4 Ways To Use Audacity

While sound cards and interfaces vary, it’s a good practice to monitor your actual instrument to prevent latency issues. Because latency is always a factor when monitoring the recorded signal, it’s very difficult to find your groove when playing. In Audacity, set your preferences as shown: {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/2/25/Use-Audacity-Step-1Bullet1. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-1Bullet1. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/2/25/Use-Audacity-Step-1Bullet1. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-1Bullet1. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:345,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:546,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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The LR input meters should respond. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/2/21/Use-Audacity-Step-2Bullet1. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-2Bullet1. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/2/21/Use-Audacity-Step-2Bullet1. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-2Bullet1. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:344,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:545,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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\n</p></div>"} If the meters are hitting 0dB, use the Input Volume Slider to lower the input level so that the meters only approach 0 during the loudest sections.

Press Record and start playing. There will generally be some silence at the beginning of your track. This can be trimmed away when you’re done recording. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/8/89/Use-Audacity-Step-3Bullet1. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-3Bullet1. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/8/89/Use-Audacity-Step-3Bullet1. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-3Bullet1. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:345,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:546,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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\n</p></div>"} Alternately, you can enable Sound Activated Recording in your Recording preferences. Check the Sound Activated Recording checkbox, then set the Sound Activation Level (DB)—the lower the number, the quieter the sound that will trigger recording. This is useful if, for example, you are recording in another room and don’t want to have a long silence at the beginning of your track as you walk back and prepare to play. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/7/70/Use-Audacity-Step-3Bullet2. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-3Bullet2. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/7/70/Use-Audacity-Step-3Bullet2. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-3Bullet2. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:345,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:546,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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Note: While this should not generally be the case, if everything is set as described above, if you are flat lining (i. e. , the waveform displays as a straight line) when you record, that means that signal is not getting from your instrument to your track. Confirm your connections and try again.

If you chose Sound Activated recording, Audacity will automatically stop recording when the sound drops below the threshold level. To add additional tracks while listening to previously recorded tracks, make sure “Overdub: Play other tracks while recording new one” is checked in Preferences: Recording.

From the Transport menu, select Timer Record. . . , or press Shift-T. In the resulting window, you can set the Start Date and Time, and either the End Date and Time, or the Duration. This lets you set your recorder to turn on when you are not around. Why would you do this? Because you can! {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/a/a2/Use-Audacity-Step-6Bullet1. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-6Bullet1. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/a/a2/Use-Audacity-Step-6Bullet1. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-6Bullet1. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:346,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:547,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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Pressing Shift while you press Play or the Space bar will loop your track until you click the Stop button or press the Space bar again. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/6/6c/Use-Audacity-Step-8Bullet1. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-8Bullet1. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/6/6c/Use-Audacity-Step-8Bullet1. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-8Bullet1. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:345,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:546,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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\n</p></div>"} To loop a specific section, make sure the Selection Tool is enabled, then click and drag over the section you want to loop. Note: after you make your selection, press “Z” for the software to automatically find the zero-crossing point: the point where the start and end waveforms are at 0 amplitude (start and end at the same sound level). Depending on the nature of the loop and the source material, this will often give you a very clean loop without clicks or pops. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/0/09/Use-Audacity-Step-8Bullet2. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-8Bullet2. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/0/09/Use-Audacity-Step-8Bullet2. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-8Bullet2. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:346,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:547,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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Drag the Playback Speed slider to the left to slow the track down, or to the right to speed the track up, then press the green “Playback at Speed” arrow to play your track back at the new speed. To make changes, adjust the speed and click the arrow again. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/4/43/Use-Audacity-Step-9Bullet1. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-9Bullet1. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/4/43/Use-Audacity-Step-9Bullet1. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-9Bullet1. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:346,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:547,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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Waveform (dB) which shows the waveform in decibel levels. It will generally appear “larger” than the linear view. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/3/38/Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet1. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet1. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/3/38/Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet1. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet1. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:346,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:547,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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\n</p></div>"} Spectrogram, which is a colorful FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) view of the audio. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/c/c0/Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet2. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet2. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/c/c0/Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet2. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet2. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:345,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:546,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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\n</p></div>"} Pitch, which shows pitches from high at the top of the track, to low pitches at the bottom. It’s very interesting with rich textures, and chords. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/4/49/Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet3. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet3. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/4/49/Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet3. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-10Bullet3. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:345,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:546,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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All other tracks except those that are soloed will be silenced. This is very useful if you want to, for example, get a good level between the bass and the drums.

All other tracks but the muted track or tracks will still sound. This is very useful if you want to, for example, compare 2 takes, or thin down the mix temporarily.

Choose the Selection Tool from the toolbar. Select the audio you want to keep. Choose Loop Playback (Shift-Space) and listen to your edit a few times to make sure it’s good. Adjust as necessary until it sounds right, then from the Edit menu, select Remove Audio, then select Trim, or simply press Command-T (Control-T on a PC). The audio on either side of the selection is removed from the track. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/f/f3/Use-Audacity-Step-14Bullet1. jpg/v4-460px-Use-Audacity-Step-14Bullet1. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/f/f3/Use-Audacity-Step-14Bullet1. jpg/aid281134-v4-728px-Use-Audacity-Step-14Bullet1. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:345,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:546,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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\n</p></div>"} After trimming, move your audio, if necessary, to the correct location by selecting the Time Shift tool, and dragging the sound to the proper location.

With the selection tool, select all or part of your track. From the Effect menu, choose your desired effect. For this example, we’ll use Echo, as applied to a simple click track. Set any parameters called for by the effect, listen to the preview, and when it’s how you like, press OK. The effect will process and display the result. The example below is the raw click track on top, and the echoed click track on the bottom. You can process the same track with many effects, though it’s possible to amplify the waveform too much, resulting in ugly digital distortion. If that happens, undo to the last step before distortion kicked in, and instead of applying your next filter, apply an Amplifier effect, set to -3dB. If your next process still results in distortion, undo the distorting effect and the Amplify effect, then redo the Amplify effect at a stronger level. -6dB would be good. Note: It’s always a good idea to duplicate a track (Command or Control-D) before doing any editing that changes the waveform.