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Lesson 1 Sound Editing

The document discusses using Audacity software to record, edit, and mix audio files. It describes Audacity's interface and provides examples of recording sound, editing tracks, applying effects like pitch shifting and delay, and exporting final audio files.

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163 views

Lesson 1 Sound Editing

The document discusses using Audacity software to record, edit, and mix audio files. It describes Audacity's interface and provides examples of recording sound, editing tracks, applying effects like pitch shifting and delay, and exporting final audio files.

Uploaded by

yl04130
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 8

F.

3 CL (2014-2015)

P.1/8

SKH Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School


F.3 Computer Literacy
Audio Recording, Editing and Mixing
Learning Elements
1. Nature of sound
2. Getting to know sound editing software
3. Audio recording, editing and mixing

1. Nature of sound
1.1 What is sound?
Vibration of air Sound wave

1.2

How to record sound in a computer?


Connect a microphone to the sound card of your computer
Record the sound using sound editing software

1.3

How sound is stored in computer?

Stored as sound wave? No way!

Sound wave is converted into many audio samples through a process called sampling
The audio samples are used to reproduce the original sound wave (approximation
only) during playback

sampling

playback
sound wave

Lesson 1 - Sound Editing

audio samples

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2. Sound editing software Audacity


2.1 What is Audacity?
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds.

2.2

Where can I download Audacity?


You may download Audacity from the web site http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ (FREE)

2.3

Interface

2.4Commonly used buttons


Selection Tool

Click in a track to position the cursor, or


click and drag to select a range of audio.
Playback will always begin at the
position of the selection cursor. If a
range of audio is selected, only the
selected range will play.
Time Shift Tool

This tool allows you to change the relative


positioning of tracks relative to one another
in time. To use this tool, simply click in a
track and drag it to the left or right.

Lesson 1 - Sound Editing

Zoom Tool

This tool allows you to zoom in or out


of a specific part of the audio.
To zoom in, click in the audio.

To zoom out, right-click or shift-click.

Cursor to Start
Places the cursor at the start of the project.
SHIFT + click expands the selection to the
start of the project.

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3 Using Audacity
Activity 1 Mixing and editing two sound tracks
1. Launch Audacity. (Start All Programs Audacity)
2. Select Project Import Audio Select background_music.mp3 and narration.mp3.
3. Your screen will look similar to the image below. Notice that there are two tracks on the timeline.
One is background_music.mp3 and the other is the narration.mp3.

4. Press the Play

button to listen. You may hear two tracks playing at the same time.

Click the solo button

on the narration track to only hear that track.

Delete Unwanted Audio


5. Choose the selection tool
Select a portion of the waveform named narration from 13.6s to 15.1s
Play and see what you can hear. (You may hear a man clearing his throat)

waveform name: narration

select a portion of waveform

6. Delete the selected portion by hitting the delete key.


Fade-In & Fade-Out
7. Use the selection tool

to highlight the first 2 seconds of the track named background.

From the menu, select Effect > Fade In.


8. Highlight the last 2 seconds of the same track.
Select Effect > Fade Out. (When played back, you will notice that the background track
fades in and then fades out at the end.)
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Shift Tracks on Timeline


9.

Choose the Time Shift Tool


click and drag the narration track to the right around 1.5 seconds (such that the
narrator may start talking around the 3 seconds from the start)

Track Volume
10. Lower the volume of the background music by moving the slider to -12
dB.
Play the tracks to see whether the narration is loud enough. Otherwise
adjust the volume until the narration is clearly heard.

Saving and Exporting


11. Click File Save Project Type the filename and save.
The Audacity project will be stored with an .AUP file extension. (This file stores information
about your project so you can use Audacity to work with it later.)
12. Click File Export As Wav Type the filename and save.
Audacity can export your project to a variety of formats depending on your audience and
needs.
The following table provides an overview of two common formats.
File Format

Audio Quality

File Size

Compatible with

Best for

Audacity Project
(.aup)

Excellent

LARGE

Only Audacity

Files you plan to edit


later

.wav

Excellent

LARGE

Default uncompressed Audio CDs, High


audio file for Windows or Quality Recordings
Mac

.mp3

good

Small

Compressed format can Web audio, portable


be played with most
music players
media players

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Activity 2 Create Karaoke version for a song


1.

Open song.mp3 using Audacity.


You may see the song contain two tracks. We call this stereo track. (two audio channels)

2.

Click the down arrow on the left Select Split Stereo Track.
STEP 2

3.

Choose the 2nd track by clicking some space on the left. (Selected track will turn bluish grey.)
In Menu bar, choose Effect > Invert

4.

Click the down arrow of the first track (the left track) Select Mono.

5.

Repeat step 4 for the other track.

6.

Play the track to check out the effect.

7.

Save the project. (If disk space is enough, choose Export as WAV to save a new file on
desktop)

What is the secret behind Vocal removal?


You can read the article from http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Vocal_Removal
(or simply type remove vocal audacity in Google)

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Activity 3 Recording sound using a mic and applying special effects


Recording sound

1.
2.

Connect a microphone to your computer.


Start Audacity and select Microphone as the audio input source. Adjust the recording volume
if necessary.

3.

Double click the volume control button

on the Windows Taskbar. Select Microphone in

the Record Control window and adjust the volume if necessary.

4.

Click the Record button

to start recording.

Read the following passage to the microphone and your voice will be recorded in digital
format. Click Stop button to terminate the recording.
Hello! My name is John. I came from Mars. I have been to Earth for a few months already. Earth
is really a beautiful place to visit. I would live in here for the rest of my life if I could!
5.

Export the track as recording.wav.

Mixing with special effects


6. Import the audio starwars.mp3 and recording.wav.
7. Shift the recording track to the right for 5 seconds select the whole track by clicking the
space on the left.
8. Select Effect Pitch and step up or down 3 semi-tones.
9. Select Effect Delay and adjust the Delay Time to 0.1 second.
Play the tracks or you may add some more effects as you like. (You may try to use GVerb to
create some robot-like sound.)
10. Export the tracks into one track as mix_effects.wav.

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3.1 Practice
Use the sources to create an audio track like the sample.
Practice 1: Vocal and Chorus
Sources: chorus.mp3 and vocal.mp3
Sample: mix_sample.mp3
Practice 2: Create Music
Sources: music.mp3, vocal.mp3 and syn.mp3
Sample: mix_sample2.mp3
(Tips: you may use editduplicate and apply some special effects)

More to Learn 1 Create your own music


You may go to http://free-loops.com/ to look for some sound clips you want and create your own
music.

More to Learn 2 How to export MP3 file?


Audacity requires the LAME MP3 encoding file lame_enc.dll to export audio into MP3 format.
The file can be downloaded from http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~raa110/audacity/lame.html. After
the download, select Edit Preferences File Formats in Audacity. Click the Find
Library button to locate the MP3 encoder file.

More to Learn 3 Saving Music from Youtube


Copy the link from youtube and paste the link to this site http://www.youtube-mp3.org/

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