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    Getting started with Audacity 1.3
    Getting started with Audacity 1.3
    Getting started with Audacity 1.3
    Ebook405 pages2 hours

    Getting started with Audacity 1.3

    By Bethany Hiitola

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    About this ebook

    In Detail

    Using the Audacity software as the starting off point, we discuss what the software is, what it can do, how you can use it, and where you go to get started installing it. All of this information is grounded in some basic audio editing terminology and background for those that aren't so technology inclined.

    Then we'll start digging into a sample project! You'll learn about how to set up a project, create a voice track, record an interview with Skype, and basic audio editing techniques. All of this done in an easy to follow, task based approach with lots of examples. Here, we plan to go a step further, we teach how to wrap all of these steps together and create a podcast that can be posted on your own website or blog.

    There's always more you can do with Audacity! The last portion of the book is dedicated to just that - discussing more advanced editing and mixing techniques, using affects, adding music, adding additional plug-ins to the software. All still incorporating examples and easy to follow tasks you can try on your own audio projects.

    Teach yourself the basics of recording and editing basic sound tracks (like podcasts!) using Audacity, an open source software program

    Approach

    Conversational and practical, this book is full of real life examples of where and how you would use the Audacity software. Not only does it give you task-based step-by-step instructions from installation to advanced audio editing techniques, it caters to the beginner to familiarize them with all the jargon, suggests recording equipment, it walks them through a simple sample project showing off everything Audacity can do.

    Who this book is for

    If you are new to audio recording and editing, and particularly using the Audacity software, this book is for you. It explains everything from common audio industry terms and software basics. Technical sound engineering details and jargon are omitted to keep the book friendly and easy to understand.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPackt Publishing
    Release dateMar 2, 2010
    ISBN9781847197658
    Getting started with Audacity 1.3
    Author

    Bethany Hiitola

    Bethany Hiitola is a working writer. She's worked as a technical writer and multimedia developer for over 12 years and spends the rest of her time as a wife, mother, caretaker to pets, and Master of the household. She's written more user manuals than she can count, essays, short stories, academic papers, press releases, and feature articles. More details are at her website: http://www.bethanyhiitola.com.

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      Book preview

      Getting started with Audacity 1.3 - Bethany Hiitola

      Table of Contents

      Getting started with Audacity 1.3

      Credits

      About the Author

      About the Reviewers

      Preface

      What this book covers

      Who this book is for

      Conventions

      Reader feedback

      Customer support

      Errata

      Piracy

      Questions

      1. Audacity and the World of Audio Editing

      What is Audacity?

      Will it work for me?

      Windows and Mac OS

      GNU/Linux

      Moving up to Audacity 1.3

      Common audio editing terms used in Audacity

      Opening Audacity

      Audio controls and editing toolbars

      Project View

      Selection Toolbar

      Using the main menu

      Understanding the toolbars

      Control Toolbar

      Mixer Toolbar

      Give it a try!

      Tools Toolbar

      Meter Toolbar

      Edit Toolbar

      Transcription Toolbar

      Selection Toolbar

      Understanding projects

      Pointers for working in Audacity

      Using the best equipment

      Sound cards

      Microphones

      Summary

      2. The Basics: Setting Up a Project

      Creating a new project

      Setting the Audacity Preferences

      Verifying playback and recording settings

      Quality settings check

      Setting up for importing and exporting

      Planning for your recording session

      Performing an equipment check

      Positioning your microphone

      Planning a podcast

      Summary

      3. Ready and Action! Creating a Voice Track and Recording Interviews

      Recording voice tracks

      The simple voice track

      Adding to a voice track

      Labeling recorded audio tracks

      Deleting an audio track

      Recording an interview with Skype

      Download and install Skype

      Set up Skype for your telephone interview

      Recording the Skype call

      For better volume control

      Using timed recordings

      Summary

      4. Making It Sound Better: Editing Your Podcast

      Dissecting the recorded audio

      Voice waves

      Silence

      Timeline

      Working within the project

      Playback

      Rewinding and fast forwarding

      Selecting portions of your track

      Magnifying your view

      Viewing your project

      Fit in Window

      Fit Vertically

      The basics of editing

      Cut and Paste

      Copy and Paste

      Trimming

      Deleting

      Silencing

      Adjusting volume levels

      Summary

      5. Advanced Editing: Fixing the Glitches and Removing the Noise

      Using filters

      Additional filter plug-ins

      Plug-in installation

      Removing noise

      Setting up the noise profile

      Removing the noise

      Evening out the sound

      Using Compressor

      Normalizing

      More sound effects

      Changing pitch

      Changing the speed

      Changing the tempo

      Summary

      6. Saving Projects and Exporting Podcasts

      Audio formats to which Audacity exports

      Podcast formats

      Installing libraries

      Exporting your project as an MP3

      Opening and exporting your project

      Adding tagging information

      Genres

      Templates

      Saving your exported file

      Distributing your podcast

      Sending the file

      Uploading to a website

      Website with hosting

      Free blogging service

      RSS feeds

      Uploading to iTunes

      Other Export File Options

      Summary

      7. Beyond the Basics: Editing for Even Better Sound

      Softening sibilants

      Clip and replace sounds

      Aligning tracks and using Time Shift

      Using Time Shift

      Aligning tracks

      Splitting and duplicating audio

      Splitting tracks

      Split and Time Shift

      Split and cut

      Split Delete

      Duplicating tracks

      Joining audio tracks

      Modifying settings for the entire track

      Customize the project rate for each track

      Changing a Stereo track to Mono

      Muting a track

      Increasing the volume of the entire track

      Sorting tracks

      Summary

      8. Importing and Adding Background Music

      Importing digital music into Audacity

      Importing WAV, AIFF, MP3, and MP4/M4A files

      Importing music from iTunes

      Unprotected files from iTunes

      Protected files from iTunes

      Burn a CD and extract from it

      Adding music to your podcast

      Timing the music for introductions and endings

      Fading in and out

      Adding background music

      What is overdubbing and how do I do it?

      Downmixing and rendering

      Vinyl records, cassette tapes, or minidiscs

      Summary

      9. Giving Your Audio Some Depth: Applying Effects

      The Effect menu

      Amplify

      Auto Duck

      Bass Boost

      Pitch

      Speed

      Tempo

      Click Removal

      Compressor

      Echo

      Equalization

      Fading In and Out

      Invert

      Leveller

      Noise removal

      Setting up the noise profile

      Removing the noise

      Normalizer

      Phaser

      Repair

      Repeat

      Reverse

      Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift

      Truncate Silence

      Wahwah

      Summary

      10. Making Audacity Even Better With Plug-Ins and Libraries

      Installing plug-ins

      Installing VST Enabler

      Installing libraries

      Using a plug-in

      Using libraries

      Summary

      A. Toolbar, Menu, and Keyboard Shortcut Reference

      B. Glossary of Terms

      Index

      Getting started with Audacity 1.3

      Bethany Hiitola

      Getting started with Audacity 1.3

      Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

      Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

      Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

      First published: March 2010

      Production Reference: 1240210

      Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

      32 Lincoln Road

      Olton

      Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

      ISBN 978-1-847197-64-1

      www.packtpub.com

      Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar (<vinayak.chittar@gmail.com>)

      Credits

      Author

      Bethany Hiitola

      Reviewers

      Arturo 'Buanzo' Busleiman

      Adriano Varoli Piazza

      Acquisition Editor

      Sarah Cullington

      Development Editor

      Dhiraj Chandiramani

      Technical Editor

      Aaron Rosario

      Indexer

      Monica Ajmera Mehta

      Editorial Team Leader

      Akshara Aware

      Project Team Leader

      Priya Mukherji

      Project Coordinator

      Zainab Bagasrawala

      Proofreader

      Dirk Manuel

      Production Coordinator

      Adline Swetha Jesuthas

      Cover Work

      Adline Swetha Jesuthas

      About the Author

      Bethany Hiitola is a working writer. She's worked as a technical writer and multimedia developer for over 12 years, and spends the rest of her time as a wife, mother, caretaker to pets, and Master of the household. She's written more user manuals than she can count, essays, short stories, academic papers, press releases, and feature articles. And all between the day job, nap times and diaper changes. More details are available at her website: www.bethanyhiitola.com.

      Without you, Matt, this book wouldn't have been possible. Thanks for watching the kids for endless hours, late nights, and into the wee mornings.

      About the Reviewers

      Arturo Busleiman, most commonly known as Buanzo, is a young (born in 1982) security expert (or maniac, as you prefer) who has dedicated his life to security and, as such, has been learning and working non-stop since his first line of BASIC, at the early age of eight. Today, with a lovely wife and a wonderful son, Buanzo works with new technologies, and contributes to state-of-the-art of IT security as an independent security consultant, by talking at security conferences, dictating seminars, and developing new technologies, such as Enigform and mod_openpgp (see http://wiki.buanzo.org for more information).

      As an independent IT consultant, Buanzo has no employees, but a large set of people he likes working with, from all over the world, who he prefers to call friends and associates. His main partner and best friend, Bryan Slatner, is an extremely talented programmer and analyst based in North Carolina, USA. Together, there's nothing they can't achieve. Feel free to visit http://www.buanzo.com.ar/pro/eng.html for more details.

      Buanzo was lucky enough to have reviewed some great books,such as Nmap, by Gordon Fyodor Lyon, (ISBN-10: 0979958717) and Computer Security: Principles and Practice by William Stallings, (ISBN 0136004245). Additionally, he has contributed to OISSG's Information System Security Assessment Framework (Unix security), SANS TOP-20 (2003-2008), and has written many articles for Linux and security publications, such as Sys Admin Magazine (USA), SoloLinux (Spain), Linux Users (Argentina) and 2600 (USA, using a pseudonym). He's a Project Leader of the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP).

      As a member of the Audacity Team, he is in charge of system administration and security, occasionally commenting on development issues. Of course, he uses Audacity to record in his home studio. You can download some of his Audacity-recorded and mastered songs at http://blogs.buanzo.com.ar/futurabanda.

      Adriano has become what he is now by both teaching himself and by paying others to do so. Although he has taken courses in Software Engineering, most of his experience in programming comes from his own interests. He's not yet a great programmer, but that's the general idea. He also has a grounding in Chemistry that started in a previous life. Adriano enjoys programming on both the LAMP and WAMP stacks, and does so for a living, creating and maintaining web applications. He wonders when will they add the Javascript J to those acronyms.

      I would like to thank my lovely wife for the patience and support shown when I added a book review to an already-full schedule, and my friend Buanzo for the opportunity of reviewing for Packt. I also wish my mom was able to see this. You're always with me.

      Preface

      This book is useful if you're new to Audacity. Using the Audacity software as a starting point, we discuss what the software is, what it can do, how you can use it, and its installation. All of this information is grounded in some basic audio editing terminology and background for those that aren't so technologically inclined.

      Then we'll start digging into a sample project! You'll learn how to set up a project, create a voice track, record an interview using Skype, and also learn some basic audio editing techniques. All of this done in an easy-to-follow, task-based approach with lots of examples. Then go one step further, and teach you how to wrap all of these steps together and create a podcast that can be posted on your own website or blog.

      There's always more that you can do with Audacity! The last portion of the book is dedicated to just that - discussing more advanced editing and mixing techniques, using effects, adding music, and adding additional plug-ins to the software. All of this is done incorporating examples and easy-to-follow tasks that you can try on your own audio projects. This book also provides a section on advanced editing and mixing techniques that should satisfy even experienced Audacity users. Have fun and let's get into the details so that you can get started!

      What this book covers

      Chapter 1, Audacity and the World of Audio Editing—From the start, we discuss what Audacity is, who typically uses it, how you can use it, and what computer operating systems it will work on. We also talk a bit about how Audacity is an open source project and what this means to you, and then we jump into learning the basics about the software: it's main screen, the menus, project window and settings for your first project.

      Chapter 2, The Basics: Setting up a Project—This chapter focuses on the set up and basics about how to create a project, setting some preliminary preferences, and of course laying the ground work for your first voice track recording for a podcast.

      Chapter 3, Ready and Action! Creating a Voice Track and Recording Interviews—With this chapter, it is time to actually record the podcast script, save it, and learn a few tricks about adding more to an already-recorded voice track, record additional tracks, set up a timed recording, label and delete tracks, and learn all of the details of using a third-party Internet telephony software to record telephone interviews. This is a meaty chapter, full of all of the practical instructions you need to get you really using Audacity.

      Chapter 4, Making It Sound Better: Editing Your Podcast—We first discuss the basics of what digital voice waves look like, how to move around the timeline, and how to do all the basics: playback, rewinding, fast forwarding, selecting portions of the voice track, and setting up your Audacity screen to see your entire project on the screen.

      Then we jump into editing details: how to cut, copy, paste, trim, delete, adjust volume levels, and silence portions of your track.

      Chapter 5, Fixing the Glitches and Removing the Noise—In this chapter we get into some more advanced editing options. We see how to use filters, clean up background noises, use the equalizer, change some other sound options such as pitch, speed, and tempo and also how to normalize volumes and even out the sound across the entire audio track.

      Chapter 6, Saving Projects and Exporting Podcasts—With this chapter, it is time to learn how to save your project in its final state and export it in different audio types so that you can send it as a final podcast or post it to a website for download. We'll even discuss how to use IDE tags for your podcast (artist, genre, title, and so on), the best tips and tricks for compressing your final projects into a decent file size, and preparing a file for upload to a web hosting service.

      Chapter 7, Beyond the Basics: Editing for Even Better Sound—Working with the audio tracks,

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