Prepared by: Prof. Reynalyn T.

Elon

using Audacity
Sound Editing
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1. Overview
 What is Audacity?
● Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track
audio editor and recorder for Windows,
macOS, GNU/Linux and other operating
systems developed by a group of volunteers
as open source.
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Audacity
Features

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 Audacity Project Window
1. Menu Bar
The menu bar is at the top of the Audacity window. The menu bar
is slightly different on Mac, it has an 'Audacity' and 'Window' menu,
due to the conventions on that operating system.
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The Extra menu provides access to Toolbar operations, commands for track focus
and movement of the editing or playback cursor that are not available in the
default Audacity menus.
The Extra menu will be of most interest to visually-impaired users or those who
have difficulty using the mouse. Shortcuts can be assigned to these commands
if required.
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 Audacity Project Window
2. Transport Toolbar
Transport Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback, recording
and for moving to the project start or end. The buttons can also be
controlled with keyboard shortcuts.
1. The grabber, the serrated edge at the left of most toolbars,
allows repositioning of the toolbar.
2. Click Pause to temporarily pause playing or recording without
losing your place. Click Pause a second time to resume.
3. Play when there is already playback or when playback is
paused to restart playback immediately from the editing cursor
or selection.
4. Stops playing or recording immediately, and releases Pause if
depressed.
5. Move the cursor to the beginning of the project. This is useful if
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you want to play everything, or record a new track starting from

the beginning.
Play button Play: playback begins wherever the editing cursor is.
Otherwise, if an area of track is selected, only that selection will be played.
6. Begins recording at the end of the currently selected track(s).

Loop Play button Loop Play: play the track or selection over and over until
you stop. Record button Record: Clicking Record always begins recording at the end
of the currently selected track(s).
Play Cut Preview: play audio either side of a selection to preview what Record New Track: Start recording in a new track at either the current
deleting the selection will sound like. cursor position or at the beginning of the current selection.
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 Audacity Project Window
3. Tools Toolbar
Tools Toolbar enables your current tool for tasks such as selection,
volume adjustment, horizontal zooming or audio time-shifting.
Click another button to change tool or to go back to your previous
tool.

1. The grabber, the serrated edge at the left of most toolbars,

allows repositioning of the toolbar.
2. Click to select a start point for audio playback, or click and
drag to select a range of audio to play or edit.
3. Allows smooth volume changes to be made over the length
of a track by means of embedded volume "control points".
4. Draw Tool enables you to manually redraw the waveform;
5. Zooms in to the dragged region.
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6. Lets you synchronize audio in a project by dragging

individual or multiple audio tracks, note tracks or audio clips
left or right along the Timeline.
7. Combines all five tools in one. One tool is available at a time,
according to the mouse position and modifier key chosen.
The shape of the pointer changes to show which tool is
active.
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 Audacity Project Window
4. Recording Meter Toolbar
The Recording Meter Toolbar is used for monitoring the input
audio levels.
Click in the recording meter to start monitoring, or when
you press the the record button, the meter will activate.
The Recording Meter Toolbar again displays "Click to Start
Monitoring" whenever you stop a recording or start
playback.

5. Playback Meter Toolbar

The Recording Meter Toolbar is used for monitoring the input
audio levels.
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The Playback Meter will activate when you start

playback. The orange color warns that the
signal was too "hot" or becoming too "hot". The
red bar indicates that clipping has occurred at
some stage while playing.

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 Audacity Project Window
6. Mixer Toolbar
Mixer Toolbar is where you adjust Recording Volume (the
amplitude at which recordings will be made) and Playback Volume
(how loud the project's audio sounds, not affecting the volume of
exported audio).
1. The grabber, the serrated edge at the left of most toolbars,
allows repositioning of the toolbar.
2. Recording Volume Slider: Sets the recording volume.
3. Playback Volume Slider: Sets the playback volume.
4. The resizer, the two vertical lines at the right edge of some
toolbars, allows resizing of the toolbar.
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Double-clicking on the recording

or playback volume slider will bring
up the Recording Volume or
Playback Volume window. Here
you can make much more precise
adjustments with the slider or
enter a value in the text field.
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 Audacity Project Window
7. Edit Toolbar
These tools perform the same functions as those accessible
through the Edit Menu, View Menu, Tracks Menu and keyboard
shortcuts.
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 Audacity Project Window
8. Play-at-Speed Toolbar
Play-at-Speed Toolbar lets you Play or Loop Play audio at a slower
or faster speed than normal, also affecting pitch. Slower than
normal speeds can make it easier to transcribe speech or song
lyrics.

1. The grabber, the serrated edge at the left of most toolbars,

allows repositioning of the toolbar.
2. Play-at-Speed button plays (or restarts playback) at the
speed set by the Play-at-Speed slider to the right.
3. Playback can be paused and resumed at the adjusted
speed using the Pause button The Pause button in
Transport Toolbar or the shortcut P.
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4. The resizer, the two vertical lines at the right edge of some
toolbars, allows resizing of the toolbar.

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 Audacity Project Window
9. Device Toolbar
Device Toolbar provides an easy way to select your required combination of audio host, recording
device, recording channels and playback device, without having to open Devices Preferences.
Device Toolbar grays out when playing, recording or paused. You cannot change device choices
while the device is in use.
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MME: This is the Audacity default and the most compatible with all audio devices.
Windows DirectSound: This is more recent than MME with potentially less latency.
Windows WASAPI: This host is the most recent Windows interface between applications
(such as Audacity) and the audio interface driver.
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 Audacity Project Window
10. Pinned Play/Record Head
You can change Audacity to play and record with a fixed head
pinned to a position in the Timeline. In this mode the head remains
static and the waveforms will move as the audio is played or
recorded.

11. Timeline
The Timeline displays a horizontal ruler above the tracks
measuring time from zero (the start of the track).
Depending on zooming the ruler may span minutes of
audio or give a "close up" view of a few seconds or fractions
of a second. The Timeline is not merely an indicator of
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audio position but can also be used to effect Quick-Play.

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 Audacity Project Window
12. Scrub Ruler
useful alternative method for scrubbing is with the Scrub Ruler, the gray strip immediately
below the Timeline. On starting scrub by clicking in Scrub Ruler, the green scrub widget
Scrub icon will appear in the Scrub Ruler and the green playhead cursor will appear in the
Timeline.
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 Audacity Project Window
13. Track Control Panel
The Track Control Panel at the left of the audio track has controls and status indicators for this
track. Left-clicking other than on a control performs track selection. Left-clicking other than on a
control and dragging up and down rearranges the order of the tracks.

1. An X button deletes the track

2. A drop down menu, accessed by clicking on the track name
or the little black triangle at the top right of the Track
Control Panel, enabling you to edit or move the audio track.
3. Mute and Solo buttons mute or solo the track
4. Gain slider for adjusting the volume of the track
5. Pan slider to position the audio of this track in the stereo
sound stage.
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6. Status indicators to show the sample rate in Hz and the

sample format or bit depth
7. A button to collapse or restore the height of the track
8. A Select button to select the whole track

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 Audacity Project Window
14. Audio Track
Each audio track containing digital audio contains from left to right: a Track Control Panel with
Audio Track Dropdown Menu for changing View Mode and audio properties of that individual
track, a Vertical Scale with units, a visual representation of the audio waveform.
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 Audacity Project Window
15. Label Track
A Label Track is an additional track that can be created in your project. The labels in the label track
can be used to reference points or regions in the project's audio tracks but the label track itself
does not contain audio.

A point label is just a region label

with the same start and end.
Labels can be created by selecting a
region or clicking at a point of
interest then choosing Edit > Labels >
Add Label at Selection (or use its
keyboard shortcut Ctrl + B). An empty
label appears then you can type to
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add text to the label. Press Enter on

the keyboard to confirm the text and
close the label.

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 Audacity Project Window
16. Selection Toolbar
Selection Toolbar includes controls for Project Rate, Snap-To and for manipulating units of time or
other selection formats. Using the "Start" and "End/Length" boxes, you can precisely place the
cursor point or selection region without using a mouse to click or drag in the waveform, and
without zooming in first to find the exact spot.
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 Audacity Project Window
17. Time Toolbar
Time Toolbar is a read-only toolbar which displays the current audio position. When Audacity is
not Playing or Recording, this will be either the current cursor position or the beginning of the
current selection if present. When Playing or Recording, it dynamically shows the current play
head or record head position.
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 Audacity Project Window
18. Status Bar
The Audacity Status Bar is the gray horizontal bar to be found at the bottom of the Audacity
window (normally, and by default, just below the Selection Toolbar). It cannot be relocated or
floated. Its function is to display messages about recording or playback, to indicate parts of
Audacity that are being hovered over by the mouse, and to provide hints about how to use
Audacity.
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2. Audacity Effects
 Audacity Effects
● Audacity includes many built-in effects and
also lets you use a wide range of plug-in
effects.
● To apply an effect, select part or all of the
track(s) you want to modify, and select the
Effect from the menu.
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 Audacity Effects
Effects Menu
Titles which end in an ellipsis (...) will bring up a dialog asking you for more parameters. All effects
that have a dialog let you hear the audio as modified by the effect before you apply the effect to
the waveform.
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Click the Preview button to listen to how the first six seconds (by default) of the
selected audio would sound if you pressed OK to apply the effect.
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 Audacity Effects
Volume Effects

Amplify: Increases or decreases the volume of the audio you have selected.
Auto Duck: Reduces the volume of one or more tracks whenever the volume of a specified
"control" track reaches a particular level.
Compressor: Compresses the dynamic range by two alternative methods: "RMS" method
(makes the louder parts softer), and alternative "peaks" method (makes the entire audio
louder).
Limiter: Passes signals below a specified input level unaffected or gently reduced, while
preventing the peaks of stronger signals from exceeding this threshold.
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Normalize: Set the maximum amplitude of a track, equalize the amplitudes of the left and
right channels of a stereo track and optionally remove any DC offset from the track.
Loudness Normalization: Normalizes for loudness and RMS, changes the level of the audio
(normally reduce it to recommended limits).

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 Audacity Effects
Fade Effects

Crossfade Clips: Apply a simple crossfade to a selected pair of clips in a single audio track.
Crossfade Tracks: Make a smooth transition between two overlapping tracks one above the
other.
Fade In: Applies a linear fade-in to the selected audio - the rapidity of the fade-in depends
entirely on the length of the selection it is applied to.
Fade Out: Applies a linear fade-out to the selected audio - the rapidity of the fade-out
depends entirely on the length of the selection it is applied to.
Studio Fade Out: Applies a more musical fade out to the selected audio, giving a more
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pleasing sounding result.

Adjustable Fade: enables you to control the shape of the fade (non-linear fading) to be
applied by adjusting various parameters; allows partial (that is not from or to zero) fades up
or down.

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 Audacity Effects
Change the quality of the sound

Bass and Treble: Increases or decreases the lower frequencies and higher frequencies of
your audio independently; behaves just like the bass and treble controls on a stereo system.
Distortion: Make the audio sound distorted. By distorting the waveform the frequency
content is changed, which will often make the sound "crunchy" or "abrasive".
Filter Curve EQ: Adjusts the volume levels of particular frequencies, using drawn curves
Graphic EQ: Adjusts the volume levels of particular frequencies, using sliders.
High-Pass Filter: Passes frequencies above its cutoff frequency and attenuates frequencies
below its cutoff frequency.
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Low Pass Filter: Passes frequencies below its cutoff frequency and attenuates frequencies
above its cutoff frequency.

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 Audacity Effects
Change the quality of the sound

Noise Gate: Reduces the level of sound below a specified threshold level.
Paulstretch: Use to slow down audio by extreme amounts without changing the pitch.
Phaser: "Phase Shifter" works by combining phase-shifted signals with the original signal.
Tremolo: Modulates the volume of the selection at the depth and rate selected in the
dialog. The same as the tremolo effect familiar to guitar and keyboard players.
Vocoder: Synthesizes audio (usually a voice) in the left channel of a stereo track with a
carrier wave (typically white noise) in the right channel to produce a modified version of the
left channel. Vocoding a normal voice with white noise will produce a robot-like voice for
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special effects.
Wahwah: Rapid tone quality variations, like that guitar sound so popular in the 1970's.

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 Audacity Effects
Make the sound faster, slower, lower pitched or higher pitched

Change Pitch: Change the pitch of a selection without changing its tempo.
Change Speed: Change the speed of a selection, also changing its pitch.
Change Tempo: Change the tempo and length (duration) of a selection without changing
its pitch.
Sliding Stretch: This effect allows you to make a continuous change to the tempo and/or
pitch of a selection by choosing initial and/or final change values.
Paulstretch: Use Paulstretch only for an extreme time-stretch or "stasis" effect, This may be
useful for synthesizer pad sounds, identifying performance glitches or just creating
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interesting aural textures. Use Change Tempo or Sliding Stretch rather than Paulstretch for
tasks like slowing down a song to a "practice" tempo.
Truncate Silence: Automatically try to find and eliminate audible silences. Don't use with
faded audio.

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 Audacity Effects
Manipulate Audio

Repeat: Repeats the selection the specified number of times.

Reverse: Reverses the selected audio; after the effect the end of the audio will be heard first
and the beginning last.
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 Audacity Effects
Add reverberation or echo

Delay: A configurable delay effect with variable delay time and pitch shifting of the delays.
Echo: Repeats the selected audio again and again, normally softer each time and normally
not blended into the original sound until some time after it starts. The delay time between
each repeat is fixed, with no pause in between each repeat.
Reverb: A configurable stereo reverberation effect with built-in and user-added presets. It
can be used to add ambience (an impression of the space in which a sound occurs) to a
mono sound. Also use it to increase reverberation in stereo audio that sounds too "dry" or
"close".
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 Audacity Effects
Remove Vocals

Vocal Reduction and Isolation: Attempts to remove or isolate center-panned audio from a
stereo track. Most "Remove" options in this effect preserve the stereo image.
Invert: This effect flips the audio samples upside-down. This normally does not affect the
sound of the audio at all. It is occasionally useful for vocal removal.
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 Audacity Effects
Repair Damaged Audio Effects

Click Removal: Click Removal is designed to remove clicks on audio tracks and is especially
suited to declicking recordings made from vinyl records.
Clip Fix: Clip Fix attempts to reconstruct clipped regions by interpolating the lost signal.
Noise Reduction: Reduce constant background noise such as fans, tape noise, or hums. It
will not work very well for removing talking or music in the background.
Notch Filter: Greatly attenuate ("notch out") a narrow frequency band. This is a good way to
remove mains hum or a whistle confined to a specific frequency with minimal damage to
the remainder of the audio.
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Repair: Fix one particular short click, pop or other glitch no more than 128 samples long.
Spectral Delete: Deletes the spectral selection from the audio.
Spectral edit multi tool: When the selected track is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f)
view, applies a notch filter, high- pass filter or low pass filter according to the spectral
selection made.
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 References
● Audacity 2.4.2 Manual
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