you stop playback and restart Seeking. A very use- tinues until the playhead in the Timeline reaches the
ful setting for using scrubbing with pinned playhead is pointer, and restarts when the pointer is moved again. If
to move the pointer to the extreme right (100%) posi- you keep moving the pointer slowly, this plays the audio
tion and increase the maximum speed to 2.00x. With slowly. If you move the pointer a long way from the play-
this setting, when you move the pointer back to the 75% head, this plays at normal (1x) speed. Once you move
position on the waveform you will get normal speed for- the pointer, the scrub widget , or seek widget , ap-
wards playback and at 25% position you will get normal pears and a vertical white line through the waveform fol-
speed backwards playback. Moving the pointer towards lows the movement of the scrub widget.
the center from there will give you gradually slower than
• You can switch between scrubbing and seeking by
normal speed and moving towards the right or left edges
clicking on the opposing button
will give you gradually faster than normal speed up to
your chosen maximum of 2.00x. • You can stop scrubbing by clicking on the Scrub
button again, and similarly for seeking by ckick-
ing on the Seek button again
Clicking the Scrub Ruler button in Scrub Toolbar
If you are working with other users, can you send your downloads, and length of time files are stored for.
multi-track Project to them so they can contribute to it?
• https://www.dropbox.com/
Can you send an audio message with some music and
email it to a relative? Or what if you want to open your • http://www.dropsend.com/
Project on another of your own computers running a dif-
ferent operating system? • http://www.hightail.com (free trial)
• http://www.mailbigfile.com/
20.13.2 Sending an exported audio file up to 25 MB, but this still depends on the recipient’s
email service accepting large attachments (Gmail now
You can also send an exported audio file from your accepts incoming attachments up to 50 MB). The best
Project to the other user. Only Project–specific informa- solution is often to use a web-based transfer service like
tion such as label and envelope data will be lost by ex- http://www.yousendit.com, http://www.sendspace.com or
porting instead of saving a project. To export your Project http://minus.com/, or burn the exported audio file to an
as an audio file, choose the File > Save Other... com- audio CD and send it by postal mail. If you want to burn to
mand. Choices: an audio CD you need to export 44100 Hz, 16-bit stereo
WAV or AIFF files, and tell your burning software to burn
• Exporting as a WAV or AIFF file creates a file with an "audio" or "music" CD. For instructions on how to do
no loss of audio quality, but this takes 10 MB of disk this, see How to burn CDs . Audio CDs will retain the full
space per minute for CD quality (44100 Hz, 16-bit quality of the original track in Audacity, can contain 74 –
stereo). 80 minutes of music and can be played in computers and
• Exporting from Audacity as FLAC provides lossless on any standalone CD player (and some standalone DVD
compression and reliably reduces file size by about players).
40% compared to WAV or AIFF.
• Exporting as an OGG or MP3 greatly reduces the Exporting from multi-track projects
size of the exported file, at the expense of some
quality loss.
If you have multiple tracks in your Project, Audacity by
– OGG tends to have slightly higher quality than default will mix these down to a single mono or stereo
MP3 for the same file size, but not all software track when exporting to an audio file. To export separate
players can accept OGG, and most websites tracks you can:
hosting audio files expect MP3.
• Use File > Save Other > Export Multiple... and "split
– Audacity’s default MP3 export bit rate of 128 files based on tracks"
kbps gives very reasonable sound quality for
about 1 MB of space per minute. To compress • Select the first track, choose File > Save Other >
the MP3 to a still smaller file (at the cost of Export Selected Audio... then repeat in turn for the
further quality loss), choose "MP3 Files" in the other tracks.
Export File window, press the Options button The recipient can then shift-select and multiple import
then reduce the bit rate in the "Quality" drop- each file into separate tracks of an empty Audacity
down. For example, a 64 kbps MP3 would Project. Alternatively, current Audacity can export the in-
take up 0.5 MB (500 kb) per minute, because dividual tracks in a Project as one multi-channel audio
64 kbps is half the default bit rate of 128 kbps. file. So if you had a Project with six mono or left/right
To export MP3 files you must add the LAME encoder to tracks, it could be exported as a one six-channel audio
your computer. Instructions for doing this are at Lame file, and any user of Audacity 1.2 or later can open that
Installation in the FAQ.For all formats except MP3, you file and see the channels displayed as individual tracks.
can reduce the exported file size further by reducing its To use multi-channel export, go to Import/Export Prefer-
sample rate . Do this by changing the project rate drop- ences and enable "Use custom mix".
down bottom left of the screen. Reducing the project rate
below 44100 Hz is only recommended for speech.
Sending to someone using a different version of Au-
dacity
Sending files by email
If you or the other party created the project with a legacy
You should always attach your audio file to the email version of Audacity, please note the following restrictions.
message. Some email clients can embed the audio in-
• If the person you are sending the Project to has
side HTML email messages so that the recipient hears
a legacy 1.2.x version of Audacity you will need
the audio on opening the email without having to open
to save the Project in a 1.2.x version of Audac-
an attachment. However whether the recipient will hear
ity, because 1.2.x versions of Audacity cannot open
the audio depends on the recipient having an HTML
Projects created in 1.3 or later versions.
email client (or having HTML enabled without any se-
curity restrictions in place). Many email users disable • If the person you are sending the Project to has Au-
HTML email due to its perceived security risk. Send- dacity 1.3.2 or later, they should be able to open a
ing files greater than 5 MB by email is usually out of project created in 1.2.x, but ask them to back up the
the question due to server bandwidth and storage restric- AUP file and _data folder on receipt to be sure. To
tions. Some webmail services do allow larger messages make a backup, copy the AUP file and _data folder
to be sent. For example, Gmail allows sending messages and paste them into a different folder. Once they do
534 CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
save that project in 1.3.x or later and send it back Sending to someone using a different operating sys-
to you, you will need 1.3.x or later yourself to open tem or platform
it.
• Zip formats do not support reliable character en-
coding, so for the name of the project, labels, track
names or metadata, only use A to Z or a to z
• If the person you are sending the Project to characters, whole numbers (0 to 9), underscore or
uses Audacity 1.0.0 (users on Mac OS 9 are lim- hyphen-minus (or use the NUMPAD_SUBTRACT
ited to this version of Audacity), you must create key).Anything else could be incorrectly interpreted
the Project in 1.0.0, because 1.0.0 cannot open by the unzip application on the other operating plat-
Projects created in 1.1.0 or later. If that person form.
sends you a Project created in 1.0.0, you should • Also use only A to Z or a to z characters, whole
generally be able to open it in 1.1.0 to 1.2.6, but numbers (0 to 9), underscore or hyphen-minus (or
Audacity’s conversion of a 1.0.0 Project to the new use the NUMPAD_SUBTRACT key) if either party
format used by 1.1.0 or later does not always work. created the project on Windows 98 or ME which
You should not open Projects created in 1.0.0 in are non-Unicode systems. This is the case even if
current versions of Audacity. both parties are on Windows.
Chapter 21
Setup
For many users, Audacity will just work "out of the box",
and you can immediately begin playing or recording us-
ing the system-default playback and recording devices.
However, because there are so many different types of
computers and ways to configure them, some users may
need to set up Audacity the first time they use it.
21.1.1 Setting Your Audacity Preferences Example of the Devices section of the Preferences
dialog, showing default settings for Host and Chan-
nels..Click on any other Preferences sections in the
above image to read about those Preferences.
The main place to set up Audacity and customize it to 21.1.2 Changing settings with Audacity’s
work the way that you require is to use Audacity’s Prefer- toolbars and menus
ences dialog screens. Preferences let you change most
of the default behaviors of Audacity. The Preferences di- Some of the more commonly used settings can be
alog can be accessed using the Edit Menu (or by using changed and reset from the main Audacity Window:
the shortcut Ctrl + P). On a Mac, Preferences can be
found under the Audacity Menu or its shortcut Clover- • Device Toolbar can be used to change the record-
Leaf + ,. The Preferences dialog is split into a number of ing and playback devices, the recording host and
sections each with its own dialog page. There are many the number of channels
settings that can be made in your Preferences , so do • Selection Toolbar can be used to change the
take some time to explore and understand these. The Project Rate and Selection Format units
image below shows an example of the Devices section of
the Preferences dialog, showing default settings for Host • Transport Menu can be used to control Over-
and Channels. Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > De- dub, Software Playthrough and Sound Activated
vices (on a Mac Audacity > Preferences > Devices ) Recording.
535
536 CHAPTER 21. SETUP
Using these can be quicker than accessing the prefer- • Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD or your
ences dialog to change these settings. You can also re- computer for help connecting turntables, tape-
set Audacity settings to their factory-shipped state . This decks and MiniDisc players.
may occasionally fix unexpected or unwanted behavior.
• Tutorial - Your First Recording for microphones,
keyboards and guitars.
21.1.3 Connecting your equipment
This page provides instructions for installing and updat- too. Simple recording is possible on a 700 MHz Rasp-
ing Audacity on Linux computer platforms. berry Pi, using a USB Microphone. However, Pi oper-
ating systems are not officially supported and Audacity
• In addition to basic Audacity you may wish to install may be less stable on them than on desktop operating
the optional LAME MP3 encoding software systems.
• Also the optional FFmpeg library which allows Au-
dacity to import and export a much larger range of
audio formats including M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR Projects saved by old versions of Audacity
(narrow band) and WMA and also to import audio
from most video files.
Current Audacity is compatible with project files saved by
versions of Audacity 1.3.x and later, including 2.x.x.
Note carefully that simply re-installing Audacity will
not clear and reset your Audacity settings for prefer-
ences and plug-ins. For instructions on how to achieve Chromebooks: Audacity does not run on Chrome
this please see Reset Audacity Settings . OS. Although not officially supported, it is possible in
principle to run Audacity on a Chromebook under a
Chrome version of Linux Ubuntu.
21.2.1 Installation instructions
The recommended way to install software for most 21.2.2 Check for Updates
GNU/Linux and Unix-like Desktop distributions, is
to install from the official distribution repository us-
You can check to see if you have the latest version of Au-
ing a package manager. Most distributions pro-
dacity by using Help > Check for Updates.... This takes
vide Audacity packages. Alternatively you can
you to the Download page of the Audacity website where
build the latest Audacity tagged release from our
you can check what the latest release version of Audac-
source code. Some old versions of Audacity were
ity is. You can then compare the latest release with the
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Incorrect_wxWidgets_Version
version you have now as shown by using Help > About
incorrectly built]. The minimum recommended version of
Audacity....
Audacity for Linux is 2.1.2Note that this Manual only
relates to the current release of Audacity.
Obtaining FFmpeg source code can similarly remove the "Libraries" Pref-
erences by configuring Audacity with –disable-dynamic-
You may download (or compile) and install a compatible loading. Then build Audacity linked to system LAME and
version of the FFmpeg or libav library for your purposes to a system (or locally compiled) version of FFmpeg 1.2
then locate it in Libraries Preferences. If you download a to 3.x.x (libav 0.8 to 12), according to the version of Au-
pre-built library, this might be either a "shared" or "static" dacity as described above.
build. A static build consists of a single libavformat li-
brary, whereas a shared build has at least three libraries
(libavformat, libavcodec and libavutil). It is recommended Locating the FFmpeg library manually
to use a shared build, but Audacity will also work with
a static build. To build FFmpeg, obtain the source code
from the FFmpeg project. To build libav, obtain the source Ubuntu / Debian based packages are often built
code from the libav project. Configure the build with – with dynamic loading disabled. When dynamic loading
enable -shared so that it builds the necessary shared is disabled, LAME and FFmpeg will be loaded automat-
object library (.so) files. If required, you can also con- ically if compatible versions are installed and there will
figure to enable or disable particular encoding/decoding not be a "Libraries" page in Preferences. If you installed
libraries. When you build Audacity from our source code, FFmpeg while Audacity was running, or if you installed
it should link to the installed FFmpeg headers. FFmpeg to a non-default location, Audacity will ask you
to configure Preferences to locate the FFmpeg library. To
do this, click Edit > Preferences... then "Libraries" in the
FFmpeg version support list on the left:
for libavutil version). If you still see "not found", you may To completely reset your Audacity settings
have installed the wrong libraries. Click the Download
button to obtain the correct library for your operating sys- Navigate to that audacity-data folder and delete the en-
tem. You can also choose Help > Diagnostics > Show tire contents. Then restart Audacity.
Log... to see diagnostic information about FFmpeg de-
tection.
This page provides instructions for installing and updat- 21.3.1 Installation instructions
ing Audacity on Mac OS X and macOS computer plat-
forms. Installation instructions using .dmg files:
1. On the download page, left-click the "installer" link,
• In addition to basic Audacity you may wish to install the .dmg file, (do not right-click). This takes you to
the optional LAME MP3 encoding software the FossHub site where our downloads are hosted
and the download should commence.
• Also the optional FFmpeg library which allows Au- 2. Double-click the downloaded DMG to mount it.
dacity to import and export a much larger range of 3. Do not double-click the “Audacity” application in the
audio formats including AC3, AMR (narrow band) DMG window. Instead drag Audacity rightwards
and WMA and also to import audio from most onto the /Applications folder shortcut. You can also
video files. But note that on Mac Audacity can im- drag Audacity out of the DMG to any other loca-
port, without FFmpeg, M4A (AAC) , MP4 (includ- tion. You need the administrator password to copy
ing videos) and all other QuickTime-supported files. Audacity to /Applications.
4. Eject the DMG at bottom left of Finder, then launch
Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include Audacity.app from /Applications or from your cho-
LAME or FFmpeg encoding software or distribute such sen location.
software from its own websites. Instead, use the instruc-
tions below to download and install the free and recom- If you see any error messages when launching Audacity,
mended third-party libraries for LAME and FFmpeg . please see our FAQ about Mac launch .
System Requirements
Note carefully that simply re-installing Audacity will
not clear and reset your Audacity settings for prefer- Audacity for Mac is for OS X 10.6 and later. Audacity
ences and plug-ins. For instructions on how to achieve runs best with at least 1 GB RAM and a 1 GHz pro-
this please see Reset Audacity Settings . cessor (2 GB RAM/2 GHz on OS X 10.7 and later).For
540 CHAPTER 21. SETUP
Current Audacity is compatible with project files saved by 1. Go to the external download pageLeft-click this
versions of Audacity 1.3.x and later, including 2.x.x. link, do not right-click.
4. Click Audacity > Preferences... then choose "Li- 1. Go to the external download pageLeft-click this
braries" on the left. link, do not right-click.
5. Click Locate... to right of "MP3 Library:", then in the 2. Directly underneath "For FFmpeg/LAME on Mac
"Locate Lame" dialog that appears, click Browse.... click below:", left-click the link "ffmpeg-mac-
2.2.2.dmg" and save the file anywhere on your
6. Navigate to and open the folder where computer.
"libmp3lame.dylib" is, and select the
3. When you have finished downloading, double-click
"libmp3lame.dylib" file. If the file is grayed out,
the DMG file to mount it (if you download with Sa-
change the File type: dropdown entry to All Files
fari, the FFmpeg virtual disk image will be extracted
or Dynamic Libraries.
and mounted automatically after downloading). If
7. Click Open to return to the Locate Lame dialog. the DMG window is not on top, go to Finder, then
under "Devices" on the left, click the "ffmpeg-mac-
8. Click OK in the Locate Lame dialog then OK to exit 2.2.2" DMG.
Preferences.
4. In the DMG window, double-click the "ffmpeg-mac-
• You should now be able to export MP3s without any 2.2.2.pkg" to launch the standard OS X package
further configuration, choosing File > Save Other > installer. If you receive a warning that the package
Export Audio... then selecting "MP3 Files" in the cannot be opened, right-click or Ctrl-click the pack-
Export Audio Dialog . age, choose "Open", then click "Open".
5. Click through the steps in the installer, accept-
ing the defaults in all cases. This will install
21.3.5 Installing the FFmpeg Im- the FFmpeg libraries in /Library/Application Sup-
port/Export Library on Mac port/audacity/libs.
6. Restart Audacity if it was running when you in-
The optional FFmpeg library allows Audacity to import stalled FFmpeg then Audacity should detect FFm-
and export a much larger range of audio formats includ- peg automatically.
ing M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA
and also to import audio from most video files. 7. If you have problems with Audacity detecting FFm-
peg, follow the steps to manually locate FFmpeg .
• Because of software patents, Audacity cannot in-
• Alternative Zip download:
clude the FFmpeg software or distribute it from its
own websites. Instead, use the following instruc- 1. Go to the external download pageLeft-click this
tions to download and install the free and recom- link, do not right-click.
mended FFmpeg third-party library.
2. Directly underneath "For FFmpeg/LAME on Mac
• Advanced usage: If you already have Audacity- click below:", left-click the link "ffmpeg-mac-
compatible FFmpeg 2.2.x or 2.3.x shared libraries 2.2.2.zip" and save the file anywhere on your com-
in the system PATH, Audacity will use those as long puter.
as you do not install FFmpeg from the links below
and as long as you do not specify the FFmpeg you 3. Some Mac computers may extract the files from
want Audacity to use in Libraries Preferences . the zip automatically to a new folder in the down-
load directory. Otherwise, extract the entire con-
But note that on Mac Audacity does not need FFmpeg to tents of the downloaded ZIP file to a folder called
import M4A (AAC) , MP4 (including videos) and all other "ffmpeg-mac-2.2.2" anywhere you have full permis-
QuickTime-supported files. sions (such as your Desktop). Then follow the in-
542 CHAPTER 21. SETUP
structions below to locate libavformat.55.dylib using libavformat version, "C" for libavcodec version and "U"
the Libraries Preferences. for libavutil version). If you still see "not found", you may
have installed the wrong libraries. Click the Download...
It is not recommended to extract the files to
button to obtain the correct library for your operating sys-
/usr/local/lib because administrative or root permis-
tem. You can also choose Help > Diagnostics > Show
sions may be needed to read the FFmpeg library
Log... to see diagnostic information about FFmpeg de-
from there.
tection.
• Compiling Audacity against another build of
FFmpeg:
• You can also build and install your own copy of 21.3.6 Reset Audacity Settings on Mac
FFmpeg 1.2 or later using source code from the
FFmpeg project. Then build Audacity from Git
sources according to mac/Build.txt, linking to your As stated in the introduction on this page, simply re-
self-installed copy of FFmpeg according to these installing Audacity will not clear and reset your Audac-
principles. ity settings for preferences and plug-ins. The data for
these are stored in a folder called audacity in the Li-
brary>Application Support in your user directory. On ma-
cOS the full pathname is: your username > Library >
Locating the FFmpeg library manually
Application Support > audacityTo open the audacity
settings folder:
If you installed FFmpeg while Audacity was running, or if
you installed FFmpeg to a non-default location, Audacity 1. Open Finder and click on Go > Go to Folder...
will ask you to configure Preferences to locate the FFm-
peg library. To do this, access Preferences then the "Li- 2. In the dialog box type ~/Library/Application Sup-
braries" tab on the left: port/audacity
As in the image above, the "FFmpeg Library Version" will First you will need to quit Audacity.
say "not found". To correct this:
1. Click the Locate... button to right of FFmpeg Li-
brary:. To completely reset your Audacity settings
2. If a "Success" message indicates Audacity has now
automatically detected valid FFmpeg libraries and Navigate to that audacity folder with Finder and delete
asks if you want to detect them manually, click No, the entire contents. Then restart Audacity.
then OK to close Preferences.
3. If the "Locate FFmpeg" dialog appears, click
If you have added additional plug-ins to the Plug-Ins
Browse....
folder and wish to keep them, do not delete that folder.
4. Navigate to the folder that contains FFmpeg and
select the file "libavformat.55.dylib".
5. Click Open then OK and OK again to close Prefer- To reset just your Audacity preferences
ences.
FFmpeg Library Version should now show a set of three Navigate to that audacity folder with Finder and delete
version numbers for the sub-libraries of FFmpeg ("F" for the audacity.cfg file. Then restart Audacity.
21.4. INSTALLING AND UPDATING AUDACITY ON WINDOWS 543
This page provides instructions for installing and updat- downloaded file and choose the option to extract the con-
ing Audacity on Windows computer platforms. tents. You can also use 7-Zip or other extraction utilities.
• In addition to basic Audacity you may wish to install
the optional LAME MP3 encoding software
System Requirements
• Also the optional FFmpeg library which allows Au-
dacity to import and export a much larger range of
audio formats including M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR For detailed system requirements for a Windows installa-
(narrow band) and WMA and also to import audio tion see this page on the Audacity Website
from most video files.
Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include
LAME or FFmpeg encoding software or distribute such No need to uninstall a previous version before updat-
software from its own websites. Instead, use the instruc- ing, unless updating from Audacity 1.3.x
tions below to download and install the free and recom-
mended third-party libraries for LAME and FFmpeg .
If you install a new Audacity version after installing a pre-
vious one, the installer will offer to install to the same di-
Note carefully that simply re-installing Audacity will rectory as the previous installation. If the previous instal-
not clear and reset your Audacity settings for prefer- lation was Audacity 1.2 or 2.x, the installation directory is
ences and plug-ins. For instructions on how to achieve normally Program Files
this please see Reset Audacity Settings . Audacity (or Program Files(x86)
Audacity on 64-bit Windows). As long as you do not
change the installation directory, Audacity will install over
the previous 1.2 or 2.x version, and any extra plug-ins
21.4.1 Installation instructions you added to the "Plug-Ins" folder will still be available. If
the previous version was 1.3.x, please uninstall 1.3 be-
Save: On the download page, left-click the "installer" link fore installing the current 2.x version. After uninstalling
(do not right-click). Left-clicking pops up the download 1.3, any extra plug-ins you added to that version will re-
box for the Audacity installer or in Microsoft Edge starts main, and you can move them to the "Plug-Ins" folder of
the download at once (at this point you will be on the Fos- the new installation.
sHub site where our downloads are hosted). Save the
download to your computer if prompted to do so. Check
the browser preferences if necessary to find out where
your downloads are saved. Then double-click the down-
loaded .exe file to start the installer. You must be logged • If upgrading from Audacity 2.0.5 or earlier, you must
in as an administrator on the computer to do this, or follow upgrade to the latest FFmpeg library if you require
the prompts to confirm your permission to install. Run: import and export of M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (nar-
Using Internet Explorer and a few other browsers, you row band) and WMA .
can left-click the "installer" link and select an option to • If upgrading from Audacity 1.3.6 or earlier, you must
"Run" the file. This launches the Audacity setup as soon update to the latest LAME library if you require
as it has downloaded. Note: Some security applications MP3 export.
will query or block installers running from the computer’s
temporary space. If you prefer not to use the installer (or Otherwise there is no need to upgrade LAME or FFmpeg
security restrictions prevent installing applications), left- unless this is indicated in the Release Notes for the new
click the link for the "zip" file instead. Then right-click the version of Audacity.
544 CHAPTER 21. SETUP
Current Audacity is compatible with project files saved by Occasionally, there may be a conflict where Audacity still
versions of Audacity 1.3.x and later, including 2.x.x. tries to detect the path to an older lame_enc.dll file. To
correct this:
1. Ensure there are no older versions of lame_enc.dll
in any locations where Audacity detects it, namely:
21.4.2 Check for Updates
• C:
Program Files
You can check to see if you have the latest version of Au- Lame for Audacity or C:
dacity by using Help > Check for Updates.... This takes Program Files (x86)
you to the Download page of the Audacity website where Lame for Audacity (this is where the installer
you can check what the latest release version of Audac- puts the new .dll)
ity is. You can then compare the latest release with the
version you have now as shown by using Help > About • the Audacity installation folder (usually C:
Audacity.... Program Files
Audacity or C:
Program Files (x86)
Audacity), or in the "Plug-Ins" folder inside
21.4.3 Installing LAME on Windows that.
2. Exit Audacity and navigate to the audacity.cfg
Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include preferences file at:
MP3 encoding software or distribute such software from
its own websites. Instead, use the following instruc- • Users
tions to download and install the free and recommended <username>
LAME third-party encoder to export MP3 files with Au- AppData
dacity. See the LAME Legal Issues page for more details. Roaming
Audacity
1. Go to the external LAME download pageLeft-click audacity.cfg
this link, do not right-click.
• Because of software patents, Audacity cannot in- Locating the FFmpeg library manually
clude the FFmpeg software or distribute it from its
own websites. Instead, use the following instruc- If you installed FFmpeg while Audacity was running, or if
tions to download and install the free and recom- you installed FFmpeg to a non-default location, Audacity
mended FFmpeg third-party library. will ask you to configure Preferences to locate the FFm-
peg library. To do this, access Preferences then the "Li-
• Advanced usage: If you already have Audacity- braries" tab on the left:
compatible FFmpeg 2.2.x or 2.3.x shared libraries
in the system PATH, Audacity will use those as long
as you do not install FFmpeg from the links below
and as long as you do not specify the FFmpeg you
want Audacity to use in Libraries Preferences .
5. If Audacity was running when you installed FFm- 4. Navigate to the folder that contains FFmpeg, and
peg, either restart Audacity or follow the steps to select the file avformat-55.dll.
manually locate FFmpeg . 5. Click Open then OK and OK again to close Prefer-
ences.
FFmpeg Library Version should now show a set of three
Alternative zip download for FFmpeg 2.2.2 version numbers for the sub-libraries of FFmpeg ("F" for
libavformat version, "C" for libavcodec version and "U"
for libavutil version). If you still see "not found", you may
1. Go to the external download pageLeft-click this have installed the wrong libraries. Click the Download...
link, do not right-click. button to obtain the correct library for your operating sys-
tem. You can also choose Help > Diagnostics > Show
2. Under "TO DOWNLOAD Lame and FFmpeg for Log... to see diagnostic information about FFmpeg de-
Windows, click links BELOW:", left-click the link tection.
ffmpeg-win-2.2.2.zip and save the file anywhere
on your computer.
3. Extract the entire contents of the downloaded ZIP 21.4.5 Reset Audacity Settings on Win-
file to a folder called "ffmpeg-win-2.2.2" anywhere dows
on your computer, then follow the instructions be-
low to locate the file "avformat-55.dll" using the Li- As stated in the introduction on this page, simply re-
braries Preferences. installing Audacity will not clear and reset your Audac-
546 CHAPTER 21. SETUP
ity settings for preferences and plug-ins. The data for To reset just your Audacity preferences
these are stored in a folder called audacity in the >App-
data>Roaming folder in your user directory. On Windows Navigate to that audacity folder with Windows Explorer
the full pathname is: C: and delete the audacity.cfg file. Then restart Audacity.
Users > your username > Appdata > Roaming > au-
dacityFirst you will need to quit Audacity.
To reset just your plug-ins
21.5 Languages
When you install Audacity on Windows, during the instal- If you cannot read the menus because the text is in an
lation you will get a dialog box which enables you to se- unfamiliar language or has ??? characters, you can nav-
lect the language to be used during the installation pro- igate the menus sequentially to change the language.
cess. This choice of language is also set to be the work- 1. Choose the second menu from the left in the Au-
ing language on subsequent use of Audacity. dacity menus at top left of the screen (on Mac,
choose the first menu from the left)
2. Choose the bottom item of that menu, (on Mac,
choose the second item in that menu) which opens
the Preferences
3. In the list on the left of Preferences, choose the fifth
item from the top
4. On the right, open the second dropdown box con-
taining a list of the language choices
5. Select the language you want and press Enter on
your keyboard.
This means that if you are on Windows and the lan-
guage in your Audacity installation is not to your liking 6. Restart Audacity to fully complete the language
you can simply re-install Audacity and choose a different change and re-order the Effect menu alphabetically.
21.5. LANGUAGES 547
Missing language choices (or deleting audacity.cfg itself) is a quicker method if you
only want to revert Audacity to use the language the op-
If only "English" or "System" choices are in the Lan- erating system runs in.
guages box in Interface Preferences, ensure the "Lan-
guages" folder is in the correct location as follows:
21.5.4 Supported non-English languages
• Windows:C:
Program Files
As well as US English, the Audacity software supports a
<your Audacity version>
significant number of other languages. There are no lo-
Languages on 32-bit systems or C:
calized versions of Audacity. Instead, single versions of
Program Files (x86)
Audacity for the various operating platforms are shipped
<your Audacity version>
with gettext MO files. These files are then used to display
Languages on 64-bit systems
the different languages.
• Linux:/usr/share/locale if Audacity was in-
stalled from a repository package, or
/usr/local/share/locale if you compiled Audacity All translations are provided by volunteers and may
from source code. at times be incomplete. Any untranslated parts of the
software will appear in US English. We are always look-
On Mac open /Applications/Audacity/, right-click or ing for new volunteers to help translate not only Audacity
control-click over Audacity.app > Show Package Con- itself but also the main Audacity website and this Manual.
tents then ensure the "Resources" folder at Con-
tents/Resources contains the correct LPROJ folders for
each language. Missing language files or folders can be Unicode characters
corrected by reinstalling Audacity.
Audacity is Unicode and thus should display non-English
languages correctly on any localisation of the operating
21.5.3 Change language in the system set- system if the system supports that language.
tings
Alternatively, you can quit Audacity and edit the audac- Supported non-English languages in Audacity
ity.cfg settings file. The .cfg file can be edited with any
text editor. The .cfg file is located in the Audacity settings • af Afrikaans
folder as follows: • ar Arabic
• Windows:Users • hy Armenian
<username>
AppData • eu Basque
Roaming • eu_ES Basque (Spain)
Audacity
• be Belarusian
• Mac:~/Library/Application Support/audacity
• bn Bengali
• Linux:~/.audacity-data
• bs Bosnian
• bg Bulgarian
In order to see the Audacity settings folder on Win-
dows, Linux and OS X 10.7 or later, you may need • my Burmese
to show hidden files and folders. See instructions for
• ca Catalan
all versions of Windows and OS X 10.7 and later. To
change language, find the [Locale] line in the .cfg file • zh Chinese (Simplified)
and change the line underneath it to your preferred lan-
• zh_TW Chinese (Taiwan)
guage using the two-digit ISO 639-1 code. For example,
"Language=en" (without quotes) sets English or "Lan- • hr Croatian
guage=de" sets German. If the two lines for Locale do
• cy Cymraeg (Welsh)
not exist in audacity.cfg (which will be the case if Audac-
ity has only ever run in the system language) add the • cs Czech
lines as in this example:
• da Danish
[Locale]Language=de Now save audacity.cfg, restart Au-
• nl Dutch
dacity and it will launch in your chosen language. Delet-
ing the [Locale] line and the line under that in audacity.cfg • fa Farsi (Persian)
548 CHAPTER 21. SETUP
• fi Finnish • oc Occitan
• fr French • pl Polish
• ga Gaelige • pt Portuguese
• gl Galician • pt_BR Portuguese (Brazilian)
• ka Georgian • ro Romanian
• de German • ru Russian
• el Greek • sr_RS Serbian (Cyrillic)
• he Hebrew email protected Serbian (Latin)
• hi Hindi • sk Slovak
• hu Hungarian • sl Slovenian
• id Indonesian • es Spanish
• it Italian • sv Swedish
• ja Japanese • tg Tajik
• km Khmer • ta Tamil
• ko Korean • tr Turkish
• lt Lithuanian • uk Ukrainian
• mk Macedonian email protected Valencian
• nb Norwegian (Bokmal) • vi Vietnamese
Chapter 22
Unsorted
All editing in Audacity is done as a project. It is impor- Note that default behavior on Windows and Mac is to hide
tant to note that a project is not a single audio file but a certain file extensions ; if this applies, the .aup file will
complex set of files managed by Audacity. only appear as "my_song" in the computer. On Win-
dows, the .aup extension will be hidden if Audacity was
• Audacity projects have a top-level AUP file and a installed from the .exe installer and "Hide file extensions
related folder containing the sound files (the audio for known file types" remains checked in Windows Ex-
data). The AUP is not a sound file, it is merely plorer. You can unhide extensions on Windows by follow-
a list of instructions that tell Audacity how to con- ing these instructions. The project file describes how Au-
struct the project from the sound files in the folder. dacity links these AU files together to make up the clips
Audacity projects can only be used by Audacity. and tracks in the project; it also contains gain, pan and
• To make an audio file (such as WAV or MP3 ) for envelope information, data to manage the waveform dis-
playing on your music player, or for use in other ap- play and carries links to any dependent audio files being
plications, use one of the Export Audio commands, read directly from their source location. The AUP file is in
available from the File > Save Other menu. XML format and can be opened in a text editor if required.
The AU files are stored in a lossless , uncompressed
format. Their default size is 1 MB or less. This Audacity
Project Format is designed to make editing audio faster
22.1.1 Structure of an Audacity project in Audacity. By updating individual AU files during edit-
ing, Audacity can change audio or move it around in the
The Audacity Project Format stores all Audacity tracks project without copying large quantities of data from one
and clips , labels , amplitude envelope points , gain and place to another. The four rules for keeping your Au-
pan data, together with other project data. The audio dacity Project happy:
can be a recording , imported files , generated audio or a 1. When importing an uncompressed audio file with
mixture of any of those. Projects are a convenient way to the "Read uncompressed file directly from the orig-
save your extended multi-track piece and come back to inal (faster)" option checked in Import / Export Pref-
it later exactly as you left off. Audacity’s project format is erences never move, rename or delete that file
not compatible with and cannot be opened in any other unless you first copy it into the Audacity project.
audio application. The structure of a saved Audacity See Help > Diagnostics > Check Dependencies...
project is: for more information.
• An AUP project file - the name of the project fol- 2. Never move, delete or rename any of the files or
lowed by ".aup", for example "my_song.aup" folders inside the _data folder.
• A _data folder with the same project name and 3. Never rename the AUP file or the _data folder by
in the same folder as the .aup file, for example hand. If you want to rename your project (for exam-
"my_song_data" ple, to save a snapshot at a particular point), use
the File > Save Project As... command.
• Within that _data folder, a sub-folder structure with
lots of little AU files which are individual segments 4. Always keep the AUP file and the _data folder to-
of the audio data. gether in the same directory (folder).
549
550 CHAPTER 22. UNSORTED
A saved Audacity Project can only be opened and used "Save Project As" is the safe and recommended way to
by Audacity. If you want an audio file that will play on your make a copy of a project with a new name or location.
music player or to burn a CD, use an Export command. This could serve either as a single backup copy of the
The benefits of saving an Audacity Project are: project, or as one of several incremental copies of the
project in the state it had at a particular date and time.
• Saving a project lets you save unfinished work and If you "Save Project As" with a new name, the project
re-open it later in Audacity exactly as it was, with window then displays the project name you just "saved
all edits and recorded/imported tracks preserved. as". The project window displaying the project as previ-
Note carefully that the Undo history is not saved ously named is closed in its last saved state, but can be
with the project and so the project history starts reopened as required.
afresh when you re-open the project later.
• Audio data is always preserved in lossless qual- You should never use the operating system’s
ity. This is useful if you have already exported to copy and paste to make a copy of the project AUP file
a lossy audio format like MP3 but decide to edit the and _data folder in the same folder as the original project.
project further. Editing and re-exporting the project If you must make a copy by hand, save and close the
saves the additional quality loss of re-editing the project first then copy the AUP file and _data folder and
previously exported MP3. paste these into a different folder. This ensures the orig-
inal file and folder names are retained.
• No need to re-import or re-record files
import the WAV files into the current version of Au- • Read the files directly from the original (faster):
dacity. Audacity uses On-Demand Loading . This imports
files much faster by only writing small AUF "sum-
mary" files that reference the imported file and so
22.1.4 Project Dependencies depend on that imported file remaining available.
Audio data is only copied in for any parts of the file
that you subsequently edit. If you apply an edit to
When importing uncompressed audio files, such as the entire audio of the imported file, Audacity will
WAV or AIFF , Audacity has an import preference that at that point copy the entire audio data in, so pro-
lets you save disk space and edit the files almost imme- viding you do not undo that edit of the entire audio,
diately by reading them directly from their original source the project will henceforward no longer depend on
location, rather than copying them into the project. In that the imported file.Note that if you overwrite a read-
case Audacity will reference the original file directly (but directly WAV or AIFF file by exporting to the same
not make any changes to that audio file unless you export file name and location, Audacity renames the im-
over it). If you import the files by reading them directly, ported file with a suffix containing "-old" and a num-
you must not at that point rename, move or delete those ber, then this "-old" file becomes the dependent file
original source files and must not modify them outside for the project. Do not delete "-old" file(s) until you
Audacity. When you first import a file by any means, for are happy with the exported file and no longer re-
example by using File > Open... , File > Import > Audio... quire the Audacity project.
or by dragging the file in, the preference is automatically
set to "copy in" and a Warning dialog is presented ex-
plaining the difference between copy-in and read-directly Do not choose the "Faster" option unless you com-
and asking which method should be used for this import. pletely understand the implications. If you move, rename
You can opt for Audacity to use your current choice in fu- or delete the imported file, the project data may be lost.
ture and not ask again, but you can change your choice at
any time in Import - Export Preferences . When a project
is saved and the "faster" option has been chosen, Audac-
ity will display a dialog box showing these dependencies 22.1.5 Moving, renaming or sending an Au-
and give the option of copying all of the audio data into dacity project
the project. This makes the project independent of ex-
ternal audio files and makes it safe to delete, move, re-
Moving or renaming Audacity projects can be tricky due
name or modify the original audio files if necessary. The
to their complex structure as described above. Any
Projects Preferences settings can be modified so that Au-
project can be moved on the same computer, or re-
dacity will not ask when saving a project but will always
named, by making a copy of the project with the File >
either "never copy" the dependent audio files, or "always
Save Project As... command.
copy" them into the project. At any time it is possible to
click on Help > Diagnostics > Check Dependencies... to • Sending somebody just an AUP file does not send
see if the project depends on any external files . them an Audacity project - to do that you would
need to send the _data folder containing the small
AU files too.
Import settings: "faster" versus "safer"
• For a simple single track project (that does not have
gain or pan settings, or use an envelope to adjust
There are two settings that determine how Audacity im- the volume) one possible solution is to not move the
ports a WAV or AIFF file. project. Instead, use the File > Save Other > Export
• Make a copy of the files before editing (safer): Audio... command to export a WAV file. This WAV
This is the default setting. Audacity copies in the file can then be copied to another computer (such
entire audio data of files when importing them. as by using a USB flash drive), then the File > Im-
port command can be used to load the WAV file
Choose this "Safer" option if: into an Audacity project. Alternatively the WAV file
• Plenty of disk space is available and the time taken can be sent by email (if the WAV is not too large) or
to import is not crucial via a file sharing website to someone else who can
import it into an Audacity project on their computer.
• You want peace of mind that the project will never
depend on other files • For a project that has multiple tracks, or a single-
track project that has gain or pan settings or uses
• The Audacity project is to be opened on another an envelope to adjust the volume of the track, the
computer or sent to someone else (if you only want entire project will need to be moved. To move to
to send an exported audio file to someone else, a different location on the same computer, use File
you do not need to choose "Safer"). > Save Project As... . Save Project As can also
552 CHAPTER 22. UNSORTED
be used to transfer the project to another com- that project in the Recent Files list in order to remove the
puter on the same network, though this can be entry.
slow. If it is necessary to move the project by hand,
save and close the project then move the AUP
file <my_project_name>.AUP and the _data folder
<my_project_name>_data to a different folder or 22.1.8 Autosave and Recovery
computer. Ensure that the .AUP file and _data
folder remain together in the new folder. As soon as you open a project window and change
the window contents, whether this is a previously saved
project or you are creating a new project, Audacity writes
Never rename a project by hand in any folder. Do- a temporary reference file for that project called an ".au-
ing so will corrupt the project. tosave" file. This allows Audacity to automatically re-
• If moving the project to a different computer, the cover unsaved changes in the event of a crash or power
project must not depend on external audio files be- loss. When you use File > Save Project or File > Save
cause the actual (absolute) path to these is stored Project As... there are no longer unsaved changes,
in the AUP file. Use the Help > Diagnostics > Check so the ".autosave" file is deleted until fresh unsaved
Dependencies... command to check whether the changes are made. The file is stored in the "AutoSave"
project depends on any external files. If it does, the folder inside Audacity’s folder for application data . The
dialog box will give you the option to make a copy file is of identical internal structure to an AUP project
of those files within the project. file, but is not readable by a text editor. Most changes
you make to the audio data, such as adding or removing
• It can be difficult to email complex projects to oth- audio or applying an effect to it, trigger writing the ".au-
ers because of the size of the project data and be- tosave" file. A change to the position of the selection or
cause you must send a ZIP file containing AUP editing cursor does not write to the ".autosave" file, and is
file and _data folder to ensure the project struc- not captured when closing the project, unless the project
ture remains intact. If you do not mind sending is already "dirty" (as shown by File > Save Project being
slightly lossy audio in the project, the file size can clickable).
be greatly reduced by zipping up a compressed
copy of the project . Note that ZIP formats do
not support reliable character encoding, so for the
name of the project, labels, track names or meta- 22.1.9 Disk space usage
data, only use A to Z or a to z characters, whole
numbers (0 to 9), underscore or hyphen-minus (or This can be particularly important if you are editing a
use the NUMPAD_SUBTRACT key). large project. Audacity references the original audio ma-
See also Sending your work to others and this FAQ . terial until you actually perform some kind of edit on it,
such as cutting a piece away or using any effect on it. So
if you Edit > Duplicate a selection, this doesn’t actually
22.1.6 Backing up Audacity projects increase the number of .au files in the _data folder, and
doesn’t increase disk space usage. Edit > Copy for ex-
ample does increase the number of .au files, but this is
Regular backups should if possible be made to one or so these files can be retained separately on the Audacity
two devices other than the device the current project is clipboard for Edit > Paste . Once you perform an edit,
stored on, as computer hard drives can fail, destroying all the original unchanged audio is retained, along with the
data. For example, backups could be made to another changed audio. This is so you can use Edit > Undo and
internal drive on the computer, or ideally to an external Edit > Redo to try out edits and undo them if they do not
USB drive or uploaded to an online (cloud) storage ser- sound as you wanted. If you edit just a small selection
vice. For advice on backing up Audacity projects please in a track, only that small selection of changed data is
see this FAQ . written to disk. Nonetheless, this still represents a dou-
bling of disk space usage for that selection, and a further
edit on that selection (unless you first undo the previous
22.1.7 Deleting an Audacity project edit) adds the same amount again, and so on. For ex-
ample, a five minute stereo recording at default quality
There is no File > Delete Project command in Audacity; settings takes 100 MB of space. If you edit the whole
therefore to delete a project to free up disk space it is length of that recording, disk space usage will increase
necessary to make the deletion manually. You will need to 200 MB. If disk space is a problem while working on
to delete both the AUP file and its associated, identically a project, you can use View > History... to discard Undo
named _data folder. ’= Note that this will not remove the levels and reclaim disk space. Note that once you close
listing of your project under File > Recent Files... . Af- the project by using File > Close or exiting Audacity, the
ter deleting the project you can choose the AUP entry for audio data needed for Undo/Redo is discarded, so as to
22.2. RECOVERING CRASHES MANUALLY 553
make project storage as economical as possible. Any au- is however retained until you exit Audacity itself.
dio data placed on the Audacity clipboard by Cut or Copy
ity temporary folder or project _data folder. Use shift-click 1. (only in the Professional and Ultimate ver-
or control-click to select multiple files. The files will be in sions) Click View > Raw Contents to enable
approximately 6-second chunks and will be on separate maximum date resolution.
tracks in the Audacity screen. Files from stereo tracks
will alternate between left and right channels. 2. Open the required folder in xplorer2 and sort
the .au files by time modified as above.
1. Click in the Track Control Panel (by the Mute/Solo
buttons) of the topmost track. 3. Ctrl + A to select all the files.
2. Shortcut Z or Select > Region > Ends to Zero 4. File > Mass Rename.
Crossings . 5. In the "Mass Rename Wizard", click in "Target
3. Edit > Remove Special > Trim . name template" and type the letter e with a $
after the letter. For example, e$0001.au will
4. Click in the Track Control Panel of the first track you rename the files to e0001.au, e0002.au and
want to join to the topmost track. so on. Use enough zeros in the file name so
that all the .au files will have the same number
5. Shortcut Z or Edit > Find Zero Crossings. of digits.
6. Shortcut Z or Select > Region > Ends to Zero 6. Press "Preview", and if the preview looks cor-
Crossings . rect, hit "Rename"
7. Click after the end of the topmost track. • On Mac, try Applications > Automator.
8. Press End on the keyboard. • On Linux, try the file manager Thunar included in
9. Click Edit > Paste and the cut track will attach to the the xfce desktop See here for help running Thunar
end of the topmost track. on the Ubuntu desktop.
10. Repeat as necessary to join all the tracks onto the Linux command-line alternatives for timestamp sort-
topmost track. ing
Play the result. Cut and paste as needed if any files are 1. Open a terminal then "cd" into the directory that
found to be in the wrong order or the wrong channel. contains the .AU files.
2. Type the following command in a terminal to sort
and rename the files into numerical timestamp or-
22.2.4 Automatic recovery tools der:mkdir "renamed" | find -type f -name "*.au"
-printf "cp %h/%f renamed/%h/%TY%Tm%Td-
%TH%TM%TS_%f
Tools written for legacy Audacity 1.2 can automate data
n"|sh
recovery.
3. The file names produced in the "renamed" folder
are not in a consecutive sequence suitable for the
All these utilities require the .au files to be in- Audacity recovery utilities. Instead, use the Nyquist
put in consecutive alphanumerical order. Audacity plug-in Append Import to import the files end-to-
names files randomly so files will need to renamed. end into Audacity automatically in file name order.
Open Audacity’s temporary or project _data folder in
your system file manager. Sort the files by times-
tamp order (earliest first), then rename them using
a consecutive alphanumerical sequence, lowest num- Limitations of automatic recovery utilities
ber first. An arrangement looking something like this
should work: b001.au 15:56:02b002.au 15:56:02b003.au • There is a 2 GB maximum size for any WAV file
15:56:10b004.au 15:56:10Utilities for renaming files to created from the reconstructed temporary files.
consecutive alphanumerical order This implies no more than 2000 .au files can be re-
covered. Sometimes (probably due to bugs in the
• On Windows, Explorer cannot rename to a se- utilities) there can be errors when recovering only
quence acceptable to the recovery tools. You can 1000 or so files. In that case you would need to
use instead the Mass Rename tool in the 21-day split the .au files in the temporary or_data folder
trial Professional or Ultimate versions of xplorer2. into two or more folders, each containing consecu-
These versions will let you recover an unedited tively numbered files, and recover a separate WAV
stereo recording with exact allocation of left and file from each folder.
right channels, if Windows is running the NTFS file
system. The free version of xplorer2 cannot guar- • Recovery of unedited mono recordings should be
antee correct channel allocation. correct in most cases.
22.3. AUTOMATIC CRASH RECOVERY 555
audacity_rescue.sh
1.2 Audacity Recovery Utility
This shell script can reassemble a few thousand .au files.
The 1.2 Audacity Recovery Utility assumes the project It may be simpler to apply (at a bash terminal) than some
rate was 44100 Hz. If your project was at other than of the solutions mentioned on this page, particularly for
44100 Hz, the recovered WAV file will be the wrong mono recordings.
length and play at the wrong speed. To correct this af-
ter importing the recovery WAV file, click in the name
of the track (by the downward-pointing arrow) then use SoX
"Set Rate" to choose the correct rate. Windows and
LinuxFollow the instructions on the Audacity Recovery
1. Using SoX, make a copy of the temp directory and
Utility page. On Linux, you may need to install additional
its files from a mono recording:
libraries before you can use the utility, following the in-
structions provided. MacDownload the following utilities $ cp -r /tmp/audacity1.2-jbn ~/rescue
instead which are ready-compiled with the necessary li-
2. Convert the AU files into raw (headerless) files. The
braries:
files must already be time-sorted and numbered
• for Power PCs with leading zeroes:
• for Intel Macs $ for f in *.au ; do sox ${f} -t raw ${f}.raw ; done
Then follow the instructions on the Audacity Recovery 3. Concatenate the raw files together to make one
Utility page from "About the Audacity Recovery Utility" long raw file. Concatenating the AU files together
onwards. (each with its own header) would produce noise at
the joins between each AU file.
Uncompressed WAV and AIFF files that are imported into • Disk space: Shows the amount of additional disk
a project with the "Read uncompressed audio files di- space that will be used by the project if the file(s)
rectly from the original (faster)" option in Import / Export are copied in. The disk space shown will depend
Preferences are not copied into the project. Instead, Au- on the default sample format of the project as set
dacity keeps a reference to these files, and the project in Quality Preferences .
is dependent on them. Dependencies Dialog lists these
dependencies and allows you to optionally remove them. • Copy Selected Files: Copies the files selected in
You may select some, none or all the files to be copied the list into the project. The project no longer de-
in.Accessed by Help > Diagnostics > Check Depen- pends on the selected files but still depends on the
dencies... or when saving a project that depends on unselected files.
other audio files • Do Not Copy: Dismisses the dialog (but contin-
ues to save the project if you were saving it) without
copying any of the listed files into the project. The
project will continue to depend on the listed files, so
you must not move, rename or delete those files, or
the folder they are in.
• Copy All Files (Safer): All the listed files will be
copied into the project, removing all the dependen-
cies. You can then safely move, rename or delete
those files if you wish.
• Copy Selected Files Saves the project while copy- – Ask me The default option; the Dependen-
ing only the files selected in the list into the project. cies Dialog will always appear when saving a
The project no longer depends on the selected files project that has dependencies.
but still depends on the unselected files.
– Always copy all audio (safest): On all future
• Cancel Save: Allows you to cancel saving of the
occasions when saving a project that has de-
project, without copying any of the listed files into
pendencies, Dependencies Dialog will not ap-
it. You will be asked to say "Yes" if this is your in-
pear, and all dependent files will be copied into
tention. The project will continue to depend on the
the project.
listed files.
• Save without Copying: Save the project without – Never copy any audio: On all future occa-
copying in the dependent files. The project will con- sions when saving a project that has depen-
tinue to depend on the listed files. dencies, Dependencies Dialog will not appear,
and no files will be copied into the project. The
• Copy All Files (Safer): Saves the project while
project will continue to depend on the listed
copying all the listed files into the project, removing
files.
all the dependencies. You can then safely move,
rename or delete those files if you wish.
You can change your decision in this menu at any time
• Whenever a project depends on other files: by going to Projects Preferences .
22.5 Device
The device is the actual physical sound device you are Mix", "Wave Out" or "Sum" for recording computer play-
recording from (or playing back to). The recording and back , must be enabled in "Sound" in the Windows Con-
playback devices are chosen either in the Devices sec- trol Panel. See Why can I not record in Windows for more
tion of Preferences or in Device Toolbar .The recording help.
and playback volume of the selected devices is normally
adjusted in Mixer Toolbar . • Mac: The built-in audio’s playback device normally
appears as "Built-in Output". Unless the Mac has a
• Windows: Recording and playback devices are second digital input, the recording device normally
normally shown as the type of recording or play- appears as "Built-in Input". A USB audio sound-
back it is (for example, "Microphone" or "Speakers") card that has different inputs should give the device
followed by the device that input or output belongs name followed by the type of input.
to. Examples could look like:
• Linux: It is often best to choose the "default"
– Microphone (High Def Audio)
recording and playback device. Recording sources
– Speakers (Realtek HD) can be chosen if necessary in either alsamixer
or pulseaudio volume control (on machines where
– Line In (USB Audio).
pulseaudio is the default audio system).
• In addition, there are "Sound Mapper" or "Primary
Driver" input and output devices that are always the Many USB or Firewire recording devices (for example
same as whatever device is currently set as default USB turntables or most USB interfaces) do not present
in the Windows control panel for sound. a choice of recording devices to the operating system.
Such devices will just appear as the device name, for ex-
ample "USB Audio CODEC" (or on Windows, sometimes
Many new Windows computers come with only "Microphone (USB Audio CODEC)" even though the de-
the microphone recording device enabled. Any other vice is not a "microphone"). Back to Recording Audio .
playback devices the sound device has, such as "Stereo Back to Getting Started .
22.6. HIGHER SPEED TRANSFERS 559
Higher speed transfers (high speed dubbing) is some- will always be present, with no cartridges giving as
times used to speed up the recording process by record- good performance to 27kHz as they do to 20kHz.
ing records at higher speeds than they were created
at and then adjusting the recording back to the correct
speed. The best advice that we can give you is : do not 22.6.3 More detail
be tempted to do it. You will save a little time, but your
recordings will be compromized, you will lose high fre- Consider the case where you have a superbly-recorded
quencies - and you may damage both your records and 33 1/3 rpm vinyl LP that contains audio with frequencies
your equipment. ranging from 20Hz to 20kHz (the nominal full range of hu-
man hearing). When you play it back at 78 it will sound
like chipmunks on helium. In effect you have translated
22.6.1 High Speed Dubbing that original frequency range to the range of approxi-
mately 47Hz to 46.8kHz. Now the cartridge that is play-
ing back these frequencies was designed to reproduce
Because Audacity can change the speed of recordings,
the 20-20kHz range, and if it’s really, really high end it
it’s possible to record your 33 1/3 rpm records into Au-
might be able to reproduce frequencies up to 25kHz. So
dacity at 45 rpm (so transfer them more quickly). Once
everything from 25kHz upwards is lost during high-speed
the track is recorded into Audacity, simply select all the
playback. You end up with recorded frequencies in the
track by clicking in the Track Control Panel (where the
range 47Hz to 25kHz. Now we use software to reduce
mute/solo buttons are) and click Effect > Change Speed
the speed back to normal. The chipmunks become hu-
. In the "From" box choose the speed you played the
man again. And the resulting frequency range we’re left
record at (for example "33 1/3" or "45") and in the "To"
with is 20Hz to 10.7kHz. You basically lost all the high
box choose the speed you want to convert the recording
frequencies. This is assuming the best possible record-
to (that is, the speed it should be played at according to
ing with the best possible cartridge and no losses during
the label). Where you are recording at a faster speed
the software speed-reduction step. The results will be
than normal for example recording a 33 1/3 rpm record
even worse if the cartridge is average - if it cannot repro-
at 45 rpm, it’s recommended to set the sample rate in
duce frequencies above 20kHz your resulting recording
the Project Rate dropdown menu at the bottom left of the
(after speed reduction) will have no frequencies above
Audacity window to a higher sample rate than 44.1kHz to
8.5kHz. Now this is just the first part. The second part in-
ensure you record the full audio spectrum. For record-
volves the RIAA playback equalization (EQ). The LP was
ing 33rpm records played at 45rpm, a sample rate of 60k
recorded with this EQ curve at normal speed. When you
or more is needed to record the full 20kHz spectrum. If
play it back at high speed all the frequencies are shifted
44.1k sample rate is used when recording, the final au-
and the playback EQ curve is applied to the wrong fre-
dio will be limited to 14.8kHz bandwidth. Also set the bit
quencies. This would also need to be corrected in soft-
depth to 32-bit as this will give better quality when the
ware. Third, even if your cartridge could reproduce fre-
Change Speed effect is applied.
quencies up to 50kHz (which is highly doubtful), there
is no guarantee that your pre-amp will pass these fre-
quencies, and even if it did it is highly unlikely that the
22.6.2 Why you should not do this playback EQ curve would be well-defined at frequencies
above 20kHz. Not only will your recordings sound muf-
Accelerated recording does not give the best sound qual- fled, you will damage your LPs by doing this. The stylus
ity, for two reasons: that tracks the groove in the record is part of a mechan-
ical system. When it cannot move fast enough to fol-
• The playback equalization curve is being applied low the grooves (which is what happens when you play
incorrectly in the record deck preamp. While cor- a 33 at 78), it just ploughs through the grooves, inflict-
rect for normal speed play, all music content is fre- ing permanent damage. Running a record fast to "get it
quency shifted during accelerated play, and equal- over with" has one problem above all else. The needle
ization is therefore incorrect. is designed to vibrate and move very accurately only in
• Cartridges behave poorly beyond 20kHz, and an a narrow range. Exceed that range and the needle stops
accelerated deck is using the cartridge at up to picking up the music.
27kHz to play back audio content of up to 20kHz.
Consequently distortion will rise, high frequency re-
sponse will be more peaky, and generally the high- 22.6.4 Links
est frequencies will be lost. How much of an issue
this quality loss is depends on the cartridge, but it |< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
560 CHAPTER 22. UNSORTED
A LOF file is a plain text file ending with the extension • Each command must be placed on a separate line.
".lof" that contains a list of audio files to import into an
• Files are imported in the order shown in the LOF
Audacity project window. It can optionally contain com-
file.
mands to create new project windows.
• If the file to be imported is in the same folder as the
LOF file, you need only give the file name inside
Syntax double quotes.
On-Demand Loading is an optional faster method of im- 22.8.1 Importing different file types using
porting audio . Instead of a progress bar appearing while On-Demand Loading
Audacity waits to import the entire file, the normal Audac-
ity waveform starts to display almost immediately. You
can play or edit wherever the normal waveform is dis-
played while the remaining waveform is still being drawn
as a process running in the background. On-Demand Uncompressed files
Loading is available as an option when importing most
uncompressed files like WAV and AIFF (and on
Linux, FLAC ).
On-Demand Loading is used for most uncompressed
files when choosing to read these files "directly from the
original (faster)" instead of copying them in. The "read di-
rectly" option can be chosen when the warning appears
for importing uncompressed audio files:
22.8. ON-DEMAND LOADING 561
End Matter
23.1 Accessibility
This page discusses accessibility issues in Audacity for ences, choose the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab, then
visually- and motion-impaired users. under "Full Keyboard Access", choose the radio
button "All controls".
• Technical support for visually impaired users is pro-
vided on the audacity4blind mailing list.
23.1.3 Screen readers
23.1.1 Keyboard shortcuts
Large parts of Audacity are accessible to users of screen
readers on Windows or Mac, but unfortunately this is not
A large number of keyboard shortcuts are available for the case on Linux. The accessibility on Windows and on
those who cannot use a mouse, and for those who find Mac is outlined in the next two sections.
it quicker to use the keyboard. These keyboard short-
cuts are described throughout the manual, and in the
Keyboard Shortcut Reference . They can be customized On Windows
on the Keyboard page of the Preferences dialog. Parts
of Audacity which are not fully accessible using the key- On Windows Audacity is known to work well with the
board include: Jaws, Window-Eyes and NVDA screen readers. There
• Time Tracks : These can control the speed of audio is a Jaws Guide to Audacity, most of which is also appli-
tracks in a very flexible manner. cable to users of Window-Eyes and NVDA. The following
parts of Audacity are not accessible to users of screen
• Tools Toolbar : Only Selection Tool can be worked readers on Windows:
with using the keyboard.
• Amplitude envelope in audio tracks.
• Time Tracks
23.1.2 Mac keyboard navigation
562
23.2. INFORMATION FOR DEVELOPERS 563
23.3 Customization
Audacity can be customized in a number of ways includ- • Other plug-in formats: Other plug-in formats can
ing adding to and changing the provided keyboard short- be added:
cuts and loading additional plug-ins
– LADSPA effects
– LV2 effects
23.3.1 Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts
– VAMP analysis plug-ins
You can use keyboard combinations to perform many ac- – VST effects
tions in Audacity; for example pressing Ctrl + 1 on the – Audio Unit effects (for Mac OS X amd ma-
keyboard zooms in a step. The combinations associated cOS).
with different commands can be changed or added to on
the Keyboard Preferences tab. Mouse clicks and move- – Module Plug-ins (advanced - usually requires
ments can also be used to perform some actions. The compiling Audacity).
Mouse Preferences tab lists the mouse gestures which Instructions for installing plug-ins can be found at:
are available but these cannot be changed at the mo-
ment. • Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins
on Windows
• Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins
23.3.2 Plug-ins on Mac OS X/macOS
You can download and install plug-ins to add extra func- • Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins
tionality to Audacity. Plug-ins can give you extra effects, on Linux
or more audio generation and analysis capability.
• Nyquist: A number of Nyquist plug-ins are already 23.3.3 Ultimate Customization
included with Audacity. Nyquist is a dialect of LISP
specially developed for audio processing. It can
Anyone can download our source code. Changing the
generate or process sound effects, or analyze au-
code and recompiling Audacity allows you to change any
dio content.
aspect of its behavior or turn on experimental or optional
– List of additional Nyquist plug-ins available for features. See our guides to compiling Audacity for Win-
download dows, Mac and GNU/Linux on the Audacity Wiki. If you
need help compiling, please ask on the Compiling Audac-
– Download and installation instructions for
ity board on our Audacity Forum. If you are interested
Nyquist plug-ins
in working with the Audacity codebase please consider
Nyquist plug-ins are text files, so it is relatively easy to joining our Developer Community . Your code changes
modify them or even create your own Nyquist plug-ins in can then potentially be incorporated into Audacity for the
any text editor. benefit of all users.
564 CHAPTER 23. END MATTER
3. Obtain the translations file for your language from 8. In the directory opened in Step 7 above
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/tree/master/locale. • For English language, on Windows and
• For English language, right-click over "audac- Mac, create a folder called "en-simple" (with-
ity.pot" and save the link or target to your com- out quotes) and paste your saved "Audac-
puter. ity.mo" or "audacity.mo" file inside that. On
Linux, create a folder "en-simple", cre-
• For languages other than English, right-click ate a folder "LC_MESSAGES" inside that,
over the ".po" file for your language and save then paste your "audacity.mo" file inside the
the link or target to your computer. You can "LC_MESSAGES" folder.
check the two digit code that corresponds to
• For languages other than English, open the
your language here .
directory for your language (for example, "fr"
4. Load the .po or .pot file into Poedit. for French) and paste in the "Audacity.mo" file
you saved so that it replaces the previous "Au-
5. Add a "!" (exclamation mark) to left of the transla- dacity.mo".
tion of each menu item you want to hide. The .pot
file will not have translations, so just add a "!" in the 9. Restart Audacity and select your modified non-
empty translation box. View > Simplified View: English language in Interface Preferences (if it is
not already displaying). To display the simplified
• You can provide a View > Simplified View English language, choose "Simplified".
checkbox menu item to turn your simplified
language on or off. To do this, ADD "Simplified
View" (without the "!") in the empty translation Not all menu and other items can be hidden yet.
box in the .pot file, or REMOVE the "!" from For example, the Mute/Solo buttons, shipped Nyquist and
the translation of "!Simplified View" in the .po LADSPA plug-ins and Preferences items cannot be hid-
file. den.
23.5. SCRIPTING 565
23.5 Scripting
CommandName:Name of the batch command to exe- Returns a list of all available menu commands. These are
cute the commands that can be sent using MenuCommand.
No parameters.
ParamString:Parameters for the batch command Exam-
ples:
SendReceive GetTrackInfo
BatchCommand: CommandName=NoiseBatchCommand
finished: OK Allows information about a project’s tracks to be returned
to the script. Parameters:
ChangeTempo: Percentage=10.0BatchCommand fin-
ished: OK TrackIndex:An integer (default: 0) identifying the track
With two tracks selected, running this command com- GetTrackInfo: Type=Name TrackIndex=0Audio TrackGet-
pares the tracks sample by sample, and counts the num- TrackInfo finished: OK
ber of samples whose absolute difference exceeds the
GetTrackInfo: Type=EndTime TrackIndex=024.000000GetTrackInfo
given threshold. The total count is returned, as well as
finished: OK
the number of seconds of audio that these samples rep-
resent. Parameters:
SendReceive
Select
SetTrackInfo
Provides some control over the project selection. Tracks
between FirstTrack and LastTrack inclusive are selected, For setting track information - currently track name only.
and the time interval selected is from StartTime to End- (Note mute/solo can be set with menu commands) Pa-
Time. Alternatively, if TrackName is specified, then the rameters:
track with that name is selected. Parameters:
TrackIndex:Specifies which track to modify
FirstTrack:An integer (default: 0)
LastTrack:An integer (default: 0) Type:Type of info to set - currently ’Name’ is the only op-
tion
TrackName:Name of a track (not required if using First-
Track and LastTrack) Name:String to which the track name is to be set Exam-
ple:
StartTime:A floating-point number (default: 0)
EndTime:A floating-point number (default: 0) SendReceive
Mode:One of: None, All, Range, Name (default: All) Ex- SetTrackInfo: TrackIndex=0 Type=Name Name=EricSetTrackInfo
ample: finished: OK
SendReceive
Select: Mode=Range FirstTrack=0 LastTrack=1 Start-
Time=3.2 EndTime=8.4Selected track ’Audio Track 1’Se- Import
lected track ’Audio Track 2’ Select finished: OK
Select: Mode=Range FirstTrack=0 LastTrack=0 Start- Load audio data from a file into a track. The file type is
Time=0.1 EndTime=9.9Selected track ’Audio Track 1’Se- detected from the extension, and any format understood
lect finished: OK by Audacity can be used. Parameters:
OpenProject
Filename:File name of the project to save to. Default is • Scripting only works with one project at a time.
to prompt the User to choose a file. Must include .aup file
• For some menu commands, the project window
extension.default=ask user
must have focus for the command to succeed.
Compress:Save audio in compressed (OGG) for-
• Scripts have no control over the type and ver-
mat?default=no
bosity of responses they receive. (Related: it’s not
AddToHistory:Include opened file in File -> Recent straightforward to get ’output’ responses from com-
Files? Has no effect on User prompted files; they always mands like GetTrackInfo.)
appear in Recent Files.default=yes Example:
• Current commands could have stricter parameter
SendReceive validation.
SaveProject: Filename=myproject.aupSaveProject fin- • There’s no consistent way to abort or interrupt com-
ished: OK mands.
• There are still many parts of Audacity that cannot
Export currently be controlled from a script because com-
mands for them have not yet been created.
Save audio from the project into a file. The file type to • Due to a slight problem with module management,
export to is detected from the extension, and any format the scripting module is not unloaded when Audacity
understood by Audacity can be used. Parameters: quits. This means the script pipes are not properly
Mode:Either ’All’ or ’Selection’ - sets which audio is to be deleted.
exported
• There may or may not be security problems relating
Filename:File to export to to the use of pipes. You’re advised not to use mod-
script-pipe on a system with multiple simultaneous
Channels:Number of channels to export Example:
users.
SendReceive
• The interface on the script side of the pipe is still
Export: Mode=All Filename=/home/dan/ArtTatum- quite low-level. It may be possible to generate li-
Indiana.mp3 Channels=2Exported to MP3 format: braries for specific scripting languages from the in-
/home/dan/ArtTatum-Indiana.mp3Export finished: OK ternal descriptions of the commands.
23.6. LAME LEGAL ISSUES 569
23.6.1 LAME patent issues of MP3 files for personal use (interpretations vary
whether that sanctions using unlicensed encoders,
free or otherwise)
Prior to April 2017, this is what we believed about LAME
and patents: While the LAME source code is free, the • Existing MP3 patents will expire worldwide between
encoding technology that ready-compiled LAME binaries 2010 and 2012 (but not until 2017 in the USA)
use is patented. The patents are held by Fraunhofer
• The possibility remains at least in the USA that
and administered by Thomson. Patenting raises a the-
patents could be extended.
oretical possibility that in some countries a user might
need to pay a license fee to legally encode MP3s. This Our current understanding is that:
might vary according to the purpose of the encoding and
• The Fraunhofer patents have expired as of April
whether the software being used is licensed. There is no
2017
definitive list of countries where the patents unambigu-
ously hold sway. However they are generally assumed to • Fraunhofer has said the licensing of their patents is
be enforceable in USA, Canada, the EEC and Japan. no longer needed:
This means that in these countries (in theory), software
“On April 23, 2017, Technicolor’s mp3 licensing program
that encodes MP3s must be licensed by the patent hold-
for certain mp3 related patents and software of Techni-
ers, and that anyone encoding MP3s with unlicensed en-
color and Fraunhofer IIS has been terminated.”
coders may also be infringing patents. The best advice
that can be given is that the user makes their own deci- • LAME has stated that MP3 is now free of all patents
sion, based on their conscience, the country they are in,
“By April 23rd, 2017 all relevant software patents apply-
and taking into account the following:
ing to MP3 compression technology had expired. MP3 is
• The patent holders have tended to enforce license now considered to be a patent-free format, and licenses
fees against commercial rather than free MP3 en- are not being collected anymore. Anyone is free to im-
coders plement the specification and distribute the implementa-
tion.” But we are not lawyers, and at the moment we are
• Thomson themselves have said that no license still being cautious. We would like to provide LAME with
is needed by individuals creating music libraries Audacity, but have not yet made the decision to do so.
23.7 Glossary
This page gives very brief explanations of technical terms audio signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of
related to digital audio, with some links to Wikipedia for one another) when sampled. It also refers to the distor-
much more comprehensive explanations. tion or artifact that results when the signal reconstructed
from samples is different from the original continuous sig-
nal.
23.7.1 General Terms
ALSA: A Linux kernel component for providing de-
Term Description vice drivers for soundcards. Known as an audio host in
Audacity.
dows, created by Steinberg. It provides a low-latency, not make the MP3 smaller, except for 11025 Hz and be-
multi-channel interface between a software application low.
and the soundcard.
CBR: Constant Bit Rate - In this format, the rate
Audacity Project Format (.aup) : The format in at which audio uses its data bits does not vary. Silence
which Audacity stores its projects. This consists of a ref- uses as much disk space as audible sound.
erence file with the extension .aup and a large number
of small audio files with extension .AU . This structure
Cepstrum: The cepstrum of an audio signal is re-
makes it quicker for Audacity to move audio around - ideal
lated to the spectrum , but presents the rate of change
for cutting and pasting audio in a project.
in the different spectrum bands. It’s particularly useful
for properties of vocal tracks and is used, for example, in
Audio CDs: CDs containing PCM audio data in software to identify speakers by their voice characteris-
accordance with the Red Book standard. They can be tics.
played on any standalone CD player as well as on com-
puters. Clipping: Distortion to sound, usually due to the
audio being too loud. Unless the original audio is 32-
bit sample format , waveforms louder than 0 dB will
Band-pass filter: A band-pass filter is a filter that
have their tops lopped off (flattened) at 0 dB, rather than
passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects
showing smooth curves. Clipping can also be an inten-
(attenuates) frequencies outside that range. A band-
tional distortion effect that lops off part of the waveform,
boost filter is similar to a band-pass filter except that it
reducing its amplitude and changing its frequency
amplifies frequencies within a certain range and passes
content.
frequencies outside that range untouched.
soundcard which plays back a numerical representation waveform to a spectrum , and back.
of audio as an analog, real world sound like a voice or
guitar.
Frequency: Audio frequency determines the pitch
of a sound. Measured in Hz , higher frequencies have
Data CDs: Data CDs contain data intended to be higher pitch. See this Wikipedia article.
read directly by a computer. The data may include audio
and any other types of file such as images and docu-
ments. Most standalone CD players will not play data Gain: A measure of how much a signal is ampli-
CDs, but some DVD players will. Including compressed fied. Usually expressed in dB , positive gain increases
audio files on a data CD can greatly increase the play- the amplitude of a signal, while negative gain reduces
ing time compared to audio CDs . it.
FFT: Fast Fourier Transform. A method for perform- IVR:Interactive Voice Response is a technology
ing Fourier transforms quickly. that allows a computer to interact with humans through
the use of voice and DTMF tones input via keypad.
File name extension: A suffix of three or four char-
acters added to a file name which defines the format of kHz: One kilohertz (kHz) is 1000 Hz . For exam-
its contents. The suffix is separated from the file name ple, the common audio sample rate of 44100 Hz can
by a dot (period), as in "song.mp3". The extension of also be expressed as 44.1 kHz.
common formats is often hidden on Windows, but can be
turned on in the system’s Folder Options.
LAME : A software library that converts audio to
MP3 format.
Filter: A sound effect that lets some frequencies
through and suppresses others.
Latency: A short delay between an audio signal
being sent and received. In computer audio this is due to
Fourier Transform: A method for converting a analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion. Most
572 CHAPTER 23. END MATTER
commonly refers to the delay between recording a sound phase distortion by relaxing anti-aliasing filter perfor-
and a) hearing its playthrough or b) laying it down on disk. mance requirements.
Linear: A simple, directly proportional, one-to-one, Pan: Panning is the spread of a sound signal (ei-
"straight-line" relationship. This term is used to contrast ther monaural or stereophonic pairs) into a new stereo or
with exponential , logarithmic , or other complex rela- multi-channel sound field.
tionships.
of the audio. See this page in the Audacity Wiki for more
details. AIFF: A container format, almost always used for
lossless , uncompressed , PCM audio with similar
file size to WAV . Although the classic AIFF format is in
Spectrum: Presentation of a sound in terms of its
Apple’s earlier Big-endian byte order, Mac OS X /macOS
component frequencies .
has always written "AIFF-C/sowt" files. These have the
Uncompressed Audio Format: An audio format in same AIFF extension as classic AIFF and are identical to
which every sample of sound is represented by a bi- it except for being Little-endian like WAV format. Rarely,
nary number. Examples are WAV or AIFF . files with AIFC extension can contain compressed for-
mats.
Windows DirectSound: A Windows interface be- Apple Lossless:Also known as Apple Lossless
tween applications (such as Audacity) and the soundcard Audio Codec (ALAC) or Apple Lossless Encoder (ALE),
driver. It is one of the "audio hosts" selectable in Device this is a lossless , size-compressed codec usually
Toolbar . DirectSound was released in 1995 as a replace- stored within an MP4 container format with M4A exten-
ment for the older MME and has an option to bypass the sion . ALAC is Apple’s equivalent of FLAC (which is not
kernel mixer and so reduce latency . officially supported by Apple).
Windows WASAPI: The most recent Windows in- AU: A container format, used by Audacity for stor-
terface between applications (such as Audacity) and the age of lossless , uncompressed , PCM audio data.
soundcard driver. It is one of the "audio hosts" selectable Not be confused with Sun/NeXT AU files, which are usu-
in Device Toolbar . WASAPI was first officially released ally U-Law encoded PCM files but may be headerless.
in 2007 in Windows Vista.
AAC: A lossy , size-compressed audio codec MP2: A lossy , size-compressed audio format
and its reference audio codec implementation. AAC files mainly used by the broadcast media
usually have M4A extension , with variants such as M4P
(protected) and M4R (ringtones). Usually gives better
quality for the same bit rate than the older MP3 format. MP3: A lossy , size-compressed audio format
Is default audio format for iTunes®, iPod® and iPhone®, which is the main format for transmitting audio over the
and Sony PlayStation 3. internet
574 CHAPTER 23. END MATTER
Ogg Vorbis: An Open Source lossy , size- WMA: A container format. Windows Media Audio
compressed audio format, strictly speaking the Vorbis is a lossy , size-compressed audio format developed
format in a container having OGG extension . by Microsoft. It is a proprietary technology that forms part
of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four
distinct codecs. The original WMA codec, known simply
WAV: A container format, almost always used for as WMA, was conceived as a competitor to the popular
lossless , uncompressed , PCM audio. The format is MP3 and RealAudio codecs.
in Microsoft’s Little-Endian byte order.
23.9 License
23.9.1 Audacity License Wiki article Developing on Linux. In Audacity releases for
Windows and Mac, all libraries are built-in except LAME
Audacity is distributed under the terms of the GNU Gen- (for MP3 encoding) and FFmpeg (for import and ex-
eral Public License (GPL), version 2. The full text of this port of additional audio formats like AAC and WMA ).
license is below, unmodified. Source code to Audacity is Third-party libraries used by Audacity are under the GPL
always available; for more information visit our download or a free, GPL-compatible license. In making this source
page. code available, it can be used under the terms of the GPL
in other GPL programs. Like nearly all organisations re-
leasing GPL-licensed software, we retain in our Git code
repository the more permissive licenses where available
Third-party libraries to us. So for example, if we make a change to our copy
of expat, that change is available for use under the BSD-
Audacity is built upon other free libraries. When compil- like license, as well as being available under GPL. Most
ing Audacity from source code, you must first download third-party libraries used by Audacity are not distributed
and compile wxWidgets. The minimal source code tarball under the terms of the GPL, but rather under some other
of Audacity supplies some third-party libraries in the lib- free, GPL-compatible license as follows.
src directory, but other libraries can be installed for extra
• expat:BSD-like license. Provides XML parsing.
capabilities. If you obtain the full source code tarball of
Audacity, all essential and optional libraries are supplied • FFmpeg: GPL or LGPL (according to how you ob-
in lib-src except wxWidgets. For more details, see the tain/configure it). Provides decoding/encoding of
576 CHAPTER 23. END MATTER
additional formats. • lv2: a merging of the lilv (ISC license), lv2 (LGPL),
msinttypes, serd (ISC), sord, sratom and suil li-
• iAVC: LGPL. Part of the code to the AVC Compres-
braries to support LV2 plug-ins.
sor effect.
• libid3tag: GPL. Reads/writes ID3 tags in MP3 files • portaudio:MIT license. Cross-platform audio I/O
(part of libmad, see below). library, version 19 in use.
• libflac: Xiph.Org BSD-like licence (the parts we • portmidi:MIT license. Cross-platform MIDI I/O li-
use). Decodes and Encodes FLAC (Free Loss- brary.
less Audio Codec) files.
• portsmf: BSD-like license. Library for reading and
• libmad: GPL. Decodes MP3 files.
writing MIDI files.
• libnyquist: BSD-like license. Functional language
for manipulating audio, used within Audacity for ef- • sbsms: GPL v2. Library for pitch and tempo
fects processing. changing.
• libogg and libvorbis: BSD-like licenses. Decodes • SoundTouch: LGPL. An older library that changes
and encodes Ogg Vorbis files. tempo without changing pitch and vice versa.
• libsndfile: LGPL. Reads and writes uncom- • Twolame: LGPL. Encodes MP2 audio files (used
pressed PCM audio files. in DVD discs and radio broadcasting).
• libsoxr: LGPL. The SoX Resampler library per-
forms one-dimensional sample rate conversion. • wxWidgets:wxWindows License. Cross-platform
GUI library.
• libvamp: new-style BSD. Plug-in interface and
support library for audio analysis plug-ins. The full text of the GNU GPL follows.
Version 2, June 1991Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
02110-1301, USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it
is not allowed.
Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU
General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software–to make sure the
software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation’s software
and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered
by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too. When we speak of free
software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have
the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code
or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you
know you can do these things. To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these
rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute
copies of the software, or if you modify it. For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a
fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights. We protect your rights with two steps: (1)
copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify
the software. Also, for each author’s protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there
is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients
to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
authors’ reputations. Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger
that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To
prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone’s free use or not licensed at all. The
precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.
23.9. LICENSE 577
0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it
may be distributed under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below, refers to any such program or
work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to
say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed
as "you". Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its
scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents
constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is
true depends on what the Program does. 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program’s source code
as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any
warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program. You may charge a
fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program,
and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all
of these conditions: a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files
and the date of any change. b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains
or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the
terms of this License. c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it,
when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including
an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and
that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License.
(Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
the Program is not required to print an announcement.) These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and
separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them
as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program,
the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it. Thus, it is not the intent of this section to
claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the
distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program. In addition, mere aggregation of another work not
based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution
medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License. 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a
work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided
that you also do one of the following: a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code,
which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software
interchange; or, b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no
more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding
source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software
interchange; or, c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code.
(This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or
executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.) The source code for a work means the preferred
form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code
for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and
installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that
is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable. If distribution
of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access
to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are
not compelled to copy the source along with the object code. 4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the
Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute
the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received
copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full
compliance. 5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants
you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do
not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you
indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
578 CHAPTER 23. END MATTER
the Program or works based on it. 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the
recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients’ exercise of the rights granted
herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License. 7. If, as a consequence of a
court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are
imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do
not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations
under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at
all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive
copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain
entirely from distribution of the Program. If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular
circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
circumstances. It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims
or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software
distribution system, which is implemented by public license practices. Many people have made generous contributions
to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is
up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee
cannot impose that choice. This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence
of the rest of this License. 8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by
patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add
an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to
time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems
or concerns. Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this
License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of
that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version
number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation. 10. If you wish to
incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software
Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free
status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
NO WARRANTY
11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PRO-
GRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING
THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY
OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY
AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU AS-
SUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. 12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS RE-
QUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER
PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU
FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR
DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF
THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS
BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this
is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms. To do so, attach the following
notices to the program. It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion
of warranty; and each file should have at least the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found. <one
line to give the program’s name and a brief idea of what it does.> Copyright (C) 19yy <name of author> This program is
23.10. CREDITS 579
free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program
is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to
the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. Also add information
on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail. If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like
this when it starts in an interactive mode: Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author Gnomovision
comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type ‘show w’. This is free software, and you are welcome to
redistribute it under certain conditions; type ‘show c’ for details. The hypothetical commands ‘show w’ and ‘show c’ should
show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may be called something
other than ‘show w’ and ‘show c’; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items–whatever suits your program. You
should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for
the program, if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names: Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest
in the program ‘Gnomovision’ (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker. <signature of Ty Coon>,
1 April 1989 Ty Coon, President of Vice This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary
applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead of this
License.
23.10 Credits