Book Image

Getting started with Audacity 1.3

Book Image

Getting started with Audacity 1.3

Overview of this book

Using the Audacity software as the starting off point, we discuss what the software is, what it can do, how you can use it, and where you go to get started installing it. All of this information is grounded in some basic audio editing terminology and background for those that aren't so technology inclined.Then we'll start digging into a sample project! You'll learn about how to set up a project, create a voice track, record an interview with Skype, and basic audio editing techniques. All of this done in an easy to follow, task based approach with lots of examples. Here, we plan to go a step further, we teach how to wrap all of these steps together and create a podcast that can be posted on your own website or blog.There's always more you can do with Audacity! The last portion of the book is dedicated to just that - discussing more advanced editing and mixing techniques, using affects, adding music, adding additional plug-ins to the software. All still incorporating examples and easy to follow tasks you can try on your own audio projects.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Getting started with Audacity 1.3
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
9
Giving Your Audio Some Depth: Applying Effects
Toolbar, Menu, and Keyboard Shortcut Reference
Glossary of Terms
Index

Dissecting the recorded audio


As you were recording your podcast in the previous chapter, you may have seen blue lines or "waves" (as seen in the next screenshot) moving across your screen as you were speaking.

In the simplest form, these are your voice waves being converted to a digital form and displayed by Audacity on your screen. We're not going to go into all the details of voice waves—it may well be an entire science lesson in itself—but let's take a look at the very basic parts of what you recorded: the "levels" of the digital voice waves and how you can interpret them visually. This will help us to better understand how we can edit our podcast for "cleaner" audio.

Voice waves

The entire sequence of waves on the screen can be overwhelming to look at, but we'll take it bit by bit. First, look closely at your recorded audio. You'll see distinct groups of waves that are larger than the others. These "larger" groups of waves are the portions of the recording where you are speaking words...