Instructional Design Studio

Audacity is free, open source software that makes it simple to record and edit audio on your computer. This tutorial will walk you though the basics of recording and editing with Audacity. If you need to install Audacity, you might want to start with this walkthrough.

1. Make sure the right microphone is selected

Before you start recording, you’ll want to make sure the right microphone is selected. If you’re using a USB headset, we recommend plugging it in before launching Audacity (as this will generally result in the right microphone being selected).

2. Check your recording volume

Next, you’ll want to check the recording volume. Click the line right of the microphone icon (where it reads “Click to Start Monitoring”) and speak into your microphone at the volume you’ll be speaking when doing your recording. A pair of green bars (or a single bar, if you’re recording in Mono) will appear in this space, indicating the recording volume. If the volume is too high, you’ll the bars will fill this space completely, turning yellow, then red at the right side of the space. Adjust the microphone slider to the right of the monitor space so that the green bars are as long as possible without hitting the yellow or red.

3. Record your audio

Press the RECORD button to start recording.

If you need to pause your recording — to cough, answer the phone, etc — press the PAUSE button. Press PAUSE again to continue recording.

Press STOP when you’re finished recording.

Press PLAY to review your recording.

4. Edit if necessary

Need to cut something out of the audio — a cough perhaps? Click and drag on the audio waveform to highlight the section you wish to remove. Hit play to make sure you’ve captured the right section. Use the + or – magnifying glass icons to zoom in or out as necessary when making your selection. Hit the delete key on your keyboard to remove that audio.

Need to add to your recording? Use the horizontal scrollbar at the bottom of the page to scroll to the right until you see in the place you left off in the waveform. Click the waveform space to drop the play/record cursor in the point you wish to start recording, then hit record to continue recording. Press stop when you are done adding to your recording.

5. Export as MP3

Finally, you can save your recording as an AUDACITY file for editing and further modification by clicking FILE then choosing SAVE PROJECT.

To save your recording as a WAV or (preferably) MP3 file for sharing, click FILE, then choose EXPORT AUDIO.

Under SAVE AS TYPE choose MP3 (or WAV if you did not download and installed the LAME MP3 library). The default 256 kbp quality should be fine. Choosing a lower bitrate wtill result in lower sound quality and a smaller file. Choosing a higher bit rate will result in a larger file with greater audio fidelity.

When saving as an MP3, you will be given the option to enter metadata for the file. Depending on how your audience listens to the file, this information may be displayed in the player. Enter whatever metadata you feel is appropriate, then click OK to finish the export process.

Audacity is free, open source software that makes it simple to record and edit audio on your computer. Installing Audacity on a PC isn’t difficult, there’s an extra step that’s often overlooked if you want to save your recordings as MP3s, rather than much relatively large WAV files.

To download Audacity, go to the Audacity downloads page (http://www.audacityteam.org/download/) and choose the appropriate version. In this walkthrough, we’ll be looking at downloading and installing Audacity on Windows.There are two versions of Audacity available for download, an installer version and a zip version. We recommend downloading the installer, because the install process will be a bit simpler.

Depending on your browser and set-up, the file may automatically be saved to your downloads folder. If not, click SAVE FILE and choose a location on your computer where you’ll be able to locate the installer if necessary.Next you’ll need to run the Installer. If you’re using Firefox, you can do this by clicking the DOWNLOADS button to view the files you’ve recently downloaded, then clicking the audacity-win-(version).exe at the top of the list.

In Edge, you’ll want to click RUN on the downloads alert that appears at the bottom of the screen.

To launch the installer from Chrome, click the audacity-win-(version).exe button that appears at the bottom of the page.

If you can’t find any of these links in your browser window, just use Windows Explorer to navigate to the folder you downloaded the file to, then click audacity-win-(version). If you didn’t select a location, you’ll likely find the file in your DOWNLOADS folder. In the GIF below we use the Windows 10 Explorer link on the taskbar to find our Downloads folder. If you don’t have Windows 10, press E on your keyboard while holding down the WINDOWS key.

At the first step of installation, User Account Control (a Windows security measure) will ask whether you want to allow the change. Choose YES.

Next, you’ll be prompted to choose your install language. Choose the appropriate language and click OK. Then click NEXT as you walk through the install setup steps. After completing the 4 steps, Audacity will install.

If exporting your recordings as rather large WAV files is sufficient, then you’re all set. We recommend installing the LAME MP3 library, which will allow you to save your recordings as much smaller MP3 files.

To download the LAME Library, launch Audacity. Then click EDIT, choose Preferences, select LIBRARIES, then under the MP3 Export Library section, click DOWNLOAD in the LAME MP3 Library line.

This will launch a web page in your default browser. Click the LAME DOWNLOAD PAGE link on that page that’s been opened.

As with installing Audacity itself, we’ll download the LAME exe, as this makes the installation process simpler. The download and install steps, too,  are basically the same as those we walked through for installing Audacity … Download and run the installer, allow UAC to run the installer, step through the SETUP wizard. Install and finish.

Now you’re ready to export your Audacity recordings to MP3 as well as WAV.

 

Check out this video on how to record audio with Audacity: http://ids.commons.udmercy.edu/?p=1475