Using Audacity

Owned by Kaitlin Bagley
Last updated: Jul 18, 2012Version comment
3 min read

Recording

  • Click the red record button to begin recording.

  • Click the pause or stop button to pause or stop recording.

  • Click the play button to listen to the recording. (Hint: You must stop the recording before you can listen to it.)

  • Click the fast-forward/jump-to-end button or place the cursor at the end of the previous recording to begin recording again.

Deleting parts of a recording

  • Select the section of the recording you wish to delete by clicking at one end of it and dragging to the other.
  • Under the Edit menu, select “Delete.”

Hint: The section deleted was replaced by silence. If you want to remove that silence and have the parts before and after the part you deleted connected, select the second part by clicking and dragging and follow the instructions for time shifting.

Time Shifting

Moving an entire track:

  • Select part of the track(s) you wish to move to a different location in time.
  • Click on the “Time Shift” icon to the left of the play and record buttons:

  • Click on the selection and drag it to where you want it.
  • When you are done time shifting, click on the cursor icon above and to the left of the time shift icon:

Moving two parts of a single track with respect to each other:

  • Select the part you want to move.
  • Under the Edit menu, select “Split.” The selected portion of the track will be shifted to a new track, and the space where it was will be replaced by silence.

Inserting silence

You can insert silence through time shifting or by doing the following:

  • Click where you want to insert the silence.
  • Under the Generate menu, select “Silence.” A screen will pop up asking you how long you want the silence to be.
  • Type in the number of seconds of silence you want
  • Click “Generate Silence.”

Exporting as MP3

If you want to use your recording in anything other than Audacity, you will need to export it as MP3.

  • Go under the File menu and select “Export as MP3.”
  • If Audacity warns you that the tracks will be reduced to monotrack, click OK.
  • A typical “Save” menu will appear, and you can save the MP3 file wherever you want.

Changing an MP3 file in Audacity

  • Right-click on the file, go down to “Open With,” and select Audacity.
  • Modify the file as you wish.
  • Re-export as MP3, following the above steps for exporting as MP3.

Hint: Multiple recording sessions will create multiple tracks.

Select multiple tracks at once by dragging across and down to modify multiple tracks at once

OR

Modify each track individually.