Editing audio files with Audacity is as easy as it gets
November 14th, 2009 | Published on: Guides
Editing audio files with Audacity is as easy as it gets
The great deal of software related to multimedia files gives you more possibilities to perform the most varied activities. Most of us know how to play audio files or even rip music CDs, but certainly not everyone know how edit either voice recordings or audio tracks.
This task can be extremely rewarding if we find the right application that enables us to easily manipulate audio tracks. All of these can be found in Audacity, an application that contains hundreds of useful features for audio editing and recording. Audacity supports several digital audio formats with support for 24 bit and 32 bit sample formats as well as 16 bit. Next, we will provide a small tour covering basic features and options.
Once we launch Audacity, we can see the toolbar on the upper side of the screen, the toolbar shows the control options, measurement, mixing and editing. The center of the screen is empty since this is where we are going to edit the projects. To start using Audacity, Click on “file > open” and choose a file to start editing it. After the program has successfully loaded the file, it will display the sound pattern which will be used to editing.
With Audacity you can cut, copy, paste, crop, mix files together, adjust sampling rate and bit depth, and so much more. Use great sound effects like echo, EQ, chorus, flange, reverse, and more. Covering Audacity basic functions, there is a small player for playing, rewinding and fast-forwarding tracks. We can also start a new project and use the record function. Right next to it, there are six options together, control tools to work with the mouse over the tracks. Among them we find: selection, surround (to vary the volume), image, zoom and multitool (to use several of these simultaneously).
To the left of the screen there is a bar to measure audio input and output. If we continue analyzing, we will find other basic functions such as cutting, copying and pasting. In this way, we can cut off, move and copy pieces of tracks. To the left there is a series of functions to undo or redo operations, as well as new buttons to use zoom. Above these two functions we see the volume control.
To mix two files, just import both of them into Audacity. They will appear in separate tracks, and will be mixed together when you press the Play button. You can use the Time Shift tool to move them around so that they start at different times, or use the other editing commands to alter either of the tracks.
With Audacity, you can also remove the vocals from a recording to make a Karaoke track. This is possible only for certain stereo tracks. When the vocals are exactly the same on both stereo channels, you can remove them by “subtracting” one channel from the other. This works for many studio recordings, where the vocal track is mixed exactly in the center. To do this in Audacity: First, import your stereo file into Audacity. Open the track menu (click the arrow next to the track title), and choose “Split Stereo Track.”. Now, select the lower track (the right channel) by clicking it in the area around the mute/solo buttons. Next, Choose “Invert” from the Effects menu and finally using the track menus, change each track to “Mono.”
You can combine two files into one longer file. Import both files into Audacity. To do so, select the second one by clicking on its label (the area around the mute/solo buttons). Now, Choose “Find Zero Crossings” from the Edit menu and choose “Cut” from the Edit menu. Next, place the cursor by clicking in the first track, after the end of the audio and finally choose “Paste” from the Edit menu.
Those were some of the features and functions included in Audacity. Now, it´s up to you to discover other advanced features that will allow you to experience a new level of in-depth audio editing.
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