Audacity Tutorial

1. Audacity Tutorial

2. Finding a Music File to Work With • From the PUSD student home page, select “Royalty Free Music”

3. Finding a Music File to Work With • Use the “Genre” pull down menu to select a type of music • Right click on the blue play button of the song you would like • Select “Save Target As” – save the song to your H: Drive • Repeat the process for a second song (you will need two for this tutorial)

4. Opening Audacity • Select “Start” – “All Programs” – “Audacity”

5. Importing Audio into Audacity • Select “Project” – “Import Audio…” • Navigate to the first audio file that you saved on your H: Drive and click “Open” • We will import the second song later

6. Editing Your Song • Use the green “Play” button, blue “Pause” button, and yellow “Stop” button to play your song • Keep in mind that you can’t edit your song unless the song is stopped

7. Editing Your Song • Use the selection tool to click and drag across a five second section of your song to edit • Notice the numbers above your song represent seconds

8. Editing Your Song • Select “Effect” – “Change Speed…”

9. Editing Your Song • Use the slider bar to adjust the “Percent Change” box to roughly 175 • Click “OK”

10. Editing Your Song • Use the left arrow key on your keyboard to move your starting point back to the beginning of the song • Press the “Play” button to listen to the change you made

11. Editing Your Song • Select the first five seconds of your song • Select “Effect” – “Fade In” • Press “Play” to listen to the change

12. Importing Your Second Song • Select “Project” – “Import Audio…” • Navigate to the second audio file that you saved on your H: Drive and click “Open”

13. Editing Your Songs • Try playing your song now – notice both songs play at once

14. Saving Your File • If you would like to continue working on this project in Audacity later, you will need to save it • Since it is the first time we have saved this file we will need to tell the computer where to save it • Select “File” – “Save Project As”

15. Saving Your File • Navigate to your H: Drive • Name your file “My Song” • Notice the file type is “Audacity Projects” – that means this song isn’t finished yet, so you can only use it in Audacity • Click “Save”

16. Editing Your Songs • Using the Time Shift Tool, click and drag your bottom song to the right • Line the two songs up so the bottom song just overlaps the top song by a few seconds

17. Editing Your Songs • Switch back to the Selection Tool and select the portion of the top song that overlaps with the bottom song • Select “Effect” – “Fade Out”

18. Editing Your Songs • Select the portion of the bottom song that overlaps with the top song • Select “Effect” – “Fade In” • Use the left arrow key to move your starting point back before the two songs meet, and play your songs

19. Finalizing Your Song • We want to be able to listen to our song on any MP3 player or computer that we choose, so we will have to convert the Audacity Project to an MP3 • Select “File” – “Export as MP3”

20. Finalizing Your Song • You will most likely receive a warning telling you that your song will be mixed down to two stereo channels in the final MP3 • This must be done so various audio players can play the song, so select “OK”

21. Finalizing Your Song • Navigate to your H: Drive, and name your song “Test Song” • Click “Save”

22. Listening to Your Song • Now all we have to do is find our song on our H: Drive, double click it, and it will begin to play in Windows Media Player