Using Audacity to create Digital Audio
Stuart Lennie
ICT Curriculum Development
Officer
Falkirk Council
Education Services
Contents
• Introduction to Audacity
• Where do I get it?
• When do I use it?
• How do I use it?
• Where can I find help?
Audacity
• Free software for audio creation
• No licensing issues
• Can do advanced effects/multitracking
• Ideal for Podcasting
• Works on a Mac too!
Where do I get it?
• [Link]
• Pick the stable version!
When do I use it?
• Adding audio narration over a video clip in
Windows Moviemaker/Pinnacle Studio
• Creating MP3 files
• Podcasting
• Other broadcasts such as school radio
How do I use it?
Recording
• Click on the red recording icon on the top
taskbar
• Click on the yellow square to stop recording
Recording
• You should now have a wave shaped pattern on your
screen. This is a track
• Every time you select Record a new track will be added
on the screen
Playing
• Selecting the Play button allows you to hear the
track you have recorded
• The green bars indicate the level of sounds in
the Left and Right channels of the recording
Tools
• In the top left of the screen are 6 tools
• The magnify icon allows you to enlarge the track with
your left mouse button and reduce the track with your
right mouse button
• Enlarging the track allows you to see the sound
patterns more clearly for editing
Editing
• Sometimes we want to remove parts of the
audio track
• Use the selection tool to highlight the area you
wish to remove, using your left mouse button
to select
• Pressing the delete key on your keyboard will
remove the selected area from the clip
Adding Effects
• You can use the same selection technique to
add effects
• Select a part of the audio clip with the selection
tool
• Go to the top menu and choose an effect
• You can add as many effects as you like!
Adding music
• You can add MP3 or other audio music to your
tracks
• Select Project, then Import Audio
• Select the audio track you wish to import
Adding music
• The music file is added on a separate track
• If we want to have music before our audio recording
we will need to move the position of our top audio
track
Time shift tool
• Select the Time Shift Tool
• Click on our voice recording and drag the track
to the right
Fade In/Out
• Highlight the start of the
Music track
• In the top menu select
Effect, then Fade In
Gain
• To balance the levels of sound in
your recording you can use the gain
control
• Moving the gain control at the far
left of your track increases or
decreases the relative sound
volume
Exporting Audio to MP3
• To convert your
finished file to MP3
select File from the top
menu, then Export as
MP3
• Choose your location
to save
• Select Save
LAME Encoder
• You may get an error appearing when you try to
export
• The Lame encoder file needs to be downloaded
from the Audacity website
Where can I get Help?
– Tutorials on Audacity available from:
[Link]
– Video tutorials for schools on using Audacity and on
creating a school radio podcast:
[Link]/img/lib/dialogics/schoolradio/in
[Link]
– Other tutorial:
[Link]
[Link]
Falkirk Council Education Services
Using Audacity to create Digital Audio
Stuart Lennie
ICT Curriculum Development
Officer
Falkirk Council
Education Services