Record and Edit Audio in Audacity: Perfect For Explainer Video, TV and Podcasting audio.

1. Installation: So before you go anywhere else of audacity, the first thing you'll need to do is actually locate the software. So in order to locate it, you'd enter the name into your browser from there. Once you have found it, you got to remember the website you're looking for is audacity team dots or your click on that. Once it has opened, it will bring you to this screen. Well, then need to look forward, Download audacity. So you click on that From there, it will take you to one of three options and you'll look for the one that's relevant to you . In this case, I'm when I'm using windows or dusty for Windows as opposed to a nasty for Mac OS and audacity for Lennox. So click on audacity for Windows. From there, it takes me to this page, which shows the current versions in this case at the time of recording, it is all dusty, 2.4 points to installer. Always look for the installer, click on mats and then from there it takes you to this window here and on this window you're really looking for is windows installer. And then you click on that and then follow the on screen instructions that will allow you to download audacity. And once you have it downloaded, downloaded, you can even save it to your start menu, which it should do itself automatically. But I would always penance and to my task bar, just so it's easily accessible for me as well. So that's how you install audacity. 2. Main Functions On Interface: so in this section will look at the interface or audacity, and I'll be going through the main points that you need to know. So as you can see, this is the audacity interface. It's where your work will be done so effectively. What you're looking at is like any tape, CD, DVD player or any other any other device that you have that usually provides some level of output. It's got a number of buttons here, which should look familiar to you. The 1st 1 is the pause button, followed by play, followed by Stop, followed by Skip to the start, followed by Skip to the End, followed by the Big Red button, which is record. Now that's These are the main functions of audacity, and it's important that you know what those are before we go anywhere else. The other main parts that you'll need to know is this box here, which is for your microphone. So if you do have a microphone with you, then of course, you'll want to ensure that that is plugged in and showing as connected as well. So you'll need to look for your microphone and attach there also, if you are looking to record in stereo, which you presumably are, and that's the ideal setting. Then ensure that it's also connected and to the stereo function. And again, it's important to know that this is the playback function here. So when you look for this, in my case, it's the Microsoft sound map are This is where your audio plays out from. So again you may have some other extensions plugged in. So it's important to know that up here is your microphone volume. So the recording volume, so the sound in volume. So if you wanted to control that, you do that through here whilst recording. This is your playback volume. So that's how loud it sounds when it's playing back to you at the top here. Important to know this is your recording level. You won't want it to be too high over here as in in the Red, because at that point the audio may become distorted. And again, you've got another gauge here, which is your playback level or playback volume. So this is how loud it's playing back and again that can easily be controlled for yourself as well, so that's important. Those are the main parts to know. It's also important to remember that this setting should always be set to 44 100 which is quite standard for recording. Over here, you've got our time selections. So again, once we start recording on stop that war, keep updating as we go along and again this is the life counts. So that will show us how far along we've gone once we start recording. So those are the main points of the interface that you need to know in order to use audacity in the first place. You also do have some editing tools, such as copy copy. Over here, you've also got cuts and paste, which is standard. So if you're looking at war documents or even saying an email, you are able to highlight selections. Copy that and then paste it into another bit. So that sort of some you could do or you can cut and paste, just as you would do in a word, document or other service available as well. So, of course, those are the main ones, and that is the interface in a nutshell, for audacity. 3. Recording: next, you'll need to look at recording. So in order to record or you'll need to do is look for that big red button that we talked about earlier, which is full record, and then once you're ready to record, you just hit the buttons. It's quite simple and straightforward. Fortunately, so you'll need to do is hit the big red button, which will do just now and record a sample bit of audio just so you can follow. And hopefully you've got the software alongside you just now, so you can also give it a try as we're going through it. Okay, so we're going to hit the record button. This is a recording on the audacity course. Once I'm ready to stop, I will leave a hit the space bar or stop itself to which, at which point, the audio will also stop. So again, that's what you're looking at. There is called a Way form, and this way form is essentially everything that you are recording. So that's all my speech in one go. So if you can see that there, that's everything I've just said. So we'll do from here is just so you can get an idea is I'll just hit play or space bar in order to start it. In this case, I'll hit plate. This is a recording on the audacity course when I'm ready to stop hit stop. And that was a sample of the recording that I've just stunned. Now. If I wanted to change anything around at that point, then I'll need to get into editing. So there are a few things that weaken do, and I'll go through the 1st 1 in just a moment. 4. Reduce Background Noise: So in terms of editing, you'll want to eliminate any background noise as much as a zoo, much as possible in any case. So the first thing you'll want to do is to get what's called a noise profile. Now, if you look at this piece of audio, so as we discussed earlier, you can see that that's where I was speaking. Beaning those waves there, as we call them to the way for anything. After that, you can see there's a nice, gentle line which looks pretty good to me, almost insinuating that there's no background noise. So what I'll do here to ensure that there's nothing else that's trading in the background is I will select this portion here. Well, then go to effects. From there, I'll go to noise reduction and then I will ask it to get the noise profile. Now, I would always leave these at the presets, which they already are in, so I would leave it there. Click get knows profile. So I'm telling you is can you see this silence here? I want you to get that noise profile because that's the way I want the background to be as much as possible in any way. Then I will. I do Is I double click from there, you can go to effects again. Again. Go to noise reduction. And this time, instead of clicking, get noise profile, you're going to click. Ok, as in I've told you what the noise profile that I want you to get is now. I want you to apply it to everything and then you'll click. Ok, from there, you might have noticed that the audio did seem to be a bit cleaner. And again, you can see that just through that there you might have notice. It went down slightly and there was some reductions going on that was it. Just applying that filter into the track. So that's exactly how you reduce background noise in your recording. 5. Normalising: next, you'll want to ensure that the audio isn't too loud. So where you can do this is by normalising the audio. So again, what you do from there as you would double click, then you click effects. You then click normalize, and I always go for the minus 6.0 db. But you can do whatever you feel is applicable and then click. OK, you'll notice that it's reduced. See, the purpose of this is to ensure that it's not too loud Now. The reason why it jumped it lower is to ensure that there was nothing beyond that range beyond that minus 0.6 db. So it's actually done that for us just there as we've applied it. So that's how you normalize audio to prevent peaking and clipping in your audio clips. 6. Eliminate Breaths: in this section will talk about removing breaths. So this is good for in particular for adverts or explainer videos or anything that's quite similar where you might need to eliminate the breaths in the speech. I'll show you exactly what I mean. We'll start recording just now. This is a recording, and sometimes it's in adverts and sometimes it's not. But all together I can say it is a very nice recording. I would like to say this is a great recording, so just recorded some audio there for point of reference. And I'm about to zoom into this audio just so you can have an even closer look, which I'll just have a quick check now, right? So all I'm doing here is I'm skipping right back to the beginning, and I'm having a look at this audio, and in this audio, I can see that there are a few breaths on. By that, I mean, as I click play, keep nine to see if you can hear any breaths. This is a recording, and sometimes it's a non votes, and sometimes it's not. But all together I can say it is a very nice recording. I would like, Did you hear it right, that that's the breath that was referring to. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to zoom into the audio and again if you've got a little scroll or in your mouth. So I always like to hold control and then zoom up, as in scroll upwards and you can zoom in on if you look closely, you can actually see that breath is right there. I'll hit play now on an advert that's know exactly what you want to hear. You might notice that adverts are normally especially that the quick witted ones, they're quite clean. You don't really hear any breaths. It's no a live setting. So all we want to hear is the audio itself. We wanted to sound clean and professional. So in order to do that, what we do is we eliminate the breaths. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to hit delete on my keyboard after I've selected it, and that that breath is now gone. I'm going to press play from where we were. It is a very nice recording. I would like to say this is a great recording and there we are. That's how you eliminate breaths. I would go throughout the entire audio on if it was an advert. So presumably a 32nd advert or even explain a video. And I would eliminate all those breaths that I could find. And the reason for that is that we want the audio to be clean. So when we hear it, if you listen to any advert, you don't really hear any breaths that simply because in an advert scenario, usually eliminate that to make sure that the audio sounds very punchy and clean and raw. So that's how you eliminate breaths in audio. 7. Importing Audio or Background Music: So the next thing you might want to do is to introduce a background clip into your audio. So you've got your main audio. That's you speaking there. But perhaps you'd like to speak over music. Or, you know you'd like a background for your podcast or else something similar as well. Or even you're doing an explainer video, for example, and you might need a bit of a background just going on as you're speaking or even in in some are the scenarios that you might have a swell. So in order to do that, you'll need to import audio into audacity. And the way to do that is to locate your file. Here's one I prepared earlier. Then all you'll need to do is this. Drag and drop it, and you can just literally move it in. That's my easiest way, and as you can see, it's importing MP three files, and as you can see there, it's actually imported the audio. I always go the dragon drop way because it's actually a lot easier on a lot smoother. But as you might notice for the key night among you there, you might have noticed that this audio at the bottom here, which is a song, is much louder than my speech. So by the time that we play it back, it's going to be extremely loud. I'll play it just so you can hear. This is a recording on the audacity course, as you can hear just in that instance there, this song was extremely loud, and my voice was extremely load low. So you can actually look at two ways of dealing with this one is the gain on my voice. So this is my voice here and again. That's and you can see there. You can also mute the channel. So that's what I'll do that you've got moot. Mute this that. So What I've done is I am now selecting it back to the beginning, going skipping back Skip to the start operas, play or space bar. In this case, this is a recording on the audacity course. Now what I'll do is I'll go to the gain or volume and I'll raise up and I'm going to ask it to raise by five db and again I'll skip to the Starts Culprits plane. This is a recording on the audacity course, as you can hear is much louder there, hope. Bring it back down. His It was only for point of reference, and again, what will do here is old unm mute the track that I've just imported, and I'll click the mute button to UNM you tit and I'll apply the same principle. I'm going to lower the volume here quite significantly, so that by the time I actually play this track, it will be following my voice quite nicely. So I'm going to skip to the start and all press place. I can hear my voice on top off this audio track here. This is a recording on the audacity course, and that's, ah, great way to add music as you can hear there to your voice. So if you were doing that, explain a video or some other podcast or something along those lines or a voice over a such it would be a great idea to just add those two together, and you could just put it underneath by lowering the volume. They're. So if you were looking to fade out, that's something that will cover in the next section. So if you are looking to start the track a bit later, I'll show you how to do that in the next clip 8. Fade In & Moving Audio Clips : So you might have been in his position where you were recording a podcast, for example, when you had a lot of speech and you've decided that actually, I'd like a really, really nice outro. So as I'm ending the show, I'd like the music to come in slowly. So what you can do is you can do what's called a fade out, so fade in off the track. And, of course, that's you fading out there. You gotta fade in and fade out and the principle will be the same. I'll show you a fade in that you can apply, So the first thing you'll need to know it is about the little tab here called Time Shift. It's the time shift tool that allows you to move the tracks around, which can come in great handy. So all you do is you click on time shift. As you can see from the previous example, this is my voice. I'm actually moving around then that gives me the ability to move it wherever I needed to go. So we've really addressed did the levels. But let's say that I wanted Teoh my voice to sort of say something and then slowly, I'd like the track to start playing but gradually make its way in. So all I do from there is old, asking where I would like it to select. To start this fade in. I'd selected like that just by double clicking and dragging the mouse along. From there, I would go to effects and then I'll click fade in. I've told it, I want you to apply that fade in just to the music at the back, over there, and I've clicked in, and as you can see, the audio sort of looks like a ice cream cone going inwards. Just that bit more so as I click the track. So I start from the beginning in a press play. This is a recording on the audacity course. There we are. And as you heard right, there was a beautiful fade in. So if it was an extended program on, you wanted the background music to come in gradually, of course, you can even increase that fade into go even more so if it was a long extended piece of speech that was going on and you wanted to get to come in sweat slowly. Then again, you could do the same principle when you could go for however long you want. And just as a point of reference will do here is all dragged that long, and then I'll click effects and fade in. And, as you can see, the fade in starts happening even more gradually. This is a recording on the audacity course, and as you can hear there, the audio begins to come in ever so slightly, gradually increasing over a period of time. So if you did want to introduce something, you could do that very gradually before you ended your program about them. Okay, so that is exactly how you fade in on audacity and also how you No, only that, but also how you also move audio across and along using the time shift tool. And she's dragging along, and that's how you do that. 9. Exporting Audio : So once you are happy with your audio, you can always delete any part that you're not happy with. It's also important to note that audacity is destructive editing, so therefore, any changes you make are permanent, and that's quite an important one to remember and to take note off. So in this case, if I deleted this section of the audio by selecting everything I wanted and hitting the delete button and let's I wanted to also get rid of this part here. So if I drag the mouse along, DoubleClick's dragged their log and then I hit Delete delete key. You could also do by clicking edits and elites, whichever is your preference. It cannot be undone, and it will not be re salvage unless you actually go to edits and undo deletes. And if you was happy with how it was, then you can redo. Delete. However, any changes that you made previously, you'll have toe undo delete quite a few times in order to restore it. So again you want to get it right the first time in the ideal world. And if you are happy again, you can always reduce elites once you're happy with the file, then all you'll need to do from there is to go to file. You'd be looking to export. You can export as wave, which would be the best audio quality. However, that foul is extremely heavy on your computer and will take up a lot of storage space. So again it would be your own discretion on. I would also note that wave is negligible Lee different to the human ear in comparison to MP three. So I would always personally go for MP three as opposed to wave. So once you've got that, what it will do from here is load up. Your options bring you to, in this case, my folder, which is example, and I'll go to call it test, for it's telling me it's saving the type as MP three, as I've asked, has gone for the all the presets, which I would leave would also leave it in joint stereo because it's better for audacity. And then I'll click Save it, then reminds me that it will actually combine these two tracks together, which is what I wanted to do. So I'll say OK from there, it gives me this tat the A bunch of tags here which, if I wanted to, I could feel that in. And that's details such as including the artist's name. The track title with it was applicable. If you're are a voice over, it's actually you know you're the person who's he's done the track, or even if it's a podcast or some other form of audio or media you've needed to record. You can feel these details in its very presentable when you're looking at the file from an external perspective coming from a radio background. Initially, I can say that we used to feel those things in all the time. However, it isn't essential. You can always just follow it up using the file name. So in this case, I'm going to leave it blank and I'm going to click. OK, what it's doing from now is six is it's exporting the file, as in mixing it down for me and saving it as an MP three, and that's audacity and how you save your file or export it as a file formats. In this case, MP three 10. Conclusion: Congratulations. You've reached the end of this audacity. Course you're now now how to record, edit and add music to your files. All the best in your audacity journey.