Gettin' A Grip On 'Audacity', a digital audio editor & recording application ...

it took me around three attempts before i managed to get something done with Audacity, a free digital audio editor and recording application.

here's a few interesting pages for starters:

• http://audacity.sourceforge.net/


• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity


• http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Category:Tutorial


• http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audacity_Wiki_Home_Page

as Audacity freely admits on one of it's wiki pages:

Recording voice, music, or sound effects can be fun and easy. However, if you want to get the best transfer of a tape or LP to your computer, or record your garage band, you'll find that recording can be more difficult than it first appears, unless you arm yourself with a little basic knowledge. The pages listed here are currently a work in progress, providing many useful tips.

one library required to work with the Audacity software is the LAME MP3 encoder. more details can be found among the following links:

• http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&i=lame-mp3


• http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/

i downloaded the Lame for Audacity on Windows.exe file & installed LAME on my computer. then i went to edit --> preferences --> file format or file type, clicked the search for library button to look for the lame_enc.dll file which the windows installation program had just created in my Lame For Audacity folder.

now i should be about ready to go ... here's a couple of screenshots again to support this article:

with step one i start the Audacity program ...




& this is what the blank audio editor looks like at start-up:




there are two important settings i would check first: one is the loudspeaker setting, i set this so i could listen to the sound on my computer while recording (i.e. transfering music from a cassette tape to my computer):



the second one is the microphone setting (the screenshot shows my current setting):



now i follow with a series of screenshots from the preference settings:



the first tab allows me to set the audio input/output settings:



at the second tab i set the sound quality:



with the third tab i can set the file format (also mentioned above in connection with the installation of the LAME library):



the fourth tab lets me adjust the file size:



i use the fifth tab to set the default folder for my temporary files created by Audacity:



the sixth tab is used to activate or de-activate various tool parameters:



with the seventh tab i can set keyboard combinations (i've only shown a few here):



while finally the eighth tab allows me to set mouse click types for various functions to use with the Audacity Audio Editor:



i think for the moment that's about it ...

Good Luck!

tom.paine

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