Downloading and Installing Audacity and the Lame MP3 encoder
Free Downloads and Complete Tutorials for
installation and using Audacity are available on-
line at: [Link]
For easiest installation download the Audacity 1.2.6
installer. Get it here.
You will also need the LAME MP3 encoder. Get it
here.
After you click on the Audacity 1.2.6 installer
link shown above, this window will open.
Click on Direct link to download Audacity.
After clicking on the above link, choose
where you want to SAVE the file. After it’s
downloaded just double-click on the file and
do a standard installation.
Audacity is ready to use but you won’t be able to export to MP3 format audio, only WAV format unless
you go back and DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL THE LAME MP3 ENCODER… SEE LINK ABOVE.
WARNING: DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE AVS
AUDIO EDITOR (IT’S NOT FREE!)
After you click on the Lame MP3 encoder link a new window
will open.
Click on this link.
In the window that opens, choose this link
Then choose SAVE and save it to the desktop
This is what the downloaded Lame MP3
encoder installer will look like on your desktop.
Double-click it to install. Let it install the
encoder to the default location, C:\Program
Files\Lame for Audacity as shown on the right.
When you’re done editing your AUDACITY PROJECT, you have to EXPORT it as
an MP3 audio file.
Choose File > Export As MP3 as shown on the left.
Name your file. The save as type will
be MP3 files (*.mp3)
When you click Save this window will
open. Click Yes
This window will open.
Browse to the C drive. Select it.
Find the Programs Files folder… select it.
Find the Lame for Audacity folder… select it.
Select the Lame_enc.dll file as shown
Click Open
Your MP3 audio file will be exported to whatever location
you chose to save it to. After this, you can just Export to MP3
without “finding” the Lame MP3 encoder again.
Audacity Basic Tutorial
1. Create a new project
Open Audacity then IMMEDIATELY SAVE IT before recording or importing
audio!
It’s best to create a folder on your USB jump drive then save your Audacity project into
that folder. If you save it anywhere else, you’ll need to copy both the Audacity project
file (.aup) AND a FOLDER with the same name as your Audacity project with underscore
data… ie: filename_data to your jump drive if you want to move to another computer. If
you don’t have the folder, your project won’t open.
2. Recording your Voice
Click on the red Record button to begin recording.
to pause the recording. Press it again to continue
Click on the blue Pause button
recording from where you left off.
to stop recording. The cursor will return to its
Click on the yellow Stop button
previous position, before the recording was started.
Note: Each time you stop recording then start recording again, a new audio “track” will be
created.
3. Playback Imported or Recorded Audio
Now click on the green Play button at the top and you should hear the file you have
just recorded or imported.
NOTE 1: The audio will playback from the position of the playback head. You might
either have to:
1. Click on the “Skip to Start” button on the toolbar to return the playback head
to the beginning of the project or,
2. Use the “Selection Tool” to position the playback head at the position where
you want to start playing the audio.
NOTE 2: You can playback just one audio track by selecting the “Solo” button on a
track.
NOTE 3: If you can’t do anything. Hit the “Stop” button then try again.
4. Importing an Audio File
• Simply drag and drop the audio file in to the Audacity window. Or….
• Select Import Audio ... in the Project menu.
NOTE: All versions of Audacity can import WAV, AIFF, AU, IRCAM, MP3 and OGG files.
Version 1.2.6 CAN NOT import WMA (Windows Media Audio) files.
5. Moving audio clips to another position on the timeline
Select the Time Shift Tool . It is used to move an audio clip back and forth on its
track.
6. Splitting a clip for editing
First we've got to select a portion of an audio clip on a single track using the Selection
Tool
In the example below, we have a small sentence of speech, where the speaker made a
pause after the first word. We'd like to eliminate that pause.
The part after the pause is selected as shown (darker gray area):
Select the area you want to “split”. Just
click/drag over the area
Now, use the Split Function (Edit > Split) to
remove the selection area from the original track
and move it to a new track as shown below:
Now use the Time Shift Tool to grab the
bottom audio clip and move it to the left as shown
below:
When you play back both tracks, the audio now
doesn’t have as long a pause.
Use the Envelope Tool to fade audio volume down/up in the middle of a
clip.
Note: If you want to fade the volume of a clip at the beginning or end, just use the selection
tool to select the area of the clip where you want a fade then choose the fade in or fade out
filter to apply the “fade” to the selected area.
Creating “Keyframes” to control the audio levels
1. Switch to the envelope tool
2. Click on the audio file to create a “keyframe” and “lock” the volume of the audio
track at its existing volume level
3. Click to the right of the first keyframe to create a 2nd Keyframe then drag down to
reduce the volume level.
4. Click again to the right of the second keyframe to create a 3rd keyframe that will
lock the volume to the level of the 2nd keyframe
5. Finally, click to the right of the 3rd keyframe to create a 4th keyframe then drag the
envelope to up to increase the volume level.
An example of an audio clip that fades down then up, then down, then up, etc.:
2nd 3rd
Keyframe Keyframe
1st 4th
Keyframe Keyframe
Exporting your finished “Audio”
NOTE: Unless you installed the LAME MP3 encoder, Audacity will only allow you to export
WAV format audio files. See instructions above for installing and using it the first time.
Just click on FILE > Export As MP3 You should be able to take it from here .
The MP3 file you EXPORT is the file you want to send to your instructor. DO NOT SEND
the Audacity Project file (the one with an .aup extension.