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

Modifying settings for the entire track


Some settings that optimize your audio for the best sound quality require that you perform some track-wide settings. We'll cover a variety here that can be done with your project.

Customize the project rate for each track

In Chapter 1, Audacity and the World of Audio Editing, we set the overall project bitrate (the number of computer bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time). But now, after recording the track, you might want to change the playback rate to create a smaller file size for easier download, or maybe because you don't really need as high a quality as you initially determined.

Changing this setting is easy. In the audio track that you want to change, you just click on the Track Name drop down box, select Set Rate, and then select the new bitrate you want the audio to be set to.

Changing a Stereo track to Mono

For our sample project, we recorded the audio in stereo. You can change the playback to mono to decrease the file size. However...