Audacity:

What every ESL

teacher needs.
 Can do statement for today:
I can edit and create
audios for my class using
Audacity
Agenda
Install Audacity and LAME encoder
Edit audios
Create audios
Create audio books
What is Audacity? It’s an audio recording and
editing software

Audio formats:
 .wav – very common, uncompressed (big files)
 .mp3 – very common, compressed (little files)
 .wma – Windows audio, may have Digital Rights
Management for copy protection
 m4p – ITunes format – WILL have Digital Rights
Management for copy protection (probably won’t play back
on another computer)
Choosing your microphone and speakers

 Edit>Preferences>Devices
 Set your mike, speakers, stereo or mono
 I need to choose a different mike than the Connect mike
 Use a moderately priced headset for best results
recording and playback

 Just like a tape recorder or VCR

 Pause, play, stop, rewind, fast forward, record

 Recording shows up as a waveform

 Useful to find silence, pauses or extraneous noises if editing
 Effects menu

 Effects>Amplify
 May have to enable “clipping” to apply the
effect

 Effects>Fade In
 Effects>Fade Out

 Effects>Remove Noise
 Editing tracks
Selection tool

 Playback to find the spot you want to cut

 Use the waveform to find the silences
 Use the selection tool to select the cut
 Left click and drag
 Hit Delete or Cut to make the edit
 Ctrl + Z to undo an edit
 You can also replace the selection with
silence

Replace with
cut
silence
 exporting (Saving) files

 You don’t save sound files, you Export

them
 File>Export>Choose folder, filename, and
format
 MP3s require a download of a LAME
encoder
 Audacity guides you though the process
 Because .wav is lossless, I edit and
combine in .wav, and convert to .mp3
when I’m done
Importing and Combining Tracks

 Record and export all your clips

 Import all your clips
 Don’t click Open, as they will open up in different windows
 Import opens them all up in same window
 Copy and paste second clip onto end of first track
 Close clip
 Copy and paste third clip onto end of first track
 Close clip
 Repeat until al the clips are on one track
 Save the whole thing with a new filename when you’re done
 LAME encoder

 Export as MP3
 You’ll get this prompt the first time
 Click Download
 Follow the links (there are 2)
 Download LAME
 Click the .exe file
 Export the file!
Mixing tracks

 Import tracks you want to mix

 If music, make sure you have rights
 LOTS of public domain music out there
 http://www.mfiles.co.uk/ is where I got the Bach
 Edit tracks to same running time
 Use Effects menu(Amplify, Fade In, Fade Out) as needed
 Export
 Will automatically mix tracks together
 https://adaptivelearnin.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/audacity-every-teacher-s
hould-learn-to-digital-audio-record-part-1-getting-started
/