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Sound Basics Tutorial 1: Audacity Intro (Recording A Voice-Over)

 

Audacity is a free, cross-platform tool you can download.  Since this is a tool constantly in development, you'll want to download the latest stable version. But we will be using be Audacity 1.3.9  (Mac or PC).  Follow the install dialogue boxes once you've downloaded the software.

 

Once you've installed Audacity, open it.  You'll see a welcome screen (which links to a lot of online resources to help you work with Audacity) . . .

 

 

. . . and this main work window. Each new file you create will have its own work window.

 

You will need some sort of microphone for this tutorial. Plug in your USB microphone, or use the built-in microphone on the computer. If you have neither, get one, or borrow one from somebody who does. 

 

NOTE: If you don't have a microphone, you can open this sample file and skip ahead to where we begin selecting and cutting the sound file.

 

Configure Audacity to work with your microphone by selecting Preferences.

 

 

In the Preferences window under the Devices tab, select Built-in Microphone if you're using your computer's built-in microphone, otherwise select Built-in Input (or the icon of your microphone, which should pop up in this list). Click 'OK' when you're done.

 

On the main work window, make sure the audio input is about 60% toward the + sign. In the VCR-style controls at the top left of the work window, click on the red circle to Record.

 

 

I've recorded a greeting to my frog ("Hello, Froggy."), plus some other material I won't be using. I whispered near the microphone, so the sound level will not be too high, and there will be a fair amount of ambient noise in the background. The work window will look something like this:

 

With the Selection tool selected (in the upper left corner of the set of six tools to the right of the control buttons), click to the right of the material you don't want . . . 

 

 

. . . and drag to the left, selecting the entire section of the sound file you want to delete.

 

Press the Delete key, and you should see a much shorter recorded segment:

 

We are now going to apply an effects filter that will both boost the low-amplitude (volume) part of the recording while attenuating (reducing) the higher-volume moments. 

 

Select all (command + A) and apply under Effect > Compressor.

 

 

In the Dynamic Range Compressor dialog box that opens, turn the Ratio from 2.5:1 to about 5:   

This will increase low levels and decrease high levels. But be careful to always apply compression with a little discretion, since, AM radio and TV tend to apply almost too much  compression.

 

 

Select the first 1/4 of a second . . . 

 

 

And under Effect, select Fade In. This will gradually increase the sound level from silence to the sound level we are using on this file:

 

 

The fade in looks like this:

 

 

Now, select the part of the sound file that occurs after the main sound bite:

 

 

Again, under Effect select Fade Out for a gradual fade to nothingness. The file now looks like this:

 

 

Select the entire sound file . . . (Edit > Select > All or command + A) . . .

 

 

 

. . . and select File > Export. You're ready to export a version of this sound project to a file format we can use in other programs. If you simply Save this project, you'll save a project file in .aup format and a folder of audio resources, neither of which can be opened by any other software but audacity.

 

The Metadata Editor will pop open. You can tag a file with all this information, which makes aspects of this file searchable in such audio apps as iTunes. You don't need to put anything here, unless you want to tag your file.

 

 Click OK when you're ready to save the file in an uncompressed format (the best way to preserve sound qualitys. The most widely used uncompressed formats are AIFF for the Mac ad WAV for PCs. 

 

That's all! (and here's the final file)