creation stations AUDIO RECORDING WITH AUDACITY 120 West 14th Street

creation stations AUDIO RECORDING WITH AUDACITY 120 West 14th Street www.nvcl.ca techconnect@cnv.org

PART I: LAYOUT & NAVIGATION Audacity is a basic digital audio workstation (DAW) app that you can use to record and edit spoken word audio tracks, like podcasts, audiobook narration, and voice-overs; as well as live instrumental tracks, like vocals and acoustic guitars. Audacity s layout has two different sections: the toolbar on the top and audio tracks below. In the Toolbar there are three important tools to help you navigate Audacity: Zoom In/Out: Zoom in and out on your audio tracks to help you see them better. Fit Project to Window: re-size the audio tracks so that you can see everything on your screen without scrolling to the right/left. Selection Tool: highlight segments of your audio track so you can edit them. In the Audio Tracks area, note: Each individual audio track you record is represented by separate sections arranged vertically, which you can name and even mute if you don't want to hear them. The Waveforms represent the audio of each track: the horizontal axis represents time (duration), and the vertical axis represents volume (the strength of the audio signal) The Timeline shows you the length of your project in minutes and seconds Use the Scrollbar at the bottom to move chronologically through your audio track. North Vancouver City Library 2

PART II: SETTING UP TO RECORD Saving: Project File vs. Music File The first thing to do when you open Audacity is to save a New Project. Go to File at the top left, and then choose Save Project As. Click OK if you get the warning that "'Save Project' is for an Audacity project...". This is just a reminder that project files are different from the final audio file that you will export when you're finished. Project files contain all the instructions for how the project is put together, so what audio tracks, in what order, and with what effects applied. They are in.aup format, which can only be opened in Audacity, so you can't play them in an audio player or share them with others. When you are finished recording and editing your project the last step will be to export your project file to a final audio file that you can play on audio devices and/or share online. Save your project on the Desktop, give it a Name, and click Save. Connecting a Microphone The library s microphones have only XLR outputs (see images next page), so they need to be connected to the computer with the M-Audio M-Track 2x2 device. Plug the female end of the XLR cable into the mic, and the male end into the Input 1 jack at the back of the M-Track. Microphone & XLR cable Plug the female end of the XLR cable into the microphone Plug the male end of the XLR cable into the Digital Audio Input Device (M-Track 2x2) North Vancouver City Library 3

Choosing and Testing Your Audio Source The tools for selecting an audio source, and viewing and adjusting the strength of its signal all have a Microphone icon next to them. There are three tools: The Monitor: shows the strength of the input signal The Volume Dial: allows you to turn the signal strength up or down The Recording Device drop-down: where you select the device that you're using to record the source of the audio signal. 1. Select your recording input device from the Recording Device drop-down. On the Library's Recording Station computer, you will need to hook up a microphone to the M-Track Input device via XLR, and choose Line ½ (M-Audio M-Track 2x2) from the drop-down. If you're connecting a microphone with an XLR cable through a Digital Audio Input device on your own computer, it is the brand name of the input device that will display. If you're using a USB microphone it will likely show up as the microphone's brand name (for example, "Microphone - Yeti Stereo"). 2. Most microphones record in mono as opposed to stereo, so also make sure that the Recording Channel drop-down is set to 1 (Mono) Recording Channel. 3. Click the Click to Start Monitoring button in the Recording Level (Microphone L R) section above, and test the audio input levels by speaking/playing into the mic. If the display is sitting in the red you may need to turn the input strength down using the mic input dial below If the display is consistently sitting below 30 you may need to turn the input strength up. Once you've selected your recording device and tested the signal strength you are ready to record! North Vancouver City Library 4

Importing Audio from an Existing File To edit a pre-existing audio file, open your File Explorer and find the audio file. Then drag and drop it into the audio track area of Audacity. Audacity will create a new track for it, and name the track with the same as the name as the original audio file. PART III: RECORDING Start Recording To begin recording click the round red Record button. This immediately creates a new track, and you can begin. Click the square yellow Stop button to stop. If you want to continue recording on the same track use the blue pause button instead. Press Record again to start a new track. To Continue Recording on the Same Track Pressing Stop means that the next time you record Audacity will create a new track. But if you want to continue recording on the same track as before, click the end of the track and a black vertical line will appear. Then click Shift + R on your keyboard, and Audacity will immediately continue recording on that track. North Vancouver City Library 5

Record on a New Track To record a new track you simply need to click the Record button again and Audacity will automatically create a new track and start recording it. However, it will begin recording at the beginning of the timeline, so you may want to Mute the first track if you don't want to hear it while you're recording the second one. If you want to begin recording at place other than the beginning of the timeline, click the spot on the first track where you want the second track to begin. Then click record, and a new track will be created, beginning at the place on the timeline that you've selected. Recording multiple tracks simultaneously Audacity is not designed to record more than one track simultaneously. You will need to use a more advanced digital audio workstation app like Pro Tools 12 in order to do this. PART IV: PLAYBACK & SELECTION TOOLS Very rarely will you record an entire audio track without making any errors you will undoubtedly need to move, remove, and/or replace portions of audio or entire audio clips from your projects to get them how you want them. To effectivelyedit your project, there are a few tools and keyboard shortcuts that you should know how to use. Working with the Cursor The options in the "Audacity Tools" toolbar change what the mouse does when you click an audio track. The three buttons you'll use most are: Selection Tool: highlight a portion of audio to delete it or apply effects to it Time Shift Tool: move an audio clip forwards, backwards, or even into/out of a track Zoom Tool: when selected, left-click anywhere on a track to zoom in, and right-click to zoom out. North Vancouver City Library 6

Return to the beginning of the project Hit the enter key on your keyboard, or enable the selection tool and click once at the 0.0 mark of the audio track to move the playback cursor. Make sure to click in the audio track NOT the timeline in order to move the playback cursor. Start/Stop/Pause Playback Hit the spacebar key on your keyboard to stop and start playback, or click the Play, Pause, and/or Stop buttons at the top left of the toolbar. Selecting Audio In order to remove or apply effects to a portion of audio within a track you will need to first select it. To do that, move your mouse over the beginning of the area that you want to select and make sure you're seeing the selection cursor (it looks like an I). Then click and drag your mouse across the area the section will be highlighted in grey when it is selected. If you want to change the start or end point of the selection, hold down the shift key and click and drag the mouse forward from the end of the selection, or backwards from the beginning. Listen to a Portion of Audio When you have a section of audio highlighted as above, you can listen to that section only by hitting the spacebar on your keyboard PART V: BASIC AUDIO CLIP EDITING Deleting Audio Tracks To delete an entire audio track, click on the X at the top left corner of the track North Vancouver City Library 7

Deleting Portions of Audio from a Single Track To delete a portion of audio you'll need to first select the part you want to remove (see "selecting audio" above). With your selection highlighted, hit the Delete key on your keyboard. This will immediately delete that segment of audio, and shift all the other audio backwards so there's no gap left. However, if you want to leave a gap where you deleted a segment of audio, instead of hitting the delete key on your keyboard, click Edit and choose Remove Special > Split Delete. Splitting Audio Tracks Splitting an audio track is useful if you want to insert new audio clips in the middle of an already existing audio track. To make a split make sure you're on the selection tool, and then click the spot on the audio track where you want to make the split. Then go to Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split. Moving Audio Left/Right Within a Track In order to move an audio clip backwards/forwards in the timeline you need to have the Time Shift Tool selected. If the audio clip you want to move is part of a longer audio track, then you will first need to split it off from the rest of your audio track (see above). Once you have the time shift tool enabled and the audio clip that you want to move separated from other tracks, all you need to do is click anywhere in the audio clip and drag the audio clip forwards or backwards. North Vancouver City Library 8

Moving Audio From One Track To Another If you have recorded your audio on separate tracks and you want to put them all in one track, say to apply certain effects to everything or just to clean up the appearance of your project to make it easier to work with, start by clicking the Time Shift Tool button. Then click anywhere in the track that you want to move and drag it into the track where you want it to be. Joining Audio Tracks If you have a single track with multiple clips in it (say, from pausing during recording, splitting audio, or from moving one track into another as above) you will see lines or even gaps between segments of your audio. To join the separate clips into a single audio track (which will make it easier to edit), make sure you have the selection tool on, and then make a selection that covers the ends of both tracks. North Vancouver City Library 9

Then click Edit up near the top left of the window and click Clip Boundaries > Join PART VI: BASIC VOLUME EDITING Recorded Volume vs. Playback Volume In audio recording the volume that you're hearing through your headphones or speakers is not the actual recording volume of your project what you're hearing through your computer is just the volume that your computer s speakers are turned up to. The tools that have the microphone symbol are for the actual volume of the recording. The tools that have the speaker symbol are for the volume of your computer speakers. Essentially, you can't trust what you're hearing from your headphones or computer speakers as it s not the actual volume of your recording. You want to check the levels on the Audacity Recording Meter Toolbar at the top to tell if your recording is too soft or too loud. As discussed in Part II, if your recording levels are regularly in the red you need to turn the microphone input dial down. If your recording is sitting under 20 you want to turn the microphone input dial up. But if you can't get the volume right at the actual time of recording there are some tools you can use to adjust it after. North Vancouver City Library 10

Adjusting the Volume for the Entire Track To adjust the volume of an entire track use the slider in the panel at the beginning of your track. Drag the dial to the right (the + side) to turn the track's volume up, or to the left (the side) to turn the track's volume down. Adjusting the Volume for Portions of a Track To turn the volume up or down for portions of a track you are going to use Audacity's Envelope Tool. This allows you to place markers in your track and drag the volume up and down for just the areas in between the markers. The Envelope tool is found in the toolbar next to the selection cursor click it once to enable it. When the envelope tool is enabled you will see blue lines at the top and bottom of your tracks and your cursor will look like two white triangles pointing at each other. Start by adjusting the volume of the entire track to a base level by clicking and dragging the track up or down. Next, click on the point in the track where you want the volume to increase start. This places an envelope marker. Then click on the point where you want the volume to go back down to create another envelope marker. Then create two additional markers in between your beginning and end points you should now have four markers inside the section where you want to adjust the volume. If you need to remove any markers, just click and drag them off the track. North Vancouver City Library 11

Once your four markers are in place, drag the two middle markers to adjust the volume of the section in between: The closer the middle markers are to the start/end markers the faster the fade up/down. The higher the middle markers are the louder the volume of that section. Fade In/Out In order to apply a fade in/out effect on your audio track you first want to cut off any silent parts at the beginning and end of your track if you leave them in the fade effect will include these silent parts in its fade calculation, and you'll still end up with an abrupt beginning/end. Select the silent parts by enabling the selection tool, then clicking and dragging to the right or left over any flat lines at the beginning/end of your track. Once the area is selected (in grey), click delete on your keyboard. To create a fade in/out start by enabling the selection tool, and then select audio that you want to apply the fade to by clicking and dragging over the portion of audio for example, to fade in, click on the beginning of the track, and drag to the right until you've got a few seconds of audio selected. Then click on Effect up in the toolbar, and choose either Fade In or Fade Out. North Vancouver City Library 12

Audacity will then automatically create a fade, which you can see reflected in the new shape of the beginning/end of the audio track: PART VII: EXPORTING TO A MUSIC FILE When you are finished editing your project and are ready to export it to a music file, go to File in the toolbar and choose Export Audio. Tell the computer where to save your file, and then give your file a name. Next you have to choose what file format you want to export as. The two most common are.wav and.mp3. WAVs are an uncompressed high quality file, so if you're recording your own music or an audiobook this will likely be the file type you want to choose this format. However, if you plan to share the file online you will likely want a smaller file type, and.mp3 is the most common. Once you've chosen your file format, click Save. You will next be prompted to enter some information about your audio file we recommend at least entering an Artist Name and a Track Title. Then click OK, and Audacity will begin exporting your project file to a playable, shareable audio file. North Vancouver City Library 13

PART VIII: SAVING YOUR FILES AT THE LIBRARY If you are on a library computer you will need to take your files with you on a USB stick or uploaded to Cloud Storage in order to save them. If you have not finished working on your project and plan to return to the library to continue working later, there are two items you will need to get off the library's computer the Project File and the Project Folder. If you have finished working on your project and have exported a final audio file, there will be three the Audio File (mp3 or wav) plus the original project file and folder (as you will likely want to take your project file and folder with you in case you decide you want to make changes later). If you are transferring to a USB stick or external drive, plug it into the computer and open the File Explorer. Navigate to your external drive it will be listed under This PC. Then select the files to transfer - your project folder, project file, and, if completed, your audio file and drag-and-drop them into your USB drive. Eject your USB drive before you leave by rightclicking it in the left column of the File Explorer, and choosing Eject. You can then unplug your USB drive and shut down the computer. North Vancouver City Library 14