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audio editing, recording from Line in inputs, Mic inputs, CD digital, AUX inputs, OS sounds from other audio playback software, players etc. Using Audacity you can convert WAV to MP3, WAV to OGG, MP2 to MP3, MP2 to WAV, MP2 to OGG, MPA to MP3, MPA to WAV, MPA to OGG, MP3 to WAV, MP3 to OGG, M2A to MP3, M2A to WAV, M2A to OGG, AIFF to WAV, AIFF to MP3, AIFF to OGG, OGG to WAV, OGG to MP3, AU to WAV, AU to MP3, AU to OGG. All formats for importing (WAV, MP2, MP3, MPA, M2A, OGG, AIFF, AU) could be edited using all internal effects (or filters, if you have some experience with audio editing software). These effects are: amplify, bass boost, change pitch, change speed, change tempo, click and pop removal, dynamic range compressor, echo, equalization, fade in, fade out, fft filter, invert, noise removal, normalize, nyquist prompt filter, phaser, repeat, reverse, wahwah, cross fade in, cross fade out, delay, gverb, hard limiter, high pass filter, low pass filter, sc4 filter, tremolo filter. Audacity is the free software and supports these languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Czech, Danish, German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Macedonian, Dutch, Norwegian, Russian, Slovenian, Finnish, Swedish, Ukrainian. It is very comfortable to use Audacity on your own language, but this guide will show English items. Audacity download |
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Here it is a main guide menu, we recommend to you start learning here - Audacity installation |
Audacity languages selection during installation
Audacity main window
Edit audacity preferences
- Audio in/out
- Quality - Default sample rate
- Quality - Default sample format
- Quality - Real time sample rate converter
- Quality - High quality sample rate converter
- Quality - Real time dither
- Quality - High quality dither
- File formats - How to work with uncompressed files
- File formats - Uncompressed export format
- File formats - Uncompressed export format other
- File formats - OGG export setup
- File formats - MP3 export setup
- File formats - MP3 export setup lame_enc_dll browse
- File formats - MP3 export setup - Lame version and default bitrate
- Spectrograms
- Directories
- Interface
- Keyboard
- Keyboard combination for export as mp3
- Keyboard combination for export as mp3 result
- Mouse
Audacity control toolbar
Audacity edit toolbar
Audacity mixer toolbar
Audacity meter toolbar
Open file
Supporting file types
Open file waveform
Vertical zoom for waveform
Main view commands selection format
Hand cursor to the right
Hand cursor to the left
Start selection point
End selection point
Correct end selection point
Select all file
Audacity skip to start button
Audacity play button
Audacity loop play button
Audacity record button
Audacity pause button
Audacity stop button
Audacity skip to end button
Track menu listing
- Stereo track
- Stereo track split
- Stereo track after splitting
Make stereo track after editing
Edit menu listing
- Select submenu
- Move Cursor submenu
- Snap to submenu
View menu listing
- History undo level 1
- History undo level 2
- History undo level 3
Project menu listing
- Edit ID3 Tags
- Quick Mix
- Adding a new mono audio track
- Adding a new stereo track
- Adding a new label track
- Adding a new time track
- Align Tracks submenu
- Align and Move Cursor submenu
- Adding a new label at selection
- Adding a new label at playback position
- Indicating of the added labels
Generate menu listing
- Silence
- Silence resulting window
- Tone Generator
- Tone Generator Result for Sine Wave 440 Hz
- Tone Generator Result zoom view Sine Wave 440 Hz
- White Noise
- White Noise Result Waveform
- Click Track for New Track
- Resulting Window for the Click Track
- Pluck
- Pluck Result for 60 Midi Note Number
Effect menu listing
- Amplify
- Bass Boost
- Change Pitch
- Change Pitch range
- Change Speed
- Change Tempo
- Click and Pop Removal
- Compressor
- Echo
- Equalization default window
- Equalization - Load Predefined Curve
- Equalization - Load Predefined Curve EMI 78 loaded result
- Equalization - User edited curve at resized window
- Fade In
- Fade In resulting Waveform
- Fade Out
- Fade Out resulting Waveform
- FFT filter - Default window
- FFT filter - User edited curve
- Invert
- Noise removal
- Normalize
- Nyquist Prompt
- Phaser
- Repeat
- Reverse
- Wahwah
- Cross Fade In
- Cross Fade Out
- Delay
- GVerb
- Hard Limiter
- High Pass Filter
- Low Pass Filter
- SC4
- Low Tremolo
Analyze menu listing
- Spectrum analyze
- Beat finder
- Beat finder result
- Silence finder
- Silence finder result
File menu listing
NTSC Film 23.976 FPS To PAL 25 FPS
PAL 25 FPS To NTSC Film 23.976 FPS
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Real time sample rate converter. If you have modern processor in your PC, it is to set "High quality Sinc interpolation" for the best results. |
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Real-time dither. We don't use real-time dither - select "None" |
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High-quality dither - for the best accuracy we select "Triangle" option |
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Uncompressed export format defines the format for the exporting Audacity project after editing - "WAV (Microsoft 16 bit PCM)" is ok in most cases. |
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Other uncompressed export format could be used by the advanced user - changing a header, sample format. Using "Other" mode you can select 24 bit sample format for the exporting. |
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MP3 export setup. For mp3 exporting you will need free Lame Encoder library - "lame_enc.dll". Audacity installation package do not include this DLL file, so you can download it here - Lame Encoder v. 3.97 download - lame_enc.dll library. After the downloading end extracting from the ZIP archive, press "Find library" button, select a path to the "lame_enc.dll" on your hard drive - green arrow. |
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MP3 export setup - lame_enc.dll browse - for the question "Would you like to locate lame_enc.dll now" press "Yes" |
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Directories tab. Select the path for the temporary Audacity files (red arrow) with enough space on it. Free space on the disk will be shown at the "Free Space" section |
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Keyboard tab. On this tab we can adjust keyboard combinations for frequently used operations in Audacity. |
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Result of our example for the keyboard combination adjusting shown in the listing. |
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Mouse tab shows to the user mouse actions in Audacity. It is the last preferences tab, so we can press "OK". |
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Audacity control toolbar contains buttons: "Selection Tool" - this tool is for the waveform selection using mouse and "Shift+Left", "Shift+Right", "Shift+Home", "Shift+End" keyboard combinations. Holding "Shift+Left" or "Shift+Right" will select the range of waveform depending of the Selection format you have choose. "Shift+Home" will select the waveform from the cursor to the start position of the audio track. "Shift+End" selects the waveform from the cursor to the end of the audio track. To edit selection you can also use Audacity Hand cursors. To use this tool press "F1" key. "Envelope Tool" will help to you to change the volume of the waveform parts using mouse on selected points. To use this tool press "F2" key. "Draw Tool" helps to you to change the individual samples of the waveform - for the advanced users. To use this tool press "F3" key. "Zoom Tool" helps to the user change waveform zooming, using left (Zoom In) and right (Zoom Out) clicks of your mouse, or holding "Shift" key using left mouse for "Zoom Out".. To use this tool press "F4" key. "Time Shift Tool" moves your waveform to the right or to the left providing time-shifting for the audio track.. To use this tool press "F5" key. "Multi-Tool Mode" combines the tools described above in one - need some experience with Audacity, could be used later.. To use this tool press "F6" key. |
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Audacity mixer toolbar contains these features: volume for output and input device, and the name of the device |
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To describe all base features of the Audacity editor, we need to open file from hard drive. Select "File menu" click "Open" for the browsing of a media file. |
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Audacity supports these file types: WAV, MP2, MP3, MPA, M2A, OGG, AIFF, AU, so you can select any file with these extensions. |
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After the opening user could see audio file waveform. |
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Audacity gives to user various selection formats - "min:sec" is ok, other selection formats are for the advanced users, who need to select sample depending of video format, Audio CD frames etc. |
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Waveform selection was described here - Audacity control toolbar using. After the selection was made the special Audacity "Hand cursor" could occur if you move mouse cursor to the right and the left border of the selection. These cursors allow to user to change the length of the waveform selection to any side. |
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It is the Audacity "Hand cursor" to the left direction. |
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To define the End selection point, Zoom Out the waveform, and using mouse on "Hand cursor" "Shift+Left" and "Shift+Right" key combinations. |
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Length of selection could be adjust with a high accuracy using Zoom In functions at a high scaling. |
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Audacity "Play" button starts playback of the selection or the whole track if nothing is selected.. |
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For some purpose Audacity gives to user an opportunity for loop playing - just hold "Shift" key and press changed "Play" button. |
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"Record" button's pressing will start recording from the input device you selected in Audacity preferences. The recording level will be active also. |
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"Pause" button make a pause during playback and recording. |
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"Stop" button makes playback and recording stopped. |
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"Skip to end" button moves Audacity cursor to the end of the track. This function coild be called by "End" key pressing. |
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Each track in Audacity has own "Track menu" - red arrow. |
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To split stereo track use this option from the "Track menu" |
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Audacity will split stereo track to a "Left" and "Right" tracks - it could be edited in an individual order and then mixed to the Stereo Track back. |
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Just select "Make Stereo Track" to create stereo track from "Left" and "Right" channels after editing. |
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Now, take a look at "Edit" menu listing, which contains these options: Undo - cancel the previous operation or operations to an initial if the user need it. Redo - repeat the operation if it was cancelled by user - from the initial to the last Cut - removes the selection from the track, copying this selection to the clipboard, it could be the whole track, "CTRL+X" key combination. Copy - copying of the selection to the clipboard, "CTRL+X" key combination. Paste - paste to the selected point, "CTRL+V" key combination Trim - removes all waveform outside of the selection, "CTRL+T" key combination Delete - simply removes selection, "CTRL+K" key combination Silence - makes a silence during the selection, "CTRL+L" key combination Split - makes the silence in the source track, and makes the new audio track in the same project with the waveform at the same time position Duplicate - makes the new audio track in the same project with the waveform at the same time position, without the silence in the source track, "CTRL+D" key combination Select - defines the selection modes: Select All - all waveform Start To Cursor - from the initial waveform's position to cursor Cursor To End - from the cursor position to the end of the waveform Find Zero-Crossing - corrects left and right edges of the selection finding zero-level crossing of the waveform to prevent parasite sound clicking after copy and paste operations, "Z" key. Selection Save - saves in the Audacity internal buffer the selection to restore it later Selection Restore - restores the selection, if the "Selection Save" operation was made earlier Move Cursor - defines these movements of the cursor: To Track Start To Track End To Selection Start To Selection End If any waveform's selection was on the screen, it will be unselected Snap-To defines snapping options: Snap-On - enables snap Snap-Off - disable snap Preferences as described earlier |
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Select submenu |
Top Edit menu
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Move Cursor submenu. |
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Snap-To submenu. |
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View menu listing contains these operations to make the audio editing with Audacity more easy, correct and comfortable: Zoom In - increases the Zoom scaling, "CTRL+1" key combination Zoom Normal - resets any Zoom scaling, showing on the screen 10-second's timeline, "CTRL+2" key combination Zoom Out - decreases the Zoom scaling, "CTRL+3" key combination Fit In Window - changes the Zoom scaling to place the whole track's waveform in one window, "CTRL+F" key combination Fit Vertically - resizes the height of the waveform on the screen to maximum possible height, "CTRL+SHIFT+F" key combination Zoom To Selection - changes the Zoom scaling so the selection will take a window's width, "CTRL+E" key combination Selection Format - defines the selection mode for the audio editing Float options allow to user to remove Audacity Toolbars |
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Level 2 screenshot. |
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Level 3 screenshot. Green double-sided arrow shows that the Amplify -3dB changed the waveform. |
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"Project" menu listing provides these operations with Audacity projects: Import Audio - imports any supported audio file into Audacity Projects, "CTRL+I" key combination Import Labels - imports labels from text file to place them into "Label track" in the project Import MIDI - imports MIDI file to view it, not allowing to play, edit, save them Import RAW Data - imports uncompressed data from the files, recognizing type of the data automatically, do not use this command with compressed audio formats Edit ID3 Tags allows to user to define ID3 tags for MP3 exporting, ID3v1 or ID3v2 selection is possible Quick mix allows to run mixing of all selected tracks - to select hold "Shift" key and click using mouse the tracks you need New Audio Track - adding a new blank mono audio track to the Audacity project with the same sample rate New Stereo Track - adding a new blank stereo audio track to the Audacity project with the same sample rate New Label Track - adding a new blank label track to the project at the bottom part of the window. New Time Track - adding a new timeline track to the project at the top of the window. Remove Tracks - removing of the selected tracks from the project, to select track hold "SHIFT" key and click the left information zones of it - selection is done, when the info zone's color change from gray to blue color Align Tracks - moves the edges of the project to specified points. These points could be: Align With Zero - moves the start edge to the zero timeline position Align With Cursor - moves the start edge to the cursor position. Timeline will not be changed, so until this cursor point you will see the silence Align With Selection Start - moves the start edge to the start of the selection, timeline will not be changed, selection will be the same Align With Selection End - moves the start edge to the end of the selection, timeline will not be changed, selection will be viewable at the timeline only Align End With Cursor - moves the start edge of the project, so the length of the track will be equal time range from zero to cursor position, and this part will be taken from the end of the track. Align End With Selection Start - moves the start edge of the project, so the length of the track will be equal time range from zero to selection start position, and this part will be taken from the end of the track. Align End With Selection End - moves the start edge of the project, so the length of the track will be equal time range from zero to selection end position, and this part will be taken from the end of the track. Align and Move Cursor - repeats previously described operations with edges movements, including cursor moving. These operations: Align With Zero Align With Cursor Align With Selection Start Align With Selection End Align End With Cursor Align End With Selection Start Align End With Selection End Add Label At Selection - adding a label at the start of the selection to the start position to a new label track - use "CTRL+B" key combination. Add Label At Playback position - place a new label to the existing label track during playback in Audacity - press "CTRL+M" key combination to view new label, marked as white triange flag at the label track - red arrow. The previous labels are marked as red triangle flags - green arrow. |
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Window for editing of ID3 Tags in Audacity. |
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Quick mix operation in progress. |
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Adding a new mono audio track to the project. |
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Adding a new stereo track to the project. |
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Adding a new label track to the project. |
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Adding a new time track to the project. |
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Align tracks submenu. |
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Align and move cursor submenu. |
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Adding a new label at start of the selection. |
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Adding a new label at playback position. |
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White and red flags as labels at playback position. |
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"Generate" menu listing include some internal into Audacity tools to generate various types od sounds for projects. These tools are: Silence - creates the silence in the selection with the same length - green arrow. View results of the Silence here. If you will change the length of the silence manually, the track's time length will be changed to the value equal difference between selection time and the user's silence time, so the resulting track time could be decreased on increased. Tone Generator - generates the sine, square or sawtooth waveform instead of the selection with length of the selection (red dashed double-sided arrows), with amplitude equal as an user defined, from 0 to 1, (green dashed double-sided arrows). Tone Generator Results for our example is shown here, and Zoom In view of the generated sine wave. If the user entered the length value manually, the final track time could be increased or decreased as described in "Silence" generator. White Noise - generates the frequency summary spectrum sound, called as "White Noise" - sum of the low frequencies at the same time. Zoom In view of the white noise waveform is shown here. If the user entered the length manually, the track time will be changed as described in the "Silence generator". Click Track - generates the track with taps (clicks) with defined Tempo for Audacity projects, to synchronize the beats. For new track Click Track result is shown here Pluck - generates a pluck as the user defined, sounds as a guitar, with 1 second length, if the cursor placed at the zero time position. Pluck result for 60 midi note number is shown as our example. |
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Generate Silence window. |
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Generate Silence resulting waveform. |
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Tone Generator window. |
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Tone Generator resulting waveform. |
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Zoom view of the sine wave for Tone Generator. |
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White Noise window. |
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White Noise resulting Waveform. |
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Generate Click Track for New Track. |
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Click Track for New Track Result. |
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Generate Pluck. |
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Pluck result for 60 Midi Note number. |
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"Effect" menu provides the main features for audio editing using Audacity, including: Amplify, Bass Boost, Change Pitch, Change Speed, Change Tempo, Click and Pop Removal, Compressor, Echo, Equalization, Fade In, Fade Out, FFT filter, Invert, Noise removal, Normalize, Nyquist Prompt, Phaser, Repeat, Reverse, Wahwah, Cross Fade In, Cross Fade Out, Delay, GVerb, Hard Limiter, High Pass Filter, Low Pass Filter, SC4, Low Tremolo. |
Top Effect menu
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Bass boost - amplify the bass frequencies near the user defined (200 Hz as shown) and it's level in dB. |
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Change Pitch - provides pitch changing for the audio track, could be measured in Notes (Tabs), semitones, frequencies, percents, could be increased or decreased. |
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Change pitch Notes (Tabs) range. |
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Change Speed - modifies the speed of the track, including the tempo and pitch, works as analog of real speed changing for the motor of the tape recorder, vinyl turntable, etc. |
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Change tempo - modifies the tempo of the audio track without changing the pitch - excellent digital effect audio track mixing, video editing, such as NTSC Film 23.976 FPS To PAL 25 FPS audio conversion, PAL 25 FPS To NTSC Film 23.976 FPS audio conversion. Could be measured in percents, Beats Per Minute (BPM). |
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Echo - provides echo effect for audio, recommended for voice channels, adjusting delay time and decay factor - use preview to get desired results. |
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To load predefined curve just check the preset from the list, then press "Load Predefined Curve". |
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Our example shows how EMI 78 predefined curve was loaded - green arrow shows the changed equalization settings. |
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In most cases user edited curve is needed - to achieve the best result, firstly resize the equalization window to the maximum of the width and height. Then using a mouse place points at the frequencies you want to adjust and change the level of them. Using of "Preview" during this operation is very useful. After all changes will be done, press "OK" button to apply equalization. "Clear" button resets all levels to the 0 dB. Equalization effect uses logarithmic frequency scale, to work with linear frequency scale use FFT Effect |
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The resulting waveform for 3 seconds selection after Fade In effect is shown here. |
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Resulting waveform for Fade Out effect is shown here. |
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FFT filter - similar to the Equalization effect, but uses linear frequency scale. The default window is show here. User could work with this default window, but it is recommended to enlarge it size. |
Top Effect menu
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Invert - this operation inverts the phase of the audio, useful for using for stereo audio tracks to restore the right phases if it were rotated cause error analog cables plugging, etc. |
Top Effect menu
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Nyquist Prompt - this effect for the advanced users only, to process the audio using non-usual Nyquist prompts. |
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Phaser - this effect combines source signal with phase shifted clone of it. |
Top Effect menu
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Reverse - this operation makes the selection placed in reverse direction. |
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Wahwah - this effect combines the phase shifting and spectrum shifting in one - use "Preview" to adjust it. |
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Cross Fade In - another version of the Fade In effect in Audacity. |
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Cross Fade Out - another version of the Fade Out effect in the Audacity. |
Top Effect menu
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GVerb - this effect creates a sound as broken with mixed echos or something similar, recommended for advanced users. |
Top Effect menu
Top Effect menu
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High Pass Filter - this filter will pass all frequencies higher than "Cutoff frequency". |
Top Effect menu
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Low Pass Filter - this filter will pass all frequencies lower than "Cutoff frequency". |
Top Effect menu
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SC4 - similar to the real SC4 digital effect, providing soft sound dynamic compressing features. |
Top Effect menu
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Tremolo - this effect creates a sound with vibrating feature. |
Top Effect menu
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"Analyze" menu includes tools for audio analyze, such as: Spectrum analyze, Beat finder, Silence finder. |
Top Analyze menu
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Beat finder will find beats corresponding to the defined level in percents. |
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Beat time points will be marked in a "Label track" with "B" flags. |
Top Analyze menu
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Silence time points will be marked in a "Label track" with "S" flags. |
Top Analyze menu
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Author of this tutorial hopes that presented information helped to learn basic Audacity features for audio editing. See more video guides at Videohelp.com and Doom9.org To contact to the author of this guide, please send e-mail:  |
