1

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - most common questions are answered in the FAQ

1 Menu Bar 2 Transport Toolbar 3 Tools Toolbar 4 Recording Meter Toolbar 5 Playback Meter Toolbar 6 Mixer
Toolbar 7 Edit Toolbar 8 Transcription Toolbar 9 Device Toolbar 10 Unpinned Play/Recording Head 11 Timeline
12 Scrub Ruler 13 Track Control Panel 14 Audio Track 15 Label Track 16 Selection Toolbar 17 Status Bar
Chapter 1
Getting Started
1.1 Audacity Tour Guide
This guide provides a quick tour of selected features of
Audacity. This page doesn’t tell you how to use features,
it would be much too long if it did. Rather it tells you about
some of the features that exist in Audacity and will help
you learn a little about those. There are many links on
this page (highlighted in blue). Click the links to go to the
more detailed pages in the Manual.Also remember that
the Screenshot of Audacity on the front page is click-
able. Clicking on a feature will take you to the place in
the Manual that describes that feature.
1.1.1 Record, Play and Edit - the basics of
Audacity
Audacity can Play Record and edit audio. To play
or record, click on the button on the toolbar:
Transport Toolbar Play and Record buttons
Hold Shift down, and those two buttons change to Loop
Play and Record New Track .
Transport Toolbar with Shift held down
Loop Play
Hold Shift and the play button will change from to
the Loop Play button. Click on this and you will get Loop
Play where the audio plays over and over until you stop.
2
New Track Record
Hold Shift and the record button changes from to
Record New Track. Click, (or use shortcut Shift + R )
to start recording in a new track at either the current cur-
sor position or at the beginning of the current selection.
By default Audacity will record at the end of the currently
selected (or only) track
Select and Edit
Select audio by dragging, before using buttons like cut,
copy and paste to rearrange the audio. You can also ap-
ply an audio effect to the selected audio.
Example of a stereo audio track with some audio se-
lected - the selection is the dark gray sectionFor more
details on Play, Record and Edit see the Getting Started
section of the Manual.
1.1.2 Saving your work - audio formats
Save
Audacity makes a distinction between saving audio in
Audacity project format which only Audacity can open,
and exporting audio in formats like WAV and MP3 for use
1.1. AUDACITY TOUR GUIDE 3

in other applications. Audacity project format is made up

of multiple small files which are stored in the data folder
for the project and alongside that, an AUP file which says
what order the files are in. To reopen a saved project,
open the AUP file, not the multiple small files.

Export

Use Export if you want to create a file in an audio format

for playing outside of Audacity.

• LAME : Do you want to convert a recording to com-

pressed MP3 format? Audacity can, but it needs
an add-on to do so. The add-on is a library called
‘LAME’. A free copy of LAME that is compatible with
Audacity is available from the lame.buanzo.org site,
as per these instructions (Buanzo is a technology
and security consultant from Argentina).

• FFmpeg : The optional FFmpeg library allows Au-

dacity to import and export a much larger range of
audio formats including M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR
(narrow band) and WMA . Audacity can import au-
dio from most video files by using FFmpeg. Light theme Dark theme

1.1.3 Themes

Audacity has four pre-configured, user-selectable,

themes. This enables you to choose the look and feel
you prefer for Audacity’s interface. see the Themes page
for details.

• Light theme: this is a light theme loosely based

on the look and feel of earlier Audacity versions,
but given a contemporary twist with more modern-
looking buttons and icons.

• Dark theme: created by the Dark Audacity project.

This is similar to the Light theme, with the same
buttons and icons, but given a dark twist.

• Classic theme: The one you know and loved. This

theme is a re-creation of the look and feel of earlier
Audacity versions.

• High Contrast theme: some users with poor eye-

sight benefit from a high contrast that is ’eye-
popping’ for most people. Classic theme High Contrast theme
4 CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED
1.1.4 Faster ways to do things - shortcuts
and Chains
A fragment of the keyboard preferences dialog show-
ing some shortcuts
Shortcuts
Many buttons and menu commands have pre-defined
keyboard shortcuts assigned. You can modify these or
add your own with Keyboard Preferences (in the Edit
menu on Windows and Linux or the "Audacity" menu on
Mac).
Chains
Ever want to do the same thing to a large number of au-
dio files, for example remove noise from them and con-
vert to MP3? Chains is the feature for this. Give it a list of
files to work through and tell it what sequence of things
to do. Programmers may want instead to use Scripting ,
an experimental but more flexible version of Chains. This
needs a free experimental module called mod-script-pipe
and experience in programming.
Export Multiple
You can save several audio files at once, rather than sav-
ing them one by one.
1.1.5 Changing the loudness of your audio
- fades, Amplify, pan and gain
Mono track showing an amplitude Envelope
Amplify
The Amplify audio effect makes audio louder or quieter.
Two other effects that modify loudness are Fade In and
Fade Out . These are often used at the beginning and
end of audio.
• Envelopes provide a more flexible way to con-
trol loudness. You will need to select the Enve-
lope Tool or Multi-Tool to use envelopes. With
envelopes you can graphically control when audio
gets louder and quieter.
Pan and Gain
These are the two sliders in the track’s Track Control
Panel . The Gain slider enables you to set the loudness
for the track. The Pan slider lets you make the audio
louder on the left or the right. You can move these sliders
to affect the audio as it plays.
Mute and Solo
These two buttons are in the track’s Track Control Panel.
Click the Mute button to silence this track when playing,
click again to hear it again. Click the Solo button to play
just this track. Click again to release the button.
Auto Duck
This reduces (ducks) the volume of one or more selected
tracks whenever the volume of a single unselected "con-
trol track" placed underneath reaches a particular thresh-
old level. It can be used to create voice-overs for pod-
casts or DJ sets, for automatic "ramping" of background
music in radio productions and for turning down a voice
in original language as soon as its translation kicks in.
Mixer Board
An alternative view to the audio tracks in the main tracks
window, and is analogous to a hardware mixer board.
Each audio track is displayed in a Track Strip with its own
pair of meters, gain slider, pan slider, and mute/solo but-
tons, mirroring that track’s controls in its Track Control
Panel.
1.1.6 Noise in your audio - reducing,
adding, fine tuning
Mono track in Spectrogram view showing a Spectral
Selection
1.1. AUDACITY TOUR GUIDE
Spectral Selection
This is a special feature within Sectrograms , which lets
you view the frequency content of audio then edit just se-
lected frequencies. This is particularly useful for voice
recordings. Among other purposes, Spectral Selection
and editing can be used for cleaning up unwanted sound
by removing particular frequencies, enhancing certain
resonances, changing the quality of a voice or removing
mouth sounds from voice work.
Noise Reduction
Audacity can remove some kinds of noise from a record-
ing. Noise Reduction is an ‘audio effect’, one of the fid-
dlier audio effects to use. This effect works best with
fairly constant noise like background hiss. You first select
audio that is just the noise and create a ‘noise profile’.
Once Audacity knows the noise profile, it can reduce the
loudness of noise of that kind in audio you select.
Notch Filter
This can be used to help you remove mains hum or elec-
trical whistle with minimal damage to the remaining au-
dio, by cutting a "notch" out of the frequency spectrum at
that point.
Generate Noise
Audacity can add noise to a recording too. Three differ-
ent types of noise can be generated. White noise has
the greatest ability to mask other sounds, as it has simi-
lar energy at all frequency levels. If you want to add some
room noise to make silences more realistic, try adding it
at 0.001 amplitude.
Draw Tool
If you Zoom in enough on the audio you can edit indi-
vidual samples of audio. Usually there are 44100 sample
dots for every second of audio. This gives you an idea
of how the audio is stored in the computer. Very occa-
sionally there may be a click in the audio which is better
removed with Draw Tool than with Click Removal or the
Repair effect. Repair is best used when zoomed in a lot
as it only works with short pieces of audio.
1.1.7 Navigation and changing speed and
pitch
5
Transcription Toolbar
Play-at-speed
Audacity has a Transcription Toolbar with a small but-
ton with green arrow pointing right, looking like the larger
button with green arrow for ‘Play’. Set the speed to go
faster or slower using the slider to the right of the button.
You need to stop and restart playback for the new speed
to happen. The speed change also changes the pitch.
This is a temporary change during playback. To make a
permanent change to speed and pitch use the Change
Speed effect (below).
Scrubbing and Seeking
This is the action of moving the mouse pointer right or
left so as to adjust the position, speed or direction of
playback, forwards or backwards, listening to the audio
at the same time - a convenient way to quickly navigate
the waveform to find a particular event of interest. When
Scrubbing or Seeking you can also use the mouse wheel
to change the speed of the scrub or seek so this is an-
other way to change playback speed.
Change Speed , Change Pitch , Change Tempo
You can speed audio up or slow it down by applying an
effect that changes the audio:
• Use Change Speed to make audio faster or
slower and higher or lower pitched.
• Use Change Pitch to change the pitch of a selec-
tion without changing its tempo (speed).
• Use Change Tempo if you want the pitch to
stay the same when speeding up or slowing down.
Change Tempo does not always work so well with
large changes in speed and the end result may
sound a little strange.
Time Tracks
A Time Track is a graph line you drag on to change the
amount of speed-up or slow-down over time, instead of it
having to be a constant speed change. As with Play-at-
Speed the speed changes immediately without waiting to
run an effect, but the changes do apply when exporting
unless you delete the Time Track. So export a copy of
your work to WAV format before using Time Track to be
safe.
6 CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED
1.1.8 Lots of things you might not know
Audacity could do
A pair of Sync-Locked mono tracks: selection ex-
tends automatically to the second track
Sync-Lock
When you have a mix (several tracks above each other
which play together) and everything is nicely lined up, an
edit in one track such as cutting a piece of audio can
cause the mix to no longer to play in sync. To keep
tracks aligned despite cutting, pasting or shifting audio,
use Sync-Lock Tracks.
Labels
Use a Label Track to mark or annotate audio. In conjunc-
tion with Sync-Lock you can keep the labels and audio in
step.
Undo and Redo
These are most useful when working with effects. After
you have applied an effect you might change your mind.
The Undo button or menu item Edit > Undo will let you
undo the change. The History menu item lets you look
further back in time and undo more changes in one step.
Truncate Silence
A convenient effect to apply to recordings of interviews
and speeches that removes long silences. You can tell it
1.2 Tutorial - Your First Recording
This set of tutorials provide a guide to making your first
microphone, guitar or keyboard recording with Audacity.
1.2.1 The Tutorials
This tutorial has been broken into several sub-tutorials for
ease of reading as there is a lot of material to read and
what to count as a long silence, the loudness level and
duration, and how much of each long silence to remove.
Snap To
When making selections it sometimes is helpful for the
selection boundaries to be automatically moved to the
nearest second (or some other unit of time measure-
ment). If you ‘snap-to’ seconds your selections will al-
ways be whole numbers of seconds - you can’t select
half a second of sound for example. Set the time format
to seconds or frames or whatever unit of time you want
to snap to as well as enabling snap-to.
Effects Plug-ins
You can add to the effects available in Audacity using
plug-ins. Some of these have very nice looking interfaces
with graphs and buttons and provide similar effects with
different features, or effects that Audacity does not ship
with. There are several types of plug-in. The Nyquist
type of plug-in, for example, is Audacity’s own plug-in for-
mat. Nyquist plug-ins can be made just by writing text in
a file, so contributors to Audacity often use this format
to create new effects. Thoroughly tested plug-ins are
available from Download Nyquist Plug-ins. Experimen-
tal plug-ins, such as those for the hard task of removing
pops, clicks and "ess" sounds from a voice recording, can
be found on the Nyquist board on Audacity Forum.
Multi-Clip
Many people have a single piece of audio on each audio
track. However, you can have multiple pieces of non-
overlapping audio on the same track. These are called
clips. Clips can be created with Split and joined back
together by clicking on the dark line boundary between
clips. If you click the Time Shift Tool you can drag clips
around to different positions on the track, or drag them to
different tracks.
digest. The following topics are covered and should be
followed in the order presented here:
1. Tutorial - Connecting Up
(a) Tutorial - Connecting a Microphone
(b) Tutorial - Connecting an Instrument
(c) Tutorial - Connecting a Mixer
1.3. NEW FEATURES IN THIS RELEASE 7

2. Tutorial - Selecting Your Recording Device • Tutorial - Audacity Settings for Recording
3. Tutorial - Making a Test Recording
4. Tutorial - Recording and Editing For more information

• Getting sound into Audacity: Troubleshooting

1.2.2 Where to go from here
Recordings
Take some time to play with Audacity. Record and edit • Improving Recording Quality: Audacity Wiki - Im-
more material. Practice editing. Try out different effects. proving Recording Quality
• Editing a track: Edit Menu and Zooming
Tutorials • Effects: Effect Menu

• Tutorial - Mixing a Narration With Background Mu- • Saving: Audacity Projects

sic • Exporting: File > Save Other > Export...
• Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or minidiscs to CD
• If you need help and cannot find it in the manual or
• Tutorial - Editing an Existing Audio File the wiki, try visiting the Audacity Forum.

1.3 New features in this release

• Light theme: this is a light theme loosely based

on the look and feel of earlier Audacity versions,
but given a contemporary twist with more modern-
looking buttons and icons.

• Dark theme: created by the Dark Audacity project.

This page is an overview of the key new functionality This is similar to the Light theme, with the same
that has been introduced in Audacity 2.2.0 buttons and icons, but given a dark twist.
• Details of all the major changes since 2.1.3 can be
found in Release Notes 2.2.0.
• Classic theme: The one you know and loved. This
theme is a re-creation of the look and feel of earlier
Audacity versions.
1.3.1 New Logo
• High Contrast theme: some users with poor eye-
The logo has been given a refresh, and now uses a sans- sight benefit from a high contrast that is ’eye-
serif font and a flatter style. popping’ for most people.

1.3.2 Themes

Audacity now comes supplied with four pre-configured,

user-selectable, themes. This enables you to choose the
look and feel you prefer for Audacity’s interface. see the
Themes page for details.
8 CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED
Light theme Dark theme
Classic theme High Contrast theme The theme to use
can be chosen at Edit > Preferences > Interface .
• In addition to the four pre-configured themes there
is also a Custom theme.
By default the custom theme looks the same as Clas-
sic theme - but, if you have the right programming skills
and tools, you can use this template to create your own
theme. Instructions for how to do this may be found in
the Audacity Wiki.
1.3.3 MIDI (and Allegro) Playback
Playback of MIDI (and Allegro) files imported into Note
Tracks is now available. Please see the Note Tracks page
for more details. This should just work on Windows but
for playback on Mac and Linux additional software may
be required, see this section on the Playing and Record-
ing page. But note that there will no use of the Playback
meter while Note tracks are played.
1.3.4 Stem Plots
There is a new entry in the Tracks Preferences for Dis-
play samples. This setting changes how Waveform and
Waveform dB views are displayed. It only affects the ap-
pearance of the waveform when you are so far zoomed
in that you can see the individual sample dots. At lower
zoom levels it makes no difference.
• Stem plot: This is the default setting which draws
a vertical line from the track center line to the sam-
ple dot, giving a clearer impression of the relative
amplitude of the samples. As seen in the images
below, when zoomed out close to the minimum for
a stem plot, the horizontal distance between sam-
ple dots may be more uneven than seen with the
connect dots default.
• Connect dots: This is alternative setting yields a
waveform where each sample dot is connected to
the next sample by a line drawn between them.
Uneven spacing is due to "aliasing", but zooming in fur-
ther will equalize the spacing whether choosing Connect
dots or Stem plot.
1.3.5 Menu reorganization
We have made the Menus shorter and clearer than in
previous Audacity versions. The menus have been sim-
plified without losing functionality. The most commonly
used functions are found in the top levels of the menus.
The functions moved down into lower submenus are bet-
ter organized. This is not just a rearrangement. We also
added new menu items to make the layout more logical.
There are new menu items for exporting as MP3 or WAV.
Previously you had to export audio, and then choose the
format. You still can do that, but these new items are
1.3. NEW FEATURES IN THIS RELEASE 9

there for convenience. One of the long standing bug- To record on a new track
bears with Audacity is the distinction between ‘Save’ and
‘Export’. People expect to be able to open a WAV audio
If you hold the Shift button down the Record button in
file, edit it in Audacity and then click save. That is not how
Transport Toolbar will temporarily change to . Then
Audacity works. Audacity needs audio in its own unique
clicking on this modified Record button, or using the
format to work on it. So Audacity converts when you
shortcut Shift + R will cause Audacity to create a new
’Open’ a WAV file and converts back when you ’Save’. In
track and begin recording on that track from the current
an attempt to make this clearer Audacity uses the word
cursor position (or from the left edge of a region on the
’Import’ for opening a file like WAV and ’Export’ for con-
Timeline ).
verting and saving in a format like WAV. Open and Save
are reserved for Audacity’s own project format.Now the
‘Export’ options are under the ‘Save Other’ menu item,
where people trying to save audio as an MP3 or WAV file
1.3.8 Help buttons
are more likely to find them.

Many places in the user interface have had a help but-

1.3.6 The Extended Menu bar
ton added. Examples are all the Preferences dia-
log panes, all the Effects, Generators and Analyzers and
There are two new additional menus that are hidden by
some error messages. Clicking on that button in the di-
default. They can be turned on at View > Extra Menus
alog will link you to the appropriate page in the Manual.
(on/off) or the Interface pane of Edit > Preferences .
Example: the Amplify effect. Try clicking on the "?" at the
These extra menus have many extra less frequently used
bottom right of this image.
commands. They are particularly useful to VI users, but
normally-sighted users may find them useful too. Image
of the Extended Menu bar as it appears on Windows

Click, or hover, on either of the Ext- items at the end of

the image to read about those menu entries.
Menu What you’ll find there
Ext-Bar The Ext-Bar menu provides access to Toolbar
operations that are not available in the default Audac-
ity menus. These will be of most interest to visually
impaired users or those who have difficulty using the
mouse. Shortcuts can be assigned to these commands
if required.
Ext-Command The Ext-Command menu provides access
to extra commands for track focus and movement of the
editing or playback cursor that are not available in the
default Audacity menus. These will be of most interest to
visually impaired users or those who have difficulty using
the mouse. Shortcuts can be assigned to these com-
mands if required.If you only require regular access to a
small set of these commands you can set shortcuts for
them and leave the extra menus hidden.
1.3.9 Standard and Full shortcut sets
For Audacity 2.2.0 we have reduced the number of preset
shortcuts in the application to a " Standard " set. We did
this to simplify the set of shortcuts somewhat and to pro-
vide greater flexibility for users who want to set their own
custom shortcuts. You can choose to revert to the full
set of shortcuts that were in 2.1.3 and earlier by select-
ing "Full" from the dropdown menu accessed from the
Defaults button in the Keyboard Preferences dialog. You
can use the Defaults button to switch between the two
provided default sets of shortcuts at any time.

1.3.7 Appended recording on the same

track in now the default

From Audacity 2.2.0 onward the default recording mode

has changed so that when you click the Record button
on Transport Toolbar , or use the R, Audacity will record See Commands and Keyboard Shortcut Reference for
at the end of the currently selected (or only) track. more details.
10
1.3.10 Selection Toolbar improvements
There are now four available settings in the Selection and
Audio Position Boxes in Selection Toolbar for the manner
in which the details of your selection are displayed:
• Start and End of selection: the start time and the
end time of your selection (default setting)
• Start and Length of selection: the start time and
the length of your selection
• Length and End of selection: the length and the
end time of your selection
• Length and Center of selection: the length and
the time at the center of your selection
1.3.11 New commands for using clips via
the keyboard
New commands, all of which interact with the clips on the
focused track. As yet, there are no default shortcuts:
1. Transport > Cursor to > Previous clip boundary
2. Transport Cursor to > Next clip boundary
3. Select > Clip Boundaries > Previous clip boundary
to cursor
4. Select > Clip Boundaries > Cursor to next clip
boundary
1.4 New features in this release - appendix
This page is an appendix to New features in this re-
lease . It is an overview of further new functionality
that has been introduced in Audacity 2.2.0
• Details of all the major changes since 2.1.3 can be
found in Release Notes 2.2.0.
CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED
5. Select > Clip Boundaries > Previous clip
6. Select > Clip Boundaries > Next clip
There are also two new commands ( Clip Left and Clip
Right ) for moving clips, which are available in the ex-
tended menus added in this release.Note that these ex-
tended menus are not turned on by default, to turn them
on please see Menu Reference for how to reveal the ex-
tended menus.
1.3.12 Running out of disk space
We have now provided an error trap for situations where
you are running out of available disk space. You will
now see the error message: "Audacity failed to write
to a file in <device>" This is particularly useful when
recording as Audacity will stop recording when the error
is trapped, preserving your recording up to that point.
1.3.13 Additional new features
This page New features in this release - appendix
gives an overview of further new functionality that has
been introduced in this release of Audacity.
1.3.14 Links
> Audacity Release Notes 2.2.0- detailed release notes
for this release of Audacity
1.4.1 Sync-Lock
Sync-Lock used to be a button in the edit toolbar. Now
instead you enable or disable it from Tracks > Sync-Lock
Tracks.
Old Edit Toolbar, with Sync-Lock
New Edit Toolbar, without Sync-LockThis should make
it easier for users to avoid setting Sync-Lock on by acci-
dent by inadvertently nudging the button.
1.4. NEW FEATURES IN THIS RELEASE - APPENDIX
1.4.2 Easier Selection at Clip Lines
Left-clicking on a clip line will delete the clip line, merg-
ing the two neighbouring clips. Now if you hover over the
Clip line and press and release the Esc key you can then
click on the clip line and select from there by dragging,
without deleting the clip line and merging the clips.
1.4.3 Mac Cursors
The cursors on Mac used to be 16x16 pixels. Now they
are higher resolution and use 32x32 pixels.
1.4.4 Hover Highlighting
Buttons in the track control panel now highlight when hov-
ered over. The thumb on sliders now highlights when the
mouse is over it.
Slider thumb not highlighted (Classic theme)
Slider thumb highlighted (Classic theme)
1.4.5 Escape Key
The Esc key now cancels all click-and-drag actions. It
also chooses among overlapping mouse click targets,
which is especially useful in the Multi-Tool .
1.4.6 Explanation when no Selection
The default behavior now for effects and for edits requir-
ing a selection is that if you click on them without a se-
lection, a dialog now shows explaining that you need to
make a selection. Here an attempt to apply Fade effect
was made without first selecting some audio.
11
1.4.7 Customisable spectrogram colours
The colors of the spectrograms are now customisable
using custom theming . This can give greater clarity to
the spectrograms. In the example below the high inten-
sity greens stand out better than the reds in the standard
spectrogram.
Standard spectrogram colours
Customised spectrogram colours
1.4.8 Simplified stereo splitting and join-
ing
Previously splitting a stereo track created special ’Left’
and ’Right’ tracks. Now splitting creates mono tracks,
panned left or panned right. Below is a screenshot of
a stereo track split into two tracks, one panned left, one
panned right.
1.4.9 Documentation Overhaul
Major overhaul of the Audacity manual, including more
work on clickable images.
• The menus in the manual have more extensive
tooltips and more clickable areas.
• Over 300 new or modified images for this edition of
the manual.
12 CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED

1.4.10 Links of Audacity

< Back to: New features in this release > Audacity Re-
lease Notes 2.2.0- detailed release notes for this release

1.5 Undo, Redo and History

new edit, which we’ll call 6b because it’s different from

1.5.1 Undo and Redo
Audacity is a forgiving application. If you’re afraid of
messing up, relax, because Audacity is designed to let
you try something and then undo it if you do not like it,
or redo it if you like your first idea after all. This is really
the only way to work with audio because it’s often hard
to judge an effect or other change in context of the entire
project until you do it. Undo/Redo is fast, irrespective of
how long the original action took. Use it to listen easily to
"before" and "after" versions of your work. As you apply
more actions, the disk space needed to allow Undo/Redo
of those actions grows, but the Undo/Redo space usage
is discarded on closing the project. Undo/Redo steps for
an open project can be managed in the History window
.There are four ways to Undo or Redo.
• The Undo and Redo choices at the top of Edit Menu
the original 6. At this point you can undo back to step
5 or all the way back to 1, but you can no longer get
back to the original steps 6 through 10, which will be re-
moved from the project history. Undo History is stored for
each project, while that project remains open. So saving
a project does not erase your Undo History, but closing a
project does erase it. When you reopen a saved project,
it starts with an empty history.
1.5.2 History window
The History dialog lets you view and manage all of the
actions you’ve taken since you opened a project. You
can open it by selecting View > History... .

• Two buttons in the Edit Toolbar: Undo and

Redo
• Select "History..." from the View Menu and click on
an action to jump the project state to there
• Use the Keyboard shortcuts:
Windows Linux Mac
UndoCtrl+ZCtrl+ZCloverLeaf+Z
RedoCtrl+YCtrl+Shift+ZCloverLeaf+Shift+ZOnly changes
that modify the project data can be undone. Changes
that cannot be undone include:
• Saving or exporting
• Changing the track height or the selection or cursor
position (these are saved when you save a change
that is recorded by Undo/Redo). • History list: This has two columns.

Undo is unlimited, back to the first action you took in the
project. That means you can make a hundred changes,
then change your mind and undo them all. Undo is step-
wise. This means that if you Undo to several steps back
then perform a new action, you cannot then redo the old
steps that followed the point you went back to. For exam-
ple, suppose you made ten edits, numbered 1 through
10. Now you undo back to step 5, and then perform a
– "Action" shows a list of all project states that
you can go back or forwards to, earliest state
first.
– "Reclaimable Space" shows for each action in
the list the amount of disk space that will be re-
leased if you discard that action’s Undo level.
To ensure that "Reclaimable Space" displays
1.5. UNDO, REDO AND HISTORY 13

an accurate calculation of space that could be • Discard removes steps from the top of the History
freed by discarding actions, space usage is al- list. This action is immediate and cannot be Un-
ways allocated to the latest step that uses that done.
data. So if some steps were only applied to
– Undo information is removed and the disk
part of the project, then as each new action
space it uses is released when you close an
is applied, the action before will have its re-
Audacity project. Thus you should only need
claimable space reduced.
to discard Undo levels if you are working on
Select an item in the history list to Undo or Redo a very large project and are running short of
immediately to that action. It’s the same as choos- disk space.
ing Edit > Undo or Edit > Redo multiple times, but
quicker.
1.5.3 Example
• Total space used: Displays the total disk space
currently used by the project, which is the total of all
the "Reclaimable Space" values shown in the his- Example of using History WindowIn the image below
tory list. we see the History window positioned beside a stereo
track that has been imported into a project. The file size
• Undo Levels Available: (Uneditable). Displays was 67.7 MB, and at the moment that amount of space
how many actions are available to Undo. Select is taken up on the drive by the ability to undo the import.
the next item down in the history list to increase the
number of available undo levels by one. To choose
the maximum possible number of Undo levels, se-
lect the bottom item in the list.
• Levels to Discard: Edit this text box to choose the
number of Undo levels that will be discarded when
you click the Discard button. Items are discarded
starting from the top of the history list.
– Discard button: Removes the number of ac-
tions specified in the Levels to Discard box.
This action is immediate and cannot be un-
done. Discarding undo levels will release the
disk space taken by the discarded items and
the value displayed in the "Total space used" In the next image the user has repaired two clicks and
box will accordingly reduce. amplified the entire track. These edits have slightly more
than doubled the space used by the project to 139.5 MB.
• Clipboard space used: Indicates the amount of
disk space currently used by the Audacity Clip-
board.
– Discard button: Empties the data on the Au-
dacity Clipboard, releasing the disk space dis-
played in Clipboard space used and reset-
ting that value to zero. This action is imme-
diate and cannot be undone. After discard,
pasting will do nothing.
• OK button: Accepts the changes made in the His-
tory window, if any, and closes the window.
Note the difference between Undo and Discard.
• Undo (by any method) grays out steps starting from We see here that the user could for example quickly undo
the bottom of the History list. the "Amplify" step and the two "Repair" steps, returning
to the project to the state it was in immediately after the
– When you Undo, you can still Redo to the file was imported. This is equivalent to selecting Edit >
grayed out list items (as shown in the third im- Undo three times. The project still uses 139.5 MB of disk
age in the example below) until you perform space because it is still possible to Redo those actions.
another editing action. After the new action, Having now selected the "Imported" item to undo back to
the grayed out steps will be removed from the that stage, the project reflects that change - the amplifi-
list and replaced by the new action. cation has been removed and the clicks are back.
14 CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED

After clicking the Discard button, four Undo levels are

discarded starting from the top of the history list, so leav-
ing the final "Amplify" item which was the last action ap-
plied. The total disk space used by the project has been
reduced by the sum of the discarded items to 67.7 MB.

Instead of undoing back to the import of the audio file the

user could decide that everything done up to this point is
perfect. Therefore in order to save disk space the user
could Discard unwanted Undo levels. In the image be-
low the user has selected the "Amplify" item in order to
make the maximum four Undo levels available, then set
"Levels to Discard" to "4". Note that the effect on disk
space would be the same if the user saved and closed
the project, which would also discard all the Undo levels.

1.6 Digital Audio Fundamentals

Digital audio brings analog sounds into a form where they

can be stored and manipulated on a computer. Audacity
is a software application for editing, mixing, and applying
effects to digital audio recordings.

Analog recording media such as a phonograph records

1.6.1 Digital Sampling
All sounds we hear with our ears are pressure waves in
air. Starting with Thomas Edison’s demonstration of the
first phonograph in 1877, it has been possible to capture
these pressure waves onto a physical medium and then
reproduce them later by regenerating the same pressure
waves. Audio pressure waves, or waveforms , look
something like this:
and cassette tapes represent the shape of the waveform
directly, using the depth of the groove for a record or the
amount of magnetization for a tape. Analog recording
can reproduce an impressive array of sounds, but it also
suffers from problems of noise. Notably, each time an
analog recording is copied, more noise is introduced, de-
creasing the fidelity. This noise can be minimized but
not completely eliminated. Digital recording works dif-
ferently: it samples the waveform at evenly-spaced time-
points, representing each sample as a precise number.
Digital recordings, whether stored on a compact disc
(CD), digital audio tape (DAT), or on a personal computer,
1.6. DIGITAL AUDIO FUNDAMENTALS
do not degrade over time and can be copied perfectly
without introducing any additional noise. The following
image illustrates a sampled audio waveform:
Digital audio can be edited and mixed without introducing
any additional noise. In addition, many digital effects can
be applied to digitized audio recordings, for example, to
simulate reverberation, enhance certain frequencies, or
change the pitch . Audacity’s ability to play or record au-
dio directly from your computer depends on your specific
computer hardware. Most desktop computers come with
a soundcard with 1/8 inch (3.5mm) jacks for you to plug in
a microphone or other source for recording, and speak-
ers or headphones for listening. Many laptop computers
have speakers and a microphone built-in. The sound-
card that comes with most computers is not particularly
high quality, in this case you may want to consider using
an external USB soundcard. For information on how to
set up Audacity for playback and recording, see Audacity
Setup and Configuration .
1.6.2 Digital Audio Quality
The quality of a digital audio recording depends heav-
ily on two factors: the sample rate and the sample
format or bit depth. Increasing the sample rate or the
number of bits in each sample increases the quality
of the recording, but also increases the amount of space
used by audio files on a computer or disk.
1.6.3 Sample rates
Sample rates are measured in hertz ( Hz ), or cycles
per second. This value is the number of samples cap-
tured per second in order to represent the waveform.
Higher sample rates allow higher audio frequencies to be
represented. Provided that the sample rate is more than
double the highest audio frequency present, the wave-
form can be reconstructed exactly from the digital sam-
ples. Frequencies that are more than half the sample
rate cannot be correctly represented in digital samples,
and, if present in the original audio, must be removed be-
fore converting to digital. "Half the sample rate" therefore
represents an upper limit called the Nyquist frequency,
and the analog waveform must be entirely below this limit
to be correctly represented digitally. Analog frequencies
at this limit or above cannot be correctly represented by
the digital samples and would cause a kind of distor-
tion called aliasing. The human ear is sensitive to sound
patterns with frequencies between approximately 20 Hz
15
and 20000 Hz. Sounds outside that range are inaudi-
ble. Therefore a sample rate of 40000 Hz is the abso-
lute minimum necessary to reproduce sounds within the
range of human hearing. Higher rates (called oversam-
pling) are usually used so as to allow adequate filtering
to avoid aliasing artifacts around the Nyquist frequency.
The sample rate used by audio CDs is 44100 Hz. Hu-
man speech is intelligible even if frequencies above 4000
Hz are eliminated; in fact telephones only transmit fre-
quencies between 200 Hz and 4000 Hz. Therefore a
common sample rate for audio recordings is 8000 Hz,
which is sometimes called speech quality. Note that very
steep filtering (called an anti-aliasing filter) is required
at the Nyquist frequency in order to prohibit signal above
this cutoff point from being folded back into the audible
range by the digital converter, and creating the distort-
ing artifacts of aliasing noise. The most common sample
rates measured in Hz are 8000, 16000, 22050, 44100,
48000, 96000 and 192000. Sample rates can also be
referred to in kHz or units of 1000 Hz. So in units of
kHz the most common rates are expressed as 8 kHz, 16
kHz, 22.05 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 96 kHz and 192 kHz.
Audacity supports any of these sample rates, however
most computer soundcards are limited to no more than
48000 Hz, 96000 Hz or sometimes 192000Hz. Again,
the most common sample rate by far is 44100 Hz and
many cards will thus default to this rate, whatever other
rates they support. In the image below, the left half has
a low sample rate, and the right half has a high sample
rate (ie. high resolution):
1.6.4 Sample formats
The other measure of audio quality is the sample format
(or bit depth), which is usually measured by the number
of computer bits used to represent each sample. The
more bits that are used, the more precise the represen-
tation of each sample. Increasing the number of bits also
increases the maximum dynamic range of the audio
recording, in other words the difference in volume be-
tween the loudest and softest possible sounds that can
be represented. Dynamic range is measured in decibels
( dB ). The human ear can perceive sounds with a dy-
namic range of at least 90 dB. However, whenever possi-
ble it is a good idea to record digital audio with a dynamic
range of far more than 90 dB, in part so that sounds that
are too soft can be amplified for maximum fidelity. Note
that although signals recorded at generally low levels can
be raised (that is, normalized) to take advantage of the
available dynamic range, the recording of low level sig-
nals will not use all of the available bit depth. This loss
16
of resolution cannot be re-captured simply by normalizing
the overall level of the digital waveform. Common sample
formats, and their respective dynamic range include:
• 8-bit integer: 48 dB
• 16-bit integer: 96 dB
• 24-bit integer: 145 dB
• 32-bit floating point: near-infinite dB
Note that there are practical limitations on dynamic range
due to the capabilities of the hardware and input and out-
put converters. These make the practical limit more like
90 dB for 16-bit. Other sample formats such as ADPCM
approximate 16-bit audio with compressed 4-bit samples.
Audacity can import many of these formats, but they are
rarely used because of much better newer compres-
sion methods. Audio CDs and most computer audio file
formats use 16-bit integers. Audacity uses 32-bit floating-
point samples internally and, if required, converts the
sample bit depth when the final mix is exported. Au-
dacity’s default sample format during recording can be
configured in the Quality Preferences or set individually
for each track in the Audio Track Dropdown Menu . Dur-
ing playback, the audio in any tracks that have a different
sample format from the project will be resampled on the
fly using the Real-time Conversion settings in the Quality
Preferences . The High-quality Conversion settings are
used when processing, mixing or exporting. In the im-
age below, the left half has a sample format with few bits,
and the right half has a sample format with more bits. If
you think of the sample rate as the spacing between ver-
tical gridlines, the sample format is the spacing between
horizontal gridlines.
1.6.5 Size of audio files
Audio files are very large, probably much larger than
most files you work with (unless you work with video
files). To determine the size of an uncompressed audio
file, multiply the sample rate (for example 44100 Hz) by
the sample format bit rate (for example 16-bit) by the
number of channels (2 for stereo) by the number of sec-
onds. A completely full 74-minute stereo audio CD takes
up over 6 billion bits. Divide this by 8 to get the number
of bytes; an audio CD is a little less than 800 megabytes
(MB). See compressed audio below.
CHAPTER 1. GETTING STARTED
1.6.6 Clipping
One limitation of digital audio is that for most purposes it
cannot deal with sound pressure waves that exceed the
maximum levels it is designed to deal with. When a sig-
nal is recorded that exceeds the maximum level of +/-1.0
linear or 0 dB , samples outside the range are clipped
to the maximum value, like this:
A sound recorded with clipping will sound distorted
and harsh. While there are some techniques that can
eliminate a small amount of noise due to clipping, it
is always preferable to avoid clipping while recording.
Change the volume on your input source (microphone,
cassette player, record player) and set Audacity’s input
volume control (in Mixer Toolbar ) such that the waveform
is as large as possible (for maximum fidelity) without clip-
ping. Note that at Audacity’s default 32-bit float sample
format, legitimately captured sample values in excess of
the maximum can be stored but even if preserved in an
exported 32-bit float file they will probably still distort on
any conventional reproducing equipment. If Audacity en-
counters legitimate samples above the limit, the Amplify
effect will show a negative default "Amplification (dB)"
value and you may click OK at this setting to reduce the
peak amplification to the maximum 0 dB without loss of
the original peaks of the waveform.
1.6.7 Compressed Audio
Because digital audio files are so large, reduced sample
rates were typically used whenever possible. In 1991,
the MP3 (MPEG I, layer 3) standard changed everything.
MP3 is a lossy compression technique that can dra-
matically reduce the file size of a digital audio file with
surprisingly little effect on the quality. One second of CD-
quality audio takes up 1.4 megabits, while a common bit
rate for MP3 files is 128 kbps, which is a compression
factor of more than 10x! MP3 works by cleverly "throwing
away" details about the audio waveform that humans are
not very sensitive to, based on a psychoacoustic model
of how our ears and brains process sounds. All MP3
files are not created alike; different psychoacoustic mod-
els will lead to different amounts of perceived distortion in
the audio file. Audacity as shipped can import MP3 files
but please add the optional LAME MP3 encoding library
to your computer in order to export MP3 files from Audac-
ity. With good speakers, most people can hear the differ-
ence between a 128 kbps MP3 and an uncompressed
audio file from a CD. 256 kbps and 320 kbps MP3 files
are more popular among audiophiles who prefer higher
1.6. DIGITAL AUDIO FUNDAMENTALS
quality. There are many other lossy compressed audio
file formats. Audacity fully supports the Ogg Vorbis for-
mat, which is similar to MP3 but is a completely open,
patent-free standard. Over time the quality of Ogg Vorbis
files has come to surpass the quality of MP3, and its for-
mat is more extensible so more improvements are possi-
ble. Ogg Vorbis is a great choice for your own audio, how-
ever the reality is that many more devices such as iPods
and other portable audio players support MP3 but not
Ogg Vorbis yet. Other well-known compression methods
include ATRAC, used by Sony MiniDisc recorders, Win-
dows Media Audio (WMA), and AAC. Audacity supports
more formats by adding the optional FFmpeg library .
1.6.8 Lossless Compression
Lossless compression reduces a file’s size with no loss
of quality. This seemingly magical method of reducing
17
file sizes can be applied to audio files. While MP3s use
lossy compression, newer compression algorithms, such
as FLAC and Apple Lossless compression, can be
used to create lossless compressed audio files. Such
compression basically rewrites the data of the original file
in a more efficient way. However, because no quality is
lost, the resulting files are typically much larger than im-
age and audio files compressed with lossy compression.
For example, a file compressed using lossy compression
may be one-tenth the size of the original, while lossless
compression is unlikely to produce a file smaller than half
of the original size. Lossless audio formats are most
often used for archiving or production purposes, while
smaller lossy audio files are typically used on portable
players and in other cases where storage space is lim-
ited or exact replication of the audio is unnecessary.
Chapter 2
Tutorials
2.1 Tutorials
This page lists tutorials that provide step-by-step instruc-
tions for performing common tasks in Audacity.
• Editing an Audio File
How to import an audio file into Audacity (for example, an
MP3 music file), edit it, then export the result.
• Your First Recording
Detailed instructions on connecting your audio source
(be it a microphone, guitar or keyboard) to your computer,
and then recording that source with Audacity.
• Mixing Voice with Background Music
How to edit a narration to fit the pace of the background
music, and fade down the music so your listeners can
hear your narration, useful in particular for podcasts.
• Recording Multi-track Overdubs
A set of tutorials on making multi-track recordings, using
three different specialist hardware configurations or using
your computer’s on-board soundcard.
• Vocal Removal and Isolation
Techniques which on some stereo tracks may allow you
to remove or isolate vocals (or other parts of a recording)
from the rest.
• Looping
How to make an audio loop with Audacity.
• Making Ringtones and IVR nessages
How to make ringtones for your cellphone or messages
for your IVR system with Audacity.
• Recording streaming audio playing on the com-
puter
How to record audio that is playing on the computer such
as streaming audio from Internet websites.
18
• Copying tapes, LPs and other media to CD or com-
puter
Detailed instructions on connecting your turntable, tape
deck or MiniDisc player to your computer, recording from
that device, then editing and exporting the recording so
that you have separate audio files for each song on the
original source ready to burn to a CD or import into a
media player such as iTunes.
• Click and pop removal techniques
The primary tool in Audacity for dealing with clicks and
pops is the Click Removal effect. Clicks which do not
get removed with Click Removal can be treated individu-
ally with other methods. These methods are only really
useful if you have a relatively small number of clicks and
pops to deal with; otherwise, these approaches will be
too labor-intensive and time-consuming.
• Splitting a recording into separate tracks using La-
bels
How to divide a recording into separate songs for export
in preparation for burning those tracks to an audio CD or
loading onto a portable player.
• Burning Audio CDs
Audacity does not burn CDs directly but audio files cre-
ated with Audacity can be used with a CD burning appli-
cation to create an audio CD.
• How to import CDs
How to import audio from CDs as WAV or AIFF files for
editing in Audacity.
• Exporting to iTunes
How to export audio files from Audacity for use in iTunes
• Importing from iTunes
How to import files from iTunes for use in Audacity
2.2. TUTORIAL - AUDACITY SETTINGS FOR RECORDING
Example Workflows
The following tutorials provide sample workflows for com-
mon tasks using Audacity, there is no fixed ’right’ way of
working - there are many alternatives:
2.2 Tutorial - Audacity Settings for Recording
Now that you know you’re getting sound into the com-
puter, it’s time to launch Audacity and possibly change
some of the basic settings to enable recording. You may
not need to change any of these settings as Audac-
ity’s default settings are designed to work well for
you right from the start, so much so that you can
probably skip-read this page.Your first recording with
a microphone is probably best done without playthrough
of additional sounds, and unless you know you have a
stereo microphone, using mono. Nothing goes ’wrong’ if
you attempt to record in stereo with a single microphone,
though you may find that only one of the two stereo tracks
has sound. To just use the sound from the microphone:
Go to Edit > Preferences (or Audacity > Preferences on
Mac) then select the Recording section, and make the
following settings in the Playthrough section
• Other tracks while recording (overdub)
• Software playthrough of input
To record in the most standard way: In the Recording
section of Preferences make the following settings: in the
Sound Activated Recording section
• Enable
in the Options Section
• Always record on a new track
In the Quality section of Preferences make the following
settings: in the Sampling section
• Default Sample Rate: 44100 Hz
• Default Sample format: 32-bit float
On a Mac you are probably best off with a USB micro-
phone, as a typical PC microphone will need a small am-
plifier between it and the computer.
2.2.1 Project Sample Rate
The project sample rate in Hz can be seen, and
changed if required, in the Selection Toolbar at the bot-
tom of the Audacity window:
19
• Sample workflow for LP digitization
• Sample workflow for tape digitization
• Sample workflow for exporting to iTunes
• Recording 78 rpm records
The sample rate defines the number of digital audio sam-
ples per second taken from a continuous analog signal.
44100 Hz is standard for creating files that can be burned
to Audio CD or for high-quality MP3 files. This is the de-
fault setting in Audacity and is best left at that setting for
your recordings.
2.2.2 Project Sample Format
The Project Sample Format (also known as Bit Depth
or Word Size) is the number of computer bits present in
each audio sample. It determines the dynamic range of
the audio. Audacity’s default is set to 32-bit float. This is
good for editing and processing audio. It is strongly rec-
ommended that you retain the default setting, however if
you really need to change your sample format this can
only be done in the Quality section of Preferences . You
can easily downsample to 16-bit (the standard for creat-
ing WAV files that can be burned to audio CD) when
exporting later. See Digital Audio for more explanation of
sample rates and formats.
2.2.3 Temporary Files
Most users have only one hard disk. However, if you
have multiple hard disks, you will want to make sure that
Audacity uses your largest or fastest hard disk to store
audio. Open the Preferences (in the Edit menu, or the
Audacity menu on Mac) and click on the Directories tab
. Make sure that the directory listed is on your preferred
hard disk.
If your home directory is mounted from a remote
server, you definitely do not want Audacity’s temporary
directory to be there!
2.2.4 Software Playthrough
Now click on Transport > Transport Options and, if
you are recording from a microphone, make sure
that Software Playthrough is not checked - Software
Playthrough will cause undesirable feedback from the
20 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS

computer speakers to the microphone. If you are record- is constant, you can adjust the Latency correction value
ing a guitar or keyboard and want to hear the in- so that your recorded tracks should end up properly syn-
strument through the computer speakers, make sure chronized with the other tracks after correction. To set a
that Software Playthroughis checked. Using Software custom latency value for your system, see the Latency
Playthrough will cause a slight delay between time you Test page.
play a note and the time you hear it. The amount of de-
lay will vary between computers and operating systems.
There is no way to avoid this delay. If you find it bother- 2.2.6 Sound Activated Recording
some, the best solution is to play the guitar or keyboard
through a mixer and plug headphones into the mixer. Also at Transport > Transport Options make sure that
"Sound Activated Recording" is not checked. "Off" is
the default setting. When this is enabled, recording will
automatically start or resume when the recording volume
rises above the chosen threshold level, and pause when
Hardware playthrough:This is a method available on the level falls below that threshold. You cannot pause
some Windows and Linux machines that lets you un- Sound Activated recordings manually using the Pause
mute the input directly in the sound device. To use this, button or corresponding menu item or shortcut.
open the operating system sound mixer, then the Play-
back section, then unmute the input device (microphone
or line-in) and turn the volume up. You can find the sys-
2.2.7 Audacity Preferences
tem mixer in the Control Panel at Sound on Windows.
On Linux, it may be possible to unmute input devices in
ALSAmixer then set playback and recording devices in If you prefer, you can make the above settings in your
Audacity to the (hardware) device. Audacity Preferences . To access this, use Edit > Prefer-
ences... (or Audacity > Preferences... on Mac). The im-
age below shows the Recording section of Preferences:
Macs have not had proper hardware playthrough
support for some years. If hardware playthrough is re-
quired it is best to use an external USB or Firewire audio
device that has a headphones jack for no-latency moni-
toring (such as the Behringer UCA 202 or Zoom H2).

2.2.5 Overdub off

Now click on Transport > Transport Options again and

make sure that "Overdub (on/off)" is not checked.
When this option is enabled Audacity will play other ex-
isting tracks while recording a new one. You can decide
which tracks will play according to their mute/solo buttons
on the Track Control Panel . It is unlikely you will need
overdub for your first recording. If you do want to over-
dub by (for example) singing over a recorded instrumen-
tal track, you should be aware of the Latency correction
preference. There are many other settings that can be made in Pref-
erences. Do take some time to explore and understand
these. For example Sample Rate and Sample Format
Latency correction can be changed in the Quality section of Preferences.

On most computer systems there will be a delay known

as latency between singing or hitting your note and 2.2.8 Links
it being laid down in the recording. When Transport >
Transport Options > Overdub (on/off) is set to "on" and > Forward to: Tutorial - Selecting Your Recording Device
you record with another track already present, Audac-
< Back to: Tutorial - Connecting Up
ity will push the recorded track backwards by 130 mil-
liseconds to compensate for the delay. If your latency |< Tutorial - Your First Recording
2.3. TUTORIAL - CLICK AND POP REMOVAL TECHNIQUES
2.3 Tutorial - Click and pop removal techniques
There are a number of ways you can use Audacity to
remove clicks and pops from your recording. First, with-
out zooming in too far, visually inspect your recording for
clicks - they will show up as abnormally tall (sticking up
or down), very narrow (one or two pixels wide) vertical
lines protruding from the waveform. The primary tool in
Audacity for dealing with clicks and pops is the Click Re-
moval effect. Clicks which do not get removed with Click
Removal can be treated individually with other methods.
These methods are only really useful if you have a rela-
tively small number of clicks and pops to deal with; oth-
erwise, these approaches will be too labor-intensive and
time-consuming:
• Audacity’s Repair effect can repair a short length of
up to 128 samples by interpolating from the
neighboring samples.
• For hard to spot clicks you may want to try Click
removal using the Spectrogram view .
• For somewhat longer regions of audio, try:
– Silence Audio The silenced sections must be
short enough so as to not be audible.
– Draw Tool The principle is to put samples back
into line with their neighbors to smooth out the
contours of the samples and so attenuate the
click or pop.
2.3.1 Audacity Click Removal
To use Audacity’s Click Removal first select the audio
from which you want clicks repaired. You can select all
of a track by clicking on its Track Control Panel . Alterna-
tively, you can select all the audio in the project by using
Select > All or its shortcut Ctrl + A(CloverLeaf + A on a
Mac). If there are a lot of clicks it is possible they may
be removed more effectively by selecting individual clicks
or groups of clicks rather than the whole track. You can
select part of a track by clicking in the track and drag-
ging to left or right with your mouse, or by holding down
Shift and the left or right arrow keys. Zooming right in
and selecting only an individual spike may not work well
- extend the selection a little either side of the immediate
click or group of clicks to give the algorithm more idea of
the undamaged audio it can use. Then, choose Effect
> Click Removal . Move the "Threshold" slider to adjust
how sensitive the click detection is, and the "Spike Width"
slider to adjust the length of spiked audio to be consid-
ered as a click. Then click the OK button. Softer clicks
may require you to move the threshold slider further to
left (but moving it too far to left may create a "broken up"
effect with too much audio removed). For broader clicks,
move the "Spike Width" slider further to right. Preview the
effect with these different settings to get the best results.
21
Then, using the settings from your preview testing, use
the Click Removal effect on selected regions of audio or
on the whole project. Very soft and rapid light ticks that
sound like static electricity and which are typical of vinyl
(even though the pressing is often the cause rather than
a static charge) will not be effectively removed with Click
Removal. For this type of noise, select an area of vinyl
that contains only the noise (no music or speech) and
use Effect > Noise Reduction . For details of how Au-
dacity’s Click Removal works see this page in the Wiki.
Click Removal requires an audio selection of more than
4096 samples. This is about 93 milliseconds at 44100 Hz
project rate as shown in Selection Toolbar .
2.3.2 Repair of short sections
Audacity has a Repair effect which can be used to re-
pair a short length of up to 128 samples long (for most
audio, only a few thousandths of a second) by interpo-
lating from the neighboring samples. You will need to
zoom in to see the individual samples to use this effect.
Above this length, it becomes too hard to interpolate what
should be going on in the section under repair. You will
get an error message if you select too much audio to try
and repair. In general, the shorter the section of audio
you select to repair, the better the results will be. The
Repair effect is unusual because it requires there to be
audio outside the selection region on at least one side
of the section to be repaired. If the surrounding audio in
the track is very short or non-existent there may not be
enough information to make the interpolation, in which
case an error message will be shown. When using Re-
pair it is often convenient to set Selection Toolbar bar to
show hh:mm:ss + samples, then click the Length radio
button to ensure you are only selecting up to 128 sam-
ples.
2.3.3 Silencing and Draw Tool
Sometimes an even better result can be obtained by
zooming in to sample level and either silencing the click
using Edit > Remove Special > Silence Audio (or the Ctrl
+ L shortcut), or using Draw Tool to smooth out the con-
tours of the samples and so attenuate the click. Remem-
ber, the click will be visible as a "spike" in the waveform.
Most discrete clicks up to 10 milliseconds long can actu-
ally be simply silenced or deleted without leaving an audi-
ble gap in the sound, although many clicks spread wider
that that. If the click is not suitable for silencing or dele-
tion, enable Draw Tool by clicking the pencil icon
in the Tools Toolbar , or press F3 on your keyboard. The
22
mouse pointer will change to a pencil while over the audio
track. You must zoom in until you can see the individual
sample dots before you can use Draw Tool. Click in the
track at the point you wish a sample to be redrawn to, and
wait for the samples to be rejoined together. Alternatively,
click in the area of track where the line of samples is not
smooth and hold down Alt on your keyboard. The pointer
will now change to a brush (or spray can on Linux). Some
patience may be needed with this tool, but the principle is
to put samples back into line with their neighbors so that
a smooth contour is presented.
2.3.4 Use Spectrogram view to identify
clicks more easily
Click removal using the Spectrogram view is a workflow
tutorial giving steps to remove hard-to-spot clicks using
Audacity’s Spectrogram view. In the default Waveform
view, loud clicks often show up as easily seen spikes, but
smaller, lower amplitude clicks can be very hard to find
without zooming in to near sample level then scrolling the
waveform to identify the exact location of the clicks. Con-
siderable time can be saved by first using Spectrogram
view which identifies clicky regions more readily.
2.3.5 Other techniques
Silencing highly zoomed areas or redrawing samples can
get tedious even over a relatively short stretch of audio.
Here are a few other tricks you can try if Click Removal
did not help as much as you hoped.
Spectrum analysis
Analyse the area with Analyze > Plot Spectrum to see
if any spikes are concentrated in particular frequencies
and then use Effect > Equalization to reduce the volume
of those frequencies. You can do this more precisely with
the Effect > Notch Filter .
Subtraction
Where the clicks sound equally loud in both left and right
channels of a stereo recording (this often is not the case),
but the music information in the channels is very different
at that point, you can try to cancel out the click by making
the affected section of track mono and inverting one of
the channels:
• First, select the area of track that has the click, then
click in the track name by the downward-pointing
arrow to open the Track Dropdown Menu (right).
Choose choose Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split New
. This moves the selected area into a new track
underneath your original track.
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
• Then click in the new track’s in track name to open
its Track Dropdown Menu and choose Split Stereo
to Mono.
• Now select one of the channels by clicking where
it says "Mono". In the menus at the top, choose
Effect > Invert .
When you export the result as a stereo track, the area
you split out will be effectively mono (in the sense that
the previous music signal in the left and right channels
will be mixed into both channels), but the click should be
sharply attenuated without harming the music too much.
Repair of broader clicks
Click Removal may not work well with broader clicks of
10 milliseconds or longer. Here are two Nyquist plug-ins
you can try. Installation instructions for Nyquist plug-ins
are here:
• PopMute: heavily attenuates loud clicks and pops
(and even hand claps or small bangs) to make them
less obtrusive.
• EZ-Patch: really loud and wide glitches may still
sound too bad even if moderated with "Pop Mute".
In that case, try "EZ-Patch" which lets you repair the
damage by selecting the glitch together with some
undamaged audio on one side of the glitch, then
smoothly replaces the glitch with the undamaged
part of the selection.
2.3.6 Alternative software
It is also possible to use other software than Audacity for
click removal, while still using Audacity for the other edit-
ing tasks and to produce the final master. Export your
audio track from Audacity as a lossless WAV or AIFF file,
and also save the click-removed audio as a WAV or AIFF
for import back into Audacity.
• GoldWave: Though nominally not free it is a top
class, free trial click remover as well as an excellent
alternative audio editor. Its click removal is an ef-
fect, just like in Audacity, and there is a "Smoother"
effect for broad unwanted noises and an excellent
"Noise Reduction" effect for steady noise. The trial
version limits you to a hundred or so commands
per session, and a total number of several thou-
sand commands before it expires, but if you export
from Audacity as 32-bit WAV and just do Click Re-
moval in it, you should be able to declick several
hundred records for free.
• Gnome Wave Cleaner: Only for Linux users. Dig-
ital restoration of CD-quality audio files. Dehiss,
declick and decrackle in a GUI environment. It
can also automatically mark song boundaries if re-
quired.
2.4. TUTORIAL - CONNECTING AN INSTRUMENT 23

• ClickRepair: An excellent tool for removing clicks dation:

and pops is Brian Davies’ ClickRepair. Some new
users may find it a bit intimidating as an entry level
tool but, once you have understood the settings you
want to use, it is effectively an automated tool. It re-
quires Java and is not free, but many users report
that it saves a lot of time and produces good results.
You may find the default settings for this application re-
move a little too much signal. An alternative recommen-
• DeClick = 30 (default is 50)
• Pitch Protection = "on" (default is "off") though leave
this "off" for brass recordings
• Reverse = "on" (there is no processing penalty for
this and it helps on percussive music)
• Method = Wavelet

2.4 Tutorial - Connecting an Instrument

Generally speaking you will want to connect these instru- A Stereo Mini plug to dual RCA cableIf the keyboard
ments to the line input port on your computer, not the has two 1/4 inch jacks on the back you will need a 2 x
microphone port (which is often mono). Not all comput- 1/4 inch jack to stereo 3.5mm jack, or you could use a
ers will have a line input port. dual RCA to stereo mini-plug cable, and two RCA to 1/4
inch adapters. Plug the RCA plugs into the RCA jacks
• Some PC laptops may have a hardware or software
on the adapters - you now have a dual 1/4 inch to stereo
switch to convert the microphone port to line-level
mini-plug cable.
stereo.
• Some PC notebooks/netbooks may have a compli-
ant microphone input port which will tolerate line
level inputs and may provide stereo input.
Always try line-level input first, and only use a micro-
phone input if you cannot otherwise get adequate record-
ing volume. You can buy modestly priced, decent quality
USB interfaces with line level stereo input if needs be.

2.4.1 Connecting a keyboard to your com-

puter

If the keyboard has RCA jacks on the back then the best
way to connect it is with a dual RCA to stereo mini-plug
cable as shown below, plugged from the RCA output
jacks on the back of the keyboard to the line input port
of the computer.

1/4 inch jack to stereo 3.5mm jackAn RCA to 1/4 inch

adapterIf the keyboard has neither of these options, but
does have a 1/4 inch or 3.5mm stereo headphone jack,
the easiest way to connect it is with a cable with a stereo
mini-plug on one end (for the computer), and an stereo
jack plug of appropriate size at the other end for the key-
board headphone socket. Plug the headphone output of
24 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS

the keyboard to the line input port of the computer. You
will lose the ability to listen directly to the keyboard using
headphones, and any internal speakers will probably be
muted. You can get around this using a headphone split-
ter cable, or by enabling Software Playthrough in Audac-
ity, (Software Playthrough will introduce a delay between
the time you play a note and the time you hear it). This
topic is covered in more detail in a following section.
2.4.2 Connecting a guitar to your computer
This section is about connecting an electric guitar, bass
guitar or acoustic guitar with electrical pickup to your
computer. If you want to record an acoustic guitar with
a microphone, or record the sound of your guitar ampli-
fier using a microphone, please read the section on con-
necting a microphone to your computer .If you have a
"USB Guitar" then you can skip ahead to testing the input
connection for your operating system. Generally the out-
put level from an electric guitar (or electrical pickup in an
acoustic guitar) is sufficient to drive the line input port on
a computer. Turn the volume control on the guitar all the
way up. You will need a shielded adapter cable that goes
from a 1/4 inch mono plug (to plug into the guitar) to a
mono mini-plug (to plug into the computer line input port).
You probably have a guitar cable for plugging the guitar
into an amplifier, and you may be tempted to buy a 1/4
inch to 1/8 inch adapter instead, plug it into the computer
line input then connect the guitar to the adapter using the
cable - do not do this! This creates a heavy, stiff cable
hanging off the back of your computer - the slightest tug
in the wrong direction could damage your soundcard! If
you cannot get a good recording level when connecting
to the line input port (explained in a following section on
setting recording levels in Audacity), you can try the mi-
crophone input on your computer (if you have one). Be-
ware of overloading the microphone input. You can turn
down the volume control on your guitar to compensate
for the extra amplification in the microphone input port,
but hum and noise may increase in comparison to us-
ing the line input port. Most effect pedals are designed
to deliver about the same volume to the amplifier as the
unaffected guitar sound (the volume you get when the ef-
fect is bypassed). Thus you can connect your guitar to a
pedal and then connect the pedal to the computer. Some
guitar amplifiers include a "direct output" for feeding the
amplifier sound to recording or PA systems. Amplifiers
designed for stage use that include this feature will usu-
ally have either a line-level 1/4 inch mono jack output, or a
microphone-level balanced output using an XLR connec-
tor. Connecting this output to your computer microphone
input is beyond the scope of this Tutorial - talk to the folks
at your local music store.
Some amplifiers have a 1/4 inch output for connect-
ing an external speaker. This must not be connected
directly to the computer soundcard input as the signal
level is far too high and may permanently damage the
soundcard. Some USB audio interfaces are specifically
designed for connecting a guitar to a computer or may
have a dedicated input for electric guitar or bass guitar.
Talk to the folks at your local music store.
2.4.3 Links
< Back to: Tutorial - Connecting Up
|< Tutorial - Your First Recording

2.5 Tutorial - Connecting a Microphone

2.5.1 Connecting a microphone to your

computer

If your computer has a microphone input port

You’re all set. Just plug a compatible microphone into

the microphone input port on your computer. What do
we mean by compatible? Any microphone with a per-
manently attached cord that ends in a mini-plug should
work. Note that many soundcards provide battery volt-
age for mono electret microphones on the ring of a stereo
mini-plug. Check your computer manual to be sure if this
feature is provided. If it is, be sure to use a microphone
that is designed to accommodate this.
2.5. TUTORIAL - CONNECTING A MICROPHONE
A mono mini-plugA stereo mini-plug A computer
headset-mic combination is pretty much guaranteed to
work. These microphones are not the highest quality,
but can be had fairly inexpensively. If you’re just get-
ting started and want to experiment without spending a
lot of money, one of these would be a good choice. Just
do not be surprised if your recorded voice sounds a bit
tinny or flat. Desktop-standing microphones can be had
for at little as $10 or as much as $500. Choosing a micro-
phone is beyond the scope of this tutorial. Try searching
the web for "computer microphones", visit your local com-
puter store, talk to your friends, or ask questions on the
Audacity Forum. Unless you are prepared to spend extra
money for a microphone pre-amp or standalone mixer do
not buy a microphone with an XLR connector:
An XLR plug
If your computer does not have a microphone input
port
Do not plug a microphone into the line input port on your
computer. The volume will be way too low (the line input
port does not apply the needed amplification to boost the
very quiet signal from the microphone). You will not break
anything, but you will be very frustrated with the results.
Option 1 - Buy a microphone to USB adapterThese
devices plug into a USB port on your computer, and
25
have a microphone input jack (usually 1/8"). You will
still need a compatible microphone. Be sure to care-
fully read the specifications of any adapter you are con-
sidering and make sure you get a microphone that will
work with that interface. Option 2 - Buy a USB micro-
phoneThese microphones are becoming more common.
They combine a microphone and the USB adapter all in
one package. Models are available by Logitech, Sam-
son, Nady and Audio-technica, among others. Option 3
- Buy a mixerThis may be the most expensive option but
provides the most flexibility. Any inexpensive DJ mixer
should include a microphone input. The electronics in
the mixer will boost the microphone signal, and the out-
put of the mixer will be connected to the line in port on
your computer. The DJ mixer will also have inputs for
turntables so you can use it record your LPs in prepara-
tion for converting them to CD. The DJ mixer will most
likely have line level inputs as well, so you could connect
a cassette deck or other line level source to the mixer.
Another option is a small inexpensive microphone and
line level mixer. Note that these mixers do not usually
include inputs for turntables. When purchasing a mixer
make sure to also buy a microphone that is compatible
with the mixer. Unless you are sure of what you are do-
ing it is probably best to visit your local music store. Don’t
let them sell you a $1000 DJ mixer and $500 microphone
- unless you are a professional DJ you do not need equip-
ment at that level. The advantage of a mixer is that you
can connect all your audio sources to the mixer then con-
nect the mixer to your computer. No need to be con-
stantly re-plugging things at the back of your computer.
To connect the mixer to your computer you will probably
need a dual-RCA to stereo mini-plug cable like this one:
Dual-RCA to mini-plug cablePlug the RCA plugs into
the RCA output jacks on the back of the mixer. Plug the
stereo mini-plug into the line input port on your computer.
There are also mixers that can be connected to the com-
puter via USB and do not require the stereo mini-plug
cable. If you do buy a mixer, you will no longer be con-
necting the microphone directly to your computer. See
Connecting a Mixer .
26 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS

2.5.2 Links |< Tutorial - Your First Recording

< Back to: Tutorial - Connecting Up

2.6 Tutorial - Connecting a Mixer

To connect a mixer to the line input port on your com-

puter you will need a dual-RCA to mini-plug (1/8 inch)
cable. Plug the RCA plugs into the RCA output jacks on
the back of the mixer. Plug the stereo mini-plug into the
line input port on your computer.

If you do not have a line input port (many Windows lap-

tops do not), you’ll need a line level USB audio interface.
In that case you will need a cable that connects from the
output of the mixer to the input of the USB interface. In 2.6.1 Links
the illustration below a dual-RCA cable is connected from
the output of the mixer (out of frame) to a USB interface. < Back to: Tutorial - Connecting Up
The USB interface then plugs into the USB port on the
laptop. |< Tutorial - Your First Recording

2.7 Tutorial - Connecting Up

2.7.1 Identifying the sound ports on your PCs - Windows and Linux
computer

Most desktop PCs (Windows and Linux) will have sound

First of all you need to know the sound input capabilities ports on the back of the computer similar to these illus-
of your computer. trations.
2.7. TUTORIAL - CONNECTING UP 27

pects to have a Line level signal plugged into it, this is

the same level used by most consumer-oriented audio
equipment. Equipment such as tape decks, record play-
ers, MiniDisc players, Video Game Systems and so on
should be plugged into this port.

Macs

Macs do not generally have a microphone input port.

The rear of a typical PCThe color-coded jacks on the

soundcardThe pink port is normally the microphone in-
put, and is usually mono but might be stereo. The light
blue port is normally the line input port and is usually
stereo. The green port is normally the headphone output
port, also usually stereo. Check your computer manual to
be sure. PC laptops vary widely in the types of sound in-
put and output ports they provide, where they are on the
laptop, and how they are labeled. Many modern laptops
do not have a line input at all. Again, check your com-
puter manual to be sure of the capabilities of your laptop,
where the ports are and how they are labeled. Audio connections on a PowerBookAudio connec-
tions on an iMacIn these illustrations of sound ports
on Macs, the round port with the headphone symbol is
the Line Output port. The round port beside the head-
Mic In
phone port is the line input port. Other Macs (Mini, Mac
Pro, MacBook and MacBook Pro) are similarly equipped.
Generally the Mic In port on a computer is only meant Check your manual for the locations and labeling of these
to have a small computer microphone plugged into it. If ports.
you have a microphone with an 1/8" (3.5mm) 3-conductor
jack plug, it will probably work if plugged into this port.
USB devices

Line In For better audio quality, many people use an USB audio
device. If you have such a device, attach your micro-
The Line In port is the highest quality input available on phone and speakers to that device, and plug the device
most soundcards (like the one pictured above). It ex- into your computer’s USB port.
28
USB Cable and Plug
USB Ports
2.8 Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
This set of tutorials provides instructions on how to
record audio material from a variety of sources and
then deploy it to CD, your computer or portable mu-
sic player.You can use Audacity and your computer to
record sound from any external device which outputs an
audio signal. Although cassette tapes and records (LPs)
are the most popular examples, Audacity can be used
just as easily to record audio from the following:
• Open-reel tape decks
• MiniDisc (MD) or Digital Audio Tape (DAT) players
(if you have a digital soundcard, connect from digi-
tal out of the player to S/PDIF in of the soundcard)
• Radios
• Mixers
• Musical Keyboards (via headphones-out, line-out
or other audio-out, not from the MIDI output - more
help on recording keyboards at pianoclues.com)
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
2.7.2 Connecting a microphone, keyboard,
guitar or mixer to your computer
Please click on the following links apropriate to the input
device or instrument you wish to connect:
• Microphone
• Keyboard or Guitar
• Mixer
2.7.3 Testing your input connection
Before you fire up Audacity you should use your com-
puter’s sound control panel or the custom mixer applica-
tion for your specific soundcard, select the input device
you want to use and verify that you are getting sound
into the computer from that device. Once you have veri-
fied that you are getting sound into the computer you can
move on to getting that sound into Audacity. If you are
having trouble getting sound into Audacity there’s lots of
help available on the Audacity Wiki.
2.7.4 Links
> Forward to: Tutorial - Audacity Settings for Recording
|< Tutorial - Your First Recording
• Video cassette recorders (VCRs), Personal Video
Recorders (PVRs) and DVD players (recording
from a dedicated line-out containing audio output
only)
• Televisions (via a SCART adapter cable connected
to the computer soundcard, or through a TV or
VCR’s audio out)
• Personal digital voice recorders (DVRs)
• Portable MP3 players (such as iPods)
• Other computers.
Making vinyl to digital transfers is a skill and the more you
do the more expert you will become. Consider starting
out with some LPs or singles that you care less about and
only ever played infrequently. This way you will not need
to go back and repeat important earlier transcriptions that
you made. This tutorial assumes that you have read and
understood the Your First Recording tutorial, and have
figured out how to get sound into your computer and into
2.9. TUTORIAL - EDITING AN EXISTING AUDIO FILE
Audacity. You should at least read and understand Step 1
of that tutorial in order to become familiar with the jacks,
plugs and cables you may need to connect your audio
device to your computer. The instructions here will apply
only to the special situations of connecting a turntable,
cassette deck or MiniDisc player to your computer.
2.8.1 The Tutorials
This tutorial has been broken into several sub-tutorials for
ease of reading as there is a lot of material to read and
digest. The following topics are covered and should be
followed in the order presented here:
1. How to connect your equipment
2. How to set up Audacity
3. Basic Recording, Editing and Exporting
4. Click and pop removal techniques
5. Splitting a recording into separate tracks
2.9 Tutorial - Editing an Existing Audio File
The easiest way to use Audacity is to import an existing
audio file and make small changes. If you’ve never used
Audacity before, this is a great place to start.
If you have just made a recording it is strongly rec-
ommended that you immediately export your audio using
File > Save Other > Export Audio... to WAV or AIFF
(ideally to an external drive) as a safety copy before you
start editing the project.
2.9.1 Objective
The objective of this tutorial is to learn how to edit an
audio file. To achieve this objective, we are going to im-
port an existing sound file, remove all but 10 seconds of
this file, apply a 1-second fade-out at the end, export the
results, and play it in your favorite audio player. These
steps will introduce the basic steps commonly used when
editing the contents of an audio file.
2.9.2 Step 1: Find a file to edit
Audacity can import many common audio file formats, in-
cluding WAV , AIFF , and MP3 . If the optional FFmpeg
library is installed, a larger range of formats, including
WMA and the audio content of most video files, can be
imported. Audacity cannot import copy-protected music
29
6. Burning music files to a CD
The following tutorials address additional special interest
topics which may not be of use or interest to the general
user who wishes to transcribe LPs, tapes or other media:
• Sample workflow for LP digitization
• Exporting audio for use in iTunes
• Sample workflow for exporting to iTunes
• Recording 78 rpm records
• Recording with USB turntables or USB cassette
decks
• Higher speed transfers
The following articles in the Audacity Wiki are likely to be
of use when transferring cassette tapes. They deal with
issues like: head cleaning, azimuth setting and common
cassette deck faults including magnetized tape heads:
• Recording from Cassette
• Cassette Deck De-magnetization
files. If you want to edit music that you have on an audio
CD , you need to "rip" the music into an audio file. See
the Audio CDs page for information on getting the audio
off of CDs and into Audacity. Don’t have any audio files
handy? There is lots of free music online! Here is one
site where you can download free music: OpsoundThe
recordings on this site are free, distributed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license, which
gives you the right to create a derivative work without
paying royalties, as long as you give credit and make your
derivative work free, too. This is similar to the license for
Audacity , which allows any devloper to modify it and re-
distribute it for free.
2.9.3 Step 2: Import the file into Audacity
First launch Audacity, then import an audio file by select-
ing File > Import > Audio... . A quicker method is to just
drag and drop the file as in the following examples:
30 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS

Windows: Drag the audio file iconinto the open Audac-

ity window. Mac: Drag the audio file iconto the Audacity
icon in the Dock(does not work for all formats yet). Linux:
Drag the audio file iconinto the open Audacity window. All
three platforms support:

• dragging the audio file into the Audacity win-

dow

• dragging the audio file to the Audacity icon on

the Desktop.

Specific dragging behavior according to platform:

• On Windows and Mac you can also drag to Audac-

ity’s icon in a file manager application.

• On Mac and Linux you can drag the file to the Au-
dacity icon in the Dock or Taskbar respectively to
import the file into Audacity.

– On Windows, dragging the file to the Audacity

icon in the Taskbar will either switch the win-
dow to Audacity if it is running (from where you
can drag the file in), or if Audacity is closed,
give the option to launch Audacity with the file
imported.

Command-line file importing: On all three plat-

forms you can also import files by launching Au-
dacity at the command-line and passing the files
you wish to import as arguments. For exam-
ple, on Linux Ubuntu:[email protected]:~$ audac-
ity Desktop/song.mp3 Desktop/speech.wavimports the
"song.mp3" and "speech.wav" files located on the Desk-
top in separate Audacity windows.
2.9. TUTORIAL - EDITING AN EXISTING AUDIO FILE
2.9.4 Step 3: Look at the waveform
This image above shows a stereo waveform . The left
channel is displayed in the top half of the track and the
right channel in the bottom half. The track name takes the
name of the imported audio file ("No Town" in this exam-
ple). Where the waveform reaches closer to the top and
bottom of the track, the audio is louder (and vice versa).
The ruler above the waveform shows you the length of
the audio in minutes and seconds.
Removing any DC offset (if present)
DC offset can occur in audio files so that the recorded
waveform is not centered on the horizontal line at 0.0
amplitude . It can be caused by recording with a faulty
soundcard. The example above is centered on 0 cor-
rectly and carries no DC offset. If your waveform is not
centered, see the Normalize page for how to use Nor-
malize to remove DC offset and how to check if your
Windows sound device can perform this correction au-
tomatically.
2.9.5 Step 4: Listen to the imported audio
The image above shows Transport Toolbar . Click the
Play button to listen to the audio. Click the Stop button
to stop playback. If you do not hear anything, see Au-
dacity Setup and Configuration . You can use the Space
key on the keyboard as a shortcut for Play or Stop. Click
on Selection Tool then click on the waveform to
choose a place to start, then click the Play button .
Click and drag to create a selection, and then when you
click Play button only the selection will play. Keyboard
use: You can select audio entirely using the left arrow,
right arrow and other keys.
• Press Left or Right to move the cursor left or right
respectively in the waveform.
• Hold down Shift while pressing Left or Right to cre-
ate then extend a selection leftwards or rightwards
respectively.
31
• Hold down Shift and Ctrl while pressing Left or
Right to contract an existing selection leftwards or
rightwards respectively.
Clicking the Skip to Start button or pressing the Home
key will move the cursor to the beginning of the track. It’s
kind of like rewind, but it’s not for playback - it will only
work when playback is stopped. Similarly, clicking the
Skip to End button or pressing the End key will move
the cursor to the end of the track. To jump the playback
position forwards or backwards from where it is now, click
on the Timeline above the waveform at the point you wish
to hear. Keyboard use: You can use the following keys
to skip around the audio file while listening.
• Press Left or , to move the playback cursor back
one second.
• Press Right or . to move the playback cursor for-
ward one second.
• Press Shift + Left or Shift + , to move the playback
cursor back 15 seconds.
• Press Shift + Right or Shift + . to move the playback
cursor forward 15 seconds.
The amount the cursor moves in this situation is called
the "seek time". The long and short seek times (one
second and 15 seconds in the examples above) can be
set in the Seek Time When Playing section of Playback
Preferences .
2.9.6 Step 5: Create a 10-second clip from
your audio
You edit audio waveforms in Audacity in much the same
way as you would edit text in a word-processing docu-
ment. When you are editing text you first select the text
you want to change and then choose what you want to
do with it. You might want to cut or copy the text, delete
it, paste new text in its place, or change it to bold. You
do the same thing in Audacity: first zoom and select the
range of audio you want to change, and then choose
what you want to do with it.
The image above shows Edit Toolbar with the Zoom but-
tons highlighted. This is the Zoom In tool, and
this is the Zoom Out tool. To zoom in to get a
closer look at the waveform , first choose the Selection
Tool , then click near the point you’re interested in,
then click the Zoom In button. Keep clicking the Zoom In
button until you see the detail you need. Note that when
you click the Zoom In button the cursor is centered on the
32
screen. There are also menu commands and keyboard
shortcuts for zooming. View > Zoom > Zoom In (or Ctrl
+ 1) is the same as clicking the Zoom In button. View
> Zoom > Zoom Out (or Ctrl + 3) is the same as clicking
the Zoom Out button. View > Track Size > Fit to Width (or
Ctrl + F) will zoom the waveform so it fits in the window.
Use the Zoom commands so that you can make maximal
use of your Audacity window to see as much detail as
you need, or to make sure you see the entire file when
necessary.
Walk through deleting all but approximately 10 sec-
onds of selected audio
To cut this audio file down to exactly 10 seconds, use
these following steps.
These steps require a mouse, except for using
Space on the keyboard to play the selection and C to
play either side of the selection. See below for how to
create and adjust selections using the keyboard.
1. With playback stopped, click near the point where
you want the 10-second piece to begin.
2. Zoom in until the Timeline shows 10 seconds or
more before and after the cursor.
3. While holding down the Shift key, click 10 seconds
to the right of the cursor.
• Note that this is just like selecting a range of
text in a word processor
4. Press Space to listen to the entire selection. Play-
back will stop when the end of the selection is
reached.
5. Adjust the start and end of the selection with the
mouse as follows.
• 5.1. Move the pointer over the start of the
selection - the cursor will change to a left-
pointing hand.
• 5.2. Click and drag to adjust the beginning of
the selection.
• 5.3. You can adjust the end of the selection in
a similar manner.
6. Press Space to listen to the adjusted selection. You
do not have to listen to all of it; press Space again
at any time to stop playback.
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
• A convenient way to listen to only the adjusted
start of the selection is to move the mouse
pointer a little after the start of the selection
then press B. The selection plays from the
start of the selection to the pointer. To hear
the adjusted end of the selection, move the
pointer close to the selection end, then press
B to play from the pointer to the selection end.
• You can also play a length of audio either side
of the selection by pressing C. This lets you
make sure there is no audio you want to keep
that will be removed. Playing either side of
the selection would also be useful if you later
wanted to cut a small piece out of that selec-
tion - you would select the small piece to be
cut, then could preview how the audio would
sound after the cut. To adjust the length of au-
dio played before and after the selection, go to
Cut Preview in the Playback Preferences .
Keyboard use: Use the arrow keys to adjust the selec-
tion start and end.
1. Pressing Shift + Left will expand the selection to the
left.
2. Pressing Shift + Right will expand the selection to
the right.
3. Pressing Shift + Ctrl + Left will contract the selec-
tion from the right.
4. Pressing Shift + Ctrl + Right will contract the selec-
tion from the left.
Keyboard use: Use Selection Toolbar to create or adjust
a selection.
1. Without a mouse, use Ctrl + F6 to navigate into Se-
lection Toolbar, then Tab between the controls.
2. In "Selection Start", type the starting point of your
selection if there is not yet a selection.
3. Select the Length radio button above the second
group of numbers in Selection Toolbar if it is not yet
selected.
4. If there is no selection yet, select the digit after
the "m" in the "Length" box and type 1 (one) on
your keyboard. This selects exactly 10.000 sec-
onds from the starting point you chose.
5. Once there is a selection, you can adjust its
length in the same way. Let’s suppose you dragged
a little less than 10 seconds in the waveform, but
you need the selection to be exactly 10 seconds.
(a) Select the first digit to the right of the decimal
point in the "Length" box.
(b) Type 0 (zero) - the digit changes to zero, the
digit to the right is selected and the selection
in the waveform changes to match.
2.9. TUTORIAL - EDITING AN EXISTING AUDIO FILE
(c) Type 0 (zero) twice more - the selection length
is now 10.000 seconds, accurate to one thou-
sandth of a second.
You’ve now selected the portion of the audio that you
want to keep. Make sure you have pressed Space to stop
if the track is still playing, then to delete everything except
the selected audio, click on Edit > Remove Special > Trim
Audio .
If you make a mistake, you can always click on Edit >
Undo . Audacity has unlimited Undo and Redo. You can
undo your editing actions all the way back to when you
imported the file. You can also Redo actions that you
have undone. You now have a region of audio that starts
several seconds (or perhaps minutes) from the beginning
of the track. You could move the audio to the beginning
of the track, using Tracks > Align Tracks > Start to Zero ,
but this is not a necessary step because when exporting,
Audacity will ignore the white space between time zero
and the start of the audio.
2.9.7 Step 6: Fade out the last second
• Exporting an MP3 file
• Click the Skip to End button .
• Zoom In until you can see the last two or three sec-
onds of the waveform .
• Click in the waveform about 1 second before the
end.
• Click on Select > Region > Cursor to Track End .
• Click on Effect > Fade Out . The last second of the
audio is smoothly faded out.
Note that we always select some audio first, then choose
what action we want to perform on it.
2.9.8 Step 7: Export the resulting file
When you save an Audacity project with File > Save
Project you are doing just that - saving an Audacity
project . Audacity projects can be opened only by Au-
dacity. If you want other applications (such as iTunes or
Windows Media Player) to be able to open this file you
need to export it. Before we export this 10 second clip
to a separate file we’re going to simplify things a bit. Go
to the Import / Export Preferences , and under When ex-
porting tracks to an audio file uncheck "Show Metadata
33
Editor prior to export step". Metadata Editor adds ex-
tra information about the speech or music into the file -
see For More Information below to learn more. You can
go back to the Import / Export Preferences at any time to
re-enable Metadata Editor.
Exporting a WAV file
• Click on File > Save Other > Export Audio... - the
standard "Save" dialog for your operating system
appears.
• Give the file a different name. Audacity always sug-
gests a name for the file that is the same as the
name of your Audacity project. It is always best to
alter this so you do not confuse your exported file
with your Audacity project.
• Choose a location to save the file in the usual man-
ner.
• At the bottom of the Save dialog is a dropdown
menu labeled "Format". From this menu choose
"WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM".
• There are no options for the WAV file format, so
there is no need to click the Options button.
• Click the Save button to complete the export of your
project to a WAV file.
In order to export files from Audacity in MP3 format you
will need to download and install the optional LAME
MP3 encoder. Instructions are here . Once you have
downloaded and installed the LAME encoder you will be
able to create MP3 files using Audacity. The steps for ex-
porting a file in MP3 format are the same as for a WAV
file, except:
• In the Save dialog, from the "Format" menu,
choose "MP3 files"
• Then click the Options button to set the bit rate
and other options for the MP3 file.
2.9.9 Step 8 - Testing your new Audio Pro-
duction
To demonstrate the difference between an Audacity
project (the AUP) file, and a sound file you export from
an Audacity project:
• Click on File > Close , saving changes if asked.
• Find the AUP file on your computer and attempt to
open it with the audio player of your choice (for ex-
ample iTunes, Windows Media Player). You cannot.
34
• Find the exported WAV file on your computer and
attempt to open it with the audio player of your
choice. Success!
You cannot open an Audacity project in a media player.
Only by exporting your project can you listen to it in a me-
dia player. Once you’ve exported your project you may
want to keep the original project file (AUP) and its as-
sociated _data folder around in case you want to make
some changes to it in the future.
2.9.10 Where to go from here
More tutorials
• Tutorial - Your First Recording
• Tutorial - Mixing a Narration With Background Mu-
2.10 Tutorial - Exporting to iTunes
Before exporting audio for use in iTunes it is important to
consider which audio file format you want to use. WAV
and AIFF files produce high quality lossless audio files
but consume a lot of disk space. MP3 and AAC files are
compressed so they occupy less disk space, but audio
damage may result as a result of the compression es-
pecially when using low bitrates.Submitting a podcast to
the iTunes Store is a different process than exporting an
Audacity file to an iTunes library. See our Tutorial on Tu-
torial - Mixing a Narration With Background Music and
our Wiki page on How to publish a Podcast for more help
with creating and publishing a podcast.
2.10.1 Exporting audio for loading into
iTunes
Follow the below steps to export audio for adding to
iTunes.
1. Use the File > Save Other > Export Audio... com-
mand or in Audacity (or File > Save Other > Export
Multiple... ).
2. Choose the export format in the Export dialog, to
export the particular format you want your file(s) to
be in (the best choices are WAV , AIFF , MP3 or
AAC ).
3. Move the file(s) into iTunes from the location you
exported it to, using the iTunes File > Add File to
Library... (or File > Add Folder to Library...) com-
mand.
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
sic
For more information
• Opening or Importing Audio Files: File Menu >
Open , File Menu > Import
• Tracks and Waveforms: Audio Tracks , Audacity
Tracks and Clips , Audacity Waveform
• Playing a file: Playing and Recording
• Editing a track: Edit Menu , Zooming
• Effects: Effect Menu
• Saving: Audacity Projects
• Exporting: File Menu > Export...
• Metadata Editor: Metadata Editor
• MP3 Export Options: MP3 Export Options
4. Or you can set the file location on export from Au-
dacity to auto-import into iTunes
You may also want to read this workflow tutorial Sample
workflow for exporting to iTunes .
2.10.2 What format should I export to?
AAC is the default format set in iTunes and the format Ap-
ple uses for audio files sold from the iTunes Store, so is
the most obvious choice if you solely use Apple products.
MP3 should be considered if you think that in the future
you may wish to switch to an alternative portable music
player or phone. If you have plenty of storage space on
your device or a relatively small music library you may
wish to consider the larger lossless WAV or AIFF formats.
There are several advantages to using a compressed for-
mat on iPods and iPhones. The two main benefits are
that you can fit many more songs into the device (for 256
kbps files you can fit about 10 times as many songs) and
compressed files improve battery life, because disk reads
are relatively heavy on battery power. If you choose lossy
formats (MP3 or AAC) the minimum bitrate setting you
should use for music is 160 kbps, though 256 kbps is
probably to be preferred - and in use on an iPod is un-
likely to be distinguishable from WAV or AIFF (or Apple
Lossless). For speech 128 kbps or even 64 kbps can be
used as the bitrate if preferred. Apple does not officially
support Ogg Vorbis (a lossy, compressed format sim-
ilar to MP3/compressed AAC) and has no support at all
for FLAC (a lossless, compressed format smaller than
WAV but larger than MP3/compressed AAC). If you re-
ally want to export to OGG for iTunes, see OGG usage in
2.10. TUTORIAL - EXPORTING TO ITUNES
iTunes and QuickTime. iPods, iPads and iPhones cannot
play OGG files.
WAV or AIFF (universal support, lossless, best for
CD burning)
If you want a perfect lossless copy of your audio, or
to burn it in iTunes to an audio CD for playing on any
CD player, you should choose WAV or AIFF. It is strongly
recommended you export a standard "CD quality" 44100
Hz , 16-bit stereo WAV or AIFF to make sure iTunes
understands the file. This means:
1. Ensure Project Rate at the bottom left of the Au-
dacity project window is set to "44100" Hz.
2. Select File > Save Other > Export Audio... (or File
> Save Other > Export Multiple... ) then select
"WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM" or "AIFF (Ap-
ple) signed 16-bit PCM" in the export window
• If you want a stereo export but your Project
does not already contain a stereo track, click
Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track.
See Burning music files to a CD if you are only interested
in burning a CD. An advantage of exporting to AIFF is
that lyrics or album art can be added to the file in iTunes,
which is not possible with WAV files.
MP3 (universal support, small files, lossy)
If you want to distribute your files on the internet (for ex-
ample as a podcast), you should choose MP3 as the
Format in the Export dialog, as this is a space-saving
(although slightly lossy ) format that anyone should be
able to play. To export as MP3 from Audacity you need
first to download the LAME encoder and point Audacity
to it (see Lame Installation ). If you want to put the files
on an iPod, or simply store them in iTunes in a compact
form, MP3 is also a good choice. However, there are
some reports that when run on battery, recent iPods can
struggle or crash when playing MP3s created in applica-
tions other than iTunes. So you may want to export as
WAV or AIFF from Audacity and convert the files to MP3
in iTunes instead.
AAC (Apple proprietary, small files, lossy)
Apple’s proprietary format produces lossy, small, files
similar to MP3, they are approximately the same qual-
ity as MP3 for a slightly smaller file size. The files are
created with the .m4a extension. AAC is useful for iPod
or storage in iTunes due to its small file size and reduced
disk occupancy, particularly if you have an iPod with a
small disk. The minimum bitrate setting you should use
for music is 160 kpbs though 256 kbps is probably to be
35
preferred and in use on an iPod is unlikely to be distin-
guishable from WAV or AIFF (or Apple Lossless). Au-
dacity can export directly to AAC if you install the optional
FFmpeg library . To export to AAC choose M4A (AAC)
Files (FFmpeg) in the Export Audio window then type
the file name. If you are exporting an AAC file for mobile
devices, you can add the M4R (ringtone) or 3GP ex-
tension after the file name and dot as required by the
device.
Apple Lossless (Apple proprietary, lossless, smaller
than WAV/AIFF)
Apple Lossless Encoding (sometimes referred to as
ALAC - Apple Lossless Audio Codec) is also an Ap-
ple proprietary format. Apple Lossless is, as the name
suggests, Apple’s size-compressed lossless codec. Like
AAC it also uses files with the M4A extension. Apple
Lossless Encoder is quite similar to FLAC , producing
larger files than AAC or MP3 but smaller than WAV. Typ-
ically an Apple Lossless file is around half the size of an
equivalent WAV file and more than three times the size
of an equivalent AAC 256 kbps file. You cannot export
directly to Apple Lossless from the Export Audio dialog.
Instead, on Windows and Linux, install the optional FFm-
peg library . On Mac, search for and download a stan-
dalone "ffmpeg" binary online. Then export using the (ex-
ternal program) choice. Click the Options... button, then
enter the following command:
ffmpeg -i - -acodec alac "%f" On Mac, you must give the
full path to ffmpeg enclosed in quotes, instead of just
"ffmpeg". Finally in the Export Audio dialog, add the M4A
extension after the file name and dot. See Exporting to
an External Program for more help.
2.10.3 Format conversion in iTunes
Alternatively you can export to WAV or AIFF and convert
to MP3, AAC or Apple Lossless in iTunes:
1. Click Edit > Preferences (or iTunes > Preferences
on Mac)
2. Click on the leftmost "General" tab
3. Click the Import Settings... button
4. In the "Import Using" dropdown, choose "MP3 En-
coder", "AAC Encoder" or "Apple Lossless En-
coder" as required
5. Click OK and OK
6. Select the file to be converted, then use File > Con-
vert and choose "Create MP3 Version", "Create
AAC Version" or "Create Apple Lossless Version"
as appropriate.
36
After creating the MP3, AAC or Apple Lossless version
you should delete the original WAV or AIFF files to save
disk space, as iTunes does not do this for you automati-
cally.
2.10.4 Export location
You can choose any location for the export such as a
"Music" folder on your Desktop or even the iTunes "Mu-
sic" folder if you have one. However you must still import
this file from the exported location into the iTunes Library
(which makes it visible in Library > Music on the left hand
panel of iTunes). There are two ways to import your ex-
ported audio files into iTunes:
• Use the File > Add File to Library... or File > Add
Folder to Library... command from within iTunes, to
add a single audio file or a folder of audio files.
• Select Library > Music in iTunes and drag the file
from the location you exported it to, into the iTunes
window. If you just want to burn the files to CD , it’s
best to drag them directly into an iTunes Playlist in
the left-hand panel.
2.11 Tutorial - How to import CDs
Audacity does not contain any function for importing (rip-
ping) audio from CDs. This can, however, be achieved by
using other applications to extract the data into a file for-
mat Audacity does support.
2.11.1 Importing data from CDs
Users new to audio editing are often surprised to find that
they cannot import the audio from CDs into Audacity with
the File > Import > Audio command. In fact, most operat-
ing systems do not actually allow the import of data from
the CD tracks into applications, because audio CDs do
not have files or a file system like computer media, but
consist essentially of a stream of bits on the disc. That is
why when you look at an audio CD in a file manager like
Windows Explorer, each CD track will appear only as a
small .cda "file" 44 bytes in size, which is merely header
information for the stream. In order to import tracks from
an audio CD, you must first usually extract (or "rip") the
tracks to a WAV or AIFF audio file using CD extraction
software; then you can import those WAV or AIFF files
into Audacity with the usual File > Import > Audio com-
mand.
Do not extract the CD to smaller-sized MP3 format
if you want to edit the audio in Audacity, because every
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
You can export files from Audacity directly to your iTunes
library. Exporting a file to the following locations will
cause iTunes to automatically place it in the Music sec-
tion of your library. You can then play the audio on your
computer with iTunes or add it to your iPod, iPhone or
iPad. Set the destination folder as:
• Windows:Computer
Music
iTunes
iTunes Music
Automatically Add to iTunes
• Mac:Home/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Automatically
Add to iTunes.
By default iTunes is a "virtual" Library containing no
actual files but only links to them. To avoid losing your
files, do *not* delete the exported files from the location
you exported them to, unless you have already gone to
Edit > Preferences > Advanced in iTunes and enabled the
"Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to li-
brary" option. It is strongly recommended that you make
this setting in iTunes.
time you export an MP3 file, some of the quality is lost.
Extract to WAV or AIFF which are lossless . You can
always export to MP3 from Audacity after editing, but do
that only once for the finished audio.
Windows
Audio CDs may be ripped to WAV with Windows Media
Player 11 or 12 (click Tools > Options > Rip Music and
choose "WAV (Lossless)" in the Format dropdown in "Rip
Settings"). Earlier versions of Windows Media Player are
not appropriate for extracting CD audio for editing in Au-
dacity, because they are unable to extract to WAV. Alter-
natively the Windows version of iTunes(which is free to
download) may be used to extract audio CDs to WAV or
AIFF.
Mac
Mac users have a quick way to import CDs, because
when a CD is put in the drive, the CDA tracks are
mounted as AIFF files in the Finder. It’s thus possible
to either drag the AIFF files from the Finder into Audac-
ity, or use the File > Import > Audio command, instead of
extracting the audio.
2.12. TUTORIAL - HOW TO IMPORT FILES FROM ITUNES
If you import CD tracks into Audacity from Finder
and save them as a Project, the CD must be present
next time you open the Project, unless you set Audacity
to make a copy of the data. To do this choose Audacity
> Preferences: Import / Export and where it says "When
importing audio files...", check the radio button: Make
a copy of uncompressed audio files before editing (safer).
Another possibility is to use Max, a free software CD rip-
2.12 Tutorial - How to import files from iTunes
Generally, files in iTunes can be imported into Audacity
either by dragging them in, or using Audacity’s Import Au-
dio menu item. Files purchased from iTunes Store may
be DRM protected, and must be extracted or recorded to
an unprotected format before use in Audacity.
2.12.1 Finding the location and format of
your iTunes files
The iTunes Library is not a collection of actual files, but
a collection of links to the actual physical location of the
files on your hard drive. To view the actual location of
your iTunes files and what format they are in:
1. Right click or control-click over the file in the iTunes
window
2. Click "Show in Windows Explorer" or "Show in
Finder"
3. The new window will have the file selected in the
correct folder. Windows by default may not show
the file format, but you can right-click the file and hit
"Properties" to show the file details.
Do not move the file from its current location, or
iTunes will no longer be able to find it - instead, copy it to
a new location if required.
2.12.2 Importing WAV, AIFF and MP3 files
You can drag WAV, AIFF and MP3 files from iTunes into
the Audacity window. Or, import these files into Audacity
thus:
1. Launch Audacity
2. Click {File > Import > Audio
3. Navigate to the actual location of the file
4. Select the file by clicking on it
37
ping and encoding application. It has full support for en-
coding into the FLAC lossless audio format.
Linux
On Linux or other Unix-like systems you can use K3b
for the KDE desktop or RipperX or Sound Juicer for
GNOME. Or use any built-in CD extraction utility that
comes with the distribution.
5. Click Open.
2.12.3 Importing M4A (AAC) and MP4 files
M4A and MP4 files can be imported into Audacity on Mac
as shipped. On Windows and GNU/Linux you need to
download and install the optional FFmpeg library. See
the Windows or Linux instructions. Then drag and drop
files from iTunes into the Audacity window, or use File >
Import > Audio to import files from the location stated in
iTunes.
2.12.4 Importing protected M4P files
Before 2009 iTunes Store was selling audio files with
DRM (copyright) protection. Any file that has an M4P
extension is protected, and some files with AAC exten-
sion may also be protected. Protected files cannot be
directly converted to another format in iTunes. There are
two main solutions:
• You can burn the files to an audio CD in iTunes,
then extract/rip the CD tracks to WAV or AIFF.
• Alternatively you can play the files in iTunes and
record them with Audacity.
Perhaps the easiest way if you have a file with DRM is
simply to re-buy the song from the iTunes Store. Apple
now offers all audio content on iTunes (except e-books)
free of Fair Play DRM. Then you can simply drag and
drop it from iTunes into Audacity or use Audacity’s Import
command.In many cases you can re-download iTunes
Plus versions of the songs without Digital Rights Man-
agement by subscribing to iTunes Match.
2.12.5 Exporting the audio back to
iTunes/iPod
See the tutorial Exporting to iTunes .
38 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS

2.13 Tutorial - Looping

This page provides tips on how to make an audio loop

with Audacity.

2.13.1 Creating an audio loop

To create an audio loop from an audio track, the first step
is to find a suitable section. Ideally the sound will be
reasonably constant for as long as possible. Looping is
much easier with mono tracks, so if you have a stereo
recording but a mono track would be sufficient, the track
could first be converted to mono using Tracks > Mix > Mix
Stereo down to Mono .
To avoid clicks (glitches) it can often help to use Select >
At Zero Crossings so as to ensure the start and end of
the selection lie accurately on a zero crossing point. In
the image below, the sample at the end of the selection
(as shown by the dot) is at 0.0 amplitude according to the
vertical scale on the left. Zero crossing point

The loop may be tested using Loop Play (shortcut Shift

+ Space).

The start of the selection should match (look like) the end
of the selection as closely as possible and both selection 2.13.2 Using loops in Audacity
edges should be positioned so that the blue line of the
waveform seems to cross the selection edge at zero am-
If the loop is to be used in Audacity, the selection may be
plitude (where the horizontal line appears). There are
trimmed: Ctrl + T. The loop may be repeated using Copy
items in the View menu that allow jumping from one end
and Paste, though it is usually more convenient to use
of the selection to the other while zoomed in:
the Repeat function: Effect > Repeat... .
• View > Skip to > Selection Start ( shortcut is Ctrl +
[ )
2.13.3 Exporting Loops
• View > Skip to > Go to Selection End ( shortcut is
Ctrl + ] )
The selection may be exported using File > Save Other >
Export Selected Audio... . The lossless PCM WAV format
To look for appropriate loop points, zoom in horizontally
is the best format for loops. Choose "WAV (Microsoft)
on the start of the selection and then on the end of the
signed 16-bit PCM" when exporting. Many lossy, size-
selection. To zoom, place the mouse pointer at the se-
compressed formats like MP3 , WMA and ADPCM WAV
lection edge and scroll with the wheel or ball. Drag the
suffer from added silence at the the start or end of the
selection edges leftwards or rightwards as necessary so
file or other issues that do not respect the exact length. If
as to find loop points that have a similar shape, amplitude
a lossy compressed audio format is required then OGG
and slope so that the end of the loop may flow smoothly
Vorbis may be a better choice as it does not suffer from
into the start of the loop. It may also be useful to zoom in
length issues.
on the vertical scale to left of the waveform, as shown in
the following images: Beginning of the loop selection

2.13.4 Using Timeline Quick-Play to create

loops

The above process can be aided by using the Timeline

to help create a seamless loop:
1. Ensure that Quick-Play is enabled in the Timeline
End of the loop selection right-click context menu .
2.14. TUTORIAL - MAKING A TEST RECORDING 39

2. Select "Enable dragging selection" in the Time-
line right-click context menu.
3. Make an approximate selection of the audio to be
looped.
4. Shift + Left-Click within the selection to loop play
the selection.
5. Shift + Left-Click and drag the start/end of the se-
lection as necessary to adjust the selection closer
to "seamless" looping positions.
6. If necessary, zoom in on the start / end positions to
make adjustments to the play region and selection.
7. Note that if zooming in causes the selected region
to extend beyond the visible track area, Audacity
will, by default, cause the waveform to scroll. The
scrolling behavior can be disabled from the Time-
line right-click context menu.
8. While zoomed in, use Ctrl + [ and Ctrl + ] to view
the start / end of the selection.
9. If a long selection is being looped, playback may
be stopped at any time by pressing the Space key,
then looped Quick-Play may be restarted from a
short way before the end of the selection with Shift
+ Click on the Timeline
10. Then Optionally label the loop region (use Ctrl + B)
When the selection loops seamlessly, playback may be
stopped (using Stop button or its Space shortcut) and
the selection exported or trimmed as required (use Ctrl +
T to trim to the selection). Seamless loops should nor-
mally be exported in a lossless format such as WAV .
Note that seamless loops should NOT be exported in
MP3 format because encoder/decoder overall delay is
not defined, which means there is no official provision
for gapless playback. If a compressed file format is re-
quired, try OGG Vorbis (though understand that because
OGG Vorbis is a lossy format, the encoded audio is not
exactly identical to the original audio). OGG Vorbis loops
will generally perform acceptably provided that the start /
end of the loop are at zero crossing points . Finding free
loops created by othersTry:
•
http://ibeat.org/ (loops are available under a Cre-
ative Commons licence).
• http://www.looperman.com/

2.14 Tutorial - Making a Test Recording

When making recordings, particular critical recordings,

you should consider shutting down all other applications
giving Audacity sole use of the computer. This can help
to avoid skips, small dropouts, and ticks in your record-
ings. And on Mac that means fully Quitting them not just
closing them, as otherwise Mac will leave them open con-
suming computer resources.
2.14.2 Step 2: Start the recording

Talk or play at a normal volume and watch the Recording

Meter .

2.14.1 Step 1: Turn on monitoring

Try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6 dB (or 0.5
if you have your meter set to linear rather than dB). You
Click on the microphone symbol in the Recording Meter can always boost the level later after you have completed
and select "Start Monitoring". your editing.
40 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS

2.14.3 Step 3: Adjust the level A clipped waveform

Adjust the recording volume with the right-hand Record-

ing Volume Slider (by the microphone symbol).

You want the meter to get close to the right-hand edge

without hitting it during the loudest parts (-6 dB is a good You can also check for clipping by clicking on View >
target). Note that if you are using a USB microphone or Show Clipping . Audacity will display vertical red bars
USB adapter the recording volume control may have no in the waveform wherever it detects clipping.
effect or may be grayed out and set to maximum. If you
cannot get a "good" reading on the recording meter (does
not get close to the right edge - too quiet; or goes all the
way to the right edge - too loud), go back to your system
sound control panel and adjust the volume there.

2.14.4 Step 4: Test recording

You are now ready to do a test recording. Get everything

ready (microphone in place, guitar in hand) and click the
Record button in Transport Toolbar. Record for few
seconds while talking or playing, then click the Stop but-
ton . Have a look at the recorded waveform - there
should be no clipping visible. Clipping is bad - this is
when the volume of the source that was sent to Audac-
ity is louder than Audacity can record. The result is that
the tops and bottoms of the recorded wave are chopped
off ("clipped"). The illustrations below show a properly-
recorded waveform and a clipped waveform. Note that
these images from Audacity show the waveform when
zoomed in - the total time displayed is about 0.004 sec-
onds! A properly recorded waveform
Click on Edit > Undo Record to remove the test record-
ing. If clipping occurred turn down the recording level a
bit and try again. If no clipping occurred you are ready for
the real thing! As stated above, try to aim for a maximum
peak of around –6 dB (or 0.5 if you have your meter set
to linear rather than dB).Tip: Enlarging the Meter Toolbar
by clicking and dragging on the toolbar helps consider-
ably with this task. See Resizing and Undocking
2.14.5 Links

> Forward to: Tutorial - Recording and Editing

< Back to: Tutorial - Selecting Your Recording Device

|< Tutorial - Your First Recording

2.15 Tutorial - Making Ringtones and IVR messages

Most modern cell phones can be customized with the
user’s own ring and answer tones. This tutorial will help
you to prepare suitable sound files. Many different kinds
of file formats are used in cell phones, some of which
cannot be created by Audacity. You need to research
what file format(s) your phone accepts and how to up-
load it to the phone before you start to prepare the sound
file. See our advice below and always consult your phone
manual if in doubt.
IVR Interactive Voice Response systems usually support
customized messages created by the user.
2.15.1 What type of file does your phone or
IVR systemrequire?
Ringtones
You need to check what type of file format your phone
requires for its ringtones and whether the file needs to be
mono or stereo. There are many different ringtone for-
mats in existence but they fall into three main categories:
• Music ringtones - digitally sampled audio files in-
2.15. TUTORIAL - MAKING RINGTONES AND IVR MESSAGES
cluding MP3 and WAV formats supported by Au-
dacity, plus other formats like AMR and QCP.
• Polyphonic - multiple notes at the same time;
some phones can play true MIDI files, others rely
on sp-midi or .mmf formats.
• Monophonic - just one note at a time, usually
RTTL format. If you want a ringtone in this format
it’s often easiest to simply use the phone’s keypad
to enter it if the phone supports that.
Most modern PDA phones (computer phones) will sup-
port music ringtones, older phones are likely to support
polyphonic ringtones, really old phones will only support
monophonic ringtones.
IVR messages
These are normally spoken text files but audio may also
be needed for "hold music". Your IVR system may require
compressed files and those maty be required to be either
mono or stereo, please consult the manual for your IVR
system to check the requirements.
2.15.2 Choose the ringtone or IVR mes-
sage source
Existing audio file
The source for your ringtone or IVR message will most
likely be an audio file on your computer. Click File > Im-
port > Audio... , select the file you want and click Open.
Audacity can import MP3, MP2, WAV, AIFF, OGG and
FLAC files (and MP4 files on Mac OS X) without addi-
tional libraries. To import other file types (including MP4
on Windows and Linux) you can install the optional FFm-
peg library . On Linux it may sometimes be more con-
venient to use the system FFmpeg or mplayer at the
command-line to convert other file types to 16-bit 44100
Hz WAV before importing the file into Audacity.
Recording an audio file
• You may wish to record you cat/dog/partner or any
other sound with a microphone for use as a ring-
tone.
• Alternatively, you can play any audio file on your
computer (including purchased files), a CD, or any
other sound on your computer including sounds
playing over the internet, and record the sound .
This is not the highest quality way to grab the sound
from a CD or from a purchased file, but it is proba-
bly adequate for making a ringtone as quality often
needs to be compromised in a ringtone to make the
file size smaller. If you want to grab a perfect digital
41
copy of the CD track, or you cannot record it easily,
extract it digitally to WAV or .AIFF as described at
Importing data from CDs . To make a perfect copy
of a purchased file, burn it to an audio CD in the
application licensed to play it, then extract the CD
track in the same way.
2.15.3 Edit your chosen ringtone or IVR
message
1. Click File > Import > Audio... and import your
source file; this can be any audio file Audacity can
open.
2. Select the portion of audio you want to use for your
ringtone (say 15-20 seconds). To do this, click in
the audio track and drag a selection region to left
or right with your mouse - you can see the length of
the selected audio in the Timeline above the track.
Many phones will loop the ringtone automatically
(repeat it over and over), so choose your selec-
tion region with that in mind. To hear your selec-
tion play looped in Audacity hold down Shift while
clicking the green Play button or use the Shift +
Space keyboard shortcut. To stop playback, press
the Space or click the Stop button .
3. Click Edit > Remove Special > Trim Audio . This
will remove the rest of the audio, leaving only the
section you have selected. If you want to use the
whole file, then skip this step.
4. Add any effects you may want to the ringtone
by clicking in the Track Control Panel where the
mute/solo buttons are to select all the track (you
may also use the Edit menu or a keyboard short-
cut), then choose from the Effect menu. Be spar-
ing with effects, but some you may want to consider
are:
Equalization
Many phone speakers cannot reproduce very low fre-
quencies so consider attenuating them (a gradual reduc-
tion in the amplitude of the sound level), especially if you
are making a ringtone from an original high quality mu-
sic file. On opening Effect > Equalization you’ll notice a
horizontal line at 0 dB, meaning that at that position, no
changes are made to the volume of any frequencies. A
curve can be created using the mouse, clicking at vari-
ous points above or below the line. For ringtones, bring
the line down to -24 dB on the vertical axis for the low
frequencies from 30-300 Hz on the horizontal axis. You
may want to increase the lower frequencies from 300 Hz
to say 600 Hz by dragging them above 0 dB, then re-
duce the highest frequencies above say 10,000 Hz. This
should make the sound somewhat richer and less "tinny"
42
on a small cellphone speaker by emphasizing the fre-
quency range it can reproduce best. You can view the
sound level in the different frequency bands in your ring-
tone by clicking Analyze > Plot Spectrum . Here is an
example spectrum plot from Audacity 2.x for the Nokia
original ringtone Hummingbird.aac (47 kbps, 22050Hz,
SBR+PS, Mono) converted to WAV (Mono, 22050Hz, 16-
bit). This ringtone is quite acute so you can hear the
phone from far, something that is essential for a well-
made ringtone.
Compressor
Using the Effect > Compressor will reduce the differ-
ence between high and low volume which allows you to
make the ringtone louder overall. This suits small cell-
phone speakers which may not be able to handle large
changes in dynamic range. You’ll probably want to move
the Ratio slider to right of its default setting of 2:1 to give
stronger compression. If the "Make-up gain" box in Com-
pressor is checked then after compression the audio will
be set to the maximum possible level without distortion.
This may be a bad idea on cellphone speakers which
can give distortion before the maximum possible level is
reached. Instead, use Effect > Amplify after compression
and choose a "New Peak Amplitude (dB)" of -3 dB or -2
dB.
Convert stereo to mono
Irrespective of the required file format many phones will
want mono ringtone files, as my some IVR systems. If
the track you are editing is stereo the next step is to con-
vert it to mono. To convert from stereo to mono click in
the Track Control Panel to select the audio, press the key-
board shortcut Ctrl + A(or CloverLeaf + A on a Mac) or
select the {Select > All menu item, then select the Tracks
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
> Mix > Mix Stereo down to Mono menu item which mixes
in data from both channels to mono without distortion.
2.15.4 Export the file from Audacity
Use the Export Audio dialog to export your custom ring-
tone or IVR message to various formats. You can export
to 16-bit PCM WAV by choosing "WAV (Microsoft) 16 bit
PCM" in that dialog. You can export to the smaller-sized
MP3 format by adding the optional LAME library to your
computer then choose "MP3 Files" in the Export Audio
dialog.
Phones and IVR systems requiring other formats
If you add the optional FFmpeg library to your computer,
you can export directly from Audacity to some additional
mobile phone formats: AMR (narrow band), GSM 6.10
WAV (mobile), M4A (AAC) and M4R (AAC)(for M4R,
add .m4r after the file name when you export). Steps:
1. Set the required sample rate in the Project Rate
control on the Selection Toolbar (by default at bot-
tom left of the Audacity Project window).
2. Select menu item File > Save Other > Export Au-
dio...
3. Enter and OK any metadata required
4. Choose the format in the "Save as type" dropdown
5. If required, click Options to set the AAC bit rate,
then OK
6. Click Save.
If your phone requires files in other than WAV or MP3 for-
mat the best course after editing the file is to export it as a
mono , 16-bit 44100 Hz PCM WAV file, then convert that
WAV to the required format with an appropriate conver-
sion application of your choice.See Exporting audio for
ringtones and IVR messages for examples of exporting
audio files in various formats, including low bit rate WAV
( 8000 Hz 8-bit WAV ).
2.15.5 Upload your ringtone to your phone
Once you have exported your file and converted it to an-
other format if necessary, you would typically transfer the
file to your cellphone in one of the following ways:
• via a USB cable
• via a wireless Bluetooth connection
• connect a Card Reader (typically USB connected)
to your computer then write the ringtone to flash
memory storage, for example to a Secure Digital
(SD) card which can be used in the phone
2.16. TUTORIAL - MIXING A NARRATION WITH BACKGROUND MUSIC
• upload it via the internet (e.g. to a website, from
which you can then download it to your phone).
Note that some cellphones and mobile service
providers do not allow the user to download cus-
tomized free ringtones to the phone. For older phones
2.16 Tutorial - Mixing a Narration With Background Music
The methods below are suitable for producing a podcast
of the very common type where you talk over a music
background or have talk interspersed with music. This tu-
torial assumes that you have figured out how to connect
your microphone to your computer and get the sound
from the microphone into Audacity. If you have not got
that far yet, please read the Your First Recording tutorial
first.
2.16.1 Introduction
The objective in this tutorial is to record a simple narra-
tion, add some background music, cut the narration to fit
the music, lower the volume of the music during the nar-
ration, and finally mix and export the final product. Give
yourself an hour or so to complete this tutorial. On your
first attempt:
• do not try to create a masterpiece
• do not work on something critical.
You are learning and experimenting, exploring the many
tools Audacity offers you. Don’t expect to get it perfect
the first time. It really does not matter what your narra-
tion is about, and whether you read it or ad lib. It also
does not matter what the music is, but an instrumental
track is preferable.
Save your work often!
• If you are making a lot of changes save a
new Project with a different name; use menu
File > Save Project As... from time to time (this
will give you incremental backups on disk).
• At least once a day (more often if desired) save the
Project on an external drive.
2.16.2 Step 1: Record the narration
Consider where your microphone is going to be in rela-
tion to everything else in the room. Try to place it so that
43
http://cellphones.about.com/od/ringtoneshowto/l/blringcompi.htm
may be useful in determining if the phone allows addition
of free customized ringtones. If in doubt, always look
at the manual for your phone for advice on downloading
ringtones.
it picks up a minimum of computer noise (hard drives,
fan). When speaking into the microphone, point the mi-
crophone at your mouth but do not point your mouth at
the microphone. If you can, place the microphone so
that you are talking past it - think David Letterman and
that microphone he has on his desk: he’s always talking
over it. Setting up the microphone so that it is level with
your mouth but a little off to the side also works. This
avoids "popped p’s" and other breath effects from ruining
your recording. Finally, try to set up the microphone so
that it is 4 to 6 inches away from your mouth. While you
are talking, try to keep looking in one direction - moving
your head left or right, up or down, while you’re talking will
change the tonal quality of your voice, and may be dis-
tracting to your listeners. Speak in a normal, conversa-
tional tone of voice, but also speak clearly and enunciate
carefully. Your listeners cannot see you so do not have
the visual cues they would have if your were speaking to
them in person. If you need to listen to the background
while recording your narration (for example to record a
commentary), you should:
• make sure that Transport > Transport Op-
tions > Overdub&nbsp(on/off) is checked
• use headphones (to listen to the background track)
so that your microphone will pick up only your voice.
If you do not need to hear yourself in the headphones you
can continue with this tutorial. Otherwise please read the
tutorial on overdubbing for details on how to set up Au-
dacity so you can hear both the background track and
yourself in your headphones. If you are overdubbing your
narration certain parts of the work flow presented below
will change or be eliminated. For example: your first step
will be to import the audio that you will be recording your
narration against; you will not need to cut the narration
to fit the background track. So let us begin ...Start Au-
dacity: a new untitled project window opens. Click on
File > Save Project As... and name your project. Set the
recording device to your microphone in Audacity’s Device
Toolbar (or on Mac, set the microphone as the default
recording source in Apple Audio MIDI Setup). You are
now ready to record the narration. Don’t worry about mis-
takes, pauses, coughs and similar - we can edit those out
later. In fact you may want to make a few deliberate mis-
takes so you can practice editing them out later. When
you stop to make a correction, go back to the start of a
44
natural break - sentence or phrase - and start again in a
normal voice: once you’ve tried to edit out your mistakes
you will realize the importance of this. Click the Record
button in the Transport Toolbar. Record your narration.
If you have just made a recording it is strongly recom-
mended to File > Save Other > Export Audio... it imme-
diately to WAV or AIFF (ideally to an external drive) as
a safety copy before you start editing the project. To be
really professional, perform a level test of your voice be-
fore it is recorded for real. Click on the downward point-
ing arrow in the Recording Meter and click "Start Moni-
toring". While speaking into the microphone as loudly as
you intend, adjust the recording level slider (by the mi-
crophone symbol) on the Mixer Toolbar so the Recording
Meter is almost reaching the far right-hand side (but not
far enough to bring the red clip lights on). If the Recording
Meter is not visible, click on View > Toolbars and enable
the Meter Toolbar
2.16.3 Step 2: Edit the narration
Cutting out the mistakes
Don’t edit too tightly - the final result should sound nat-
ural. Use Audacity’s Cut Preview feature to hear how
each edit will sound before you make the edit. Then
listen back to each edit - undo and try again if it does
not sound natural. The image below shows a situation
where the speaker paused, cleared his throat and con-
tinued with the next sentence. We want to take out the
throat-clearing plus enough space around it to make it
sound natural.
As you can see, the portion to be removed is selected.
Press the C key to hear two seconds of audio before,
and one second of audio after the selection - this lets you
hear what it will sound like after the selection is deleted.
This is called "Cut Preview". Adjust the length of the
selection until the edit sounds natural. Various ways to
adjust a selection were discussed in the Editing an Ex-
isting Audio File tutorial. When you are happy with the
selection, press the Delete key, choose Edit > Delete
or press Ctrl + K to delete the selection. If you want to
hear more than two seconds before or one second after
the selection choose Edit >&nbsp Preferences (on Mac
it’s Audacity > Preferences), select the Playback section,
and in the Cut Preview section set the "Preview Before
Cut Region" and "Preview After Cut Region" times to
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
your liking. Continue in this manner correcting the mis-
takes until you are satisfied with the end result. Save your
work.
Leveling out the volume
Unless you are professional narrator or voice-over spe-
cialist there are probably level (volume) variations dur-
ing your narration. Remember, your listeners cannot see
you, so having a consistent volume for your narration is
important so they’ll be able to hear and understand ev-
erything you’re saying. You could go through and man-
ually adjust the volume throughout your narration track
using the Envelope Tool, but there’s an easier way - use
Audacity’s built-in Compressor effect. Click on the Track
Control Panel of your narration track to select the entire
track then choose Effect > Compressor . The Compres-
sor is a complex but very useful effect, so let’s take a mo-
ment to see how it works. The Compressor effect works
by making the loud parts quieter, then amplifying every-
thing, which ends up making the quiet parts louder.
• Check Make-up gain for 0dB after compressing
and Compress based on Peaks.
– The former means that Compressor will max-
imize the volume of the track after it does its
work. The latter means that Compressor will
look at the peaks of the waveform rather than
its average value.
• The "Threshold" control is the "tipping point" - the
point where Compressor decides if something is
"loud" (and should be made quieter) or "quiet" (in
which case it leaves it alone).
– For our first pass we’ll set "Threshold" to "-12
dB".
• The "Noise Floor" control tells Compressor that
anything below that level is noise and it shouldn’t
make it any louder.
– For now we’ll set that control to "-80 dB".
• The "Ratio" control tells Compressor how much
quieter it should make the loud parts.
– Set it to "6:1".
• Set the "Attack Time" to "0.5 secs"
• Set the "Release Time" to "1.0 secs".
– These two controls tell Compressor how fast it
should respond to changes in volume.
Click the OK button and let Compressor do its work. Lis-
ten back to the result.
• Are the quiet parts still too quiet? Choose
Edit > Undo Compressor and try again with a
Threshold setting of -18 dB.
2.16. TUTORIAL - MIXING A NARRATION WITH BACKGROUND MUSIC 45

• Does your voice sound unnaturally squashed? this point. Choose Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split - a split
Undo and try again with a Threshold setting of -6 line appears. There are now two clips on the narration
dB. track. Similarly, put a split point between the second and
third portions of the narration. The narration track will
Note that once you’ve gone through setting everything
now look something like this:
up the first time, on subsequent tries you just change the
Threshold. This make it easy to home in on the setting
that works. When you have your narration edited to your
liking, be sure to save your project. Now it’s time to add
the music.

2.16.4 Step 3: Import the background mu-

sic file
Marking the places in the background music track
Choose File > Import > Audio... and open the back- where you want the narration clips to start
ground music file you’ve chosen for the project. Audacity
imports the music file into your project and puts it in its
Remember, our goal is to cut the narration to fit the mu-
own stereo track. You can import music from a CD into
sic. So our next step is to pick the spots in the back-
Audacity for the podcast but it should not be recorded as
ground music track where we want the three narration
it plays as that is slow and inaccurate. Instead, extract
clips to start Click the "Solo" button on the narration track
(rip) the audio from the CD to a WAV or AIFF audio file
to turn off the Solo function on that track. Click the "Solo"
and import that audio file into Audacity. See this tutorial
button on the background music track so you will only
for details. It is also possible to record the music from
hear that track. Identify the point in the background mu-
records or cassettes (see the tutorial Copying tapes, LPs
sic track where you want the narration to begin. Click
or MiniDiscs to CD ) or any audio that plays on the com-
at that point with the Selection Tool. Choose Edit > La-
puter (on Windows or Linux) and record it into Audacity
bels > Add Label at Selection . Type a name for the label,
- see Recording audio playing on the computer . Click
for example "First Narration". Similarly, identify the points
the Skip to Start button on the Transport Toolbar, then
in the background music track where you want the sec-
click the Play button . Note that Audacity automatically
ond and third narration clips to begin, and create labels at
mixes the music and narration for you. Click the Stop
those points. Your project window should look something
button when you’ve heard enough. Look at the Track
like this:
Control Panel at the left of each track. Note the "Mute"
and "Solo" buttons. You can use these to control which
tracks you hear when you click the Play button. Click-
ing the "Mute" button will turn that track off - it will not
be included in the mix when you press the Play button.
Clicking the "Solo" button will cause only that track to be
heard when you press the Play button. The exact behav-
ior of the Solo button can be set in the Tracks Preferences
panel.

2.16.5 Step 4: Time-shift the tracks

The Audacity Tracks and Clips page describes how to

use the Time Shift Tool to slide clips around.

Cutting the Narration Track

Start by clicking the "Solo" button on the narration track
- we do not want to listen to the music track while we’re
doing this work on the narration track. For the purposes
of this tutorial we will assume that we want to cut the
narration into three separate segments. Each of these
segments will begin when the music makes a dramatic
change. Find the spot between the first and second por-
tions of the narration. Using the Selection Tool click at
Moving the clips to work with the music
Click the Solo button on the background music track to
turn off the Solo function on that track, so we can hear
both the narration and music tracks. Using the Time Shift
Tool drag the third narration clip so that the start of the
clip lines up with the third label. Audacity will help you
line this up perfectly - when the start of the clip lines up
46
with the third label a yellow Boundary Snap Guide will
light up. Similarly, drag the second narration clip to line
up with the second label, and drag the first narration clip
to line up with the first label. Your project window should
now look something like this:
2.16.6 Step 5: Adjust relative volume lev-
els
You now have the narration clips where you want them.
It’s now time to adjust the volume of the background mu-
sic so your listeners can hear what you’re saying. There
are at least two ways to do this: manually with the Enve-
lope Tool, or automatically with the Auto Duck effect.
Using the Envelope Tool
Details on how to use the Envelope Tool are here .
You may want to read that page before continuing.
Zoom in on the first narration clip. A quick way to do
this is: double-click on the first narration clip; choose
View > Zoom > Zoom to Selection ; then choose
View > Zoom > Zoom Out
Select the Envelope Tool from the Tools Toolbar. In
the music track, click to create a control point a second
or so before the first narration clip begins. Click to create
a second control point just as the narration starts. Drag
the second control point down to reduce the volume of
the music track. Click in the Timeline a few seconds be-
fore the start of the first narration clip to hear the effect.
Press Space to stop playback. Adjust the first and sec-
ond control points to get the length and depth of the fade
you want. In a similar manner create the fade up at the
end of the first narration clip.
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
You could continue in this manner doing the fades on the
music track for each clip in the narration track. Or you
could try using the Auto Duck effect. The advantage of
using the Envelope tool is that you can always go back
and change the fades. Auto Duck, being an effect, per-
manently alters the music track.
2.16.7 Step 6: Smooth fade of the back-
ground music
Unless you’re very lucky (or have planned very, very
well), the music probably goes on for some time after the
narration is finished. In this case you’ll want to fade out
the music. Decide how long you want the music to con-
tinue a full volume after the narration has finished, and
how long you want it to take to fade out. Using the Selec-
tion Tool, click in the music track at the point where you
want the music to be completely faded out. Choose Se-
lect > Region > Cursor to Track End . Press the Delete
key. Now click at the point where you want the music to
begin fading out. Again choose Select > Region > Cur-
sor to Track End, then Choose Effect >&nbsp Fade Out
.
2.16.8 Step 7: Check your mix
If you maximized the volume of your narration track back
in Step 2 there is a good chance that when you mix it
with the music track the resulting mix will be too loud
and cause clipping - this is a bad thing. Remember, we
maximized the volume and leveled out the loud and soft
passages so that people would be able to hear you. To
check for clipping, play back a short portion of the project
where there is narration and background music. Watch
the Playback Meter - if clipping occurs the red "clip bars"
will appear at the right-hand end of the Playback Meter. If
this happens, use the Track Gain Slider to turn down the
volume of both the narration and music tracks to -2 dB.
Listen to the short section again and look for the red clip
bars on the Playback Meter. If clipping still occurs, turn
2.16. TUTORIAL - MIXING A NARRATION WITH BACKGROUND MUSIC
down the volume of the narration and music tracks to -4
dB each.
2.16.9 Step 8: Save and Export
The File > Save Project command just saves the Audacity
project. You need to export your project in order to use
it with other audio applications. When you export your
project, Audacity automatically mixes it, so the exported
file sounds just like what you hear when you click the Play
button. Make sure there are no unwanted bits of audio far
along the time line or your exported file will be unexpect-
edly long! Click on the Fit Project button in the Edit
Toolbar. If the expected length of your final mix is dis-
played in the window, all is fine. If the displayed time line
is much longer than your actual production, look for the
unwanted bits of audio and delete them. You may need
to click just past the real end of your narration/music and
delete everything from there to the end of the track(s).
Audacity can export in a variety of formats. The two most
commonly used are MP3 (for podcasts and similar) and
WAV (for burning to CD). In order to export to MP3 format
you must first install the optional LAME MP3 encoder .
Optional - Mix and Render
You may want to Mix and Render your project before you
export it. The Mix and Render command (in the Tracks
menu) will mix your project, and put the resulting mix in a
new track (this is the "render" portion of the command).
This gives you the opportunity to maximize the volume
of the final mix, and do a final check for clipping. If you
would like to try this, follow these steps:
• Choose Select > All
– Mix and Render only mixes the selected tracks
- you want to mix all of them
• Choose Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render
– your project is mixed into a new stereo track
and the previous, separate tracks are deleted
• Choose View > Show Clipping
– The Show Clipping command will put red ver-
tical bars anywhere clipping has occurred in
your track. If any red bars appear, choose Edit
> Undo Mix and Render and go back to Step
7.
If no clipping was detected, proceed:
• Click in the Track Control Panel of the newly-
created track
• Choose Effect > Normalize
– accept the default values and click the OK but-
ton.
47
– the volume of your final mix is maximized.
You exported a project in a previous tutorial . If you need
a refresher on how the File > Save Other > Export Au-
dio... command works, that information is on the Export
Audio Dialog page. Congratulations, your narration over
background music is now ready to share with the world.
2.16.10 Step 9: Backup
Backup your exported WAV or MP3 files - you do not
want to lose all that valuable work and have to do it all
over again, do you? Computer hard drives can fail, de-
stroying all data. Ideally use a dedicated drive (1+ TB ex-
ternal drives are convenient and economical), or upload
to an online (cloud) storage service, to store the WAVs or
MP3s. Better still is to make two copies on different exter-
nal devices and even better is to hold an off-site backup
2.16.11 Publishing your Podcast
Publishing your Audacity-created podcast on the internet
is in some ways the most important stage of all. Unless
you podcast purely to entertain yourself, you want oth-
ers to hear what you have to say. Much useful advice on
how and where to host your podcasts, how to set up RSS
feeds and how to publicise your work can be found in the
Wiki Tutorial "How to publish a Podcast".
Further reading
The following book on Podcasting was written by one of
the co-founders and developers of Audacity:
• Podcasting with Audacity - Purchasable e-book
(PDF download or view online) by Dominic Mazzoni
and Scott Granneman
2.16.12 Where to go from here
For more information
• How the Solo button works: Audio Tracks , Tracks
Preferences
• Using the Time Shift Tool: Audacity Tracks and
Clips
• Using the Envelope Tool: Envelope Tool
• Using Labels: Label Tracks
• The Compressor effect: Compressor
• The Auto Duck effect: Auto Duck
• The Mix and Render command: Tracks > Mix and
Render
48
2.17 Tutorial - Multi-track Overdubbing
2.17.1 Introduction
This tutorial describes a method of creating a multiple
sound track overdubbing session using Audacity. You
record one track then play it back and add a second
track against it: drums, guitar, voice, other instruments
or voices and repeat as needed. With the methods de-
scribed here you will be able to hear a mix of your live
recording and the previous tracks simultaneously in your
headphones. Live monitoring is often unavailable (or you
hear yourself in the headphones after a delay) without
hardware designed for this purpose. The procedure is
similar for any USB audio adapter, USB microphone or
mixer providing that it has a headphone output and some
way to mix the live signal with the computer playback sig-
nal and present that mix at the headphone output. If your
USB microphone, USB audio adapter or mixer does not
have a headphone output you should follow the advice
on Overdubbing using your computer’s on-board sound-
card using the hardware you have on hand. It is strongly
recommended that you do not use your computer’s built-
in microphone. Advice on connecting and testing several
specific hardware combinations are available at Record-
ing multi-track overdubs with specialist hardware in the
Wiki.
If you have not yet made a recording and played it
back using Audacity and your selected hardware, please
read our First Recording tutorial.
2.17.2 Hardware
You will need hardware that allows you to:
1. Get sound into the computer
2. Listen without a delay to the sound going into the
computer (the live sound)
3. Listen to the previously-recording tracks simultane-
ously with the live sound
Hardware that will accomplish this includes:
• A USB audio adapter
• A USB microphone that has a headphones output
• A USB headset
• A conventional analog microphone plugged into an
external USB adapter that includes a microphone
pre-amp
• A conventional analog mixer
• A USB mixer
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
In every case the device must include the ability
to mix the live sound with the previously-recorded tracks
and present that mix at a headphone output jack. Most
USB microphones do not include this capability. Almost
any Windows, Mac or Linux machine with fast enough
USB and good storage can be used. You will need
headphones or earbuds. If you require cranium-crushing
headphone volume you may need a headphone ampli-
fier. You must get the headphone sound from the USB
audio adapter, output on the USB microphone or head-
phone jack on the mixer, not from the computer head-
phone output. Headphone monitoring is good. Live mi-
crophones and speakers in the same room is a recipe for
feedback.
2.17.3 First recording
First, make a simple recording with no overdubbing or
other fancy tricks; your system must work correctly for
simple recording and playback before we go further.
While listening to the playback of your test recording, talk
into the microphone or play your instrument. You should
be able to year your voice or instrument along with the
playback. This demonstrates what you will hear during
the overdub sessions; any combination of existing tracks
will play in your headphones in addition to your live voice
or instrument, allowing you to play along with the existing
tracks. If you cannot hear your live voice or instrument
simultaneously with the playback you are not ready to
begin overdubbing. This tutorial cannot cover every pos-
sible hardware configuration. If you need help, post a
message on the Audacity Forum.
2.17.4 Setting the recording latency
Latency refers to the delay between the time the audio
enters the computer and the time Audacity is able to
record it to a track. For example, if you are recording
a keyboard track, latency is the delay between the time
you strike a key and the time that note is recorded. For
instructions on how to adjust the latency see the Latency
Test page in the manual.
2.17.5 Performance
Choose File > Close (you do not need to save any of your
tests). You are ready for your first overdubbing session.
Choose File > New . Confirm the following settings in the
Transport menu:
• Overdub (on/off) is checked
2.17. TUTORIAL - MULTI-TRACK OVERDUBBING
• Software Playthrough (on/off) is not checked
The first recording can be whatever you’re planning to
use as a base, backing track, guide or rhythm track. It
can be anything including a Generate > Rhythm Track...
which can be adjusted with its control panel for rhythm
and composition; it could be music from a rhythm and
chord machine playing through a mixer. If you are not
using Audacity’s Rhythm Track, be sure to record a lead-
in—a non-musical rhythmical clue before the music starts
which warns you of the imminent start. In a live band
this would be the drummer or lead guitar count-in. You
could use a synthesizer’s rhythm stops or you can per-
form several rim shots into the microphone to establish
the rhythm before the first note; tapping on the table with
a pencil also works. You can edit it out later in post-
production so nobody else will hear it. Click the Stop
button when you have recorded a sufficiently-long ref-
erence track then press the Home key. Get ready to
record your first real track, then click the Record but-
ton . You should hear your live performance and
reference track playback in your headphone mix as
a guide. Repeat for as many tracks as required.The
Mute and Solo buttons to the left of each track are valu-
able in overdubbing. Solo causes only that track to play
and Mute turns that track off. Solo has options that can
be set in Preferences . The gain control in the Track
Control Panel to the left of each waveform controls the
playback volume of that track—it affects the headphone
mix. When you get to a stopping point click the Stop
button then choose File > Save Project As... to save
your project. As you progress, you should save a new
Project periodically with a slightly different file name. A
good recommendation is to use ISO date and time for
the file names or the start of the file names; refrain from
using slash marks or other punctuation marks in a file
name. ISO Date and time201110011500.aup – that rep-
resents year: 2011, month: October (month 10), day:
01, time: 1500hrs. Then save a new version of the
song about every twenty minutes: 201110011520.aup
201110011545.aup 201110011602.aup Do not go weeks
with one Project and file name, and never cover up or
record over existing work. If anything happened to that
one Project, your project would be ruined and could nul-
lify weeks of work. Think of what would happen if the
lights went out right now, the computer ground to a halt
and you were forced to use the last known good version
of the project. For extra safety it is good practice to pe-
riodically back up your project versions to a DVD-R or
external hard drive for archive purposes. Remember that
it is important to keep the AUP file and the _data folder
together. One way to make sure of this is to create a zip
archive of the AUP file and _data folder. In the unlikely
event that the Audacity project is corrupted or your hard
drive crashes you will be able to recover your work. Note
that Audacity projects cannot be played in computer me-
dia players nor burned to audio CDs. Export your project
as 16-bit WAV or AIF for burning to a CD, or to MP3 for
email or internet delivery. See Mixing for advice on doing
49
the final mix of your project.
2.17.6 Troubleshooting
• For overdubbing the headphones must be plugged
into the USB device not the computer. Your live
sound will be delayed (off rhythm) and you cannot
easily change it.
• If the USB device does not appear in the Device
Toolbar check that the USB device is connected
correctly then try Transport > Rescan Audio De-
vices .
• How much hard disk space do you have avail-
able? If your only experience with computer files is
with spreadsheets, email or pictures live audio (and
video) production will stun you with the amount of
disk space it consumes. With high quality overdub-
bing, project files and folders get big in a hurry; with
periodic saving of version of a project (as detailed
above), a project can get seriously large.
• Communications features on newer Windows ma-
chines can cause unwanted changes in recorded
volume or make the recording sound tinkly and/or
hollow; see this FAQ .
• Always ensure that you are directly connected to a
USB port on your computer. Connecting through a
hub is likely to cause audio dropouts.
• Except in rare circumstances, you cannot plug a
stereo analog sound mixer directly into a Windows
laptop for recording. Mic-in (many times a pink port)
is mono, not stereo, and too sensitive for the mixer.
An external USB audio adapter neatly gets around
that problem even if you’re not planning overdub-
bing or complex production.
Synchronizing TracksHere are some tips if you’re trying
to record multiple tracks and synchronize them:
• When recording your first track, "count in" by tap-
ping your microphone, pickup, etc... or import a
count in from another file. Short, quick, percussive
sounds at an even tempo is key here. Generating a
click-track in a newer version of Audacity will work
well, even if it is only a couple of measures.
• On all subsequent tracks, count in your rhythm, in
synchronization with the playback of the first track’s
count, using the tapping method described above.
• You can now zoom in on your first track and subse-
quent tracks at the count-in. Pay particular atten-
tion to your last count-in beat (If you’ve counted in
well, your last beat should definitely be in synchro-
nization). Line up the beginning of the last beat in
50
all subsequent tracks with the corresponding one
from the first track, using the time shift tool.
• Your audio should now be synchronized. If not, ad-
justments should be minor, unless your count or
performance was way off ... in which case, noth-
ing can help you, except to re-record. When your
song is finished, remove your count-in beats.
• If your tracks drift out of synchronization gradually,
you may be having problems with skipping or with
poor-quality hardware.
• You can always expect a small (but constant) time
delay on subsequent tracks. This is due to fixed de-
2.18 Tutorial - Recording and Editing
When making recordings, particular critical recordings,
you should consider shutting down all other applications
giving Audacity sole use of the computer. This can help
to avoid skips, small dropouts, and ticks in your record-
ings. And on Mac that means fully Quitting them not just
closing them, as otherwise Mac will leave them open con-
suming computer resources.
2.18.1 Step 1: Record for real this time
Click the Record button in Transport Toolbar then be-
gin talking or playing. Continue for as long as you want.
When you feel you’ve recorded enough, click the Stop
button . Try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6
dB (see: dB ) or 0.5 if you have your meters set to linear
rather than dB.Tip: Enlarging the Meter Toolbar by click-
ing and dragging on the toolbar helps considerably with
this task. See Undocking and Resizing
If you have just made a recording it is strongly recom-
mended to File > Save Other > Export Audio... it immedi-
ately to WAV or AIFF (ideally to an external drive) as
a safety copy before you start editing the project.
2.18.2 Step 2: Remove any DC offset
DC offset can occur at the recording stage so that the
recorded waveform is not centered on the horizontal line
at 0.0 amplitude . This can be caused if you have a
faulty soundcard. If this is the case with your recordings,
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
lays in the analog to digital conversion processes.
• To remove audio shifted before time zero:
1. Ctrl + A to Select All (including behind zero)
2. Shift + Home to move the selection start back to
zero
3. Ctrl + T to trim to that selection.
2.17.7 Links
|< Tutorial: Recording Multi-track Overdubs
see the Normalize page for how to use Normalize to re-
move DC offset and how to check if your Windows sound
device can perform this correction automatically.
2.18.3 Step 3: Edit Recording
You now have a good recording, but there are likely some
bits at the beginning and end that you do not need - be-
tween the time you clicked the Record button and the
time you starting talking or playing, and between the time
you stopped talking or playing and the time you clicked
the Stop button.
1. Click the Skip to Start button in Transport Toolbar
2. Repeatedly click the Zoom In button until the dis-
played waveform expands so you can see from the
beginning of the recording to the time you started
talking or playing
3. With the Selection tool , click just before the point
where you started talking or playing
4. Choose Select > Region > Track Start to Cursor
• The region from the beginning of the track to
the beginning of your performance is selected
5. Choose Edit > Delete
• The selected audio is removed from the track,
and the rest of the audio moves left to fill the
space left after the delete.
Similarly, you can delete the extra bit from the end of your
recording.
1. Click the Skip to End button in Transport Toolbar
2. Repeatedly click the Zoom In button button un-
til the displayed waveform expands so you can see
2.19. TUTORIAL - RECORDING AUDIO PLAYING ON THE COMPUTER
from the time you stopped talking or playing to the
end of the recording
3. With the Selection tool , click just after the point
where you stopped talking or playing
4. Choose Select > Region > Cursor to Track End
• The region from the end of your performance
to the end of the track is selected
5. Choose Edit > Delete
• The selected audio is removed from the track
If you’ve made any mistakes in your performance you
could edit them out. Use the Selection Tool to select
each mistake and press the delete key. Listen back to
each edit to make sure it sounds natural. If not, choose
Edit > Undo Delete and try again.
2.18.4 Step 4: Amplitude adjustment
Since you were careful not to record too loud it is likely
that your recording is not as loud as possible. To correct
this you can use the Normalize effect.
1. Choose Select > All (or use Ctrl + A) to select all of
the track.
• With default Tracks Preferences , you may not
need this step - all the audio in the project is
selected if you choose an effect without first
selecting any audio.
2. Choose Effect > Normalize... .
• Accept (for now) the default choices in the
Normalize dialog and click the OK button
• The volume is normalized to -1 dB, so leaving
a little headroom below the maximum possi-
ble 0 dB level.
2.19 Tutorial - Recording audio playing on the computer
This tutorial outlines solutions for recording audio play-
ing on the computer, (for example, audio being streamed
from an internet website). How or if you can do this de-
pends on your computer operating system, your sound-
card and its drivers.
Copyright or website restrictions may pre-
vent you recording or distributing material. Check
first.Generally, it is better to extract or import audio
from CDs, DVDs or existing video or audio files than
record them as they play. Recording from an analog
soundcard is relatively inexact and lossy because the dig-
ital source is converted to analog to play it, then back
51
Note that Normalize defaults to retaining the exist-
ing balance between stereo channels. However ba-
sic consumer-level equipment can often record with
channels unbalanced. To correct unwanted volume
differences between left and right, check "Normalize
stereo channels independently". Extraneous noises in
the recording can cause Normalize to create unwanted
changes in the stereo balance, or prevent recordings be-
ing made as loud as they can be. Extraneous noises
should be edited with Click Removal , Repair or Amplify
before the Normalize step. Also see our tips for reducing
noise in the recording chain.
2.18.5 Step 5: Save and Export
1. Choose File > Save Project , then choose a name
for your project and a place to save it.
• You have now saved an Audacity Project to
disk. The project file (ending in .aup) can only
be opened by Audacity. You can come back
to the project and make changes to it later.
For example you could do more editing, record
more audio, or apply other effects.
2. To listen to your performance in other audio soft-
ware (such as iTunes or Windows Media Player),
or to burn it to CD , choose File > Save Other >
Export Audio... .
2.18.6 Links
< Back to: Tutorial - Making a Test Recording
|< Tutorial - Your First Recording
to digital to record it. The resulting quality will depend
(amongst other things) on the quality of your soundcard’s
digital to analog and analog to digital converters.
• To extract audio CD tracks to your computer, see
Audio CDs .
• To import additional types of audio file or extract au-
dio from video files, download and install FFmpeg ,
then import the file. FFmpeg can also extract audio
from the individual VOB files stored on unencrypted
DVDs.
52
2.19.1 Step 1: Set up devices to capture
computer playback
This is often the hardest part of the overall task, being de-
pendent on your computer operating system and sound-
card. Many manufacturers are making it increasingly dif-
ficult to record streaming audio by deliberately remov-
ing or hiding this functionality due to copyright concerns.
Sometimes, older soundcard drivers can be found on the
website of the soundcard or motherboard manufacturer
that still allow recording of computer playback. This sec-
tion of the tutorial shows how to find a suitable soundcard
input for recording computer playback, with workarounds
if such an input is not available. Click the link to the tuto-
rial for your operating system:
• Recording Computer Playback on Windows
• Recording Computer Playback on Mac
• Recording Computer Playback on Linux
2.19.2 Step 2: Turn Software Playthrough
off
Software Playthrough must usually be turned off when
recording computer playback. If playthrough is on, the
soundcard will try to play what it is recording then re-
record it, creating an increasingly loud series of echoes
that may damage your equipment. To turn off Soft-
ware Playthrough, choose Transport > Transport Options
> Software Playthrough (on/off) to conveniently toggle
playthrough off and on as required. You can also use
the Recording section of Audacity Preferences:
If you are recording computer playback with Sound-
flower on Mac you must keep Software Playthrough on.
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
2.19.3 Step 3: Monitor and set initial sound
levels
Before recording for real, try to set sound levels by play-
ing similar material from your intended source and mon-
itoring it in Audacity, so that the recording level will be
neither too soft nor so loud as to risk clipping . There
are two ways to turn monitoring on and off in the Record-
ing Meter Toolbar :
• Left-click in the right-hand recording meter to turn
monitoring on. Click again to turn it off.
• Use the context menu by either left-clicking the
downward-pointing arrow beside the microphone
symbol or right-clicking over the Recording Meter.
Choose "Start Monitoring" or "Stop Monitoring" as
appropriate.
The aim is to adjust levels so that the long colored bars
in Meter Toolbar do not exceed about -9.0 to –6.0 dB (or
0.5 if the meters are set to linear rather than dB). You can
always amplify the recorded signal later if necessary.
See Meter Toolbars for a detailed description of what the
meter display shows. Both the output level of the audio
you are recording and the level it’s being recorded at will
determine the achieved input level of the recording. Thus
to achieve the correct recording level you should use both
the recording and playback level sliders on Mixer Toolbar:
and probably the volume control on the website or player
software as well. It may be best to check that the Audac-
ity playback slider and the website or player slider are
turned up by about the same amount, rather than having
one output slider way down and the other way up.
Always keep an eye on the Recording Meter Toolbar bars
to make sure they do not actually reach the right edge, or
the red hold lights to right of the meter will come on, indi-
cating clipping distortion in the recording. Enlarging Me-
ter Toolbar by clicking and dragging the right-hand edge
may help with this task. See Resizing and Undocking . In
most cases you cannot turn down the output volume (for
example, if you want to work) and still record computer
2.19. TUTORIAL - RECORDING AUDIO PLAYING ON THE COMPUTER
playback. If you need to do this, unplug the speakers
or on Windows XP, turn down the "Speaker" slider (not
the "Wave" slider") in "Sounds and Audio Devices" in the
Windows Control Panel.
2.19.4 Step 4: Make a test recording
Make a test recording to refine levels if necessary. Start
the audio playing on the computer then click the Record
button in Transport Toolbar . Record for long enough to
find the loudest likely part, then click the Stop button .
Have a look at the recorded waveform - there should
be no clipping visible. Clipping is bad - this is when the
volume of the source sent to Audacity is louder than Au-
dacity can record. The result is that the tops and bottoms
of the recorded wave are chopped off ("clipped"). The il-
lustrations below show about 0.004 seconds of a properly
recorded waveform then a clipped waveform. You’ll need
to zoom in to inspect the waveform as closely as this, but
extended lengths of clipping will also be visible at lower
zoom levels. A properly recorded waveform
A clipped waveform
You can also check for clipping by choosing View > Show
Clipping from the menu. Audacity will display vertical
red lines in the waveform wherever it detects any clipped
samples .
• Show Clipping may detect clipping when Meter
Toolbar does not, because Meter Toolbar detects
only runs of four or more clipped samples. Any clip-
ping of three samples or less is unlikely to be audi-
ble in most recording circumstances, but it’s still a
53
good idea to turn the playback or recording level
down if you can.
• On slower machines it’s best to turn Show Clipping
off when recording for real.
If clipping occurred, turn the recording or output level
down a little and try again. If no clipping occurred you
can now Edit > Undo Record from the menu to remove
the test recording(s) then make the real recording.
2.19.5 Step 5: Make the real recording
Click the Record button in the Transport Toolbar then
start the audio playing on the computer. Continue record-
ing for as long as you want, but keep an eye on the "disk
space remaining" message (in the Status Bar at bottom
left of the Project Window ) and on the Recording Meter
(to ensure that you are maintaining a good level without
clipping). When you have finished recording, click the
Stop button .
2.19.6 Step 6: Backup the capture
It is strongly recommended that you Export a safety copy
of the raw recording in uncompressed WAV or AIFF
format. This is particularly important if the recording is a
one-off and cannot be repeated. The backup can always
be returned to should you make a mess of your subse-
quent editing. For extra safety or convenience you could
also copy the backup to an external drive or a CD - ei-
ther a data CD for playing on the computer or an audio
or "music" CD for a CD player. Find out more at Burn-
ing music files to a CD . At this stage you will probably
want to use File > Save Project before proceeding with
any editing. This is useful if you want to come back to
editing later on.
2.19.7 Step 7: Editing
For information on editing please refer to this tutorial
Recording and Editing If you have not been able to make
a test recording and find that you have some clipping in
the real recording then, provided that the clipping is not
too severe, you may be able to repair the clipping with
Audacity’s Effect > Clip Fix . You should use the Clip Fix
effect to repair any clipping immediately after recording
and prior to undertaking any further editing.
54
2.20 Tutorial - Recording Computer Playback on Linux
On Linux there are in general two different sound sys-
tems that provide drivers to your sound device, OSS
and the more recent ALSA. Additionally, advanced sound
servers such as PulseAudio and JACK can use ALSA
to provide professional audio features such as routing of
inputs and outputs, high quality mixing and resampling,
aggregation of devices or soundcards and (in the case of
JACK) very low latencies.
Copyright or website restrictions may prevent
you recording or distributing material. Check first.
2.20.1 PulseAudio
PulseAudio is a sound server providing professional au-
dio features such as mixing and input/output routing.
It is the default audio device on many Linux distribu-
tions including Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Open Suse and many
Debian/Ubuntu-based distributions. PulseAudio oper-
ates as a proxy between sound applications and the
audio hardware (usually via ALSA). PulseAudio Volume
Control provides a "Monitor" device which listens for the
audio output of other applications such as Firefox or
Rhythmbox. Setting PulseAudio Volume Control to cap-
ture from the Monitor device lets Audacity record com-
puter playback when its input device is set to pulse.
1. If not already installed, add PulseAudio Volume
Control (pavucontrol) to your system. This is usu-
ally available in the distribution’s repository.
2. Ensure that PulseAudio is running. In Audacity’s
Device Toolbar , set the Host to ALSA and the
recording device to pulse.
• On systems where PulseAudio is the default
sound system the recording device may be set
to default.
• Audacity’s playback device may be set to
pulse or to any available soundcard.
3. Ensure that "Software Playthrough" is not enabled
in the Transport Menu then left-click on the Record-
ing Meter to turn monitoring on.
4. Open PulseAudio Volume Control and choose the
"Recording" tab.
5. In the "Capture from" dropdown, select the "Moni-
tor" option of the playback device used by the ap-
plication you want to record from, as shown below:
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
6. Launch the application that you wish to record and
begin playback.
7. In the "Recording" tab of PulseAudio Volume Con-
trol, drag the volume sliders so that the recording
level in Audacity’s Recording Meter is to left of 0
dB (-6 dB is a good level to aim for).
• The playback level of the application being
recorded will also affect the level of the record-
ing. Use the "Playback" tab in PulseAudio Vol-
ume Control or the volume control in the appli-
cation to adjust the output level.
• If you want to record without hearing the au-
dio, you can turn down the Audacity playback
slider or turn down the sliders on the Output
Devices tab of PulseAudio Volume Control.
Don’t use the Mute button in PulseAudio Vol-
ume Control, because this will cause Audacity
to record silence. You can also set the port
on the Output Devices tab of PulseAudio vol-
ume control to the audio output such as "head-
phones" but not connect any headphones or
speakers to the port.
8. When the recording level has been correctly ad-
justed, press the Record button in Audacity .
For a detailed description using Ubuntu 10, see Stereo
Mix with Ubuntu 10 on the Audacity wiki.
2.20.2 JACK
Jack Audio System is commonly used in Linux distribu-
tions that specialise in media creation such as Ubuntu
Studio and Studio 64. To use Audacity with Jack it is
useful or in some cases essential to have a few addi-
tional packages installed. This documentation assumes
that you have Jack Audio System working on your ma-
chine. For help with setting up Jack, please consult
the documentation for your Linux distribution. Record-
ing sounds playing from other applications is rather easy
with Jack. Jack may be started using QjackCtl or from
the command-line. If Audacity is launched after Jack is
started then "Jack Audio Connection Kit" will be an avail-
able host option in the Device Toolbar . If Jack is started
2.20. TUTORIAL - RECORDING COMPUTER PLAYBACK ON LINUX
after Audacity has been launched then it will be neces-
sary to Transport > Rescan Audio Devices for new audio
devices before jack is available to Audacity. Any Jack-
compatible applications that are running before Audacity
is launched will have their ports available in Device Tool-
bar. To make an application available to Audacity that
is launched after Audacity it is necessary to use Rescan
Audio Devices in the Transport Menu. After rescanning
audio devices, input and output ports from other appli-
cations will be available in the Recording and Playback
boxes in Device Toolbar. In this image the output of Hy-
drogen drum machine is being selected as the recording
source. This will enable Audacity to record directly from
the audio output from Hydrogen. If "System" is selected
as the recording source then Audacity will record from
the physical soundcard input.
Applications that do not directly support Jack may also be
used with Jack on a system that uses PulseAudio (such
as Ubuntu and Debian based distributions) by installing
"pulseaudio-module-jack". This provides the modules
"Jack Source" and "Jack Sink" that allow PulseAudio
to use Jack. For example, to record sounds playing
through Firefox, PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucon-
trol) can be used to direct the output from Firefox to Jack
Sink. The recording input for Audacity can then be set
to record from "PulseAudio Jack Sink" and the sound will
be recorded.
2.20.3 ALSA
Alsamixer
For systems that have ALSA but do not have PulseAu-
dio or Jack Audio System, it may still be possible to
record sounds playing on the computer. Alsamixer is a
command-line tool with "view" options to represent the
sound device graphically. It is installed by default in
most desktop distributions. To view the alsamixer man-
ual, open a terminal window and enter man alsamixer
or view the manual online. To start alsamixer, type al-
samixer in a terminal window. If a Mix device is shown
as a capture device, set this as the active device to en-
able recording sounds that are playing on the computer.
2.20.4 OSS
OSS was the standard audio API in Linux up through
the 2.4 series of official (kernel.org) Linux kernels. ALSA
was added starting with 2.5, in those versions, Linux ker-
nel authors marked OSS as deprecated. Development
of OSS was continued by 4Front Technology, initially as
55
proprietary software but later released as partially open
source. Possible solutions to recording audio playing on
a computer using OSS are described here.
2.20.5 Other Methods
Alternative programs for recording computer play-
back
An alternative to recording streaming audio from the In-
ternet is to download the data directly to disk, either
by using command-line tools such as streamripper or
mplayer, or with a browser plug-in (many available for
Firefox), or writing the stream to disk from a media player
such as VLC or xmms, or using a graphical down-loader
such as streamtuner.
Using the ALSA PCM file
It is not necessary to use Audacity to record sounds play-
ing on the computer. You can capture the sound from the
application producing it before it reaches the sound de-
vice, which avoids capturing unwanted system sounds.
This solution can be used even if there is no sound de-
vice. Note: this solution may not work on a system
using PulseAudio but you can use PulseAudio Volume
Control instead. First you need to create (or if it al-
ready exists, add to the end of the file) ~/.asoundrc file.
Do it with your favorite plain text editor. Note:~ is your
home directory so change that to /home/john or what-
ever if you are not working in a Linux shell. pcm.teeraw
{ type empty slave.pcm "tee:default,’/tmp/out.raw’,raw" #
48000 S16_LE 2ch (aplay -t raw -f dat) }Now tell the
application from which you are trying to record to use
the "teeraw" ALSA device for playback - read the ap-
plication’s manual for help. Although there is no in-
terface to do this for Adobe Flash, it can be achieved
by setting the FLASH_ALSA_DEVICE environment vari-
able to the name of the sound device to use, for ex-
ample: FLASH_ALSA_DEVICE=teeraw firefoxThanks to
wensley.org for this tip. Run the application. Stop
the application. Now /tmp/out.raw should contain your
sound with perfect quality. If you change "default" to
"null" in the above text, you will not hear anything but
sound will still go to the file. If "empty" does not
work with your ALSA library try with "copy". If you
want to record all sounds played through the com-
puter, you’ll need to set the teeraw device as your
default device with something like: pcm.!default{ type
empty slave.pcm "teeraw" }In this case though, you
will need to change "tee:default,’/tmp/out.raw’,raw" to
"tee:null,’/tmp/out.raw’,raw" or something else because
otherwise you create a loop. In many cases chang-
ing "null" to "dmix" should do the trick - you record any
application audio and still hear it through your speak-
ers. Note that you’ll pick up random sounds from other
56
applications such as system "dings" and the raw file
could get corrupted or overwritten. Unless your ALSA
install allows you a setup like below you must abso-
lutely make sure that only the desired application is pro-
ducing sound while you are recording this way. With
newer ALSA versions you can try these parameters for
convenience (also you can adapt to use a different en-
coder than lame): pcm.teewav { type copy slave.pcm
"tee:default,’/tmp/out.raw’,wav" } pcm.teemp3 { type file
format "raw" slave.pcm "default" file ’|/usr/local/bin/lame
-S -r -s %r –bitwidth %b -m j - /tmp/asound-$$.mp3’ }
2.20.6 Use a loopback cable
This is a simple and effective method of recording what
is playing on the computer. It has the disadvantage that
the audio signal is converted from digital to analog, then
2.21 Tutorial - Recording Computer Playback on Mac
Mac computers have no built-in ability to record stream-
ing audio playing on a sound device. You can use Sound-
flower to record computer playback directly into Audac-
ity or can do so by using a connecting a loopback cable
from audio out to the separate audio input available on
some Macs. Alternatively there are commercial applica-
tions which can record computer playback to a file that
is importable into Audacity, or that like Soundflower can
provide an additional audio device from which Audacity
can record computer playback.
Copyright or website restrictions may prevent
you recording or distributing material. Check first.
2.21.1 Soundflower
Soundflower is a free open source system add-on for
Mac computers that allows you to route what is playing
on the computer digitally back to the input without using
a cable. Set Soundflower as your system output device,
then in Audacity, set Soundflower as your recording de-
vice.
Download Soundflower
• OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and later in-
cluding macOS:Soundflower-2.0b2.dmg from
https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower/releases/.
• OS X 10.6 to 10.8 (Snow Leopard/Lion/Mountain
Lion):Soundflower-1.6.6b.dmg from https://code.google.com/p/soundflower/downloads/list
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
from analog to digital, instead of staying in the digital do-
main. This may result in some slight increase in noise
and distortion. Plug your line-out or headphones-out to
the line-in using a cable with a stereo mini-plug at each
end, then record from line-in. To hear the sound while
recording, use a single to double stereo connector to give
you a jack for the speakers or headphones. If you have
only mic-in and no line-in is selectable through alsamixer,
you can build an attenuator to reduce the line level out-
put to a level suitable for mic-in. But probably this will
only provide mono recording, because mic-in is mono in
most cases. As well, the quality may be questionable.
2.20.7 Links
|< Tutorial - Recording audio playing on the computer
(if you are running NoScript you must disable it on
that page).
Obtaining Soundflowerbed if you install Soundflower
2.0b2
Important: The 2.0b2 version is the only version that will
work on El Capitan and later. It can also be used on Mav-
ericks or Yosemite but it lacks the "Soundflowerbed" ap-
plication that lets you hear audio on your computer while
Soundflower is set as the system output device. Fortu-
nately Soundflowerbed from Soundflower 1.6.6b can be
used on its own with Soundflower 2.0b2.
• If you already have Soundflower 1.6.x:
1. Copy Soundflowerbed.app from the /Applica-
tions/Soundflower/ folder to your Desktop or
somewhere else.
2. In the same "Soundflower" folder, double-
click "Uninstall Soundflower.scpt" to uninstall
Soundflower 1.6.x. In the window that opens,
press the "Run" button. You should see
"Done!" in the results, indicating that the unin-
stallation completed satisfactorily.
3. Reboot the computer then run the
"Soundflower-2.0b2.dmg" installer as above.
• If you do not have Soundflowerbed.app: the
easiest solution is to download it by clicking this link
https://forum.audacityteam.org/download/file.php?id=14089.
Unzip the "Soundflowerbed.app" from the down-
load, then place it anywhere that is convenient.
2.21. TUTORIAL - RECORDING COMPUTER PLAYBACK ON MAC
Install your chosen Soundflower version
1. To install the downloaded DMG file, double-click it
to mount it. In the DMG itself, double-click the PKG
file.
If you see a warning on OS X 10.7.5 or later
that Soundflower cannot be opened due to your Se-
curity Preferences, right-click or control-click over
the PKG file and choose "Open", then choose
"Open" again.
2. After opening the PKG file, you may see a warn-
ing that the certificate for the installer has expired.
Press "Show Certificate" to review the certificate
then choose "Continue".
3. Then run through the standard installer steps. If
you obtained the 1.6.x installer, save your work in
other applications, then press the button in the in-
staller to restart your Mac. The 2.x.x installer does
not require restarting the computer.
4. Choose Apple Menu > System Preferences and se-
lect the Sound preferences panel.
5. In the Sound preferences panel, choose the Out-
put tab, then select "Soundflower (2ch)" from the
"Select a device for sound output:" list and turn the
Output volume up.
6. In the same panel, choose the Input tab, select
"Soundflower (2ch)" and and turn the Input volume
up.
• At this point you will no longer be able to hear
what is playing on the computer. The sound
output of the computer is being sent to Sound-
flower.
7. Click on the "Sound Effects" tab, and from the "Play
sound effects through" dropdown menu choose
"Line Out", "Headphones" or "Internal Speakers"
(whichever is appropriate for your system).
• This will route some system alert sounds
(such as Mail alert sounds) to the Line Out
or Internal Speakers and not to Soundflower.
57
Thus these sounds will not be recorded by Au-
dacity.Some Macintosh applications are better
behaved than others when it comes to alert
sounds. Tests on a recent iMac running 10.7.2
show that Mail and TextEdit alert sounds will
not be recorded with the above setup, but iCal
and Yahoo Messenger alert sounds will be
recorded. To be safe you should disable the
sound on any iCal alerts that may occur while
you are recording, and quit any other applica-
tion that may make an alert sound.
8. Close the System Preferences window.
9. Start Audacity.
10. In Audacity’s Device Toolbar , select Built-in Output
or similar as Playback Device and Soundflower
(2ch) as Recording Device.
11. Click on the Transport menu and make sure that
"Software Playthrough" is checked.
12. Go to the application that will be playing the sound
you want to record. For example, start Safari and
go to a website that plays sound clips. Start some
audio playing.
13. Click on the recording level meters (beside the mi-
crophone symbol) to begin monitoring:
You should now be able to hear the sound play-
ing on your computer.
14. Now click Record to record anything playing on
your computer.
To set things back to "normal" so you can hear audio
playing on your computer without running Audacity
1) Click on Apple Menu > System Preferences then the
Sound panel, and select the Output tab. Select "Line
Out", "Internal Speakers" or "Headphones" in the output
device list. See step 3 above for an illustration. 2) In Au-
dacity, if you want to record from a different source (such
as the Line Input or an external USB device), click on
Audacity > Preferences then the Devices section and se-
lect the input you want to record from in the Recording
section. See step 7 above for an illustration.
For help if you’re stuck
Visit the Mac 2.0.x forum, click the "New Topic" button
and ask your question.
58
To hear what is playing on the computer while using
Soundflower
When you install Soundflower 1.6.x, a new folder will be
installed in your Applications folder called "Soundflower".
Inside that folder is an app called "Soundflowerbed".
Launch Soundflowerbed and it will install a "flower" menu
at right of your menu bar.
If you see a warning on OS X 10.7.5 or later that
Soundflowerbed cannot be opened due to your Security
Preferences, right-click or control-click over the app and
choose "Open", then choose "Open" again.
The choices below the "Soundflower (2ch)" and "Sound-
flower (16ch)" menu items determine how the output of
Soundflower will be monitored. "None (OFF)" means that
you will not hear anything from your computer speakers.
Selecting "Built-in Audio" will allow you to hear (moni-
tor) the sound that is passing through Soundflower. If
you are using Soundflowerbed to monitor the sound, you
will want to uncheck "Software Playthrough" in Audacity’s
Transport menu. The original Soundflowerbed could not
restart itself if the system was put to sleep then resumed.
You can download a modified version that solves that
problem and adds a volume control to Soundflowerbed.
2.21.2 Use a loopback cable
This is a simple and effective method of recording what
is playing on the computer. It has the disadvantage that
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
the audio signal is converted from digital to analog, then
from analog to digital, instead of staying in the digital do-
main. This may result in some slight increase in noise
and distortion.
1. Using a cable with a stereo mini-plug (1/8") at each
end, connect the headphone output port to the line
input port.
• At this point you will no longer be able to
hear what is playing on the computer. As a
workaround, you could attach a single to dou-
ble stereo connector to the output port provide
an extra jack for speakers or headphones.
2. Choose Apple Menu > System Preferences and se-
lect the Sound preferences panel.
3. In the Sound preferences panel:
(a) Click on the Output tab, then select "Line Out"
from the "Choose a device for sound output"
list.
(b) Click on the Input tab, then select "Line Input"
from the "Choose a device for sound input" list.
(c) Leaving the Sound preferences panel open,
start sound audio playing on the computer
(this could be from iTunes, or streaming audio,
or some other source).
(d) Adjust the Input volume slider so that the top 3
bars of the Input level meter do not light up on
the loudest passages, but the rest of the bars
do light up.
(e) Close the System Preferences window.
4. In Audacity’s Device Toolbar select Built-in Input
or similar as Recording Device. Note you need
to choose a line-in for this, not a four-position port
meant only for connecting a headset.
5. Click on the Transport menu and make sure that
"Software Playthrough" is not checked.
All system alert sounds such as email and appli-
cation alerts will be recorded using this method. If you
have iCal alerts or have turned on event sounds in Mail,
you may want to turn them off. You should also quit any
application that may make an alert sound while you are
recording.
2.21.3 Commercial applications
• Audio Hijack sold by Rogue Amoeba. It can
"hijack" the sound output of any application and
record that audio to disk in a number of for-
mats. It requires OS X 10.9 or higher. For OS
X 10.6 through 10.8, use Audio Hijack Pro 2 from
2.22. TUTORIAL - RECORDING COMPUTER PLAYBACK ON WINDOWS
https://rogueamoeba.com/legacy/#outdatedversions.
Once you have captured the audio with Audio Hi-
jack you can import the file into Audacity for editing.
Audio Hijack records the sound output of a partic-
ular application so there is no danger of recording
system alert sounds.If you need help editing the
audio captured by Audio Hijack, have a look at our
tutorial on editing an existing file .
• Sound Siphon sold by Static Z software. It is ad-
vertised for OS X 10.9 to 10.11 but also works
2.22 Tutorial - Recording Computer Playback on Windows
Recording computer playback can be confusing be-
cause there are several different ways the audio can be
recorded.
• Software playthrough (e.g. a stereo-mix option on
Windows ’Sound control panel’) - If available, this
is usually best. The computer generated audio is
mixed digitally with the other recorded audio with
no loss of quality.
• Hardware playthrough (e.g. using a loopback ca-
ble) - The computer generated audio is converted
to analog, mixed with any incoming audio, and con-
verted back to digital again.
• Overdub - This option in Audacity is for a different
purpose. It allows you to listen to other audio that
you have already in Audacity as you record new au-
dio. For example you could listen to vocals on your
headphones as you record a backing track. There
is no need to record these other tracks, because
they are already in Audacity and available for mix-
ing.
On Windows, sound devices often lack a "Stereo Mix" or
similar input, or it must be specially enabled in the Win-
dows "Sound" Control Panel. On these operating sys-
tems. You can also choose Windows WASAPI host and
the (loopback) input choice in Device Toolbar . This will
record computer playback even if the computer sound
device lacks its own input to do this.
• Copyright or website restrictions may prevent
you recording or distributing material. Check
first.
• When recording computer playback, ensure the
menu item Transport > Transport Options >
Software Playthrough (on/off) is off. If the item
has a checkmark, click it to turn off playthrough.
59
on macOS 10.12 Sierra. Like Soundflower, Sound
Siphon is a software package that makes your
Mac’s audio output available as an audio input de-
vice. Turn Audacity’s Software Playthrough off, be-
cause unlike Soundflower, you can automatically
hear audio during recording.
2.21.4 Links
|< Tutorial - Recording audio playing on the computer
Otherwise you will hear and record echoes or dis-
torted sound.
2.22.1 Choosing the recording device in
Audacity
In Device Toolbar (pictured below) or in Devices Pref-
erences , choose "MME" or "Windows DirectSound" in
the Audio Host box. In the Recording Device box, look
if there is an input meant for recording computer play-
back. This input could be called "Stereo Mix", "Wave
Out", "Sum", "What U Hear", "Loopback" or other names,
depending on your sound device.
If you do not see Stereo Mix or similar:
• Make sure you have the latest correct audio drivers
meant for your version of Windows
• Go to the Windows Control Panel to see if stereo
mix can be enabled
• On Windows, choose the Windows WASAPI loop-
back recording method instead.
You must play the audio you want to record using the
same sound device that has the "Stereo Mix" or sim-
ilar input. You cannot play audio through an HDMI out-
put or through a headset, headphones or speakers that
connect via USB or wirelessly then record that playback
using the stereo mix input of the built-in sound device.
Choose the Windows WASAPI host (next section) if you
want to record playback of a USB, wireless or external
sound device.
60
Windows WASAPI loopback recording
On Windows, you can choose the Windows WASAPI
Audio Host and then the "(loopback)" input in the Record-
ing Device box. Choose the loopback input for the com-
puter playback device you will be listening to (for exam-
ple, "Speakers (loopback)" ). The loopback input records
computer playback even if your sound device lacks its
own stereo mix or similar input:
WASAPI loopback has an advantage over stereo mix or
similar inputs provided by the soundcard that the cap-
ture is entirely digital (rather than converting to analog
for playback, then back to digital when Audacity receives
it). System sounds playing through the device selected
for WASAPI loopback are still captured, however.
Playback and Recording sliders
The behavior of the Audacity playback and recording slid-
ers may vary according to the sound device you are
recording from.
• On some devices the Mixer Toolbar recording
volume slider will be grayed out when select-
ing the Windows WASAPI host, and even if not
grayed out, the device may not support Audacity
or the system input slider adjusting its volume. To
control the recording level on those systems, you
can try adjusting the playback level of the audio.
This is best done in the application that is playing
the audio, for example the video or audio player on
the website you are recording from. If this does not
work then Audacity will record at a fixed, safe level
irrespective of the playback level of the audio.
• On many other devices, the Audacity record-
ing volume and playback volume sliders will be
"linked" so that both sliders move when you move
either slider, and either slider will affect the level of
the audio that you hear. This will often happen if
in Audacity you set the (loopback) recording device
to the same built-in device as the one selected for
playback.
• When the Audacity recording and playback slid-
ers are linked, adjusting either slider will often
not affect the level already being recorded. This
means that if you do not want to hear what you are
recording, you can simply turn down either Audac-
ity volume slider. However on some devices, turn-
ing down either slider may turn down or silence the
achieved recording level. If this happens then to
make a recording without hearing it, you can try the
following:
– Click the speaker by the system clock, click
the "Mixer" link, then mute the "Device" slider
at far left of the "Volume Mixer" window
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
– Plug in external speakers or headphones and
turn those down
– Plug in any 1/8 inch (3.5 mm) minijack plug
with no lead attached.
Tips for WASAPI loopback recording:
• You will normally need to start playing the stream
(or to have previously played some other audio in
the application you are using for playback) before
pressing Record in Audacity.
• WASAPI loopback may not be able to record in
mono on all devices. If mono recording produces
an error, change Device Toolbar to "2 (Stereo)
Recording Channels". You can convert a stereo
recording to mono using Tracks > Stereo Track to
Mono .
If you do not see any input for recording computer
playback, exit Audacity and continue reading below.
2.22.2 Windows Control Panel for sounds
Windows, computers almost always only have mi-
crophone inputs enabled by default. Earlier Windows
systems may also need the input for recording computer
playback to be made visible before Audacity can use it.
To show or enable inputs, launch the sound device con-
trol panel from the Windows Control Panel or from the
system tray (by the clock).
1. Right-click over the Speaker icon by the system
clock then choose Recording Devices to open the
Recording tab of "Sound".
2. Right-click anywhere inside the Recording tab
and choose "Show disabled devices" then right-
click again and choose "Show Disconnected De-
vices".
3. Right-click specifically over the input device you
want to record with (in this case "Stereo Mix"
or whatever alternative you have), and if visible,
choose "Enable".
4. Sometimes it helps to right-click over the "stereo
mix" or similar device again and choose "Set as De-
fault Device".
5. If you need more help, see these Wiki instructions
for Windows.
2.22.3 RealTek and other soundcard con-
trol panels
If you still have no stereo mix input in Windows, some-
times this input can be enabled in the soundcard’s own
control panel, especially with older RealTek devices. The
2.23. TUTORIAL - RECORDING MULTI-TRACK OVERDUBS
soundcard’s own control panel can be found in the Win-
dows Control Panel. Hints for RealTek control panels:
• Some panels "select" an input by muting all but one,
so in this case, mute everything except Stereo Mix
• If you do not see Stereo Mix, click the wrench or
spanner icon and enable Stereo Mix in the dialog
that appears
• In some panels the option to choose is "Enabled
recording multi-streaming"
• You should now see a volume control for Stereo
Mix; make sure it is selected or unmuted.
2.22.4 Updating sound device drivers
If there is still no suitable input, try updating the sound
device drivers for your soundcard. This can sometimes
produce an additional input for recording computer play-
back, and may fix other problems such as poor quality or
skipping .
2.22.5 Loopback cable
An alternative method of recording audio playing on the
computer is to buy a cable with 1/8 inch (3.5 mm) stereo
connectors at each end. Suitable cables are available
from almost any audio retailer. Connect one end of the
cable to the computer’s audio output (green) and the
other end to the line-in input (blue). Then choose the
line-in as input device in Audacity.
Connecting to the microphone input (red) may pro-
duce mono sound or poor quality. To hear what is playing
while you record it, buy a single stereo to double stereo
adaptor to plug into the audio output. This gives you a
spare jack to plug the speakers or headphones into.
2.23 Tutorial - Recording Multi-track Overdubs
This set of tutorials describes known, good, working
methods of creating a multiple sound track overdubbing
session in Audacity. That is, you record one track and
then play it and add a second track against it – drums,
guitar, voice; repeat as needed. You will be able to hear a
mix of your live recording and the previous tracks simulta-
neously in your headphones (essential for overdubbing).
Generally, purpose-built hardware is needed to hear your
live recording without unacceptable playthrough latency
- without that hardware you will hear what you are record-
ing too late. Failing that, a method for overdubbing using
your computer’s on-board soundcard is given too.
61
2.22.6 Alternative applications for record-
ing computer playback
You can use other applications to record computer play-
back that do not rely on the computer sound device hav-
ing this ability. These applications will make an audio file
which can then be imported into Audacity for editing. All
the options below grab the audio digitally from the appli-
cation producing the sound. This has advantages over
stereo mix recording. Lossy digital-analog-digital conver-
sions are avoided and also unwanted system beeps and
alerts are not captured.
• SoundLeech is a free application for Windows
which runs from the system tray. It records to loss-
less WAV format only.
• VB-Audio Virtual Cable is a donation-ware applica-
tion for Windows. You can set the Cable Input as
default playback device then set Audacity to record
from the Cable Output.
• TotalRecorder is a low cost recording package. In-
ternet streams can optionally be captured at faster
than real-time rates (monitoring is not available in
that mode).
2.22.7 External soundcards
A further alternative is an external USB soundcard with a
"Stereo Mix" type of option. An example known to work
on all versions of Windows is "Trust Sound Expert Exter-
nal". Not all USB soundcards offer a Stereo Mix option,
so read the specifications carefully before purchasing.
2.22.8 Links
|< Tutorial - Recording audio playing on the computer
2.23.1 Multi-track overdubbing
This tutorial is a generalized tutorial on multi-track over-
dubbing.
Tutorial - Multi-track Overdubbing For specific cases of
working with different hardware setups please see below.
62
2.23.2 Overdubbing with specialist hard-
ware
The following tutorials are all to be found in the Audacity
Wiki. They explain the creation of multi-track overdubs
using three different specialist hardware configurations.
• A USB microphone pre-amp with one XLR micro-
phone input and a mini-jack headphone socket.
Overdubbing with a Shure® X2U Microphone Amplifier-
USB Adapter
• A stereo, line level, USB external soundcard (2-
channel USB/Audio Interface).
Overdubbing with a Behringer® UCA202 Stereo bidirec-
tional USB Soundcard
• A USB microphone.
Overdubbing with a Samson® G-Track USB Micro-
phoneAll three have been hands-on tested. They can
be made to work on Linux®, Mac®, and Windows®. The
one "magic" feature of all three devices is the ability to
mix your live voice with the computer’s rhythm track so
you can hear the mixed musical performance and that
can only happen if the rhythm track is available.
2.24 Tutorial - Selecting Your Recording Device
Now that you know you’re getting sound into the com-
puter and you’ve made your Audacity settings, it’s time to
set up your recording device.
2.24.1 Setting up the audio host and play-
back device
Device ToolbarOn the device toolbar, if you are unsure
what settings to use, use MME if it is available, ALSA if
on Linux and Core Audio if on Mac.
The choice of recording and play back devices may take
some detective work (or trial and error). The items earlier
in the list are generally built in devices, e.g. a speaker
actually in the laptop, and the later items devices that
are plugged in, e.g. headphones. The Device Toolbar,
shown below, is displayed by default in a new installation
of Audacity. If Device Toolbar is not visible, click on View
> Toolbars > Device Toolbar .
You may want to expand the size of the Device toolbar by
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
2.23.3 Overdubbing using your computer’s
on-board soundcard
This is designed to help if your equipment does not have
hardware playthrough and software playthrough is not an
option. You may not be able to hear yourself during the
recording.
Overdubbing using your computer’s on-board soundcard
2.23.4 Further Help
If, no matter what you do, the show sounds terrible or
does not work at all, drop in to the Forum where we can
try to help you further. Registration is required to post
and you may need to wait before your posting appears.
At minimum, you will need to tell us: exactly which ver-
sion of Audacity you are using (that means the full three-
part number, for example 2.0.0), what kind of computer
you have and which operating system it uses. Don’t head
straight to the details of the problem without telling us
what you’re producing and why. Be prepared to tell us
how the straight recording session went - the one you did
before you tried overdubbing. Help > Diagnostics > Audio
Device Info... may give us useful diagnostic information,
but if you post it, please post it between [code] [/code]
tags.
dragging right on the drag handle. Choose your preferred
Audio Host, Recording Device and Playback Device
from the dropdown menus. This selects the particular in-
terface with which Audacity communicates with your cho-
sen recording and playback devices. The "Audio Host" is
the interface between Audacity and the sound device. On
Windows, the choice is between the following audio in-
terfaces.
• MME : This is the Audacity default and the most
compatible with all audio devices.
• Windows DirectSound : This is more recent than
MME with potentially less latency .
• Windows WASAPI : This host is the most re-
cent Windows interface, that Audacity supports,
between applications (such as Audacity) and the
soundcard driver. WASAPI was first officially re-
leased in 2007 in Windows Vista. WASAPI is par-
ticularly useful for "loopback" devices for recording
computer playback . 24-bit recording devices are
supported. Playback is emulated using this host.
As a result, the playback slider in Mixer Toolbar will
only scale the system playback slider’s current level
2.24. TUTORIAL - SELECTING YOUR RECORDING DEVICE 63

up or down rather than directly manipulating that Choose your preferred recording device from the Record-
system slider. ing Device dropdown menu in the Device Toolbar . In the
Recording Channels dropdown menu choose whether
On Mac the only choice is Core Audio. On Linux there
you want to record in mono (1 channel) or stereo (2 chan-
is often only one option: ALSA . Other options could be
nels). In general if you are recording a microphone or
OSS and/or Jack Audio Connection Kit (also known as
guitar you will want to record in mono. If you are record-
"Jack" or "Jackd").On Windows:
ing a keyboard and the keyboard has stereo outputs you
• Windows DirectSound may by default have only will want to record in stereo.
slightly lower latency than MME.
• Selecting Windows DirectSound or Windows WAS-
API and enabling both "Exclusive Mode" boxes in 2.24.3 Audacity Preferences
Windows Sound allows Audacity to request audio
direct from the device without resampling . If you prefer, you can make the above settings in the Au-
• For output device, choose the named sound de- dacity’s Preferences . To access this, use Edit > Pref-
vice your headphones or speakers are connected erences The image below shows the Devices section of
to (not a device like Microsoft Sound Mapper that Preferences:
uses the system default device). If you are using a
USB-connected guitar, microphone or keyboard on
Windows, you may also need to reset the default
system playback device to your computer sound
device in order to hear audio in other applications.

Windows computers almost always only have

microphone inputs enabled by default. Earlier Win-
dows systems may also need some inputs to be made
visible before Audacity can use them. If your line-in or
other inputs are not shown in Device Toolbar, go to the
system mixer for Windows, show and enable the miss-
ing inputs, then use Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
or restart Audacity.Click on Generate > Tone , accept the
default values in the dialog then click OK: a 30-second
tone will be generated into a new track. Press Space
to begin playback - you should hear a loud tone coming
from your computer speakers. You can use the output There are many other settings that can be made in your
slider on the Mixer Toolbar to control the volume at which Preferences do take some time to explore and under-
you listen to your Audacity project. stand these. Settings The number of different settings
for recording is somewhat daunting, reflecting the many
options for recording. Basically you can leave the set-
tings at the default, and record just fine. However you
Note that the Playback Meter does not change as you might want to check this Tutorial on recording settings to
adjust the output slider: this meter always indicate the find out more.
volume of the mix of your Audacity project.

2.24.4 Links

2.24.2 Setting up the recording device > Forward to: Tutorial - Making a Test Recording
< Back to: Tutorial - Audacity Settings for Recording
Now that you know that you can hear what Audacity
is playing you can continue setting up for recording. |< Tutorial - Your First Recording
64
2.25 Tutorial - Vocal Removal and Isolation
This page describes techniques which, on some stereo
tracks, may allow you to remove or isolate vocals (or
other parts of a recording) from the rest. There is no uni-
versal, reliable way of doing this without having the orig-
inal multi-track recordings. Different tracks will require
different techniques to achieve maximum possible atten-
uation or isolation. This will depend on where the vocals
are positioned in the stereo field, and on their frequency
content compared to the rest of the audio.
• It is strongly recommended that you make a
backup copy of your original recording before at-
tempting any of the editing described in this tutorial.
• For popular songs, consider downloading vocals-
only tracks from the internet. Many studios re-
lease the instrumental tracks for use with things like
karaoke and some singles even have them on the
B side.
2.25.1 Case 1: Vocal Removal with vo-
cals in the middle and instruments
spread around them
If the vocals are panned in the center of a stereo track
the so-called "vocal removal" technique can sometimes
be effective by removing what is common to both tracks
(i.e. the vocals), leaving behind what is different (i.e. the
instrumentals). The underlying technique in Audacity is
to split the stereo track into its left and right channels,
make both mono, invert all (or a selected part) of one
of them then play back the result. Note, this removes
everything panned in the center, not just vocals, and re-
turns a dual mono result (both channels have the same
audio). In some music this could mean removing instru-
mental parts. Removal of the vocals can often be in-
complete leaving artifacts behind; this is especially true
where there are backing vocals or where reverb (echo)
has been applied as this spreads sound sources and
makes them very hard to extract from each other.
Vocal Reduction and Isolation
Audacity includes a Nyquist plug-in effect to automate the
steps involved in Case 1, at Effect > Vocal Reduction
and Isolation... . If you only wanted to automate Case
1 in the Vocal Reduction and Isolation effect, you would
choose the option "Remove Center Classic (Mono)". As
in Case 1 above, this removes the whole frequency spec-
trum of center-panned audio and returns a dual mono
track. However the default option for Vocal Reduction
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
and Isolation "Remove Vocals" is to be preferred in most
cases because this returns stereo output. Vocal Reduc-
tion and Isolation also lets you specify frequencies above
which or below which audio is not removed or isolated.
This can help cure the common problem where center-
panned bass or Hi-hat is also removed when removing
vocals.
2.25.2 Case 2: Vocal Removal with vocals
in one channel and everything else
in the other
If you have an unusual stereo track where the vocals are
mixed hard into one channel and everything else hard
into the other channel you can split the stereo track into
separate channels then delete the vocal channel. To iso-
late the vocals, rather than remove them, delete the other
channel. To split a stereo track, click on the downward
pointing arrow at the top of the Track Control Panel then
click on Split Stereo to Mono . To delete the unwanted
channel, click the [X] to left of the downward pointing ar-
row. If you accidentally delete the wrong channel, use
Edit > Undo to get it back.
2.25.3 Case 3: Vocal Isolation
You can use the Vocal Reduction and Isolation effect to
attempt to isolate the vocals by choosing one of the Iso-
late Vocals in the Action dropdown menu in the dialog.
But note that the end result may not be total vocal iso-
lation or even satisfactory isolation of the vocals; it all
depends on how the original recording was engineered.
A technique using Audacity for vocal isolation
An Audacity user (Marco Diego) suggested the following
technique for using Audacity to attempt to isolate vocals.
It will not work successfully in all cases. It is sometimes
possible to isolate vocals by using Audacity’s Noise Re-
duction to capture the noise profile of a song that has
had vocals removed, then run Noise Reduction with that
profile on the original mix before vocals were removed.
1. Make a copy of your original stereo track
(a) Select the whole track (click in empty space
in its Track Control Panel for example where it
says "Hz")
(b) Copy the track with Edit > Copy
(c) Create a new stereo track with Tracks > Add
New > Stereo Track
2.26. LATENCY TEST
(d) Use Edit > Paste to make a copy of the original
track in the new stereo track
2. Select the whole of the copied track (click in empty
space in its Track Control Panel)
3. Remove the vocals in the copy by using Effect >
Vocal Reduction and Isolation...
4. The copied track should remain selected, so use
Effect > Noise Reduction... and click on the Get
Noise Profile button
5. Now select the original track (click in empty space
in its Track Control Panel)
6. Use Effect > Noise Reduction... and click on the
OK button
7. Delete the copied track (click in the [X] at the top
left of its Track Control Panel)
The following may let you remove drums which are not
centered but keep the vocals:
1. Use the steps above to create a track with isolated
vocals.
2. Import the original song into Audacity again. Down-
load the Bass to Center Nyquist plug-in and install
it . Use this plug-in to move the bass frequencies to
center.
3. Remove the drums (and the vocals) from the center
using Effect > Vocal Reduction and Isolation... .
4. Finally mix the isolated vocals back in.
Using an instrumental track to isolate the vocals
In order for this to work you will need to have a studio
version of the instrumental track in which the instrumen-
tal part is identical to the full track. Many studios release
2.26 Latency Test
2.26.1 What is Latency?
Latency refers to the delay between the time the audio
enters the computer and the time Audacity is able to
record it to a track. For example, if you are recording
a keyboard track, latency is the delay between the time
you strike a key and the time that note is recorded. La-
tency is important only when you are overdubbing, that
is, recording a new track while listening to previously-
recorded track(s). You want what you play to be in sync
with the tracks you are listening to. Audacity can cor-
rect for latency, but you have to tell it what the correction
65
the instrumental tracks (with and without backup vocals)
for use with things like karaoke. There are places online
where you can buy these tracks (Karaoke-Version.com
for example and some records even have them on the
B side). MP3 encoding of one or both versions will cre-
ate small differences that will make this technique less
effective. As opposed to the final mono track you get
from removing vocals, this method will leave you with a
full stereo track. As such, it becomes more important to
try and match the quality of both tracks and align them
before you isolate the vocals.
1. Open Audacity and Import both the regular and in-
strumental tracks.
2. Select one of the tracks and use the Time Shift tool
to roughly align the two tracks.
3. Zoom in really close and then zoom in more.
4. Exact alignment is critical. Pick a peak or trough
in the left channel of one track and match it pre-
cisely with the left channel of the other track. If the
alignment isn’t right the process won’t work.
5. Select the instrumental track, and invert it using Ef-
fect > Invert .
6. Use Ctrl + A to select all of both tracks.
7. Use Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render .
You should now have one combined track that should
have a more diminished amplitude where the vocals were
kept and the instrumentation removed.
2.25.4 Third-party plug-ins
As well as the above methods supported by Audacity
itself there are various third-party plug-ins that can be
used to try and remove or isolate vocals. Please see Vo-
cal Removal Plug-ins in the Audacity Wiki for details.
amount is. You enter this correction amount in the De-
vices tab of the Preferences dialog.
2.26.2 What you need
To do a latency test you will need a loop-back cable. The
type of cable you need will depend on the way you are
connecting your recording equipment to the computer.
66
Connecting to the line input and line output ports on
the computer
If you are connecting your recording equipment to the line
input and line output jacks on your computer you need a
cable with a stereo mini-plug at each end.
A stereo loop-back cableA loop-back cable plugged
in
Using an external USB audio interface
If you are not using the line input and/or line output ports
on your computer but are instead using a USB audio in-
terface device for input and/or output, plug the loop-back
cable into the appropriate jacks on the USB interface.
Depending on your interface you may need a different
type of loop-back cable.
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
Example of loopback with a USB audio adapter
Using a microphone
If you are using a microphone to record overdubs then
the loop-back cable method will not work for you. Instead
you need to set up the microphone in front of a speaker
or headphones! Don’t worry, you will not get feedback
because you’ve turned Software Playthrough off.
Example of loopback using a microphone
Note that using a USB microphone is not the best
way to record overdubs. These microphones are great for
podcasters who just want to record their voice and are not
worried about syncing to music. The problem with these
microphones is that the only way you can hear yourself in
your headphones is by turning Software Playthrough On.
Software playthrough introduces its own delay (different
from latency) which you will hear in your headphones.
Tests on the same system used for the latency test be-
low revealed that the Software Playthrough delay was 65
milliseconds. This does not sound like much, but it’s like
hearing your voice coming out of speakers 70 feet away.
If you are serious about overdubbing, get an inexpensive
mixer and a good microphone to go with it. For more
2.26. LATENCY TEST 67

information on overdubbing with Audacity, see our
Tutorial - Recording Multi-track Overdubs
2.26.3 Doing the latency test
and its delayed version on the bottom track. Using Selec-
tion Tool, drag a selection starting at the start of the click
in the top track and ending at the start of the delayed click
in the second track. You should see something like this
(your numbers will likely be different):

Turn off un-necessary applications before starting the

test so that the computer can mostly concentrate on play-
ing and recording the audio. Plug in the appropriate loop-
back cable for your setup. Launch Audacity. Click on Edit
> Preferences . On the Recording tab , set the following
settings:
• Other tracks while recording (overdub) checked.
• Software Playthrough of input not checked.
• Always record on a new track checked.
On the Devices tab , in the Latency section, set the fol- The selections go from the original click to the de-
lowing settings: layed version in the bottom track. You can now read
the latency directly from the second panel of numbers. In
• Set the Track shift after record to 0 (zero). this case it is 0.096 seconds, or 96 milliseconds. Click on
• Leave the Buffer length value at its default value. Edit > Preferences, click on the Devices tab , and enter
the negative of this number in the Track shift after record
• Click OK. box - in this case it would be -96.
The Buffer length value will affect latency, but the effect
will vary between systems. 100 milliseconds is a safe
value that will not put too much load on the CPU. Too
low a value may put too much load on the CPU causing
2.26.4 Checking the result
dropouts in the recording. If you are feeling adventurous
you can repeat this test with different values for Buffer Delete the second track by clicking the close box X in its
length. But in the end you should settle on a value for
both Buffer length and Track shift after record and leave
Track Control Panel. Click the Zoom to Fit button
them there. In Selection Toolbar make sure that " Snap
to see the entire click track. Click in the Track Control
To " is set to "Off". Above the second and thrid group of
Panel of the remaining track to select it, then click the
numbers, make sure that Beginning and Length of Se-
Record button. After the recording is finished Audacity
lection is selected. Click on one of the downward-
will apply the latency Correction by pushing the newly-
pointing arrows in the digits boxes to the right of Snap To
recorded track back by the Latency Correction amount.
and select hh:mm:ss + milliseconds . Click on Gen-
Note the two arrows at the left end of the second track
erate > Rhythm Track. Set "Number of Measures (bars)"
- they are warning you that latency correction has been
to 2, and set the "Beat Sound" to Ping . Click OK
applied and part of the recorded track has been pushed
to generate the click track. Make sure the first track is
left so that it starts before 0 seconds. This is OK, it is
completely selected (if you do nothing, it will be com-
what we wanted to happen. The arrows are there to re-
pletely selected). Now click the Record button in the
mind you that latency correction has been applied, just in
Transport Toolbar - the rhythm track will be played back
case that’s not what you wanted.
and recorded on a new track through the loop-back cable.
You will now have something like this:

Note the arrows at left end of recorded track: latency

The top track is the original click track, the bottom correction has been applied with the track moved
track is the looped-back recording. Note the delay. backwards.Zoom in on one of the clicks and verify that
Zoom in so you can see one of the clicks in the top track the clicks in the two tracks line up.
68
Note that there is still a tiny delay between the two
tracksYou’ll never get it absolutely perfect. In this case
we’re still off by 17 samples. At 44100 samples per sec-
ond that’s about 0.39 milliseconds. This is as close as
we’re going to get, and it is not an audible difference. This
is the length of time it takes a sound wave to travel about
5 inches, and the latency will probably have natural vari-
ability greater than this each time you record. However
if you really need to, you can set the latency correction
amount to a fraction of a millisecond (for example -96.4).
2.27 Tips
This page lists tips on particular aspects of working with
Audacity. Following these will greatly enhance your day-
to-day experience of using Audacity.
• Navigation Tips
How to navigate the waveform or tracks (including mov-
ing the playback position) identifying audio for editing,
and how to find and mark edit points.
2.28 Playback Tips
This page explains how to view and adjust playback vol-
ume, and achieve smooth playback quality. For tips on
how to navigate the waveform or tracks (including mov-
ing the playback position), and how to find and mark edit
points, see Navigation Tips .
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
2.26.5 If you change recording or playback
devices or audio host
If you change any of your recording or playback (for ex-
ample, if you change from using the line input port on
your computer to using a USB audio interface) or if you
use the same device but change the Audio Host in Device
Toolbar , then you will need to do this test again. The test
you just did only applies for the specific inputs and out-
puts and host used during the test. Equally you should
record for real with as many other applications shut down
as possible, which was the scenario in which you did the
test.
2.26.6 All audio behind zero warning
If you make a recording that is shorter than the latency
correction the entire recorded track will be pushed left be-
fore 0 seconds. In this case Audacity will issue a warning
dialog telling you that this has happened, and that Au-
dacity has moved the track to start at 0 seconds. In this
case you will have to manually correct for the latency us-
ing the Time Shift Tool. This is unlikely to be an issue,
since in the example presented a recording of less than
96 milliseconds would need to be made at the start of the
track in order to trigger this warning.
• Playback Tips
How to view and adjust playback volume, and achieve
smooth playback quality.
• Audio Alignment Tips
How to align multiple tracks so that their audio starts at
the same point on the timeline above the waveform
2.28.1 Viewing and adjusting playback vol-
ume
The volume of audio playback (output) which will be
saved in an Audacity project or exported as a finished
audio file can be seen in the Playback Meter :
2.28. PLAYBACK TIPS
If Meter Toolbar is not visible, go to View > Toolbars and
enable the Meter Toolbar.
• This volume level can be modified with the -....+
gain slider on the Track Control Panel of each track.
Note this does not affect the volume level stored in
the audio data and represented in the waveform,
but is a modification on top of it. Avoid accidentally
moving the gain slider away from center when ex-
porting an audio file. If the slider goes too far to
right, this may lead to excessive volume and there-
fore distortion in the exported file. If it goes too far
to left, the file may not be audible.
• The left-hand playback (output) volume slider on
the Mixer Toolbar controls only the volume at which
you hear the tracks in Audacity. It does not affect
the Playback Meter. Only moving the gain slider, or
changing the track volume by editing will affect the
meter.
• If multiple tracks are played simultaneously,
their volume is combined. You may need to move
the gain sliders leftwards on each Track Control
Panel to reduce the combined volume. To keep
the current balance between all the tracks, move
each slider to left by the same amount. To judge
if you have distortion, look at the Playback Meter.
If the colored bars are changing to red and hitting
the right-hand edge of the scale and so bringing on
the red hold lights to right of the meter, you have
distortion in the output and must reduce the gain.
• The Playback Meter Toolbar can be resized, mak-
ing it bigger provides more detail and make it more
accurate and easier to use. See this page for de-
tails of how to do this.
Managing Tracks
2.28.2 Smooth Playback
A project with a track lasting several hours or multiple
tracks of any length will eat a lot of computer resources.
To play many tracks simultaneously you will likely need
far in excess of Audacity’s stated minimum requirements
(mentioned on the download page for each operating
system). Think of 500 MB RAM and 1 GHz processor
speed upwards, depending on the number of other run-
ning applications and processes, and the number and
length of tracks you have. Generally the more RAM you
have the better. You can click Help > Run Benchmark...
to run a test that gives an approximate idea of how many
tracks could be played simultaneously. Try all these other
tips if you are having problems with uneven playback:
Computer Resources
• Try exiting and restarting Audacity or rebooting
• Close as many other applications as possible
69
• Set the project rate (bottom left of the Audacity
screen) to 44100 Hz or 48000 Hz. Higher rates will
give the computer more work to do and will have to
be resampled if your sound device does not sup-
port those rates, leading to worse quality
• Go to the Quality tab of Prefences and set the De-
fault Sample Format to 16-bit, which halves the
work the computer needs to do to play the tracks
• Zoom out using View > Zoom Zoom Out (or Ctrl +
3)
• Don’t use a network drive for your Audacity tem-
porary folder or project _data folder, or for storing
uncompressed files for import into Audacity - it will
be too slow
• On Windows, keep your drives defragmented, so
the data files can be accessed quickly and effi-
ciently. Instead of the Windows defrag utility, try
fragdown.This will give you a replacement shut-
down button that will automatically defragment all
detected disks, then shut the system down.
• Consider enabling DMA on your drive if it is not al-
ready
• Ensure your sound device drivers are up to date
• Consider reinstalling Windows if updating your
sound drivers does not help - Windows problems
can lead to erratic sound behavior especially when
the CPU is busy
• See the tips at Managing Computer Resources and
Drivers in the Audacity Wiki.
• Muting the tracks you do not need to hear may help
slightly
• Select areas of tracks rather than the whole, in or-
der to hear what a mix sounds like
• If you need separate Audacity tracks, select all of
each track in turn (by clicking in the Track Control
Panel where the mute/solo buttons are) and Tracks
> Mix > Mix and Render - this may help playback
by ordering the audio data files more logically
• Consider mixing some tracks together (again with
Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render as soon as you no
longer need them to be separate
• Consider cutting tracks you are not currently work-
ing with into a new project window (File > New ).
This will make a big difference.
• If you are recording sections one at a time, use
Pause in the same Audacity session to keep the
recording on one Audacity track
70
• You can always hold Shift and click Record (short-
cut Shift + R) to record at the end of an existing
track, even when re-opening a saved project
• On slower machines, try right-clicking over the
Playback Meter Toolbar, hit "Preferences" and
choose a lower refresh rate
2.29 Navigating and identifying audio for editing
This page explains how to navigate the waveform or
tracks (including moving the playback position), and how
to find and mark edit points, so as to identify the audio
you want to edit.
• For tips on how to view and adjust playback vol-
ume, and to achieve smooth playback quality, see
Playback Tips .
• For tips on how to navigate effects without using
a mouse see Navigating Effects without using a
mouse
2.29.1 Navigation
Changing playback position
Audacity always plays from where the cursor position
is, or where a selected area is, when you press Space
or use the Play button. Click the Stop button or Space
again to stop playback. Clicking Play or Space a further
time resumes playback from the original cursor position
or the start of the original selection. You can move the
cursor position backwards or forwards anywhere on the
visible screen by:
• moving the cursor with the Left arrow or Right arrow
keys on your keyboard
• (quicker) by clicking in the track at the desired point
with your mouse
• Home key or « button to left of the Play button skips
to the start of the project
• End key or » button to right of the Stop button skips
to the end of the project.
To start playback from the new point, press Space once.
If you are already playing the track at another position,
press S twice and playback will resume from your newly
chosen cursor position.
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
• Try increasing the default "Audio to buffer" setting
of 100 milliseconds at the Recording tab of Pref-
erences. This might lead to smoother playback
on slower machines. The disadvantage would be
that playback would take longer to start, and there
would be more delay in laying down and monitoring
recordings.
Shortcuts to change the ongoing playback position
There are also two shortcut commands that have no
menu item or button associated with them, they exist just
as shortcuts. These enable you to change the current
playback position to the next or previous label (if labels
exist), while audio is playing:
• Alt + Right moves the cursor to the next labeled se-
lection (or point label) and continues playback from
there
• Alt + Left moves the cursor to the previous labeled
selection (or point label) and continues playback
from there.
Zooming
To move to different positions in the track with the mouse,
it is easier if you are fully zoomed out with the View >
Tracksize > Fit to Width command (Ctrl + F), or the Fit
Project button on the extreme right of Edit Toolbar . If the
track is zoomed in, you can drag the horizontal scroll bar
near the bottom of the screen to find a new position to
play from, but you cannot do this while the track is play-
ing, unless you go to the Tracks section of Preferences
and uncheck Update display when Recording/Playback
head is unpinned. If that feature is unchecked, once the
green playback cursor moves past the right edge of the
window, you will always need to drag the horizontal scroll-
bar in order to see the current playback position, or fit the
whole Project in the window so you can see the whole
track again without scrolling.
Go to Selection Start/End
View > Skip to > Selection Start (shortcut Ctrl + [ ) and
View > Skip to > Selection End (shortcut Ctrl + ] ) let
you move quickly to the start or end of your currently
selected audio, centered on the screen, without chang-
ing the zoom level. These commands are useful if you
are zoomed far in at one edge of the selection and then
wish to view the other edge which may be currently off
screen, or if you have lost sight of the selection entirely
2.29. NAVIGATING AND IDENTIFYING AUDIO FOR EDITING
by scrolling too far. Using either command after zooming
in or out provides a keyboard method to zoom in or out on
a selection edge. This is otherwise possible only by Con-
trol and mouse wheel scroll while the mouse pointer is
positioned at either selection edge.
Navigating multiple tracks
If you have multiple tracks on screen you can fit them on
screen without the need to scroll up and down by drag-
ging the bottom edge of each track upwards at any point
along the waveform. Or you can use the View > Track-
size > Fit to Height command to fit all the tracks in the
screen. You can move tracks up and down by clicking
on the Track Control Panel with the mouse and dragging
up or down. Alternatively, click the downward pointing ar-
row at the top of the Track Dropdown Menu and choose
"Move Track Up" or "Move Track Down". Audacity can
manipulate tracks and selected areas entirely with the
keyboard. Use the Up or Down key on the keyboard to
give focus to a track, as shown by the colored border
around the track. Then press Enter to select or deselect
the track. There is an additional "roll-up" button (the up-
ward pointing arrow) at the base of each Track Control
Panel:
If you click this, the track will be rolled up so that only the
name of the track is visible in the Track Control Panel,
so allowing many tracks to be fitted on screen without
scrolling:
To roll-down the track again, click the downward pointing
arrow. Also there is an option on the Tracks tab of Pref-
erences: "Automatically fit tracks vertically zoomed".
Checking this will automatically fit all tracks to the vertical
screen height as they are added or removed.
2.29.2 Finding the audio you want to edit
• Seek function during playback: Seek by pre-
determined amounts of time during playback by us-
ing the arrow keys of your keyboard. The default
commands are:
71
– Seek left (short period) during playback - Left
– Seek right (short period) during playback -
Right
– Seek left (long period) during playback - Shift
+ Left
– Seek right (long period) during playback - Shift
+ Right .
• The length of the seek period can be set on the
Playback tab of Preferences. The shortcuts used
for the seek commands can be changed on the
Keyboard tab of Preferences.
• "Play/Stop and Set Cursor" shortcut X: This acts
like Space except that when stopping playback, the
cursor is set to the place where it stopped, so re-
sumes from there.
• Quick-Play : Another way to change the playback
position is to click on the Timeline above the wave-
form. Playback will start from that point at once. Or
click on the Timeline and drag a region (shown by
arrowheads with a line connecting them). Release
the mouse to play the region once. Neither an al-
ready selected region or the cursor is affected by
Quick-Play.
• Scrubbing : Scrubbing or Seeking is the action
of moving the mouse pointer right or left so as to
adjust the position, speed or direction of playback
while listening - a convenient way to quickly navi-
gate the waveform to find a particular event of in-
terest.
• Selection Toolbar:
• You can move the cursor, or define a selection re-
gion, by entering time position values in a "Selec-
tion Toolbar" at the bottom of the screen. Values
may be typed in, or incremented with the up and
down arrow keys of the keyboard.
• "Cut Preview" shortcut: Press C to hear the au-
dio just before and after a selection region so as to
preview how it would sound if you cut that region
out. You can change the length of the audio pre-
view before and after the cut on the Playback tab of
Audacity Preferences.
• "Play To Selection" shortcut: Press B to listen to
part of the selection region, or to the audio before
or after the selection. This helps you ensure the
selection is exactly where you want it.
– Move the mouse pointer somewhere inside
the left half of the selection, and this shortcut
will play from the start of the selection to the
pointer. Move the pointer somewhere inside
72
the right half of the selection, and this short-
cut will play from the pointer to the end of the
selection.
– Move the pointer to left of the selection and
this shortcut will play from the pointer to the
start of the selection. Move the pointer af-
ter the end of the selection and this shortcut
will play from the end of the selection to the
pointer.
• If you like the selection region you heard, you can
then use Ctrl + Shift with the appropriate Left or
Right key to contract the selection to the area you
played with the B shortcut. If you need to expand
the selection before using B, you can use Shift +
Left or Shift + Right.
• Transcription Toolbar:
• This is a special playback button with attached
speed slider
which allows you to play back at faster or slower
speeds (affecting both tempo and pitch). If this is
not visible, enable it at View > Toolbars .
2.29.3 Marking edit regions or points
Creating and modifying selections
To create a selected area in the track, click in the track
and drag to left or right with your mouse, or with the left
or right arrow keys. When you press Space once, the
whole of the selected area will start to play. You can sim-
ilarly create a selected area in the track whilst already
playing the track, in which case you press Space twice
to move from the current playback position to playing the
selected area. Another way to create a selected area in
the track is to click in the track where you want to start
your selection and hold Shift while clicking in the track at
the point where you want to end your selection. Again,
this also works while playing a track, so the selection re-
gion is drawn from the point where playback started to the
point where you shift-clicked. You can adjust the edges
of the selection region with your mouse (hover over an
edge then drag when the mouse pointer changes to a
hand). Alternatively, adjust the selection edges with the
left and right arrow keys. Holding down Shift while using
Left or Right will expand the left or right selection edge
respectively. Holding down Ctrl + Shift while using Left
or Right will contract the right or left selection edge re-
spectively. You can also mark regions during playback
with the [(Select Left at Playback Position) and ](Se-
lect Right at Playback Position) shortcuts. To use these,
start playing then use [ to move the cursor to the cur-
rent playback position. When you hear the end of the
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
audio you want to mark as a region, use ] to draw a re-
gion from the cursor to the current playback position. You
could then stop and place a label at the region with Ctrl
+ B (see below). A selected region or the position of the
editing cursor can be stored and retrieved. One region
or cursor position at a time can be stored with the Edit
> Store Region command and retrieved at any time with
Edit > Retrieve Region . Additionally, Edit > Store Cursor
Position stores a cursor position which when audio is not
playing, recording or paused, is the position of the editing
cursor or of the left edge of the selection region. If audio
is active, the stored cursor position is the position of the
Playback cursor or Recording cursor at the time
you store. The stored cursor position can then be used
with the Edit > Select > Cursor to Stored Cursor Position
command to create or modify a selection region.
Labels
Multiple selected regions and cursor points can also be
marked with labels using the Tracks > Add Label at Se-
lection command (Ctrl + B). Labels can be helpful as ref-
erence points for editing. The region or point can be re-
called at any time by clicking in the label. The labels
appear in a new Label Track underneath the audio track.
You can also add a label at the current playback position
while the track is playing, or at the current recording posi-
tion while recording. To do this, click Tracks > Add Label
at Playback Position (Ctrl + M). It can also be useful to
drag out and a label a region while the track is playing
or recording. To label that region, use Tracks > Add La-
bel at Selection as you would if the track was stopped.
If you want to label while still playing, use Enter then Up
after typing the label to close the label and return focus
to the track. You can now use [ and ] as above to
mark another region between desired points. If you miss
something you wanted to mark, you cannot currently use
seek to jump the playback position behind the cursor, but
as always you can click in the Timeline to restart playback
at the click point. If you click in the Timeline to left of the
editing cursor, the [ shortcut will draw a region from the
playback cursor forwards to the editing cursor, which may
not always be what you want. During playback you can
click to place the editing cursor behind the playback cur-
sor then draw a region from there to the current playback
position using ] .
Navigating using Label Tracks
Tabbing to open the label for editingWhen focus is on
a label track as indicated by the yellow focus border:
• Tab opens the next label for editing and places the
editing cursor or selection to correspond with that
label
• Shift + Tab opens the previous label for editing and
places the editing cursor or selection to correspond
2.30. AUDIO ALIGNMENT TIPS
with that label.
The label background becomes white, indicating you can
type to edit the label’s text. For a point label, the editing
cursor is placed at the label moved to. For a region label,
a selection is placed corresponding to the label moved
to. The view position moves if necessary to show you the
label moved to. Audacity cycles through the labels auto-
matically, so when at the last label, moving to next label
jumps to the first label. When at the first label, moving to
previous label jumps to the last label. These commands
exist only as shortcuts - they have no menu items or but-
tons. Shortcuts to move between labels without edit-
ing themThere are also two shortcut commands to move
between labels without opening them for editing. These
shortcuts do not require the yellow focus border to be in
a label track:
• Alt + Right places the editing cursor or selection to
correspond with the next label
• Alt + Left places the editing cursor or selection to
correspond with the previous label.
The view position moves if necessary to show you the
label moved to, centred in the view. If there is a single
label track, you do not need to be aware of which track
has the yellow focus border. If you have multiple label
tracks, use Up or Down arrow to move the yellow focus
border into the label track you wish to use. If there is
more than one label track and none have focus, then the
first label track downwards from the focused audio track
is used. During playback these "Move to the label" com-
mands restart playback at the position of the label moved
to (whether the track is selected or not). This is useful if
you have a long recording which you want to split into
separate tracks using labels . As with the Tab and Shift +
Tab commands, Audacity cycles through the labels auto-
matically, and there are no corresponding menu items or
buttons.
2.30 Audio Alignment Tips
This page explains how to align multiple tracks so that
their audio starts at the same point on the timeline above
the waveform. For example you would often want to do
this when you have recorded one track against another
and need to ensure the recorded track is properly syn-
chronized with the other track(s).
2.30.1 Using the Tracks Menu
The menu commands in the Tracks > Align Tracks
sub-menu provide an automatic way of aligning selected
tracks with the cursor, the selection, or with the start of
the project:
73
For both tabbing so as to open labels and moving be-
tween labels, the audio corresponding to a region label
will be selected if the track is selected.
Clips
The Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split command (shortcut
Ctrl + I) splits the audio into different clips at the cursor
or selection region, marking the split points with a black
vertical line in the waveform. You can use these lines to
quickly find or cut regions. A quick workflow to find and
cut regions using split lines works like this:
1. Zoom in as far as you like and play
2. When you hear the starting point of the audio you
want to delete, X to stop playback at that point, then
Ctrl + I
3. Press Play to resume from where you stopped, and
when you reach the end of the intended cut, X then
Ctrl + I again
4. Double-click to left of the split line you just placed
to select the region between the two split lines
5. Adjust the edges of the region as needed using the
mouse (or use Shift + Left or Shift + Right to ex-
pand the region or Ctrl + Shift + Left or Ctrl + Shift
+ Right to contract it).
6. Edit > Cut
Split lines disappear when you click on them to merge
clips together, but you can use current Audacity’s Cut
Lines feature to place a vertical line at which audio was
cut out. Click on the line at any time to restore the cut
audio. Cut Lines can be enabled on the Tracks tab of
Preferences.
• Align End to End: Aligns the selected tracks one
after the other, based on their top-to-bottom order
in the project window. The first selected track re-
mains where it is, the start of the second selected
track aligns with the end of the first selected track
and so on.
• Align Together: If you select multiple tracks, this
command moves the tracks so that they all start at
the same time, so audio within them changes its
synchronization.
• Start to Zero: Aligns the start of selected tracks
with the start of the project.
74
• Start to Cursor/Selection Start: Aligns the start
of selected tracks with the current cursor position
or with the start of the current selection.
• Start to Selection End: Aligns the start of selected
tracks with the end of the current selection.
• End to Cursor/Selection Start: Aligns the end of
selected tracks with the current cursor position or
with the start of the current selection.
• End to Selection End: Aligns the end of selected
tracks with the end of the current selection.
If Sync-Lock Tracks is enabled, unselected tracks
in a Sync-Locked Track Group will also move so that all
the tracks in that group remain synchronized, except for
the Align "End to End" and "Together" commands where
only the selected tracks will move. Aligning end to end
or together overrides Sync-Lock Tracks if necessary, so
the selected tracks in that group may become desynchro-
nized.
2.30.2 Time Shift Tool
An easy way for sighted users to align tracks with each
other is to use the Time Shift Tool which is located
at the top of the Audacity screen in the Tools Toolbar . To
use the Time Shift Tool, click on the button so it
appears to be depressed, or press its shortcut F5. If you
wish to change its shortcut to something other than F5,
you can do so on the Keyboard tab of Preferences. Then
zoom in with Ctrl + 1(or CloverLeaf + 1 on a Mac) so you
can make a more precise alignment. Click in the track
you want to move with the left button of the mouse, hold
the button down while dragging the track to your required
position, then release the mouse button.
2.30.3 Aligning tracks without a mouse -
for visually impaired users
Visually impaired users can use this Time Shifter plug-
in to time-shift tracks without a mouse. This is one of a
number of Nyquist plug-ins available for use in Audacity
and works on both mono and stereo tracks. Instructions
are given in Timeshif.TXT inside the zip folder. To install
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
new plug-ins, place them in the "Plug-Ins" folder inside
the Audacity installation folder. On Windows computers,
your installation folder is usually under "Program Files".
On Mac, it is usually under "Applications". Time shifter
will appear in the Effect Menu underneath the separator
after you restart Audacity.
2.30.4 Marking align points
Some users find it easier to align tracks together when
there is a vertical reference point extending down through
all the tracks. You can make such a reference point by
dragging the cursor down into the other tracks, and op-
tionally by marking cursor positions with labels. To drag
the cursor into the other tracks, make sure you are using
the Selection Tool (shortcut F1), and place your
cursor at a point where you want to line up the tracks.
Then hold down Shift on your keyboard and click in the
Track Control Panels (where the mute/solo buttons are) of
all your other tracks. Now you’ll see the cursor displayed
in all the tracks, and you can switch to the Time Shift Tool
and line up all the tracks against the cursor line. To add a
label at a cursor point, use Edit > Labels > Add Label at
Selection . You can use the shortcut Ctrl + B(or Clover-
Leaf + B on a Mac) instead. The label is created in a new
Label Track underneath the audio tracks. When you click
on the label, all tracks will be selected and the cursor
will be displayed through all the tracks, just like when you
selected all the tracks by clicking on their Track Control
Panels. However the label provides a permanent refer-
ence point you can come back to, and because you can
have multiple labels in a Label Track, there can be multi-
ple points you can line up with. You could also generate a
Rhythm Track before you put other tracks on screen, us-
ing the Generate > Rhythm Track command. This gives
you visible and audible bars in that Rhythm Track at the
beat points of a chosen tempo. You could use a beat
point to set a cursor position then drag the cursor into the
other tracks as described above. You need to close this
Rhythm Track when you export your work (by clicking on
the [X] top left of the track) so that you do not export the
audible clicks. If you use the current version of Audacity,
there is no visual guesswork involved in aligning tracks:
you can snap to labels when you time shift a track to-
wards them, and if you drag a selection region, the start
point of the area on the time line is displayed dynamically
in the Selection Toolbar as you drag.
2.31. BASIC RECORDING, EDITING AND EXPORTING
2.31 Basic Recording, Editing and Exporting
When making recordings, particular critical recordings,
you should consider shutting down all other applications
giving Audacity sole use of the computer. This can help
to avoid skips, small dropouts, and ticks in your record-
ings. And on Mac that means fully Quitting them not just
closing them, as otherwise Mac will leave them open con-
suming computer resources.
2.31.1 Step 1: Recording
Create a new Project by clicking File > Save Project As...
. Adjust the input signal level as explained in the previ-
ous tutorial under Monitoring . Remember that it is good
to aim for a maximum peak of around –6.0 dB (or 0.5 if
you have your meters set to linear rather than dB). Start
your recording by pressing the Record button from
the Transport Toolbar , then starting the player. You can
pause and restart the recording between tracks or sides
with the blue Pause button . This is the easiest way
to record into Audacity, because having just one track on
screen allows you to split the recording up into the dif-
ferent songs or sections using "labels". See the tutorial:
Splitting a recording into separate tracks for more on
this. An alternative to using the Pause button is to Stop
the recording, with the Stop button , at the end of the
first side, then use Transport > Record (or click on the
Record button or its keyboard shortcut R) to continue
recording on the existing track. If you do want to start
new tracks for different sides of the tape or LP on a new
track in Audacity, then press the Stop button to stop
recording, get the LP or tape to where you want to go to,
then hold the Shift button and press the Record button
which will have changed to the Record New Track button
in Audacity and start the player.
If you have just made a recording it is strongly recom-
mended to Export it it immediately with File > Save Other
> Export Audio... to WAV or AIFF (ideally to an ex-
ternal drive) as a safety copy before you start editing the
project.
2.31.2 Step 2: Removing any DC offset (if
present)
DC offset can occur at the recording stage so that the
recorded waveform is not centered on the horizontal line
75
at 0.0 amplitude . This can be caused by a faulty sound-
card. If this is the case with your recordings, see the
Normalize page for how to use Normalize to remove DC
offset and how to check if your Windows sound device
can perform this correction automatically.
2.31.3 Step 3: Editing, Noise Reduction
and Click Removal
When you have finished recording, press the Stop button
and save your recording into the Project you started by
using File > Save Project . Now the data is safe, you can
edit it in Audacity if you want to (for example, cut redun-
dant pieces out), or come back to it later by re-opening
the saved Project file with the File > Open... command.
See Edit Menu for help with editing. You may also want
to remove clicks from records using Click Removal , then
after that you can optionally use Noise Reduction to try
to reduce steady noise such as vinyl "roar" or analog
master tape hiss. Noise Reduction is especially useful
for reducing hiss when recording cassettes. Removing
clicks and pops is recommended when recording vinyl,
as any loud click will interfere with maximizing the vol-
ume of the recording - the Amplify effect cannot tell the
difference between music and clicks. Select the entire
track by clicking on the Track Control Panel or choosing
Select > All then choose Effect > Click Removal . The
default parameters in the Click Removal dialog will de-
tect and remove most clicks, so try this first. If you find
that it did not remove certain clicks or pops, select those
regions in turn and apply the Click Removal effect, adjust-
ing the parameters until it is successful. See this page for
more details on using the Click Removal effect. See Click
and pop removal techniques for further help with click re-
moval. Linux users may be interested in trying Gnome
Wave Cleaner which is free and open source. Mac and
Windows users may be interested in trying Brian Davies’
Click Repair software. It is not free and requires Java,
but has a 21-day free trial period so you can try it out
and see if it is worth it to you. There are other non-free
alternatives, such the Pop/Click and Smoother tools in
Goldwave.
Noise Reduction is tricky to get right. You need to be pre-
pared to experiment with the effect so that it discards as
much noise as possible without damaging the sound you
want to keep. It is more effective at removing cassette
hiss than "vinyl roar".
2.31.4 Step 4: Adjusting amplitude
As a final step, since you were careful not to record too
loud it is likely that your recording is not as loud as pos-
76
sible. To correct this you can use the Normalize effect.
• Choose Select > All to select all the track.
– With default Tracks Preferences , you may not
need this step - all the audio in the project is
selected if you choose an effect without first
selecting any audio.
• Choose Effect > Normalize... .
– Accept (for now) the default choices in the
Normalize dialog and click the OK button
– The volume is normalized to -1 dB, so leaving
a little headroom below the maximum possi-
ble 0 dB level.
Note that Normalize defaults to retaining the exist-
ing balance between stereo channels. However basic
consumer-level equipment can often record with chan-
nels unbalanced. To correct unwanted volume dif-
ferences between left and right, uncheck "Normalize
stereo channels independently". Extraneous noises in
the recording can cause Normalize to create unwanted
changes in the stereo balance, or prevent recordings be-
ing made as loud as they can be. Extraneous noises
should be edited with Click Removal , Repair or Amplify
before the Normalize step. Also see our tips for reducing
noise in the recording chain.
2.31.5 Step 5: Exporting
When you are happy with your editing, you need to ex-
port the recording as an audio file such as WAV or
MP3 that you can either play on your computer media
player (for example on iTunes or Windows Media Player),
or which you can burn to an audio or MP3 CD . See the
About WAV, AIFF, MP3, Audio CDs and MP3 CDs< be-
low about the difference between audio and MP3 CDs.
To export a single audio file, use the File > Save Other
> Export Audio... command. If your recording contains
multiple tracks or songs, you may want to export these
from your Project as separate audio files. This would be
necessary if you wanted to burn a CD with separate CD
tracks corresponding to each track in your recording. To
prepare your recording for export as separate audio files,
see the tutorial Splitting a recording into separate tracks
. If you are planning to burn a CD with your exported
files you should ensure that you use the export format
16-bit PCM stereo WAV, this should be the default if you
have not changed it. Also ensure that your Project Rate
is 44100 Hz (see the box in the bottom left hand corner
of the Audacity window). About WAV, AIFF, MP3, Audio
CDs and MP3 CDsWAV, AIFF and MP3 are the most
common formats for exporting. WAV and AIFF files are
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
of identical quality to the original recording, but take up
10 MB or more of disk space per minute. If you want to
burn an " audio CD " that will play on any standalone CD
player (note these only give you 74 - 80 minutes’ play-
ing time), export your recording as a 44100 Hz , 16-bit
stereo WAV or AIFF file. See: Burning music files to a
CD . If you want your exported audio file to be smaller
(you’d want to do this for example if you wanted to make
it available on the internet), you can export as MP3, at
the expense of losing some of the audio quality of the
original. You can also burn the MP3s to a " data CD " or
"MP3 CD" which will give you (at Audacity’s default MP3
export settings) over 11 hours’ playing time on the CD.
Note you can only play these kind of CDs in computers,
MP3 CD players (including some newer automotive play-
ers), or some DVD players. Generally, you will see an
MP3 logo printed somewhere on the device if it is MP3-
capable. Note that most players manufactured prior to
2005 will not be able to play MP3 CDs. To export as an
MP3, you first need to add the LAME encoder to your
system and show Audacity where it is.
If you are exporting your file to a media application which
has its own "Library" such as Windows Media Player,
iTunes or Real Player, you would generally drag your ex-
ported file into the application’s Library, or use the media
application’s built-in commands to add the exported file
to its Library. For more help on importing your audio file
into iTunes (for example burning to CD or for putting on
an iPod), see Exporting to iTunes .
2.31.6 Step 6: Backup
Backup your exported WAV or MP3 files - you do not
want to lose all that valuable work and have to do it all
over again, do you? Computer hard drives can fail, de-
stroying all data. Ideally use a dedicated drive (1+ TB ex-
ternal drives are convenient and economical), or upload
to an online (cloud) storage service, to store the WAVs or
MP3s. Better still is to make two copies on different exter-
nal devices and even better is to hold an off-site backup.
You may want to create a taxonomic file structure - for ex-
ample each album can be stored in its own folder (named
for the album) within a folder named for the artist (or, per-
haps, composer for classical music) to make searching
and retrieval easier.
2.31.7 Links
> Forward to: Splitting a recording into separate tracks
< Back to: How to set up Audacity
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
2.32. OVERDUBBING USING YOUR COMPUTER’S ON-BOARD SOUNDCARD 77

2.32 Overdubbing using your computer’s on-board soundcard

This tutorial is designed to help you record multi-

track overdubs if your equipment does not have hard-
ware playthrough of the live recording and software
playthrough is not an option. Before starting this tutorial
you can try the following playthrough possibilities.
• On Windows or Linux, try unmuting your input in
the playback side of the system mixer. This will give
you low latency hardware playthrough of what you
are recording.
• On all operating systems, try Transport > Transport
Options > Software Playthrough (on/off) in Audacity
instead, but this will always mean you hear yourself
late and could cause audio breakup. 2.32.3 First Recording
• To achieve lower latency software playthrough on
Windows you can: First we will make a simple recording with no overdubbing
or other fancy tricks. The system has to work correctly for
– (Only gives somewhat lower latency): On Win-
simple recording and playback before we go further. This
dows, right-click over the Speaker icon by the
is not a tutorial on making a recording and playing it back,
clock, choose Recording Devices, right-click
but you need to be able to do that before you do anything
over the input, choose Properties then on the
else. There are multiple tutorials on Recording.
"Listen" tab, enable "Listen to this device".
• Tutorials
– (Advanced) Compile Audacity with ASIO®
true low latency support. Ask on the Compil- • Your First Recording
ing Audacity board of the Forum if you need
help. • General Workflow Tutorials
Connect the headphones. Set the computer control pan-
els, Audacity Preferences and Audacity dropdowns to
2.32.1 Introduction recognize the computer’s built-in headphones for play-
back and to use the built-in microphone for recording.
This tutorial describes a known working method of cre-
ating a multiple sound track overdubbing session from
scratch in Audacity; that is, you record one track and Set Audacity Preferences:
then play it back and add a second track against it –
drums, guitar, voice – repeat as needed. This process Click on Edit > Preferences (on a Mac this is Audacity >
uses your computer’s built-in microphone and a pair of Preferences )
headphones. You must be happy with not hearing your-
self – your live performance – in real-time in your head- • in the Quality tab:
phones. You will hear all the previous tracks mixed as – set Default Sample Rate to 44100 Hz
you wish, but your live voice or performance will not be
in the mix until you finish recording and play the whole – set Default Sample Format to 32-bit float
thing back. Including your live voice in the electronic mix
• in the Devices tab:
on a home computer can be very difficult. You can leave
one earphone off and cup your hand so it forms a tun- – Under Playback set Device to the on-board
nel between your lips and your ear. Some professional soundcard
recording artists feel this is a more natural method.
– Under Recording set Device to the on-board
soundcard and set Channels to 1 (Mono)

2.32.2 Hardware • in the Recording tab:

– check Overdub: Play other tracks while
Almost any Windows®, Mac® or Linux® machine with a recording new one
built-in microphone can be used. Our example here uses
Mac earbuds for listening, but nearly any good head- – uncheck Software Playthrough: Listen
phones or earbuds are OK. while recording or monitoring new track
78
You may want to make the Audacity project window larger
than its default and expand the Meter Toolbar. Click
once anywhere inside the recording meter (the one with
the mic icon) to put the meters into Monitor Mode. They
will display the microphone’s sound level without starting
Audacity recording and wasting drive space. This may
fail on certain Linux machines using Jack . Find your
microphone; scratch or tap around your computer until
the Recording Meter goes sharply up. Some computers
have it in the lid, some in the grill just beside the left Shift
key. Play or sing into the microphone. Adjust Audacity’s
recording control so you do not peak much over -10 to -6
on Audacity’s meters. You can fix low levels later, but you
cannot fix overloading, smashing, and clipping (meters
too far to the right). Click "Record"; Audacity will take a
second to configure itself and start recording. The blue
waves will start to crawl left to right as you perform. Play
or sing a simple song that you can use for rhythm and
timing tests later. Click "Stop", then "Home" and then
click "Play" to hear the track you have just made. You
should hear the track in your headphones. This is all you
will hear during the overdub sessions. You will only hear
your voice or instrument in your headphones after you
record it.
2.32.4 Setting the Recording Latency
Latency refers to the delay between the time the audio
enters the computer and the time Audacity is able to
record it to a track. For example, if you are recording
a keyboard track, latency is the delay between the time
you strike a key and the time that note is recorded. For
instructions on how to adjust the latency please see the
Latency Test page in this manual. To achieve lower la-
tency software playthrough on Windows you can:
• (Only gives somewhat lower latency): On Windows,
right-click over the Speaker icon’ by the clock,
choose Recording Devices, right-click over the
input, choose Properties then on the "Listen" tab,
enable "Listen to this device".
• (Advanced) Compile Audacity with ASIO® true low
latency support. Ask on the Compiling Audacity
board of the Forum if you need help.
2.32.5 Performance
Click on the [X] in the Track Control Panels to delete all
the test tracks. You’re ready for the first proper record-
ing session. The first recording can be whatever you’re
planning to use as a base, backing track, guide or rhythm
track. It can be anything including Generate > Rhythm
Track which can be adjusted with its control panel for
rhythm and composition. You could use the music from
a rhythm and chord machine playing to the mixer. You
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
could use existing sound files. You should record a lead-
in. That is, a non-musical rhythmical clue before the mu-
sic starts so as to warn you of the imminent start. In a live
band, this would be the drummer or lead guitar count-in.
You could use the keyboard rhythm stops or you can per-
form several rim shots into the microphone to establish
the rhythm before the first note; tapping on the table with
a pencil also works. You can sheer it off later in post pro-
duction so nobody else will hear it. Tick, tick, tick, tick,
music; adjust as appropriate for music type and rhythm.
Click "Stop", then "Home" and then "Record" to record
track two using your live performance and track playback
in your headphone mix as a guide. Repeat for as many
tracks as required. The "Mute" and "Solo" buttons to
the left of each track are valuable in overdubbing. Solo
causes only that track to play and Mute turns that track
off. Solo has options that can be set in Preferences .
The little volume control to the left of each timeline also
controls the playback volume – it affects the headphone
mix. When you get to a stopping point, click on "Stop"
and File > Save Project As to save your project. As
you progress, you should save a new Project periodically
with a slightly different file name. A good recommenda-
tion is to use ISO date and time for the file names or
the start of the file names; also, refrain from using slash
marks or other punctuation marks in a file name. ISO
Date and time201110011500.aup That’s 3PM. 2011 Oc-
tober First, 1500hrs. Then save a new version of the
song about every twenty minutes: 201110011520.aup
201110011545.aup 201110011602.aupDo not go weeks
with one Project and file name, and never cover up or
record over existing work. If anything happened to that
one Project, your project would be ruined and could nul-
lify weeks of work. Think of what would happen if the
lights went out right now, the computer ground to a halt
and you were forced to use the last known good version
of the show. For extra safety it is good practice to pe-
riodically back up your project versions to a DVD-R or
external hard drive for archive purposes. Remember that
it is important to keep the AUP file and the _data folder
together. One way to make sure of this is to create a zip
archive of the AUP file and _data folder. In the unlikely
event that the Audacity project is corrupted or your hard
drive crashes you will be able to recover your work. Note
that Audacity projects cannot be played in computer me-
dia players nor burned to audio CDs. Export your project
as 16-bit WAV or AIF for burning to a CD, or to MP3 for
email or internet delivery. See Mixing for advice on doing
the final mix of your project.
2.32.6 Troubleshooting
• How much hard disk space do you have available?
If your only experience with computer files is with
spreadsheets, email or Photoshop pictures, live au-
dio (and video) production will stun you with the
amount of disk space it consumes. With high qual-
ity overdubbing and UNDO, project files and folders
2.33. BURNCD
get big in a hurry; with periodic saving, a project can
get very seriously large.
• Communications features on newer Windows ma-
chines can cause unwanted changes in recorded
volume or make the recording sound tinkly and/or
hollow; see this FAQ
• You can try to listen to yourself in the headphones
by changing an Audacity setting: Edit > Prefer-
ences > Recording : and check [X] Software
Playthrough(select for ON).
2.33 BurnCD
To burn your work to an audio CD for standalone CD
players, first export it as WAV or AIFF.The exported WAV
or AIFF file should be:
• stereo
• 44100 Hz (set at Project Rate at bottom left of the
project window)
• 16-bit (chosen using the "Save as type" menu in the
2.34 Tutorial - Burning music files to a CD
This page provides an overview of how to burn an audio
CD. Audacity does not burn CDs directly but audio files
created with Audacity can be used with a CD burning ap-
plication to create an audio CD.
2.34.1 Audio CDs
There are two main types of CDs that you can create with
CD burning software: audio CDs and data CDs.
• To ensure that you create a CD that will play any-
where it is important to choose the option to burn
an "Audio CD" or "Music CD" and not a "Data CD".
A data CD containing for example MP3 or WAV files
will play happily on your computer but is unlikely to
play in a standalone CD player or in-car CD player
(note that some modern CD players will play data
CDs). An audio CD will play on any standalone or
in-car CD player and in your computer and in mod-
ern DVD players.
Audio CDs do not have files or a file system like data
CDs and other computer storage media, but consist es-
sentially of a stream of bits on the disc in a single spiral
"track" with a TOC (Table of Contents) index.
79
• Record a track with that setting. Chances are ter-
rific that your headphone voice and your real voice
are not going to match. This is computer or sound
channel latency and there’s no adjustment for it.
You should probably leave that setting deselected.
2.32.7 Links
|< Recording Multi-track Overdubs
File Export Dialog ).
These are Audacity’s default settings, so normally you
will not need to change these before exporting. Burn the
exported file to an "audio CD" - not a "data CD" or "MP3
CD" - with a CD burning application like iTunes or Win-
dows Media Player. For more help, see Burning music
files to a CD .
|< Back to: Getting Started
• Audio CDs are generally limited to 74 minutes play-
ing time on a 650 MB disc ("Red Book Standard")
or 80 minutes on a 700 MB disc.
• When buying blank CDs for burning, it is strongly
recommended that you purchase good quality CD-
Rs (that can be burnt just once) and not the
rewritable CD-RWs.
2.34.2 Audacity setup
Audio CDs always contain uncompressed PCM stereo
audio at 44100 Hz sample rate , 16-bit sample for-
mat . So to burn an audio CD, export the file(s) you want
to burn as a 44100 Hz 16-bit stereo WAV or AIFF file.
To configure Audacity for this:
1. At the bottom left of the Audacity window, set the
Project Rate to 44100 Hz.
2. Some CD burning software require you to
have a stereo track. If your Project does
not already contain a stereo track, click
Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track . It does not
matter that this track is empty, its purpose is just to
80
make Audacity export your recording as a stereo
file. This step is not needed if you are burning to
CD with iTunes or Toast.
3. Click File > Save Other > Export as WAV .
It may be possible to use other formats if your CD-burning
software supports them, but they may not give the best
quality or they may not be playable on all CD players. If
you experience clicks at the start or end in the resulting
CD tracks, this may because your CD burning drive or
software does not correct for track splits made outside
CD frame boundaries. To enable splits at CD frames,
right-click or use the context key when over any of the
three fields in Selection Toolbar , then choose one of the
selection formats for CDDA frames. This may also be
required if burning gapless CDs .
2.34.3 Multiple songs
If you are exporting a long Audacity track that contains
multiple songs, please see " Splitting a recording into
separate tracks " for how to export multiple files for each
of the songs by using labels to identify songs for the
Export Multiple command to operate on. An alternative
method is to use Cue Sheets to define individual songs.
2.34.4 Burning software
In order to burn an audio CD you will need a CD burning
application. Most computers already come with media
player software that can burn CDs. For example, you
can use Windows Media Player built into Windows or
iTunes built into Macs. Ensure in either Windows Media
Player or iTunes that you select the option for burning a
"Music CD" and not a "Data CD" as mentioned above, un-
less you choose Audio CD, the CD will not play on most
CD players.
Windows Media Player
In Windows Media Player:
1. Use the Burn tab
2. Drag the files you want to burn to CD onto its "Burn
list"
3. Click on "Start burn".
Windows Media Player 11 will not accept WAV files
for burning if they are dragged straight into a burn list
without having previously been played in Media Player.
You will see a red symbol and a "length of file cannot be
determined" error. To solve this problem, drag the file into
the Media Player Library or into a playlist, then from there
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
into a burn list. Windows Media Player 12 does not have
this problem.
• Also, neither Windows Media Player 11 or 12 can
burn AIFF files, so you must export from Audacity
as WAV.
iTunes
In iTunes:
1. Create a playlist
2. Drag the files you want to burn into it
3. Right-click on the playlist in the left hand panel and
click on the "Burn Playlist to Disc" in the drop-
down menu
• in iTunes version 9 and earlier, click the Burn
Disc button bottom right of the window
4. Select the burner speed, the gap between songs if
you are burning multiple files onto the CD
5. Make sure "Audio CD" is selected as the "Disc
Format"
6. Click "Burn".
Troubleshooting:
• If you receive a "computer not authorized" error,
double-click the file in the iTunes playlist and enter
the password you use to login to iTunes store.
• You cannot burn a playlist containing protected
M4P files that have been burned more than seven
times. In many cases you can re-download iTunes
Plus versions of the songs without Digital Rights
Management by subscribing to iTunes Match.
• If you receive "Error 4880", burning cannot initialize
because of a hardware defect or because the burn
speed is too high.
Other burning software
You can also use a standalone Windows burning applica-
tion like CDBurnerXP, Deep Burner or Nero (or Burn or
Toast for Mac) to burn your exported files. Most Linux
distributions include Brasero or K3B for CD burning.
When using standalone burning applications, open the
files from within that software, do not drag and drop them
from your file manager. Once again do not forget to se-
lect the setting to burn an "Audio CD" or "Music CD" as
explained above. Common Pitfalls
• Wrong sample rate: Most CD burning software ex-
pects all files to be at 44100 Hz.
2.34. TUTORIAL - BURNING MUSIC FILES TO A CD 81

• Unsupported formats: Some CD burning software as one WAV file with with DAO and a "cue sheet" that
does not support compressed formats such as marks the starting times of each CD track. Cue sheets
MP3 , OGG , or M4A/AAC . can be created as simple plain text files. Each track in a
Cue Sheet is of this format:
• TRACK (number) AUDIO
Metadata and CD-Text
• TITLE "(name)"
Even if you use Audacity’s Metadata Tags editor to add • PERFORMER "(name)"
metadata such as Title, Artist and Genre to your exported
WAV files, that metadata does not get automatically • INDEX 01 (start time) in the format min-
burned to the CD. You can set iTunes and some other utes:seconds:frames with the first track always be-
burning applications (but not Windows Media Player) to ing 00:00:00
burn metadata to each track as separate CD-Text. Pro- Audacity cannot currently export Cue Sheets but it is pos-
viding your CD burner supports CD-Text, a standalone sible to use the File > Save Other > Export Labels... com-
CD player that supports CD-Text will then be able to dis- mand to export a text file representing the label positions,
play each track’s metadata. You can also use a Cue then on Windows and Linux use label2cue to convert the
Sheet to add CD-Text in burning applications that sup- minutes and seconds data in the text file to minutes, sec-
port Cue Sheets. onds and frames data laid out in cue sheet format.
You can read more about cue sheets on Wikipedia here.
2.34.5 Gapless burning
2.34.6 Burning longer recordings to disc
By default, many CD burning applications add a two-
second gap between CD tracks as part of the standard
As stated above audio CDs are generally limited to either
for audio CDs. So be aware of CD track gaps when
74 or 80 minutes, however it is sometimes possible to
placing labels between album tracks for Export Multiple
achive longer times by using Overburning . Alternatively,
and consider deleting excess silences between tracks.
for longer recordings, you may be able to use data discs
However most CD burning applications have an option to
provided your player will support and play these. (A data
burn the CD with no gaps between tracks. This is useful
CD will not normally play on older standalone CD play-
for recordings such as live concerts, allowing the CD to
ers. It will play on computers, most DVD players and in
play continuously if the player supports gapless playback
MP3 CD players).
while still permitting skipping to individual CD tracks. If
burning a gapless CD, you will need to place the Audac-
ity labels exactly where you intend the burner to mark Data CDs and Data DVDs
the track splits. Some CD burning applications (for ex-
ample, older versions of Windows Media Player) have
For burning really long files to optical media, you must
no option to burn without gaps. Gapless burning is also
burn either a data CD or a data DVD which can con-
only available if the optical drive supports Disc-At-Once
tain a set of WAV, MP3 or other audio format files. For
(DAO). Additionally, make sure you do not export MP3
example, burning MP3 files to a 700 MB data CD (some-
files for burning to your gapless CD, even if you’re burn-
times called an "MP3 CD"), and using Audacity’s default
ing a "data CD", because MP3s have inherent silence
128 kbps MP3 export bit rate gives over 11.5 hours play-
padding due to a restriction of the MP3 format. Note you
ing time. But if 64 kbps MP3 bit rate was chosen (either
may still hear the most momentary gaps between tracks
in "MP3 Export Setup" in the File Formats tab of Prefer-
even on DAO burned CDs, unless the CD player supports
ences, or Options at time of export) about 23 hours of au-
true gapless playback. Many CD players do not support
dio would fit on the CD. Note that the penalty of reducing
gapless playback properly because the hardware simply
the bit rate would be reduced sound quality (especially so
does not buffer the audio data properly. However quite a
for music but less so for speech). A single layer 4.7 GB
few computer-based media players can use DSP effects
data DVD can accommodate nearly 80 hours of 128 kbps
when playing back audio to give proper gapless playback,
MP3 audio, though some older DVD players will not play
even of CDs not burned with DAO. An example of such a
DVD data discs, or only those containing certain audio or
player is Apple’s iTunes.
video formats.

Cue Sheets

An alternative solution is to not split the track up at all in A data CD will not normally play on older standalone CD
Audacity. The best way to get apparently gapless play- players. It will play on computers, most DVD players and
back of a live concert recording or live album is to burn in MP3 CD players.
82
Overburning
You can also get increased playing time by using over-
burning, though this is not recommended as it will pro-
duce a non-standard CD which may not play on all CD
players. See this article in the Wiki for more information.
2.35 Examples: Exporting audio for ringtones and IVR messages
This page contains examples of how to export audio in
various formats usable for ringtones and IVR (Interactive
Voice Response) messages:
• 44100 Hz 16-bit PCM WAV
• 8000 Hz 8-bit WAV
• MP3 32 kbps 8000 Hz
2.35.1 44100 Hz 16-bit PCM WAV
To export to 44100 Hz 16-bit PCM WAV
1. If required, convert the stereo track to mono .
2. Look at the Project Rate control on the Selection
Toolbar (by default at bottom left of the Audacity
Project window); if it is already showing "44100"
skip to Step 2 below. Otherwise, select the "44100"
option from the dropdown menu; if there is not a
44100 (Hz) option select Other ... and type 44100
in the box that pops up (in Audacity 2.x select and
type over the existing value).
3. Select menu item File > Save Other > Export Au-
dio... ; in the "Export File" dialog choose WAV (Mi-
crosoft) signed 16-bit PCM in the "Save as type"
dropdown, then enter a file. Click OK then click
Save. If the Metadata Editor pops up at any stage,
click OK. Metadata tags are not needed for WAV
files in mobile phones.
2.35.2 8000 Hz 8-bit WAV
WAV (Microsoft) Bit depth: 8-bit; Sample Rate: 8000
Hz; Channels: 1 (mono)This is an example of exporting
an uncompressed but small size WAV file specific to a
particular type of phone. The low sample rate of 8000 Hz
means that the file will not contain frequencies higher
than 4000 Hz, so this file may not give the best results
on other phones that have more capable speakers. The
following Motorola Sprint Nextel cellphones: i265, i275,
i405, i450, i560, i710, 730, 750, 760, 830, i833, i836
,850, 860, i870, i930 require ringtones to be 8-bit 8000
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
2.34.7 Links
< Back to: Splitting a recording into separate tracks
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
Hz mono WAV files. If your phone has the same require-
ments as this, the instructions below should work for your
phone. If the only information you have is that the WAV
needs to have a bit rate of 64 kbps, these instructions will
also probably work for your phone, because in a WAV
file the bit rate is always the (bit depth) multiplied by the
(sample rate), multiplied by the (number of channels) so
the WAV in our example is (8 * 8 * 1) = 64 kbps. If your
phone requires WAV files with slightly different charac-
teristics than these you can adjust the instructions be-
low appropriately. It’s assumed you’ve already made the
track mono as per "Convert stereo to mono" .
1. Look at the Project Rate control on the Selection
Toolbar (by default at bottom left of the Audacity
Project window); if it is already showing "8000", skip
to Step 2 below; otherwise, select the "8000" option
from the dropdown menu. If there is not an 8000
(Hz) option, select "Other ..." and type 8000 in the
box that pops up (in Audacity 2.x select and type
over the existing value).
2. Select menu item File > Save Other > Export Au-
dio... , in the "Export File" dialog choose other un-
compressed files from the "Save as type" drop-
down, then enter a file name. Click Options, a di-
alog will open. In the "Header" dropdown, select
"WAV (Microsoft)" and in the "Encoding" dropdown
choose "Unsigned 8-bit PCM"; click OK then Save.
If the Metadata Editor pops up at any stage just
click OK; metadata tags are not needed for WAV
files in mobile phones.
2.35.3 MP3 32 kbps 8000 Hz
MP3 Bit Rate: 32 kbps; Sample Rate: 8000 Hz; Chan-
nels: 1 (mono)As an example of a phone requiring an
MP3 ringtone, the Motorola i580 requires MP3 files at 32
kbps, 8000 Hz mono. If your phone has these same re-
quirements this should also work for you; if your phone
requires MP3 files with slightly different characteristics
you can adjust the tutorial instructions below appropri-
ately. It’s assumed you’ve already made the track mono
as per "Convert stereo to mono" .
1. If you have not already done so download the
2.36. SAMPLE WORKFLOW FOR EXPORTING TO ITUNES
LAME MP3 encoder to your computer and tell Au-
dacity where to find it; instructions on doing this are
here .
2. Look at the Project Rate control on the Selection
Toolbar (by default at bottom left of the Audacity
Project window); if it is already showing "8000", skip
to Step 3 below; otherwise, select the "8000" option
from the dropdown menu. If there is not an 8000
(Hz) option, select "Other ..." and type 8000 in the
box that pops up (in Audacity 2.x, select and type
over the existing value).
3. Select menu item File > Save Other > Export Au-
2.36 Sample workflow for exporting to iTunes
This tutorial outlines a set of example steps that can be
used to get Audacity Projects (LP and tape transcriptions
for example) into iTunes. The workflow concentrates on
AAC music files because that is Apple’s native, default,
format. Some users may prefer to use uncompressed
WAVs or AIFFs or compressed Apple Lossless formats
for their music files in iTunes. It is not the only way of
working - there are many alternatives. Like any recipe
it can be adapted to suit your personal needs. You can
work in AIFF rather than WAV if required. Many Apple
Mac users would probably prefer to work in AIFF.
See also Tutorial - Exporting to iTunes which has further
useful information on this topic.
2.36.1 Workflow
1. Export the WAV files
2. Add the WAV files into iTunes
3. Use iTunes to edit the metadata for the album name
and artist
4. Use iTunes to make AAC copies in the library from
the WAV files
5. Delete the WAV files from the library
6. Edit the metadata tags of the tracks/album
7. Fetch the album artwork
8. Optionally make a CD - and create cover & playlist
9. Backup your updated iTunes library
10. Delete the Audacity project and exported WAV files
to release hard disk space
11. Optional direct AAC export from Audacity
83
dio... , in the "Export Audio File" dialog, choose
MP3 Files from the "Save as type" dropdown, then
enter file name. Click Options, a dialog will open.
Set the Bit Rate Mode to Constant; in the "Quality"
dropdown select "32 kbps"; set "Channel Mode" to
"Stereo" - a single-channel (mono) file will still be
produced if your Audacity track is stereo; click OK
then click Save.
You may want to add ID3 metadata tags to your MP3.
Use Audacity’s Metadata Editor for this; enter any tags
you require (or none) and click OK. If the tag editor does
not appear select menu item Edit > Metatdata... .
Export the WAV files
Use Export Audio or Export Multiple to produce a WAV
file or set of WAVs to any convenient location. With Au-
dacity set to a project rate of 44100 Hz and 32-bit sample
format (these are the default quality settings ), exporting
will by default produce 44.1kHz 16-bit PCM WAV files (or
AIFF files on Mac). Audacity will down-sample from its
32-bit internal format to 16-bit, with shaped dither noise
applied to cover any clicky noise that may result from the
conversion to 16-bit. Advanced users can change the
type of dither, or turn it off, in the Quality Preferences .
16-bit export will ensure the files are compatible with all
versions of iTunes, They will also be compatible for con-
version to AAC or other formats (or for CD burning) in
iTunes. It is possible to export 32-bit PCM files too, by
choosing "Other uncompressed files" in either export di-
alog, then clicking Options.... These files will theoretically
be of marginally higher quality but twice the size of 16-bit
files. Latest versions of iTunes will play them, but other
players may not.
Add the WAV files into iTunes
Add the WAV files to the iTunes library (using the iTunes
command File > Add File to Library or File > Add Folder to
Library. Note that even if iTunes Import Preferences are
set to Import Using AAC Settings ( Edit > Preferences >
General > Import Settings ), no conversion takes place
as this preference only applies to importing from CD. Be
aware that by default iTunes does not copy audio files
into its own filespace, rather it makes a link to where you
currently have the audio file stored. To change this in
iTunes go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced and mark the
checkbox that says "Copy files to iTunes Media folder
when adding to library". It is strongly recommended
that you make this setting.
84
Use iTunes to edit the metadata for the album name
and artist
Make sure that one of the columns you have showing in
your iTunes library is Kind. The imported files will show
as WAV and can be listed together by clicking on the
"Kind" column header. Select all the WAV files and use
iTunes’ metadata editor to enter the album name and the
artist name so that you can easily find it later when editing
the other metadata tags. You could alternatively set this
metadata prior to Audacity Export using Audacity’s meta-
data editor – some users report that it is easier to use
iTunes rather than Audacity to manage the metadata.
Use iTunes to make AAC copies in the library from
the WAV files
Provided that you did not already have other WAV files in
your iTunes library, the WAV files you need should still be
the only selected tunes at this stage, providing that you
have done no further clicking. Make sure that you have
your iTunes Import Settings set to AAC at your required
bitrate. Convert them to AAC by using the iTunes com-
mand File > Convert . Note carefully that this makes a
“copy” not a straight conversion – so at this stage your
library will contain both the AAC and the WAV copies of
the songs. If you have plenty of room you may wish to
keep the WAV files in your iTunes library to for their loss-
less quality and not convert them to AAC. In that case
you should omit this conversion step and the next step
which deletes the WAV files from your iTunes library. Yet
another option is to set iTunes to convert to Apple Loss-
less which has about half the file size of WAV. Or you
may wish to use MP3 files in your iTunes library instead
of AAC. In that case either export as MP3 from Audacity,
to any convenient location, for import into iTunes or im-
port WAVs and set iTunes to convert to MP3 rather than
its default AAC. Note that for equivalent file size, AAC is
generally reckoned to give better quality audio than MP3,
but MP3 is a much safer choice if you want to send the
file to someone else.
There are several advantages to using compressed for-
mat on iPods. The two main ones are that you can fit a
lot more songs into the device (for 256 kbps files you can
fit more than 8-9 times as many songs) and compressed
files improve battery life (because disk reads are rela-
tively heavy on battery power).
Delete the WAV files from the library
The WAV files should still remain as the selected tunes
- just take extreme care at this stage (the AACs are cre-
ated but selection is not forced by iTunes) So then just
Delete the selected WAV files using the Delete key - and
send the files to the wastebasket. Note carefully that this
workflow assumes that you have iTunes is set to copy
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
files in, NOT to reference external files - so the WAVs
that are deleted are iTunes’ copies of the original source
WAVs. This is set in Edit > Preferences > Advanced
with the Copy tunes into iTunes folder when adding
to library checkbox.
Edit the metadata tags of the tracks/album
Edit the metadata tags for Song Name, track number
and similar The album should be easy to locate in iTunes
as you have already edited the Album tag in a previous
workflow step above. You may wish to edit the song ti-
tles to remove the leading 01, 02 numbering series that
was applied earlier to facilitate the correct ordering of the
songs.
Fetch the album artwork
Find a copy of the album artwork - either directly via
iTunes if the album is recognized by the Gracenote
database CDDB (but note that Gracenote does not al-
ways carry the artwork), or by making a digital photo of
the album cover, and add the artwork to the album. You
may be able to find a copy of the album artwork on Ama-
zon, Wikipedia or the artist’s own website.If you are using
WAV files in your iTunes library then you cannot asso-
ciate album artwork with these files.
Optionally make a CD – and create cover & playlist
You may wish to burn a CD from the WAV files. You
can use iTunes to print CD covers with track-list and al-
bum cover; to do this you will need to create a temporary
iTunes playlist for the album.
Backup your updated iTunes library
This is a critical step – you do not want to lose the valu-
able fruits of your labors, do you? We would recommend
maintaining two separate backup copies of your library
on external disks. Keep the WAV files that you exported
from Audacity and back those up as well (two copies) on
external disks.
Delete the Audacity project and exported WAV files
to release hard disk space
After the backups are made you can then safely release
space on your hard drive by deleting any Audacity project
you created (delete both the .aup file and the _data folder
with the same name) and deleting the originally exported
WAV files.
2.37. SAMPLE WORKFLOW FOR LP DIGITIZATION 85

2.36.2 Direct AAC export from Audacity roughly comparable to encoding to AAC in iTunes using
VBR encoding at the highest bit rate preset.

You may if you wish export to AAC compressed format

(M4A files) from Audacity, to any convenient location, for 2.36.3 Links
direct import into iTunes. AAC export is one of the op-
tions available in the Export menus. To export to AAC,
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
download and install the optional FFmpeg library. The
export quality for M4A can be modified using the Op- > See also tutorial on: Sample workflow for LP digitiza-
tions... button. The highest quality Audacity setting is tion

2.37 Sample workflow for LP digitization

This tutorial outlines a set of example steps using Au- 14. Adjust Label positions
dacity to digitize LPs to create files that are ready for CD
creation, loading into a digital jukebox or portable mu- 15. Track names
sic player. There is no fixed "right" way of working -
16. Advanced labeling techniques
there are many alternatives; like any recipe, it can be
adapted to suit your personal needs.This workflow does 17. Amplitude adjustment
not at any stage necessitate the saving of an Audacity
project (though you may wish to do that if you need to 18. Compression
interrupt your work). Your final goal will be to export WAV
files for CD creation or other file formats which might be 19. Export a set of WAVs
more suitable for your needs. While all of the processing
20. Export labels
in this tutorial is carried out using Audacity, some users
may prefer to use alternative software for specific sub- 21. Backup
tasks like noise removal and the removal of clicks and
pops (Audacity’s Click Removal may not give as good a 22. Alternative software
result as other software). For more details of the steps in-
volved in this workflow please see the tutorial set Copying Making vinyl to digital transfers is a skill and the more you
tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD . do the more expert you will become.

• Consider starting out with some LPs or singles that

you care less about, this way you will not need to
2.37.1 Workflow go back and repeat important earlier transcriptions
that you made.
1. Audacity Settings
• Start with a recording that you are very familiar with;
2. Clean the LP your first goal will be to ensure that you have as per-
3. Flattening a warped LP fect a digital copy of the material as possible.

4. Recording levels • Clean-up steps are optional and need only be ap-
plied if your recording requires them.
5. Capture
6. Raw master backup
7. Remove DC offset Audacity settings

8. Reduce subsonic rumble and low frequency noise

Work with Audacity set to a project rate of 44100 Hz and
9. Remove clicks and pops 32-bit sample format (these are the default quality set-
10. Reduce hiss and high frequency noise tings ). You may use 16-bit if you prefer; it will give smaller
working file sizes but you may lose a little quality in some
11. Place the song labels of the processes. Export WAV files at 44100 Hz 16-bit
PCM stereo, the standard required for burning CDs ; this
12. Silence the inter-track gaps
will also produce WAVs which are accepted for import by
13. Fade Ins/Outs iTunes (and most other music player software).
86
Clean the LP
Cleaning the LP carefully and thoroughly before record-
ing it will reduce the number of clicks and pops and will
improve the quality of your recording. Prepare a solution
of lukewarm water mixed with a little dish washing deter-
gent. Use a soft, clean washcloth (or piece of velvet) to
carefully wipe the LP’s surfaces - try not to get the label
wet. The detergent will float away all the greasy finger-
prints - a gentle scrubbing motion will help. Rinse in luke-
warm water until all the detergent is gone. Finally, rinse
in distilled water (which dries and leaves no residue be-
hind). Air dry your record thoroughly before playing - do
not be tempted to play the record "wet" as this may dam-
age the LP and possibly your stylus. There are a num-
ber of commercially available cleaning fluids and cleaning
machines that you may wish to consider:
• KAB EV-1 Record Cleaner & KAB cleaning solution
• Disco Antistat
• Discwasher
Flattening a warped LP
If an LP is warped it may not track or play properly; if
so, you could try to ease the warps in the vinyl. Place
the album in its sleeve and cover between two sheets
of flat wood, plywood, glass or similar in a warm room
and place some heavy (but not too heavy) weight on top.
Leave in the warm room for several days and then try
playing it. Alternatively, stabilizing rims or clamps on a
conventional turntable can be used to safely play all but
the most extremely warped LPs (some high-end turnta-
bles come supplied with such a clamp). A more expen-
sive alternative is to use a laser turntable.
Recording levels
Read this page about making a test recording then make
a test recording of portions of the LP (or even a whole
side) so as to check the levels. It is important to avoid
any clipping during the recording! Try to aim for a max-
imum peak of around –6 dB (or 0.5 if you have your
meter set to linear rather than dB).
Enlarging the Recording Meter Toolbar by clicking and
dragging helps with this task; you should read this sec-
tion about resizing the Meter Toolbars .
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
Capture
Record both sides into the project prior to doing the pro-
cessing. You can either Stop the recording after the first
side using the button or Transport > Stop and then use
Transport > Record (or use Shift + R) to restart record-
ing when you are ready. Alternatively you can pause by
pressing the button (or use Transport > Pause ) at the
end of the first side and then press the button again
once you are ready to record the second side. After
recording you may find it helpful to zoom out to display
the entire recording in the Audacity window. You may
prefer to work with a single side of an LP at a time as that
gives a smaller working set.
Raw master backup
Export a single WAV for this recording at 32-bit float (not
16-bit). Retain this WAV file as a maximum quality "raw
capture" file that you can import back into Audacity later
to start over (if you damage the project while working on
it).
Remove DC offset
DC offset can occur at the recording stage so that the
recorded waveform is not centered on the horizontal line
at 0.0 amplitude . If this is the case with your record-
ings, see the Normalize page for how to use Normalize
to remove DC offset and how to check if your Windows
sound device can perform this correction automatically.
Reduce subsonic rumble and low frequency noise
This step can probably be omitted given a flat record
and high quality turntable, arm and cartridge.Use Effect
> High Pass Filter... with a setting of 24 dB per octave
rolloff, and a cutoff frequency of 20 - 30 Hz to reduce
unwanted subsonic frequencies which can cause clicks
when editing. If your record is warped, this will definitely
generate unwanted subsonics, in which case consider a
lower cutoff frequency.
Remove clicks and pops
There are a number of ways you can use Audacity to
remove clicks and pops from your recording. First, with-
out zooming in too far, visually inspect your recording for
clicks - they will show up as abnormally tall (sticking up or
down), very narrow (one or two pixels wide) vertical lines
protruding from the waveform. Select a region with one or
more of these spikes and listen to it to ensure that they
are clicks. After determining that your selection indeed
2.37. SAMPLE WORKFLOW FOR LP DIGITIZATION
needs to have clicks removed use the Click Removal ef-
fect with various settings - preview the effect with these
different settings to get the best results. Then, using
the settings from your preview testing, use the Click Re-
moval effect on selected regions of audio or on the whole
project. Clicks which did not get removed with Click Re-
moval can be treated individually with other methods.
These methods are only really useful if you have a rel-
atively small number of clicks and pops to deal with; oth-
erwise, these approaches will be too labor-intensive and
time-consuming:
• Try Audacity’s Repair effect. This repairs a very
short length of up to 128 samples by interpolat-
ing from the neighboring samples. You will need
to zoom in to see the individual samples to use this
effect.
• For hard to spot clicks you may want to try Click
removal using the Spectrogram view .
• For somewhat longer regions of audio, try:
– Draw Tool . You need to be zoomed in to the
individual samples to use this. Some patience
may be needed with this tool, but the princi-
ple is to put samples back into line with their
neighbors so that a smooth contour is pre-
sented.
– Edit > Remove Special > Silence Audio . You
don’t need to be zoomed in so far as to see
the individual samples, but the silenced sec-
tions must be short enough so as to not be
audible.
See Click and pop removal techniques for a detailed tu-
torial on these tools. Also see further down this page for
a set of alternative tools known to work well in removing
clicks and pops.
Reduce hiss and high frequency noise
Whether you need to use Noise Reduction will depend
on the quality of your LPs, your stylus and cartridge.Use
the Noise Reduction effect’s Get Noise Profile to obtain
a noise sample from either the lead-in grooves immedi-
ately before the music starts, or from a lead-in between
tracks. The length is not important but, typically, it will be
less than a second; what is important is that you have a
true representative sample of the noise without any au-
dio signal at all (such as a very quiet fade lead in). Try
amplifying the sample and audition it to ensure that no
real audio signal is present. If it’s OK, undo the amplify,
then re-apply the Noise Removal effect with these rec-
ommended settings:
• Noise reduction - no more than 12 dB (9 dB is a
good guideline)
• Sensitivity - 6.00
87
• Frequency smoothing (bands) - no more than 6 (3
or lower is a good setting for Music)
Noise reduction is always a compromise because, on the
one hand, you can have all the music and a lot of noise
and, on the other hand, no noise and only some of the
music. Try different settings on the "Noise Reduction
(dB)" slider until you get the best compromise.
Place the song labels
Mark the approximate label points - click in the waveform
at the approximate point between the tracks on the al-
bum, press Ctrl + B then Enter. Don’t forget to insert a
label at the beginning for the first track. Alternatively you
can mark a label point while recording (or on playback)
using Ctrl + M ( CloverLeaf + . on Mac ).
Silence the inter-track gaps
These are rarely truly silent so you may want to replace
them with silence by selecting the gap and using Ctrl + L
or the Silence Generator effect . Edit the inter-track gap
as desired to around a maximum of 2 seconds; you may
wish to use a shorter gap or even no gap at all for some
recordings.
By default CD burning software almost always adds
a 2-second gap between tracks. Check for any options
to turn this off, for "gapless burning" or "Disc-at-once
(DAO)" that you can enable.
Fade Ins/Outs
You may wish to more cleanly fade-in and fade-out the
song beginnings and endings by using Effect > Fade In
and Effect > Fade Out . Normally fade outs should be
longer (typically a few seconds), and fade ins, if required,
quite short (typically a fraction of a second). Consider
using Effect > Studio Fade Out instead of the linear Fade
Out. It applies a more musical fade out to the selected
audio, giving a more pleasing (more "professional stu-
dio") sounding result. You may also get a more musi-
cal fade-in by applying Effect > Fade In multiple times to
the selected audio, three times is a good guideline. This
will produce a shaped, curved, fade rather than a linear
one. Although no keyboard shortcuts for effects are pro-
vided by default in Audacity it is possible to set up your
own shortcuts for any effects you choose. You may find
it particularly beneficial to assign shortcuts for Fade In
and Fade Out (or Studio Fade Out) as these will used
repeatedly for LP digitization.For instructions on how to
do this please see the Keyboard Preferences page in the
manual.
88
Adjust label positions
If you are using a 2-second gap, adjust the label position
as desired to be 0.5 seconds before the start of the next
track. To move the label, drag it by its center circle.
Track names
Edit the labels for the song names - we suggest using "01
First Song Name", "02 Second Song Name", and so on
as this helps keep them in the right order for CD produc-
tion or loading into iTunes. You may find that changing
the zoom level will help you with this task; you can ad-
vance to the next label by ensuring that the focus is in
the current label then using Tab. If you wish you may in-
stead automatically prefix named tracks with a sequential
two-digit number. To do this, in the "Name files" section
of the Export Multiple dialog select the Numbering before
Label/Track Name radio button.
Advanced labeling techniques
• You may wish to label each track with its full text
while you are recording. To do so, use Ctrl + M (
CloverLeaf + . on Mac ) to mark each track end
as the recording progresses. This saves time in
the processing (which can be important when you
have a lot of LPs). You do have to be very care-
ful to make sure that focus remains on the label
as otherwise you will get the unexpected halt to the
recording when you type "space-bar" in what you
think is a label. Also ensure that you do not click in
the Timeline as that will also stop the recording and
instead play from the clicked position.
• If the LP has track timings listed you can enhance
this step of the process by setting up an empty
project with the labels placed at the listed track
boundary timings and a further label slightly be-
yond the end at the end - then zoom the project to
fit (use Ctrl + F) and then start recording. The text
of each label can be typed, once again with great
care, while you are making the recording.
Amplitude adjustment
Normalize the amplitude of the recording; either do each
track of the recording individually (especially if the tracks
will be randomly played from a library containing many
different styles of music) or, do the whole recording at
once (which will work fine if all the tracks have the same
average volume). Use Effect > Normalize as the last edit-
ing step, setting "Normalize maximum amplitude to" to
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
around -3 dB or similar, to give some headroom below
the distortion level. The Normalize effect can be set to
either:
• Adjust the amplitude of both stereo channels by the
same amount (thus preserving the original stereo
balance), or
• Adjust each stereo channel independently (this can
be useful if your equipment is not balanced).
Compression
The Compressor effect reduces the dynamic range of
audio. One of the main purposes of reducing dynamic
range is to permit the audio to be amplified further (with-
out clipping) than would be otherwise possible. Com-
pressor makes the loud parts quieter and (optionally) the
quiet parts louder. It can be very useful for listening to
classical music in a car. Such music normally has a wide
dynamic range and can thus be difficult to listen to in a
car without constant volume re-adjustment.
Export a set of WAVs
Use File > Save Other > Export Multiple... to produce a
set of WAVs for each track on the LP at 44100 Hz 16-bit
PCM stereo. Audacity will down-sample on export from
32-bit to 16-bit. Shaped dither noise will be applied by
default to cover any defects (clicky noise) that may re-
sult from the conversion from 32-bit to 16-bit. Advanced
users can change the type of dither, or turn it off, in Qual-
ity Preferences . In order to facilitate later retrieval and
use, place all the files for a particular album in a specifi-
cally named folder for that album.
Export Labels
Some users advise a final step of exporting a file contain-
ing the labels. Use File > Save Other > Export Labels...
This produces a text file that you can later re-import us-
ing File > Import > Labels... should you wish to re-edit
from the raw capture file that you backed up earlier in the
workflow.
Backup
Backup your exported WAV or MP3 files - you don’t want
to lose all that valuable work and have to do it all over
again, do you? Computer hard drives can fail, destroy-
ing all data. Ideally use a dedicated drive (1+ TB ex-
ternal magnetic drives are convenient and economical),
or upload to an online (cloud) storage service to store
the WAVs or MP3s. Better still is to make two copies
on different external devices and even better is to hold
2.38. SAMPLE WORKFLOW FOR TAPE DIGITIZATION
an online backup as well as the local copies. You may
want to create a taxonomic file structure - for example
each album can be stored in its own folder (named for
the album) within a folder named for the artist (or, per-
haps, composer for classical music) to make searching
and retrieval easier.
2.37.2 Alternative software
• GoldWave: Though nominally not free it is a top
class, free trial click remover as well as an excellent
alternative audio editor. Its click removal is an ef-
fect, just like in Audacity, and there is a "Smoother"
effect for broad unwanted noises and an excellent
"Noise Reduction" effect for steady noise. The trial
version limits you to a hundred or so commands
per session, and a total number of several thou-
sand commands before it expires, but if you export
from Audacity as 32-bit WAV and just do Click Re-
moval in it, you should be able to declick several
hundred records for free.
• Gnome Wave Cleaner: Only for Linux users. Dig-
ital restoration of CD-quality audio files. Dehiss,
declick and decrackle in a GUI environment. It
can also automatically mark song boundaries if re-
quired.
Clicks and pops
• ClickRepair: An excellent tool for removing clicks
and pops is Brian Davies’ ClickRepair. Some new
users may find it a bit intimidating as an entry level
tool but, once you have understood the settings you
want to use, it is effectively an automated tool. It re-
quires Java and is not free, but many users report
that it saves a lot of time and produces good re-
sults. Since ClickRepair will work with 32-bit files
it is worth exporting a 32-bit float WAV file for pro-
cessing though ClickRepair and importing back into
Audacity, that way no dithering will be applied in the
process.
2.38 Sample workflow for tape digitization
This tutorial outlines a set of example steps using Au-
dacity to digitize tapes (cassette tapes and reel-to-reel)
to create files that are ready for CD creation, loading into
a digital jukebox or portable music player. There is no
fixed "right" way of working - there are many alternatives;
like any recipe, it can be adapted to suit your personal
needs.This workflow does not at any stage necessitate
89
You may find the default settings for this application re-
move a little too much signal. An alternative recommen-
dation:
• DeClick = 30 (default is 50)
• Pitch Protection = "on" (default is "off") though leave
this "off" for brass recordings
• Reverse = "on" (there is no processing penalty for
this and it helps on percussive music)
• Method = Wavelet
Hiss and noise removal
• DeNoise: Brian Davies also supplies a tool called
DeNoise; this is effective at removing noise and
hiss. As with ClickRepair, some new users may find
it similarly intimidating as an entry level tool. Users
report that settings normally have to be reset for
each recording to optimize the noise removal thus
making it difficult to use in a semi-automated way.
– DeNoiseLF is supplied as a separate package
bundled with DeNoise. It is used for reducing
low-frequency noise (such as turntable rum-
ble) and hum.
Compression
Please see Chris’s Dynamic Compressor for a popular al-
ternative compressor which may be downloaded for free.
It works by trying to even out abrupt changes of volume
by employing "lookahead" (this attempts to anticipate vol-
ume changes by starting to apply compression before
the volume rises to the threshold level). It has options
to soften the softer audio and invert loudness.
2.37.3 Links
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
> See also tutorial on: Recording 78 rpm records
the saving of an Audacity project (though you may wish
to do that if you need to interrupt your work). Your final
goal will be to export WAV files for CD creation or other
file formats which might be more suitable for your needs.
While all of the processing in this tutorial is carried out
using Audacity, some users may prefer to use alterna-
tive software for specific sub-tasks like noise removal and
90 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS

the removal of clicks and pops (Audacity’s Click Removal
may not give as good a result as other software). For
more details of the steps involved in this workflow please
see the tutorial set Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to
CD .
2.38.1 Workflow
1. Audacity Settings
Audacity settings
Work with Audacity set to a project rate of 44100 Hz and
32-bit sample format (these are the default quality set-
tings ). You may use 16-bit if you prefer; it will give smaller
working file sizes but you may lose a little quality in some
of the processes. Export WAV files at 44100 Hz 16-bit
PCM stereo, the standard required for burning CDs ; this
will also produce WAVs which are accepted for import by
iTunes (and most other music player software).

2. Check/adjust the azimuth settings

3. Clean the heads Check/adjust the azimuth settings

4. Retension the tape
Azimuth is the angle of the magnetic gap in the tape head
5. Recording levels
relative to the tape. This should always be 90 degrees,
6. Capture but in practice most cassette decks fail to maintain accu-
rate head position, hence the azimuth of cassette record-
7. Raw master backup ings routinely varies. Pre-recorded tapes are much bet-
ter, but not entirely immune to azimuth variation. Mis-
8. Remove DC offset aligned azimuth routinely causes degradation of high fre-
9. Reduce tape hiss and high frequency noise quencies and signal to noise ratio. See this Wiki page for
advice on how to adjust your azimuth setting. You do not
10. Place the song labels need to do this every time, but it is worth doing before
you start your first tape transfer.
11. Silence the inter-track gaps

12. Fade Ins/Outs

13. Adjust Label positions Clean the heads and pinch roller
14. Track names
Most deposited oxide goes onto the pinch roller. The
15. Advanced labeling techniques more oxide there is on this roller, the less able it is to
16. Amplitude adjustment remove and hold loose oxide from the tape, and thus the
more oxide gets deposited on the head. A dirty pinch
17. Compression roller has less friction, and can occasionally result in tape
slip, degrading playback quality. This is especially true for
18. Export a set of WAVs 8 track tapes, where tape slip is a real issue. All types of
tape deck that use a pinch roller should have the roller
19. Export labels
cleaned occasionally. Microcassettes and picocassettes
20. Backup don’t use pinch rollers.

21. Alternative software

Making tape to digital transfers is a skill and the more you

do the more expert you will become. Retension the tape

• Consider starting out with some tapes that you care

less about, this way you will not need to go back
and repeat important earlier transcriptions that you
made.
• Start with a recording that you are very familiar with;
your first goal will be to ensure that you have as per-
fect a digital copy of the material as possible.
• Clean-up steps are optional and need only be ap-
plied if your recording requires them.
Tape that has been stored unplayed for a long period of
time can benefit from having its tension evened out prior
to making the playback for recording capture. To do this
simply use the fast forward to advance the tape to the
end and rewind to the beginning (but take care with this
if you a working with a low-grade deck that has a poor, or
no, braking system as this can cause the tape to come
off the spool). If you have plenty of time you could in-
stead just play the tape at normal speed and then play
the second side before making the actual recording.
2.38. SAMPLE WORKFLOW FOR TAPE DIGITIZATION
Recording levels
Read this page about making a test recording then make
a test recording of portions of the tape (or even a whole
side) so as to check the levels. It is important to avoid any
clipping during the recording! Try to aim for a maximum
peak of around –6 dB (or 0.5 if you have your meter set
to linear rather than dB).
Enlarging the Recording Meter Toolbar by clicking and
dragging helps with this task; you should read this sec-
tion about resizing the Meter Toolbars .
Capture
Record both sides into the project prior to doing the pro-
cessing. You can either Stop the recording after the first
side using the button or Transport > Stop and then use
Transport > Record (or use Shift + R) to restart record-
ing when you are ready. Alternatively you can pause by
pressing the button (or use Transport > Pause ) at the
end of the first side and then press the button again
once you are ready to record the second side. After
recording you may find it helpful to zoom out to display
the entire recording in the Audacity window. You may
prefer to work with a single side of a tape at a time as
that gives a smaller working set.
Raw master backup
Export a single WAV for this recording at 32-bit float (not
16-bit). Retain this WAV file as a maximum quality "raw
capture" file that you can import back into Audacity later
to start over (if you damage the project while working on
it).
Remove DC offset
DC offset can occur at the recording stage so that the
recorded waveform is not centered on the horizontal line
at 0.0 amplitude . If this is the case with your record-
ings, see the Normalize page for how to use Normalize
to remove DC offset and how to check if your Windows
sound device can perform this correction automatically.
Reduce tape hiss and high frequency noise
Whether you need to use Noise Reduction will depend on
the quality of your tapes, your azimuth setting , the clean-
liness of the tape heads and your Dolby settings.Use the
Noise Reduction effect’s Get Noise Profile to obtain a
91
noise sample from either the lead-in grooves immediately
before the music starts, or from a lead-in between tracks.
The length is not important but, typically, it will be less
than a second; what is important is that you have a true
representative sample of the noise without any audio sig-
nal at all (such as a very quiet fade lead in). Try amplify-
ing the sample and audition it to ensure that no real au-
dio signal is present. If it’s OK, undo the amplify, then re-
apply the Noise Removal effect with these recommended
settings:
• Noise reduction - no more than 12 dB (9 dB is a
good guideline)
• Sensitivity - 6.00
• Frequency smoothing (bands) - no more than 6 (3
or lower is a good setting for Music)
Noise reduction is always a compromise because, on the
one hand, you can have all the music and a lot of noise
and, on the other hand, no noise and only some of the
music. Try different settings on the "Noise Reduction
(dB)" slider until you get the best compromise. Unless
you are transcribing tapes that are recordings made from
original LPs or 45s you are unlikely to need other noise
reduction techniques, but if that is that case you my need
to consider the following from the workflow on LP digiti-
zation :
• Reduce subsonic rumble and low frequency noise
• Remove clicks and pops
Place the song labels
Mark the approximate label points - click in the waveform
at the approximate point between the tracks on the al-
bum, press Ctrl + B then Enter. Don’t forget to insert a
label at the beginning for the first track. Alternatively you
can mark a label point while recording (or on playback)
using Ctrl + M(CloverLeaf + . on Mac).
Silence the inter-track gaps
These are rarely truly silent so you may want to replace
them with silence by selecting the gap and using Ctrl + L
or the Silence Generator effect . Edit the inter-track gap
as desired to around a maximum of 2 seconds; you may
wish to use a shorter gap or even no gap at all for some
recordings.
By default CD burning software almost always adds
a 2-second gap between tracks. Check for any options
to turn this off, for "gapless burning" or "Disc-at-once
(DAO)" that you can enable.
92
Fade Ins/Outs
You may wish to more cleanly fade-in and fade-out the
song beginnings and endings by using Effect > Fade In
and Effect > Fade Out . Normally fade outs should be
longer (typically a few seconds), and fade ins, if required,
quite short (typically a fraction of a second). Consider
using Effect > Studio Fade Out instead of the linear Fade
Out. It applies a more musical fade out to the selected
audio, giving a more pleasing (more "professional stu-
dio") sounding result. You may also get a more musical
fade-in by applying Effect > Fade In multiple times to the
selected audio, three times is a good guideline. This will
produce a shaped, curved, fade rather than a linear one.
Although no keyboard shortcuts for effects are provided
by default in Audacity it is possible to set up your own
shortcuts for any effects you choose. You may find it par-
ticularly beneficial to assign shortcuts for Fade In and
Fade Out (or Studio Fade Out) as these will used re-
peatedly for tape digitization.For instructions on how to
do this please see the Keyboard Preferences page in the
manual.
Adjust label positions
If you are using a 2-second gap, adjust the label position
as desired to be 0.5 seconds before the start of the next
track. To move the label, drag it by its center circle.
Track names
Edit the labels for the song names - we suggest using "01
First Song Name", "02 Second Song Name", and so on
as this helps keep them in the right order for CD produc-
tion or loading into iTunes. You may find that changing
the zoom level will help you with this task; you can ad-
vance to the next label by ensuring that the focus is in
the current label then using TAB. If you wish you may in-
stead automatically prefix named tracks with a sequential
two-digit number. To do this, in the "Name files" section
of the Export Multiple dialog select the Numbering before
Label/Track Name radio button.
Advanced labeling techniques
• You may wish to label each track with its full text
while you are recording. To do so, use Ctrl + M (
CloverLeaf + . on Mac ) to mark each track end
as the recording progresses. This saves time in
the processing (which can be important when you
have a lot of tapes). You do have to be very care-
ful to make sure that focus remains on the label
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
as otherwise you will get the unexpected halt to the
recording when you type "space-bar" in what you
think is a label. Also ensure that you do not click in
the Timeline as that will also stop the recording and
instead play from the clicked position.
• If the tape has track timings listed you can enhance
this step of the process by setting up an empty
project with the labels placed at the listed track
boundary timings and a further label slightly be-
yond the end at the end - then zoom the project to
fit (use Ctrl + F) and then start recording. The text
of each label can be typed, once again with great
care, while you are making the recording.
Amplitude adjustment
Normalize the amplitude of the recording; either do each
track of the recording individually (especially if the tracks
will be randomly played from a library containing many
different styles of music) or, do the whole recording at
once (which will work fine if all the tracks have the same
average volume). Use Effect > Normalize as the last edit-
ing step, setting "Normalize maximum amplitude to" to
around -3 dB or similar, to give some headroom below
the distortion level. The Normalize effect can be set to
either:
• Adjust the amplitude of both stereo channels by the
same amount (thus preserving the original stereo
balance), or
• Adjust each stereo channel independently (this can
be useful if your equipment is not balanced).
Compression
The Compressor effect reduces the dynamic range of
audio. One of the main purposes of reducing dynamic
range is to permit the audio to be amplified further (with-
out clipping) than would be otherwise possible. Com-
pressor makes the loud parts quieter and (optionally) the
quiet parts louder. It can be very useful for listening to
classical music in a car. Such music normally has a wide
dynamic range and can thus be difficult to listen to in a
car without constant volume re-adjustment.
Export a set of WAVs
Use File > Save Other > Export Multiple... to produce a
set of WAVs for each track on the LP at 44100 Hz 16-bit
PCM stereo. Audacity will down-sample on export from
32-bit to 16-bit. Shaped dither noise will be applied by
default to cover any defects (clicky noise) that may re-
sult from the conversion from 32-bit to 16-bit. Advanced
users can change the type of dither, or turn it off, in Qual-
ity Preferences . In order to facilitate later retrieval and
2.39. HOW TO CONNECT YOUR EQUIPMENT
use, place all the files for a particular album in a specifi-
cally named folder for that album.
Export Labels
Some users advise a final step of exporting a file contain-
ing the labels. Use File > Save Other > Export Labels...
This produces a text file that you can later re-import us-
ing File > Import > Labels... should you wish to re-edit
from the raw capture file that you backed up earlier in the
workflow.
Backup
Backup your exported WAV or MP3 files - you don’t want
to lose all that valuable work and have to do it all over
again, do you? Computer hard drives can fail, destroy-
ing all data. Ideally use a dedicated drive (1+ TB ex-
ternal magnetic drives are convenient and economical),
or upload to an online (cloud) storage service to store
the WAVs or MP3s. Better still is to make two copies
on different external devices and even better is to hold
an online backup as well as the local copies. You may
want to create a taxonomic file structure - for example
each album can be stored in its own folder (named for
the album) within a folder named for the artist (or, per-
haps, composer for classical music) to make searching
and retrieval easier.
2.38.2 Alternative software
• GoldWave: Though nominally not free it is a top
class, free trial click remover as well as an excellent
alternative audio editor. Its click removal is an ef-
fect, just like in Audacity, and there is a "Smoother"
effect for broad unwanted noises and an excellent
"Noise Reduction" effect for steady noise. The trial
2.39 How to connect your equipment
2.39.1 Connecting your equipment
An appropriate input is required that will accept strong
line-level signals as produced by high quality playback
equipment. Generally there are only two such suitable
inputs:
• A line-in computer input (blue) that is separate from
the computer’s microphone input (usually pink)
• Failing that, a line-in input on a USB or Firewire in-
terface.
93
version limits you to a hundred or so commands
per session, and a total number of several thou-
sand commands before it expires, but if you export
from Audacity as 32-bit WAV and just do Click Re-
moval in it, you should be able to declick several
hundred records for free.
• Gnome Wave Cleaner: Only for Linux users. Dig-
ital restoration of CD-quality audio files. Dehiss,
declick and decrackle in a GUI environment. It
can also automatically mark song boundaries if re-
quired.
Hiss and noise removal
• DeNoise: This is a (paid for, but with a free-trial
period) third-party tool effective at removing noise
and hiss. Some new users may find it intimidating
as an entry level tool. Users report that settings
normally have to be reset for each recording to op-
timize the noise removal thus making it difficult to
use in a semi-automated way.
Compression
Please see Chris’s Dynamic Compressor for a popular al-
ternative compressor which may be downloaded for free.
It works by trying to even out abrupt changes of volume
by employing "lookahead" (this attempts to anticipate vol-
ume changes by starting to apply compression before
the volume rises to the threshold level). It has options
to soften the softer audio and invert loudness.
2.38.3 Links
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD > See
also Recording from Cassette - article in the Audacity
Wiki
Connecting to line-in of the computer
In general, you need to run an appropriate cable from an
output on the external device (for example a tape deck,
or a phono amplifier or receiver connected to a turntable)
to the line-in port of the computer. Do not connect to
the mic-in port of the computer. A standalone turntable
should not generally be connected directly to the com-
puter unless you are making specialist recordings from
pre-1950s discs . The best option is usually to connect
to the source device’s "aux out", "tape out", "line-out" or
94 CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS

"record" output (if so equipped). These outputs standard-

ize the signal at a fixed (non-adjustable) level of approxi-
mately 1 - 1.5 volts, resulting in a high quality recording,
whereas the headphones output will add an extra stage
of possibly low-quality amplification in order to provide
an adjustable level. It may occasionally be preferable to
connect to the headphones output if it is otherwise hard
to prevent the recording from distorting due to clipping
(excessive volume). For example, some MiniDisc play-
ers have extremely strong line-level outputs that may tax
even a high quality line-in. Connecting to the "aux out",
"tape out" or "record" jack of the device requires a cable
that has dual RCA red/white plugs at one end (for con-
necting to the device) and a stereo 1/8 inch (3.5 mm) plug
at the other end (for connecting to the computer’s line-in
port). If it is necessary to connect to the headphones
out of the device, you can typically use a cable that has The stereo mini-jack end should be connected to your
a stereo 1/8 inch (3.5 mm) plug at both ends, plugging computer’s stereo line-in jack, usually found on the back
one end into the headphones jack and the other end into of desktop machines. The line-in is normally colored
the computer’s line-in port. If the device has a 1/4 inch blue, but check your computer manual.
(6.3 mm) headphone jack, you will need a 1/4 inch to 1/8
inch adapter. Such an adapter is often included free with
new headphones, or can be purchased separately at any
good electronics store. Here is a typical cable you might
use for equipment with RCA outputs (an RCA to stereo
1/8 inch (3.5 mm) mini-jack cable):

You should not generally connect to the micro-

phone (pink) port or to a sole audio input on the com-
puter.
• A microphone port will excessively amplify the
stronger line-level signals produced by a tape deck
or receiver/amplifier. This could lead to damage to
the microphone port or to your sound device.
• A microphone port is typically mono. If the port is
mono then even if you connect a stereo input to it
and set Audacity to record in stereo, you will only
record "dual mono" which has the same content in
left and right.
• A combined port that acts as an output when head-
phones are connected or an input when an input is
connected is unsuitable for line-level signals.
• A single audio port intended for headsets having a
The RCA end might connect to the output jacks in the single TRRS plug (as found on some modern Mac
back of your cassette player: computers or on Windows Surface Pro models) is
2.39. HOW TO CONNECT YOUR EQUIPMENT
unsuitable for line-level signals. This is true even if
you use a splitter adapter.
The following are the only exceptions where it might be
appropriate to connect to a computer microphone input.
• Some personal recorders only have a low power
mini-jack intended for connection to the micro-
phone input of a recorder. If the jack is 3/32 inch
(2.5mm) it is probably intended for connection to
a microphone input and may already come with a
suitable cable. Look at the manual for the recorder.
• On some Macs, or some Windows laptops or desk-
tops, there is a "switchable" single input port which
can be toggled to line-level stereo. Check your
computer manual to see if there is a switch on the
computer itself or in the soundcard control panel.
On a few laptops the line-level source is called "mix"
or "stereo mix", but on most machines "stereo mix"
will only record computer playback.
• On recent Windows laptops, notebooks or net-
books, there may be a "compliant" single port which
will tolerate line level input and may provide stereo
input. Even if stereo, the quality may not be as high
as that of a dedicated line-in port.
Always try line-level input first, and only use a micro-
phone input if you cannot otherwise get adequate record-
ing volume.
Add a USB external soundcard for line-level input
If the computer has no separate or switchable line-level
input, add a line-in by adding a USB soundcard or inter-
face that connects to the computer via USB. A Firewire
interface can be used instead, but these are more ex-
pensive than entry-level USB soundcards or interfaces.
Examples of USB devices known to work with Audacity:
• Behringer UCA202 (left and right RCA in-
puts/outputs)
• Roland Duo Capture mk2 (1/8 inch plus 1/4 inch
input jacks and 1/8 inch mini-jack output)
• Griffin iMic (standard 1/8 inch input) - Discontinued
but still obtainable from some online retailers.
You can read more details of the above devices and
about other suitable devices on our Wiki (USB interfaces
known to work with Audacity). Plug the RCA leads from
your playback equipment into the USB soundcard and
plug the soundcard into a USB socket on your computer.
Always connect to a spare USB port. Connecting to a
USB hub attached to a USB port is almost certain to
cause audio dropouts. USB soundcards typically oper-
ate with less noise than an on-board soundcard which
is close to the working parts of the computer. However,
RF transmission noise from USB can leak backwards into
95
the analog stages and contaminate the analog signal dur-
ing the sampling process. You may need a double-
shielded USB cable or to add ferrite beads or a ferrite ring
to the USB cable.It is also advisable in the interests of
minimizing USB noise to plug all mains-powered equip-
ment into the same mains board or into a multi-socket
surge/lightning protected power-block.
2.39.2 Connecting a tape deck
If you wish to record from an audio cassette, or a reel-
to-reel tape deck, you can connect that deck directly to
your computer without the need for any external ampli-
fier or receiver. Simply connect the deck’s "line-out" RCA
jacks to your computer’s "line in" jack, using a cable de-
scribed above. You can also connect to the headphones
out jack of an integrated cassette deck or to that of an
amplifier connected to the tape deck. If you do this (or if
the "line-out" volume of your deck is adjustable), it is best
to set that level quite close to its maximum, and adjust the
recording level using Audacity’s input volume slider (see
below). This helps keep the inherent tape noise to a mini-
mum in the signal sent to Audacity. If the cassette you are
playing has been encoded with Dolby ® as denoted by
the Dolby Double-D symbol, then you must enable Dolby
playback on your tape deck, or the recording of the tape
will sound over-bright. Before transferring your cassette,
you may want to clean and align your tape heads and
also clean the transport mechanism (capstan and pinch
roller). See the wiki page on Recording from Cassette for
more details.
2.39.3 Connecting a standalone turntable
If you have a standalone turntable, you must not connect
it directly to your computer. Instead, you must connect
it to an amplifier or receiver with a "phono" or turntable
input, or to a phono pre-amplifier - and then record from
the amplifier’s "line out" or "tape out" jacks. This is for
two reasons: (1) the audio signals produced by a phono
cartridge are too weak to record directly, and (2) most
records manufactured from the 1950s onwards were pro-
duced with a standard type of equalization called "RIAA",
which emphasizes high frequencies and de-emphasizes
(reduces) low frequencies. If left uncorrected, this will
result in a recording that sounds very "tinny". All ampli-
fiers containing a "phono" stage will both boost the sig-
nal to line-level so it’s suitable for input into a tape deck
or a computer, and will reverse the RIAA equalization
so that the records sound "normal" again. If you have
an integrated "stack system" or "entertainment center"
into which you plug your speakers, your record deck is
already connected to a suitable amplifier. If you have
a standalone turntable but no amplifier or pre-amp, you
may want to consider the Behringer UFO202 or the ART
USBPhonoPlus. These devices contain a built-in phono
96
pre-amp and connect to your computer through a USB
port. They can also be used to connect line level devices
such as a cassette deck.
Advanced technique: It is possible to directly connect
a standalone turntable to the line input of a high quality
soundcard, if you are prepared to perform the amplifica-
tion and RIAA equalization yourself in Audacity. Effect
> Equalization has a suitable RIAA preset. Discs pre-
dating RIAA equalization such as 78 rpm’s sound too dull
if recorded through a standard amplifier using RIAA play-
back equalization. A solution is to record without RIAA
playback equalization, either by connecting the turntable
directly to a soundcard with a "high-gain" input, or by us-
ing a "flat" amplifier that applies only signal gain. The
recorded waveform can then be re-equalized using an
appropriate pre-RIAA or 78 rpm playback EQ curve. Suit-
able curves may be downloaded from the Wiki.
2.39.4 Connecting a USB turntable or USB
cassette deck
A USB turntable is a relatively new kind of turntable which
is designed to connect directly to your computer’s USB
port. The concerns noted in the ’standalone turntable’
section above do not apply here, as the necessary pre-
2.40 How to get help
Many of our users are not only new to Audacity, but new
to recording or editing audio. Others may be more expe-
rienced, but just hit a snag. Don’t worry. Here’s how to
get help.
2.40.1 Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ
Most common questions are answered in the Frequently
Asked Questions and this should be the first place where
you search for an answer to your problem.
2.40.2 Audacity Wiki
A Wiki is a particular type of website, like this one, where
people can collaborate to create and modify pages to
keep them up-to-date and useful. The Audacity Wiki is
a website where we keep our latest Tips, tricks and ex-
tra Tutorials about Audacity and digital audio. After this
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
amplification and RIAA equalization are already built into
the USB turntable. There are also USB cassette decks
available which are similarly designed to connect directly
to your computer’s USB port. There are some special
playback and recording device settings you need to ob-
serve when using USB devices - see Recording with USB
turntables or USB cassette decks
2.39.5 Connecting a MiniDisc player
Some users find that the line-level output of MiniDisc
players is too strong for recording on a computer and
causes distortion, since its level is not adjustable. If you
are encountering this problem, try connecting your ca-
ble to the player’s headphone jack instead. Since the
strength of the headphone signal is easily adjustable,
you can then reduce the signal level sent to the PC.
On most players, this means using the same shared line
out/headphones out socket/jack, but choosing the head-
phones out option in the player’s "Sound Out" Prefer-
ences menu. If you have a soundcard which has digital
outputs, connect from digital out of the MiniDisc player to
the S/PDIF input of the soundcard.
2.39.6 Links
> Forward to: How to set up Audacity
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
Manual it’s another place to search for your answer. You
do not need an account to use Audacity Wiki, unless you
want to edit the pages to make them better. All useful
edits are welcomed! To apply for a Wiki account please
write to our feedback address stating your reasons for
requesting an account.
2.40.3 Audacity Forum
Still got a question? Then the Audacity Forum is a great
place to ask! A Forum member will have the answer, or
will point you to where you can find it.
Searching the Forum
Many questions have been asked before, and you can
obtain your answer just by searching! Look for the Search
box top right of any Forum page, and enter some general
words that relate to your question, separated by spaces.
2.40. HOW TO GET HELP
For example if you are recording from a USB turntable
and cannot hear the records in Audacity, try entering:
USB turntable hear records
How to join
If you need to ask your question on the Forum, there is a
quick and easy registration process.
• Go to the Forum Registration page.
• Agree to the Terms of Service, then enter the re-
quired information.
• Within minutes you will receive an account activa-
tion email. This is only so as to stop others signing
you up when you do not want to. Click the link in
this email to complete your registration, then you
will be able to log in to the Forum and post your
first question.
Sometimes it may appear that you do not receive the ac-
tivation email. Don’t panic!
• Go to the login page, and click "Resend activation
e-mail".
• You may need to search your Trash or Spam fold-
ers for the activation email. The email comes from
Buanzo_at_audacityteam.org. If your email client
has a whitelist system, you may need to add that
address to your whitelist.
• Email Buanzo at that address in the case of any
difficulties with registration.
Asking your question
Please post your question to the particular Forum that
corresponds to your computer operating system and
version of Audacity (for example, Audacity 2.x for Win-
dows). This makes it much easier for us to help you. Click
the "New Topic" button top left, then submit your ques-
tion. By default you will be subscribed to the topic you
created and will receive an email when someone replies
to you. You will not normally receive any other emails
from the Forum unless you post to other topics. You can
check the topics you posted to at any time by clicking
"View your posts" near the top of any Forum page.
2.40.4 Audacity-users mailing list
This is another place where Audacity users can get to-
gether, learn about our application, share tips and ask
questions. The difference here is that this a mailing list,
meaning you usually send messages to the list by email
using your email application. You will also receive an
email every time any other list member makes a post.
Sometimes there can be a lot of emails if an interesting
97
topic is started! To reduce the number of emails, you can
always subscribe in "digest" mode, which combines each
day’s messages into one large email. If you only want to
ask a question every now and then, the Forum may suit
you better.
How to subscribe
Go to the list information page. Fill out the subscription
information half way down the page. You will be sent an
email requesting confirmation. This is only so as to stop
others signing you up when you do not want to. Click
the confirmation link in the email to subscribe and start
receiving emails. Note: This is a public mailing list - mes-
sages are seen by all list subscribers, and posted on sev-
eral websites where the messages are archived.
Searching for an answer
You can sometimes find an answer quickly by going to
the Nabble archive of the list and finding a similar topic to
yours. Type in some words in the search box at the right
like "No sound USB microphone". Providing you are sub-
scribed to this list and have a Nabble account, you can
also post messages to the list from Nabble, using your
browser.
Asking your question
This list is essentially one large collection of individ-
ual messages. Each message on this same topic is a
"thread", which keeps messages on the same subject to-
gether. So if you ask questions here, please give us
the following information. You’ll get your answer much
quicker that way.
• Give the subject of your message a descriptive ti-
tle that summarises your problem - "No sound in
iTunes after recording from USB microphone" is
great; "Help me!!" is not...
• Tell us what computer operating system you are us-
ing (for example, Windows 7 or Mac OS X 10.10.1)
• Tell us exactly what version of Audacity you are us-
ing (see Help > About Audacity, or Audacity > About
Audacity on a Mac computer)
• If this is a recording problem, tell us what equip-
ment you are recording with, and how it’s con-
nected to the computer
98
Etiquette
Following these rules helps everyone get the most out of
the list, whether searching for an answer or replying to a
message:
• To start a new topic: Choose a new subject and
Press "Compose" in your email software to start a
completely new email. Please do not take some-
one else’s message with its own subject and con-
tent and post your own unrelated material into it. If
you must compose a new message by replying to
someone else’s, at least change the subject and re-
move all the text from the original message. Note
that this still means the online archives of this list
will keep the old subject, because they store the
header references to the old subject. This makes it
very difficult to follow messages online, so please
try to compose a new message if you can.
• When replying to a message:
– Don’t send a reply which includes a complete
copy of the message you are replying to, un-
less it’s really necessary. Retain only those
2.41 How to set up Audacity
If you are recording from a USB turntable, USB cassette
deck or USB interface, please go to the set up instruc-
tions at Recording with USB turntables or USB cassette
decks .
2.41.1 Setting Up Audacity
The Device toolbar is displayed by default in a new instal-
lation of Audacity. If the Device toolbar is not visible, click
on View > Toolbars.
You may want to expand the width of Device Toolbar by
dragging right on the drag handle.
1. Click on the Recording Channels dropdown menu
and choose whether to record in stereo or mono
2. Set the Playback Device and Recording Device
dropdown menus to the built-in computer sound de-
vice, or to the specific sound device your cable is
plugged into.
CHAPTER 2. TUTORIALS
parts of the original message that are rele-
vant to your answer. Otherwise the message
becomes too long by the time several people
have replied.
– If you are replying to a digest email, change
the subject to that of the individual message
from the digest that you are replying to.
How to unsubscribe or change your options
• Towards the bottom of the list information page,
look for the "Audacity-users Subscribers" sec-
tion. At the bottom of that section, you’ll find "To
unsubscribe from Audacity-users, get a password
reminder, or change your subscription options en-
ter your subscription email address:". Enter your
email address and click the "Unsubscribe or edit
options" button.
• On the page that follows, look for "Unsubscribing
from Audacity-users" a little way down the page.
If you really want to leave the list, click "Unsub-
scribe".
• Windows: Choose the line-in option for your
connected sound device (for example, "Line-
In: Realtek HD Device"). Do NOT select
"Microsoft Sound Mapper" or "Primary Sound
Capture Driver".
• Linux: Select the connected sound device.
• Mac: Select the "Built-in Audio: Line In" input
device, or "USB Audio CODEC" if you are us-
ing an external USB audio adapter.
3. If you cannot choose your input source as de-
scribed above, or if the line-in input will not record,
you can use the operating system mixer device to
choose the required input. For instructions, see the
further help for Windows, Mac or Linux on our Wiki.
2.41.2 Monitoring
Decide if you want to "monitor" your recording, that is
hear it played back as you make it.
Software playthrough
Using software playthrough you can route the input to the
output through the computer enabling you to hear what
2.41. HOW TO SET UP AUDACITY
you are recording. All such methods have latency and
cause extra load on the computer.
• In Audacity for all platforms: Choose Software
Playthrough in Recording Preferences or under the
Transport > Transport Options menu.
• Windows: On some machines you can instead se-
lect your input in Windows "Sound", choose "Prop-
erties" then on the "Listen" tab, choose "Listen to
this device". This usually has less latency than Au-
dacity’s Software Playthrough.
• Linux: Most modern Linux systems use ALSA
and Pulse Audio with no software playthrough
module installed. ALSA has the optional alsa-
loop playthrough module in alsa-utils and PulseAu-
dio has an optional module-loopback, but these
modules may have noticeable latency and audio
breakup. Linux distributions specifically for mu-
sic or media applications are likely to have JACK
pre-installed, in which case low latency software
playthrough can be configured in QjackCtl. </ul>
Hardware playthrough
If hardware playthrough is required, usually only needed
for overdubbing , it is best to use an external USB or
Firewire audio device that has a headphones jack for no-
latency monitoring (such as the Behringer UCA 202 USB
or Zoom H2 USB).
99
Set the volume level of your recording input
Click on the downward pointing arrow in the Recording
Meter :and click "Start Monitoring".
While playing a loud part of your tape or record, adjust
the Recording Slider on the Mixer Toolbar so the Record-
ing Meters are almost reaching the right-hand end of the
scale. Don’t let the meter bars actually reach the right
edge, or the red hold lights to right of the meter will come
on, indicating you’ll have distortion in the recording. If
the Recording Meters are not visible, click View > Tool-
bars and check Meter Toolbar. Try to aim for a maximum
peak of around –6.0 dB (or 0.5 if you have your meters
set to linear rather than dB). Enlarging the Recording Me-
ter Toolbar by clicking and dragging helps with this task,
see this page in the manual for details,
If the Mixer Toolbar Recording Slider does not control the
input level correctly, or is grayed out on maximum, use
the input slider in the operating system mixer device to
regulate the input level. For instructions, see the further
help for Windows, Mac or Linux on our Wiki.
2.41.3 Links
> Forward to: Basic Recording, Editing and Exporting
< Back to: How to connect your equipment
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
Chapter 3
The FAQs
3.1 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
To find your answer more easily, try using Ctrl + F(
CloverLeaf + F on Mac ) to search this page.
About Audacity
1. Is Audacity really free? Why?
2. Does Audacity contain any spyware, malware or
adware?
3. May I distribute copies of Audacity?
4. Someone is selling Audacity on eBay. Is this legal?
5. A search result misled me into paying for an Audac-
ity download. What can I do?
6. Audacity isn’t displaying in the expected or desired
language. Can I change this?
10. Mac: Why do I see "Verifying" or "Damaged" mes-
7. Will there be a version of Audacity for iPod, iPad or
other smartphones or tablet computers?
11. How do I reset my Audacity settings?
8. Can I run Audacity on a Chromebook laptop?
Recording - Troubleshooting
9. Does Audacity work with screen-reader applica-
tions for blind users?
10. What features does Audacity have for speech tran-
scription or speech recognition?
11. Does Audacity run on 64-bit systems?
12. Does Audacity support low latency ASIO drivers?
13. How do I find which Audacity version I have, and if
this is the latest version?
14. Why doesn’t Audacity ship with an MP3 encoder?
15. How can I help to improve Audacity?
Installation, Startup and Plug-ins
100
1. How do I install or update Audacity?
2. How do I uninstall Audacity?
3. What should I do if I have problems downloading or
installing Audacity?
4. How do I download and install the LAME MP3 en-
coder?
5. How do I download and install the FFmpeg Im-
port/Export Library?
6. What Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins does
Audacity support and how do I install them?
7. How can I solve Audacity not appearing or crashing
on launch, or crashing after I add a plug-in?
8. What should I do if I get errors building Audacity?
9. Windows: How can I make Audacity launch when I
double-click a WAV or other audio file?
sages when I launch Audacity?
1. Why can I not record in Windows?
2. How can I prevent clicky recordings on Mac?
3. Why can’t Audacity see the audio device I just con-
nected?
4. Why can’t I hear what I’m recording?
5. Why is there a delay or echo when listening to what
I am recording?
6. Why do my recordings fade out or sound as if they
were made in a tunnel?
7. Why is my new track out of sync with the previous
ones, or sounds crackly or at wrong pitch?
3.1. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
8. Why can’t I record my electronic keyboard or elec-
tronic instrument using the USB cable?
9. Why doesn’t recording from YouTube (or other
streaming audio) work?
10. Why do I get crackles, pops, or distortion when the
recording is loud?
11. Why do I see a lot of vertical red lines in the track I
just recorded?
12. Why is the Audacity recording slider grayed out on
maximum?
13. How can I record without small skips or duplica-
tions?
14. Why does my recording keep pausing automatically
or why is my recording cursor stuck?
15. Why do I get only a flat line and no sound when I
try to record?
16. Why do I get a periodic noise every 6 - 12 seconds
when recording?
17. How can I prevent a half-volume mono recording?
18. How can I prevent unbalanced or poorly separated
stereo recording?
19. How can I correct an unbalanced stereo recording?
20. Why is the recorded waveform not centered on the
horizontal line at 0.0?
Recording - How To’s
1. How can I record in stereo?
2. What is an optimal recording level to aim for?
3. How do I record from vinyl records, cassette tapes
or MiniDiscs?
4. Can I play a track while recording a new one on top
of it?
5. Can Audacity record YouTube, internet radio or
other streaming audio?
6. What is the maximum recording length?
7. Can I set Audacity to record at a certain time?
8. Can I record from a multi-channel device (more
than stereo)?
9. Can I record from two microphones (or even two
soundcards) at the same time?
Playback
1. Why have I lost sound after connecting a USB de-
vice on Windows?
2. Why does playback go quiet when I record or adjust
the recording volume?
3. Why do I hear clicky playback on Mac?
101
4. Why is there a very low level hiss on exported files?
5. How can I pause playback so I can edit there?
6. How can I play or export multi-channel (surround
sound) files?
Opening and Saving Files
1. How do I save my audio for use in other applica-
tions? Does saving a project (AUP file) do that?
2. Why does Audacity create a folder full of .au files
when I save a project?
3. Audacity crashed, or I no longer have the AUP
project file! Can I recover the data?
4. Can Audacity import or export formats like WMA,
AC3 or iTunes files (M4A/MP4)?
5. How can I export to formats not listed in the Export
Audio Dialog?
6. Why do exported files not include Album Artist or
BPM metadata, Album Art or Lyrics?
7. How do I import tracks from an audio CD?
8. How do I save my recording on an audio CD?
9. How can I split a long recording into multiple files or
CD tracks?
10. Why does Audacity warn about the name or nothing
happens when I export?
11. Why does my file import with a hatched pattern
then slowly change to a waveform?
12. I copied the .aup file to another computer or sent it
by email to a friend; but now when I open it there’s
no sound, why?
13. How can I backup my Audacity Projects?
Editing
1. Why can’t I use the effects or other menu items?
2. Why can’t I select less than one second or click be-
tween whole seconds?
3. Why do I hear clicks when I remove or paste audio,
or at the start or end of the track?
4. How do I select audio in one track?
5. How do I extend or move the selected region into
other tracks?
6. How do I combine two files into one longer file?
7. How do I mix two tracks together?
8. Can I remove the vocals from a recording to make
a Karaoke track?
9. Can I create Ringtones or IVR messages with Au-
dacity?
102
10. Why do I see a lot of vertical red lines in the track I
just recorded?
11. Can Audacity preview or apply effects live, in real-
time?
12. How do I convert a stereo track to mono, or mono
to stereo?
Errors
1. Why do I get "Error opening sound device"?
2. Why do I get "FFmpeg Error - Can’t open audio
codec 0x15002" (or 0x15003)?
3. Why does the computer reboot or show a blue
screen message when I play or record in Audacity?
4. I found a bug! Now what?
3.2 FAQ:About Audacity
> Forward To: FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plug-Ins
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.2.1 Is Audacity really free? Why?
Yes, Audacity is completely free, open source software.
You are free to use this application for any personal, com-
mercial, or educational purposes, including installing it
on as many different computers as you wish. You are
also free to give it away, sell it, or modify it for your own
use, under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
The authors of Audacity decided to release it under the
GPL for many reasons. Some of us do it out of generos-
ity. Some of us do it for moral reasons, because we feel
that all software should be free; others believe that there
is a place for both free and proprietary software. One
reason Audacity is free is so that it will be more popular
and useful. Yet another reason is to encourage collabora-
tion. Because of Audacity’s free license, dozens of peo-
ple around the world have contributed code, bug fixes,
documentation, and graphics. We welcome donations to
support Audacity development.
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3.2.2 Does Audacity contain any spyware,
malware or adware?
No, if you always download Audacity from our website
https://audacityteam.org. We have a policy never to bun-
dle offers or other software with Audacity and we code-
sign Audacity on Windows and Mac with Microsoft and
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
5. Feature X is not good enough or missing.
Errors opening and recovering Audacity projects
1. Why do I get "Error: not well-formed (invalid token)
at line x"?
2. Why do I get "Error: Reference to invalid character
number at line x"?
3. Why do I get "Error importing" when opening an
AUP file?"
4. Why do I get "Error Opening File or Project: File
may be invalid or corrupted"
5. Why do I get "Error Opening Project: mismatched
tag at line x?"
6. Other errors opening projects
Apple ID respectively. Please review independent veri-
fication of the Audacity software by visiting the virusto-
tal.com search page, entering "audacity" (without quotes)
in the search box and clicking the "Search it!" button. Visit
siteadvisor.com to view the report for audacityteam.org.
Audacity is always completely free and open source
when downloaded from us. It is developed by a not-for-
profit volunteer group, and the source code is available
for anyone to study or use. Nonetheless, virus check-
ers can occasionally report false positives for the Au-
dacity installer for Windows (.exe). This can happen be-
cause Audacity uses a compressed installer. Some anti-
virus applications can also block installers if you run them
from temporary space. Try downloading the installer to
your Desktop and running it from there. If you are con-
cerned about the safety of the installer, please feel free to
download the zip version of Audacity and check that for
viruses. Please report false positives about Audacity to
the supplier of the security application so they can update
their virus definitions. Also, SmartScreen filter in recent
versions of Internet Explorer (IE) or Microsoft Edge may
complain that Audacity is not "commonly downloaded" or
say that "Windows has protected your PC" and ask you
to confirm the download. This warning is normal and
will only occur (if at all) with a new Audacity release or
download. The warning occurs because (in addition to
checking a list of known malware), IE checks a Microsoft
database of files that are "well known and downloaded
by many Internet Explorer users". For more help, please
see this SmartScreen FAQ. Please take care when down-
loading any applications from the internet. See our ad-
vice Online safety when downloading.
back to top
3.2. FAQ:ABOUT AUDACITY
3.2.3 May I distribute copies of Audacity?
You can redistribute Audacity under the GNU General
Public License, which gives you permission to modify,
copy or sell the application as long as you keep the same
license and make the source code available. We ask
vendors to give proper credit to Audacity, to add some
value to their product (for example by including video tu-
torials or openly licensed sound samples), and to offer
customers technical support. See Advice for Vendors for
details.
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3.2.4 Someone is selling Audacity on eBay.
Is this legal?
It is legal to sell Audacity, as long as the vendor makes
the application and source code available under the GNU
General Public License (GPL). If the vendor modifies Au-
dacity, our trademark requires that they call the appli-
cation something other than Audacity. See our License
page for details. Some vendors sell unmodified Audacity
under a different name, or do not give us any link or credit
for the software - this is difficult to prevent under the cur-
rent GPL. If you bought a product and later found out it
was Audacity, we encourage you to ask for a refund or
file a complaint if you feel you did not get a fair deal. See
" May I distribute copies of Audacity? " for what we expect
from Audacity vendors. If you have concerns that Audac-
ity (unmodified or otherwise) is being sold without a copy
of the GPL, or without any offer to provide source code,
please email us in confidence. If you want to obtain
Audacity on CD: Free ISO downloads and inexpensive
CDs by post containing Audacity and other open source
software are available from suppliers on our Audacity on
CD page.
back to top
3.2.5 A search result misled me into pay-
ing for an Audacity download. What
can I do?
If you search for Audacity on the internet, you will often
see "sponsored results" that are links to companies sell-
ing Audacity (or the right to access it) for money. For
example there may be a "free" download but the "small
print" will commit you to a paid subscription to buy soft-
ware or services every month. Or the company may
guarantee to supply the "very latest version" when their
version is out-of-date, or sometimes the download is re-
ally is "free" but carries spyware or viruses. You should
avoid these advertisers and only download Audacity from
https://web.audacityteam.org/ . If the advertisement is
provided by Google and does not comply with their terms
you can complain about it to Google here. "Audacity" is a
103
registered trademark in the USA and recognised as such
by Google, therefore if advertisements on Google.com in-
clude "Audacity" in the advertisement or link text you may
report this to Google. You can also complain to Google if
the advertisement did not "accurately represent the prod-
uct or service" - please tell Google in what way the ad-
vertising was not an accurate representation. If you paid
money by credit card due to a fraudulent advertisement,
you may be able to initiate a chargeback with your credit
card company. You need to show that the advertising
and website you visited was misleading. Generally you
should try to sort out a refund with the retailer first, but
often they are very hard to contact and there is a time
limit of only a few days on requesting a refund.
back to top
3.2.6 Audacity isn’t displaying in the ex-
pected or desired language. Can I
change this?
Audacity can display in many non-English languages. On
Windows, the Audacity installer sets the language Audac-
ity displays in, but otherwise the language Audacity uses
on first run is determined by the language the operating
system uses. As a result you may want to change the Au-
dacity display language. If you can read the language
Audacity is currently running in, it’s easy to change to
another language. Open the Preferences , then choose
Interface from the list on the left. Now choose the specific
language required from the "Language" box, then click
OK. Most of the Audacity interface will change language
at once, but a very few interface elements will change
next time you restart Audacity. If Audacity is running
in an unfamiliar language, please see this page in the
Manual.
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3.2.7 Will there be a version of Audacity for
iPod, iPad or other smartphones or
tablet computers?
Current versions of Audacity work internally with un-
compressed audio to permit high quality editing with
a wide range of effects. This requires more processing
power and disk space than is available on most mobile
devices. Also the wxWidgets interface library we use only
has limited support for mobile operating systems and
small screen resolutions. Therefore, considerable rewrit-
ing of Audacity and its interface will be required before
Audacity will work on portable music players like iPod,
smartphones like iPhone, tablet computers like iPad or
any of the Nexus devices running Android. However,
Audacity in principle does support a tablet PC running
Windows (including Microsoft’s "Surface with Windows 8
Pro" tablet), . Audacity will not run on the Windows RT
104
operating system which ships on devices running ARM
architecture (such as Microsoft’s Surface with Windows
RT tablet). There are many alternatives available for
lightweight recording or editing on mobile platforms:
• Android:TapeMachine Recorder
• iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad:
– VC Audio Pro
– Hokusai
– iSaidWhat?!
• Symbian:Mixx Mobile
• Windows Mobile:WavePad for CE(free).
back to top
3.2.8 Can I run Audacity on a Chromebook
laptop?
You cannot run Audacity on a Chromebook because
Audacity does not support Chrome OS. However as
Chrome OS is based on Linux it is fairly easy to install a nition software, but has some useful features for those
Chrome version of Linux Ubuntu on your Chromebook.
You can then install the Audacity package from Ubuntu’s
repository using Synaptic or the Ubuntu Software Cen-
ter, or compile Audacity yourself from our source code.
Be aware that the repository versions of Audacity 2.0.6
supplied with Ubuntu 15.04 and 15.10 are built with
a version 3 release of wxWidgets that 2.0.6 did not
support. For Ubuntu 15.04 or 15.10 you can install
a recommendable PPA of Audacity 2.1.0 or later from
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/audacity.• Audacity has many other configurable keyboard
Uninstall any repository version of Audacity you installed
before installing one of these PPA builds. Alternatively
you can install the WINE compatibility layer and run the
official Windows version of Audacity on Ubuntu. Note
that Audacity may run slower under WINE than a native
Linux build of Audacity. WINE should work fine on Intel
Chromebooks, but will not run on ARM Chromebooks,
such as the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook.
back to top
3.2.9 How accessible is Audacity for
motion- or visually-impaired users?
Audacity has numerous keyboard shortcuts which can be
customised in the Keyboard Preferences . Most of Au-
dacity can be wholly or partially used without a mouse,
with excellent keyboard navigation of the selection . A
few features currently have no keyboard alternatives, no-
tably clips , Time Tracks and the Tools Toolbar tools
except Selection Tool . Audacity works well with most
screen-reader applications on Windows (including Jaws,
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
Window-Eyes and NVDA). However a few features, no-
tably Label Tracks , are not read. We still have to improve
screen-reader support for Linux.
Unfortunately, Audacity 2.1.2 is not accessible for
users of VoiceOver, and this was also the case for the
Audacity 2.1.1 release. However, an accessible version
of Audacity 2.1.1 is available to download on the Mac
page of the Audacity website. The name of this acces-
sible version is 2.1.1-vi. It is hoped that future versions
of Audacity will be accessible for users of VoiceOver. For
more information, see Accessibility . There are useful
links to free screen readers and support resources for
the blind on our Wiki page Audacity for blind users.
back to top
3.2.10 What features does Audacity have
for speech transcription or speech
recognition?
Audacity is not specialised transcription or speech recog-
transcribing speech manually.
• You can use Transcription Toolbar to play audio
more slowly (also lowering the pitch).
• You can add labels at the playback position using
Ctrl + M (or CloverLeaf + . on Mac) then type into
the label. Use File > Export Labels... to export a
tab-delimited plain text file containing the text and
audio position of each label.
shortcuts that can be used to control playback and
editing. However as yet Audacity has no global
shortcuts that work even if you have focus in an-
other application. Some mouse gestures (not yet
configurable) can also be used.
Foot pedals: Audacity has no built-in support for foot
pedals, but if you can install a suitable driver so that the
pedal delivers mouse clicks or key strokes, Audacity can
be controlled by those. The pedal manufacturer might
be able to assist, or some pedals (for example, Vpedal
or X-keys) already come with software to map pedal but-
tons to specific keystrokes. Alternatively if your pedal is
recognised by the computer as a Game Controller or Hu-
man Interface Device, you may be able to use third-party
software such as AutoHotKey (Windows) to map pedal
buttons to keystrokes. USB Overdrive can do the same
on Mac for a USB pedal. Speech recognition: If you are
looking for software that can recognise microphone input
or speech in an audio file and convert it automatically to
a text file, see Wikipedia’s list of speech recognition soft-
ware.
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3.2. FAQ:ABOUT AUDACITY
3.2.11 Does Audacity run on 64-bit sys-
tems?
There is no 64-bit version of Audacity except on Linux
64-bit systems. However 32-bit Audacity should run fine
in principle on 64-bit systems, subject to having appro-
priate drivers for the sound device. Sufficient RAM must
be available to run Audacity smoothly and support the
greater memory requirements of 64-bit systems com-
pared to 32-bit.
Windows 64-bit
On 64-bit versions of Windows, sound device drivers spe-
cific to the 64-bit operating system are essential. If up-
grading from a 32-bit to 64-bit operating system, a 64-
bit capable computer is required, and the sound device
drivers must also be updated to a 64-bit version.
Mac 64-bit
OS X 10.6 and later support both 64-bit and 32-bit pro-
cessors equally well, with few if any issues with the sup-
plied system drivers.
GNU/Linux
If you install a 64-bit version of Linux on a 64-bit machine,
the repository build of Audacity offered via the packaging
system should normally be 64-bit. If you self-compile Au-
dacity from source code with default ./configure then you
should definitely build a 64-bit version. You can check
whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Audacity
using the file command.
back to top
3.2.12 Does Audacity support low latency
ASIO drivers?
Licensing restrictions prevent us including ASIO support
in released versions of Audacity, but Audacity can be
compiled with ASIO support for private, non-distributable
use. See ASIO Audio Interface on the Wiki for details.
105
back to top
3.2.13 How do I find which Audacity ver-
sion I have, and if this is the latest
version?
You can click Help > About Audacity...(or on a Mac
Audacity > About Audacity...) to check the version
of Audacity you’re running. Clicking Help > Check
for Updates... opens the Audacity download page
http://audacityteam.org/download/ in your browser and
displays your Audacity version number in the browser ad-
dress bar. Whenever asking for help or reporting possi-
ble bugs, please quote Audacity’s full three-section ver-
sion number (for example, 2.1.1) and your exact oper-
ating system (for example, Windows 7 64-bit). back to
top
3.2.14 Why doesn’t Audacity ship with an
MP3 encoder?
Unfortunately, the algorithm to encode or create MP3
files is patented and Audacity would not be able to in-
clude an MP3 exporting algorithm without either charging
a fee or potentially violating copyright law in some coun-
tries. As a compromise, Audacity comes with the ability
to use other MP3 encoders, which you must download
separately. It is up to you to make sure you are in com-
pliance with any licensing restrictions imposed by MP3
encoders. To install LAME, see " How do I download and
install the LAME MP3 encoder? ".
back to top
3.2.15 How can I help to improve Audac-
ity?
See this page on the main Audacity website.
back to top
> Forward To: FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plug-Ins
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
106
3.3 FAQ:Editing
> Forward To: FAQ:Errors
< Back to: FAQ:Opening and Saving Files
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.3.1 It’s Not Working!
Why can’t I use the effects or other menu items?
Many menu items and other functions are disabled while
playing or recording. To enable them, press the Stop
button . To stop playback and set the cursor where
you stopped, so playback resumes from there, you can
use the keyboard shortcut X. All effects , most Edit Menu
items and Cut, Copy, Trim and Silence in Edit Toolbar
require you to select the audio you want to change.
• To select a specific region of audio, click and drag
with the Selection tool enabled so as to highlight
the selected track.
• To select all the audio in the project, choose Select
> All or its shortcut Ctrl + A.
• You can Pause during playback or recording then
use effect and other menu items, which will stop
the audio stream.
• If you choose an effect or other menu item requir-
ing a selection without making a selection, Audac-
ity will, by default, select all the audio in the project.
You can disable this behavior in the Tracks Prefer-
ences by unchecking Select all audio in project,
if none selected but menu items requiring a selec-
tion will then be grayed out if there is no selection.
• If you Pause while Scrubbing or Seeking menu
commands are greyed out for now.
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Why can’t I select less than one second or click be-
tween whole seconds ?
Change " Snap To " in Selection Toolbar to "Off". If Snap
To is set to "Nearest" or "Prior", the selection edges or
cursor will be force-snapped to an exact time unit (for ex-
ample, whole seconds) or to the nearest sample or
media frame, according to the selection format chosen
in Selection Toolbar. "Nearest" or "Prior" determines
respectively whether the nearest or previous time unit,
sample or frame is snapped to.
If Snap To is set to "Nearest" or "Prior", selection
format set to seconds and you are zoomed in with less
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
than one second of track visible, you will not be able to
click or select in the track until you zoom out or set Snap
To to "Off".
back to top
Why do I hear clicks when I remove or paste audio,
or at the start or end of the track?
Clicks where audio is removed or pasted may be caused
by DC offset in the waveform or by poor selection of the
edit points. DC offset may also cause a click at the start
or end of the track, even if you do not edit the audio before
exporting . Make it part of your workflow to use the Nor-
malize effect with "Remove any DC offset" checked as
soon as audio is recorded or imported. You can set the
Import / Export Preferences to run Normalize automati-
cally on all the project tracks when importing any audio
file. When removing or pasting audio, Select > Region
> Ends to Zero Crossings can be used to move the cur-
sor point or selection boundaries to a safe position where
the audio samples are at silence. This works very ef-
fectively on mono tracks. In stereo tracks, zero crossing
points may be in a different place on the left and right
channels, so Find Zero Crossings may still leave a click
in one of the channels. Splitting a stereo track to left and
right channels then finding zero crossings on each chan-
nel will not help, because the cut or paste must be in the
same place on each channel to keep synchronization.
The solution is to take care where edit points are posi-
tioned in stereo tracks. For example, zoom in then try to
place the selection edges or cursor point where there is
silence, or at the onset of a strong beat (which will mask
any click). If none of these solutions are available, you
can fix a click by whichever of the following methods pro-
duces the best-sounding result:
• Use the Repair effect
• Apply a short linear fade in to the click
• Edit > Duplicate the selection to a new track un-
derneath, then crossfade the joins so they sound
seamless.
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3.3.2 I’d Like To...
How do I select audio in one track?
See Audacity Selection for an extended overview of the
principles of selecting audio.
• How do I select audio in one track using the
mouse?
3.3. FAQ:EDITING
– Make sure Selection Tool from Tools
Toolbar is selected, or press F1 on your key-
board. Left-click to place the cursor on the
track’s waveform , keep holding the left mouse
button, drag the mouse in either direction then
release the button. Zoom in if you need to see
from left to right in more detail.
• How do I expand or contract an existing selec-
tion using the mouse?
– Hover over either selection edge. When the
mouse pointer changes to a pointing finger,
hold down the left mouse button and drag in
either direction. Release the button when the
edge is in the correct position.
– It is often quicker instead to hold Shift then left-
click and hold the button at the point to which
you want to move the selection edge. Then
drag to fine tune the edge position and release
when satisfied. When contracting a selection,
hold Shift and click inside that selection to left
of center to move the left edge, or click to right
of center to move the right edge.
• How can I select and modify selections using
the keyboard instead?
1. If necessary, use Up or Down arrow on the key-
board to give focus to the track, then Enter to select
it.
2. Press J to move to the start of the track, then use
Shift + . to seek (move the cursor) 15 seconds to
right or . to seek one second to right. Or press
K to move to the end of the track and use comma
instead of period in the shortcut to seek left. The
seek lengths can be changed in Playback Prefer-
ences . When not playing the track, Left or Right
nudge the cursor in that direction by one screen
pixel.
3. When the cursor is in the correct position, use Shift
+ Right to expand the selection rightwards or Shift
+ Left to expand leftwards. Ctrl + Shift + Left con-
tracts the selection from the right and Ctrl + Shift +
Right contracts from the left.
Alternatively, use Selection Toolbar to place the selection
accurately without the need to zoom in.
• Is there a quick way to select from the cursor to
start or end?
– Select from cursor to track start: Choose
Select > Region > Track Start to Cursor or use
the Shift + J shortcut.
– Select from cursor to track end: Choose
Select > Region > Cursor to Track End or use
the Shift + K shortcut.
107
– Select from cursor to project start: Hold the
Shift key and click on the Skip to Start but-
ton. Alternatively, use the Shift + Home short-
cut. This may be useful if one more of your
tracks do not start at time zero.
– Select from cursor to project end: Hold the
Shift key and click on the Skip to End but-
ton. Alternatively, use the Shift + End short-
cut. This may be useful if your tracks are of
unequal length.
See also:
• How do I extend or move the selected region to
make it display in other tracks?
back to top
How do I extend or move the selected region into
other tracks?
A selection is always shown on the Timeline , but the se-
lection only exists in a track when that track is selected.
For example, you may want to extend the selected re-
gion up or down into more than one track, which lets you
edit the selection in all those tracks at the same time. To
make that selection display in other tracks, you have to
change which tracks are selected.
• To extend the selected region up or down into
other tracks: Hover over either selection edge.
When the mouse pointer changes to a pointing fin-
ger, hold down the left mouse button then drag di-
rectly up or down into an adjacent track. If you
also want to extend or contract the selection to left
or right, you can drag left or right before releas-
ing the button.If you do not want to change the se-
lection length, there is no need to drag. Hold Ctrl
(or CloverLeaf on Mac) while clicking on the Track
Control Panel to left of the waveform to include that
track in the selection, thereby extending the selec-
tion into it. In some cases it can be quicker to click
in a track’s Track Control Panel to select it then hold
Shift and click another track’s Track Control Panel to
select all tracks between and including the tracks
you clicked.
– Keyboard users can include tracks in the se-
lection by using Up or Down to change the
track that has the yellow focus border, followed
by Enter to select that track. Hold Shift while
pressing Up or Down to extend the selection
up or down adjacent tracks.
• To move the selected region into other tracks:
Extend the selection as above into all the tracks
which you want to contain the selection. Then hold
Ctrl (or CloverLeaf on Mac) and click on the Track
Control Panel of the track or tracks from which you
108
were moving the selection, so as to deselect those
tracks.
– Keyboard users can press Up or Down to
move the focus to the track from which the se-
lection is to be removed, then press Enter.
Extending or moving the selected region into other tracks
only determines if the selected region appears in a track.
It does not move the audio content of the selection. To
copy or move the content of a selection, use Edit > Copy
or Edit > Cut then Edit > Paste .See also:
• How do I select audio in one track?
back to top
How do I combine two files into one longer file?
Follow these steps to splice two files together:
1. Use File > Import > Audio... to import both files into
separate Audacity tracks one above the other
2. Select the second file by clicking above the
Mute/Solo buttons on its Track Control Panel
(where the sample rate in Hz is shown)
3. Choose Select > Region > Ends to Zero Crossings
4. Choose Edit > Cut
5. Place the cursor at the end of the first track by click-
ing in it then pressing K
6. Choose Edit > Paste
7. Optionally, click the X track close button top left of
the Track Control Panel on the tracks you cut the
audio from.
A time-saving alternative if you have many tracks to com-
bine is to choose Select > All , then Tracks > Align Tracks
> Align End to End . This aligns the selected tracks one
after the other so they follow the Timeline . If it’s more
convenient to make the result into one Audacity track, you
can then choose Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render .Press
the green "Play" button to hear the result, and use the
File > Save Other > Export Audio... command to save it
as an audio file.
back to top
How do I mix two tracks together?
To mix two files, import both of them into Audacity. They
will appear in separate tracks. When you press the Play
button, you’ll hear both tracks play together. Because
this adds the sounds together, the end result may be-
come too loud and distorted. To fix this, turn down the
-...+ gain sliders on each track until you see no clipping
light on the Playback Meter . Use the L...R pan sliders
to adjust the spatial position of each track in the mix. You
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
can also use View > Mixer Board... to display the controls
for each track together in a separate window. When you
use File > Save Other > Export Audio... , the tracks will
be automatically mixed to an audio file for use in other
applications. If you want to mix tracks together explic-
itly before export, so that they are replaced with a single
mixed track, select the tracks, then Tracks > Mix > Mix
and Render . For more details, see Mixing Audio Tracks .
back to top
Can I remove the vocals from a recording to make a
Karaoke track?
This is only possible for certain stereo tracks. When the
vocals are exactly the same on both stereo channels, you
can remove them by “subtracting” one channel from the
other. This works for recordings where the vocal track is
mixed exactly in the center and stereo reverberation has
not been added. See this tutorial: Vocal Removal and
Isolation .
back to top
Can I create Ringtones or IVR messages with Audac-
ity?
See this tutorial in the Manual: Making Ringtones and
IVR messages .
IVR stands for Interactive Voice Response, a technology
that allows a computer to interact with humans through
the use of voice and DTMF tones input via keypad. back
to top
Why do I see a lot of vertical red lines in the track I
just recorded?
This happens when you have an oversaturated record-
ing, where clipping has occurred, that is, the signal has
exceeded the maximum allowed level. The vertical red
lines show where clipping has happened. The clipping
indicators can be turned on and off (Audacity’s default
setting is "off") by selecting View > Show Clipping . See
the Audacity Waveform page for more explanation of how
the waveform is displayed.
back to top
Can Audacity preview or apply effects live, in real-
time?
LADSPA , LV2 , VST and Audio Unit (Mac only) effects
support real-time preview of effects . Only a few shipped
effects support real-time preview but we hope to extend
this to more effects in due course. Audacity cannot yet
3.4. FAQ:ERRORS
apply effects in real-time while recording or while oth-
erwise writing data to the project. Advanced users can
apply effects to recordings in real-time by applying the
effects in a VST host and routing the effect output to be
recorded by Audacity. See this Forum topic and ask on
the Forum if you need any help.
back to top
How do I convert a stereo track to mono, or mono to
stereo?
Use Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo down to Mono . This con-
verts the selected stereo track(s) into the same number
of mono tracks, combining left and right channels equally.
This command is not available for stereo tracks split into
left and right channels. Stereo Track to Mono mixes the
two channels together then reduces the volume of the
mix by -6 dB (halves the volume) to produce an aver-
age of the two channels. Therefore if one channel of the
stereo track is louder than the other, the peak volume of
3.4 FAQ:Errors
> Forward To: FAQ:Errors on opening or recovering an
Audacity project
< Back to: FAQ:Editing
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.4.1 Why do I get "Error opening sound
device"?
This error message asks you to check the recording or
playback device settings and the Audacity project sam-
ple rate . If the message mentions "recording device",
it means there’s a problem with your Audacity, operat-
ing system or sound device recording settings. If the
message mentions "playback device", it means there is a
problem with your playback settings. Either message can
suggest a problem with the drivers of the sound device,
or possibly that you are asking the device to do some-
thing it cannot do. For example you will see this error if
you attempt to Record to more channels than your de-
vice supports, or if you try to overdub on a device that
can either record or play back but not both. The record-
ing device message most commonly occurs on Windows
when one of the sound device inputs is not properly en-
abled or otherwise cannot respond to Audacity’s request
to start recording. For details of how to fix this please see
Error opening sound device .
back to top
109
the resulting mono track will be reduced. The resulting
track will never clip if the original stereo track does not.
Alternatively you can use Split Stereo to Mono from the
Audio Track Dropdown Menu in the Track Control Panel
to create separate mono tracks for each channel. If you
want to discard one faulty or noisy channel entirely, use
the X button top left of the track, or select the track then
choose Tracks > Remove Tracks . Split Stereo to Mono
can also be useful if you are making a mix of multiple
tracks. You have more control using the Pan Sliders on
mono tracks than if you use the Track Dropdown Menu
to Split Stereo Track to left and right channels. There is
no general audio benefit in converting a mono track to
stereo. A mono track will already play on both speakers
of a stereo player. If you want to add an illusion of stereo
space and depth, try this Pseudo-Stereo plug-in.
back to top
> Forward To: FAQ:Errors
< Back to: FAQ:Opening and Saving Files
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.4.2 Why do I get "FFmpeg Error -
Can’t open audio codec 0x15002" (or
0x15003)?
Error 0x15002 occurs if you export more than a 2-
channel M4A file (such as a 5.1 surround sound file), us-
ing the "M4A (AAC) Files (FFmpeg)" export choice. To
correct the error and export up to 8 channels, choose
(external application) and specify a command that tells
Audacity to explicitly use the native FFmpeg AAC en-
coder. Error 0x15003 occurs if you export more than
a 6-channel AC3 file. Six channels is the maximum pos-
sible for AC3.
back to top
3.4.3 Why does the computer reboot or
show a blue screen message when I
launch Audacity or play or record?
This mostly affects Windows computers. It happens
when your computer sound device has a bad or mis-
matched driver or there is a problem with a system driver
that interacts with that sound device. Even if the prob-
lem occurs after updating to the latest Audacity version,
it still is not Audacity’s direct fault because Audacity does
not have kernel privileges to make the computer restart.
Inappropriate drivers can also cause Audacity to crash
110
during playback or recording, without necessarily crash-
ing the computer. The best practice is to make sure the
computer’s built-in sound device has the latest drivers for
your operating system, supplied by the motherboard or
computer manufacturer. For a PCI or external soundcard,
obtain the latest drivers and firmware supplied by the
manufacturer of the device. See Updating Sound Device
Drivers on the Wiki for help with correcting driver issues.
If playback or recording worked previously, but the sound
device drivers are appropriate or cannot be changed to
a version that prevents the problem, try Windows Sys-
tem Restore to revert the computer to a state before the
problem occurred. If necessary the exact driver or mod-
ule causing a computer crash can be pinpointed on Win-
dows by examining the memory dump made when the
crash occurred. You can find the dump by right-clicking
over My Computer or Computer > Properties, then click
the "Advanced" link or tab, and under "Startup and Re-
covery", choose "Settings...". WhoCrashed is a Windows
tool that makes it easy to identify the driver or module at
fault. Another good idea is to test the computer’s memory
for errors (see help for Windows and Mac). Faulty mem-
ory can sometimes cause computer freezes or crashes.
If your best available soundcard drivers prove to be in-
compatible with current Audacity, we may not be able to
take any direct action, but do let us know:
• the exact make and model number of the sound de-
vice
• the exact driver and firmware model numbers
• the exact operating system you are using, including
the Service Pack if you are on Windows.
back to top
3.4.4 "I found a bug! now what?"
The most important things when reporting a bug are to be
as specific as possible and check first in the Release
Notes if we already know about the problem. If the bug is
not known about, please give us enough information that
we can reproduce the bug ourselves on the correct oper-
ating system. Otherwise it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to
fix it.
3.5 FAQ:Errors on opening or recovering an Audacity project
< Back to: FAQ:Errors
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions This page deals
with errors that you may encounter when opening or re-
covering an Audacity project .Most of these errors are
caused by malformed or broken .aup files.
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
Please include the following essential informa-
tion in your report:
• Your exact three-section version number of Audac-
ity (for example, 2.0.0) - you can check this at Help
> About Audacity or Audacity > About Audacity on
a Mac computer
• The exact operating system you are using (for ex-
ample, Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Mac OS X
10.6.8, Linux Ubuntu 11.10)
• Any other information about your computer and its
audio connections that might be relevant (for exam-
ple, 2 GB RAM, 2.2 GHz, M-Audio Fast Track USB
interface).
If you can make the problem happen consistently, tell us
the exact sequence of events, step-by-step from launch
of Audacity that causes the bug to occur. If you see an
error message, be sure to send us the exact text of the
error message, or attach an image. If you are on Mac or
Linux a crash report is useful too. When you have your
bug report ready, please email our feedback address.
back to top
3.4.5 "Feature X is not good enough or is
missing"
You can also send your ideas for new or improved fea-
tures to our feedback address. Again, be as specific as
possible, and feel free to suggest your preferred way of
achieving the functionality you desire. If you are a regu-
lar visitor to our Forum, you can instead post your sug-
gestions on the Adding Features to Audacity board. If
you are a C++ programmer, you can send us a patch or
preferably a Git pull request for the bug fix or new feature.
Thanks for all your reports, suggestions and patches! All
of these help us make Audacity better. back to top
> Forward To: FAQ:Errors on opening or recovering an
Audacity project
< Back to: FAQ:Editing
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.5.1 Error Opening Project: not well-
formed (invalid token) at line x
This usually means that when reopening the AUP project
file normally, Audacity finds an unexpected non-English,
accented or control character at the line quoted in the
3.5. FAQ:ERRORS ON OPENING OR RECOVERING AN AUDACITY PROJECT
error message. There are two main causes of this.
• The project contains imported files whose meta-
data (like artist or genre) contains control char-
acters. This mostly occurs with iTunes files on Mac
where the project was created in an older version
of Audacity.
• The project was saved containing non-English or
accented characters using an old ANSI build of
Audacity for Windows. ANSI builds are not prop-
erly Unicode aware, so do not support non-English
or accented characters.
– The latest version of Audacity will always fully
support Unicode. You can check your Audac-
ity version at Help > About Audacity... (or Au-
dacity > About Audacity on Mac).
If Audacity or the computer crashed, Audacity will try to
recover the project from its AUTOSAVE file, but the crash
may have created a redundant line near the end of the
file that triggers the token error. Very occasionally, the
AUP file may become corrupted by one or more redun-
dant lines, giving a token error even if there was no ap-
parent crash. To correct this, see remove redundant lines
in an AUTOSAVE or AUP file . For details of how to fix
this please see Error: not well-formed (invalid token) at
line x
back to top
3.5.2 Error Opening Project: Reference to
invalid character number at line x
This error message usually means that when reopening
the AUP project file normally, Audacity finds an unex-
pected non-English, accented or control character at the
line quoted in the error message. There are three main
causes of this.
• The project contains imported files whose meta-
data contains symbols that Audacity cannot display.
This may create either the "(invalid token)" or "in-
valid character number" error
• The project was saved containing non-English or
accented characters using an old ANSI build of
Audacity for Windows. ANSI builds are not prop-
erly Unicode aware, so do not support non-English
or accented characters.
– The latest version of Audacity will always fully
support Unicode. You can check your Audac-
ity version at Help > About Audacity... (or Au-
dacity > About Audacity on Mac).
For details of how to fix this please see Error Opening
Project: Reference to invalid character number at line x .
back to top
111
3.5.3 Error Importing: aup is an Audacity
Project file. Use the File > Open com-
mand
This error usually occurs because you have attempted to
open an Audacity project by using the Import command
(which is reserved for audio files). Instead, you should
always use File > Open... to open an AUP ( Audacity
Project ) file. If you see "Error Importing" even when us-
ing File > Open..., this usually means the AUP file is seri-
ously damaged, has been encoded other than as UTF-8
without BOM, or only contains NULL (zero) data. NULL
contentsThe contents are NULL and unusable if you
open the AUP file in a text editor like Notepad or TextEdit
(on Mac) and see empty contents despite the file being
a non-zero size. The AUP file is saved last, so a NULL
AUP file can occur if you shut down the computer or close
the lid on a laptop before the project is completely saved.
Be sure to wait until the Audacity Status Bar says the
project is saved, or until all project save progress dia-
logues have closed, before shutting down the machine.
If the AUP file appears empty, try to use any backup you
created, such a different AUP file for an earlier stage of
the project, or an exported WAV file. Failing this, you
can try manual recovery of the project’s _data folder, but
this only works for unedited recordings. File not saved
as UTF-8 without BOMUsing Notepad on Windows to
save an AUP file containing Unicode characters as UTF-
8 will create this problem because Notepad adds a BOM.
To solve it, open the file in Notepad++, choose Encoding
> Convert to UTF-8 then save the file. Old versions of
Notepad ++ may refer to the required command as Con-
vert to UTF-8 without BOM. If the problem occurred af-
ter editing the AUP file in TextEdit on Mac, resave the file
as text in Brackets or BBEdit.
back to top
3.5.4 Error Opening File or Project: File
may be invalid or corrupted
This error is seen if the file is completely empty (0 kB) or
for some cases of partial corruption of the file syntax. If
the file is 0 kB, try to use any backup you created, such
a different AUP file for an earlier stage of the project, or
an exported WAV file. Failing this, you can try manual
recovery of the project’s _data folder, but this only works
for unedited recordings. If the file is non-zero size, you
can try backing up the AUP file to another location, then
open the file in Notepad++ for Windows (or Brackets or
BBEdit for Mac) and examine if the syntax of the file is
consistent and if the file is complete as expected. Com-
pare with a known good AUP file to see what the AUP
contents should look like.
back to top
112
3.5.5 Error Opening Project: mismatched
tag at line x
This error usually means that for some reason, an
opened tag in the XML did not have the same name as
the tag that was opened, or a nested tag (inside the tag)
was not closed correctly. Examples: Wrong - the clos-
ing tag is "tag" instead of "tags" to match the tag that
was opened:
• junk after document element at line x
<tags> <tag name="ARTIST" value="Elton"/></tag>Wrong
- the closing "/" after "Elton" is missing: The best advice in these cases is to examine the line
quoted carefully, and don’t manually edit the AUP file un-
less it is unavoidable.
<tags> <tag name="ARTIST" value="Elton"></tags>Correct!
back to top
<tags> <tag name="ARTIST" value="Elton"/></tags>
back to top
3.6 Error: not well-formed (invalid token) at line x
This error message usually means that when reopening
the AUP project file normally, Audacity finds an unex-
pected non-English, accented or control character at the
line quoted in the error message. There are two main
causes of this.
• The project contains imported files whose meta-
data (like artist or genre) contains control char-
acters. This mostly occurs with iTunes files on Mac
where the project was created in an older version
of Audacity.
• The project was saved containing non-English or
accented characters using an old ANSI build of
Audacity for Windows. ANSI builds are not prop-
erly Unicode aware, so do not support non-English
or accented characters.
– The latest version of Audacity will always fully
support Unicode. You can check your Audac-
ity version at Help > About Audacity... (or Au-
dacity > About Audacity on Mac).
If Audacity or the computer crashed, Audacity will try to
recover the project from its AUTOSAVE file, but the crash
may have created a redundant line near the end of the
file that triggers the token error. Very occasionally, the
AUP file may become corrupted by one or more redun-
dant lines, giving a token error even if there was no ap-
parent crash. To correct this, see remove redundant lines
in an AUTOSAVE or AUP file .
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
3.5.6 Other errors opening project
There are a number of other errors that you might see re-
lating to the syntax of the AUP file not being quite correct,
such as:
• unclosed token at line x (for example, the final
</project> tag is missing its ending ">"
• no element found at line x (for example, the fi-
nal </project> tag is missing in an otherwise correct
file)
< Back to: FAQ:Errors
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.6.1 Solution for error caused by control
characters
1. Make a copy of the AUP project file and open it in
a text editor. You can use the default Notepad on
Windows or TextEdit on Mac, but in a few instances
these could change the AUP file in such a way that
Audacity could no longer open it. We recommend
instead Notepad++ for Windows and Brackets or
BBEdit for Mac.
2. Turn word wrap off in the menus (or in TextEdit,
drag the window horizontally so that lines do not
wrap).
3. In the line indicated in the error message, look for
one of these:
•
• projname=
• name=
• value=
• title=
then remove all characters inside the quotation
marks that follow which are not a number or an
A to Z letter. You could also change those char-
acters to a number or A to Z letter. For example, a
string of control characters you would want to re-
move or change might start with &# followed by
3.6. ERROR: NOT WELL-FORMED (INVALID TOKEN) AT LINE X
four numbers and a semi-colon, such as &# 0
0 1 3 ;.
4. Save the changes to the .aup file.
5. If you re-open the project and an error occurs at
another line, repeat the steps above in the new line
indicated in the error message.
Here is a real-world example of a corrupt line in the
GENRE tag in a project where "Drama" and "Comedy"
were incorrectly separated using the control character
for a horizontal tab, also missing the closing semi-colon:
<tag name="GENRE" value="Drama &# 0 0 0 9 Com-
edy"/>And the same line corrected so that the two words
can be read into the project: <tag name="GENRE"
value="Drama, Comedy"/> "Drama 0009 Comedy",
though meaningless, would also enable the project to be
opened correctly.
If you had to rename "projname" in the AUP file,
rename both the AUP project file and the corresponding
_data folder so that they have the same name as "proj-
name" in the AUP file.
3.6.2 Solution to correct an AUP file cre-
ated in an ANSI version of Audacity,
preserving non-English characters
1. Make a copy of the file
2. Open the file in Notepad++ (a free text editor that
supports UTF-8 encoding of Unicode characters)
3. Choose Encoding > Convert to UTF-8 without BOM
4. Save the changes to the file.
3.6.3 Solution to remove redundant lines
in an AUTOSAVE recovery file or AUP
file
If you have an AUP file with a token error not solvable by
deleting invalid characters, try checking for and deleting
any empty lines or duplicate </project> lines as per steps
5 through 8 below.
1. Find the autosave file. It will be in an "AutoSave"
folder in Audacity’s folder for application data as fol-
lows:
• Windows: Users
<username>
AppData
Roaming
Audacity
113
• OS X/macOS ~/Library/Application Sup-
port/audacity/
• Linux: ~/.audacity-data/ .
2. Make a copy of the AUTOSAVE file as a backup
and move the copy somewhere else such as your
Desktop.
3. If the AUTOSAVE file was created by Audacity 2.1.1
or later, it must be converted to XML format before
it can be edited in a text editor. Follow the steps to
convert the AUTOSAVE file to XML then return to
step 4 below.
4. Open the AUTOSAVE file in a text editor like
Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac).
5. Turn word wrap off in the menus (or in TextEdit,
drag the window horizontally so that lines do not
wrap).
6. Go to the line indicated in the error message. If
you had been recording, the last line above it will
probably look like </recordingrecovery>.
7. We need to delete the entire line. It may be a
long line containing only empty spaces or it may
have </project> at the end of all the spaces. Hold
Shift and press Down to select the entire line be-
fore pressing Delete. Ensure this leaves you with a
final line that contains only </project>. Ensure this
is the only line that contains </project>.
8. Save the changes to the file.
Converting the AUTOSAVE file to XML
Exit Audacity before attempting these steps. Win-
dows
1. In the AutoSave folder, right-click the AUTOSAVE
file and choose "Cut".
2. Go to the folder Audacity is installed in, such as "C:
Program Files (x86)
Audacity", then right-click in empty space and
choose "Paste". Provide the administrator pass-
word if asked.
3. Open an administrator command prompt. On Win-
dows Vista or Windows 7, click Windows Start, go
to All applications > Accessories, then right-click
the Command Prompt shortcut and select "Run as
Administrator". Or see instructions for Windows 8
or Windows 10.
4. Assuming the prompt in the command window
shows some location in C:
and Audacity is installed in some location in C:
, type "cd" (without quotes) then a space. If Au-
dacity is on some other drive than the prompt indi-
cates, type the name of that drive letter and a colon
114
(such as D:), press Enter, and then type "cd" (with-
out quotes) then a space.
5. Go up one level in Explorer then drag the icon for
the Audacity installation folder into the command
window. The path "C:
Program Files (x86)
Audacity" (or whatever it is) will appear. Press En-
ter to change the prompt to the path you dragged
in.
6. At the end of the path, type "audacity" (without
quotes), a space, then "/d" (also without quotes),
another space, then drag the AUTOSAVE file into
the command window. Here is what an example
should look like:
C:
Program Files (x86)
Audacity> audacity /d "C:
Program Files (x86)
Audacity
My Project - 2015-07-01 14-12-35 N-2.autosave"
7. Press Enter. You can see in Explorer that the AU-
TOSAVE file has been updated.
8. Now you can cut the AUTOSAVE file from the Au-
dacity installation folder, and paste it into the Au-
toSave folder. Now you can make corrections to
the file in a text editor.
Mac OS X/macOS:
1. In the AutoSave folder, right-click or Control-click
the AUTOSAVE file and choose the option to Copy.
2. Go to the folder Audacity.app is installed in, such as
/Applications/Audacity, hold CloverLeaf and Option
then press V to move the AUTOSAVE file alongside
Audacity.
3. Right-click over Audacity.app then choose "Show
Package Contents".
4. Open the "Contents" folder then the "Mac OS"
folder.
5. Open a Terminal then drag the Audacity file in the
"Mac OS" folder into the terminal to display the path
3.7 Error Opening Project: Reference to invalid character number at line x
This error message usually means that when reopening
the AUP project file normally, Audacity finds an unex-
pected non-English, accented or control character at the
line quoted in the error message. There are three main
causes of this.
• The project contains imported files whose meta-
data contains symbols that Audacity cannot display.
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
to that Audacity file.
6. Then at the end of the file path, type a space, "-d"
(without quotes) and another space then drag the
AUTOSAVE file into the Terminal.
7. Press Enter to convert the file. You will see a mes-
sage that the file has been decoded successfully.
8. In the "Mac OS" folder, right-click or Control-click
the AUTOSAVe file and choose the option to Copy.
9. Go to the "AutoSave" folder, hold CloverLeaf and
Option then press V to move the converted AU-
TOSAVE file back into the AutoSave folder. Now
you can make corrections to the file in a text editor.
GNU/Linux:
1. Open a terminal.
2. Assuming Audacity is installed, type "audacity -d"
(without quotes) then a space, then type the path
to the AUTOSAVE file (or drag the AUTOSAVE file
into the terminal). Here is an example:
audacity -d "home/al/.audacity-data/AutoSave/My
Project - 2015-07-01 14-12-35 N-2.autosave"
3. Press Enter to convert the file. You will see a mes-
sage that the file has been decoded successfully.
Now you can make corrections to the file in a text
editor.
If none of the above helps to correct the invalid token
error, you can:
• Ask for help on the Audacity Forum and attach the
AUP or autosave file.
• Try to recover the project manually , if it is an
unedited recording.
Problem still there? It probably means there is a spe-
cific problem with the syntax of the tags in the AUP file.
Copy the AUP file to another location, then open the file
in Notepad++ for Windows and Brackets or BBEdit for
Mac and examine if the tags of the file enclosed in angle
brackets < > are consistently open and closed and are
complete.
This may create either the "(invalid token)" or "in-
valid character number" error
• The project was saved containing non-English or
accented characters using an old ANSI build of
Audacity for Windows. ANSI builds are not prop-
erly Unicode aware, so do not support non-English
or accented characters.
3.8. ERROR OPENING SOUND DEVICE
– The latest version of Audacity will always fully
support Unicode. You can check your Audac-
ity version at Help > About Audacity... (or Au-
dacity > About Audacity on Mac).
Solution:
1. Make a copy of the AUP project file and open it in
a text editor. You can use the default Notepad on
Windows or TextEdit on Mac, but in a few instances
these could change the AUP file in such a way that
Audacity could no longer open it. We recommend
instead Notepad++ for Windows and Brackets or
BBEdit for Mac.
2. Turn word wrap off in the menus (or in TextEdit,
drag the window horizontally so that lines do not
wrap).
3. In the line indicated in the error message, look for
one of these:
• the two words can be read into the project: <tag
• projname=
• name=
• value=
• title=
3.8 Error opening sound device
This error message asks you to check the recording or
playback device settings and the Audacity project sam-
ple rate . If the message mentions "recording device",
it means there’s a problem with your Audacity, operat-
ing system or sound device recording settings. If the
message mentions "playback device", it means there is a
problem with your playback settings. Either message can
suggest a problem with the drivers of the sound device,
or possibly that you are asking the device to do some-
thing it cannot do. For example you will see this error if
you attempt to Record to more channels than your de-
vice supports, or if you try to overdub on a device that
can either record or play back but not both.
The recording device message most commonly occurs
on Windows when one of the sound device inputs is not
properly enabled or otherwise cannot respond to Audac-
ity’s request to start recording.
3.8.1 Check Audacity Settings
It may be a good idea to try to play or record after check-
ing or changing each of the following Audacity settings.
115
then remove all characters inside the quotation
marks that follow which are not a number or an
A to Z letter. You could also change those char-
acters to a number or A to Z letter. For example, a
string of control characters you would want to re-
move or change might start with &# followed by
four numbers and a semi-colon, such as &# 0
0 1 3 ;. For symbols there will usually be five char-
acters between the &# and a colon.
4. Save the changes to the .aup file.
5. If you re-open the project and an error occurs at
another line, repeat the steps above in the new line
indicated in the error message.
Here is a real-world example of a corrupt line in the
GENRE tag in a project where "Country" and "West-
ern" were incorrectly separated using the control char-
acter for a horizontal tab, also missing the closing semi-
colon: <tag name="GENRE" value="Country &# 0 0
0 9 Western"/>And the same line corrected so that
name="GENRE" value="Country, Western"/>
If you had to rename "projname" in the AUP file,
rename both the AUP project file and the corresponding
_data folder so that they have the same name as "proj-
name" in the AUP file.
Sometimes a project rate change is all that is needed.
• Set the project rate bottom left of the Audacity win-
dow to the standard rate of 44100 Hz (or if your
soundcard only supports a particular rate such as
48000 Hz, set the project rate to that). Help > Di-
agnostics > Audio Device Info... should show the
rates the device claims to support.
• Try turning off Transport > Transport Options > Soft-
ware Playthrough (on/off) (this should never be en-
abled if recording computer playback ).
• Try turning off Transport > Transport Options >
Overdub (on/off) because recording while playing
could stress your sound device or computer. If this
solves the problem, read the Wiki pages Updating
Sound Device Drivers and Managing Computer Re-
sources and Drivers for advice on how to make your
sound device or computer more capable.
• Check in Device Toolbar that the playback and
recording devices are correctly and explicitly se-
lected.
– On Windows, do not choose "Microsoft Sound
116
Mapper" or "Primary Sound Driver" which
point to the current Windows default device;
choose the required device by name. Try se-
lecting "Windows Direct Sound" as the "Host"
instead of "MME".
3.8.2 Check operating system settings
• Windows: Follow the Wiki instructions for Win-
dows to configure the Windows sound settings.
The key points are:
– Ensure all available inputs are listed and
enabled in the Windows Control Panel.
– Additionally for Windows: Ensure Default
Format for the playback and recording devices
contains the same sample rate and number of
recording channels as in Audacity.
* Very rarely, it can help to use 16-bit or
24-bit Default Format then change the Au-
dacity Quality Preferences to that sample
format.
* If necessary, put a checkmark in both Ex-
clusive Mode boxes then set the "Host" in
Audacity’s Device Toolbar to "Windows Di-
rectSound" and choose a project rate that
your playback and recording devices sup-
port. Audacity can then request that rate
directly from the sound device.
• Mac: In Finder, choose Go > Utilities > Audio MIDI
Setup.app. In "Audio Devices", select in turn the re-
quired Recording and Playback devices. Set "For-
mat" to the same sample rate , bit-depth and num-
ber of recording channels as in Audacity.
• Linux:
While troubleshooting, ensure that Transport > Transport
Options > Software Playthrough (on/off) is off. Only en-
able this option if you really need it, after you have estab-
lished that Audacity is recording correctly.
1. In the first instance, try refreshing Audacity’s list of
audio devices at Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
then select the default option in Device Toolbar . If
the error still occurs, recheck the Audacity settings
. control panel the sound device may have.
2. It is possible that another application may have ex-
clusive access to the audio device. Try logging out
and back in again, then re-check the Audacity set-
tings before opening any other application that may
use the audio device.
• If pulse is an option in Device Toolbar, en-
sure that you have Pulse Audio Volume Con-
trol (pavucontrol) installed. If it is not installed,
use your system’s package manager to install
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
it. Open Pulse Audio Volume Control and
check that there is an available output device.
• If Jack Audio System is running on the com-
puter, ensure that it is selected as the Host in
Device Toolbar.
3. Open the system Sound Preferences and check
that a recording device is available. Sound Prefer-
ences is often available through a loudspeaker icon
on the Desktop, Desktop panel, or in the system
Preferences menu.
4. Open AlsaMixer (type alsamixer in a terminal win-
dow) and check the soundcard and recording de-
vice settings. To view the AlsaMixer manual, type
man alsamixer in a terminal window.
3.8.3 Check sound device drivers and
firmware
The computer’s built-in sound device should usually have
the latest drivers for your operating system, supplied by
the motherboard or computer manufacturer. A PCI or ex-
ternal soundcard should usually have the latest drivers
and firmware supplied by the manufacturer of the device.
See Updating Sound Device Drivers on the Wiki for help
with correcting driver issues.
3.8.4 Check PCI card or external sound de-
vice settings and connections
If you use a high-end PCI soundcard or external USB
or Firewire interface, you must make the sample rate,
bit-depth and number of input channels the same in
all possible places. This is especially important if you
are recording Multi-Track Overdubs where you play and
record at the same time. Settings must match in:
• the Audacity Project Rate
• the track(s) in Audacity (to resample tracks to the
Project Rate, select each track in turn then choose
Tracks > Resample... ).
• all inputs and outputs in the operating system
sound control panel or application
• all inputs and outputs in any software or hardware
Make sure the device is connected properly. "Error
opening sound device..." will occur if the device becomes
disconnected during an Audacity session and you then
try to play or record. Reconnect the device then choose
Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
3.8.5 Links
|< FAQ:Errors
3.9. FAQ:INSTALLATION, STARTUP AND PLUG-INS
3.9 FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plug-ins
> Forward To: FAQ:Recording - Troubleshooting
< Back to: FAQ:About Audacity
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.9.1 How do I install and update Audac-
ity?
• Windows: See Installing and updating Audacity on
Windows
• Mac: See Installing and updating Audacity on Mac
• GNU/Linux: See Installing and updating Audacity
on Linux
back to top
3.9.2 How do I uninstall Audacity?
Note that there is no need to uninstall your previous Au-
dacity version before updating to current Audacity, unless
you are updating from 1.3.x Beta. Please see the Win-
dows installation page .
Windows
Audacity can be uninstalled by choosing "Add/Remove
Programs" or "Uninstall a application" in the Windows
Control Panel. Select "Audacity" from the list and follow
the instructions which will launch the Audacity uninstall
application. Make sure you quit Audacity before unin-
stalling, or you will receive errors that some files could
not be removed. If the Control Panel cannot uninstall Au-
dacity, open the folder in which you installed Audacity and
double-click "unins000.exe" (this file might have other
numbers in the name). This requires "unins000.dat" (or
similar) to be present in the installation folder. If you still
cannot uninstall Audacity, download the installer again.
Install Audacity to the same location you installed it to
before (which happens by default). This will replace the
uninstall files with good copies, then you can run the
uninstaller again. Uninstallation retains your Audacity
settings in case you want to install Audacity again at
some time in the future. If you want to remove your set-
tings as well, delete Audacity’s folder for application data
whose location is given here .
Mac
Quit Audacity then drag Audacity.app to Trash. If you are
uninstalling older Audacity versions prior to 2.1.3, drag
117
the entire folder containing Audacity to Trash. Uninstal-
lation retains your Audacity settings in case you want to
install Audacity again at some time in the future. If you
want to remove your settings as well, delete Audacity’s
folder for application data ( ~/Library/Application Sup-
port/audacity/). See also: How do I reset my Audacity
configuration settings?
3.9.3 What should I do if I have problems
downloading or installing Audacity?
If you cannot download Audacity from our official down-
load page https://audacityteam.org/download/ please
check at http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ to see if
the problem is with your connection. If the downloaded
setup file is corrupt, it’s a very good idea to clear the
download list or cache in your browser or download man-
ager then try downloading again. If problems persist,
please let us know at our feedback address.
back to top
3.9.4 How do I download and install the
LAME MP3 encoder?
Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include
MP3 encoding software or distribute such software from
its own websites. Instead, use the following instruc-
tions to download and install the free and recommended
LAME third-party encoder to export MP3 files with Au-
dacity. See the LAME Legal Issues page for more details.
• Windows: See the LAME installation section on
Installing and updating Audacity on Windows .
• Mac: See the LAME installation section on In-
stalling and updating Audacity on Mac .
• Linux/Unix: See the LAME installation section on
Installing and updating Audacity on Linux .
back to top
3.9.5 How do I download and install the
FFmpeg Import/Export Library?
The optional FFmpeg library allows Audacity to import
and export a much larger range of audio formats includ-
ing M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA
and also to import audio from most video files.Because
of software patents, Audacity cannot include the FFmpeg
software or distribute it from its own websites. Instead,
following the links below to instructions to download and
118
install the free and recommended FFmpeg third-party li-
brary.
• Windows: See the FFmpeg installation section on
the Installing and updating Audacity on Windows .
• Mac: See the FFmpeg installation section on the
Installing and updating Audacity on Mac .
• GNU/Linux: See the FFmpeg installation section
on the Installing and updating Audacity on Linux .
back to top
3.9.6 What Effect, Generator and Analyzer
plug-ins does Audacity support and
how do I install them?
You can download and install plug-ins to add extra func-
tionality to Audacity. Plug-ins can give you extra ef-
fects, or more audio generation and analysis capabilities.
Nyquist plug-ins provide most of the optional effects un-
derneath the divider in the Effect menu . They are also
used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio gen-
erators and analysis tools . A wide range of additional
Nyquist effect, generation and analysis plug-ins can be
obtained from Download Nyquist Plug-ins on our Wiki.
VST(Virtual Studio Technology): Audacity supports al-
most all VST effect plug-ins on Windows, Mac and Linux
including "shell" VST’s that host multiple VST effects.
LV2 is a more advanced evolution of the LADSPA plug-
in architecture which was originally developed on Linux.
VAMP plug-ins are usually for analyzing audio so will ap-
pear under Audacity’s Analyze Menu . To add new plug-
ins please see:
• Windows: See Installing Effect, Generator and An-
alyzer plug-ins on Windows .
• Mac: See Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer
plug-ins on MAC OS X .
• GNU/Linux: See Installing Effect, Generator and
Analyzer plug-ins on Linux .
back to top
3.9.7 How can I solve Audacity not appear-
ing or crashing on launch, or crash-
ing after I add a plug-in?
Incompatible audio device or audio drivers If the Au-
dacity hang or crash occurs after you added or enabled
a new audio device, try removing or disabling that de-
vice (or updating its drivers) then restart Audacity. If the
problem occurred after a driver update, try rolling back to
the previous set of drivers. On Windows, you can revert
driver changes caused by Windows Update. If the en-
tire computer crashes, reboots or displays a blue screen
message when you launch Audacity, this is almost always
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
due to a bad or mismatched audio driver (or due to a sys-
tem driver conflicting with your sound device). See how
to inspect the computer’s memory dump or test its mem-
ory to diagnose crashes. LADSPA, LV2, VST or Audio
Unit plug-insA hang or crash could occur after you use
the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyzers
dialog to add new LADSPA , LV2 , VST or Audio Unit
(Mac) effects. The crash or hang could occur immedi-
ately after pressing OK in the dialog, when using an ef-
fect, when exiting Audacity or when restarting it next time.
If Audacity crashes immediately after you enable one or
more effects in the Plug-in Manager dialog, the effect(s)
that crashed should be disabled next time you launch Au-
dacity. They will be relisted in Plug-in Manager as "New"
rather than "Disabled". If Audacity crashes when an ef-
fect is launched from the Effect Menu or applied to the
audio, you can restart Audacity then try disabling the ef-
fect in the Plug-in Manager. This effect will then not be
available in Effect Menu. Sometimes it may not be ob-
vious which effects to disable to solve a hang or crash.
You might be able to identify offending effects from Au-
dacity.zip if there is an Audacity Debug report . You can
also try Windows Event Viewer (or more easily on Win-
dows, type "Reliability" without quotes in the Search box
to open Reliability Monitor). To view Mac reports, open
/Applications/Utilities/Console.app then look at the Sys-
tem Diagnostic Reports. Should it remain unclear which
effects are responsible, it may be useful to reset Audacity
to load only the enabled effects that it had on first instal-
lation. To do this, go to Audacity’s folder for application
data as follows:
• Windows:Users
<username>
AppData
Roaming
Audacity
(or type %appdata% in Explorer)
• OS X:~/Library/Application Support/audacity/ (use
Go > Go to Folder in Finder)
• Linux:~/.audacity-data/ .
In that folder, delete the pluginregistry.cfg and plugin-
settings.cfg files and restart Audacity. Then you can use
the Plug-in Manager dialog to selectively enable effects
to find the possible culprit.
If you discover a specific plug-in that misbehaves in Au-
dacity, please email our feedback address. Please in-
clude any available Debug report that Audacity gener-
ates.Resetting Audacity PreferencesThe Audacity win-
dow could also fail to appear due to some Audacity
configuration problem. To solve this, try resetting the
Audacity Preferences . Viruses and anti-virus scan-
ningConflicts with other applications such as security or
anti-virus applications can occasionally cause Audacity
not to launch. Try turning off some of the more ad-
vanced behavior detection settings in the security appli-
cation, or add an exception to its settings to make Au-
3.9. FAQ:INSTALLATION, STARTUP AND PLUG-INS
dacity a trusted application. Conversely if you have not
run a virus scan for a while, update your security applica-
tion to the latest virus definitions and perform a thorough
scan in case a newly acquired virus is the problem. ma-
cOS 10.11 El CapitanIf Audacity does not launch on El
Capitan with an error message "The application “Audac-
ity.app” can’t be opened", please see this advice. If you
see a message that Audacity is already running when
you attempt to restart it, go to Task Manager (Windows),
Activity Monitor (Mac) or similar to force quit Audacity.
back to top
3.9.8 What should I do if I get errors build-
ing Audacity?
Audacity provides ready-built installer applications for
Windows and Mac, but Audacity can also be built from
source code on any platform. With a little knowledge,
building is a great way to customize Audacity! For help,
please see the Wiki documentation for Windows, Mac
and Linux. If you still cannot build Audacity, please ask
on the Compiling Audacity board on the Forum.
• Please tell us whether you are building from a re-
lease tarball or Audacity HEAD.
• On Windows, please give all the instances of "ER-
ROR" in the Visual Studio output window (including
Linker errors).
• For Mac and Linux, please provide the last lines of
the configure or make output that fail.
– For Linux, also tell us which distribution and
release you are using (for example, Ubuntu
11.10 or Fedora 16).
back to top
3.9.9 Windows: How can I make Audacity
launch when I double-click a WAV or
other audio file?
For Windows, click the Windows Start button, then Con-
trol Panel, then "Programs". Under "Default Programs",
click "Make a file type always open in a specific applica-
tion". Choose ".wav", ".mp3" or your chosen extension,
then click "Change application..." and browse for Audac-
ity to associate it with that file type. Another method
is to use the Windows Start button, type "Run" (without
quotes), press Enter, then type %windir%
system32
control.exe /name Microsoft.DefaultPrograms /page
pageFileAssoc and press Enter. On Windows you can
instead set the default association of a file type with Au-
dacity by right-clicking over any file of that type, choosing
"Open with" then "Choose default application...". If you
have two different versions of Audacity, and you want to
119
be able to choose which one, then you will need to re-
name one to give them different names, such as audac-
ity.exe and audacity_old.exe. back to top
3.9.10 Mac: Why do I see "Verifying"
or "Damaged" messages when I
launch Audacity?
On OS X 10.7.5 and later, the Apple Gatekeeper fea-
ture by default verifies authorship of applications down-
loaded from the internet and controls whether they can
be launched. Audacity is now codesigned with an Ap-
ple Developer ID to make it easier to launch Audacity
securely. The first time you launch Audacity after down-
load, Gatekeeper will verify Audacity, perhaps showing a
progress dialogue, but once complete you will see a stan-
dard warning saying that Audacity came from the internet
and asking if you want to open it. You can safely do so.
If after verification, Gatekeeper says that Audacity
is "from an unidentified developer" or "not downloaded
from the Mac App Store", this means you have an old
version of Audacity that was not codesigned. If neces-
sary you can right-click or control-click over the Audac-
ity application in Finder, choose "Open", then in the di-
alog box that appears, choose "Open", but we recom-
mend you download the current version of Audacity in-
stead. Occasionally, you may see an error message that
"Audacity is damaged and cannot be opened, possibly
with "You should move it to the Trash." If this message
persists even if you right-click or control-click over Au-
dacity to open it, try downloading Audacity again from
http://www.audacityteam.org/download/mac. If neces-
sary, you can open Apple menu > System Preferences...
> Security & Privacy: General tab. Under the header
"Allow apps downloaded from:", choose "Anywhere". On
macOS Sierra 10.12, the "Anywhere" choice is unavail-
able by default, but you can make the "Anywhere" choice
appear and set Gatekeeper to this choice by opening a
Terminal and entering
sudo spctl –master-disable then entering your password
when prompted. Audacity should now launch, assuming
it is not a corrupted download. It would then be advis-
able to change the "Anywhere" preference in Gatekeeper
back to a more restrictive setting. On macOS Sierra, do-
ing so will remove the "Anywhere" choice once more.
back to top
3.9.11 How do I reset my Audacity config-
uration settings?
Uninstalling Audacity does not automatically repair
or reset your configuration settings in Audacity Pref-
120 CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS

erences . If you are trying to fix a problem with Audacity, • Windows

take one of the following actions.
• Quit Audacity and reset Preferences using the au-
dacity.cfg settings file. There is then no need to
uninstall and re-install.
• Alternatively, Windows users may run the installer
and in the "Select Additional Tasks" screen, put a
check in the "Reset Preferences" box. Complete
the installation. On launching Audacity, a dialog will
appear where you can confirm if you want to reset
preferences just this once, or not.
For details of how to reset your Audacity settings on the
three platforms please see:
• Mac
• Linux
See also:
• Windows: How do I uninstall Audacity?
• How can I solve Audacity not appearing or crashing
on launch, or crashing after I add a plug-in?
back to top
> Forward To: FAQ:Recording - Troubleshooting
< Back to: FAQ:About Audacity
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions

3.10 FAQ:Installing the FFmpeg Import/Export Library

The optional FFmpeg library allows Audacity to import the Installing and updating Audacity on Windows .
and export a much larger range of audio formats includ-
• Mac: See the FFmpeg installation section on the
ing M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA
Installing and updating Audacity on Mac .
and also to import audio from most video files.Because
of software patents, Audacity cannot include the FFmpeg • GNU/Linux: See the FFmpeg installation section
software or distribute it from its own websites. Instead, on the Installing and updating Audacity on Linux .
following the links below to instructions to download and
install the free and recommended FFmpeg third-party li-
brary. 3.10.1 Links

• Windows: See the FFmpeg installation section on |< FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plug-ins

3.11 FAQ:Installing the LAME MP3 Encoder

Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include • Mac: See the LAME installation section on In-
MP3 encoding software or distribute such software from stalling and updating Audacity on Mac .
its own websites. Instead, use the following instruc-
• Linux/Unix: See the LAME installation section on
tions to download and install the free and recommended
Installing and updating Audacity on Linux .
LAME third-party encoder to export MP3 files with Au-
dacity. See the LAME Legal Issues page for more details.
3.11.1 Links
• Windows: See the LAME installation section on
Installing and updating Audacity on Windows . |< FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plug-ins
3.12. FAQ:OPENING AND SAVING FILES
3.12 FAQ:Opening and Saving Files
> Forward To: FAQ:Editing
< Back to: FAQ:Playback
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.12.1 How do I save my audio for use in
other applications? Does saving a
project (AUP file) do that?
An AUP file can only be saved and used in Audac-
ity. It is just a small text file that tells Audacity how to
work with the audio you see in the project window. It lets
you resume working on that audio in Audacity at a later
time if you need to. Whenever you want to use your
audio in other applications, choose the File > Export...
commands to export a standard audio format like WAV ,
AIFF or MP3 .
• WAV and AIFF are lossless files which you can
also burn to an audio CD or use again for further
editing.
• MP3 and M4A/MP4 are lossy smaller files that
are useful for portable music players or sending
over the internet.
To export an MP3, add LAME to your computer. To
export M4A/MP4, add FFmpeg to your computer. Before
saving the exported file, click Options... in the Export Au-
dio Dialog to see if there are choices for the quality and
size of the file. Tip: If you have already saved an AUP
file but now want to export an audio file, reopen that AUP
using File > Open... . If you saved the project recently,
you can also find the project in the File > Recent Files
menu.To learn more about working with AUP files, please
see Audacity Projects .
back to top
3.12.2 Why does Audacity create a folder
full of .au files when I save a
project?
Audacity breaks long tracks into small pieces so it can
edit them more efficiently. When you save an AUP project
file, Audacity stores all the pieces in a _data folder that
has the same name as the AUP file. For example, sav-
ing "song.aup" saves the required data pieces as AU files
inside the "song_data" folder. To open the project, open
the AUP file then Audacity will load the AU files in the
correct sequence automatically. A project you saved re-
cently can be opened from File > Recent Files .
121
Long projects contain a lot of data. Be sure the
project is fully saved before exiting Audacity or shut-
ting down the computer. If there is a progress dialogue
for saving the project, wait for it to complete before shut-
ting down. The Status Bar at the bottom shows a mes-
sage when the project has been saved.
You should not move, delete or rename the
_data folder or any of the AU files inside it.To learn
more about working with Audacity projects, please see
Audacity Projects . See also:
• How do I open an Audacity project (AUP file) in an-
other application?
back to top
3.12.3 Audacity crashed, or I no longer
have the AUP project file! Can I re-
cover the data?
In the event of a crash while Audacity has unsaved data
(such as a recording that has not yet been saved as a
project, or an existing project with unsaved changes), Au-
dacity will attempt to recover that data on next launch of
Audacity. See Automatic Crash Recovery for full details.
If the computer itself crashed, see Why does the com-
puter reboot or show a blue screen message when I play
or record in Audacity? . If you saved a project but do not
have a usable AUP file, you may be able to recover the
data manually if it is a recording that you never edited. If
Audacity crashed and you saw the Debug report "Audac-
ity" dialog, please write to us attaching the zipped sup-
port data so we can investigate, telling us what you did in
Audacity just before the crash. back to top
3.12.4 Can Audacity import or export for-
mats like WMA, AC3 or iTunes files
(M4A/MP4)?
Audacity as shipped can import or export the following
audio formats:
• Uncompressed audio formats: most WAV and
AIFF files including all PCM variants
• Compressed audio formats: Ogg Vorbis ,
FLAC and MP2
– MP3 can be imported using Audacity as
shipped, but to export as MP3 you must install
the optional LAME encoder.
122
You can install the optional FFmpeg library to import and
export a much larger range of audio formats including
AC3, AMR(NB), M4A, MP4 and WMA(on Mac only, Au-
dacity can import unprotected M4A, MP4 and MOV files
without FFmpeg). Audio files that are DRM-protected
to work only in particular software cannot be imported.
FFmpeg will also import audio from most video files or
DVDs that are not DRM-protected. You can export to
iTunes by exporting to any location on your computer
then add the file to the iTunes library . See Importing
Audio and the Export Audio Dialog for more help with im-
porting and exporting. If an audio file you want to import
is DRM-protected (for example, an older iTunes M4P file),
first burn it to an audio CD in the application that is li-
censed to play it. Then rip the CD track to WAV or AIFF.
You can also record the file as it plays on the computer if
your sound device supports this, though this may result
in slight loss of quality.See also:
• How can I export to formats not listed in the Export
Audio Dialog?
back to top
3.12.5 How can I export to formats not
listed in the Export Audio Dialog?
If you install the optional FFmpeg library you can use the
(FFmpeg) choices in the Export Audio Dialog to export
M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA . If
you do not see a choice for one of those specific FFm-
peg formats, then the build of FFmpeg you are linking
to was not compiled to support encoding in that format.
The most flexible method to export to more formats is to
choose (external application) in the Export Audio Dialog
which opens the dialog for Audacity’s command-line en-
coder . Point your command to an encoder that supports
the format you want to write to, which could be FFmpeg
or some other encoder (for example, an alternative AAC
or MP3 encoder). On Windows, the recommended EXE
installer of FFmpeg includes an ffmpeg.exe which you
can use for this purpose. On Mac, you can download a
standalone "ffmpeg" binary if you search online. Please
see formats supported by FFmpeg on the Audacity Wiki.
Alternatively you can export to some additional formats
supported by your build of FFmpeg by choosing Custom
FFmpeg Export in the Export Audio Dialog.
back to top
3.12.6 Why do exported files not include
Album Artist or BPM metadata, Al-
bum Art or Lyrics?
When you export a file, by default Metadata Editor pops
up where you can add, delete or change embedded in-
formation about the file. Metadata is well supported by
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
many audio formats, especially the ID3 tags used by
MP3 , but less well supported in WAV .
• Metadata in imported MP2 and MP3 files (except
for the default Metadata Editor tags "Artist Name",
"Track Title", "Album Title", "Track Number", "Year",
"Genre" and "Comments") will be exported as a
"custom" ID3 frame. This means that exported cus-
tom tags such as "Album Artist", "BPM" or "Com-
poser" will not be seen in Windows Media Player,
Windows Explorer, iTunes or other software that ig-
nores custom tags.
• Relatively few audio applications or players are able
to read WAV metadata produced by other applica-
tions, for example iTunes cannot do so. For iTunes,
you can export to AIFF as an alternative lossless
format with metadata support.
• For WAV files, Audacity exports metadata in a RIFF
INFO chunk for all seven default tags plus "Copy-
right" and "Software". It also exports all the entered
tags as ID3 tags. Applications that can read ID3
tags in WAV files can read these tags.
• Some audio formats supported by the optional
FFmpeg library may not export complete metadata.
See this table for more information.
• For all formats, Audacity currently discards any ex-
isting lyrics or album art when exporting. You can
copy the lyrics (or search for them online) then add
them back to the exported file in your favorite media
player. Extract the album art using a tag editor such
as IDTE (or use Windows Media Player or iTunes to
search online for the art) then add the art back to
the exported file using your media player.
See also:
• How do I download and install the LAME MP3 en-
coder?
• How do I download and install the FFmpeg Im-
port/Export Library?
back to top
3.12.7 How do I import tracks from an au-
dio CD?
Audacity cannot import tracks directly from an audio CD.
You must use a separate application like Windows Me-
dia Player or iTunes® to extract (or "rip") CD tracks into
a format that Audacity can read, like WAV or AIFF .
Then you can import those WAV or AIFF files into Au-
dacity. The only exception is that on Mac computers with
optical drives, CD tracks are mounted in Finder as AIFF
files so can be imported directly into Audacity. For more
detail see the tutorial Tutorial - How to import CDs .
back to top
3.12. FAQ:OPENING AND SAVING FILES
3.12.8 How do I save my recording on an
audio CD?
After making a recording or editing a file in Audacity, fol-
low these steps to save your work on an audio CD.
1. Choose "WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM" or
"AIFF (Apple) signed 16-bit PCM" in the Export Au-
dio Dialog "Save as type" dropdown menu to export
to an audio file.
2. Use any CD-burning software (iTunes® or Nero, for
example) to burn this file to a CD. If you burn in a
application that is also a media player, like iTunes®
or Windows Media Player, you may need to drag
the files for burning into a playlist or library. If in
doubt, see the application’s help files.
To make a disc you can play in all CD players, make sure
to create a "music" or "audio" CD (not a "data" CD). Use
CD-R discs, because some players cannot read CD-RW.
You can burn only 74 minutes to an audio CD in most
cases, but possibly up to 80 minutes depending on the
CD-R. This is a limitation of the audio CD format. Some
CD software will burn only 16-bit, 44100 Hz stereo audio
files. If your CD recording software will not open your file,
export the file again after choosing the following settings
in Audacity:
1. At the bottom of the Audacity window, set the
Project Rate to 44100 Hz .
2. If your project does not already contain a stereo
track, choose Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track .
This will make Audacity export a stereo file.
See the Burning music files to a CD Tutorial for tips on CD
burning with Windows Media Player or iTunes® and on
burning "gapless" CDs or longer "data" CDs. See also:
• How can I split a long recording into multiple tracks?
back to top
3.12.9 How can I split a long recording into
multiple files or CD tracks?
Follow these steps to create a separate audio file for each
song or segment of a long recording. This is particularly
useful if you are creating an audio CD, since after burn-
ing each file to CD there will be a separate CD track for
each song which you can skip to in the CD player.
1. Click to place the cursor at the start of the first song.
2. Choose Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection . If
you wish, you can type the name of the song in the
label.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each song.
4. When you are finished, choose File > Save Other
> Export Multiple... . When you click the "Export"
123
button, Audacity will save each song as a separate
file, using the format and location you choose.
Alternatively, Audacity can attempt to detect the silences
between tracks and label them automatically. See the full
instructions at Splitting a recording into separate tracks .
See also:
• How do I save my recording on an audio CD?
back to top
3.12.10 Why does Audacity warn about the
name or nothing happens when I
export or save?
Adding extensions and periods (dots) to names of
exported audio files
On Windows when you export an audio file, Audacity will
in most cases add a period (dot) and the appropriate (or
most common) extension for your chosen format . So
if you want to export a WAV file called "rhythms.wav",
all you need to do is type "rhythms" (without quotes). If
you type a desired period within the name itself, Audac-
ity will usually add the final period and extension for you.
However Audacity will show a warning if you type a name
ending with a period and characters that are the exten-
sion for any common media, document or image type and
this extension is unexpected for your audio format. Press
"Yes" in the warning if you really want to export with this
file name, or "No" to return to the export dialog. This
gives you the flexibility for example to export an M4A
(AAC) (FFmpeg) file with M4B audiobook extension, if
that is your explicit requirement. More Windows exam-
ples(do not type the quotes in the examples given)
• If you export as a WAV file and type "1.2 hours", the
file will export as "1.2 hours.wav" with no warning.
• If you export as an MP3 file and type
"rhythms.jpg", Audacity will show a warning be-
cause JPG is an image format. You must type
"rhythms.jpg.mp3" to produce a file with that name
and extension.
• If you export as an M4A (AAC) (FFmpeg) file and
type "rhythms.mp4" or "rhythms.m4r" (denoting a
ringtone in MP4 format), no warning will be shown
because these are recognised extensions for the
format.
• If you export as an M4A (AAC) (FFmpeg) file and
type "rhythms.mp3", a warning will be shown be-
cause you would export a file that Windows would
see as an MP3 but contained MP4 audio.
On Mac and GNU/Linux if you export an audio file that
has any period in the file name, Audacity will warn you
(unless the implied extension is a recognised alternative
extension for your chosen format). If you answer "Yes"
124
to the warning, Audacity will not add the standard exten-
sion for the format. So if you need a period within the file
name you must answer "No" to any warning, then add
another period followed by the correct extension at the
end of the name. Otherwise the file may not be playable.
Characters forbidden by the operating system
When exporting and when saving an Audacity project ,
Audacity may also warn you (or not respond correctly)
if you type a file name that includes characters that are
forbidden by the operating system.
Forbidden Characters:
On Windows, all of the following
/ : * ? " < > |
On Mac OS X/macOS, colon only(1):
On Linux, forward slash only/
(1)"/" in saved file names appears as a colon in Au-
dacity. Apart from operating system restrictions, Audac-
ity has full support for printable Unicode characters in
file names. However, if you want to send your file to
someone else, use it on another operating system or
make it available on the internet, only use A to Z or
a to z characters, whole numbers (0 to 9), underscore
or hyphen-minus (or use the NUMPAD_SUBTRACT
key). This will ensure the file name will always be com-
patible. There may be additional restrictions such as
maximum permitted characters in the path to the file, or
some file names may be reserved for the operating sys-
tem. Full details for Windows can be found here. Show-
ing file extensions on the computer: When you look
at the file you saved or exported in Windows Explorer or
Finder on Mac, you may only be able to see the file name
itself (for example, "92.3 FM capture" ) and not the ex-
tension following it. This is not an Audacity bug, rather
you need to set your operating system to show file exten-
sions.
• Windows 10 or 8: Open File Explorer, click the
View tab then near the right end of the ribbon at the
top, put a checkmark in "File name extensions".
• Windows 7 or Vista: Open Explorer, hold the Alt
key, then Tools > Folder options..., click the View
tab and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file
types".
• macOS/Mac OS X: In Finder, choose Finder >
Preferences... then on the "Advanced" tab, enable
"Show all file name extensions".
back to top
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
3.12.11 Why does my file import with
a hatched pattern then slowly
change to a waveform?
See this page: On-Demand Loading .
back to top
3.12.12 I copied the .aup file to another
computer or sent it by email to
a friend; but now when I open it
there’s no sound, why?
To use a standard Audacity project on another computer,
you have to include the _data folder that has the same
name as the project. This makes the size very large.
The _data folder has the small .au files that contain the
uncompressed audio data. Also if your project con-
tains imported WAV or AIFF files, you must choose
Help > Diagnostics > Check Dependencies... and if nec-
essary copy in those files to the project before using it
on another computer. See Audacity Projects for more
about the structure of Audacity projects and Sending your
work to others for why you would probably need to export
an MP3 audio file to make your audio small enough
to email. Alternatively, if you have a broadband inter-
net connection and you package your .aup file and _data
folder into a zip file, there are many free file transfer ser-
vices that allow upload and storage of large files. Try for
example DropSend or mailbigfile. Audacity also has a
feature at File > Save Other > Save Compressed Copy of
Project to save a much smaller project using OGG files
(this will however give you a slightly lossy project).
back to top
3.12.13 How can I backup my Audacity
Projects?
Audacity has very robust crash recovery and in many
cases can recover most or all of your work in the event
of a power failure, computer crash or crash of Audac-
ity itself. However it is a wise precaution to backup the
project periodically to separately named AUP files in case
Audacity is unable to recover correctly. This also gives
you the flexibility to reopen the project as it was at dif-
ferent points in time, because Audacity cannot restore
a project’s history once that project’s session is closed.
The best way to make a copy of an already saved project
is to File > Save Project As... and save to a new name.
This closes the current project in its last saved state then
leaves you working on the newly saved project in its cur-
rent state. See Audacity Projects for more on how to work
with Audacity project files.
3.13. FAQ:PLAYBACK
Do not use the operating system’s copy and paste
to make a copy of the project AUP file and _data folder in
the same folder as the original project.
• If the project is closed, you can copy the AUP file
and _data folder then paste these into a different
folder. This ensures the original file and folder
names are retained.
Remember that computer hard drives can fail, destroying
all data. Therefore regular backups should if possible be
made to one or two devices other than the device the cur-
rent project is stored on. For example, backups could be
made to another internal drive on the computer, or ideally
3.13 FAQ:Playback
> Forward To: FAQ:Opening and Saving Files
< Back To: FAQ:Recording - How To’s
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.13.1 Troubleshooting
Why have I lost sound after connecting a USB device
on Windows?
When you connect a USB audio device to a Windows
computer, it may automatically become the "default" de-
vice that is normally used for both playback and record-
ing. If the USB audio device is not meant as a play-
back device for the computer (such as a microphone,
turntable or tape deck) you may lose sound in Audacity
or in most applications on your computer. You can fix the
problem as follows. Right-click over the Speaker icon by
the system clock, choose Playback Devices, then right-
click over the speakers or headphones device you are
using, choose "Set as Default Device" and click "OK".
Alternatively, you can disconnect the USB device from
the computer after you have finished recording. Note:
To hear audio while you are recording, ensure "Soft-
ware Playthrough" is "on". This can be toggled on/off
by clicking Transport > Transport Options > Software
Playthrough (on/off) .
back to top
Why does playback go quiet when I record or adjust
the recording volume?
You may notice this on Windows 7 or later, for exam-
ple when recording overdubs while playing an existing
track. This system setting turns down or mutes other
125
to an external USB drive or uploaded to an online (cloud)
storage service. If you have just made a recording it is
strongly recommended to File > Export... it immediately
to WAV or AIFF (ideally to an external drive) as a
safety copy before you start editing the project. If you are
recording multi-track overdubs (recording tracks one af-
ter the other, such as drums followed by guitar followed
by vocals), export each recorded track immediately you
stop the recording. back to top
> Forward To: FAQ:Editing
< Back to: FAQ:Playback
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
sounds when audio goes through the recording or play-
back devices set as "Default Communication Device" in
Windows. This feature can be useful when making or re-
ceiving internet phone calls but is undesirable for other
audio. To turn off this adjustment:
1. Right-click over the Speaker icon by the system
clock then choose Sounds
2. In the dialog that opens, click the Communications
tab
3. Underneath "When Windows detects communica-
tions activity", choose "Do nothing" and click "OK"
4. On the Playback and Recording tabs, you can op-
tionally right-click over a device and set or unset it
as "Default Communication Device."
If there are other problems with audio inputs or outputs
not interacting properly, make sure your sound device
has the latest drivers specific to your particular com-
puter model and operating system. The drivers should
be obtained from the motherboard or computer manufac-
turer’s website, or if not available there, from the sound
device manufacturer’s website. For more help, see our
Wiki page Updating Sound Device Drivers. Also note that
Skype can sometimes manipulate playback and record-
ing levels when it is running, even if not being used. See
also:
• Why do my recordings fade out or sound as if they
were made in a tunnel?
back to top
Why do I hear clicky playback on Mac?
This is most likely to occur if you use Soundflower or an
external USB or Firewire playback device rather than the
126
built-in audio output. The problem can usually be fixed by
opening Recording Preferences and adjusting the "Audio
to Buffer" setting which also affects playback. Reduce the
setting to 0 milliseconds. If playback breaks up or does
not start, increase "Audio to Buffer" in increments of 10
milliseconds until playback is smooth. Sometimes run-
ning other audio applications while Audacity is running
can cause clicky playback in Audacity. This might be the
case if you are running another audio editor, iTunes or
QuickTime Player. If you are playing a recording that you
made in Audacity and the clicks are at the same place on
every playback, you may need to redo the recording at
the lower buffer settings. See also:
• How can I prevent clicky recordings on Mac?
back to top
Why is there a very low level hiss on exported files?
Deliberate low-level noise is normally added when you
downsample to a lower sample format , for example
when you export from a project at default 32-bit depth to
a 16-bit WAV or AIFF file, or when you run effects on
a project containing 16-bit audio. The additional noise is
known as dither and is generally beneficial. Dither pre-
vents clicky noises which might otherwise occur due to
not being able to accurately represent 32-bit values in a
16-bit format. If you still want to turn dither off for all data
processing (including export) you can do so at "High-
quality Conversion" in Quality Preferences . Alternatively
you can turn dither off just for the export step. This may
help avoid cumulative dither noise if you are exporting
regularly over the same file.
back to top
How can I pause playback so I can edit there?
Audacity cannot apply effects or change the audio while
playback is paused. To stop playback and set the editing
cursor where you stopped, it’s easiest to press X on your
keyboard to "Stop and Set Cursor" (if there is a selection
region , X trims the left edge of the selection to start at the
stop position). Use either Space or X to restart playback
from the stop position. Note that except for Scrub or Seek
playback , using Space or the Stop button to stop will
leave the editing cursor where playback started - proba-
bly not what you want. You do not always have to stop
paused playback yourself. If you have a selection region,
you can still access many menu items when paused and
Audacity will stop playback so as to apply your change to
that region. If there is no selection region, Audacity will
stop playback but will warn you that no audio is selected
to act on.
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
Real-time preview effects are always available in the Ef-
fect menu. Playback remains paused after you open the
effect, but you can stop then restart playback to adjust
the effect while listening, and Audacity will stop playback
when you apply the effect. You must still make a selection
for the effect to act on.There are many other alternative
workflows, depending on your purpose. Here are two ex-
amples:
• Instead of stopping at each edit point, keep playing
and use Ctrl + M ( CloverLeaf + . on Mac ) to add
a label when you hear each point of interest. After
stopping, click in any label to set the cursor there
for editing.
• While playing and listening for an edit region, use
[ on your keyboard when you hear the start of the
audio you are interested in, then press ] when you
hear the end of the audio of interest. The ] shortcut
draws a selection region from the point where you
pressed [ to the point where you pressed ]. Now
you can press Space twice to easily stop playback
then play that selection.
You can change any of the above shortcuts in Keyboard
Preferences . See Navigation Tips for useful ways to find
the audio you want to edit then mark points or regions for
cutting.
back to top
How can I play or export multi-channel (surround
sound) files?
Audacity can export multi-channel files by enabling "Use
custom mix" in Import / Export Preferences . You will
need to adjust the mapping of tracks to channels in Ad-
vanced Mixing Options according to the channel order of
the format you are exporting to, though some files or play-
back software/hardware might not necessarily respect
that order. However Audacity playback is currently lim-
ited to mixing down tracks to mono or stereo (two chan-
nels). Therefore playback will only reach two channels of
the device unless you configure the device to duplicate
audio to other channels. Many playback systems also
have optional "bass management" where you can route
the bass signals in a stereo signal to the low frequency
channel for the subwoofer speaker.
back to top
> Forward To: FAQ:Opening and Saving Files
< Back To: FAQ:Recording - How To’s
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.14. FAQ:RECORDING - HOW TO’S
3.14 FAQ:Recording - How To’s
> Forward To: FAQ:Playback
< Back To: FAQ:Recording - Troubleshooting
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.14.1 How can I record in stereo?
Audacity by default should already be set to record in
stereo. If this is not the case, use Device Toolbar to se-
lect the playback and recording devices and to set the
channels to "2 (stereo) Recording Channels". Alterna-
tively you can open the Audacity Preferences , choose
the “ Devices ” section on the left, then in the "Record-
ing" panel, change the number of recording channels to
"2 (Stereo)". Windows: Many USB recording devices,
even if stereo, are seen as "microphones" so set by Win-
dows to record in mono. If Audacity is set to record in
stereo this will cause both channels to have the same
content as one of the channels. To set Windows to record
the device in stereo:
1. By the system clock, right-click over the Speaker
icon > Recording Devices then right-click over USB
Audio Codec > "Properties"
2. On the "Advanced" tab, in the "Default Format" sec-
tion, make sure the dropdown menu is set to "2
channel 16-bit 44100 Hz".
back to top
3.14.2 What is an optimal recording level
to aim for?
Using the Recording Volume Slider on Mixer Toolbar to
adjust the level, aim for a maximum peak of around –6
dB on the Recording Meter (or 0.5 if the meter is set to
linear scale). This should ensure that clipping will be
avoided. The recording will only show a maximum peak
of around 0.5 on the default waveform display, but given
how the ear hears sound, this is actually much louder
than apparent "half volume". You can boost the level if
necessary after recording and editing by using Effect >
Amplify or Effect > Normalize .
back to top
3.14.3 How do I record from vinyl records,
cassette tapes or MiniDiscs?
1. Set Audacity to record in stereo .
127
2. Plug one end of a stereo cable into the "Line Out"
or "Headphone" connector on your tape deck, Mini-
Disc player, or stereo system. Plug the other end
into your computer’s "Line In" port. If you do not
have a suitable cable, you can find one at an elec-
tronics store.
3. Choose "Line In" as the recording source in Audac-
ity’s Device Toolbar or Devices Preferences .
4. Press the red Record button. While Audacity is
recording, start playing your tape or disc. When you
have captured the audio you want to record, press
the Stop button. You can also press the Pause but-
ton to pause recording, and Pause again to resume
recording on the same track.
For a detailed tutorial, see Copying tapes, LPs or Mini-
Discs to CD . This covers all the steps from recording
your records, cassettes or MiniDiscs to exporting as an
audio file and burning to an audio CD . Vinyl or shellac
records can also be recorded into Audacity with a special
type of turntable that connects to the USB port of your
computer. These turntables need to be set up differently
from those that connect to line-in. See Recording with
USB turntables or USB cassette decks for setup instruc-
tions, then Basic Recording, Editing and Exporting in the
main tutorial. Connection hints:
• Do not connect a turntable directly to your com-
puter. The signal from a turntable must be passed
through a phono pre-amplifier or a receiver with
a “phono” input that provides phono amplification.
Otherwise, it will be too quiet and will also sound
"tinny" due to incorrect equalization.
• Do not plug stereo equipment into your com-
puter’s “Microphone” port. This port is usually
designed only for low level, mono microphone in-
put. It will produce distortion if you connect phono
amplified output. Use the “Line In” port if you have
one (on some laptops or other portable computers,
the "Mic" port can be switched to a line-level input).
See further help .
See also:
• How to split a long recording into multiple files .
• How do I save my recording on an audio CD?
back to top
3.14.4 Can I play a track while recording a
new one on top of it?
This is known as recording an overdub to create a multi-
track recording. It makes it possible to record harmonies
128
with yourself, or add new instruments or vocals to an ex-
isting recording. To do this in Audacity, follow these in-
structions:
1. Select the recording device you are plugged into
(probably microphone or line-in) in the Recording
Device menu in Device Toolbar
• If you do not see your required recording de-
vice, enable it and make it default in the oper-
ating system’s mixer, then in Audacity, choose-
Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
2. Import or record the first track
3. Choose {Transport > Transport Options > Overdub
(on/off)
4. Press the Record button . • Record in mono instead of stereo (settable at
If you are recording from a microphone, make sure you
use headphones so that the microphone picks up only
what you are recording. Detailed, illustrated instructions
on how to make overdub recordings are in Tutorial -
Recording Multi-track Overdubs . See also:
• Why isn’t my new track in sync with the previous
ones?
• Why can’t I hear what I am recording?
• Why can I not record in Windows?
back to top
3.14.5 Can Audacity record YouTube, inter-
net radio or other streaming audio?
• With most Windows and Linux audio devices, it is
possible to record whatever sound the computer is
currently playing, including internet radio streams.
• Mac users can capture streaming audio using third-
party standalone applications or system exten-
sions.
See the Recording audio playing on the computer tutorial
for details, following the link thereon for your particular
operating platform.
back to top
3.14.6 What is the maximum recording
length?
Audacity does not restrict the maximum recording length
beyond the practical limitation that recording takes space
on your drive so you can only record while the drive still
has space available. When you start to record, Audac-
ity shows a "Disk space remains for recording" message
in the Status Bar at bottom left of the Audacity window
giving the current recording time available. With default
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
Audacity settings, stereo recording takes 1.2 GB of space
per hour. After recording you will still need space to ex-
port the recording as an audio file for your computer.
Editing the recording before export takes extra space.
Each edit of a region requires as much extra disk space
as was required to originally record that section.To get
more recording time:
• Delete your old files and folders (especially your old
Audacity Project files and _data folders when you
have finished with them)
• Select an alternative drive that has more space in
the Directories Preferences (but do not record to
an external USB or Firewire disk because record-
ing needs disk access to be as fast as possible)
"Recording Channels" in Device Toolbar or in De-
vices Preferences )
• Set the "Default Sample Format" in Quality Pref-
erences to 16-bit instead of 32-bit (this is a good
choice for a "quick recording" which you export at
once without editing).
See Recording length for more details.
back to top
3.14.7 Can I set Audacity to record at a cer-
tain time?
Yes! See Timer Record in the Transport menu . You can
also make Audacity stop recording after a certain time
limit without using the Timer Record feature, by following
these steps:
1. Turn on "Overdub: Play other tracks while recording
new one" in the "Recording" section of the prefer-
ences (you can also turn Overdub on or off in Trans-
port Menu)
2. Choose "Add New > Mono Track" from the Tracks
menu (even if you will record in stereo).
3. Zoom out if necessary, then click and drag to select
the amount of time you want to record.
4. Start recording. Audacity will stop recording auto-
matically when it reaches the end of the selected
area.
back to top
3.14.8 Can I record from a multi-channel
device (more than stereo)?
Yes, but this is not simple; typically this does not work
"out of the box" on Windows consumer systems, and al-
ways requires use of appropriate hardware and device
3.15. FAQ:RECORDING - TROUBLESHOOTING
drivers. There are some known Audacity limitations in
channel selection and channel-to-track allocation. It is
essential that sample rates are matched in all places (Au-
dacity, the operating system and the device). See this
Wiki article for more details.
back to top
3.14.9 Can I record from two microphones
(or even two soundcards) at the
same time?
Audacity can only record from one sound device at a
time, but here are some solutions.
• record the computer playback .
• If your sound device has separate left and right mic
inputs, connect the separate microphones to those
inputs.
• Connect the separate microphones to a mixer and
record from the mixer.
• If these are dynamic microphones that do not need
extra power, buy an adaptor that has two inputs for
the microphones with a single 1/8 inch TRS con-
nector for the computer microphone port (this will
usually only give you a combined mono input).
• Record each track to different computers.
• If you have two USB microphones or any other sep-
arate sound devices you can aggregate them as a
single device for recording in Audacity, or use other
recording software to record the two devices to sep-
arate tracks.
– On Windows you can try the following.
* Some applications can route two devices
to one stream. Use Voice Meeter (dona-
tionware - see this YouTube video tutorial)
or Virtual Audio Cable (not free).
* It may also be possible on Windows to use
the "Listen" feature to route inputs to the
output, though this is slightly lossy.
3.15 FAQ:Recording - Troubleshooting
> Forward To: FAQ:Recording - How To’s
> Back To: FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plug-Ins
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
129
1. Right-click over the speaker icon
by the system clock, then choose
"Recording devices".
2. Right-click over the first device,
choose "Properties" then the "Listen"
tab (if available).
3. Check "Listen to this device" and set
it to play through the required sound-
card.
4. Repeat the steps for the other de-
vices.
5. Use the "stereo mix" feature on your
soundcard (if it has such a feature) to
* Alis can capture simultaneous recordings
from different soundcards.
* Advanced: Compiling Audacity with
ASIO support will allow you to aggregate
two USB microphones, for example us-
ing the ASIO4ALL driver for WDM Audio.
Aggregating two devices that use ASIO
drivers is unlikely to work correctly.
– On Mac OS X use Audio MIDI Setup to aggre-
gate devices. See detailed instructions for OS
X 10.7 or later.
– On Linux you can use JACK to route two
devices to one stream that Audacity can
record from. See also these two Forum post-
shttps://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5
.
Separate audio devices such as two USB micro-
phones or devices on different computers will have
separate clock speeds (in the absence of a master
clock to synchronize to). Therefore the two inputs
may drift apart over time. back to top
> Forward To: FAQ:Playback
< Back To: FAQ:Recording - Troubleshooting
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
3.15.1 Why can I not record in Windows?
On Windows systems, you may receive "Error while
opening sound device" when you try to record. This typ-
ically happens when you first use Audacity for recording
and have no audio input devices (or only the built-in mi-
crophone) showing in Device Toolbar . See Why do I get
130
"Error while opening sound device"? for more details on
this error. If your Audio Host is not already set to MME
(the Audacity default) in Device Toolbar, try changing it to
MME as this host is the most compatible with all audio
devices. To investigate this further, exit Audacity then on
Windows, right-click over the Speaker icon by the sys-
tem clock and choose Recording Devices. This opens
the Recording tab of Windows "Sound". Follow the steps
on our instructions for Windows "Sound" to show then
enable all disconnected and disabled recording devices.
Many new Windows laptop, notebook or netbook com-
puters only have a single audio input port. This will often
be a mono port only meant for microphones. On some
machines this single port may also be able to accept
stereo line level input which is essential to record from
standalone cassette decks or home audio systems. How-
ever the stereo quality or separation may be poor. See "
How to connect your equipment " before connecting high
output devices to a sole input. See also:
• Can Audacity record YouTube, internet radio or
other streaming audio?
back to top
3.15.2 How can I prevent clicky recordings
on Mac?
There are several possible fixes.
• Open Recording Preferences and adjust the "Au-
dio to Buffer" setting. Reduce the setting to 0 mil-
liseconds. If recording breaks up or does not start,
increase "Audio to Buffer" in increments of 10 mil-
liseconds until recording is smooth.
• If you are recording from an external
USB or Firewire interface, open /Applica-
tions/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup and select the de-
vice. On the Input tab, make sure that the sample
rate and number of channels matches with those
chosen in Audacity.
• Turn off WiFi.
• Mitigate power saving features in Mavericks or later
that can interfere with recordings.
– Right-click or Control-click Audacity.app then
"Get Info" and enable the "Prevent App Nap"
checkbox. This should prevent the Mac putting
Audacity into a paused state when it does not
have focus.
– A few users have reported that Antipop helps.
This prevents the Mac shutting down the audio
system when there is no playback.
See also:
• Why is my new track out of sync with the previous
ones, or sounds crackly or at wrong pitch?
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
3.15.3 Why can’t Audacity see the audio
device I just connected?
Built-in audio devicesGenerally, if you connect a cable
to one of the inputs of the built-in audio device, Audacity
will be able to record immediately from that device. If not,
on Windows go to the "Sound" control panel and make
sure the device is enabled. On Mac, you can configure
devices in /Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup.app.
On Linux systems that use PulseAudio, install and open
PulseAudio Volume Control. Restart Audacity after mak-
ing changes to system audio. On systems with only one
audio port for both input and output, you may need to
change the output to an input. On Windows you can
do that in the soundcard’s own control panel. On Mac,
use the Input tab of "Sound" in System Preferences and
change the “Use audio port for:" menu to "Sound Input".
External audio devicesAudacity does not automatically
search for new external playback or recording devices
(such as headsets, turntables or microphones that con-
nect by USB cable) if you connect these while Audacity
is already running. To solve this, make sure the device
is detected by the operating system , then either restart
Audacity or use Transport > Rescan Audio Devices in the
Audacity Menu Bar .
For most larger audio interfaces it is essential that
you install the latest drivers and/or firmware for your oper-
ating system from the interface manufacturer’s site. Oth-
erwise, the device may not be detected or may not work
correctly. See also:
• Why do I get "Error while opening sound device"?
• Why is my new track out of sync with the previous
ones, or sounds crackly or at wrong pitch?
• Can I record from a multi-channel device (more
than stereo)?
back to top
3.15.4 Why can’t I hear what I’m record-
ing?
To listen while Audacity is recording, enable what is
known as software or hardware playthrough as explained
below. If you use software playthrough and want to listen
to the input without recording it, you must also left-click
in the Recording Meter Toolbar to turn on monitoring . In
the Recording section on the left, put a checkmark in the
“Software Playthrough” box and click OK. You can also
turn Software Playthrough on and off in the Transport >
Transport Options menu. This type of playthrough has
latency, so you will hear what you are recording a notice-
able time afterwards. You could also experience audio
breakup.
3.15. FAQ:RECORDING - TROUBLESHOOTING
For professional multi-track recordings you may find that
Audacity’s Software Playthrough has unacceptable la-
tency.
• If the computer’s built-in sound device lacks hard-
ware playthrough, you can buy an external USB or
Firewire device and hardware monitor through its
headphones jack with near zero latency.
• Alternatively, lower latency software playthrough
may be possible using the computer sound device.
For details, see our Tutorial - Recording Multi-track Over-
dubs . See also:
• Why have I lost sound after connecting a USB de-
vice on Windows?
back to top
3.15.5 Why is there a delay or echo when
listening to what I am recording?
Software playthrough usually causes a delay (latency)
of the live recording input due to the time it takes to
reach your headphones. To prevent this, turn software
playthrough off. This can be done most conveniently
by choosing Transport > Transport Options > Software
Playthrough (on/off) and clicking it to remove the check
(tick) mark. To listen to the live recording input without
playthrough latency requires hardware monitoring - that
is; the input signal must be routed directly through the
audio device from the input to the output rather than be-
ing passed through software from input to output. En-
abling hardware monitoring is not possible with all au-
dio devices. In particular it can only be achieved when
the same device is used for input and output. For exam-
ple, monitoring a USB microphone through headphones
that are plugged into a different audio device will always
have latency. If hardware playthrough is not available
with your hardware it may be necessary to listen to the
audio source directly (acoustically) rather than through
the computer. For some typical examples of how to set
up equipment to record without playthrough latency, see
this Tutorial about Recording overdubs .
back to top
3.15.6 Why do my recordings fade out or
sound as if they were made in a tun-
nel?
This issue can occur on newer Windows machines and
can occasionally occur on newer Mac computers. These
and other symptoms can also occur on other machines
131
if the sound device is applying an effect or a corrective
enhancement.
• If the recording is fading out after a few seconds,
look for a "Noise Suppression" setting you can
turn off in the Recording side of the sound device
settings.
• If the recording sounds like it was made in a tun-
nel, look for an "Echo Cancellation" setting you
can turn off.
– If there is no echo cancellation setting or it
does not help, look for "Environment" sound
effects in the Playback side of the sound
device settings - these will affect recordings
of computer playback and sometimes other
recordings too.
To change settings on Windows:
1. Right-click over the Speaker icon by the system
clock then choose Recording Devices to open the
Recording tab of "Sound"
2. Right-click over Microphone (or whatever device
you are recording from) and choose Properties
3. There will probably be an Enhancements tab where
you can disable all or selected "Sound Effects" - if
needs be, also look in the Levels or Custom tabs
4. You may also need to change or disable environ-
ment settings. To check settings, click the Play-
back tab in the main window of "Sound", right-click
over Speakers, choose Properties then click the
Enhancements tab.
If there are no settings to change, or on older versions
of Windows, go to the "Sound" or similar section of the
Windows Control Panel and look for a custom control
panel for your sound device. On Mac:
1. Navigate Apple Menu > System Preferences >
Hardware > Sound
2. Choose the "Input" tab and ensure that "Use ambi-
ent noise reduction" is unchecked. You may have to
select the built-in internal microphone to make this
checkbox visible. If checked, it may apply effects to
external microphones as well as the internal micro-
phone.
Unwanted fading or poor quality can sometimes be
caused by inappropriate or outdated sound device
drivers. For help, see our Wiki page Updating Sound De-
vice Drivers. See also:
• Why does playback go quiet when I record or adjust
the recording volume?
back to top
132
3.15.7 Why is my new track out of sync
with the previous ones, or sounds
crackly or at wrong pitch?
When you make an overdub recording (listening to an ex-
isting track while recording a new one), computers can-
not lay down what you record at the exact instant you
sing or play in response to the beat. Therefore without
intervention, the recording inevitably gets laid down after
the beat. Audacity tries to correct for this "recording la-
tency" automatically by pushing the recorded track back-
wards after recording stops, but further adjustment may
be needed. If a new track is not synchronized with the
others, you can zoom in and use Time Shift Tool ( short-
cut F5 ) to drag the track to the correct location. If you are
doing a lot of overdubbing, try our Latency Test to set a
custom value for Audacity’s latency correction which can
then be applied in Recording Preferences .
Tutorial - Recording Multi-track Overdubs gives a step-
by-step guide for manually correcting for latency. Record-
ing while playing is much more demanding for the sound
device than simply recording. Hardware and sound driver
problems or sample rate mismatches between Audac-
ity, the operating system and the sound device can cause
poor audio quality or make tracks play and record at dif-
ferent speeds. If a new track is being recorded at a differ-
ent speed, it will progressively drift apart from the beat of
the other tracks, so latency correction will never synchro-
nize it correctly along its entire length. To fix speed drift,
pitch and quality problems, try the following tips.
• Use the same device for playback and recording.
• Ensure your sound device has up-to-date drivers
specifically intended for your particular computer
model and operating system, as provided by the
motherboard or sound device manufacturer. En-
sure USB or Firewire devices have the manufac-
turer’s latest firmware.
• If you hear crackling while playing and recording at
the same time, try increasing the "Audio to buffer"
setting in Recording Preferences . On Mac you may
need to reduce the Audio to buffer setting, even if
only recording.
• If crackling occurs while playing the tracks together,
check if the Playback Meter’s red clipping warn-
ing is showing, which would indicate the combined
volume of the tracks is too loud. To fix the clipping,
use the gain sliders on one or more tracks to reduce
the overall level.
• Make sure the rate of the pre-existing tracks (as
stated above the mute/solo buttons) is the same as
the project rate. Select the tracks and click Tracks
> Resample... to resample the track to the project
rate.
• Set the Project Rate bottom left of the Audacity
screen to 44100 Hz (or if your soundcard only uses
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
a particular rate such as 48000 Hz, set the project
rate to that). Look at Help > Audio Device Info... to
see the rates the device claims to support.
• If you are recording with a USB or Firewire inter-
face, sample rates and number of recording chan-
nels must be the same everywhere. Match the
Audacity project rate and the number of recording
channels set in the Audacity preferences with those
specified:
– in the Windows Control Panel or Apple Audio
MIDI Setup
– in any software control panel the device has
– on any hardware control the device has.
• Ensure your USB device is connected to a spare
USB port of the computer and not to a USB hub.
• If you are on Windows:
– Set the Audacity project rate to the same rate
as the Default Format for your sound device.
To view the "Default Format", go to the Win-
dows Control Panel, select the Playback" and
"Recording" tabs in turn, right-click over a de-
vice entry > Properties, and look in the "Ad-
vanced" tab. If the playback and recording for-
mat rates are different, make them the same.
Also make sure the number of recording chan-
nels set in the Audacity Preferences matches
with that specified in Default Format.
– If that does not help, select Windows Direct-
Sound as the "host" in Device Toolbar in Au-
dacity. On the "Advanced" tab of "Sound"
in the Windows Control Panel, ensure both
boxes for Exclusive Mode are checked. For
this to work, the Audacity project rate must be
a rate supported by your device and all other
sample rate settings must be at that same
rate.
• If you suspect recording dropouts as the cause of
loss of synchronization, read our tips about manag-
ing computer resources.
To fix recordings already made which are out of step with
other tracks, you can use Effect > Change Speed... .
Only a very modest speed change will be needed. back
to top
3.15.8 Why can’t I record my electronic
keyboard or electronic instrument
using the USB cable?
The USB connection on electronic keyboards, pianos,
drum machines or other electronic instruments is often a
MIDI connection containing instructions with which MIDI
3.15. FAQ:RECORDING - TROUBLESHOOTING
software like Finale or Cubase can create notes of spe-
cific pitch and duration. Audacity cannot yet accept MIDI
input, so it can only record an audio signal (the actual
sound that the keyboard produces). If your keyboard
manual says you can send audio over USB but there is
a problem, try tightening or replacing the USB cable, en-
sure it is connected directly to a spare USB port on the
computer, then restart Audacity or the computer. In the
absence of a USB audio output:
• connect from the AUX or Line outputs of the key-
board to the line-in (blue) port of the computer
• if there is no AUX or Line output, connect from the
headphones out of the keyboard to computer line-
in
• record using a high quality microphone - see
Connecting a Microphone
• some keyboards may have a function to record di-
rect to a USB flash or hard drive - choose WAV for-
mat if available if you want to edit the recordings in
Audacity.
Connecting from headphones out will disconnect the key-
board speakers. In this case you can use an adaptor
that doubles the headphones out, or enable Transport >
Transport Options > Software Playthrough (on/off) in Au-
dacity to listen as you record. See Tutorial - Connect-
ing an Instrument for details and images of suitable au-
dio connectors.Many new laptop computers these days
only come with a mono "microphone" (pink) input which
will distort if you connect a keyboard to it. Occasionally
the pink input can be switched to stereo line level in the
audio control panel or may be "compatible" with stereo
line level (this may not be of highest quality). Check
your computer manual or experiment connecting from the
keyboard headphones out with the volume turned well
down. However in most cases it is preferable to pur-
chase a USB interface with line level input instead. See
also:
• Why can’t I play MIDI files?
back to top
3.15.9 Why doesn’t recording from
YouTube (or other streaming audio)
work?
See this tutorial: Recording audio playing on the com-
puter . Rather than recording YouTube videos as they
play, consider downloading the YouTube videos directly.
Search Google or other search portal for how to do that.
back to top
133
3.15.10 Why do I get crackles, pops, or
distortion when the recording is
loud?
If you hear crackles, pops, or distortion when the record-
ing is loud, or if the waveform is clearly touching the top
and bottom edges of the track, you probably have clipping
, which means that the signal has exceeded the maxi-
mum allowed level. Try lowering the recording level using
the Audacity Mixer Toolbar or the slider in the operating
system. You can also check to see if you can lower the
volume on the input source itself (such as the tape deck,
record player or microphone). Many soundcards and
USB turntables or USB tape decks have an independent
volume control for the playback signal level. See Record-
ing with USB turntables or USB cassette decks for more
help with USB turntables or tape decks. When record-
ing, try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6 dB
in the Recording Meter so as to prevent the meter’s red
clipping warning coming on. If the meters are set to lin-
ear , the equivalent level to aim for is 0.5. Clicking and
dragging on the meter’s right edge lets you expand the
meter to gauge levels more easily. After recording, you
can boost the level safely using the Amplify or Normal-
ize effects. Help with repairing clipped recordings: If
there is only a small amount of clipping (just the tops
of a few isolated peaks), Effect > Clip Fix can be applied
to just the clipped sections. This will attempt to recon-
struct the missing peaks by interpolating the lost sig-
nal. In other cases where there is mild distortion through-
out a recording, using Effect > Equalization... to reduce
the higher frequencies can help to mitigate the damage.
Sometimes a bass cut will help also by making the result
sound less "muddy". If you are recording overdubs , note
that when multiple tracks are mixed together their volume
is combined. This may make the mix clip, even if the indi-
vidual tracks did not. To fix it, use the gain sliders on one
or more tracks to reduce the overall level. See also:
• Why is the Audacity recording slider grayed out on
maximum?
back to top
3.15.11 Why do I see a lot of vertical red
lines in the track I just recorded?
This is a visual indication that your recording has clipping
. See the immediately previous FAQ above. The vertical
red lines show where the clipping has occurred; these
clipping indicators can be turned on and off (Audacity de-
fault setting is "off") by selecting View > Show Clipping
.
back to top
134
3.15.12 Why is the Audacity recording
slider grayed out on maximum?
The recording slider in Mixer Toolbar is purposely dis-
abled if it cannot directly manipulate the operating sys-
tem’s slider for the sound device, or if that device has no
system slider. Turning down the Audacity slider to pre-
vent distortion would be inadequate unless it also turned
down the system slider. It would only make existing dis-
tortion quieter instead of removing it. If the slider is dis-
abled, check first in Device Toolbar that you are selecting
the correct device. Audacity should be able to control the
recording level of most built-in sound devices subject to
the device having appropriate Sound Device Drivers. If
necessary look in the operating system mixer or in the
soundcard’s control panel for an input slider. To locate
the system mixer see the help on our Wiki for Windows,
Mac or Linux. External recording devices such as USB
turntables or interfaces may not have an operating sys-
tem slider, especially on Mac. For all cases where there
is no system slider, try to adjust the playback level on the
recording device itself. See also:
Why do I get crackles, pops, or distortion when the
recording is loud?
back to top
3.15.13 How can I record without small
skips or duplications?
If it sounds like recording is skipping, or small fragments
are sometimes missing, this means that Audacity cannot
write the audio to disk fast enough to keep up with what
it’s recording. You may not hear skips while listening dur-
ing the recording, but you will hear them on playback.
Audacity settings
• Reduce screen redrawing: Zoom out to at least
the entire length you’ll be recording, or in Tracks
Preferences , uncheck Update display when
Recording/Playback head is unpinned:. Turn off
View > Show Clipping while recording. Minimize
the Audacity window whenever you have no need
to see it.
• Turn off Transport > Transport Options > Soft-
ware Playthrough (on/off) unless it is essential
you hear what is being recorded.
• Increase the default "Audio to buffer" setting of
100 milliseconds in Recording Preferences .
On Mac using Mavericks or later, it may be necessary to
reduce audio to buffer, possibly to zero.
• Reduce the amount of audio data being writ-
ten: Choose 16-bit Sample Format in Quality Pref-
erences and set recording channels to mono in De-
vice Toolbar (unless you need stereo). Either of
these actions halves the amount of data Audacity
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
otherwise has to write. A single instrument or solo
vocal should usually be recorded in mono and can
be panned in the stereo field later using Audio Track
Dropdown Menu .
• Use a local drive with sufficient space: Set the
path to the Audacity temporary directory to a local
hard drive because these are usually faster than ex-
ternal USB drives. Choose the local drive with the
most space. Audacity tells you how much longer
you can record for (based on available disk space)
in the Status Bar at the bottom of the window.
Computer and hardwareThere are many possible ac-
tions you can take. Some may have no effect on a skip-
ping problem, others may have a cumulative beneficial
effect, so try them all.
• Quit as many other other applications or processes
as possible. In particular, stop anti-virus applica-
tions scanning the Audacity Temporary Directory .
Disconnect from the internet.
• On Windows, regularly defragment your hard disk
drive (this should happen automatically on Win-
dows, but do not schedule defragmentation dur-
ing a recording). Disable Windows Update while
recording. Consider creating hardware or software
profiles that load only essential hardware and ser-
vices for a recording session.
• Set Audacity to a higher priority in the operating
system.
• If you are using a USB recording device. connect
directly to a USB port, not a hub.
• Whatever the audio device, ensure it has the latest
drivers as supplied by the motherboard or device
manufacturer (as appropriate).
• A faster processor or more RAM could help solve
the problem.
• Set DMA mode for the hard drive on Windows and
Linux, hardware acceleration for the video card and
avoid soundcard interrupt sharing.
More detailed advice on addressing computer and hard-
ware issues can be found at Managing Computer Re-
sources and Drivers on the Audacity Wiki. back to top
3.15.14 Why does my recording keep paus-
ing automatically or why is my
recording cursor stuck?
The recording cursor can legitimately appear to be stuck
in Audacity if you have accidentally enabled Sound Ac-
tivated Recording in the Transport Menu and the cur-
rent recording input is below the threshold level at which
recording is set to start. You can tell this is the case be-
cause the blue Pause button will be depressed after you
3.15. FAQ:RECORDING - TROUBLESHOOTING
press Record. To disable Sound Activated Recording,
click the Transport menu and uncheck Sound Activated
Recording (on/off). To make a Sound Activated record-
ing commence, increase the recording level, or reduce
the "Activation level" at Transport > Transport Otions >
Sound Activation Level.... Out of resourcesIf you have
not activated Sound Activated Recording and the red
recording cursor will not move from the position where
you start to record or stalls while recording, this usually
means you are out of computer resources. Rebooting
the computer may solve the problem. Note: Windows 8
and later default to shut down performing a "hybrid boot"
that retains the kernel session in memory, so producing
a "Fast Startup". When you want to replenish resources
you should do a traditional "cold boot" (full shutdown)
instead, waiting a few seconds after shutting down be-
fore powering on the computer. Leaving Fast Startup
enabled, you can cold boot by holding Shift while click-
ing the "Shut down" menu option from the Start Menu,
Start Screen or Win + X menu (on Windows 8.1 only,
unmodified click on "Shut Down" in the Win + X menu al-
ways performs a full shutdown). If preferred you can turn
off Fast Startup at Control Panel (icons view) > Power
Options > Choose what the power button does then any
Shut Down menu item will cold boot. For an in-depth ap-
proach to resolving resources problems, see Managing
Computer Resources and Drivers in the Audacity Wiki.
Preferences
• Check the "Audio to buffer" setting by opening
Recording Preferences . Buffer should normally be
set to the default of 100 milliseconds. Very low set-
tings will prevent recording starting.
• Other non-default settings such as excessive
Project Rate could prevent recording starting. It can
sometimes help to completely reset preferences .
USB turntables and tape decksReports of recordings
from USB turntables freezing or having dropouts are not
that uncommon. Generally they are not caused by Au-
dacity, but by poor quality equipment and cables, or lack
of sufficient USB bandwidth.
• Check the Project Rate bottom left of the Audacity
screen is set to either 44100 or 48000 Hz - setting
a very high rate might overload the USB bandwidth
and cause transmission problems
• Check the USB cable for tightness at both ends and
try using a different cable instead
• Always use a spare USB port, not a hub
• Limit USB bandwidth whilst recording by using
other USB devices sparingly e.g. simply discon-
necting from the internet may help if you use a USB
modem for internet access.
• Check for any system warnings (e.g. in Device
Manager in Windows) about the Universal Serial
Bus Controllers.
135
• There have been isolated reports that recordings
freeze up if they are attempted whilst the unit’s RCA
cables are connected to an external input such as
a home stereo, although concurrent recording and
playing through external equipment is implied as
being possible.
Generally, if you find you can record into Audacity without
interruption from another source such as a microphone
plugged into your computer’s microphone port, this im-
plicates the turntable or USB cable. To check if other
sources record satisfactorily, go to Device Toolbar and
change the Recording Device to your inbuilt sound. If
recordings from sources other than the turntable are also
freezing or have dropouts, there could be problems with
insufficient computer resources, see above. Please see
the Managing Computer Resources and Drivers page in
the Audacity Wiki for tips on correcting this. If you’re us-
ing "software playthrough", it’s also possible that prob-
lems with your inbuilt sound device (used to play back
your recording whilst you are making it) are disrupting the
recording. Please look at our list of tips on the Updating
Sound Device Drivers Wiki page for help.
back to top
3.15.15 Why do I get only a flat line and no
sound when I try to record?
If the red recording cursor moves across the screen but
no waveform is drawn behind it (only a flat line), you need
to start from the beginning and set up your recording
device and input source properly. Step 1: input de-
viceSelect the Recording Device you are using (such
as microphone or line-in) in the dropdown selector of
the Audacity Device Toolbar . The dropdown selector
you need is the one with the microphone icon.If you are
plugging a microphone or line-in input directly into the
jacks on the computer, or recording computer playback
such as internet radio, choose the name of the built-in
sound device or soundcard. By default, Windows only
enables the microphone input. You must exit Audac-
ity, then go to "Sound" in the Windows Control Panel to
show and enable other inputs before you can record from
them. Instructions can be found here in the Wiki.If you
are connecting an external device to the computer, such
as a USB soundcard, USB microphone or USB turntable,
choose "USB Audio Codec" or similar. Detecting USB
and Firewire devices:If Audacity does not recognize the
device, try exiting Audacity and relaunching it, or in cur-
rent Audacity choose Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
. If that does not help, use the following steps.
1. Exit Audacity.
2. Unplug all other USB devices, then switch off and
unplug the recording device at the USB connection
and at the mains (on Windows, use the "Safely Re-
move Hardware" icon in the System Tray).
136
3. Plug the recording device into a spare USB port
(not a USB hub), and switch it on.
4. Wait a few minutes then completely shut down the
computer and restart it. On Windows 8 or later
you should disable hybrid boot (or Shift-click on the
"Shut down" choice, or on Windows 8.1 only, use
Windows key and X, then "Shut down") to ensure
the USB drivers are fully re-initialized.
5. When the computer has finished rebooting, launch
Audacity.
6. If Audacity still does not recognize the device, try
another USB cable, or a different empty USB port,
then repeat steps 1 to 5.
Setting sample rates for USB or Firewire inter-
faces:It’s important to set the same sample rate in the
project rate bottom left of the Audacity window, in the op-
erating system mixer, in any settings in the device’s con-
trol panel and on any controls on the device itself.Step
2: playback deviceAlso in the dropdown selector of the
Audacity Device Toolbar select the playback device you
are using, usually this will be your computer’s on-board
soundcard. The dropdown selector you need this time is
the one with the loudspeaker icon.Step 3: channelsIn
the Audacity Device Toolbar set the Recording Chan-
nels to 1 (mono) or 2 (stereo) as required. Step 4:
recording signal levelIn the Mixer Toolbar , adjust the
recording level using the recording slider (the one that
has the "microphone" symbol) in conjunction with the
Recording Meter level to set the correct recording level
before starting to record for real. If the Audacity recording
slider does not control the recording level of the device,
use the slider in the operating system instead. This is
usually accessed by a loudspeaker icon near the system
clock. Further Help
• Recording source unavailable/unselectable, or
records incorrectly: Try selecting it instead in the
system mixer - see the help for Windows, OS X or
Linux.
• Recording computer playback: See the special
help for Windows , Mac or Linux .
back to top
3.15.16 Why do I get a periodic noise every
6 - 12 seconds when recording?
Audacity writes to disk roughly every 6 or 12 seconds, de-
pending on your preferences settings. If you hear a funny
noise in the background that’s relatively consistent every
6 - 12 seconds, it means that your soundcard is picking
up the noise from your hard drive. See Improving record-
ing quality in the Audacity Wiki, because you’ll probably
need to find a better driver or upgrade your hardware.
Also consider however if a security application could be
scanning Audacity’s disk writes. If so, the noise could
CHAPTER 3. THE FAQS
come from increased CPU activity as a result of the scan.
You should not turn off security applications unless you
are disconnected from the internet, but you may be able
to add an exception to the application so that it does not
scan Audacity or its temporary folder .
back to top
3.15.17 How can I prevent a half-volume
mono recording?
This can occur when connecting to one channel only of
a device that has separate left and right channel inputs.
Recording in mono will often result in a half-volume track
that cannot be made louder without adding distortion. If
this happens:
1. Record in stereo using Device Toolbar
2. After recording, use the Audio Track Dropdown
Menu to "Split Stereo to Mono"
3. Use the track Close button [X] top left of the upper
track to close the silent track. The remaining mono
track will play out of both speakers.
back to top
3.15.18 How can I prevent unbalanced or
poorly separated stereo record-
ing?
Ensure Audacity is set to record in stereo using Device
Toolbar . Your recorded track will then say "Stereo" in its
Track Control Panel and two channels, left above right,
will be displayed when you press the Record button.
Also ensure that the Recording Device is set in the sys-
tem mixer to record in stereo and that the left and right
channels are balanced.
• On Windows, access the recording section of
Sound or Sounds and Audio Devices in the Win-
dows Control Panel. This is usually accessed by
right-clicking over the speaker icon by the system
clock. On Windows, devices often default to mono,
which will lead to identical left and right channels in
Audacity.
• On Mac go to Applications > Utilities > Audio-MIDI
Setup: Audio Devices.
Ensure that any balance controls on your mixer, amplifier
or record player/cassette deck are centrally placed. For
non-USB recordings, make sure you are using a clean,
tightly connected stereo plug. Ensure that the computer
port you are connecting to is stereo. Most microphone
ports are mono. A laptop that only has a single input
will usually offer only low quality, poorly separated stereo
when using a stereo plug. You can buy modestly priced,
decent quality USB interfaces with line level stereo input
3.15. FAQ:RECORDING - TROUBLESHOOTING
if needs be. If your source is mono but Audacity is set
to record in stereo, it is often best to change Audacity
to record in mono using Device Toolbar. Otherwise, you
may have a silent right channel (or sometimes two iden-
tical channels, according to the sound device). back to
top
3.15.19 How can I correct an unbalanced
stereo recording?
If you cannot prevent the imbalance at the input stage,
you can correct a stereo imbalance using the Normalize
effect after the recording has been made.
1. In Audacity, click the Track Control Panel where it
says "Stereo" to select all the audio of the track,
then click Effect > Normalize... .
2. In the dialog box, put a check mark in Normalize
maximum amplitude to: and type the amplitude
level you require (-6 dB is a good choice if you have
further editing to do).
3. Put a check mark in Normalize stereo channels
independently. Then press the OK button.
This will adjust the volume of each channel indepen-
dently so that both have the same maximum (peak) level
(in our example, the peak is 6 dB less than the distortion
level). Custom balancingSometimes the track may still
sound louder in one channel than the other, even after
normalizing. This usually happens because of the con-
tent. For example, one channel may have more deep
bass sounds which are naturally louder, or one chan-
nel may be mostly quiet but have one loud peak. To
adjust each channel to its own peak volume, click the
downward-pointing arrow in the Track Control Panel to
open the Audio Track Dropdown Menu then choose "Split
Stereo Track". Click on "Left" in the Track Control Panel
of the upper track to select it, then use Effect > Amplify...
and choose your required New Peak Amplitude . Click
OK, then amplify the right channel to your chosen New
Peak Amplitude. To rejoin the channels into one track,
use the Track Dropdown Menu again and choose "Make
Stereo Track". Custom rebalancing can also be carried
out during playback while the track is split into two chan-
nels, using the Gain Slider
137
on each channel. This method can lead to distortion,
so check that the Playback Meter does not show the red
clipping indicator. As soon as you are happy that the
balance, use Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render to render
the gain changes and rejoin the stereo track. If the sound
remains unbalanced due to a few loud peaks, you could
instead use Effect > Compressor... on the unsplit stereo
track to reduce the difference between loud and soft.
back to top
3.15.20 Why is the recorded waveform not
centered on the horizontal line at
0.0?
Cause and impactThis off-setting of a signal from zero
is known as DC offset . A signal with DC offset would ap-
pear in the Audacity default Waveform view as not cen-
tered on the 0.0 horizontal line. A sound that has DC
offset will not be at its loudest possible volume when
normalized or amplified (because the offset consumes
headroom ). This problem can possibly extend to the mix
as a whole, because a sound with DC offset and a sound
without DC offset will have DC offset when mixed. DC
offset can cause clicks at the start and end of the audio
or audible distortion after running effects. DC offset can
also cause inaudible low level distortion which becomes
audible after applying a filter or if the audio is exported
to a compressed audio format . RemovalYou can use
Effect > Normalize... to remove DC offset. Put a check
mark in the Remove any DC offset... box but leave
the Normalize maximum amplitude.. box unchecked
and then press the OK button. Hardware upgradeThe
usual cause of DC offset is a faulty or inadequate sound-
card. It may be worthwhile considering upgrading your
computer’s built-in soundcard or purchasing an external
soundcard. However recent built-in soundcards on Win-
dows machines sometimes have a DC offset cancellation
control which can be set for each input.
back to top
> Forward To: FAQ:Recording - How To’s
> Back To: FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plug-Ins
|< Index of Frequently Asked Questions
Chapter 4

Toolbars

4.1 Toolbars Overview

Toolbars provide quick access to many functions in Au-
dacity. In some cases the functions provided by a tool-
bar are available only through that toolbar. Other than
the Spectral Selection Toolbar and the Scrub Toolbar , all
toolbars are enabled by default. If your desired toolbar
is not visible, choose View > Toolbars and click to put a
checkmark by the toolbar you wish to enable.
• The Meter toolbars are a special case. You may
have one or both of the separate Recording and
Playback Meter toolbars visible (both are visible by
default). Alternatively you can have only the Com-
bined Meter Toolbar visible (which displays record-
ing and playback levels in a single meter).
• The tooltips for the toolbars and tools (visible when
hovering over the toobar or tool) will display the
shortcut for that tool/toolbar if one is set.
4.1.1 Toolbar dock areas
There are two dock areas for toolbars in Audacity. By de-
fault, most of the Audacity toolbars are in the upper dock,
with only the Selection Toolbar in the lower dock. Tool-
bars can be arranged and resized within either of the two
docks, or floated free of the docks.

Hover over each green-bordered toolbar in the dock images to learn more then click to go to that toolbar’s details
page. Or jump to the brief toolbar descriptions .

Upper Toolbar dock area

Lower Toolbar dock area Toolbar from the View Menu (it is not shown by default)
then it will also be shown in the Lower Toolbar dock area.
The image of the Selection Toolbar shown in this exam-
ple has non-default settings for the selection formats .

Additionally if you choose to show the Spectral Selection

138
4.1. TOOLBARS OVERVIEW
4.1.2 The Toolbars
The individual toolbars are described briefly below. Click
on any toolbar image to go the details page for that tool-
bar.
Transport Toolbar
• Controls playback and recording and skips to start
or end of project when neither playing or recording.
Tools Toolbar
• Chooses various tools for selection, volume adjust-
ment, zooming and time-shifting of audio.
Recording Meter Toolbar
• Displays recording levels and toggles input monitor-
ing when not recording. Note the two vertical bars
at the right of this toolbar which mean that this tool-
bar can be resized by clicking and dragging on the
bars.
Playback Meter Toolbar
• Displays playback levels. Note the two vertical bars
at the right of this toolbar which mean that this tool-
bar can be resized by clicking and dragging on the
bars.
139
Mixer Toolbar
• Adjusts the recording and playback volumes of the
devices currently selected in Device Toolbar .
Edit Toolbar
• Cut, copy, paste, trim audio, silence audio, undo,
redo, four zoom tools.
Transcription Toolbar
• Plays audio at a slower or faster speed than nor-
mal, affecting pitch.
Scrub Toolbar
• Starts, stops or switches to Scrub play or Seek play,
and hides or displays the Scrub Ruler.
• This toolbar is not shown by default. Select View >
Toolbars > Scrub Toolbar to show the toolbar, which
by default docks in the upper dock.
Device Toolbar
• Selects audio host, recording device, number of
recording channels and playback device.Note the
two vertical bars at the right of this toolbar which
mean that this toolbar can be resized by clicking
and dragging on the bars.
Selection Toolbar
• Controls the sample rate of the project, snapping
to the selection format and adjusts cursor and re-
gion position by keyboard input.The default position
of Selection Toolbar is at the bottom of the main Au-
dacity window, thus it is not visible in the Toolbars
image at the top of this page.
140
Spectral Selection Toolbar
• Displays and lets you adjust the current spectral
(frequency) selection without having to be in Spec-
trogram view .
• This toolbar is not shown by default. Select View >
Toolbars > Spectral Selection Toolbar to show the
toolbar, which by default docks in the lower dock,
beside or under Selection Toolbar .
• Choose your preferred format option from the drop-
down menu above the boxes: Center frequency
and Width or Low and High Frequencies . with the Recording Meter dragged wider:
In Center frequency and Width view, to clear the spec-
tral selection entirely just use the Delete key after having
clicked on any of the digits (note carefully that this is not
the Delete key on the numerical keypad). When in Low
and High Frequencies view you can clear either input box
individually with the Delete key.
4.1.3 Arranging and resizing Toolbars
Toolbars can be docked in two toolbar areas of the Au-
dacity Project window, providing there is space available:
either above the Timeline , or above the Status Bar at the
bottom of the window (Selection Toolbar is in this loca-
tion by default). Toolbars may also be floated anywhere
4.2 Transport Toolbar
Transport Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback,
recording and for moving to the project start or end. The
buttons can also be controlled with keyboard shortcuts .
Click on the toolbar image below to see this toolbar dis-
played in context of the default upper tooldock layout.
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
else in or outside the project window, including on a sec-
ondary monitor. The toolbar positions on exiting Audacity
are always remembered when restarting Audacity next
time. Toolbars can be docked or floated by dragging on
their serrated left edge. When docking a toolbar into a
toolbar area, a black triangle will appear, indicating an
available docking position. The default toolbar docked
positions can be restored at any time by clicking View >
Toolbars > Reset Toolbars . Some of the Toolbars can be
resized (the Meter Toolbars and the Device Toolbar) by
clicking and dragging on the vertical bars at the right of
the toolbars. If you change your mind part way through
a drag or a resize of a toolbar you can simply use the
Escape key Esc to abort the action. The image below
shows Mixer Toolbar being docked to the right of De-
vice Toolbar:
The image below shows the Transport and Recording
Meter toolbars floated outside the Project window,
4.2.1 Pause Transport > Pause or P
Click Pause to temporarily pause playing or recording
without losing your place. Click Pause a second time to
resume. You can also click Pause before clicking Record,
then click Pause again to start recording. On some sys-
tems or devices, "arming" recording in this way with the
stream already open might start recording more quickly.
Note that in earlier versions of Audacity while you were in
Pause mode, editing and other commands were grayed
out and unavailable except for Real-time preview effects .
This has now changed so that invoking an edit command
4.3. DEVICE TOOLBAR
while paused will stop playback and call the command.
4.2.2 Play Transport > Play/Stop or
Space
You can press Play when there is already playback or
when playback is paused to restart playback immedi-
ately from the editing cursor or selection. Play: play-
back begins wherever the editing cursor is. Otherwise, if
an area of track is selected , only that selection will be
played. Loop Play: play the track or selection over and
over until you stop. Hold down Shift while clicking Play.
This causes the button image to change to Loop Play
. You can use the Shift + Space shortcut to start Loop
Play instead. Play Cut Preview: play audio either side
of a selection to preview what deleting the selection will
sound like. Hold down Ctrl (CloverLeaf on Mac) while
clicking Play. Alternatively you can use the C shortcut to
preview the cut. This also causes the Play button image
to change to Play Cut Preview.The Play button in Trans-
port Toolbar plays at standard speed, or as speeded up
or slowed down over time by adding a Time Track enve-
lope. The easiest way to play at a fixed faster or slower
speed is to use Transcription Toolbar .
4.2.3 Stop Transport > Play/Stop or
Space
Stops playing or recording immediately, and releases
Pause if depressed. You must stop playback or recording
before you can use the "Skip" buttons below. Use Trans-
port > Play/Stop and Set Cursor (or its shortcut X) to stop
and set the cursor at the stop point.
4.3 Device Toolbar
Device Toolbar provides an easy way to select your
required combination of audio host, recording device,
recording channels and playback device, without having
to open Devices Preferences . Click on the toolbar im-
age below to see this toolbar displayed in context of the
default upper tooldock layout.
Device Toolbar grays out when playing, recording or
paused. You cannot change device choices while the de-
vice is in use.
141
4.2.4 Skip to Start Transport > Skip to
Start or Home
Move the cursor to the beginning of the project. This is
useful if you want to play everything, or record a new
track starting from the beginning.
4.2.5 Skip to End Transport > Skip to
End or End
Move the cursor to the end of the project.
• Holding down Shift while clicking Skip to Start ex-
tends a selection region from the cursor position or
current selection region to the start of the project.
• Holding down Shift while clicking Skip to End sim-
ilarly extends a selection region to the end of the
project.
4.2.6 Record Transport > Record or R
Record: Clicking Record or using the R shortcut al-
ways begins recording at the end of the currently se-
lected track(s). Record New Track: Hold down Shift
while clicking Record, or use its shortcut Shift + R, to start
recording in a new track at either the current cursor posi-
tion or at the beginning of the current selection.Any users
who had the CleanSpeech customized interface enabled
in 1.3.13 or earlier 1.3 versions of Audacity will find that
Transport Toolbar has an empty space which previously
contained the CleanSpeech button. This space can be
removed by choosing View > Toolbars > Reset Toolbars .
4.3.1 Drag Handle
Using the drag handle at right, you can expand Device
Toolbar rightwards to be wider than the default width
shown, or drag it leftwards to be less wide. You can hover
over any of the four boxes in Audacity at any time to see
the full text for the selected item.
4.3.2 Audio Host
142
Selects the particular interface with which Audacity com-
municates with your chosen playback and recording de-
vices. On Windows, the choice is between the following
audio interfaces:
• MME : This is the Audacity default and the most
compatible with all audio devices.
• Windows DirectSound : This is more recent than
MME with potentially less latency .
• Windows WASAPI : This host is the most recent
Windows interface between applications (such as
Audacity) and the soundcard driver. WASAPI was
first officially released in 2007 in Windows Vista.
WASAPI is particularly useful for "loopback" record-
ing of computer playback . 24-bit recording devices
are supported using this host. Playback is usually
emulated. As a result, the playback slider in Mixer
Toolbar will only scale the system playback slider’s
current level up or down rather than directly manip-
ulating that system slider.
On Windows:
• Windows DirectSound may by default have only
slightly lower latency than MME.
• Selecting Windows DirectSound or Windows WAS-
API and enabling both "Exclusive Mode" boxes in
Windows Sound allows Audacity to request audio
direct from the device without resampling .
On Mac the only choice is Core Audio.
On Linux there is often only one option: ALSA . Other
options could be OSS and/or Jack Audio Connection Kit
(also known as "Jack" or "Jackd").
4.3.3 Recording Device
Choose the built-in or attached sound device that you
want to use for recording. In the image above, "Mi-
crosoft Sound Mapper - Input" appears when the Win-
dows "MME" Audio Host is selected. Similarly to the
"Mapper" output, the "Mapper" input is the device that
is the current default Windows recording device. When
"Windows DirectSound" Audio Host is selected, the de-
vice that maps to the current Windows recording device
is called "Primary Sound Capture Driver". In most cases
(for example, the inbuilt computer sound device), each
entry for recording device consists of the type of device
(such as microphone), followed in parentheses by the
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
name of the soundcard manufacturer. On Mac, the in-
ternal soundcard recording inputs are usually referred to
as "Built-in". On GNU/Linux, recording is often managed
by the pulse sound server. It is normally best to select
"default". That will choose whatever is the system de-
fault soundcard or server, then choose the exact input
device required in the control application for the card or
server (such as Pulse Audio Volume Control). The (hw:)
recording devices give direct, lower latency access to the
soundcard inputs, bypassing any sound servers. For a
built-in (hw:) sound device, choose the exact inputs in
ALSAmixer. If a device only has one possible input for
selection by the computer (for example, a USB micro-
phone), only the name of the device will be listed, with no
input type.
If you attach or disconnect an external device while
Audacity is open, use Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
to update the device lists before playing or recording.
4.3.4 Recording Channels
1 (Mono), 2 (Stereo) or the number of channels that are
provided by the drivers of your sound device. On most
inbuilt sound devices, especially on Windows, only mono
or stereo will be available. For some devices on Win-
dows, choosing Windows DirectSound in "Audio Host"
above may be more likely to reveal options for recording
more than two channels. On some devices capable of
recording more than two channels, an explicit "multi" de-
vice may appear in the "Device" dropdown for recording
all the channels simultaneously.
• If your recording device is mono, such as most mi-
crophone ports for the inbuilt sound device, select-
ing "2 (Stereo)" in Recording Channels duplicates
the mono source to both channels, merely produc-
ing a dual mono recording.
• If your recording device is stereo, then as well as
setting Recording Channels to "2 (Stereo)", ensure
any settings in the system or sound device control
panels are stereo. Many input devices on Windows
default to mono recording even if they are stereo
devices. To correct this, follow these instructions.
4.4. EDIT TOOLBAR
4.3.5 Playback Device
Choose the built-in or attached sound device that you
want to use for playback. In the image above, "Microsoft
Sound Mapper - Output" appears when the Windows
"MME" Audio Host is selected. This "Mapper" device is
not a separate playback device, but is the device that is
currently chosen as the default system playback device
4.4 Edit Toolbar
These tools perform the same functions as those acces-
sible through the Edit Menu , View Menu , Tracks Menu
and keyboard shortcuts . Click on the toolbar image be-
low to see this toolbar displayed in context of the default
upper tooldock layout.
The above image shows most of the buttons active in
order to display them more clearly. However in a new
project with no audio present or selected more of the but-
tons would be grayed indicating inactive.
4.4.1 Cut Edit > Cut or Ctrl + X
Removes the selected audio data and/or labels and
places these on the clipboard. By default, any audio or
labels to right of the selection are shifted to the left.
4.4.2 Copy Edit > Copy or Ctrl + C
Copies the selected audio data and/or labels to the clip-
board without removing these from the project.
143
in the Windows Control Panel. When "Windows Direct-
Sound" Audio Host is selected, the device that maps to
the current Windows playback device is called "Primary
Sound Driver". In most other cases (for example, the
inbuilt computer sound device), each entry for playback
device consists of the type of playback device (such as
speakers), followed in parentheses by the name of the
soundcard manufacturer (such as Realtek, Soundmax or
IDT Audio). On Mac, the internal soundcard playback
device is usually referred to as "Built-in". On GNU/Linux,
playback is often managed by a sound server or mixer
such as pulse or dmix. It is normally best to select "de-
fault". This will choose whatever is the system default
playback device or server. The (hw:) playback devices
give direct, lower latency access to the soundcard out-
put, bypassing any sound servers.
4.4.3 Paste Edit > Paste or Ctrl + V
Paste either inserts the clipboard contents at the position
of the selection cursor, or replaces a selected area with
the clipboard contents. The clipboard can only contain
one item at a time, so cutting or copying to it always re-
places any previous content. However that content may
contain multiple audio tracks and/or label tracks of indef-
inite length, or multiple audio clips .
4.4.4 Trim Audio Edit > Remove Spe-
cial > Trim Audio or Ctrl + T
Trim Audio deletes all audio but the selection. If there
are other separate clips in the same track these are not
removed or shifted unless trimming the entire length of a
clip or clips. Does not affect label tracks.
4.4.5 Silence Audio Edit > Remove
Special > Silence Audio or Ctrl + L
Silence Audio replaces the currently selected audio with
absolute silence. Does not affect label tracks.
4.4.6 Undo Edit > Undo and Ctrl + Z
Reverts the last editing operation. Audacity supports un-
limited "stepwise" undo. This means you can undo every
144
editing operation back to the last time the project was
opened, but you cannot undo one particular edit without
also undoing any changes made after that edit. You can
review your editing history and jump straight back to any
particular edit point at View > History... .
4.4.7 Redo Edit > Redo or Ctrl + Y (on
Mac Shift + Ctrl + Z
Restores the previous editing operation that was just un-
done. Note: If you undo an operation then perform any
new one that appears in the Undo History , you can no
longer redo that undone operation.
4.4.8 Zoom In View > Zoom > Zoom
In or Ctrl + 1
Zooms in to a higher magnification level. You can con-
tinue to zoom in until you reach the level of displaying
individual audio samples .
4.5 Edit
The main commands for editing audio are under the Edit
Menu and the Effect Menu .
Effects and edits cannot be applied while playing,
recording or paused. If you are paused, Stop will hap-
pen automatically when you click on most menu items. If
you are playing, real-time preview effects can be opened
and playback will continue. If you are having problems
editing, have a look at the FAQ on editing which an-
swers some frequently asked questions.The most com-
mon editing actions such as Cut , Copy , Paste and
Delete also have buttons in Edit Toolbar . Effects let you
do things like boost the bass, change pitch or tempo, or
remove noise in various ways. Find the correct effect to
do what you want on the Index of Effects, Generators and
Analyzers page.
4.5.1 Edits
Audacity applies each edit to a selected region of the au-
dio track or tracks. To select a particular region, click in
the track and drag the shaded area with the mouse. If no
audio is selected, Audacity by default selects all the au-
dio in the project window. The Tutorial Editing an Existing
Audio File has more detailed information on how to edit
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
4.4.9 Zoom Out View > Zoom > Zoom
Out or Ctrl + 3
Zooms out to a lower magnification level. You can zoom
out so far as to fit 228 hours of audio on the screen.
4.4.10 Zoom Selection View > Zoom
> Zoom to Selection or Ctrl + E
Zooms a selection region in or out so that it fits in the
available horizontal window area. The button is therefore
grayed out unless a selection region is made.
4.4.11 Fit Project View > Track Size >
Fit to Width or Ctrl + F
Zooms in or out so that the entire audio of the project fits
in the available horizontal track area.
audio.
4.5.2 Effects
To apply an effect you need to first select some audio,
then click on the effect you require from the Effect Menu
, then make any parameter settings in the dialog box that
you want and then press the OK button to apply the ef-
fect. Note that a few effects have no parameters that
can be set and these are applied as soon as you click
on them in the Effect Menu ; An example is: Crossfade
Tracks . For the effects that have settable parameters the
dialog box contains a Preview button which enables you
to hear a short sample of the audio with the effect tem-
porarily applied so that you can audition the result prior
to accepting the settings you have made. Some effects
have special requirements
• Auto Duck requires two tracks to be selected to op-
erate on
• Vocal Remover requires a stereo track
4.6. METER TOOLBARS
4.5.3 Reverting an edit or effect
If you are unhappy with the result of your edit or effect
you can simple use the Audacity Undo command or use
the Ctrl + Z keyboard shortcut. A good tip for effects is to
try them out on a short section of audio first to try it out
on a longer section than preview allows and then use the
Undo .
4.6 Meter Toolbars
Audacity has two meter toolbars, one for recording and
the other for playback. They display the amplitude of
audio being recorded or played in the project. They are
an easy way to see if audio which is being recorded or
edited is clipped , which results in distortion. Both me-
ters look very similar. The Recording meter can be identi-
fied by the microphone icon, whereas the Playback meter
has a loudspeaker icon.
4.6.1 The Meters
4.6.2 Recording Meter Toolbar
Click on the toolbar images below to see these toolbars
displayed in context of the default upper tooldock layout.
Recording Meter Toolbar inactive
Audacity always launches with input monitoring off and
so the Recording Meter Toolbar displays "Click to Start
Monitoring". Click in the recording meter to start moni-
toring, or when you press the Record button the meter
will activate. The Recording Meter Toolbar again displays
"Click to Start Monitoring") whenever you stop a record-
ing or start playback.
Recording Meter Toolbar in use
The bars remain green until the signal reaches -12 dB
then merge to yellow as the signal approaches -6 dB
145
4.5.4 Marking edit points
You can mark edit points or regions in your audio with la-
bels . These can be useful for recalling the edits when
saving and reopening a project . They can also be useful
to mark splits in a long audio track that is to be exported
as multiple files.
|< Back to: Getting Started
(which is a good maximum signal level to aim for). If the
signal exceeds -6 dB the bars merge from yellow to red.
The red color warns that the signal is becoming too "hot"
(approaching 0 dB) and that clipping may occur.
4.6.3 Playback Meter Toolbar
Playback Meter Toolbar in use
The Playback Meter will activate when you start playback,
or if you start Recording with Software Playthrough
turned on in the Transport menu. The orange color dis-
played here in the left channel warns that the signal was
too "hot" or becoming too "hot" (approaching 0 dB). The
red bar at the right of both channels indicates that clip-
ping has occurred at some stage while playing.
4.6.4 Dropdown Menu
Clicking on the microphone or speaker icons in the Meter
toolbars will open a dropdown menu with the Meter Op-
tions dialog specific to that meter. Another way to access
the menu is by right-clicking anywhere in the meter. The
dropdown menu on the Recording Meter additionally lets
you enable or disable monitoring of the recording level
without the need to record a track.
146
Monitoring
• Start Monitoring/Stop Monitoring (Recording
Meter only): Starts/stops visual monitoring of the
recording level without recording a track. If you
want to also hear the input without recording it,
turn on Transport > Transport Options > Software
Playthrough . You can also start and stop moni-
toring by left-clicking anywhere over the Recording
Meter.
4.6.5
Options
Selecting Options... from the menu opens the Meter Op-
tions dialog which lets you change that meter’s style, vi-
sual orientation, the scale format and more:
Explanation of abbreviations in the image
• Refresh Rate: Use this to set the refresh rate for
this meter. A higher rate makes the meter show
more frequent changes. Too high a rate can cause
audio breakup on slower machines.
• Meter Style: You can choose either the Gradient
Meter (default) or the RMS Meter .
• Meter Type:
– dB: Displays the meter with a logarithmic
scale where the maximum level before clip-
ping is 0 dB . This is the default view giving
more detail for fainter sounds, corresponding
more closely to how sound is heard. The mini-
mum value of the scale can be changed in the
Interface Preferences .
– Linear: Displays the meter with a linear
scale where the maximum level before clip-
ping is 1.0.
• Orientation:
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
– Automatic: Displays the meter in either hori-
zontal or vertical orientation, depending upon
the aspect ratio of the meter.
– Horizontal: Displays the meter at its default
horizontal orientation, with the bars extending
from left to right.
– Vertical: Displays the meter vertically, with
the bars extending from bottom to top.
What the bars and lines mean
• CP: Current Peak Level. The right-hand edge of
the of the colored meter bars. This shows the cur-
rent peak level of the audio in each channel and re-
lates directly to the dark blue shading in the wave-
form .
• RP: Recent Peak Level. This colored bar indicates
the highest peak level attained in the last few sec-
onds in that channel. The actual color shown de-
pends on the Current Peak level coloring at that
time. These bars disappear after playback, record-
ing or monitoring is stopped. You can also left-click
inside the meter bars while they are active to man-
ually reset the Recent Peak bars for that meter.
• MP: Maximum Peak Level. The blue bar indicates
the maximum peak level attained in that channel
during the current playback or recording session.
These bars remain visible after playback, record-
ing or monitoring is stopped, and are reset when
a new playback, recording or monitoring session is
started. You can also left-click inside the meter bars
while they are active to manually reset the Maxi-
mum Peak bars for that meter.
• Clip: Clipping indicator. The red bar to right
of the maximum value of the scale appears as
soon as there are four or more consecutive sam-
ples in that channel of audio exceeding that maxi-
mum. Once they have appeared, the clipping bars
remain visible throughout that playback or record-
ing/monitoring session. They are thus not an indi-
cation of current clipping, but an absolute indication
that clipping occurred somewhere in the track. The
clipping bars remain visible after playback, record-
ing or monitoring is stopped, and are reset when
a new playback, recording or monitoring session is
started. You can also left-click inside the meter bars
while they are active to manually reset the Clipping
bars for that meter.
4.6. METER TOOLBARS
To find the exact points where clipping exists in a track,
enable View > Show Clipping or run Analyze > Find Clip-
ping... .
4.6.6 Meter channels
• When playing a mono track, Audacity sends the
output to both left and right speakers. Therefore
if you leave the pan slider on the Track Panel un-
touched, both channels of the playback meter will
show an identical level. If you pan towards one
channel, then the opposite channel will have its
level reduced until a complete pan away from it will
remove it.
• If you set Audacity to record in mono (for example,
from a microphone), only the left channel recording
meter will be active.
4.6.7 Adjusting and monitoring recording
level
Having chosen the correct recording device in Device
Toolbar , use the recording volume slider on Mixer Tool-
bar to adjust the level of audio being recorded. In the im-
age above, note that the blue lines in the recording meter
(indicating the maximum peak level attained) are at about
-6 dB . This is a sensible level to aim for when recording,
because it gives you headroom to make edits affecting
volume afterwards. Note that in some cases the record-
ing volume slider may not be visible, as described on the
Mixer Toolbar page. In that case you will need to use
your soundcard’s or operating system’s recording/input
volume control to set the recording level in Audacity.
Monitoring
It is good practice to test the correct recording level be-
fore recording for real. Monitoring lets you do this without
actually having to record and then delete a test track. It
also verifies that you are recording the input source you
expect. There are two ways to turn monitoring on and off:
• Left-click on the recording meter to turn monitoring
on. Click again to turn it off.
• Click on the downward-pointing arrow beside the
microphone symbol to display the meter dropdown
menu . Choose "Start Monitoring" or "Stop Moni-
toring" as appropriate.
You will probably want to hear the monitored audio as
well as see it. To do this, enable "Software Playthrough"
in the Transport > Transport Options menu.
147
4.6.8 Adjusting playback level
The playback level displayed in Meter Toolbar reflects the
combined amplitude of all the tracks in your project, in
other words, the level of the mix as determined by the
gain sliders on each track. The playback volume slider
on Mixer Toolbar does not affect the playback meter - the
purpose of the meter is solely to indicate what the loud-
ness of the project audio would be were you to export it
as an audio file.
4.6.9 Resizing and Undocking
Like all toolbars , either or both Meter Toolbars can be
undocked, but unlike the other toolbars, they can also be
resized. Resizing gives longer scales for the meters and
hence a more accurate view of the volume levels.
• If a meter is docked, you can resize it horizontally
by clicking and dragging the right edge.
• To undock a meter, click the handle on the left edge
and drag. You can drag outside the Audacity project
window, too.
• To resize when undocked, click on the resize han-
dle that appears at the bottom right of the toolbar
and drag horizontally or vertically. The meters dis-
play in vertical orientation when their toolbar height
exceeds their width.
4.6.10 Choice of meter style
Audacity offers two choices of style for metering. You can
switch between the two meter styles in the Meter Options
dialog which is accessed by the Meter dropdown menu .
For both styles, L shows the left channel and R the right
channel.
Gradient Meter
This is the default meter style for Audacity. Both the Play-
back Meter (loudspeaker icon) and Recording Meter (mi-
crophone icon) display in the same colors. The bars re-
main green until the signal reaches -12 dB then merge to
yellow as the signal approaches -6 dB (which is a good
maximum signal level to aim for). If the signal exceeds
-6 dB the bars merge from yellow to red. The red color
warns that the signal is becoming too "hot" (approaching
0 dB) and that clipping may occur.
148
Full-height Meter
You may wish to use full-height meters (as were used
in earlier versions of Audacity). If so, you can undock
the meter by dragging the serrated edge on the left, then
drag the meter downwards (at bottom right) until it’s the
full height. That will make the numbers appear under the
meter bars. If you have space in the upper dock area you
can then drag the standard height meter back into the
upper dock.
RMS Meters
4.7 Mixer Toolbar
Mixer Toolbar is where you adjust Recording Volume
(the amplitude at which recordings will be made) and
Playback Volume (how loud the project’s audio sounds,
not affecting the volume of exported audio). Click on the
toolbar image below to see this toolbar displayed in con-
text of the default upper tooldock layout.
Recording Volume Slider: Sets the recording vol-
ume.Playback Volume Slider: Sets the playback vol-
ume.
4.7.1 Recording Slider
If the recording slider does not have direct control of your
sound device’s input level, it will be disabled and set
to maximum. You will need to set the recording levels
using the input slider in the operating system mixer or
in the soundcard control panel. To locate the system
mixer, see the help on our Wiki for Windows (right-click
the speaker icon by the system clock), Mac (use /Appli-
cations/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup or the system Sound
Preferences) or Linux (use ALSAmixer or PulseAudio
Volume Control).
• Note that Macs in most cases do not permit volume
adjustment of USB audio devices. Use the gain
control on the USB device if it has this, or adjust
the level that is going into the USB device.
This is slider with the microphone icon. It controls the
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
The Recording Meter has red meter bars and a red Re-
cent Peak indicator and the Playback Meter has green
meter bars and a green Recent Peak indicator. This
style displays the current RMS level of the signal in a
lighter shade of red or green respectively, but the color
of the meter bars does not change when when the sig-
nal approaches -6 dB or 0 dB. The right-hand edge of
the lighter part of the bar shows the current RMS level
and the right-hand edge of the darker bar shows the Cur-
rent Peak level. The red or green line on the right shows
the Recent Peak level and the blue lines on th right show
the Maximum Peak level. This was the previous style
of meter used in Audacity. Users of earlier versions of
Audacity or those recording to specifications required for
audiobooks may prefer to use the Meter dropdown menu
to open Meter Options and change to this style of meter.
level of the currently selected "Recording Device" in De-
vice Toolbar . Inputs can also be chosen at "Recording
Device" in Devices Preferences , in the operating sys-
tem mixer or in any control panel that the soundcard may
have. The Recording Slider should then control that in-
put. After selecting the required recording source, use
the recording slider in conjunction with the recording level
meters on the Meter Toolbars to set the correct record-
ing level before starting to record for real. If your input
sounds distorted, lower the recording slider until no dis-
tortion can be heard, also making sure the clipping indi-
cators on the recording meter do not light up.
4.7.2 Playback Slider
This is the slider with the loudspeaker icon. It enables
you control the volume at which you listen to the mix of
your project. This is a purely a "monitor" control. It does
not affect the level of your mix and hence does not affect
the level that audio is exported at. Adjusting the playback
slider will not help if your mix is clipped . The playback
slider does not affect the levels indicated by the playback
meters which do reflect the level of the mix. Should your
playback sound distorted, the distortion usually comes
from clipping of your project’s mix. You actually need to
reduce the level of your tracks. It is suggested you re-
duce every track by the same amount using the gain slid-
ers in the Track Control Panel . If Windows WASAPI
audio host is chosen in Device Toolbar , output is emu-
lated (as shown in the hover tooltip for this slider). As a
result, this slider will only scale the system output slider’s
4.8. SCRUB TOOLBAR 149

current level up or down rather than directly manipulating Double-clicking on the recording or playback volume
that system slider. slider will bring up the Recording Volume or Playback
Volume window. Here you can make much more pre-
cise adjustments with the slider or enter a value in the
4.7.3 Precise Volume Adjustment text field. You can also set a keyboard shortcut to bring
up either of these windows.

4.8 Scrub Toolbar

Scrub Toolbar starts, stops or switches to Scrub play or start, stop or switch to Scrub play
Seek play, and hides or displays the Scrub Ruler.

• Seek play button Clicking this button will

start, stop or switch to Seek play
Scrub Toolbar has the following buttons:

• Scrub Ruler button Clicking this button dis-

• Scrub play button Clicking this button will plays or hides the Scrub Ruler

4.9 Timeline

The Timeline displays a horizontal ruler above the tracks and selecting Disable Scrub Ruler from the dropdown
measuring time from zero (the start of the track). De- menu.
pending on zooming the ruler may span minutes of audio
or give a "close up" view of a few seconds or fractions of
a second. The Timeline is not merely an indicator of au-
dio position but can also be used to effect Quick-Play .A
particularly powerful use of the Timeline is in the creation 4.9.2 Symbols displayed on the Timeline
of seamless loops . ruler

4.9.1 The Timeline ruler

• The Record/Play head button at the far left
By default the Timeline is displayed with the Scrub Ruler of the Timeline (shown in its default unpinned state)
showing, the gray strip below the Timeline. controls the record and play heads enabling you to
toggle between unpinnned and pinned .
– Clicking on this button will change to

The Scrub Ruler is used solely for Scrubbing and Seek-

ing and can be turned off by right-clicking in the Timeline pinned (fixed and centered) record/play
150
heads, clicking on it again will revert to un-
pinned.
• back will continue to the end of the project.
The selected region :(when present) is shown as
a shaded region on the ruler. By default, press-
ing Play or Record on Transport Toolbar plays or
records from the left edge of this region.
– In the shaded region, the playback region is
shown by thin left-pointing and right-pointing
arrowheads connected by a line. This region
will be played whenever the Play button is
clicked (see also: Play Region Lock ).
• The playback start position cursor. Pressing
the Play button plays from this cursor position.
• The editing cursor:(always present when there
is no selected region) is shown as a black vertical
line.When "Quick-Play" is not active, the playback
start position cursor is attached to it .
• The unpinned-head playback cursor:(when
playing or paused during play) is shown as a large
green triangle.
• The pinned-head playback cursor:(when
playing or paused during play) is shown as a large
green drawing-pin in the center of the Timeline.
• The unpinned-head record cursor:(when
recording or paused during record) is shown as
a large red triangle.
• The pinned-head record cursor:(when
recording or paused during record) is shown as a
large red drawing-pin in the center of the Timeline.
•
Quick-Play region: A region in the Timeline that
plays immediately when dragged with the mouse,
even if audio is already playing elsewhere. It is
shown by thick left-pointing and right-pointing ar-
rowheads connected by a line. By default, Quick-
Play does not modify the position of the editing cur-
sor or region in the waveform (this behavior may
be changed in the Timeline context menu ). To
start "Quick-Play" of a region (even if the track is
already playing or paused from playing), hover over
the Timeline until the mouse pointer changes to
a hand, then drag in either direction and release.
Playback will continue to the end of the Quick-Play
region.
–
– If you just want to play from a particular point
to the end of the project, click in the Timeline
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
at the point from which you want playback to
start or restart. The Quick-Play cursor is then
shown only by a left-pointing arrowhead. Play-
– To make the dragged Quick-Play region loop
(play repeatedly until stopped), press and hold
Shift, drag in the Timeline then release the
drag. Loop play will be indicated by the Play
button in Transport Toolbar changing to Loop
Play .
– You can also play two seconds before the
Quick-Play region and one second after it
(as if that region had been deleted) just like
Play Cut Preview of a region in the wave-
form. To preview cutting the Quick-Play re-
gion, press and hold Ctrl then drag and re-
lease in the Timeline. The duration that is
played before and after the region can be
changed in the Cut Preview section of Play-
back Preferences .
– As with standard playback, you can press
Space or click the Stop button to stop
Quick-Play before the end of the region or
project is reached.
•
Play Region Lock: The position of the playback
region (or the current position of the Quick-Play re-
gion) can be locked in the Timeline for use in all fur-
ther standard playback. To do this, choose Trans-
port > Play Region > Lock or right-click in the Time-
line and choose Lock Play Region from the con-
text menu .
– When "Locked", the region displays in red
in the Timeline. A locked region is always
used for standard playback (including Play-at-
Speed ) even if the editing cursor or region in
the waveform is at a different position.
– The position of the locked region cannot be ex-
panded or contracted by dragging either red
arrowhead. However, you can still click in
the Timeline so the project Quick-Plays from
there (or drag some other region in the Time-
line so that region Quick-Plays), preserving
the locked region.
– You can also extend or contract Quick-Play
with respect to the locked region without hav-
ing to drag the entire region you want to Quick-
Play. To do this, drag in either direction from
the left-pointing red arrowhead of the locked
region then release to play from the release
point to the end of the locked region. Drag in
either direction from the right-pointing red ar-
rowhead then release to play from the start of
the locked region to the release point.
4.9. TIMELINE
– To unlock the region so that all further play-
back respects the editing cursor or region in
the waveform, choose Transport > Play Re-
gion > Unlock, or right-click in the Timeline and
choose Unlock Play Region from the context
menu .
– Play Region Lock or Unlock may be performed
even when the track is playing or paused from
playing.
4.9.3 The Timeline in use
Standard playback shows:
• The editing cursor (the black vertical bar)
• The playback start position cursor (the left-pointing
gray triangle with short gray vertical bar to left)
– When Quick-Play is not active ( see below )
the editing cursor and the playback start posi-
tion cursor are always at the same point on the
Timeline, and together are called the standard
cursor
Recording with no selection present shows:
• The editing cursor and the playback start position
cursor (as above)
• The recording cursor (the red triangle) - recording
will continue until stopped.
After clicking in the Timeline to initiate Quick-Play :
• The editing cursor position is unchanged
• The playback start position cursor moves to the
point clicked
• The green playback cursor shows the current play-
back position.
After clicking and dragging in the Timeline to initiate
Quick-Play of a region:
• The editing cursor position is unchanged
• The green playback cursor shows the current play-
back position
• The "Quick-Play" region is indicated by the thick
horizontal gray bar with arrowheads on each end.
151
After clicking and dragging in the waveform:
• Instead of the editing cursor, a shaded region
shows the time range of the selected audio.
• No audio plays, but the potential playback region is
indicated by the thin horizontal gray bar with arrow-
heads on each end.
• The potential playback region is identical to the se-
lection region in the waveform.
After locking a Play Region
• The thick horizontal red bar with arrowheads on
each end show the region that will always be
played, even if the editing cursor or region in the
waveform is at a different position.
For other methods of navigating to playback points or ar-
eas, see Playing and Recording .
4.9.4 Pinned Recording/Play head
You can change Audacity to play and record with a fixed
head pinned to the center of the Timeline. In this mode
the head remains static and the waveforms will move as
the audio is played or recorded. This behavior is con-
trolled by using the button at the left of the Timeline. By
default this shows as a green downwards-pointing trian-
gle (like the playhead). In this mode, the play or record
head will move horizontally and the waveform will scroll
when necessary, except that if Update display when
Recording/Playback head is unpinned is unchecked in
Tracks Preferences then scrolling will not occur.
Clicking on the green triangle will cause the button icon
to change to a drawing-pin. This indicates that the play or
record head is now pinned to the center of the Timeline
and when playing or recording takes place the waveform
will move continuously under the fixed head.
When pinned playback or recording is chosen, the play-
head displays as a green drawing-pin (as shown in the
image below) and the recording head displays as a red
drawing-pin.
152
Clicking the drawing-pin reverts to default unpinned play-
back and recording, and the button will change back to
the green triangle. Unpinned or pinned head can also be
selected in Tracks Preferences .
4.9.5 Using Timeline Quick-Play
Timeline Quick-Play provides a quick and convenient
means to either start playback from any point within the
current project or to playback a region of audio. As you
hover the mouse pointer over the Timeline a small green
triangle appears in the Timeline indicating that Quick-
Play is enabled, and a white vertical line is drawn through
the waveform(s) below to aid finding a precise Quick-Play
location. Note that if Snap To is enabled in the Selection
Toolbar then the vertical line will be yellow and Quick-
Play will honor the snapping. Timeline Quick-Play will
work with the pinned play head but clicking in the Time-
line to indicate a new start point will cause that position
to jump to the centered pinned head so you may find it
better working with the unpinned playhead for Quick-Play.
Timeline Quick-Play is disabled during recording for
safety reasons so that recording is not inadvertently inter-
rupted.
Clicking on the Timeline
• Left-Click: Play from the time position of the mouse
pointer when clicked.
• Shift + Left-Click
– within a selected region: Loop play the se-
lected region, starting from the position of the
mouse pointer.
– not in a selected region: Loop play the project,
starting from the position of the mouse pointer.
• Right-Click: Opens the Timeline Right-Click menu .
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
Click and drag
• Left-Click and drag: Creates a temporary play re-
gion. Playback begins when the left mouse button
is released.
• Shift + Left-Click and drag: Creates a temporary
play region. Playback begins when the left mouse
button is released. Playback of the temporary
play region repeats (loops) until the play region is
changed or playback is stopped (for example by
pressing Space).
• Ctrl + Left-Click and drag: This is similar to wave-
form Play Cut Preview . A temporary "Quick-Play
region" is created, though in this case playback
starts a few seconds before the start of the region,
then skips over the "Quick-Play region" and plays a
few seconds after that region. The duration of play-
back before / after the "Quick-Play region" is set in
Edit > Preferences > Playback Cut Previewsection.
Adjusting the Quick-Play region
While Timeline Quick-Play is playing, the Quick-Play
region may be adjusted by clicking and dragging one
or other end of the Quick-Play region. Playback then
restarts from the original or new start of the Quick-Play
region. If the Shift key is held down while adjusting
the Quick-Play region, loop playback will restart from the
original or new start of the Quick-Play region.
The selection
By default, the audio selection or cursor position in the
waveform is not affected by dragging the Quick-Play re-
gion. This default behavior may be changed by choos-
ing Enable dragging selection in the Timeline right-
click menu . When dragging the selection is enabled,
the Quick-Play region will create or adjust the wave-
form selection. The selection persists after Quick-Play
has stopped. To revert to the default behavior, select
Disable dragging selection in the Timeline right-click
menu. Note that dragging the selection cannot be en-
abled if the play region is locked (see below).
Locked Play Region
Audacity allows the Play Region or Quick-Play Region
to be locked . While a region is locked, Timeline Quick-
Play will temporarily over-ride the lock, replacing the red
locked Play Region with the standard gray Quick-Play re-
gion, so allowing Quick-Play to be used. Immediately the
left mouse button is released, the red locked Play Region
is restored. A locked play region cannot be adjusted.
4.10. TOOLS TOOLBAR
4.9.6 Timeline right-click menu
Right-click on the Timeline gives access to options that
are convenient when using Timeline Quick-Play, via a
short context menu.
Disable/Enable Quick-Play: Turns the Timeline Quick-
Play functionality on or off (some users may find the white
cursor line on the waveform distracting when navigat-
ing over the Timeline). The default setting is "on". En-
able/Disable dragging selection: When disabled (de-
fault), left-click and dragging the Play Region adjusts the
4.10 Tools Toolbar
Tools Toolbar enables your current tool for tasks such
as selection, volume adjustment, horizontal zooming or
audio time-shifting. Click another button to change tool
or to go back to your previous tool.
• Hover over, or click on the tools in the image below
to learn more about those tools.
4.10.1 Previous / Next Shortcuts A D
There are two keyboard shortcuts that enable you to nav-
igate through the various available tools:
• A This shortcut cycles backwards selecting each
tool in turn, returning to the Multi tool after the Se-
lection tool
• D This shortcut cycles forwards also selecting
each tool in turn.
153
Play Region only, leaving the current selection or edit-
ing cursor unaffected. When enabled, left-click and drag-
ging the Play Region adjusts both the Play Region and
the waveform selection together. This is particularly use-
ful when finding the right place for a seamless loop .
Disable/Enable Timeline Tooltips: Timeline tooltips are
visible when hovering over the Timeline. They are use-
ful for indicating whether Timeline Quick-Play is enabled.
Experienced users may find that the Timeline tooltips get
in the way, so this option allows these tooltips to be dis-
abled. These tooltips are enabled by default. Do not
scroll while playing: By default the waveform scrolls
when playing. Enabling this option not to scroll can be
useful when using Quick-Play to adjust the start and end
of loops . Not scrolling ensures that the edges of the
looped selection do not move if zooming in moves the
playback point outside the visible area. The alternative
method of disabling scrolling is to use Tracks Preferences
and remove the checkmark from Update display when
Recording/Playback head is unpinned. Lock Play Re-
gion: The current position of the Play Region or Quick-
Play region can be locked in the Timeline for use in all
further standard playback, while still allowing Quick-Play
of other regions or from other points. Disable/Enable
Scrub Ruler: The Scrub Ruler can be hidden or dis-
played using this command.
Note carefully that these two shortcuts will only be
available if you select the Full set of shortcuts in Key-
board Preferences . They are not available in the default
Standard set of shortcuts.
4.10.2 Selection F1
Click to select a start point for audio playback, or click
and drag to select a range of audio to play or edit. You
can also create a selection region between two points by
clicking at one point, then holding down Shift while left-
clicking at the other point.
4.10.3 Envelope F2
Allows smooth volume changes to be made over the
length of a track by means of embedded volume "control
points". Click in the track to create a control point, then
set the volume of that point by dragging one of its four
vertically arranged "handles". When you create other
154
control points at different levels, a smooth curve is inter-
polated between them. Dragging either the top or bottom
handle ensures you can never distort the track by drag-
ging outside its original volume envelope. Dragging an
inner handle allows you to amplify a quiet piece of audio
beyond the original volume envelope of the track.
4.10.4 Draw Samples F3
Draw Tool enables you to manually redraw the waveform;
it can thus be used to make volume changes to individual
samples or to effect repairs to clicks/noise.
4.10.5 Zoom F4
• Left-click zooms in one step at the position of the
mouse pointer.
• Click and drag zooms in to the dragged region. The
drag draws a dotted region in the waveform which
is fitted to the entire track width when you release
the drag. No Audacity selection region is created.
• Shift and left-click or right-click zooms out one step
at the position of the mouse pointer.
• Shift and drag zooms out based on the dragged re-
gion. The drag draws a dotted region in the wave-
form and when you release the drag, the audio at
the left edge of the dotted region is repositioned
at the start of the visible waveform. The smaller
the dragged region, the farther the audio will be
zoomed out. No Audacity selection region is cre-
ated.
4.11 Selection Tool
The easiest way to select a region of audio is to use the
Selection Tool
The image above shows the Tools Toolbar with the Se-
lection Tool selected.
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool-
bar .
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more
about those tools.
If it’s not already selected, choose the Selection tool
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
• Middle button zooms in or out to Audacity’s default
zoom level of about one inch per second.
• If you commence a drag to zoom by mistake, you
can press Esc before releasing the mouse to can-
cel the zoom operation.
• You can also zoom without using Zoom Tool by us-
ing keyboard shortcuts , or the zoom buttons on
Edit Toolbar .
4.10.6 Time Shift F5
Selecting this tool lets you synchronize audio in a project
by dragging individual or multiple audio tracks , note
tracks or audio clips left or right along the Timeline .
Also use this tool to drag individual tracks or clips up or
down into another track. To use Time Shift Tool, click in
the track or clip you want to move, then drag in the re-
quired direction. Dragged audio cannot paste into other
audio, so the area being dragged into must have suffi-
cient space to accommodate the drag.See this page for
more details.
4.10.7 Multi-Tool F6
Combines all five tools in one. One tool is available at
a time, according to the mouse position and modifier key
chosen. The shape of the pointer changes to show which
tool is active. If you exit Audacity with Multi-Tool Mode
selected, it will be also be enabled next time you launch
Audacity. More details on Multi-Tool Mode here .
from Tools Toolbar, as shown above. Next click
the left mouse button anywhere inside of an audio track,
then drag (in either direction) to the other edge of your se-
lection, and release. Normally, you select both the tracks
and the range simultaneously, by clicking and dragging.
For example, to create the selection in the image below,
make sure you’re using Selection Tool , click in the
track just after 2.0 seconds in the first track, then drag
rightwards to just after 5.0 seconds as displayed on the
Timeline , then downwards so that the gray selection re-
gion now includes the second track:
4.12. DRAW TOOL
4.12 Draw Tool
Draw Tool enables you to redraw the waveform; it can
thus be used to make volume changes to individual sam-
ples or effect repairs to clicks/noise.
The image above shows the Tools Toolbar with the Draw
Tool selected.
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool-
bar .
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more
about those tools.
When zoomed in close to maximum level, the Draw Tool
enables you to adjust the volume level of individual audio
samples . The closer the sample is to the horizontal line
through the center of the track, the quieter the sample
will be. Draw Tool can be used to eliminate narrow
clicks and pops in audio by smoothing out the contour of
the samples, so that one sample is not at a very different
vertical position to its neighbors.
155
Note that because the drag started in the first track and
extended into the second track, only those two tracks are
selected, as indicated by the blue-grey background color
of the Track Control Panel . Therefore, any operation you
perform will now only affect the selected area of the first
two tracks. This, and the method for selecting all audio
are enough for using selections in Audacity. Many more
options for selecting audio are described on the Audacity
Selection page.
4.12.1 To use the Draw Tool
• Click above or below a sample to move it to that
vertical position. You can keep holding the mouse
and drag up or down to move the sample to the ex-
act position required. Dragging left or right moves
adjacent samples to the current vertical position of
the mouse pointer. If you only want to move one
sample, hold down Ctrl before clicking. This en-
sures that no other samples are affected, even if
you drag slightly left or right by accident.
• Smooth the vertical disparity in a group of samples
by holding down Alt(or Ctrl + Alt on Linux). This
changes the mouse pointer to a brush (or spray
can on Linux). Position the pointer halfway along
the group of samples then click repeatedly to pro-
gressively smooth the group.
Draw Tool only works when using the default Waveform
view or Waveform (dB) view (selectable on the Audio
Track Dropdown Menu ). It does not work in Spectrogram
view
For very short lengths of audio up to 128 samples long,
you can smooth out audio automatically with Repair tool
under the Effect Menu
156
4.13 Envelope Tool
In Audacity, every track has an "amplitude envelope"
which is controlled with the Envelope Tool on the Tools
Toolbar . An amplitude envelope just means that you
can control a track’s volume changes smoothly over time.
People in the recording industry sometimes call this tech-
nique volume automation, because in a recording studio
you would typically change the volume of tracks by mov-
ing volume sliders up and down, and fancy mixing boards
had the ability to remember your movements and auto-
mate them from then on. Manipulating a track’s ampli-
tude envelope in Audacity is similar, except that Envelope
Tool is used to create and manipulate "control points" at
various points in the track. The control points then deter-
mine its volume changes over time.
The image above shows the Tools Toolbar with the En-
velope Tool selected.
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool-
bar .
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more
about those tools.
4.13.1 Envelope Tool
When you select Envelope Tool from the Tools
Toolbar , your track, which normally looks like this:
now has a thick blue border at the top and bottom of the
waveform , like this:
Here’s an example of an amplitude envelope applied to
the track. The volume is made to diminish slowly be-
tween 9 and 11 seconds, and then to grow again much
faster during the next half second (note the much steeper
slope of the blue line). The volume is directly proportional
to the height of the waveform - the smaller you make the
waveform, the quieter it will sound:
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
An amplitude envelope is manipulated by a number of
control points. Each control point is visible by its four
handles (the small circles in the image above), by which
you can drag the point up or down to control the volume
level. Note that the lines connecting the control points
are not straight (unless viewed in Waveform (dB) view ).
Control points define the end points of an exponential
curve. Thus it is not generally possible to use the En-
velope tool to fade an audio selection to or from zero
amplitude. To achieve this, use one of the fade effects.
4.13.2 Adding and editing Control Points
Just click the mouse button anywhere in a track to create
a new control point.
The entire track follows your new control point until you
add another one. Click in a different spot to add a new
control point.
The audio will always change smoothly between each
control point, so you only need to add as many as are
necessary. You can click in either the top or bottom half
of a track to create a new point. If you have a stereo
track, the same envelope will apply to both channels. If
you want to place a new control point very near an ex-
isting one, Audacity might get confused and try to move
the existing one rather than create a new one. It’s some-
times easier to click farther away from the existing one
and then drag it closer.
4.13.3 Removing control points
To remove a control point, click on any one of its control
points and drag it outside the track. Remember, you can
4.14. TIME SHIFT TOOL
also use Edit > Undo to undo your envelope changes in
sequence.
4.13.4 Extra amplification
If you are amplifying a quiet passage, you can amplify
outside the original volume envelope of the track by grab-
bing either of the inner control points. When you do this,
Audacity cannot display the full shape of the envelope,
and changes the border to a dotted line in the affected
area:
However you can make the extended amplitude envelope
visible by zooming out vertically .
4.13.5 Track gain control
Totally separate from the amplitude envelope, each track
has a gain slider in its Track Control Panel (the slider is
4.14 Time Shift Tool
To Time Shift using the mouse, select Time Shift Tool on
Tools Toolbar or press the F5 shortcut.
The image above shows the Tools Toolbar with the Time-
Shift Tool selected.
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool-
bar .
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more
about those tools.
157
just underneath the Mute and Solo buttons). This adjusts
the volume of the whole track, like Effect > Amplify... can
do, but without modifying the waveform itself. Therefore
you do not have to use Envelope Tool to adjust the overall
volume of a track - use it to specify changes in volume
through the course of the track, then you can make fine
adjustments to the overall volume with the gain slider.
4.13.6 Rendering envelope changes
A lot of volume changes can make a track more cum-
bersome to work with, so sometimes when you’re sure
you’ve got them right, you may want to replace the orig-
inal track and its control points with a new track that has
the envelope changes rendered to the waveform and thus
has its control points removed. To do this, select the track
you’re finished with and click Tracks > Mix > Mix and Ren-
der . This option is sometimes called Bounce in other
software. The resulting track will sound the same but
will no longer have its amplitude envelope control points.
Naturally you can always add further control points later
on, or get all the original control points back by undoing
the Mix and Render if you’re not happy with it. As an
alternative you could Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render to
New Track which lets you render to a new track without
envelope points but keep the original track with its enve-
lope points. This allows you to more easily experiment on
a visually "clean" track by adding extra points while still
being able to use the Mute or Solo buttons to compare
with the original unrendered track.
4.14.1 Time Shifting selected tracks to left
or right
To shift multiple tracks to left or right, there must be a se-
lection region in all the tracks you want to time shift, and
you must drag from inside the selection region in one of
those tracks. To select multiple audio tracks for time shift,
either
• click in the Track Control Panel of the first track you
want to shift, then hold down Ctrl and click in the
Track Control Panels of the other tracks you want
to time shift
• use Up or Down arrow on the keyboard then Enter
to select the other tracks you want to time shift. If
the other tracks you want to time shift are adjacent
to each other, you can simply hold Shift while using
Up or Down arrow.
158
Having selected multiple tracks for left/right shift, you may
still want to drag only one of the selected tracks to fine
tune its position. You can do this in several ways. The
simplest is to hold Shift while dragging the track you want
to time shift. You can also temporarily deselect the tracks
you do not want to move by Ctrl-clicking their Track Con-
trol Panels or by arrowing to them then using Enter. Al-
ternatively if some of the track lies outside the selection
region, drag from outside that region, which moves the
track but not the selection region. If you always want to
retain synchronization between tracks when time shifting,
you can alternatively enable Sync-Lock Tracks . When
this is enabled, dragging any of the linked audio or note
tracks will shift all the tracks in that group (and any labels
as well), whether tracks are selected or not.
4.14.2 Time Shifting clips to left or right
An individual clip always shifts when dragged, though if
the clip is partially selected, dragging to left or right from
outside the selection region moves the clip without mov-
ing the region itself.
• To shift a group of adjacent clips in one or more
tracks to left or right, leaving other clips alone, use
Selection Tool to drag a selection region over the
clips you want to shift, then switch to Time Shift Tool
and drag from any clip inside that region. Dragging
from white space between clips will do nothing.
• To shift all clips in one track to left or right, hold
Shift then drag. If you perform the SHIFT-drag from
inside a selection region, all the clips will shift and
the region will move with the clips.
4.15 Zoom Tool
You can get very precise control over zooming using the
Zoom Tool in the Tools Toolbar :
The image above shows the Tools Toolbar with the Zoom
Tool selected.
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool-
bar .
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more
about those tools.
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
4.14.3 Shifting clips vertically
When there are multiple audio tracks, a selected audio
clip may be dragged up or down to another audio track
of the same type. Mono audio clips may only be dragged
to mono tracks and stereo clips may only be dragged to
stereo tracks. To prevent unwanted left or right move-
ment while dragging, press and hold the Ctrl key while
dragging (on Mac, hold down the CloverLeaf key).
4.14.4 Shifting behind time zero
If an audio track is dragged to the left (earlier on the Time-
line) audio data may be hidden before the start of the
track. This is indicated by the presence of two arrows at
the left edge of the track.
Audio before time zero is not exported unless that audio
is explicitly selected and File > Save Other > Export Se-
lected Audio... used, or unless Export Multiple is used
with "Split files based on Tracks". In this Export Multiple
by tracks case, the entire audio of each track is exported,
including that behind zero, regardless of any selection.
When dragging to align tracks or clips together (for ex-
ample, to synchronize the tracks in a mix ), it’s generally
best to zoom in so you can align the tracks with sufficient
accuracy. However, Audacity has yellow vertical Bound-
ary Snap Guides that appear when a drag snaps to a nat-
ural boundary such as the start or end of clips or labels
. There are also various "Align" commands available in
the Tracks Menu to automatically align audio.
To zoom in, position the mouse pointer over a track and
left-click. To zoom out, shift-click or click the right mouse
button. The mouse pointer position will remain at the click
point, while the length of time visible on the Timeline di-
minishes or expands on either side to respect the change
in zoom level.
When zooming in or out with the zoom tool, Audac-
ity will attempt to keep same time at the mouse pointer
position. That is, Audacity will attempt to keep the same
"piece" of audio under the magnifier pointer. That may
not always be possible.
4.16. ZOOMING OVERVIEW 159

• If "Enable scrolling left of zero" is on then it will al- When you release the mouse button, Audacity will zoom
ways be possible to keep same time at the mouse in to that region so that it now fits the window:
pointer position.
• If "Enable scrolling left of zero" is off, then, when
zooming in or out, it may not be possible to keep
same time at the mouse pointer position.
You can zoom in on a specific region by clicking and drag-
ging. Position the mouse at the left edge of the region
you require, click and hold the mouse button, then drag
the mouse in either direction: Shift and drag zooms out based on the dragged region.
The smaller the dragged region, the farther the audio will
be zoomed out.

If you commence a drag to zoom by mistake, you can

press Esc before releasing the mouse to cancel the zoom
operation.

4.16 Zooming Overview

If you want to carefully inspect a small portion of your au-

dio, or have an overview of your project, you will want to
use one of these Zoom methods.

Occasionally you may want to zoom "vertically", so that

you see only a portion of the waveform from top to bot-
tom, but in greater detail:
The figure above shows Audacity’s view of an entire
song, zoomed all the way out. It’s really useful to get
an idea of the whole piece from start to finish, but it’s
hard to see much detail - like a forest with no individual
trees. Zooming the time scale, or zooming "horizontally",
is something you’ll do all the time. It lets you focus on the
first 15 seconds, for example:
If you get lost, refer to the Timeline at the top of the win-
dow. It always shows you exactly where you are in time,
in hours:minutes:seconds.

4.16.1 Time Scale Zooming (Horizontally)

or the last 15 seconds:
See the View > Zoom page for limitations of the zoom
commands when zooming in or out near the beginning or
end of a track. There are five ways to zoom horizontally:

Menu Commands

or even a tiny fraction of a second, where you can see View > Zoom submenu: use the four commands in this
the individual audio samples as small dots: submenu to;
160
• View > Zoom > Zoom In: double the current zoom
level.
• View > Zoom > Zoom Normal: reverts back to Au-
dacity’s default zoom, where you can see 5 - 10
seconds at a time.
• View > Zoom > Zoom Out: cuts the current zoom
level in half
• View > Zoom > Zoom to Selection: zooms and
scroll so that the selection just fits in the window.
View > Track Size submenu: use the first two com-
mands in this submenu to;
• View > Track Size > Fit to Width: zoom out just
enough so that you can see the entire project
• View > Track Size > Fit to Height: resize all the
tracks so they fit in the window vertically without
scrolling. If you have more than about ten tracks,
some scrolling up and down will still be needed,
because there is a minimum track height beyond
which reduction is impossible.
Edit Toolbar
Four of the view commands have equivalent buttons on
the right of the Edit Toolbar :
• Zoom In
• Zoom Out
• Zoom to Selection
• Fit Project in Window
Keyboard shortcuts
All six zoom commands have keyboard shortcut equiva-
lents:
Zoom action Keyboard shortcut
Zoom InCtrl + 1
Zoom NormalCtrl + 2
Zoom OutCtrl + 3
Fit to WidthCtrl + F
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
Fit To HeightCtrl + Shift + F
Zoom to SelectionCtrl + EMac users: Use CloverLeaf
instead of Ctrl.
Zoom Tool
You can also zoom in and out using the Zoom Tool
.
Zoom In or Out on the Mouse Pointer using the Scroll
Wheel
If your mouse has a scroll wheel or ball, you can zoom
in or out centered on the position of the mouse pointer,
instead of centered on the selection or editing cursor.
When extremely zoomed out, or when zooming in or out
near the beginning or end of the track, it may not be pos-
sible to keep the audio centered on the mouse pointer
position. Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard then
scroll up to zoom in, or scroll down to zoom out. For
example. you can zoom in at or near the start or end
of a selection by placing the pointer there. Mac users:
Hold down both CloverLeaf and Ctrl while using the scroll
wheel. To zoom the waveform in Audacity without using
the Ctrl key, look in these places, depending on which
version of macOS/Mac OS X you are using:
• in the System "Mouse" Preferences (in older ver-
sions of Mac OS X before the Magic Mouse), dis-
able "Zoom using scroll ball while holding Com-
mand" (or similar).
• in the System "Universal Access" Preferences, the
"Seeing" tab, then in the "Zoom" section click the
"Options" button - uncheck "Use scroll wheel with
modifier keys to zoom"
• in the System "Accessibility" Preferences, click on
"Zoom" in the left panel, then uncheck "Use scroll
gesture with modifier keys to zoom".
Note: When Scrubbing or Seeking , the zoom buttons in
Edit Toolbar and the zoom items in View Menu (or their
shortcuts) also zoom at the mouse pointer and not at the
selection or editing cursor.
4.16.2 Vertical zooming
Vertical zooming can be useful on occasions. You can
zoom vertically whichever of the tools in Tools Toolbar
are selected. Hover the mouse over the vertical scale of
a track, and the pointer changes to a magnifying glass,
indicating you can zoom vertically:
4.17. MULTI-TOOL 161

When you release the mouse button, exactly the range

• Left-click once to zoom in at the position on the you selected will be zoomed in so as to fit vertically in-
vertical scale you are interested in. This point will side the track height:
then be centered on the vertical scale.

• Hold Shift then left-click (or just right-click) to

zoom out incrementally.

• Hold Shift then right-click to zoom out immedi-

ately to normal zoom level.
– Ctrl + Shift with left-click can also be used to
zoom out to normal on Mac.
Alternatively, click once and hold down the mouse button,
then drag to select a vertical region:
If you commence a drag to zoom in by mistake, you can
press Esc before releasing the mouse to cancel the zoom
operation. In default Waveform view set in the Track
Dropdown Menu you can zoom in to a minimum display
range of 0.001 linear extending from top to bottom of
the scale.

4.17 Multi-Tool

Multi-Tool mode on Tools Toolbar lets you access all of
the five separate tools on this toolbar at once, depending
on the location of the mouse and the modifier keys you
hold down.
Tool Mode automatically selects one of the five tools on
the Tools Toolbar according to mouse moves and key
presses. The mouse pointer changes to show which of
its functions is currently available (the pointer will appear
similar to the button for the relevant tool on the toolbar).

The image above shows the Tools Toolbar with the Multi
Tool selected.
• Click on this link to learn more about the Tools Tool- 4.17.2 Selection Tool
bar .
• Click on other tools in the image to learn more
about those tools. Selection Tool is available when the mouse is in an area
that does not trigger the Envelope Tool or the Time Shift
Tool. The pointer will appear as . See Selecting Audio
If you quit Audacity with Multi-Tool selected then it with the Mouse for more details.
will be selected upon reopening Audacity. Otherwise, Se-
lection Tool will always be selected upon reopening Au-
dacity, irrespective of which of the separate tools was se-
lected when you quit.

4.17.1 Using Multi-Tool

To use Multi-Tool Mode, click the button on the

Tools Toolbar or press F6 on the keyboard. Multi-
162
Click to position the cursorDrag cursor to select a
region
4.17.3 Envelope Tool
Envelope Tool is made available by hovering the mouse
pointer over the waveform either on the blue horizontal
envelope boundary or at half the distance of the envelope
boundary to the center line. The pointer then changes to
. Click and drag with the mouse and then use envelope
tool as you would use the standalone Envelope Tool .
You can drag from the half-way pointYou can drag
from the envelope boundary
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
Dragging from the half-way pointDragging from the
envelope boundary
4.17.4 Draw Tool
Draw Tool is made available by zooming in until you can
see individual samples then hovering the mouse pointer
close to the line joining the samples. The pointer then
changes to a pencil tool
and you can use it as you would use the standalone Draw
Tool .
Draw Tool prior to making a repairDraw Tool after
drawing the repair
4.17.5 Zoom Tool
For horizontal scale zooming right-click (Ctrl + click on
a Mac) the mouse at a point to zoom-out by a factor of
2, centered on the click point. Alternatively right-click,
4.18. TRANSCRIPTION TOOLBAR
drag and release to zoom-in to a drag-selected region.
If you commence a horizontal or vertical drag to zoom by
mistake, you can press Esc before releasing the mouse
button to cancel the zoom operation. The illustration be-
low shows a right-click drag zoom-in.
A right-click rightward drag to define the horizontal
zoomReleasing the right mouse button effects the
zoom Vertical scale zooming works, as normal, with
any of the separate tools selected.
4.18 Transcription Toolbar
Transcription Toolbar lets you Play or Loop Play audio
at a slower or faster speed than normal, also affecting
pitch . Slower than normal speeds can make it easier to
transcribe speech or song lyrics.Click on the toolbar im-
age below to see this toolbar displayed in context of the
default upper tooldock layout.
163
4.17.6 Time Shift Tool
Time Shift an individual clip
To shift an individual clip , hold down Ctrl (Cmd on
Mac) while over one of the clips. The pointer will change
to the Time Shift tool . Then drag left or right with the
mouse. You may also drag a clip that is fully under a
drag bar by hovering over the bar, then drag when the
Time Shift pointer appears.
Time Shift an entire track
To shift an entire track hover over one of the drag bars
at the left or right edge of the waveform . The pointer
will change to . Then drag left or right with the mouse.
If the audio in the track is not fully under a drag bar, or
if the track contains multiple clips, you must hold down
Shift while dragging from the drag bar to move the entire
audio of the track.
Transcription Toolbar has its own Play-at-Speed but-
ton which plays (or restarts playback) at the speed set
by the Play-at-Speed slider to the right. Playback can
be paused and resumed at the adjusted speed using the
Pause button in Transport Toolbar or the shortcut P.
164
Irrespective of the setting on the slider, using Space or
the green Play button on Transport Toolbar will only play
at normal speed. You can however set a keyboard short-
cut for "Play-at-Speed" with which you can start or restart
playback at adjusted speed. Drag the slider to set a low-
est speed of one-hundredth of normal (0.01x) to three
times as fast (3.00x). Using the keyboard, right-click on
the slider then use the keyboard arrow keys to change
speed by 0.05x increments. Alternatively you can set
keyboard shortcuts for "Decrease playback speed" and
"Increase playback speed". Each press of those short-
cuts decreases or increases speed respectively by 0.03x
increments. To set a precise playback speed, double-
click over the slider (or create a keyboard shortcut for
"Adjust playback speed"), enter the desired speed in the
box and click OK.
• To Loop Play at speed (play the track or selection
over and over at adjusted speed until you stop),
hold down Shift while clicking the Play-at-Speed
button. This causes the button image to change to
Loop Play . The standard Shift + Space short-
4.19 Selection Toolbar
Selection Toolbar includes controls for Project Rate,
Snap To and for manipulating units of time or other selec-
tion formats . Using the "Start" and "End/Length" boxes,
you can precisely place the cursor point or selection re-
gion without using a mouse to click or drag in the wave-
form , and without zooming in first to find the exact spot.
If you change the Snap To option or selection format, all
subsequent project windows you open will respect that
change.Click on the toolbar image below to see this tool-
bar displayed in context of the default lower tooldock lay-
out.
Selection Toolbar (above) is normally at the bottom of the
Audacity window, but like any of the Toolbars , it can be
moved as desired by dragging the serrated edge on its
left side.
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
cut for Loop Play will only play at normal speed
whatever the setting on the Play-at-Speed slider,
but you can set a keyboard shortcut for "Loop Play
at speed" in Keyboard Preferences.
• To Play Cut Preview at speed (play audio either
side of a selection at adjusted speed to preview
what deleting the selection will sound like), hold
down Ctrl while clicking the Play-at-Speed button
(this works on Mac too, but using CloverLeaf while
clicking does not). This causes the button image to
change to Play Cut Preview (like the green Play
button but with a vertical cut through it). The stan-
dard C shortcut for Play Cut Preview will only play at
normal speed whatever the setting on the Play-at-
Speed slider, but you can set a keyboard shortcut
for "Play Cut Preview at speed" in Keyboard Prefer-
ences.
It is not currently possible to change speed during play-
back. To change speed when audio is already playing,
change the speed first with the slider, then click the green
Play-at-Speed button to play at the new speed. Play-
back resumes from the original cursor position. This can
also be achieved by setting keyboard shortcuts to control
Play-at-Speed as described above.
Export of the audio will be at normal speed whatever the
position of the Play-at-Speed slider. To export at an ad-
justed speed, use Change Tempo... in the Effect Menu to
change speed without modifying pitch. Alternatively, use
either Change Speed... or a Time Track to change speed
also affecting pitch.
4.19.1 Project Rate (Hz)
The sample rate for the project, by default this is set
to 44100 Hz . To change the default rate that is used
each time Audacity is launched (or each time a new,
empty project window is opened), use Quality Prefer-
ences .Changing the project rate in Selection Toolbar im-
mediately changes the sample rate at which new tracks
will be recorded or generated in the current project, and
at which existing tracks will be played, rendered or ex-
ported. If the rate you require is not in the dropdown list,
you may type the rate you want directly over the currently
selected rate.
4.19.2 Snap To
Snapping to whole seconds can be useful for exporting
a selection that needs to be a whole number of sec-
onds, without entering values in the Selection Toolbar
4.19. SELECTION TOOLBAR
boxes (which would be another way of ensuring accu-
racy).Various types of file frame can be snapped to, in-
cluding NTSC and PAL. Snapping to film frames can be
useful to maintain video and audio synchronization when
editing audio from video files .
• Select Nearest from the Snap To dropdown
menu to force-snap the cursor or selection edges
to the closest position of the current selection for-
mat .
– A mouse click will move the cursor unless the
click is less than half way to the next nearest
snap position.
– Any selection drag moves the selection once
you drag the mouse pointer more than half
way to the next snap position in the direction
of drag.
• Select Prior from the same menu to force-snap
the cursor or selection edges to the immediately
preceding position of the current selection format.
– If a mouse click moves the cursor, it will always
move it backwards relative to the click point.
– A leftwards selection drag immediately moves
the selection to the next snap position in the
direction of drag. A rightwards drag does not
move the selection until the mouse pointer
goes beyond the next snap position.
The format can be various Selection Formats, samples
, audio CD frames or film frames. The default format is
hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds (seconds ac-
curate to three decimal places, as in the above image).
Even if Snap To is enabled, a track or clip can still be
time-shifted to any position and the Tracks > Align Tracks
command will still align to positions outside snap posi-
tions for the current format.
Nearest
With Snap To set to "Nearest" and the format set to hours,
minutes, seconds and milliseconds, clicking in-between
6.500 seconds and 6.501 seconds as displayed on the
Timeline snaps the cursor to the nearest millisecond unit,
unless the cursor is already exactly at the nearest mil-
lisecond unit relative to the click point. Now suppose we
want to snap to whole seconds. To do this, change the
format to one where the smallest unit is seconds, for ex-
ample, hours, minutes and seconds (hh:mm:ss).
• Assuming the cursor is currently at other than ex-
actly 2.0 whole seconds, clicking at 2.4 seconds will
now snap the cursor to 2.0 seconds, while clicking
at 2.8 seconds will snap the cursor to 3.0 seconds.
165
• Dragging a selection always snaps both selection
edges to the nearest whole second. For exam-
ple, when dragging rightwards on the right edge of
a selection from 2.3 seconds to 2.6 seconds, the
left edge of the selection will jump back at once to
2.0 seconds and the right edge of the selection will
jump forwards at once to 3.0 seconds.
• If you continue to drag the mouse pointer, the right
edge of the selection will not extend at once, but
will snap to 4.0 seconds once the mouse pointer is
dragged beyond 3.5 seconds. Similarly, if you then
drag leftwards on the left edge of the selection it will
extend to start from 1.0 seconds when the pointer
is dragged before 1.5 seconds.
Prior
With Snap To set to "Prior" and the format set to hours,
minutes, seconds and milliseconds, clicking anywhere
in-between 6.500 seconds and 6.501 seconds always
snaps the cursor to the immediately preceding unit, in
this case 6.500 seconds. Now let’s set the format to one
where the smallest unit is seconds, for example, hours,
minutes and seconds.
• Clicking at either 2.4 seconds or 2.8 seconds will
both snap the cursor to 2.0 seconds
• Dragging a short way on either edge of a selection
from 2.3 seconds to 2.6 seconds will remove the se-
lection and set the cursor at 2.0 seconds because
the snap is to the previous whole second unit and
there can not be a selection shorter than a whole
second.
• Dragging rightwards on the right edge of a selec-
tion from 2.0 seconds to 4.0 seconds will not extend
the selection until the mouse pointer reaches ex-
actly 5.0 seconds. Dragging rightwards on the left
edge will not contract the selection until the pointer
reaches exactly 3.0 seconds.
• Dragging leftwards on the left edge of a selection
from 2.0 seconds to 4.0 seconds extends the selec-
tion immediately to start from 1.0 seconds. Drag-
ging leftwards on the right edge contracts the se-
lection immediately to end at 3.0 seconds.
Keyboard use:
• When either "Nearest" or "Prior" Snap To is enabled
you can always move the cursor to the preceding or
following Snap To position by using keyboard Left
arrow or Right arrow respectively.
• Similarly you can always expand a selection edge
to the nearest Snap To position by holding Shift and
pressing Left arrow to move the left edge or Right
arrow to move the right edge.
166
• Contract a selection edge to the nearest Snap To
position by holding Ctrl and Shift then pressing Left
arrow to contract from the right edge or Right arrow
to contract from the left edge.
4.19.3 Audio Position
This shows the current audio position while playing or
recording
4.19.4 Selection Position Boxes
There are four available settings in the Selection Position
Boxes in Selection Toolbar for the manner in which the
details of your selection are displayed:
• Start and End of selection: the start time and the
end time of your selection (default setting)
• Start and Length of selection: the start time and
the length of your selection
• Length and End of selection: the length and the
end time of your selection
• Length and Center of selection: the length and
the time at the center of your selection
4.19.5 Editing the Selection Toolbar digits
You can edit the individual digits representing time or
other formats in the time boxes so as to change the cur-
sor position or selection region on the waveform . Using
a mouse, click on a digit in one of the boxes then use
the mouse wheel or up and down arrow on the keyboard
to increment the value, or type the required value. Use
left and right arrow to navigate quickly to adjoining dig-
its, and Tab or Shift + Tab to navigate to adjoining boxes.
Selection Toolbar is also fully accessible using only the
keyboard. See Audacity Selection for how to use Selec-
tion Toolbar with the keyboard.
Selections made by modifying the Selection Tool-
bar time digits with either keyboard or mouse will always
snap to the current selection format, even if the Snap
To checkbox is unchecked.Note particularly that chang-
ing theLength of a selection by modifying the Selection
Toolbar time digits may alter the start of the selection, if
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
the start of the selection is not currently at an exact multi-
ple of the selection format. That is, by editing the Length,
the entire selection, including the start, will snap to the
current selection format.
4.19.6 Selection Formats
To access the context menu listing the selection formats,
click the triangle to right of any box. You can also select
in or right-click over any digit in a box (or use a keyboard
equivalent). The following table lists the 16 available for-
mats.
Selection Format Example Notes
seconds 005,408 seconds
hh:mm:ss 01 h 30 m 08 s Hours, minutes, seconds
dd:hh:mm:ss 00 days 01 h 30 m 08 s Days, hours, min-
utes, seconds
hh:mm:ss + hundredths 01 h 30 m 08.51 s
hh:mm:ss + milliseconds 01 h 30 m 08.512 s Default
hh:mm:ss + samples 01 h 30 m 08 s + 22500 samples
samples 238,514,850 samples
hh:mm:ss + film frames (24 fps) 01 h 30 m 08 s + 12
frames
film frames (24 fps) 129,804 frames
hh:mm:ss + NTSC drop frames 01 h 30 m 08 s + 14
frames American video format
hh:mm:ss + NTSC non-drop frames 01 h 30 m 03 s + 02
frames
NTSC frames 162,092 frames
hh:mm:ss + PAL frames (25 fps) 01 h 30 m 08 s + 12
frames European video format
PAL frames (25 fps) 135,212 frames
hh:mm:ss + CDDA frames (75 fps) 01 h 30 m 08 s + 37
frames
CDDA frames (75 fps) 405,637 frames Audio CD
frames In the following example we changed the format
to samples , which is the most finely detailed format
available. All three time selection boxes changed their
selection fornat units to the new format.
Changing the selection format does not change the
units displayed on the Timeline . The Timeline is always
displayed in hours, minutes, seconds and parts of sec-
onds, varying according to the current zoom level.
4.20. SAMPLE RATES
4.20 Sample rates
4.21 Spectral Selection Toolbar
Spectral Selection Toolbar lets you use the keyboard
to precisely define a Spectral Selection in an audio track ,
without having to zoom in to the exact spot while in Spec-
trogram view. One pair of controls can define "Center
Frequency" and "Width" and the other pair can define
"Low Frequency" and "High Frequency".You must how-
ever be in Spectrogram view with Spectral Selection en-
abled to see the spectral selection, or to apply one of the
Spectral edit effects that can filter the spectral selec-
tion. Spectral Selection Toolbar is not visible by default.
Select View > Toolbars > Spectral Selection Toolbar to
show it. By default it docks in the lower dock, beside or
under Selection Toolbar . Spectral Selection Toolbar can
show information about the spectral selection in two for-
mats: Center frequency and Width , or Low and High
Frequencies . Choose your preferred option from the
dropdown menu above the boxes.
4.21.1 Center frequency and Width boxes
• Center frequency: If there is no spectral selection
defined, this shows dashes, representing "none". If
there is a spectral selection the center frequency of
the selection is displayed.
• Width: If there is no spectral selection defined, this
shows dashes, representing "none". If there is a
spectral selection this shows the bandwidth (range
of frequencies) of the selection.
4.21.2 Low and High Frequency boxes
• Low frequency: If there is no spectral selection
defined, this shows dashes, representing "none".
If there is a spectral selection the lower frequency
boundary of the selection is displayed.
167
• High frequency: If there is no spectral selection
defined, this shows dashes, representing "none". If
there is a spectral selection, the upper frequency
boundary of the selection is displayed.
4.21.3 Editing the Spectral Selection Tool-
bar digits
You can edit the individual digits representing frequency
in the "Center frequency", "Low frequency" and "High fre-
quency" boxes, or the digits representing bandwidth in
the "Width" box. When Spectral Selection is enabled this
changes the visible spectral selection in any of the Spec-
trogram views . Using the mouse, click on a digit in one
of the boxes then use the mouse wheel or up and down
arrow on the keyboard to increment the value or type
the required value. Use left and right arrow to navigate
quickly to adjoining digits, and Tab or Shift + Tab to nav-
igate to adjoining boxes. To clear the spectral selection
entirely and return the digits to dashes, you can select
any of the digits while in "Center frequency and Width"
view, then press Delete (note this is not the Delete key
on the numeric keypad). When in "Low and High Fre-
quencies" view you can clear either input box individually
with the Delete key. The Low and High Frequency values
are linked together so that changing the Low Frequency
to exceed the High Frequency or the High Frequency to
be less than the Low Frequency will have no effect.
4.21.4 Selection formats
To access the context menu listing the selection formats
click the triangle to right of any box. You can also right-
click over any digit in a box, or select any digit then use
the Menu key. The following selection formats are avail-
able.
• For Center frequency, Low frequency and High
frequency:
– Hz : Hertz, or cycles per second
– kHz: 1000 cycles per second
• For Width:
– octaves: an octave is a doubling of frequency.
For example, a range of 1000 to 2000 Hz
would be 1 octave.
168
– semitones + cents: a semitone is the interval
between two adjacent notes in a 12-tone scale
(one twelfth of an octave). A cent is 1/100th of
a semitone.
4.22 Status Bar
The Audacity Status Bar is to be found at the bottom of
the Audacity window. It cannot be relocated or floated. Its
function is to display messages about recording or play-
back, to indicate parts of Audacity that are being hovered
over by the mouse, and to provide hints about how to use
Audacity.
4.22.1 Status Bar sections
There are three sections in the Status bar:
• the current status: Playing, Playing Paused,
Scrubbing, Recording, Recording Paused or
Stopped
• the central information and hints section
• the Actual Rate of the audio (the active sample rate,
only shown when playing or recording).
When you hover over the audio area in any audio track ,
Status Bar displays "Click and drag to select audio".
Dragging horizontally always selects a region of time.
When you release the drag or otherwise hover over the
left or right edge of a selection, the Status Bar message
changes to advise that you can click and drag to move
that selection boundary.
4.22.2 Recording length
When recording, the audio data is written to your hard
disk. For example, if you record without having yet saved
a Project, the data is written to Audacity’s temporary
folder specified in Directories Preferences . Therefore,
the amount of time you can record for is limited by the
available disk space on the drive you are writing to. There
are no other restrictions on recording length. As soon as
you start your first recording in the current project win-
dow, the center section of the Status Bar gives a clear
indication of how long you can record for, based on that
remaining space:
CHAPTER 4. TOOLBARS
– decades: a decade is a ten-fold increase in
frequency. For example, a range of 500 to
5000 Hz would be 1 decade.
The "Disk space remaining" message will continue to dis-
play thereafter as soon as you leave the mouse station-
ary for a couple of seconds. If you run out of disk space
at any time after starting or completing a recording, the
default Status Bar message will change to "Out of disk
space".
The time remaining will be less at higher project
rates and higher bit depths because these will require
more disk space. See Quality Preferences for details.
4.22.3 Reading files directly using On-
Demand Loading
When reading imported uncompressed files files di-
rectly from the original files, the percentage of the wave-
form that has been computed is displayed in the center
section of the Status Bar. When multiple files are being
imported, the Status Bar will display the overall percent-
age of the multiple tracks that has been computed. To
make the Status Bar display the percentage completion
of a particular track, move the mouse over that track.
4.22.4 Other Status Bar center section dis-
plays
• When Scrubbing and Seeking you will messages
relating to those actions.
• When you hover over the sliders in Mixer Toolbar
the Playback and Recording volumes are displayed
in Status Bar.
• Many other buttons and tools in the Audacity win-
dow will display the name of the button or tool in
Status Bar when you hover over the button or tool.
4.22. STATUS BAR
Buttons in Transport Toolbar that display a Status
Bar message include in parentheses the current
keyboard shortcut for that button.
• When making a Spectral Selection , hovering over
the edges or center line of a frequency selection
also displays relevant help messages.
4.22.5 Actual Rate
While playback or recording is taking place (or is paused
), or when monitoring , Actual Rate in the right-hand sec-
tion of Status Bar shows the sample rate of that au-
dio transport. "Actual Rate" when playing should be the
rate communicated by Audacity to the soundcard. "Ac-
tual Rate" when recording is the rate communicated by
the soundcard to Audacity. In general terms, the actual
rate for playback will be the project rate chosen in Se-
lection Toolbar . If the soundcard does not support the
rate you choose, Audacity will try to resample the audio
to the highest available (or next higher) rate supported
by the card, and this rate will appear as "Actual Rate".
When recording, the actual rate sent by the soundcard
169
to Audacity can often differ from the chosen project rate,
depending how the "Host" chosen in Device Toolbar han-
dles the card’s settings in the operating system. For an
explanation of how this works on Windows, see the sam-
ple rates section of the Windows 7 Wiki page. If the "Ac-
tual Rate" is different from the project rate then Audacity
will resample from "Actual Rate" to the project rate.
4.22.6 Grab Handle
The small hatched triangular area at bottom right of the
Status Bar indicates where you can drag with the mouse
to resize the Audacity window up, down, left or right on
any operating system.
The Grab Handle will not be available if you are using
Audacity in a full screen window.
Chapter 5

Tracks

5.1 Tracks Overview

Anything that is added to the Project Window will be
placed inside a track container, underneath the Timeline
of the project. There are four different types of tracks: Au-
dio Tracks , Label Tracks , Time Tracks and Note Tracks
.
contains no audio itself. It can be used to mark specific
points or ranges in the project with point labels or range
labels.

5.1.1 Audio tracks

Audio Tracks contain digitally sampled sounds.
presents from left to right:
• a Track Control Panel with Audio Track Dropdown
Menu for changing View Mode and audio proper-
ties of that individual track
• a Vertical Scale with units
• a visual representation of the audio (by default this
is the Waveform view as in the images below).
5.1.3 Time Tracks
They
A Time Track is used in conjunction with one or more au-
dio tracks to progressively increase or decrease playback
speed (and pitch) over the length of the audio. Speed
changes are controlled by manipulating the blue "time
warp" line with the Envelope Tool used for making grad-
ual volume changes. If the blue line is dragged above
the horizontal, the audio plays faster; if dragged below, it
plays slower.

5.1.4 Note Tracks

Note Tracks display data from MIDI files - these can

be imported with the File > Import > Import MIDI... com-
mand. Audacity can play these MIDI files, but note that
although this should just work on Windows on Mac and
Linux additional software may be required (for details
please see this page ). Editing these Note tracks is pos-
sible, but very limited.

5.1.2 Label tracks

A Label Track is an additional track that can be created in

your project; it is used in conjunction with audio tracks but

170
5.2. AUDIO TRACKS
For more details please see: Note Tracks .
5.1.5 Track focus
You may have noticed in the images on this page that
Note track has a yellow border around it. This bor-
der indicates that this track has focus. The track that
has focus is the track that accepts any command whose
name includes "focused track". These commands in-
5.2 Audio Tracks
Each audio track containing digital audio contains from
left to right:
• a Track Control Panel with Audio Track Dropdown
Menu for changing View Mode and audio proper-
ties of that individual track
• a Vertical Scale with units
• a visual representation of the audio waveform .
New tracks are created whenever you import an audio
file, record (except for generate audio when there is no
selection . Tracks > Add New lets you explicitly add a
new, empty mono or stereo audio track.
5.2.1 About Tracks
A track is like one instrument in your symphony, or one
voice in your podcast. You can add more tracks, and all
of them will be mixed together to create your final output,
but during editing you can manipulate each track inde-
pendently. If you have an interview recorded with two
microphones, each one can go in a separate track. If you
have background music, that could go in a third track.
You can move the whole track along the Timeline so that
it plays at a different point in time in the mix, but until it
is split into clips you cannot move individual parts of it
around.
5.2.2 Stereo Audio Track
The image below shows the separate components of an
Audacity stereo track: the Track Control Panel with Au-
dio Track Dropdown Menu , the Vertical Scale and the
Waveform Display itself, typical of a finally edited record-
ing. As per convention, the upper waveform and vertical
scale represent the left channel and the lower waveform
and vertical scale represent the right channel. The dark
blue part of the waveform displays the tallest peak and
the light blue part of the waveform displays the average
171
clude commands such as "Close focused track" (Shift +
C), "Mute/Unmute focused track" (Shift + U) and "Toggle
focused track" (Return or Enter, which toggles whether
the focused track is selected or not). The complete list
of "focused track" commands can be seen by searching
for "focused track" (without quotes) in Keyboard Prefer-
ences or by viewing the description of these commands
in Keyboard Shortcut Reference . Track focus is used to
select audio and to extend or move the selection region
into other tracks using the keyboard.
RMS (Root Mean Square) value of the audio, see The
waveform colors for more detail.
See Audacity Waveform for further details of the Wave-
form and alternative Waveform (dB) View Mode (chosen
using the Track Dropdown Menu). Spectrogram views
can be chosen from the same menu.
• To change the default View Mode that all tracks
show when created, use Tracks Preferences .
In a stereo track, all editing actions on the track are ap-
plied identically to both channels, though some effects
may treat each channel differently. For exaample, Effect
> Amplify... and by default Effect > Normalize... set the
peak amplitude of only the loudest channel then apply
the same change in amplitude to the other channel, pre-
serving the balance between channels. Normalize has
an option to normalize left and right channels indepen-
dently to the same amplitude if this is required. See Am-
plify and Normalize for more details.
5.2.3 Single Audio Track (Mono, Left or
Right)
A single audio track has the same components as a
stereo track with a single waveform and one vertical scale
rather than two. This can be easily seen if using "Split
Stereo Track" in the Track Dropdown Menu to split the
stereo track into two single tracks. The same menu
can make single tracks mono, left or right. Each single
172
track can be separately selected and thus edited inde-
pendently from other tracks.
5.2.4 Track Control Panel
The Track Control Panel at the left of the audio track has
controls and status indicators for this track. Left-clicking
other than on a control performs track selection and move
as follows.
• Clicking selects all this track’s audio, deselecting all
other tracks.
• Holding Shift while clicking selects all this track’s
audio, keeping already selected tracks selected.
– (keyboard: use Up or Down to give the track
focus , then Enter to select it; hold Shift
then use Up or Down to extend selection into
another track. Read keyboard selection for
more).
• Click-and-drag moves this track up or down when
there are other tracks (keyboard: choose one of
the "Move Track" commands in Audio Track Drop-
down Menu , opened by Shift + M on the currently
focused track ).
Controls
Close Button: Clicking this button will close the track,
removing it from the project.Audio Track Dropdown
Menu:
Clicking the track name or using Shift + M on the currently
focused track opens the Audio Track Dropdown Menu
giving options that affect this track only. Newly created
tracks are named "Audio Track". Options in the dropdown
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
menu include changing the name or sample rate , how
the track is displayed, splitting a stereo track to single left,
right or mono tracks and swapping stereo channels.Mute
Button: Click to silence this track when play-
ing. By default, the track will only be silenced if no Solo
buttons are depressed. Click again to unsilence. Tracks
on which the Mute button is pressed are never exported
.Solo Button: Click to play just this track. Click
again to release the button. Whenever playing audio,
Solo takes precedence over Mute by default - the Mute
buttons have no effect whilst any Solo button is down.
There are two other options for Solo button behavior in
the Tracks Preferences . One of these is to remove the
Solo button, leaving only a Mute button. Gain Slider:
Set the gain for this track. Hold down the shift key while
dragging to adjust the slider in finer increments. Double-
click the slider to bring up a window where you can make
precise adjustments or enter a gain value.Pan Slider:
To make signal stronger on left or right
speaker/earphone. Hold down the shift key while drag-
ging to adjust the slider in finer increments. Double-click
the slider to bring up a window where you can make
precise adjustments or enter a pan value.Track Collapse
Button:
Click on this to make the track ’fold up’ into a smaller size.
Click again, or drag the lower edge of the track to restore
the size.
Status Indicators
• Track Information Area:
Gives the following information for each track:
• Stereo or Mono
• The sample rate in Hz
• The sample format or bit depth. An imported
file will show the bit depth at which the file was im-
ported (as per your choice in Quality Preferences ),
not the actual bit depth of the file.
• Sync-Lock Indicator:
5.2. AUDIO TRACKS
When present (at bottom-right of the Track Control
Panel, adjacent to the Track Collapse button), indicates
that this track is part of a Sync-Locked Track Group .
5.2.5 Vertical Scale
The vertical scale displays amplitude when showing the
waveform , or frequency when showing the spectrum
or pitch . The amplitude scale shown to left is the de-
fault linear scale, with 1.0 being the maximum value of
positive signals and -1.0 the maximum of negative sig-
nals. If the display is changed to Waveform dB in the
Audio Track Dropdown Menu , the scale shows dB val-
ues for positive signals only, ranging from maximum 0 dB
to the minimum dB level set in Interface Preferences , or
as varied using the mouse wheel (see below). When the
mouse pointer is over the scale it changes to a magnify
icon .
• Left-click in the Vertical Scale for any Waveform
or Spectrogram view to zoom in. The range dis-
played on the scale will be centered at the value
you clicked at. Left-click and drag a region up or
down then release to zoom into that region. You
can press Esc to cancel the zoom operation if you
commence a drag by mistake.
• Hold Shift and left-click (or use unmodified right-
click) to zoom out progressively. When the Shift
key is held down the plus sign on the magnify icon
changes to a minus icon. Using either of these
methods you can zoom out in the final step from a
range of 1.0 to -1.0 to 2.0 to -2.0 on the linear wave-
form scale (or to +6 dB when in Waveform (dB)
view). This allows you when in 32-bit float sam-
ple format to see any samples that are above the
0 dB clipping level.
173
• Hold Shift and right-click to zoom out in one step to
1.0 to -1.0 linear (maximum 0 dB) or when in Spec-
trogram view, to a range of 0 Hz to the maximum
for the sample rate (so 0 Hz to 22050 Hz for 44100
Hz rate).
• Hold Shift and rotate the mouse wheel to scroll up
and down at the same zoom level, using the same
visible range of amplitude or frequency.
• Hold Ctrl and rotate the mouse wheel to zoom in or
out at the mouse pointer’s position.
In Waveform (dB) view view only:
• Hold Ctrl and Shift and rotate the mouse wheel to
vary the lower dB limit of the scale at the same
zoom level, irrespective of the limit set at "Meter
dB range" in Tracks Preferences . This only takes
effect if the horizontal midline between positive and
negative samples is visible, so has no effect if you
are zoomed in on a portion of the vertical range that
does not include the midline.
All the above zooms are in the vertical direction, as op-
posed to a horizontal zoom on the Timeline . See Zoom-
ing for more details of vertical and horizontal zooming.
5.2.6 Show audio track name as overlay
This is not on by default but if you go to Tracks Prefer-
ences you can enable this option. When this is enabled
the audio track name is displayed superimposed at top
left of all audio tracks. Note that the track name is always
shown in the Track Control Panel but will be truncated if
the name is too long to fit.
5.2.7 Splitting and Joining Tracks
Using the Audio Track Dropdown Menu you can:
• split a stereo track into separate tracks for left and
right channels
• split a stereo track into two separate mono tracks
• swap the channels in a stereo track
• join two mono, left or right tracks into one stereo
track.
For example, here is a project with two mono tracks:
174 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS

Arrows at the start of the track

This indicates that there is audio data in the track before

the track start.

After selecting "Make Stereo Track" from the Track

Dropdown Menu on the upper track we get one stereo
track:

Display options

The track display can be changed from the default wave-

For more information please see Splitting and Joining
form view, to Waveform (dB) or Spectrogram . To do this
Stereo Tracks .
open the Audio Track Dropdown Menu accessed by click-
ing in the Track Name, by the downward-pointing triangle
5.2.8 Changing the track display

Click and drag between the two waveforms to change in the Track Control Panel . This will affect this track only
their relative height (Esc key can abort that drag).

Changing the height of the channels in a stereo track

Click and drag between the channels.

Changing the height of a track

Click and drag between the tracks (Esc key can abort that
drag).

Stem Plots

There is an entry in the Tracks Preferences for Dis-

play samples. This setting changes how Waveform and
Waveform dB views are displayed. It only affects the ap-
pearance of the waveform when you are so far zoomed
in that you can see the individual sample dots. At lower
zoom levels it makes no difference.
• Stem plot: This is the default setting which draws
a vertical line from the track center line to the sam-
ple dot, giving a clearer impression of the relative
amplitude of the samples. As seen in the images
below, when zoomed out close to the minimum for
5.3. AUDACITY WAVEFORM
a stem plot, the horizontal distance between sam-
ple dots may be more uneven than seen with the
connect dots default.
• Connect dots: This is alternative setting yields a
waveform where each sample dot is connected to
the next sample by a line drawn between them. de-
fault.
Uneven spacing is due to "aliasing", but zooming in fur-
ther will equalize the spacing whether choosing Connect
dots or Stem plot.
5.2.9 Track focus
You may have noticed in the images on this page that
the tracks have a yellow border around them. This bor-
der indicates that this track has focus. The track that
5.3 Audacity Waveform
5.3.1 Default Waveform view
The default track created in Audacity when you press the
record button is a stereo track displayed in Waveform
view with a linear vertical scale running from -1.0 (neg-
ative values) to +1.0 (positive values), centered on zero
(provided you have not changed Audacity’s default for the
display). You will also get a waveform like this if you im-
port a stereo audio file into Audacity. Stereo Tracks con-
tain a Track Control Panel and a Vertical Scale to the left
with two waveforms on the right. The upper waveform
represents the left channel and the lower waveform rep-
resents the right channel as in this example:
When the waveform is taller (that is, its top and bottom
175
has focus is the track that accepts any command whose
name includes "focused track". These commands in-
clude commands such as "Close focused track" (Shift +
C), "Mute/Unmute focused track" (Shift + U) and "Toggle
focused track" (RETURN or Enter, which toggles whether
the focused track is selected or not). The complete list
of "focused track" commands can be seen by searching
for "focused track" (without quotes) in Keyboard Prefer-
ences or by viewing the description of these commands
in Keyboard Shortcut Reference . Track focus is used to
select audio and to extend or move the selection region
into other tracks using the keyboard.
5.2.10 Working with Audio Tracks
For more information on working with audio tracks, see:
• Selecting Audio : the special characteristics of au-
dio selection and the tools Audacity provides to
help you make exactly the selection you need
• Audacity Tracks and Clips : all about clips - sepa-
rate, movable regions of audio within a track
• Sync-Locked Track Groups : keeping a group of
tracks in sync
• Zooming : seeing what you need to see
lie closer to +/- 1 so filling more of the vertical space in
the track), the audio is louder. When the top and bottom
of the waveform lie closer to the zero line, the audio is
quieter. It is tempting to look at this and think that has not
been recorded loud enough, but the -0.5 to +0.5 level that
this example shows corresponds to -6 dB on the Meter
Toolbar and is an ideal peak level to aim for while record-
ing (the signal can always be amplified in later processing
if required).
The Vertical Scale
The Vertical Scale (at the left of the waveform) goes lin-
early from +1 at the top (the maximum possible loudness
without distortion when the signal is positive) to -1 at the
bottom (the maximum when it is negative).
The waveform colors
The waveform view uses two shades of blue, one darker
and one lighter.
176 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS

• The dark blue part of the waveform displays the is exactly the same recording as that above displayed in
tallest peak in the area that pixel represents. At Waveform (dB) view.
default zoom level Audacity will display many sam-
ples within that pixel width, so this pixel represents
the value of the loudest sample in the group.
• The light blue part of the waveform displays the av-
erage RMS (Root Mean Square) value for the
same group of samples. This is a rough guide to
how loud this area might sound, but there is no way
to extract or use this RMS part of the waveform sep-
arately.
This view shows that the recording has been made loud
enough and fills the display nicely.

The Vertical Scale

In this view the Vertical Scale is shown in dB . This is

a logarithmic method of displaying the amplitude. See
this Wikipedia page.
If you zoom in horizontally far enough, the light blue dis-
play will disappear, because there are not enough sam-
ples to provide a meaningful average in the region being 5.3.3 A waveform with clipping
displayed. The line you see now represents the peak
level of the samples , that is the top of the darker part
Below is an example of an oversaturated recording where
that you saw when you were zoomed out. Below is an ex-
clipping has occurred, that is, the signal has exceeded
ample of a dark blue only waveform, obtained by zooming
the maximum allowed level. The vertical red lines show
in about 12 times. The waveform can now be clearly seen
where clipping has happened; these clipping indicators
as joining together many individual sample points (the
can be turned on and off (Audacity default setting is "off")
dots). The horizontal center line denoting zero ampli-
by selecting View > Show Clipping .
tude (silence) can also now be clearly seen, with posi-
tive samples above the center line, and negative samples
below.

Avoiding and repairing Clipping

5.3.2 Waveform (dB) view
The waveform view can be switched to a dB logarith-
mic view by clicking on the track name (or the black
triangle) in the Track Control Panel . The default linear
Waveform view is very convenient for editing since the
majority of audible work is on the screen. When zoomed
in edit points are easy to find. However, the linear wave-
form does not correspond to the way your ears work–they
sense quiet sounds more effectively. Halving the volume
on the linear scale (for example, deamplifying a sound
with a peak of +/- 1.0 by -6 dB to bring it to +/- 0.5 on
that scale) does not sound all that much quieter. Human
hearing would need a reduction of -18 dB to make audio
"appear to sound" half as loud. The following example
It may be tempting to monitor the level of your record-
ing by observing the blue waveforms, however it is much
easier (and more accurate) to use the Meter Toolbar es-
pecially if you have enlarged it. The blue waveform be-
comes useful when you come to perform the editing after
the recording has been made. When recording, always
set your input level to try and avoid clipping, and keep
your eyes on the red hold lights to right of the Recording
Meter for signs of clipping when either playing or record-
ing. Help with repairing clipping:If there is only a little
bit of clipping (just the tops of a few isolated peaks),
Effect > Clip Fix can be applied to just the clipped sec-
tions. This will attempt to reconstruct the missing peaks
by interpolating the lost signal. In other cases where
5.4. AUDIO TRACKS AND CLIPS
there is mild distortion throughout a recording, using Ef-
fect > Equalization to reduce the higher frequencies can
help to mitigate the damage. Sometimes a bass cut will
help also by making the result sound less "muddy".
5.4 Audio Tracks and Clips
An Audacity project can contain multiple audio tracks
. Each track is normally in one unbroken section, some-
thing like a single film clip. However, Audacity can split a
track so as to create multiple clips within that track. Each
clip in a track can then be moved around independently,
but they all share several properties of the parent track
such as its overall volume, panning, sample rate and
sample format .
5.4.1 Channels, Tracks and Clips
The terms channel, track and clip can be a little con-
fusing, especially because some applications may use
them to mean slightly different things. Within Audacity,
the meaning is as follows:
• A channel is for audio recording (input) or playback
(output). Audacity can record two channels of in-
put (stereo), and more if you have a special sound-
card or audio device that supports more than two
simultaneous channels. Audacity supports only two
channels of playback (output), no matter what kind
of audio hardware you have.
• An audio track is like one instrument in your sym-
phony, or one voice in your podcast. You can add
more tracks, and all of them will be mixed together
to create your final output, but during editing you
can manipulate each track independently. If you
have an interview recorded with two microphones,
each one can go in a separate track. If you have
background music, that could go in a third track.
You can move the whole track along the Timeline
so that it plays at a different point in time in the mix,
but until it is split you cannot move individual parts
of it around.
• A clip inside an audio track is a separate section
of that track which has been split so that it can be
manipulated somewhat independently of the other
clips in the track. For example, you can split an in-
terview into separate clips for each sentence then
move them around individually although they are all
from the same track. Or you could move a clip to
another track that is panned further right, or split it
to a new, empty track. The new track only contains
177
5.3.4 Alternative audio view formats
See Audio Track Dropdown Menu for information on the
alternative Spectrogram audio track view formats. These
are not documented here as they are not true "waveform"
views.
that single clip, so again you can only move that
whole track unless you split it into multiple clips.
5.4.2 Splitting a track into clips
When you record some audio or import audio from a file,
you get a single track. In many cases, there are natural
gaps in the audio - silence between sentences or pauses
between phrases in music. Those are good candidates
for splitting the track into multiple clips, allowing you to
move or otherwise manipulate those clips independently.
There are eight ways to create multiple clips in a track.
• Edit > Remove Special > Split Delete at a region
in an existing track or clip, removing the selected
audio without shifting the following audio.
• Edit > Remove Special > Split Cut at a region in an
existing track or clip, removing the selected audio to
the Audacity clipboard without shifting the following
audio.
• Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split at the cursor or re-
gion in an existing track or clip, doing nothing ex-
cept separating it into multiple clips.
• Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split New at a region in an
existing track or clip, moving the selected audio to
the same position in a new track at the bottom of
the project.
• Edit > Clip Boundaries > Detach at Silences at a re-
gion in an existing track or clip, creating clips either
side of absolute silences.
• Edit > Paste from the Audacity clipboard into vacant
space in an existing track.
• Generate some audio into vacant space in an ex-
isting track.
• Drag a clip from a different track (or the whole track)
into vacant space in an existing track using Time
Shift Tool .
As an example, the "before Split " and "after Split" images
below show that after selecting Edit > Clip Boundaries >
Split, the two boundaries of the gray selection region are
178 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS

overlaid with a solid black split line, marking the bound-

aries of the three resulting clips.
the Selection Tool , then use the Time Shift Tool
to click and drag within the selection region - all selected
clips will move together (see before and after figures be-
low).

It’s easy to select all the audio of a given clip. Make sure
that Selection Tool is enabled in Tools Toolbar then
double-click in the clip. You can also select all of an entire
track that has no individual clips in this way.

5.4.3 Merging or joining clips

Unlike cursor points or selection regions, split lines repre-

senting boundaries between clips persist in the waveform
of the track until the clips are merged or joined back into
one clip. An adjacent pair of clips may be "merged" into
one clip by clicking on the split line to remove it. You
can perform a similar "join" action without a mouse by
selecting across one or more split lines then using Edit >
Clip Boundaries > Join to remove the split lines so as to
make one clip. If you hover over the Clip line and click
the Esc key you can then click on the Clip line and select
from there by dragging, without deleting the clip line and
merging the clips.
Note that moving clips can make use of the yellow
Boundary Snap Guides (also seen in the chapter on Au-
dacity Selection ). When you move a clip, Audacity will
snap the left or right boundary of a clip to the nearest
edge of a clip in any other track marking it with a yellow
vertical line, making it very easy to line up clips during
editing.

5.4.4 Time-shifting clips

To move clips around independently, use the Time Shift
Tool . When you click on a clip and drag it to the left or
right, this is called time-shifting because you are chang-
ing the time at which that audio will be heard.
Time-shifting stereo clips
In most cases time-shifting a clip in a stereo track will
work exactly the same way as in a mono track. Most
stereo tracks will have continuous audio in both channels
and time-shifting a clip will move both channels equally.
Here is an example of a "standard" stereo track.

If you click outside a selection region when dragging clips

with the Time Shift Tool , the selection region will remain
where it was as shown above. Otherwise, the selection
region will move with the clip(s). To move multiple clips
at once, select all of the clips you want to move using
5.4. AUDIO TRACKS AND CLIPS
When you time-shift a clip in this track, both channels
move simultaneously.
However, there may be times when you will have a stereo
track containing separate clips in each channel. Here we
see two mono tracks with multiple clips in each track.
After selecting "Make Stereo Track" from the Audio Track
Dropdown Menu in the upper track, we get this.
Here we have positioned the Time Shift pointer over the
first clip in the left channel of the stereo track.
After dragging with the Time Shift tool, the first clip in the
left channel has moved independently of the clips in the
right channel.
179
If you stop dragging the first left-channel clip just after it
starts to overlap with the right-channel clip below, then
click in the left-channel clip at any point where the right-
channel clip now overlaps with it, you can drag the right-
channel clip simultaneously with the left-channel clip. If
you click in the right-channel clip where there is not yet
an overlap, you can resume dragging that clip indepen-
dently. If you always want to drag overlapped left-and
right-channel clips simultaneously wherever you click in
the clip, you can enable Tracks > Sync-Lock Tracks .
5.4.5 Moving a Clip Between Tracks
The Time Shift Tool can also be used to move a single
clip between tracks, but there must be room for the clip
between the clips on the second track.
Getting ready to drag a clip from the first track into the
second track.
The clip does not fit between the two clips in the second
track.
The clip does fit after the second clip in the second track.
180
5.5 Audio Track Dropdown Menu
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to
read about that command.The Audio Track Dropdown
Menu is accessed by clicking in the Track Name, by the
downward-pointing triangle
in the Track Control Panel . Alternatively, you can access
the Track Dropdown Menu on the currently focused audio
track by pressing Shift + M. Use the dropdown menu to
manipulate individual or stereo tracks:
• Rename a track
• Move a track up or down in the project window
• Set the current type of view for the track
• Swap the channels of a stereo track
• Make or split stereo tracks
• Set the current sample rate and sample format
for the track.
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
There is no need to select the track before accessing the
dropdown menu.
• To change the default type of track view with which
a new project always starts, change "Default View
Mode" in Tracks Preferences .
• To change the default sample rate and sample for-
mat with which a new project always starts, go to
Quality Preferences .
5.5.1 Name...
Displays the "Track Name" dialog where you can give
the track a new name. Useful in multi-track projects to
provide a visual indication of the content of each track.
The default name is "Audio Track" as seen in the image
above.
5.5.2 Moving Tracks
Any individual track can be moved up or down using the
menu items.
• Move Track Up: Moves track up.
• Move Track Down: Moves track down.
• Move Track To Top: Move the track to the top of
the project window.
• Move Track To Bottom: Move the track to the bot-
tom of the project window.
It is often more convenient to just click in the Track Con-
trol Panel on the left of the track and drag the track up or
down.
5.5. AUDIO TRACK DROPDOWN MENU
5.5.3 Waveform
This first half of this waveform is a "Chirp" tone which
stays at the same amplitude (loudness), as shown by
the horizontal top and bottom. The linear scale on the
left goes from +1 at the top (the maximum possible loud-
ness without distortion when the signal is positive) to -1
at the bottom (the maximum when it is negative). The
horizontal line centered on 0.0 is silence. What you can-
not see without zooming much further in is that the pitch
of this tone is gradually increasing. Zooming would show
the individual cycles in the waveform (the positive and
negative peaks) occurring much closer together at the
end of the sound. The second half of the waveform is the
word "Audacity" spoken by a male voice.
This image is a waveform view of an extremely short
chirp, one tenth of a second, with only a few cycles,
where the pitch increases very rapidly. As it’s so short,
we can zoom in to show the closer spacing of the cycles
as the frequency (and hence the pitch) increases from
left to right.
5.5.4 Waveform (dB)
This is the same chirp and word as in the first Waveform
image, but in this view the vertical scale is in dB . This
is a logarithmic method of displaying the amplitude.
The dB range of the vertical scale is set in Edit > Prefer-
ences > Interface . Visit the Audacity Waveform page
for details and examples of the waveform views.
5.5.5 Spectrogram
181
This view of the same chirp and word shows how the
amount of energy in different frequency bands changes
over time. Higher frequencies are at the top of the scale,
lower frequencies at the bottom. The blue color is the
least energy and the red and white are the most. The
progressive increase of pitch in the chirp tone is vividly
demonstrated by the upward sloping diagonal line. Spec-
trogram view also confirms that the "Audacity" word has
most energy in the middle of the word.
• Go to the Spectrograms Preferences to see the op-
tions for adjusting exactly how the spectrum is dis-
played and for the various styles of spectrogram
display.
• You can click in the Vertical Scale at any time to
zoom in to a particular frequency range, or right-
click to zoom out. Frequencies higher than half the
sample rate of the track are not displayed because
a given rate cannot contain higher frequencies than
that.
• See Spectrogram View for more details of the
Spectrogram views.
• This tutorial shows how the Spectrogram view can
be used to help track down and eliminate hard to
find clicks.
5.5.6 Spectrogram Settings
These are the same settings that you find in Spectro-
grams Preferences but changes you make in Spectro-
gram Settings affect just the particular track on which
you open the settings, and persist only while that track
is open in the project. For details see Per track Spectro-
gram Settings . Use Spectrograms Preferences to make
permanent changes to the default spectrograms settings.
5.5.7 Splitting and Joining Channels
The Track ControlPanel Menu varies slightly bewtwen
stereo and mono tracks. For a stereo track you only see
commands applicable to a stereo track and similarly for
a mono track. The image at the top of this page is of a
stereo track.
Mono Tracks
• Make Stereo Track Use this command on the up-
per of two adjacent, single channel tracks which
you want to join into one stereo track. The upper
track always becomes the left channel of the new
stereo pair and the lower the right channel, irre-
spective of whether each was mono, left or right
before joining to stereo.
182
See Splitting and Joining Stereo Tracks for more de-
tails on using the Split Stereo Track, Split Stereo to
Mono and Make Stereo Tracks commands.
Stereo Tracks
• Swap Stereo Channels Use this command on a
stereo track to swap the left and right channels with-
out having to split the stereo track (see below). The
left channel and the right channel and will change
places, so that the audible content of the left chan-
nel moves into the right and the audible content of
the right channel moves into the left.
• Split Stereo Track splits the two channels of a
stereo pair into separately editable tracks for left
and right channels, left above the right. If you are
mixing multiple single channel files, you might want
to use the "Split Stereo to Mono" command noted
below then use the pan slider on the Track Control
Panel. This will give you more control over the pan
than leaving the tracks as left and right channel.
• Split Stereo to Mono splits the two channels of
a stereo pair into two separately editable mono
tracks.
5.6 Spectrogram View
The Spectrogram View of an audio track provides a vi-
sual indication of how the energy in different frequency
bands changes over time. The Spectrogram can show
sudden onset of a sound, so it can often be easier to
see clicks and other glitches or to line up beats in this
view rather than in one of the waveform views. To select
Spectrogram view, click on the track name (or the black
triangle) in the Track Control Panel which opens the Track
Dropdown Menu .
5.6.1 Comparing Waveform View to Spec-
trogram View
Here is a stereo music recording in waveform view:
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
5.5.8 Format
Converts the sample format of the current track state
to 16-bit integer PCM, 24-bit integer PCM or 32-bit float-
ing point. The number of computer bits representing
each sample in the waveform will be recalculated for the
changed precision . Further edits will be performed at the
new bit depth, but audio data for any track states before
the conversion remains at its previous bit depth. This
means that undoing the format change is always loss-
less.
5.5.9 Rate
Change the sample rate of the track, which can be
thought of as the concentration of audio samples in the
track or the time distance between them. Increasing the
rate squeezes the existing samples into a shorter length
(so increasing playback speed and pitch), while decreas-
ing the rate spreads them out over a greater length (so
reducing playback speed and pitch). This is useful for ex-
ample if you import a file that has the wrong rate and thus
plays at the wrong speed. Changing the sample rate of
a track without changing the speed involves resampling
. Resampling for export is always done by changing the
Project Rate in Selection Toolbar . To resample a track for
use in the project, choose Resample in the Tracks Menu
.
Here is the same recording in spectrogram view:
The waveform view can be switched to a Spectrogram
view by clicking on the track name (or the black trian-
gle) in the Track Control Panel which opens up the Track
Dropdown Menu where the spectrogram view can be se-
lected.
5.6. SPECTROGRAM VIEW
5.6.2 What the Colors Mean
To demonstrate how the various settings affect the ap-
pearance of an audio track in spectrogram view, we will
start with this artificially constructed test track. It consists
of 10 segments of a sine wave tone at 2000 Hz, each 2
seconds long. The level of each segment in dB is indi-
cated by the labels below the audio track. This is how
the track appears in waveform dB view.
This is how the track appears in spectrogram view, using
the default settings.
The default settings are:
• Window size: 1024
• Window type: Hanning
• Zero padding factor: 1
• Minimum frequency (Hz): 0
• Maximum frequency (Hz): 8000
• Gain (dB): 20
• Range (dB): 80
• Frequency Gain (dB/dec): 0.
What do these settings mean and how to they relate to
what you see on the screen?As you can clearly see, the
minimum and maximum frequency settings determine
the minimum and maximum frequencies displayed, as in-
dicated in the track vertical scale.Gain can be said to in-
crease the "brightness" of the display. It does this by am-
plifying the signal by the indicated amount. With the de-
fault setting of 20 dB, any frequency band that originally
had (before amplification) a level of -20 dB or greater (and
now, after amplification has a level greater than 0 dB) will
be displayed as white. Similarly the "lower" level bands
will also "get brighter".There are six color bands in spec-
trogram view: white, red, magenta, dark blue, light blue
and gray. The Range setting determines the spacing be-
tween colors.With the default settings of Gain = 20 dB
and Range = 80 dB, the colors correspond to the follow-
ing levels:
183
• anything above -20 dB is indistinguishably white
(the tone at -10 dB in the image above is white)
• levels from -40 dB to -20 dB transition from red to
white (the tone at -30 dB in the image above is light
red)
• levels from -60 dB to -40 dB transition from ma-
genta to red (the tone at -50 dB in the image above
is magenta)
• levels from -80 dB to -60 dB transition from dark
blue to magenta (the tone at -70 dB in the image
above is bluish purple)
• levels from -100 dB to -80 dB transition from light
blue to dark blue (the tone at -90 dB in the image
above is light blue)
• anything below -100 dB is gray.
5.6.3 Time Smearing and Frequency
Smearing
Spectrogram view uses the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
to display the frequency information versus time. There
is an inherent trade-off between frequency resolution and
time resolution.The image below shows the spectrogram
view of a pure 1000Hz tone with two clicks very close to-
gether. With a window size of 256 we can see the two
clicks.
Changing the Window Size to 2048 results in better fre-
quency resolution (the white band is narrower). However
the time resolution is worse. The two clicks have been
smeared together into one.
The image below shows the spectrogram view of a musi-
cal note with many overtones. With a window size of 256
the overtones are not clear.
184 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS

When we change the window size to 2048 we can see

the overtones.

The is no "right" window type. When you are using spec-

trogram view to analyze audio, or to track down certain
elements in a recording, use whichever window type best
When choosing which window size to use, the general
highlights the information you are trying to find.
rules are:
• if you need good time resolution (for example to find
clicks) use a smaller window size
5.6.6 Zero padding factor
• if you need good frequency resolution (for example
to find an annoying tone) use a larger window size. Larger values give finer interpolation of the colors along
the vertical axis, at the expense of more computation
time. This setting does not affect the time vs. frequency
5.6.4 Zooming resolution tradeoff. In other words it does not give bet-
ter frequency resolution. Here is the musical note again,
with a zero padding factor of 1.
You can zoom in on the vertical (frequency) axis.In the
image below we are about to zoom in on one overtone of
the musical note.

Here is the same note, with a zero padding factor of 8.

After zooming in, the vertical ruler changes to allow

greater precision of the scale.

5.6.7 Logarithmic Spectrogram View

Choosing Logarithmic from the Spectrogram Settings in

5.6.5 Effect of Different Window Types the Track Control Panel dropdown menu will display a
logarithmic vertical scale.Here again is the musical note
The image above uses the Hanning Window with overtones shown in Spectrogram view.
Type.Changing to the Blackman-Harris Window Type
gets rid of much of the spectral leakage at the expense
of lower frequency resolution (note that the red band
near the 2.0k mark is wider).

Here is the same note, this time in Logarithmic Spectro-

gram view

Changing to a rectangular window causes the track to be

redrawn a little faster at the expense of very bad spectral
leakage. However, the frequency resolution is better (the
red band near the 2.0k mark is narrower).
5.6. SPECTROGRAM VIEW 185

Musical overtones form a linear sequence and are gen-
erally best viewed in Linear Spectrogram view.Here is a
chromatic scale shown in Spectrogram view.
Comparison of Mel, Logarithmic and Linear Spectro-
gram views
The image below shows the scaling differences in differ-
ent Spectrogram views of the same audio:

Here is the same scale, this time in Logarithmic Spectro-

gram view

A musical scale is an exponential sequence, and is gen-

erally best viewed in Logarithmic Spectrogram view.
5.6.9 Period Spectrogram view

• Period: This scale is the reciprocal of frequency

5.6.8 Mel, Bark and ERB Spectrogram
(1/frequency) and attempts to visualise Enhanced
views Autocorrelation. It is therefore best used with the
"Pitch (EAC)" algorithm, which is the same as the
There are three additional styles of Spectrogram view "Pitch (EAC)" View Mode choice in previous Au-
that van be selected from the Track Control Panel drop- dacity versions. To aid comparison with other
down menu or from Preferences : scales, small period values (high frequencies) are
plotted at the top. This scale tends to give the
• Mel: The name Mel comes from the word melody most screen estate to plotted areas, but Logarith-
to indicate that the scale is based on pitch compar- mic scale gives the more correct representation of
isons. See this Wikipedia page. pitch, because Equal Temperament divides the oc-
• Bark: This is a psychoacoustical scale based on tave into 12 parts, all of which are equal on a loga-
subjective measurements of loudness. It is related rithmic scale.
to, but somewhat less popular than, the Mel scale.
See this Wikipedia page.
5.6.10 Example of choosing the right set-
• ERB: The Equivalent Rectangular bandwidth scale
or ERB is a measure used in psychoacoustics, tings for the job
which gives an approximation to the bandwidths
of the filters in human hearing. It is implemented Here is a music track displayed in Spectrogram view with
as a function ERBS(f) which returns the number of the default settings of: Window size of 256, Window type
equivalent rectangular bandwidths below the given of Hanning, Minimum Frequency 0 and Maximum fre-
frequency f. See this Wikipedia page. quency 8000. This is not very useful for identifying the
different musical elements.
The above three scales approximate to linear in low fre-
quencies but to logarithmic in high frequencies, thereby
concentrating screen height in middle to high frequen-
cies.These scales aid spectral editing in that you can see
down to 0 Hz without too much screen height devoted to
the low frequencies, where thumps might need treating
with a highpass filter in Spectral edit multi tool and the ge-
ometric mean frequency line is unimportant. In contrast,
within higher frequencies you often want to set a notch
with multi tool or use parametric equalization , drawing a
spectral selection around an undesirable sound with the Here is the same track displayed in Logarithmic Spectro-
geometric mean line approximately centered in that se- gram view. This is still not very useful for identifying the
lection. different musical elements.
186
Different settings can improve the visibility of certain ele-
ments in the recording. In the image below the settings
were:
• Window size of 2048 (larger window size improves
frequency resolution)
• Window type of Hanning (no change from previous)
• Zero padding factor of 1 (no change from previous)
• Minimum Frequency 20 (remove display of sub-
sonic frequencies)
• Maximum frequency 22000 (include display of
higher frequencies).
5.6.11 Spectral selection
In order to define a spectral selection you need to be in
Spectrogram view. Also you must have checked on the
Enable Spectral Selection in either Spectrograms Pref-
erences , or the dropdown menu of the Track Control
Panel choosing Spectrogram Settings.... To define a
time range combined with a spectral range, hover at a
5.7 Splitting and Joining Stereo Tracks
Using the commands in the Audio Track Dropdown Menu
you can:
• Split a stereo track into separate tracks for left and
right channels
• Split a stereo track into two separate mono tracks
• Join two mono, left or right tracks into one stereo
track.
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
vertical position that you want to be the approximate cen-
ter frequency to act on then click and drag a selection
horizontally. A horizontal line appears beside the I-Beam
mouse pointer that defines the center frequency. Drag
vertically, with or without continuing to drag horizontally,
to define the range of frequencies to be acted on. A "box"
containing a combined frequency and time range is now
drawn in a colored tint as shown below (the exact color
of the tint will depend on the version of Audacity and the
settings of your monitor):
The frequencies in the spectral selection can then be fil-
tered in various ways, affecting their amplitude , us-
ing the special Spectral edit effects in the Effect Menu
. This can be useful to remove unwanted extraneous
noises from the audio or to apply very specific tone qual-
ity changes to it. For full details, see Spectral Selection
.
5.6.12 Per track Spectrogram Settings
It is possible to temporarily change the Spectrogram set-
tings for a particular Spectrogram track by opening the
Audio Track Dropdown Menu on the Spectrogram track
you want to change, then choose Spectrogram Set-
tings.... This opens a dialog similar to Spectrograms
Preferences with the same settings available. Changes
you make when you press the OK button only persist for
that track while the project window is open. This is the
case even if you save a project. Use Spectrograms Pref-
erences instead to make permanent changes to the de-
fault Spectrogram settings with which a new Spectrogram
track will open. See Spectrogram Settings for more de-
tails.
5.7.1 Splitting a Stereo Track
Here is a stereo track:
5.7. SPLITTING AND JOINING STEREO TRACKS
You can make separate left-channel and right-channel
tracks so that you can edit them separately. Open the
Audio Track Dropdown Menu and choose Split Stereo
Track:
Now you can see the two tracks marked "Left" and
"Right":
Note carefully that after this split the Left channel is
panned hard left and the Right channel is panned hard
right. You can change these pan settings as part of your
editing, if required.
5.7.2 Splitting a Stereo Track into two
Mono Tracks
You can instead choose to split a stereo track into two
mono tracks. After choosing "Split Stereo to Mono"
187
from the Track Dropdown Menu on the original stereo
track we get two separate mono tracks:
Note that in this case both mono chanels are center-
panned - different to the hard left and right panning that
you get when you make a simple slit of a stereo track.
5.7.3 Joining tracks to make a stereo track
Choosing "Make Stereo Track" from the Track Drop-
down Menu of the upper track of a pair of mono, left
or right channel tracks (in any combination) will combine
those two tracks into one stereo track. The upper track
will become the left channel of the stereo track and the
lower track will become the right channel regardless of
their current designation as mono, left or right. In the ex-
ample below, two mono tracks are about to be combined
into one stereo track. The result of this operation will be
to re-create the stereo track as shown in the first image
on this page.
When joining two single-channel tracks into one
stereo track be aware that:
• the gain and pan settings of the two tracks will be
ignored when making the new stereo track
188
– the upper track will be treated as having a pan
setting of 100% left and a gain setting of 0 dB
– the lower track will be treated as having a pan
setting of 100% right and a gain setting of 0
dB
• the gain setting of the upper track will be applied to
the new stereo track
• the pan setting of the resulting stereo track will be
set to 0.
Thus the join action may make the balance sound differ-
ent from your intentions or what you hear when playing
the tracks.
• Envelopes will be retained for the left and right
channels of the new stereo track, but any further
envelope adjustments will be applied to both chan-
nels simultaneously which may give unexpected re-
sults.
If you want to preview the result of the Make Stereo
Track command, set the gain of each track to 0 dB, set
the pan of the upper track to 100% left and set the pan
of the lower track to 100% right. If you wish to retain the
gain, pan and envelope settings of the two mono tracks
when joining them into one stereo track, select the two
tracks then choose Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render in-
stead of joining the tracks.
5.7.4 Examples using the Track Dropdown
Menu
Example 1: Applying equalization to one channel of
a stereo track
Assume that you have a recording where one channel is
"muffled" - lacking in high frequencies compared to the
other channel.
1. Choose Split Stereo Track from the Track Drop-
down Menu.
2. Select the muffled track, for example by clicking in
the info area of the Track Control Panel.
5.8 Splitting a recording for export as separate tracks
This tutorial shows how to divide a long recording in
one Audacity track into separate songs for export as one
audio file per song. You can then burn these files to
an audio CD (enabling you to skip from track to track
on the CD) or play the files directly on a portable mu-
sic player. We describe the basic concepts of removing
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
3. Choose Effect > Equalization and apply the appro-
priate equalization curve to the track.
4. Listen to the result - if it is not as intended, choose
Edit > Undo Equalization and try a different equal-
ization curve.
5. When you are satisfied with the result, choose
Make Stereo Track from the Track Dropdown
Menu of the upper track.
Example 2: Reducing the "width" of a stereo track
Assume you have a recording of a drum kit where the
stereo spread of the kit sounds unnatural. The high hat
sounds like it’s coming from the right speaker only and
the floor tom from the left speaker.
1. Choose Split Stereo to Mono from the Track Drop-
down Menu, which makes two new mono tracks
and sets them to mix together equally in both left
and right channels of your listening equipment.
2. Adjust the pan control of the upper track to 70% left.
3. Adjust the pan control of the lower track to 70%
right.
4. Listen to the result and adjust the pan controls until
you get the effect you want.
5. Select the two tracks, for example by clicking info
area of the Track Control Panel of one track, then
holding Shift and clicking similarly in the Track Con-
trol Panel of the other track.
6. Choose Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render so that the
two tracks are mixed and rendered into one stereo
track. This changes the audio data and waveform
to match with the audible pan settings.
• If instead at step 6 you had chosen Make
Stereo Track on the upper track, this does
not render your changes: you would just
get your original stereo track back again
since Make Stereo Track ignores the pan set-
tings. Use Edit > Undo Make Stereo then
Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render if you choose
Make Stereo Track by mistake.
unwanted audio, identifying and labeling boundaries be-
tween songs, maximizing volume then using Export Mul-
tiple .If you already have each song in Audacity tracks
one above the other, you can still follow this tutorial. In-
stead of labeling as described here, name each song us-
ing that track’s dropdown menu . At the Export Multiple
5.8. SPLITTING A RECORDING FOR EXPORT AS SEPARATE TRACKS
step, split files based on Tracks instead of Labels. Live
recordings versus studio recordings
• Sometimes songs on live recordings flow together.
If you want to split a live recording into songs with-
out any audible break between the songs on the
CD you must use burning software that can set the
"gap" or "pause" between tracks to 0 seconds and
can burn in "disk-at-once" (DAO) mode. See Gap-
less burning.
5.8.1 Step 1 - Remove unwanted audio
from the recording
1. Set Snap To : Off in the Selection Toolbar
2. Click the Skip to Start button
3. Zoom in until you can see from the start of the track
to the start of the music
4. Click and drag from the start of the music to the
start of the track
5. Click on Edit > Delete
Similarly, remove unwanted audio from the end of the
recording and from the middle (between sides 1 and 2 of
the LP or cassette). Note that later in this tutorial we will
be using the Analyse > Find Silences command to iden-
tify spaces between the songs, so when you are editing
the transition between side 1 and side 2 be sure to leave
2 or 3 seconds of silence, similar to what you would find
between songs. Save your work! Click on File > Save
Project .
5.8.2 Step 2 - Label the songs
Mark the first song
1. Click the Skip to Start button
2. Click on Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection
, or use shortcut Ctrl + B.A new label is created
in a new label track underneath the audio track.
The contents of the label are selected and ready
for editing. If you need to play the track to decide
where to place the split points, you can use "Add
Label at Playback Position" instead (directly under-
neath "Add Label at Selection", or use shortcut Ctrl
+ M(on Mac it is CloverLeaf + .).
3. Type the title of the first song
When typing the label, you should not use charac-
ters which are reserved by the operating system.
• On Windows, do not use:
/ : * ? " < > |
• On Mac, do not use :
189
• On Linux, do not use /
Mark the rest of the songs
1. Using the selection tool, click near the beginning of
the second song
2. Repeatedly click the Zoom In button until you can
see just the first few seconds of the song
3. Click as closely as possible to the start of the song
4. Click on Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection , or
use shortcut Ctrl + B
5. Type the name of the song into the label
6. Repeatedly click the Zoom Out button until you
can see the start of the third song
7. Continue in this manner adding a label to mark the
start of each song
You can save time by using Analyze > Silence Finder
to automatically add labels in the silences, or Analyze
> Sound Finder to label the regions to be exported for
the songs. The Sound Finder method thus lets you ex-
clude some or all of the areas between songs.Both these
effects depend on correctly detecting the "silences" be-
tween tracks and this depends on setting their parame-
ters appropriately for your track. See this example of ad-
justing Silence Finder parameters in order to place labels
correctly between the songs.
5.8.3 Step 3 - Maximize the volume of the
recording
If you did the original recording properly and avoided clip-
ping, the recording is probably not at the maximum possi-
ble volume. In order for the CD to be burned at maximum
volume and thus match other CDs in your collection we
need to fix this.
1. Click on {Select > All , or use shortcut Ctrl + A
2. Click on Effect > Normalize...
The default choice in this dialog is to amplify to a max-
imum of -1.0 dB. The maximum setting is 0 dB, but the
default setting of -1.0 dB provides a little headroom as
some players can have playback problems with audio at
0 dB.
Some consumer-level turntables, tape decks and/or am-
plifiers may well record stereo channels with a stronger
signal in one channel than the other, which you will prob-
ably want to correct. In that case, check the box that says
190
"Normalize stereo channels independently". One prob-
lem when copying records is that a loud click in one chan-
nel can cause Normalize to create an unwanted change
in the stereo balance. In that case you should consider
removing the click before the Normalize step, using Click
Removal .
5.8.4 Step 4 - Export Multiple
Congratulations, you are now ready to export the tracks.
1. Click on File > Save Other > Export Multiple... .
2. Choose the Export Format from the pop-up menu:
• for CD burning choose 16-bit WAV if using
Windows or Linux or AIFF if you’re using a
Mac
• for loading into an MP3 player, choose MP3
• for loading into iTunes/iPod you can export as
WAV and use iTunes to convert the WAVs to
AAC or MP3.
3. Click the Choose... button and pick the place where
your exported tracks will be saved.
4. Under Split Files Based On:
• Labels should be checked
• Include audio before first label should be
unchecked, as there is no audio before the first
label
5. Under Name Files:
• Using Label/Track Name should be
checked.
6. Click the Export button.
7. Metadata Editor will appear for the first song. The
Track Title and Track Number will be pre-filled from
the labels, but you can enter any additional informa-
tion for that song that you wish (for example, Artist
Name and Album Title).
8. Click the OK button in the Metatdata Editor (not the
Save button).
9. Metadata Editor will appear for the next and the
subsequent songs; as before, enter any additional
information and click "OK" for each window. When
you click "OK" on the window for the last song, all
the files will export.
Metadata in this context refers to information "tags"
stored in the audio file such as Artist, Album and Song
Title.
• Often you may have an album where most tags
(such as Artist Name) are common to all tracks. If
you choose Edit > Metatdata... before exporting
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
and add the common tags there, Audacity will pre-
fill these when the metadata window for each song
appears.
• If all your tags are common to each song (except of
course for each song’s Track Title and Track Num-
ber), you can enter the common tags before export
as above but export silently without the metadata
window appearing. To do this, choose Preferences
, then the Import / Export tab, and uncheck Show
Metadata Editor prior to export step.
• Hiding Metadata Editor at the export step can also
be useful if you mainly export WAV files for which
many audio players don’t recognize tag information.
Use AIFF (in iTunes or VLC) or FLAC if you want
full metadata in lossless files.
A progress dialog might appear if the process takes more
than a second or two. When the process is finished a
confirmation dialog will appear listing the files that were
created. The tracks are now ready to import into the CD
burning software of your choice. If you burn a CD with
a gap of zero seconds between tracks (if your burning
software supports this), you will end up with an exact
replica of the LP or cassette. If, when burning the CD,
you add the standard 2-second gap between each track
you will be adding an additional 2 seconds to the exist-
ing silence between tracks, and the vinyl surface noise
or cassette hiss will suddenly disappear which some lis-
teners may find annoying. See Refinements, below, for
ways of dealing with this.
5.8.5 Step 5: Backup
Backup your exported WAV or MP3 files - you don’t want
to lose all that valuable work and have to do it all over
again, do you? Computer hard drives can fail, destroy-
ing all data. Ideally use a dedicated drive (1+ TB ex-
ternal magnetic drives are convenient and economical),
or upload to an online (cloud) storage service to store
the WAVs or MP3s. Better still is to make two copies
on different external devices and even better is to hold
an online backup as well as the local copies. You may
want to create a taxonomic file structure - for example
each album can be stored in its own folder (named for
the album) within a folder named for the artist (or, per-
haps, composer for classical music) to make searching
and retrieval easier.
5.8.6 Refinements
Remove the "silence" between songs
Of course, the space between songs is not really "silent"
- it contains vinyl surface noise or cassette hiss. Using
standard editing techniques you can select and delete
these portions of the recording, then insert whatever gap
5.9. LABEL TRACKS 191

(silent portion) you want when burning the CD. If you will
be listening to the songs primarily on a computer or MP3
player you may prefer to have some silence at the end
of each song. In this case select the silent portion then
click on Edit > Remove Special > Silence Audio . Now
you can edit the length of the silent portion to your taste.
Alternatively you can delete the silent portion, then click
on Generate > Silence and specify exactly how much
silence you want.
by using Effect > Fade Out at the end of each song.
You can do the fade-out after the music ends (in effect
fading out the noise). Alternatively you can fade out the
last second or so of the song if that works with the music.
If fading the last seconds of the music you may prefer to
use Effect > Studio Fade Out as that should give you a
smoother and more "musical" sounding fade out. Exper-
iment and listen to the results to decide what works for
you and for the music you are working on.

Avoiding a sudden cessation of vinyl surface noise 5.8.7 Links

or cassette hiss
> Forward to: Burning music files to a CD
Both of the above techniques will result in the vinyl sur-
< Back to: Basic Recording, Editing and Exporting
face noise or cassette hiss suddenly stopping, which
some listeners may find annoying. You can avoid this |< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD

5.9 Label Tracks

A Label Track is an additional track that can be created

in your project. The labels in the label track can be used
to reference points or regions in the project’s audio tracks
but the label track itself does not contain audio.

5.9.1 Features of a Label Track

• Labels can be used to mark then restore chosen

points or regions of audio for playback or editing .
• Labels can contain text for purposes of annotation
or transcription .
• Labels and their text provide a convenient way to
name different songs in a recorded track then ex-
port all songs at once to separate audio files using
File > Save Other > Export Multiple... .
Example of a mono audio track with a label track con-
taining a region label and a point label.Standard Edit
Menu commands can be applied to the audio of multiple
labeled regions (excluding audio outside those regions).
To do this, drag a selection in the Label Track that fully
includes (or extends beyond) the labels whose audio is
to be affected, then choose Edit > Labels Edit Labels...
and your required command.

• Many of the tools in the Analyze Menu use labels to

mark detected regions (such as regions of silence,
sound or clipping ). Point labels can mark de-
tected beats.

• The label text can be edited and you can resize re-
gion labels or move region or point labels.

• The Label Track’s Dropdown Menu can be used to

name the track, move it up or down or set the font 5.9.2 Using the context menu
of all label text.

• Label tracks are included when saving an Audacity

Project .

• Label tracks can be used to define sets of Sync- Right-clicking a label will cause its context menu to ap-
Locked Track Groups . pear:
192
From this menu you can:
• Cut or Copy any text selected in the label to the
system clipboard
• Paste any text that is currently on the system clip-
board
• Delete the label
• Open Labels Editor to edit only that label’s Start
Time and End Time (and also its Low Frequency
and High Frequency for use in Spectral Selection ).
5.9.3 Creating and selecting Labels
Labels can be created by selecting a region or clicking
at a point of interest then choosing Edit > Labels > Add
Label at Selection (or use its keyboard shortcut Ctrl +
B). An empty label appears then you can type to add
text to the label. Press Enter on the keyboard to con-
firm the text and close the label. When the label track
has the yellow focus border as in the image above you
can, if preferred, just type to create a label containing
that text rather than first using the menu or shortcut to
create the label. This default behaviour can be turned
off, if required, in Tracks Preferences by unchecking the
"Type to create label". You can also create labels while
playing or recording.
• To create a point label at the current position of
the green playback cursor or red recording cursor,
choose Edit > Labels > Add Label at Playback Po-
sition or its keyboard shortcut Ctrl + M (CloverLeaf
+ . on Mac).
• To create a region label while playing or recording,
click and drag the region then use the same Add
Label at Selection command (or its shortcut Ctrl +
B ) as when adding a region label when the track
is stopped. Similarly you can click anywhere in a
track while playing or recording and use Ctrl + B to
label that point.
You can create extra label tracks using Tracks > Add New
> Label Track but when exporting multiple files based on
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
labels, audio is only exported for the labels in the upper-
most label track in the project.
Selecting a Label
When you click inside a label to select it, the label back-
ground color changes to white, indicating that the label
text is open for editing, and the cursor point or region of
audio the label corresponds to is restored. The region
will be visible in all audio tracks that are selected and the
cursor will be visible in all audio tracks that have the yel-
low focus border. This applies even if the label track is
above the audio track. See this page for more details on
label creation and selection .
5.9.4 Navigating Labels
Open label for editing
When focus is on a label track as indicated by the yellow
focus border:
• TAB opens the next label for editing and places the
editing cursor or selection to correspond with that
label
• Shift + TAB opens the previous label for editing and
places the editing cursor or selection to correspond
with that label.
The label background becomes white, indicating you can
type to edit the label’s text. For a point label, the editing
cursor is placed at the label moved to. For a region label,
a selection is placed corresponding to the label moved
to. The view position moves if necessary to show you the
label moved to. Audacity cycles through the labels auto-
matically, so when at the last label, moving to next label
jumps to the first label. When at the first label, moving to
previous label jumps to the last label. These commands
exist only as shortcuts - they have no menu items or but-
tons.
Just move to the label
There are also two shortcut commands to move between
labels without opening them for editing. These shortcuts
do not require the yellow focus border to be in a label
track:
• Alt + Right places the editing cursor or selection to
correspond with the next label
• Alt + Left places the editing cursor or selection to
correspond with the previous label.
The view position moves if necessary to show you the
label moved to, centred in the view. If there is a single
label track, you do not need to be aware of which track
5.9. LABEL TRACKS
has the yellow focus border. If you have multiple label
tracks, use Up or Down arrow to move the yellow focus
border into the label track you wish to use. If there is
more than one label track and none have focus, then the
first label track downwards from the focused audio track
is used. During playback these "Move to the label" com-
mands restart playback at the position of the label moved
to. This is useful if you have a long recording which you
want to split into separate tracks using labels . As with the
TAB and Shift + TAB commands, Audacity cycles through
the labels automatically, and there are no corresponding
menu items or buttons.
5.9.5 Editing, resizing and moving Labels
You can edit labels by changing their text content, resize
region labels or move region or point labels. You can
change label positions:
• move a point label by clicking and dragging its circle
handle
• expand a point label into a region label by clicking
and dragging either of its triangle handles
• move a region label by clicking and dragging either
of its circle handles
• change the length of a region label by clicking and
dragging one of its triangle handles
• adjust the junction point where two labels meet by
clicking and dragging their shared circle handle
• if you remove part of a label track inside a region
label this will reduce the duration of the region la-
bel.
You can cut and paste region labels using Edit > Cut and
Edit > Paste , but you have to make sure you do not select
any audio, or you will end up cutting and pasting audio
where you probably did not intend. See Editing, resizing
and moving Labels for more details on editing labels.
5.9.6 Removing Labels only
Labels can be removed (deleted) in a number of ways.
However because labels are usually associated with an
audio track, the label deletion method may affect whether
or not the remaining labels are still synchronized with the
audio (that is, remain associated with the same part of
the audio track ). Incorrect edits to label tracks can al-
ways be undone by using Edit > Undo .
• Delete Label - retains audio synchronization:
Right-click inside the label’s text box and choose Delete
Label from the dropdown menu. Any labels lying to right
of the removed labels stay where they are, still associ-
ated with their original audio.
193
• Split method - retains audio synchronization:
Often you may want to remove labels from the label track
without removing their associated audio, while keeping
the remaining labels synchronized with their audio.The
quickest way to do this is to select any region in the label
track that extends beyond the label or labels to be re-
moved (without reaching other labels), then choose Edit
> Remove Special > Split Delete , or its shortcut Ctrl + Alt
+ K. Any labels lying to right of the removed labels stay
where they are, still associated with their original audio.
• Label text removal method - retains audio syn-
chronization:
You can use this method to remove a single label. Open
the label, remove the text then press Backspace or
Delete once to remove the empty label. All remaining
labels remain synchronized with their audio.
• Delete method - loses audio synchronization
for labels to right of the delete point:
To remove labels or a region of label track so that the
following labels move back (leftwards), select over or be-
tween labels then choose Edit > Delete , or its shortcut
Ctrl + K. Labels following to right of the removed labels
will always move backwards (earlier on the Timeline) ac-
cording to the length of the removed selection. See Re-
moving Labels - Examples for examples of the various
methods.
Deleting the entire Label Track
You can also remove all labels at once by deleting the
label track entirely. To remove the entire label track and
all its labels, click in the label track and choose Tracks >
Remove Tracks . Alternatively, click the close button in
the upper-left corner of the label track. Label tracks can
be exported as a text file and are required for splitting
a long recording to separate files using Export Multiple
. However labels themselves cannot be included as part
of an exported audio file so there is no need to remove
additional label tracks that for example were used for an-
notation or transcription but are no longer required.
5.9.7 Removing labels together with their
associated audio
In most cases when you remove parts of the label track,
you will also want to remove the corresponding audio so
that the remaining labels are still synchronized with their
original audio, for example, you may have labeled a re-
gion of noisy audio for later deletion. To remove the audio
region as well as the label region, select over or between
the labels as required then include the audio track in the
selection by dragging the selection upwards to include
the audio track, then choose Edit > Delete or its shortcut
Ctrl + K. Similarly, if you want to keep labels and audio
194
synchronized when deleting audio to left of a label, you
must include the label track in the selection before delet-
ing. Keyboard use: To include the audio track in the
label selection, or vice versa, press Up or Down as ap-
propriate then Enter. See Selecting using the keyboard
.Alternatively you can enable Tracks > Sync-Lock Tracks .
This feature defines groups of Sync-Locked audio and/or
label tracks, such that a length-changing action in one
track of the group affects all the others in the group, even
if they are not all selected. A convenient way to select
and delete the exact area of an individual region label
together with its corresponding audio (moving the follow-
ing audio backwards) is to click in the label, then press
Enter followed by Delete or Backspace. If your Interface
Preferences are set to "Retain labels if selection snaps
to a label edge", this retains a point label at the former
left-hand edge of the region. Keyboard use: Use Up or
Down then Enter if needed to select the audio track, then
repeat as needed to also select the label track. Then Tab
into the label to be removed, press Enter then Delete or
Backspace. See here for an example of removing labels
with their associated audio.
5.9.8 Labels Editor
Edit > Labels > Edit Labels... launches a keyboard-
accessible Labels Editor where you can perform all re-
move, text edit, resize and move operations on labels. All
the labels and label tracks in the project are displayed in
a tabular view, similar to a spreadsheet. Each row rep-
resents a single individual label. See this page for more
details on the editor.
5.9.9 Editing or moving the label track us-
ing the Label Track Dropdown Menu
Clicking the label track’s name by the downward-pointing
triangle (or using shortcut Shift + M or the keyboard Menu
key when the label track has focus) opens the Label Track
Dropdown Menu:
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
• Name
Displays the "Track Name" dialog where you can give the
track a new name. Useful in multi-track projects to pro-
vide a visual indication of the content of each track.
• Font
Displays the "Label Track Font" dialog where you can set
the font and font size of the labels. Note that this applies
to all label tracks.
Moving Tracks
Tracks can be moved up and down using the menu items.
• Move Track Up: Moves track up.
• Move Track Down: Moves track down.
• Move Track to Top: Moves track to become the
topmost track in the project.
• Move Track to Bottom: Moves track to become
the bottom track in the project.
Label tracks can also be moved up or down by clicking
between the controls in the track’s Track Control Panel
then dragging upwards or downwards.
5.9.10 Collapsing the Label Track
Track Collapse Button:
Click on this to make the track ’fold up’ into a smaller size.
Click again, or drag the lower edge of the track to restore
the size.
5.9.11 Importing and Exporting Labels
Label Tracks can be exported to, and imported from plain
text files ( .txt extension in Windows). The file structure
is a tab-delimited plain text format that can be opened
by any text editor or spreadsheet application and edited
there. See this page for more details on text label files.
5.10. CREATING AND SELECTING LABELS 195

5.10 Creating and Selecting Labels

This page details the various methods for creating labels

and how to select them.

5.10.1 Creating Labels

Suppose that you have a recording of an interview and

you want to annotate the questions and answers so you
can easily jump directly to a particular question or answer
later on. Initially, you may have something like the image
below. Without any annotation it’s almost impossible to
tell them apart just looking at the waveform .
After this question comes the answer from the person be-
ing interviewed. We’ll select this one by starting from the
right side of the answer and dragging to the left. Note that
a vertical yellow guide appears when we get to the edge
of the first label, making it easy to line up the two labels
(below). It’s common for the next label to start exactly
where the previous one ends, but it’s not necessary.

Here, we select the first question with the mouse (below).

This may require listening to the audio several times to
determine the exact boundaries of the selection.
Once again, click on Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selec-
tion to create the next label, then type its name and press
Enter. Because there is already a label track, you could
instead press Down arrow on the keyboard, so moving
the yellow focus border into the label track, then just type
to create the new region label and text. In most cases
you can also drag a region or click in the label track, then
immediately type the label for that region or point.In the
following image, we’ve added even more labels.
Now click on Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection , or
type its keyboard shortcut ( Ctrl + B. This creates a new
label track and a blank label outlining the current selec-
tion (below).

And here is a complete label track with several labels

The cursor is automatically positioned inside the label,

just type the name of the label then press Enter (pressing
Enter allows you to use any current keyboard shortcuts
normally–you could press Space to listen to the selec-
tion again if you wished). In the image below we’ve typed
Question 1.
196
Alternative Method Using Point Labels
In the example above we used region labels to mark the
interview segments. We could just as easily have used
point labels. For example, we could click in the audio
track at the beginning of the first question then click on
Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection to create the point
label.
Similarly, we could click in the audio track at the begin-
ning of the first answer then click on Edit > Labels > Add
Label at Selection to create the second point label.
Either method is equally valid. Region labels have the
advantage that clicking in the label text selects the au-
dio spanned by the region label, which may be useful in
some situations.
Adding labels while playing or recording
You can also create labels while playing or recording:
• To create a point label at the current Audio Posi-
tion indicated in Selection Toolbar , choose Edit >
Labels > Add Label at Playback Position , or its key-
board shortcut Ctrl + M ( CloverLeaf + . on Mac ).
• To create a region label while playing or recording,
click and drag the region in the audio track then use
the Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection com-
mand or its shortcut Ctrl + B. Similarly you can click
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
anywhere in a track while playing or recording and
use Ctrl + B to label that point.
You can create extra label tracks using Tracks > Add New
> Label Track but when exporting multiple files based on
labels, audio is only exported for the labels in the upper-
most label track in the project.
5.10.2 Selecting a label
When you click inside a label to select it, the label is
opened so its text can be edited, and the cursor point or
region of audio the label corresponds to is restored. The
region will be visible in all audio tracks that are selected
and the cursor will be visible in all audio tracks that have
the yellow focus border. This applies even if the label
track is above the audio track.
You can use Tab on your keyboard to select forwards
through each label whenever the focus border is in the la-
bel track. To restore focus to the label track if necessary,
either use keyboard Up or Down or click in empty space
on the Track Control Panel of the label track (which both
selects it and gives it focus). If a label is open for edit-
ing, Tab moves to and opens the next label to right. If no
label is open, Tab moves to and opens the nearest label
to right of the current cursor (or the nearest label to right
of the current start of the selection). Shift + Tab similarly
selects backwards through each label in the focused la-
bel track, opening the next label to left of an open label,
otherwise the nearest label to left of the cursor or selec-
tion start. When Tab or Shift + Tab opens the last or first
label respectively in the focused label track, the next Tab
or Shift + Tab closes that label. You can then use Tab or
Shift + Tab again to navigate through the labels starting
from the opposite end of the track.
|< Label Tracks
5.11. IMPORTING AND EXPORTING LABELS
5.11 Importing and Exporting Labels
Label Tracks can be exported to, and imported from plain
text files (.txt extension). The structure of the file is a tab-
delimited plain text format that can be opened by any text
editor or spreadsheet application and edited there.The
standard structure to display a label denoting its Time-
line position and any text it contains is as below.
2.150000 → 2.150000 → point label at 2.15 sec-
onds 3.400000 → 6.100000 → region label from 3.4
to 6.1 seconds In the example above, the first column
has the start time in seconds, the second column has
the end time, and the third column if present shows the
text of the label. Start time and end time are identical
for a point label. Values are separated by tab charac-
ters (which will often appear as an arrow in text editors,
as shown above). If a label is created from a point or
region in a Spectrogram track where Spectral Selection
is enabled (or if a label is otherwise created when a low
frequency and high frequency value are already stored
in the project), the labels file also contains the frequency
range for that label.
1.000000 → 1.000000 → This point was clicked at
6928.456055 Hz
→ 6928.456055 → 6928.456055 2.000000 → 2.500000 → Low
frequency undefined, High frequency 6334.588867 Hz
→ -1.000000 → 6334.588867 3.000000 → 3.500000 → Low
frequency 8908.015625, High frequency undefined
→ 8908.015625 → -1.000000 4.000000 → 4.500000 → Low
frequency 1484.669312 Hz, High frequency
2969.338523 Hz
→ 1484.669312 → 2969.338523 In the example above,
there is a point label at 1 second, then three region la-
bels each starting one second further along. After the
5.12 Removing Labels - Examples
This page contains five examples of how to remove la-
bels:
• Delete Label using the label dropdown menu
• Removing labels without moving any following la-
bels - Split method
• Label text removal method
• Removing labels (or regions of label track), moving
back any following labels - Delete method
• Removing labels together with their associated au-
dio
Edit > Delete (shortcut Ctrl + K), Edit > Remove
197
time position and text content information in the first line,
a second line for each label records the low frequency
followed by the high frequency. To view the low and
high frequency values for a label, either select the label
then look in Spectral Selection Toolbar , or right-click
the label and choose "Edit" to open the Edit Labels win-
dow.Sometimes it may be useful to use these labels in
another application (for example if somebody wanted to
know the time where each piece of an interview starts
or stops), or to import a labels file that someone has
shared with you. You can export labels using the Edit
Labels window mentioned above, or by choosing File >
Save Other > Export Labels... . By default the exported
file has the same name as the current name of the label
track. If there are multiple label tracks, the labels of all
those tracks are combined into a single label track in the
exported file, which by default has the same name as the
current name of the last label track. Labels can be im-
ported using the Edit Labels window, or by choosing File
> Import > Labels... . Imported label tracks are added to
the bottom of all existing track types in the project, just
as when you import an audio track .
If you import labels created by some application
other than Audacity, make sure the application supports
UTF-8 or use only ASCII (Latin unaccented) characters
and numbers. Otherwise, accented or any other non-
Latin characters may cause the file to not import. If you
use a Windows application to create the file, you may
have to use "Save As" and look for a specific option that
saves with UTF-8 encoding.
|< Label Tracks
Special > Split Delete (shortcut Ctrl + Alt + K) or their
Cut/Split Cut alternatives cannot be used to remove point
labels because there is no audio region associated with
them.
5.12.1 Delete Label
The simplest way to delete a single label is to right-click
inside the label’s text box, then choose Delete Label from
the dropdown menu. Any labels lying to right of the re-
moved labels stay where they are, still associated with
their original audio. Suppose you have labeled different
song tracks in the Audio track and you’ve also labeled
some noise in the middle of Track 2. You have removed
198
the noise so you need to delete the label without moving
any other labels.
Right-click in the label’s text box to show the label drop-
down menu.
Choose Delete Label and the label will be removed, leav-
ing any following labels in their original place.
It’s like having stickers on a paper chain, and lifting one
of the stickers off the chain.
5.12.2 Removing labels without moving
any following labels (Split method)
You can use this method to remove single or multiple la-
bels, without removing their associated audio, by split
deleting a region in the label track. This method keeps
the remaining labels synchronized with their audio. Sup-
pose you have labeled different song tracks in the Au-
dio track and you’ve also labeled some clicks after half-
way through Track-2. You have removed the clicks so
you need to delete their labels without moving any other
labels.
Select in the label track around the two labels to be re-
moved. Only drag horizontally, so as to avoid extending
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
the selection up into the audio track.
Use Edit > Remove Special > Split Delete or its key-
board shortcut Ctrl + Alt + K. The two labels are removed
and the labels for Track-3 and Track-4 remain where they
were previously. Note that the selection remains after
performing this split delete in the label track.
It’s like having stickers on a paper chain, and lifting some
stickers off the chain.
5.12.3 Label text removal method
You can use this method to remove a single label, all
remaining labels remain synchronized with their audio.
Open the label by clicking in its text box, remove the
text then press Backspace or Delete once to remove the
empty label. This can be achieved in several ways, for
example:
• Single-click before the first character in the label
text (or click anywhere in the text then press Home),
then press the Delete key until the text is removed,
then press Delete once more.
• Single-click before the first character in the label
text (or click anywhere in the text then press Home),
then hold Shift and press End. Now press Delete
twice.
• Single-click anywhere after the first character in the
label text, then use first Backspace then Delete if
needed until the text and label are removed.
Keyboard use: Use Up or Down to move the focus into
the label track if needed, then Tab into the label to be
removed. Now press Backspace until the label text and
label are removed. You can also use Labels Editor to
remove an individual label without affecting the following
labels.
5.12. REMOVING LABELS - EXAMPLES
5.12.4 Removing labels (or regions of la-
bel track), moving back any follow-
ing labels (Delete method)
You can use this method to remove labels or regions be-
tween labels, moving back (leftwards) any following la-
bels. If you only remove the labels without also deleting
the same region in the audio track Delete will desynchro-
nize the following labels with their audio. You have a pod-
cast and have placed labels every two minutes where you
will change to a different piece of accompanying music
(not yet added). Then you decide not to use the second
piece of music but to otherwise keep the same order for
the following pieces of music. The easiest answer is to
delete a region of label track corresponding to the "Vi-
valdi" piece, which allows the following labels to move
back. We will not split delete because that would leave a
section with no music label, and this method avoids hav-
ing to rename any labels.
Select in the label track over the label to be removed.
Only drag horizontally, so as to avoid extending the se-
lection up into the audio track or the other label track. The
labels following the removed label will move back by the
length of region removed from the label track. It does not
matter exactly where that region starts and ends, provid-
ing the selected length is correct and providing we select
over the "Vivaldi" label point but do not let the selection
touch the "Mozart" label.
Use Edit > Delete or its shortcut Ctrl + K to delete the se-
lected part of the label track, moving back the following
labels accordingly.
199
This is like removing part of a paper chain, making the
following parts move back.
5.12.5 Removing labels together with their
associated audio
In most cases when you remove parts of the label track,
you will also want to remove the corresponding audio so
that the remaining labels are still synchronized with their
original audio. For example, you may have labeled a
region of noisy audio for later deletion, as in the exam-
ple below where there is a section of a performance with
clapping. You have identified a section of applause at the
end of Track-3 that you want to remove and have labeled
this section with a region label.
Select in the audio track from one edge of the label to the
other then drag down into the label track, or simply click
in the text of the "clap" label.
Then use Edit > Delete or its shortcut Ctrl + K to make
the deletion. As you can see, the label for Track-4 and
its audio both move back (leftwards) on the Timeline thus
keeping the label for Track-4 at the start of that track. If
you already had the labeled audio selected on its own,
you could equally have dragged either edge of that se-
lection down into the label track.
|< Label Tracks
200
5.13 Labels Editor
Labels Editor lets you add or remove Label Tracks and
edit their labels entirely using the keyboard, so is partic-
ularly useful for visually impaired users. Edit > Labels
> Edit Labels... launches a keyboard-accessible Labels
Editor. This shows all the labels at once in a tabular view,
similar to a spreadsheet. Each row represents a single
individual label:
• If you do not yet have a label track with labels, you
can open Labels Editor where a row for a new label
track will be available for editing.
• If you already have a label track with labels and the
editing cursor is at one of those labels, Labels Ed-
itor opens with that label selected. Otherwise La-
bels Editor opens with the label to left of the editing
cursor selected and moves the cursor to that label
(or if the cursor is to left of the first label, it opens
with the first label selected and moves the cursor
to the first label). On closing Labels Editor, the cur-
sor is placed at the label that was selected when
closing the editor.
Alternatively you can open a single label in Labels Editor
by selecting and right-clicking the label (or use the Menu
key) then choose "Edit...".
5.13.1 Navigation
Use the Arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate eas-
ily left, right, up or down between the table cells and
rows. Closing the editor with a label row selected se-
lects that label in the label track (without opening it for
editing). Pressing Space will then move the view to the
start of that label and play the audio from the start of that
label. To open a cell for editing, use F2 or double-click.
To confirm the edit, press Enter to move down into the
same cell in the next label, or Tab to move into the fol-
lowing cell for the current label. Similarly, hold Shift and
press Tab to move back to the previous cell for that label.
Holding Ctrl and pressing Tab moves directly out of the
grid and cycles forward through the buttons , and hold-
ing Ctrl and Shift and pressing Tab moves out of the grid
and cycles backward through the buttons (use Ctrl nor
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
Command for these key presses, even on Mac). Opening
the Start Time or End Time cell for editing lets you use
Left or Right arrow keys to move between selected time
digits, then Up or Down arrow keys to increment the dig-
its. Alternatively you can type the number wanted for the
selected digit. Labels Editor shows the selection format
currently chosen in Selection Toolbar . To change the for-
mat temporarily to some other unit of time or to samples
, audio CD frames or film frames, use the context key
on your keyboard or click the downward-pointing arrow to
right of the digits.
5.13.2 Inserting and removing labels
Navigating into any cell in the row for that label (or select-
ing that cell with the mouse) selects that label for action
by the following three buttons:
• Insert After: Insert a single label into the list after
the selected label
• Insert Before: Insert a single label into the list be-
fore the selected label
• Remove: Remove the selected label without mov-
ing back any following labels. This command never
removes the Label Track, even if no labels remain
in that track.
After using either Insert button, type the label name, then
Tab into and open the Start Time and End Time cells in
turn to set the position of the new label. Moving a label
to a new label track: In the row for the label you want
to move, open the cell under the "Track" column. Then
select New... , press Enter on your keyboard (or use
the Label Editor’s OK button), type the name of the new
track then press Enter. This will move the label in that row
to the new track. The new label track is now selectable
in the Track cells in all rows. Selecting different tracks in
the Track cell only changes the track to which that label
belongs. So if you select the track from which you moved
a label.as above, the Label cell to right does not present
an empty label ready to be created; you must insert a
new label row if you want to create a new label in that
track.Creating a new empty label track and editing its
labels: Use either Insert button to add a new label row,
then open the Track cell in that row and choose New...
and press Enter as above to allocate that label to a
new track. It is often easiest to do this by selecting the
top row then inserting before that row. The new row then
5.14. NOTE TRACKS
remains selected after naming the new track, then you
can Tab into the other fields as needed to name the first
label and set its position.
5.13.3 Importing and Exporting labels
Import... and Export... buttons: These respectively im-
port a labels text file or export all the labels to a text file
(irrespective of which labels are selected). These buttons
are equivalent to the File Menu commands for importing
and exporting labels .
5.13.4 Labels with a Spectral Selection
If a label is created from a point or region in a Spec-
trogram track where Spectral Selection is enabled (or if
a label is otherwise created when a low frequency and
high frequency value are already stored in the project),
the Low Frequency and High Frequency of that label is
displayed in Labels Editor. If a frequency is undefined,
it displays as a series of dashes. The Low and High
Frequency can be edited just like the Start Time and
End Time, by selecting the label and pressing F2, or by
double-clicking the cell. When the cell is open for editing,
5.14 Note Tracks
Note Tracks contain data from MIDI (and Allegro ) files
- these can be imported with the File > Import > MIDI...
command.
• Note Tracks can be useful to visually compare a
given MIDI (or Allegro) file with a sampled audio
file (such as WAV ) of the same music.
• They can be cut-and-paste edited.
• They can then be exported using the File > Save
Other > Export MIDI... command. When exporting
so as to overwrite an existing GRO, MID or MIDI
file, the original file is renamed with ".bak" suffix,
for example "keyboards.mid.bak".
5.14.1 A Note Track
Note tracks can be created by importing MIDI (or Allegro)
files with File > Import > MIDI... .
201
click the downwards-pointing triangle to right of the digits
(or use the Menu key) to change between values in Hz
and kHz. After modifying either frequency value for one
or more labels, click OK in Labels Editor then reselect the
label to see the modified frequency range displayed in a
Spectrogram track with Spectral Selection enabled.
An alternative way to display the frequency range of a
label is to enable Spectral Selection Toolbar then select
the label.
• Note: A frequency range already stored in a la-
bel cannot be further modified by Spectral Selec-
tion Toolbar or by clicking or dragging in the wave-
form. To change the stored frequency range, select
and right-click the label (or use the Menu key) then
choose "Edit..." to open the label in Labels Editor.
|< Label Tracks
5.14.2 Playing and editing Note tracks
MIDI and Allegro playback
Note tracks containing MIDI data (or Allegro data) can
now be played in Audacity. Loop Play and Play Cut
Preview also work with Note tracks. But note that there
will no use of the Playback meter while Note tracks are
played. In order to achieve MIDI playback on Mac and
Linux you will need to install, and run, additional soft-
ware, a software synthesizerPlease see these pages in
the Audacity Wiki:
• Enabling Note Track playback on Mac
• Enabling Note Track playback on Linux
Editing Note Tracks
Only limited editing can be performed on Note tracks
such as cutting, pasting and deleting.
202 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS

5.14.3 Track Control Panel Preferences . One of these is to remove the Solo button,
leaving only a Mute button. Channel toggles:

Shows enabled channels, color coded to match the ac-

The Track Control Panel at the left of the note track has
controls for this track. Left-clicking other than on a control
performs track selection and move as follows.
• Clicking selects all this track’s audio, deselecting all
other tracks.
• Holding Shift while clicking selects all this track’s
audio, keeping already selected tracks selected.
– (keyboard: use Up or Down to give the track
focus , then Enter to select it; hold Shift
then use Up or Down to extend selection into
another track. Read keyboard selection for
more).
• Click-and-drag moves this track up or down when
there are other tracks (keyboard: choose one of
the "Move Track" commands in Note Track Drop-
down Menu , opened by Shift + M on the currently
focused track ).
tual notes in the channels. Individual channels may
be toggled by left-clicking, or all other channels can be
muted/unmuted by right-clicking. Channel numbers start
at 1; channel 10 is the channel that is reserved for per-
cussion by most MIDI devices.Velocity Slider:
Set the velocity offset for this track. Hold down the
shift key while dragging to adjust the slider in finer in-
crements. Double-click the slider to bring up a window
where you can make precise adjustments or enter a ve-
locity value.Velocity is in units of MIDI velocity, ranging
from 1 (lowest) to 127 (highest). The offset from this
slider (ranging from -50 to +50) is combined with each
note’s individual velocity to produce the resultant veloc-
ity.Track Collapse Button:
Click on this to make the track ’fold up’ into a smaller size.
Click again, or drag the lower edge of the track to restore
the size.
Status Indicators

Controls • Sync-Lock Indicator:

When present (at bottom-right of the Track Control
Close Button: Clicking this button will close the track, Panel, adjacent to the Track Collapse button), indicates
removing it from the project. Note Track Dropdown Menu: that this track is part of a Sync-Locked Track Group .

5.14.4 Vertical Scale

Clicking the track name or using Shift + M on the currently
focused track opens the Note Track Dropdown Menu giv-
ing options that affect this track only. Newly created

tracks are named "Note Track".Mute Button:

Click to silence this track when playing. By default, the
track will only be silenced if no Solo buttons are de-
pressed. Click again to unsilence. Tracks on which
the Mute button is pressed are never exported .Solo

Button: Click to play just this track. Click again

to release the button. Whenever playing audio, Solo
takes precedence over Mute by default - the Mute buttons
have no effect whilst any Solo button is down. There are
two other options for Solo button behavior in the Tracks
5.14. NOTE TRACKS
The vertical scale displays note pitches next to a pi-
ano, ranging from the lowest to the highest possible MIDI
notes (C -1 to G 9). Each octave is labeled at C (and the
notes above are in that octave).
When the mouse pointer is over the scale it changes to a
magnify icon .
• Left-click in the Vertical Scale to zoom in. The
range displayed on the scale will be centered at the
value you clicked at. Left-click and drag a region up
or down then release to zoom into that region. You
can press Esc to cancel the zoom operation if you
commence a drag by mistake.
• Hold Shift and left-click (or use unmodified right-
click) to zoom out progressively. When the Shift
key is held down the plus sign on the magnify icon
changes to a minus icon.
• Hold Shift and rotate the mouse wheel to scroll up
and down at the same zoom level, using the same
visible range.
• Hold Ctrl and rotate the mouse wheel to zoom in or
out at the mouse pointer’s position.
• Hold Shift and right-click to zoom out in one step to
show the entire range of notes (from C -1 to G 9).
All the above zooms are in the vertical direction, as op-
posed to a horizontal zoom on the Timeline . See Zoom-
ing for more details of vertical and horizontal zooming.
5.14.5 Note Track Dropdown Menu
Clicking the note track’s name by the downward-pointing
triangle (or using shortcut Shift + M or the keyboard Menu
key when the note track has focus) opens the Note Track
Dropdown Menu:
203
• Name
Displays the "Track Name" dialog where you can give the
track a new name. Useful in multi-track projects to pro-
vide a visual indication of the content of each track.
• Up Octave and Down Octave
Moves the vertical scale up or down one octave.
Moving Tracks
Tracks can be moved up and down using the menu items.
• Move Track Up: Moves track up.
• Move Track Down: Moves track down.
• Move Track to Top: Moves track to become the
topmost track in the project.
• Move Track to Bottom: Moves track to become
the bottom track in the project.
Note tracks can also be moved up or down by clicking be-
tween the controls in the track’s Track Control Panel then
dragging upwards or downwards.
5.14.6 Note display
The notes from the MIDI sequence are displayed within
the track. Colors indicate the MIDI channels that the
given note is in, and match those seen in the channel
toggles . Each channel has an instrument assigned to
it (not currently shown), although channels can change
instruments partway through. Channel 10 (gray) is re-
served by most MIDI devices for percussion. Some alle-
gro files and MIDI files have more than 16 channels, in
that case they will be displayed as a different gray. Notes
that are above or below the visible area will be drawn in
black in the top or bottom rows (no matter how far above
or below they are), to indicate that there is something
to be scrolled to. Blue vertical lines indicate measures.
Note that some MIDI files do not have accurate tempo in-
formation, in which case the lines may not match actual
measures in the song.
204 CHAPTER 5. TRACKS

5.15 Time Tracks

A Time Track is used in conjunction with one or more au-
dio tracks to progressively increase or decrease playback
speed (and pitch) over the length of the audio. Speed
changes are controlled by manipulating the blue "time
warp" line with the Envelope Tool used for making grad-
ual volume changes. If the blue line is dragged above
the horizontal, the audio plays faster; if dragged below, it
plays slower.
that were there before. Having changed the range, you
can now move the warp line up or down anywhere within
the new upper or lower limit of the range.
• Only one Time Track can be used in a project, and
it affects all audio tracks on screen.
• Time Track has no effect when audio is speed-
adjusted using the Play-at-Speed slider in Tran-
scription Toolbar .

5.15.1 Time Track Dropdown Menu

General method of use:
• Hover your cursor over the warp line until the enve-
lope cursor appears, then click (and optionally,
drag up or down) to create a control point.
• To remove a control point, drag it outside the track,
or use Edit > Undo to undo envelope changes in
sequence.
• By default you can warp playback speed by a max-
imum increase of 10% (110 on the vertical scale
to left of the warp line) or a maximum decrease of
10% (90 on the vertical scale).
• To warp the speed by greater amounts, click in the
name of the Time Track (in the panel that con-
tains the downward pointing arrow) and choose
"Set Range". Here you can specify the lower and
upper speed limit of the vertical scale:

Clicking in the panel containing the downward-pointing

triangle (to the left of the track) opens the Time Track
Dropdown Menu containing display choices for the track:
• Name...: Displays the "Track Name" dialog where
you can give the track a new name.
• Move Track Up: Moves the track up.
• Move Track Down: Moves the track down.
• Move Track to Top: Moves track to become the
topmost track in the project.
• Move Track to Bottom: Moves track to become
the bottom track in the project.
• Linear scale: Sets the vertical scale of Time Track
to a linear display; this is the default.
• Logarithmic scale: Sets the vertical ruler to a log-
arithmic display.
Changing the range rescales the Time Track to the new • Range...: Opens dialogs where you can first set
limits, preserving the warp value of any envelope points the minimum and then the maximum speed change
5.15. TIME TRACKS
value to be displayed on the vertical scale. Values
are expressed in percentages relative to the "no
change" value of 100%. Only integer values (whole
numbers) can be set. The lowest speed change
value that can be set is 10% and the highest speed
change value that can be set is 1000% .
• Logarithmic Interpolation: The curve between
control points is by default calculated using log-
arithmic interpolation . Uncheck this option to
use linear interpolation between control points,
so drawing an exactly straight line between points
(assuming the vertical scale is set to "Linear").
Label tracks can also be moved up or down by clicking
between the controls in the track’s Track Control Panel
then dragging upwards or downwards.
5.15.2 A Tutorial on Time Warping
Key points about the image above:
• Thereafter when you drag a point the line on each
• The Time Track curves are drawn with default dis-
play types (linear vertical scaling with logarithmic
interpolation).
• The range of the vertical scale has been increased
to a lower limit of 50 and an upper limit of 200.
• The horizontal ruler underneath the Timeline warps
as you change the warp line. It shows when the
speed-changed playback will reach each time point
in the audio. Thus the green playback cursor moves
faster or slower than normal as it moves along Time
Track’s horizontal ruler.
• In our example:
– we started playing twice as fast as normal
– we slowed down fairly suddenly to a speed
twice as slow as normal
– then increased very gradually to a steady
speed a little faster than the normal speed of
100%.
After all the changes, the resultant audio ends up
with only a few seconds shorter playing time than
it had before (about 3 minutes 42 seconds, where
the end of the audio lies against the Time Track hor-
izontal ruler).
205
Important Steps:
1. You must first have at least one audio track to ma-
nipulate.
2. Choose Tracks > Add New > New Time Track.
3. If you want to warp the speed by more than plus or
minus 10%, open the Time Track Dropdown Menu
and choose Set Range.... The dialog will appear
twice, the first time to choose the lower limit of the
range and the second time to choose the upper limit
of the range.
• For example if you set a Lower Speed Limit of
50%, you can make the audio play up to twice
as slowly (an envelope point at the bottom of
the Time Track would make the playback twice
as slow, just like a Change Speed effect of -
50%).
• If you set an Upper Speed Limit of 200%,
you can make the audio play up to twice as
fast (an envelope point at the top of the Time
Track would double the playback speed, like a
Change Speed effect of 100%).
4. When you hover your cursor over the warp line, the
cursor changes to the envelope cursor , which
lets you shape the time warp line. Creating one en-
velope point only changes the speed of the whole
track by the same amount, just like the Change
Speed effect. To make a speed change that varies
over time you must create at least one more point.
side of that point moves to reflect your change.
5. You can press Space at any time to listen to how
the warping sounds and change the points on the
warp line further.
6. If you wish to continue editing after completing your
warp points, it is often advisable to click in the Track
Control Panel of the audio track to select it (hold
Shift and click to select multiple tracks) then Tracks
> Mix > Mix and Render . This writes the resam-
pled audio data directly to the project rather than
resampling the speed-changed audio back to the
current sample rate in real-time. This may there-
fore make project playback more responsive.
• The quality setting of the resampling library
used for playing or rendering Time Tracks
is chosen automatically by Audacity. There-
fore changing the converter quality settings
in Quality Preferences will not affect Time
Tracks.
7. To use the speed-changed audio in other applica-
tions, choose File > Save Other > Export Audio... ,
which opens the Export Audio Dialog .
Time Track is always active (and therefore modi-
206
fies audio speed when playing or exporting) whenever it
is visible in the project. This applies even after render-
ing the audio. Therefore after render (or as soon as you
want to work with audio that you do not want to speed-
change), use the [X] "Close" button to left of the Time
Track to remove it.
CHAPTER 5. TRACKS
Older computers may be incapable of playing audio in
real-time that makes use of a Time Track. However you
can always export the file as a WAV and then play the
WAV file later.
Chapter 6
Preferences
6.1 Preferences
Preferences let you change most of the default behaviors
of Audacity. The Preferences dialog can be accessed us-
ing the Edit Menu (or by using the shortcut Ctrl + P). On a
Mac, Preferences is under the Audacity Menu CloverLeaf
+ ,.
6.1.1 The Preferences dialog
The Preferences dialog is split into 17 sections. The
description page for each section (accessed by the links
below) shows an image of the default preferences set-
tings for that section.
SectionWhat it controls
Devices Choose audio host, playback and recording de-
vices and recording channels.
Playback Length of previews for cuts and effects; play-
back seek times.
Recording Settings for playthrough, latency, Sound Acti-
vated Recording and naming newly recorded tracks.
MIDI Devices Settings for MIDI playback on your system.
Quality Choose sample rate , sample format and op-
tions for rate and format conversion.
Interface Interface behaviors, dB display range, choose
language and location of Manual, show initial "Help" dia-
log.
Tracks Tracks display management.
Left-Floor Tracks Behaviors Settings to control the be-
haviors of Tracks.
Left-Floor Spectrograms Settings for presentation of
spectrograms in the audio track.
Import / Export Importing: if uncompressed audio is
copied into projects or read directly, if tracks are normal-
207
ized. Exporting: how audio is mixed, if Metadata Editor
appears, content of Allegro exports.
Left-Floor Extended Import Specify different importers to
open specific audio file extensions .
Projects Whether to copy in dependent audio files when
saving projects, or ask.
Libraries Download and locate the optional LAME and
FFmpeg libraries.
Directories Sets the location of the temporary files direc-
tory and displays how much space is available on that
drive.
Warnings Warn or not when disk space is low on startup,
when saving projects, mixing down or importing uncom-
pressed audio files.
Effects Enable or disable effects by type: LADSPA, LV2,
Nyquist, VAMP, VST, Audio Units. Sort or group effects.
Check for updated plug-ins or rescan all plug-ins.
Keyboard List, search for and set keyboard shortcuts for
commands.
Mouse Mouse shortcuts for commands.
Modules Loadable Modules for Audacity. Note: Choice
of export format ( WAV , MP3 and others) is made at
time of export in the Export Audio or Export Multiple di-
alogs by selecting the required export format then click-
ing the Options... button.
6.1.2 Where the Preferences are stored
Audacity Preferences are stored in a configuration file
called audacity.cfg. It is a text file which saves all your
settings when you exit Audacity normally. The audac-
ity.cfg file can be edited with any text editor and changes
to it can be saved if Audacity is already closed. You can
208
find audacity.cfg inside Audacity’s folder for application
data as follows.
• Windows: Users
<username>
AppData
Roaming
Audacity
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/
• Linux: ~/.audacity-data/
In order to see audacity.cfg on Windows, OS X 10.7 or
later or GNU/Linux, you must show hidden files and fold-
ers or type the folder location into your file manager’s ad-
dress bar.
• Windows: In the tree on the left of Explorer,
double-click "Users" then double-click your user-
name, then on the right, double-click the AppData
or Application Data folder and navigate through
that. If necessary, show hidden files and folders
on Windows or type %appdata%
audacity or shell:appdata
audacity into the Explorer address bar then press
Enter on your keyboard.
• Mac OS X 10.7 or later: Open Finder, use
the "Go" menu, choose "Go to Folder" and type
~/Library/Application Support/audacity/, or set
Finder to show your User Library folder.
6.1.3 Portable Settings
You can create a folder called Portable Settings in a
special location relative to the directory you installed or
extracted Audacity to, so that audacity.cfg and Audac-
ity’s other settings will be stored in that "Portable Set-
tings" folder instead. The permitted locations are:
• Windows: in the folder Audacity is launched from
(for example, in Program Files (x86)
Audacity on Windows 64-bit)
• macOS: in the "Contents" folder inside
Audacity.app (for example in /Applica-
tions/Audacity.app/Contents/ (to access the
"Contents" folder, right-click or Ctrl-click over Au-
dacity.app and choose "Show Package Contents")
• GNU/Linux: in the folder where the "audacity" bi-
nary is (for example, for Audacity installed by the
package manager for your distribution, in usr/bin/).
The "Portable Settings" folder becomes active after
restarting Audacity.
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
• You can then use the "Portable Settings" folder to
store a different group of settings for a specific pur-
pose, then delete or rename the folder and restart
Audacity when you want to use the previous set-
tings as stored in Audacity’s folder for application
data .
• If you copy the "Portable Settings" folder to a USB
stick or CD this lets you take your current Audac-
ity settings with you if you use Audacity on another
computer.
The Portable Settings folder must be given full per-
missions for everyone who wants to use it.
• On Windows, sufficient permission is normally
granted if the administrator creates the folder. If
necessary you can use the Icacls command in a
terminal, or set access for the required users in the
folder’s properties.
• On Mac or GNU/Linux, use the chmod command
if necessary to give the folder 777 (rwxrwxrwx) per-
missions.
– On Mac you can also right-click or Ctrl-click
over Portable Settings, choose "Get Info",
give the administrator name and password,
then change all the "Names" required to
"Read&Write".
6.1.4 Upgrading from previous versions or
reinstalling
By default, Audacity settings are not changed when you
upgrade from a previous release of Audacity or explic-
itly uninstall or reinstall Audacity. This allows you to up-
grade from a previous Audacity version (legacy 1.3.2 and
later) and retain your previous preferences wherever cur-
rent Audacity still has an equivalent setting. Therefore it
is not necessary to reinstall the optional LAME or FFm-
peg libraries after upgrading Audacity unless the Release
Notes for the current Audacity version indicate there is a
new recommended version of LAME or FFmpeg.
6.1.5 Resetting Preferences
Resetting Preferences can sometimes fix freezes,
crashes or unexplained Audacity behavior. You can reset
Preferences to factory defaults by exiting Audacity, delet-
ing the audacity.cfg settings file in Audacity’s folder for
application data then restarting Audacity. On Windows,
you can also reinstall Audacity, making sure you select
the "Reset Preferences" box during the installation.
6.2. DEVICES PREFERENCES
Reset Preferences using Windows installer
1. Run the EXE installer from https://web.audacityteam.org/download/windows.
2. Navigate to the "Select Additional Tasks" screen
then put a checkmark in the "Reset Preferences"
box and complete installation.
6.2 Devices Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Devices (on a Mac
Audacity > Preferences > Devices )
Image of Devices Preferences showing default set-
tings for Host and Channels.Click on any other Prefer-
ences sections in the above image to read about those
Preferences.
6.2.1 Interface
Selects the particular host interface with which Audacity
communicates with your chosen playback and recording
devices. Windows: on Windows the choice is between
the following host audio interfaces:
• MME : This is the Audacity default and the most
compatible with all audio devices.
• Windows DirectSound : This is more recent than
MME with potentially less latency .
• Windows WASAPI : This host is the most recent
Windows interface between applications (such as
Audacity) and the soundcard driver. WASAPI was
first officially released in 2007 in Windows Vista.
WASAPI is particularly useful for "loopback" record-
ing of computer playback . 24-bit recording devices
are supported using this host. Playback is usually
209
3. Launch Audacity then in the "Reset Audacity Pref-
erences" dialog, choose Yes.
If you run the installer but do not choose "Reset Pref-
erences" (or say "No" when the "Reset Audacity Prefer-
ences" dialog appears), Audacity’s installation files will be
updated with correct copies but the Audacity settings will
remain as before.
emulated. As a result, the playback slider in Mixer
Toolbar will only scale the system playback slider’s
current level up or down rather than directly manip-
ulating that system slider.
On Windows:
• Windows DirectSound may by default have only
slightly lower latency than MME.
• Selecting Windows DirectSound or Windows WAS-
API and enabling both "Exclusive Mode" boxes in
Windows Sound allows Audacity to request audio
direct from the device without resampling .
Mac: On Mac the only choice is Core Audio. Linux: On
Linux there is often only one option: ALSA . Other op-
tions could be OSS and/or Jack Audio Connection Kit
(also known as "Jack" or "Jackd").
6.2.2 Playback
• Device: Selects the device used for playback.
6.2.3 Recording
• Device: Selects the device used for recording.
On Windows, each entry for recording device consists
of the input type (such as microphone), followed by the
name of the audio device the input belongs to. If you
have multiple audio devices, the list will be grouped so
that inputs of each device are grouped together. The in-
put level of the selected device can be adjusted in Mixer
Toolbar , but device selection is no longer made there.
• Channels: 1 (Mono), 2 (Stereo) or the number of
channels that are provided by the drivers of your
sound device. On most inbuilt sound devices, es-
pecially on Windows, only mono or stereo will be
available. For some devices on Windows, choos-
ing Windows DirectSound in "Host" above may be
more likely to reveal options for recording more than
210
two channels. On some devices capable of record-
ing more than two channels, an explicit "multi" de-
vice may appear in the "Device" dropdown for
recording all the channels simultaneously.
6.2.4 Latency
• Buffer length: A "buffer" is a chunk of audio wait-
ing for the computer to process it. At the default
100 milliseconds (ms) setting, the audio will take
0.1 seconds to travel through the soundcard when
recording or playing. Decreasing this value means
recordings will be laid down on disk with less la-
tency, and playback may respond faster. However,
the computer will have to work faster so that it’s
6.3 Directories Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Directories (on a Mac
Audacity > Preferences > Directories )
Directories Preferences dialog showing the default
temporary session data location on Windows.Click
on any other Preferences sections in the above image
to read about those Preferences.
6.3.1 Temporary files directory
• Location: Sets the location of Audacity’s temporary
directory for session data. This is used whenever
there is audio data that has never been saved as
an Audacity project . To change the location of the
temporary directory, press Choose..., select the di-
rectory you require and click OK. Audacity will then
create a session workfile sub-directory in the direc-
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
ready to process the shorter chunks as soon as re-
quired. Setting this value too low (for example to 1
ms) will mean the computer will not be able to keep
up, and neither recording or playback will work. 100
ms is a safe setting for most computers.
• Track shift after record: On most consumer sys-
tems there will be a delay between singing or hitting
your note and it being laid down in the recording.
When the default Overdub setting is enabled, Au-
dacity will push recorded tracks backwards by 130
ms to compensate for this delay. If your latency is
constant, you can adjust this correction value so
that your recorded tracks should end up properly
synchronized with the other tracks after correction.
To set a custom latency value for your system, see
the Latency Test page.
tory you selected. Alternatively type the path re-
quired for the temporary directory into "Location"
and Audacity will use that exact path, creating the
new directory if needed.Exit and restart Audacity
for changes to the temporary directory to take ef-
fect. Make sure the temporary directory is located
on a fast (local) disk drive with plenty of free space.
Avoid using network drives as these may be too
slow for reliable recording. A RAM drive will al-
ways be quicker than a hard or solid state drive for
recording and editing, but unless the RAM contents
are saved to a physical drive the data will be lost
when the computer powers down.
Default location of Temporary Folder:
• Windows:C:
Users
<your username>
AppData
Local
Audacity
SessionData
• macOS/Mac OS X:/Users/<your user-
name>/Library/Application Support/SessionData
• GNU/Linux:/var/tmp/audacity-<your username>
If your drive does not have sufficient space, you can re-
duce the space taken by temporary data by going to the
Quality tab of Preferences and reducing the default sam-
ple format and sample rate . Reducing the sample
rate will noticeably reduce higher frequencies, so is only
recommended for speech data.
6.4. EXTENDED IMPORT PREFERENCES
6.4 Extended Import Preferences
Extended Import preferences let you designate the or-
der in which specific import libraries are tried when im-
porting audio files with named extensions , with an op-
tion to over-ride the "Open" and "Import Audio" file type
choice . Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Extended
Import (on a Mac Audacity > Preferences > Extended Im-
port )
Extended Import Preferences.Click on any other Pref-
erences sections in the above image to read about those
Preferences.Attempt to use filter in OpenFile dialog first:
This checkbox controls the importer that is tried first when
importing a particular file type using either File > Open...
or File > Import > Audio... .
• If checked (default), the file type choice made in
the Open and Import Audio dialogs always deter-
mines which importer will try first to import a file.
This applies even if there is a rule set (see below)
to try first a different importer for that file type.
• If unchecked, Audacity will always try first the de-
fault importer for the file type irrespective of the file
type choice, unless a rule is set that asks for an-
other importer to be tried first.
If using File > Recent Files or dragging in audio files, "At-
tempt to use filter in OpenFile dialog first" has no effect;
Audacity will always try first the default importer for the
file type, unless a rule is set that asks for another im-
porter to be tried first.
• See Import Filtering and Importer Order for more
help.
Rules to choose import filters
• "File extensions" and "Importer order" list
A combination of a file extension with the importer or-
der list creates a "rule". When attempting to import a
211
file with the given extension Audacity will choose the im-
porter according to the rule starting at the top of the "Im-
porter order" list and going down the list until it finds an
importer that accepts the file.
• File extensions: If a file has this extension, use the
importers listed, in the order shown in the "Importer
order" list. Choose "Add new rule" as below to add
a rule, then either overtype in the selected rule, or
double-click or press F2 to open the rule for editing.
Always retain one or more asterisks * at the start of
the rule, then add the required extension. A single
asterisk at the start of the rule indicates that any file
with the extension following the asterisk will trigger
the rule. Note that spaces in the extension may dis-
play an error dialog. You can choose to ignore the
spaces or let Audacity trim the spaces.
EXAMPLES:
• *.MP3 or *MP3 with "MP3 Files" at the top of the
order tries the MP3 importer first when importing
any MP3 file.
• *w*.WAV with "FFmpeg-compatible files" at the
top of the order tries the FFmpeg importer first
when importing any WAV file with a "w" or "W" in
the file name (or any WAV with "w" in the file name
on a case-sensitive operating system).
• .MP3 with any order in the list ignores the rule be-
cause there is no asterisk, so will try the MP3 im-
porter first irrespective.
• Importer order: For the file extension selected in
the "File extension" column, attempt to use these
importers in the order listed.
• Move rule up Move the selected rule up in the list
of rules.
• Move rule down Move the selected rule down in the
list of rules.
• Move filter up Move the selected filter up in the Im-
porter order list for this rule.
• Move filter down Move the selected filter down in
the Importer order list for this rule.
• Add new rule Creates a new rule. A default rule with
a single asterisk * is created with all filters listed in
their default order.
• Delete selected rule Removes the selected rule
from the list.
You can drag a filter to change its order in the Importer
order list.
212 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES

6.5 Import / Export Preferences

Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Import Export (on a

Mac Audacity > Preferences > Import Export ) The very first time you import any uncompressed
audio file(s), a warning dialog will appear, offering the
above choice for the current file(s). The default will be
set to "Make a copy". The method you choose in the di-
alog will thereafter be saved in the above preference and
will be set as default when the dialog appears on next
import. You can turn the warning dialog off either in the
checkbox in the dialog or in the Warnings Preferences ,
then your saved choice of import method will be applied
automatically each time.
• Normalize all tracks in project: The imported file (in
any format) and all audio tracks already on screen
will be normalized to your current setting for the
Normalize effect.

6.5.2 When exporting tracks to an audio

Import / Export Preferences.Click on any other Prefer-
ences sections in the above image to read about those
Preferences.
6.5.1 When importing audio files
Audacity always makes a copy of compressed files like
MP3 , OGG and FLAC when it imports them. The
data is copied either into the temporary folder, or into the
_data folder of an open project. Uncompressed files (
WAV or AIFF ) are very much larger, so may lead to
a shortage of disk space if copied in. Audacity therefore
allows you to choose from the following two options when
importing WAV or AIFF files:
• Copy uncompressed files into the project (safer):
Audacity makes a copy of the imported file(s), so
you can then move, rename or delete them if you
wish. Also choose this option if you need to open
your Audacity project on another computer, or send
it to someone else. Note: you do not need to
choose this option if you are sending an exported
audio file like an MP3 to someone else.
• Read uncompressed audio files from original loca-
tion (faster): Audacity reads the imported files from
the computer folder you first imported them from,
without copying them in. Therefore with this option
set, you must not move, rename or delete im-
ported uncompressed files, or the folder they
are in. The advantage of this option is that long
files can be imported in only a few seconds, using
On-Demand Loading .
file
• Mix down to Stereo or Mono: This is Audacity’s de-
fault behavior and means that if your project con-
tains only mono tracks panned to center, they will
be mixed upon export to a file containing a single
mono channel. The audio will still play equally out
of both speakers on most systems. If you have any
stereo tracks in your project (or any mono tracks
panned away from center) the exported file will be
stereo, containing two channels (left and right).
• Use custom mix: When this option is enabled, an
Advanced Mixing Options window appears immedi-
ately after completing the Export Audio Dialog (cus-
tom mix is not available when using Export Multi-
ple or Chains ). Advanced Mixing gives you much
greater flexibility in mapping your audio tracks to
specific output channels in the exported file. In
particular it allows export of multi-channel files
(that is, having more than two channels of audio)
in WAV, AIFF, OGG, FLAC, AC3 and M4A formats.
Any leading white space between time zero and the
start of the audio will be rendered as silence in the
exported channels, preserving their time offset.
• Show Metadata Tags editor before export: By de-
fault, Metadata Tags editor appears every time you
export a file with the File > Save Other > Export
Audio... , File > Save Other > Export Selected Au-
dio... or File > Save Other > Export Multiple... com-
mands. You can uncheck this option if you do not
intend to add embedded information tags such as
Artist Name or Genre to your exported files.
– Unchecking this option does not prevent meta-
data being written if imported files already
contain metadata.
6.6. PLAYBACK PREFERENCES
– Export Multiple will still export metadata for
Track Title and Track Number even if this
option is unchecked and Metadata Editor is
empty.
– Regardless if this option is checked, Metadata
Tags editor is always suppressed when ex-
porting files in a Chain .
– Regardless if this option is checked, Meta-
data Tags editor is always suppressed
when exporting using the (external program)
(command-line) save as type, because any
metadata required should be added to the
command string in that case.
6.5.3 Exported Allegro (.gro) file saves
time as
When using File > Save Other > Export MIDI you can
export to .mid or .gro extension. The .gro extension sig-
6.6 Playback Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Playback (on a Mac
Audacity > Preferences > Playback )
Playback Preferences.Click on any other Preferences
sections in the above image to read about those Prefer-
ences.
6.6.1 Effects Preview
• Length: The length of audio to be played when pre-
viewing an effect , in seconds. Playback begins
213
nifies the Allegro file format which exports the Audacity
Note Track as human-readable plain text. This prefer-
ence controls whether the .gro file represents time and
duration in seconds (default) or beats.
• Seconds: An example line in the .gro file would
look like:T1.3330 V0 K66 P66 U0.6660 L127This
instruction means "play key number 66 at time (T)
1.333 seconds for duration (U) 0.666 seconds."
• Beats: An example line in the .gro file would look
like:TW0.5000 V0 K66 P66 Q1.0000 L127This in-
struction means "play key number 66 at time (T) 0.5
whole notes (W) for duration (Q) 1 quarter notes."
Audacity can import both .mid and .gro files for display,
editing and playback. The .gro files will be imported cor-
rectly whether they contain data in seconds or beats.
However many general purpose MIDI applications will not
play .gro files.
from the start of the selection region, and stops af-
ter the preview length has elapsed, or at the end of
the selection region if that is shorter than the pre-
view length.
6.6.2 Cut Preview
These preferences apply when using the "Play Cut Pre-
view" shortcut (C by default) to play a length of audio
before and after a selection region. This is useful to hear
what a cut would sound like before making the cut.
• Before cut region: How much audio to play before
the region.
• After cut region: How much audio to play after the
region.
6.6.3 Seek Time when playing
• Short period: The time interval the playback cursor
skips backwards or forwards when you press the
← (left arrow) or → (right arrow) shortcuts respec-
tively. The shortcuts , or . respectively can be used
instead for short skip backwards or forwards.
• Long period: The time interval the playback cursor
skips backwards or forwards when you press Shift
+ ← (shift and left arrow) or Shift + → (shift and right
214
arrow) respectively. Holding Shift with , or . respec-
tively can be used instead for long skip backwards
or forwards.
These two values also control the Cursor Long Jump
6.7 Spectrograms Preferences
You can view any audio track as a Spectrogram instead
of a waveform by selecting Spectrogram view from the
Audio Track Dropdown Menu . Spectrograms prefer-
ences lets you adjust some of the settings for these dif-
ferent types of Spectrum -based view. See the Spectro-
gram View page for detailed descriptions and illustrations
of the effects of various Spectrograms Preferences set-
tings.Spectrograms preferences does not affect settings
in the Frequency Analysis window accessed by Analyze
> Plot Spectrum... .Accessed by:Edit > Preferences >
Spectrograms (on a Mac Audacity > Preferences > Spec-
trograms )
Spectrograms Preferences.Click on any other Prefer-
ences sections in the above image to read about those
Preferences.The options in this window apply to the
Spectrogram View in the Audio Track Dropdown Menu
. Some options have no effect, or a different effect, when
the Pitch (EAC) algorithm is selected - these will be noted
in the descriptions.
Be aware that it is possible to make settings for individ-
ual Spectrogram view tracks that can over-ride the global
settings that you make here in the Spectrograms Prefer-
ences dialog. See Spectrogram Settings on the Spectro-
gram View page.
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
and Cursor Short Jump commands when playback is
stopped. The shortcuts , (comma) or . (period) jump the
cursor backwards or forwards respectively by the Short
Period interval; Shift + , or Shift + . jump the cursor back-
wards or forwards by the Long Period interval.
6.7.1 Scale
• Scale (in Spectrogram views):
– Linear The linear vertical scale goes linearly
from 0 kHz to 8 kHz frequency by default.
– Logarithmic: This view is the same as the lin-
ear view except that the vertical scale is loga-
rithmic. See Spectrogram View for a contrast-
ing example of linear versus logarithmic spec-
trogram view.
– Mel: The name Mel comes from the word
melody to indicate that the scale is based on
pitch comparisons. See this Wikipedia page.
– Bark: This is a psychoacoustical scale based
on subjective measurements of loudness. It
is related to, but somewhat less popular than,
the Mel scale. See this Wikipedia page.
– ERB: The Equivalent Rectangular Bandwidth
scale or ERB is a measure used in psychoa-
coustics, which gives an approximation to the
bandwidths of the filters in human hearing. It
is implemented as a function ERBS(f) which
returns the number of equivalent rectangular
bandwidths below the given frequency "f". See
this Wikipedia page.
– Period: is the previously undocumented scale
used by Pitch (EAC) view. It is for making the
same displays of Pitch possible as in earlier
versions of Audacity.
• Minimum Frequency: This value corresponds to the
bottom of the vertical scale in the spectrogram. Fre-
quencies below this value will not be visible. The
default value of "0" here will be treated as "1" when
using "Spectrogram Logarithmic" view mode be-
cause a logarithmic scale cannot start at zero.
• Maximum Frequency: This value corresponds to
the top of the vertical scale. The value can be set
to 100 Hz or any higher value. Irrespective of the
entered value, the top of the scale will never exceed
half the current sample rate of the track (for exam-
ple, 22050 Hz if the track rate is 44100 Hz) because
any given sample rate can only carry frequencies
up to half that rate. A good use of this setting is in
6.7. SPECTROGRAMS PREFERENCES
speech recognition or pitch extraction, where you
can hide the visually unimportant highest frequen-
cies and focus on the lower frequencies.
6.7.2 Colors
• Gain (dB): This enables you to increase / decrease
the brightness of the display. For small signals
where the display is mostly "blue" (dark) you can
increase this value to see brighter colors and give
more detail. If the display has too much "white",
decrease this value. The default is 20dB and corre-
sponds to a -20 dB signal at a particular frequency
being displayed as "white". This option has no ef-
fect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC) algo-
rithm is selected.
• Range (dB): Affects the range of signal sizes that
will be displayed as colors. The default is 80 dB and
means that you will not see anything for signals 80
dB below the value set for "Gain". This option has
no effect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC)
algorithm is selected.
• Frequency Gain (dB/dec): A positive value here
gives some extra gain to higher frequencies (above
1000 Hz), as they tend to be smaller and so cannot
be seen as well. You get less gain at lower frequen-
cies as well. The default is 0 dB. This option has no
effect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC) algo-
rithm is selected.
• Grayscale: Shows gray shades in all spectrogram
views instead of full color.
6.7.3 Algorithm
• Algorithm:
– Frequencies (default): Audio frequency de-
termines the pitch of a sound. Measured
in Hz , higher frequencies have higher pitch.
See this Wikipedia article.
– Reassignment: The method of reassignment
sharpens blurry time-frequency data by relo-
cating the data according to local estimates
of instantaneous frequency and group delay.
This mapping to reassigned time-frequency
coordinates is very precise for signals that are
215
separable in time and frequency with respect
to the analysis window.
– Pitch (EAC): Highlights the contour of the
fundamental frequency (musical pitch) of the
audio, using the Enhanced Autocorrelation
(EAC) algorithm. The EAC Algorithm was de-
veloped to produce a mathematical represen-
tation of the changes of pitch in a piece of au-
dio. The aim was to allow automated compar-
ison of sound files so that two versions of the
same tune could be recognized as being sim-
ilar, even if played in different keys, or on dif-
ferent instruments.
• Window Size: The dropdown menu lets you choose
the size of the Fast Fourier Transform ( FFT
) window which affects how much vertical ( fre-
quency ) detail you see. Larger FFT window sizes
give more low frequency resolution and less tem-
poral resolution, and are slower.
• Window type: Determines precisely how the spec-
trogram is computed. ’Rectangular’ is slightly faster
than other methods, but introduces some artifacts.
All methods give broadly similar results.
• Zero padding factor: Larger values give finer inter-
polation of the colors along the vertical axis, at the
expense of more computation time. Does not affect
the time vs. frequency resolution tradeoff. This op-
tion has no effect and is greyed out when the Pitch
(EAC) algorithm is selected.
6.7.4 Enable Spectral Selection
Check this box "on" if you want to enable spectral se-
lections . These are used to make selections that in-
clude a frequency range as well as a time range on tracks
in one of the Spectrogram views. Spectral selection is
used with special spectral edit effects to make changes
to the frequency content of the selected audio. Among
other purposes, spectral selection and editing can be
used for cleaning up unwanted sound, enhancing certain
resonances, changing the quality of a voice or removing
mouth sounds from voice work. Setting this to "on" or
"off" will only affect spectrogram displayed tracks which
have not already been independently set for this purpose
in their Track Control Panel’s Spectrogram Preferences.
The Track Control Panel setting will override this Pref-
erences setting if Use Preferences is unchecked in the
Track Control Panel’s Spectrogram Preferences.
216
6.8 Spectrogram Settings
It is possible to temporarily change the Spectrogram
settings for any particular Spectrogram track, overiding
whatever setting you have in Spectrograms Preferences
. ply button. If necessary you can tweak the settings and
6.8.1 Per track Spectrogram Settings
Open the Audio Track Dropdown Menu on the Spectro-
gram track you want to change, then choose Spectro-
gram Settings.... This opens the dialog below:
The available settings are the same as those offered
in Spectrograms Preferences with the addition of a Use
Preferences checkbox.
6.8.2 Persistence of changes made here
Changes you make when you press the OK button only
persist for that track while the project window is open.
This is the case even if you save a project. Use Spectro-
grams Preferences instead to make permanent changes
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
to the default Spectrogram settings with which a new
Spectrogram track will open. You can also preview what
your changes will look like in the track by clicking the Ap-
click Apply again to view the result. If you do click Ap-
ply you cannot then discard changes made in the dialog,
even if you click the Cancel button. If you don’t click the
Apply button, Cancel discards your settings changes.
6.8.3 Use Preferences
The Spectrogram Settings dialog defaults to the "Use
Preferences" checkbox being enabled, so on first open-
ing the settings for a track the settings will be as already
set in Spectrograms Preferences. Changing a setting in
Spectrogram Settings will automatically disable the "Use
Preferences" checkbox. Re-enabling the "Use Prefer-
ences" checkbox changes the settings in the dialog back
to as they are in Spectrograms Preferences.
6.8.4 Scale
• Scale (in Spectrogram views):
– Linear The linear vertical scale goes linearly
from 0 kHz to 8 kHz frequency by default.
– Logarithmic: This view is the same as the lin-
ear view except that the vertical scale is loga-
rithmic. See Spectrogram View for a contrast-
ing example of linear versus logarithmic spec-
trogram view.
– Mel: The name Mel comes from the word
melody to indicate that the scale is based on
pitch comparisons. See this Wikipedia page.
– Bark: This is a psychoacoustical scale based
on subjective measurements of loudness. It
is related to, but somewhat less popular than,
the Mel scale. See this Wikipedia page.
– ERB: The Equivalent Rectangular Bandwidth
scale or ERB is a measure used in psychoa-
coustics, which gives an approximation to the
bandwidths of the filters in human hearing. It
is implemented as a function ERBS(f) which
returns the number of equivalent rectangular
bandwidths below the given frequency "f". See
this Wikipedia page.
– Period: is the previously undocumented scale
used by Pitch (EAC) view. It is for making the
same displays of Pitch possible as in earlier
versions of Audacity.
6.8. SPECTROGRAM SETTINGS
• Minimum Frequency: This value corresponds to the
bottom of the vertical scale in the spectrogram. Fre-
quencies below this value will not be visible. The
default value of "0" here will be treated as "1" when
using "Spectrogram Logarithmic" view mode be-
cause a logarithmic scale cannot start at zero.
• Maximum Frequency: This value corresponds to
the top of the vertical scale. The value can be set
to 100 Hz or any higher value. Irrespective of the
entered value, the top of the scale will never exceed
half the current sample rate of the track (for exam-
ple, 22050 Hz if the track rate is 44100 Hz) because
any given sample rate can only carry frequencies
up to half that rate. A good use of this setting is in
speech recognition or pitch extraction, where you
can hide the visually unimportant highest frequen-
cies and focus on the lower frequencies.
6.8.5 Colors
• Gain (dB): This enables you to increase / decrease
the brightness of the display. For small signals
where the display is mostly "blue" (dark) you can
increase this value to see brighter colors and give
more detail. If the display has too much "white",
decrease this value. The default is 20dB and corre-
sponds to a -20 dB signal at a particular frequency
being displayed as "white". This option has no ef-
fect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC) algo-
rithm is selected.
• Range (dB): Affects the range of signal sizes that
will be displayed as colors. The default is 80 dB and
means that you will not see anything for signals 80
dB below the value set for "Gain". This option has
no effect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC)
algorithm is selected.
• Frequency Gain (dB/dec): A positive value here
gives some extra gain to higher frequencies (above
1000 Hz), as they tend to be smaller and so cannot
be seen as well. You get less gain at lower frequen-
cies as well. The default is 0 dB. This option has no
effect and is greyed out when the Pitch (EAC) algo-
rithm is selected.
• Grayscale: Shows gray shades in all spectrogram
views instead of full color.
6.8.6 Algorithm
• Algorithm:
– Frequencies (default): Audio frequency de-
termines the pitch of a sound. Measured
in Hz , higher frequencies have higher pitch.
See this Wikipedia article.
217
– Reassignment: The method of reassignment
sharpens blurry time-frequency data by relo-
cating the data according to local estimates
of instantaneous frequency and group delay.
This mapping to reassigned time-frequency
coordinates is very precise for signals that are
separable in time and frequency with respect
to the analysis window.
– Pitch (EAC): Highlights the contour of the
fundamental frequency (musical pitch) of the
audio, using the Enhanced Autocorrelation
(EAC) algorithm. The EAC Algorithm was de-
veloped to produce a mathematical represen-
tation of the changes of pitch in a piece of au-
dio. The aim was to allow automated compar-
ison of sound files so that two versions of the
same tune could be recognized as being sim-
ilar, even if played in different keys, or on dif-
ferent instruments.
• Window Size: The dropdown menu lets you choose
the size of the Fast Fourier Transform ( FFT
) window which affects how much vertical ( fre-
quency ) detail you see. Larger FFT window sizes
give more low frequency resolution and less tem-
poral resolution, and are slower.
• Window type: Determines precisely how the spec-
trogram is computed. ’Rectangular’ is slightly faster
than other methods, but introduces some artifacts.
All methods give broadly similar results.
• Zero padding factor: Larger values give finer inter-
polation of the colors along the vertical axis, at the
expense of more computation time. Does not affect
the time vs. frequency resolution tradeoff. This op-
tion has no effect and is greyed out when the Pitch
(EAC) algorithm is selected.
6.8.7 Enable Spectral Selection
Check this box "on" if you want to enable spectral se-
lections . These are used to make selections that in-
clude a frequency range as well as a time range on tracks
in one of the Spectrogram views. Spectral selection is
used with special spectral edit effects to make changes
to the frequency content of the selected audio. Among
other purposes, spectral selection and editing can be
used for cleaning up unwanted sound, enhancing certain
resonances, changing the quality of a voice or removing
mouth sounds from voice work.
6.8.8 Links
|< Spectrogram View
218
6.9 Projects Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Projects (on a Mac
Audacity > Preferences > Projects )
Projects Preferences.Click on any other Preferences
sections in the above image to read about those Pref-
erences.
6.9.1 When saving a project that depends
on other audio files
If you import uncompressed files into your project with
Import / Export Preferences set to "Read uncompressed
6.10 Quality Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Quality (on a Mac
Audacity > Preferences > Quality )
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
audio files directly from the original (faster)", you create
a dependency on those files remaining accessible. This
option decides what happens the first time you attempt to
save that dependent project.
• Copy all audio into project (safest): All imported
files that your project depends on will be copied
automatically into the saved project. You can then
safely move, rename or delete those imported files
if you wish.
• Do not copy any audio: Every project will be saved
automatically, but will always depend on the contin-
ued presence of the imported files. You must not
move, rename or delete those files, or the folder
they are in.
• Ask: The Dependencies Dialog will always appear
when you first save a project that depends on im-
ported files. This dialog lets you choose which if
any of the dependent files should be copied into
the project before saving it.
You can check at any time if your project depends on im-
ported files, and copy them in if desired. To do this, click
Help > Diagnostics > Check Dependencies... to open
Dependencies Dialog .
Quality Preferences.Click on any other Preferences
6.10. QUALITY PREFERENCES
sections in the above image to read about those Pref-
erences.
6.10.1 Sampling
This panel sets the Default Sample Rate and Default
Sample Format (bit depth) which will be used each time
Audacity is launched, or each time a new project window
or track is opened.
• Default Sample Rate: Offers a choice of 13 sam-
ple rates . Generally you will want to use the de-
fault value of 44100 Hz . 44100 Hz can repro-
duce all frequencies that humans can hear (up to
22050 Hz) and is the standard for audio CDs . To
choose some other rate, click "Other..." in the drop-
down and type your rate into the box to right of the
dropdown. Sample rates between 44100 Hz and
96000 Hz can produce higher quality but the quality
benefits are increasingly small compared to rapidly
increasing consumption of disk space and increas-
ing risk of recording dropouts on slower comput-
ers. 192000 Hz music recordings could have ul-
trasonic playback distortion that make them inferior
to recordings at lower rates. See "24/192 Music
Downloads are Very Silly Indeed" for a technical
discussion of the issues involved. Very high rates
do have some specialized uses such as ultrasonic
wildlife recordings and high-speed tape capture.
• If you set the project rate, using the Project Rate
dropdown at the left of the Selection Toolbar to
something other than the default rate, then open
Preferences and click OK (without necessarily go-
ing to the Quality section), the project rate will im-
mediately change back to the default rate.
• If you change the default rate in Quality Prefer-
ences then click OK, the project rate will immedi-
ately change to the new default rate.
If you just want to make a temporary change on the fly
without changing the default rate, open the Project Rate
dropdown at left of Selection Toolbar and select or type
in the rate you require.
• Default Sample Format: Offers a choice of three
sample formats or bit-depths. This affects both
imported and newly recorded material, either in a
new or existing project (even if the other audio in
an existing project is at some other quality). The
default 32-bit float resolution gives the highest qual-
ity of the three choices, but takes twice the storage
space on disk compared to 16-bit resolution.
OGG will always import at 16-bit resolution using
219
the standard OGG Vorbis importer, irrespective of De-
fault Sample Format. This is due to the design of the
OGG codec. However OGG can be imported at 32-bit
resolution using FFmpeg , as described at Using the file
type dropdown menu on the Importing Audio page.
6.10.2 Conversion
These options concern the trade-offs that arise when
converting from one sample rate to another and one sam-
ple format to another. For example, sample rate conver-
sion is necessary whenever the sample rate of the track
does not match the current project rate. Sample format
conversion would be required upon export if you used
the default 32-bit float sample format but exported a 16-
bit audio file. Sample rate conversion is also performed
when using a Time Track so that the speed-changed au-
dio can retain its current sample rate. However for Time
Track resampling Audacity automatically selects a quality
level tailored for this purpose and so changing the con-
verter qualities below will not affect Time Tracks.
• Real-time and High-quality: Both the Sample Rate
Converter and the Dither (for conversion between
sample formats) have options for use in different
circumstances.
– The "Real-time" options are only used when
converting sample rates or formats for play-
back in Audacity.
– The "High-quality" options are used for sound
that is being converted for storage on disk, for
example when rendering or exporting .
• Option dropdown menus:
– The Real-time Sample Rate Converter de-
faults to and should normally be left on
"Medium Quality". If jerky or uneven playback
is experienced when using a slow machine or
working with many tracks, the setting can be
changed to "Low Quality (Fastest)". On a fast
machine, higher quality settings may be used
but may cause jerky or uneven playback, par-
ticularly with large multi-track projects.
– The High-quality Sample Rate Converter
defaults to "Best Quality (Slowest)". Leave it
at this setting for the best quality conversion
when exporting.
– The Dither options are different methods of
adding random low-level noise to mask clicky
rounding distortions when converting to a
lower bit depth. Dither should normally be set
to the default "None" for Real Time playback
and enabled for High-quality Conversion.
* "Shaped" dither (default for High-quality
conversion) concentrates the noise in the
less easily heard higher frequencies.
220 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES

* "Triangle" and "Rectangle" dither concen- samples ) so can be considered if the

trate the noise less strongly in higher fre- audio includes extensive pure silence.
quencies. "Rectangle" does not add noise
For more detailed information on dither see the Dither
to absolute silence ( zero amplitude
page in the Wiki.

6.11 Interface Preferences

Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Interface (on a Mac – "From Internet" always opens your browser
Audacity > Preferences > Interface ) to display the online version of the Manual,
even if you have a local copy of the Manual
installed.

• Theme: Audacity now comes supplied with four

pre-configured, user-selectable themes: Light,
Dark, Classic and High Contrast. This enables you
to choose the look and feel you prefer for Audacity’s
interface. See the Themes page for more details.

If you have good programming skills thers is also a Cus-

tom theme which you can modify to create your own look
and feel for Audacity.

• Meter dB range: Sets the minimum displayed

Interface Preferences.Click on any other Preferences value of:
sections in the above image to read about those Pref-
erences. – Meter Toolbars

– The level slider for Sound Activated Recording

6.11.1 Display
• Language: Changes the language of the menus
and other on-screen text. Languages with non-
Latin character sets require you to have the cor-
rect fonts installed on your system, otherwise the
menus will display with ???? characters.
• Location of Manual:
– "Local"’ When using the Help Menu , opens
your default browser to display the local ver-
sion of the Manual that came with your Audac-
ity installation. The Manual will automatically
be installed in the Audacity installation folder
if you obtain the Windows .exe or Mac .dmg
installers. If the Manual is not installed, ac-
cessing it when the "Local" preference is cho-
sen will show a dialog asking you to view the
online version or download the Manual to your
computer. Instructions for installing the down-
loaded Manual are at Unzipping the Manual .
in Recording Preferences .
– The vertical logarithmic scale of new tracks
in Waveform (dB) view mode (this view can be
chosen in the Audio Track Dropdown Menu or
set in the Tracks Preferences ). To vary the
lower dB limit of a current track in Waveform
(dB) view without changing magnification, hold
Shift and rotate the mouse wheel. To vary the
lower dB limit while the visible top of the scale
remains fixed (thus changing magnification),
hold Ctrl and Shift while rotating the mouse
wheel.
• Choosing -96 dB or lower for the "Meter dB range"
extends the lowest displayable dB range when in
the Plot Spectrum window.
The Meter Toolbars , the waveform and the Plot
Spectrum window can be dragged out to display
more gradation ticks and units within the chosen
range.
6.12. EFFECTS PREFERENCES
6.11.2 Show / Hide
• Show ’How to get Help’ message at launch:
Uncheck this to disable the default start up dialog
that lists our help resources.
• Show extra menus: Check this to see the extended
menu bar .
6.11.3 Behaviors
• Beep on completion of longer activities: Makes Au-
dacity play a beep when activities lasting longer
than a minute are completed. Visually impaired
users may find this useful.
• Retain labels if selection snaps to a label:
– By default this option is unchecked, in which
case a point label is deleted when you delete
a selection that snaps exactly up to the la-
bel edge (as shown by the yellow Boundary
Snap Guides ) and includes the label in the
selection. Similarly, a region label included in
the selection is deleted when deleting a selec-
6.12 Effects Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Effects (on a Mac Au-
dacity > Preferences > Effects )
Effects Preferences.Click on any other Preferences
sections in the above image to read about those Pref-
erences.
221
tion that extends from or outside one edge and
snaps to the other edge.
– When this option is checked, a label included
in the selection is always retained if deleting
a selection that snaps to one or both label
edges. Even if this option is checked, the
label will still be deleted if you select over a
point label or over both edges of a region label.
Checking this option also means that if you Ef-
fect > Repeat... an audio selection defined by
a region label (for example, by clicking in the
label to select it), or extend that selection past
one edge only, the selection will be extended
to include a single label. Without this option
checked the selection would be extended to
include extra labels.
• Blend system and Audacity theme: Adjusts the
theme provided by Audacity to be closer to the sys-
tem theme, if they already are reasonably similar.
This may lighten or darken the buttons.
Note: CleanSpeech Mode (a customized interface with
reduced menus and stored effects presets) no longer
exists in Audacity 2.x. It was last available in Audacity
1.3.13.
6.12.1 Enable Effects
All types of effect as below are enabled by default ac-
cording to your operating system, but individual effects of
any type that you add yourself must be enabled in Plug-in
Manager before they will appear in the Audacity menus.
Removing the checkmark from one or more boxes then
pressing OK will immediately remove all effects of that
type from the Audacity menus. The links in the list below
provide installation instructions for each type of effect.
• LADSPA : Enable LADSPA effects.
• LV2 : Enable LV2 effects.
• Nyquist : Enable Nyquist effects.
• VAMP : Enable VAMP analysis effects.
• VST : Enable VST effects.
• Audio Unit : Enable Audio Unit effects (Mac only).
6.12.2 Effect Options
These options let you sort or group effects that appear in
the Generate , Effect or Analyze menus by effect name,
type of effect or publisher. The "Grouped" options place
222 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES

effects into submenus within each group, so substantially
shorten the menu. All the options place built-in effects
above plug-in effects.
• Effects in menus are:
– Sorted by Effect Name: Effects are listed in
one long menu sorted by effect name, built-in
effects above the divider then plug-ins below
the divider.
– Sorted by Publisher and Effect Name: Ef-
fects are listed in one long menu, built-in ef-
fects sorted by name above the divider then
plug-ins sorted by publisher then name below
the divider.
– Sorted by Type and Effect Name: Effects
are listed in one long menu, built-in effects
sorted by name above the divider then plug-
Plug-ins of the same name may be grouped into a sub-
ins sorted by type then name below the di-
menu even when a "Grouped" option is not chosen. This
vider.
can occur:
– Grouped by Publisher: Effects are grouped
by effect publisher, with effects in each group
in a sub-menu. The "Audacity" group for built-
in effects is above the divider and groups for
plug-ins are below the divider.
– Grouped by Type: Effects are grouped by ef-
fect type, with effects in each group in a sub-
menu. The "Audacity" group for built-in effects
is above the divider and groups for plug-ins
are below the divider.
• Maximum effects per group (0 to disable): If en-
abled by setting a non-zero value, this controls
for the "Sorted" options the maximum number of
plug-ins allowed in the main menu before they are
grouped into sub-menus. For the "Grouped" op-
tions this controls the maximum number of plug-ins
allowed in a sub-menu before being grouped into
a secondary sub-menu. Each Group is named ac-
cording to the number of plug-ins it contains in nu-
merical order. For example, if there were 10 plug-
ins and the value was set to "5", there would be two
groups "Plug-ins 1 to 5" and "Plug-ins 6 to 10".
• If you have the same plug-in in different locations
that are searched by Audacity
• If there are separate mono or stereo versions of a
plug-in that are given the same internal name.

6.13 Keyboard Preferences

Keyboard Preferences lists, searches for and sets the

keyboard shortcuts which can be used for numerous
commands in Audacity as an alternative to using Menus
, Toolbars or mouse gestures . A full list of the com-
mands with their default shortcut key bindings is avail-
able at Keyboard Shortcut Reference . The default set
of shortcut key bindings can be added to, changed or re-
moved here if desired.Accessed by:Edit > Preferences >
Keyboard (on a Mac Audacity > Preferences > Keyboard
)

Keyboard Preferences.Click on any other Preferences

sections in the above image to read about those Prefer-
ences.
6.13. KEYBOARD PREFERENCES
6.13.1 View by
There are three ways of viewing the shortcut keys or
"bindings" which you can select by clicking on the appro-
priate radio button. The view chosen when you click OK
to close Preferences is remembered when you access
Keyboard Preferences next time.
Tree
This is the default view. On the left-hand side, it lists all
the commands to which keyboard shortcuts can be as-
signed. On the right-hand side, the currently assigned
shortcut for each command is shown (if any). The com-
mands are grouped then listed within each group in the
same order in which they appear in the Audacity Menu
Bar . If a group of items are in a sub-menu within their
Menu Bar, that group appears in the tree indented to
right as a sub-group within their group. There is a final
"Command" category listed in alphabetical order for com-
mands which do not have a Menu Bar entry. The menu
groups and sub-groups ("branches" in this "tree" view) al-
ways open fully expanded. You can click on any branch’s
collapse button to collapse the branch. Any branch
which is collapsed can be expanded by clicking on its
expand button. Keyboard use:
• Use Left arrow when on a group or sub-group’s title
row to collapse the group or sub-group, or when on
an item in an expanded group or sub-group to jump
to the title row of that group or sub-group.
• Use Right arrow to expand a collapsed group or
sub-group.
• Up arrow and Down arrow navigate up and down
the items in "Tree" view and also do so in the
"Name" and "Key" views.
To navigate through all commands and title rows starting
with a particular letter, type that letter. Search box: Typ-
ing in the "Tree" view search box looks for that text string
in a command name, title row or shortcut. You can enter
text in upper or lower case (search is not case-sensitive).
Tree View Search Examples
• Entering zoom finds the four Zoom items in View
Menu and the Zoom Tool command.
• Entering just z finds all menu items or commands
that include the letter z, plus shortcuts that include
Z.
• Entering +j finds only shortcuts that include a mod-
ified "J", so by default Ctrl + J, Ctrl + Alt + J, Alt + J,
Alt + Shift + J and Shift + J. "Tree" View is the only
way to find all shortcuts that use a given modifier
letter.
If you have non-default shortcuts and press the De-
faults button as below to restore the default shortcut set,
223
the search results for your entered text will be updated.
Empty the text in the Search box to restore the complete
Tree list.
Name
"Name" view lists on the left-hand side all the commands
in alphabetical order, with no grouping. On the right-hand
side, the currently assigned shortcut for each command
is shown (if any). To navigate through all commands
starting with a particular letter, type that letter. Search
box: Typing in the "Name" view search box works sim-
ilarly to search in "Tree" view, except that the text string
you type is searched for only in command names and ti-
tle rows and not in shortcuts. This can give more focused
search results when you really only want to search in the
command name. Name View Search Examples
• Entering Shift finds the Effect menu item "Sliding
Time Scale / Pitch Shift" and the "Time Shift Tool"
command, but excludes all the shortcuts that in-
clude the Shift modifier.
• Entering just b finds all menu items or commands
that include the letter "b", but does not find the "Play
to Selection" command with its default shortcut of
"B". "Tree" view would find it but the quickest way to
find what the "B" command does would be to type it
into the "Hotkey" box when in "Key" view (see next
section).
Key
"Key" view is the easiest to use to ascertain which keys
or key combinations are currently assigned and which
are not. By default it lists on the left-hand side all the
currently assigned shortcuts in alphabetical order of the
shortcut, followed by all the commands that currently
have no shortcut assigned to them (in alphabetical or-
der of the command). To navigate through all shortcuts
starting with a particular letter, type that letter. The "Key"
view search box is called Hotkey. To use this, click in
or Tab into the box then press the shortcut combination
you are searching for, just as you would press the short-
cut combination you want to set in the shortcut input box
. You can also search for one letter only in the shortcut
itself (this excludes searching for that letter in the modi-
fier). Key View Search Examples
• Pressing Ctrl + Shift + E when you have default
shortcut assignments shows that the command
"Export Audio..." is using this shortcut.
• Pressing F6 when you have default shortcut as-
signments shows that the command "Multi Tool" is
using the F6 shortcut and also that "Ctrl + F6" and
"Ctrl + Shift + F6" are in use.
224
• Pressing D when you have default shortcut assign-
ments shows that the command "Next Tool" is using
the "D" shortcut, and that one other command ("Ctrl
+ D" for Duplicate) uses the "D" key combined with
a modifier.
• Pressing Alt + Y when you have default shortcut as-
signments shows no result in the list, indicating this
shortcut is available to assign to a command.
You cannot use shortcuts in the Hotkey box to
empty the box, for example Delete. After switching back
to "Tree" or "Name" view, you can then use the Delete
or any other method to empty the box and display the
complete list.
6.13.2 Input box, Set and Clear buttons
• To change or add a shortcut binding:
1. Click in the list window to select the item you
want to change. The entry will be highlighted
and the current key combination for that com-
mand (if any) will now appear in the input box
to left of the Set button.
2. Either click in the input box, or press Tab once
to switch focus to it.
3. Choose your binding by either holding any
modifier key (or combination of modifiers) then
pressing any non-modifier key, or press any
non-modifier key on its own. Valid modifiers
are:
– Shift
– Ctrl( CloverLeaf on a Mac)
– Alt( Option on a Mac)
– Altgr or Right Alt (on Windows keyboards,
this key sends a combined Ctrl + Alt modi-
fier and can thus be used as an alternative
to call any binding that includes Ctrl + Alt).
As an example, Shift + 6 or Ctrl + Shift +
P are both valid bindings. Your chosen key
or key combination will now replace the previ-
ous content of the input box.
4. Click Set to apply your desired change.
– If your chosen shortcut is already as-
signed to a command, Audacity will show
a dialog asking you to confirm the change.
Click OK to assign your chosen shortcut
to the chosen command. This will re-
move the shortcut for the command that
originally used it, leaving that command
with no shortcut. Click Cancel to make no
change of shortcut.
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
• Clear:To remove a shortcut binding, select the item
as in step 1 above, then press Clear.
You cannot set the main system shortcut for Es-
cape, E on Windows or Alt + C on some Linux systems,
as a binding.
6.13.3 Export..., Import... and Defaults but-
tons
• Export... and Import...: You can export and import
shortcut bindings (for example to keep a safe copy
of your custom settings, or to transfer them to Au-
dacity on another machine). The Export... button
exports your bindings as an XML file, and Import...
imports the XML file back again. You can also edit
the XML file in any text editor and re-import it, as an
alternative to editing the shortcuts in Preferences.
Audacity does not check for shortcuts which are allocated
to more than one command when importing the file, so
edit carefully. The only entries you can usefully edit are
the actual key bindings themselves which are in the "key"
string at the end of each command. For example, to set
the key binding for "New" to Shift + N, the command in
the XML file should read:<command name="New" la-
bel="New" key="Shift+N"/>Be sure not to delete the
closing "/>" characters at the end of the command.
• Defaults: There are two sets of default shortcuts
available in Audacity. The default set is " Standard
". This set is a reduced set to simplify the set of
shortcuts somewhat and to provide greater flexibilty
for users who wish to create their own shortcuts.
The other available set of shortcuts is " Full ". This set is,
as the name suggests the full and extensive set of short-
cuts that were available in Audacity 2.1.3 and earlier. You
can choose to revert to the full set of shortcuts by select-
ing "Full" from the dropdown menu accessed from the
Defaults button in the Keyboard Preferences dialog.
You can use the Defaults button to switch between the
two provided default sets of shortcuts at any time.This
button is also handy if you are making custom shortcuts
and decide you have not got your changes right and want
to start over again.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE
6.13.4 OK and Cancel buttons
• OK: When you have completed your edits press the
OK button to save the new shortcut bindings and
exit the Preferences dialog.
6.14 Commands and Keyboard Shortcut Reference
This page lists all commands in the menus and all key-
board shortcuts. The default Standard set of shortcuts is
a reduced set, compared to earlier versions of Audacity,
to simplify the set of shortcust somewhat and to provide
greater flexibilty for users who wish to create their own
shortcuts. There is also an extended Full set of key-
board shortcuts that can be selected from the Defaults
button on the Keyboard Preferences dialog. This Full set
is the set that was available in Audacity 2.1.3 and earlier.
You can use Keyboard Preferences to change or remove
existing shortcuts or to assign a shortcut to commands
that lack a default shortcut.
• Standard shortcuts are shown like so: Ctrl + A.
• Shortcuts that are only in the Full set are shown
like so: Ctrl + #.
• Shortcuts that have not been assigned, that you
can assign using keyboard preferences, are shown
like so (unassigned).
Some less commonly used commands are not in the de-
fault menus but they can be accessed by menu by en-
abling Show extra menus in Interface Preferences .
File Menu : Recent Files , Save Other , Import , Chains
View Menu : Zoom , Track Size , Skip to , Toolbars Gen-
erate Menu : Help Menu : Tools , Diagnostics
Edit Menu : Remove Audio , Clip Boundaries , Labels
Transport Menu : Play , Record , Scrubbing , Cursor to ,
Play Region , Transport Options Effect Menu : Audacity
, LADSPA , Nyquist Ext-Bar Menu : Transport , Tools ,
Edit , Device , Mixer , Transcription , Scrub , Selection
Select Menu : Tracks , Region , Spectral , Clip Bound-
aries Tracks Menu : Add New , Mix , Mute/Unmute ,
Pan , Align Tracks , Sort Tracks Analyze Menu : Ext-
Command Menu : Focus , Cursor , Track Other Tips
and hints:
• Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf and Alt = Option. So,
for example, Ctrl + Alt + K = CloverLeaf + Option +
K.
• See Audacity Selection for examples of changing
track focus and selection.
• PAGE UP scrolls the project rightwards and PAGE
DOWN scrolls the project leftwards, equivalent to a
225
• Cancel: If you press the Cancel button this aborts
the editing. All shortcuts will remain as they were
before you started to edit them and the Preferences
dialog will be exited.
single click in the white area either side of the hori-
zontal scrollbar. These shortcuts cannot be config-
ured in Keyboard Preferences.
• There are a number of key combinations that can
be used in combination with mouse clicks. These
cannot be configured. They are listed on Mouse
Preferences
6.14.1 File Menu
File
Action Shortcut Description
New Ctrl + NCreates a new and empty project window to
start working on new or imported Tracks.
Open... Ctrl + OPresents you with a standard dialog
box where you can select either audio files, a list of files
(.LOF) or an Audacity Project file to open.
Close Ctrl + WCloses the current project window, prompt-
ing you to save your work if you have not saved.
Save Project Ctrl + SSaves the current Audacity
project.AUP file.
Save Project As... (unassigned)Same as "Save Project"
above, but allows you to save a copy of an open project
to a different name or location
Page Setup... (unassigned)Opens the standard Page
Setup dialog box prior to printing
Print... (unassigned)Prints all the waveforms in the cur-
rent project window (and the contents of Label Tracks
or other tracks), with the Timeline above. Everything is
printed to one page.
Exit Ctrl + QCloses all project windows and exits Audac-
ity. If there are any unsaved changes to your project,
Audacity will ask if you want to save them.
File: Recent Files
Lists the full path to the twelve most recently saved or
opened projects or most recently imported audio files
Action Shortcut Description
226
Clear (unassigned)Clears the list of recently used files.
File: Save Other
For exporting audio files
Action Shortcut Description
Export as MP3 (unassigned)Exports to an MP3 file
Export as WAV (unassigned)Exports to a WAV file
Export as OGG (unassigned)Exports to an OGG file
Export Audio... Ctrl + Shift + EExports to an audio file.
Export Selected Audio... (unassigned)Exports selected
audio to a file.
Export Labels... (unassigned)Exports audio at one or
more labels to file(s).
Export Multiple... Ctrl + Shift + LExports multiple audio
files in one process, one file for each track if there are
multiple audio tracks, or labels can be added which then
define the length of each exported file.
Export MIDI... (unassigned)Exports MIDI (note tracks) to
a MIDI file.
Save Compressed Copy of Project... (unassigned)Saves
in the audacity .aup project file format, but compressed
(Suitable for mailing)
File: Import
For importing audio files or label files into your project
Action Shortcut Description
Audio... Ctrl + Shift + ISimilar to ’Open’, except that the
file is added as a new track to your existing project.
Labels... (unassigned)Launches a file selection window
where you can choose to import a single text file into the
project containing point or region labels . For more in-
formation about the syntax for labels files, see Importing
and Exporting Labels .
MIDI... (unassigned)Imports a MIDI (MIDI or MID ex-
tension ) or Allegro (GRO) file to a Note Track where
simple cut-and-paste edits can be performed. The result
can be exported with the File > Save Other> > Export
MIDI command. Note: Currently, MIDI and Allegro files
cannot be played.
Raw Data... (unassigned)Attempts to import an uncom-
pressed audio file that might be "raw" data without any
headers to define its format, might have incorrect head-
ers or be otherwise partially corrupted, or might be in a
format that Audacity is unable to recognize. Raw data in
textual format cannot be imported.
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
File: Chains
Chains are Audacity’s form of batch processing
Action Shortcut Description
Apply Chain... (unassigned)Creates a new Chain or edits
an existing chain.
Edit Chains... (unassigned)Show the existing chains and
allows you to select and run one.
6.14.2 Edit Menu
Edit
Action Shortcut Description
Undo Ctrl + ZUndoes the most recent editing action.
Redo Ctrl + YRedoes the most recently undone editing
action.
Cut Ctrl + XRemoves the selected audio data and/or la-
bels and places these on the Audacity clipboard. By
default, any audio or labels to right of the selection are
shifted to the left.
Delete Ctrl + KRemoves the selected audio data and/or
labels without copying these to the Audacity clipboard.
By default, any audio or labels to right of the selection
are shifted to the left.
Copy Ctrl + CCopies the selected audio data to the Au-
dacity clipboard without removing it from the project.
Paste Ctrl + VInserts whatever is on the Audacity clip-
board at the position of the selection cursor in the project,
replacing whatever audio data is currently selected, if
any.
Duplicate Ctrl + DCreates a new track containing only the
current selection as a new clip.
Metadata... (unassigned)The Metadata Editor modifies
information about a track, such as the artist and genre.
Typically used with MP3 files.
Preferences... Ctrl + PPreferences let you change most
of the default behaviors and settings of Audacity. On
Mac, Preferences are in the Audacity Menu and the de-
fault shortcut is CloverLeaf + ,.
Edit: Remove Special
For more "advanced" removal of audio
Action Shortcut Description
Split Cut Ctrl + Alt + XSame as Cut, but none of the audio
data or labels to right of the selection are shifted.
Split Delete Ctrl + Alt + KSame as Delete, but none of the
audio data or labels to right of the selection are shifted.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE
Silence Audio Ctrl + LReplaces the currently selected au-
dio with absolute silence. Does not affect label tracks.
Trim Audio Ctrl + TDeletes all audio but the selection. If
there are other separate clips in the same track these are
not removed or shifted unless trimming the entire length
of a clip or clips. Does not affect label tracks.
Edit: Clip Boundaries
Create or remove separate clips in the audio track. A clip
inside an audio track is a separate section of that track
which has been split so that it can be manipulated some-
what independently of the other clips in the track.
Action Shortcut Description
Split Ctrl + ISplits the current clip into two clips at the cur-
sor point, or into three clips at the selection boundaries.
Split New Ctrl + Alt + IDoes a Split Cut on the current se-
lection in the current track, then creates a new track and
pastes the selection into the new track.
Join Ctrl + JIf you select an area that overlaps one or
more clips, they are all joined into one large clip. Regions
in-between clips become silence.
Detach at Silences Ctrl + Alt + JIn a selection region that
includes absolute silences, creates individual non-silent
clips between the regions of silence. The silence be-
comes blank space between the clips.
Edit: Labels
These commands are to add and edit labels.
Action Shortcut Description
Edit Labels... (unassigned)Brings up a dialog box show-
ing all of your labels in a keyboard-accessible tabular
view. Handy buttons in the dialog let you insert or delete
a label, or import and export labels to a file. See Labels
Editor for more details.
Add Label At Selection Ctrl + BCreates a new, empty la-
bel at the cursor or at the selection region.
Add Label At Playback Position Ctrl + MCreates a new,
empty label at the current playback or recording position.
Paste Text to New Label Ctrl + Alt + VPastes the text on
the Audacity clipboard at the cursor position in the cur-
rently selected label track. If there is no selection in the
label track a point label is created. If a range is selected
in the label track a range label is created. If no label track
is selected one is created, and a new label is created.
Type to Create a Label (on/off) (unassigned)When a la-
bel track has the yellow focus border, if this option is on,
just type to create a label. Otherwise you must create a
label first.
227
Edit: Labeled Audio
Labeled Audio commands apply standard Edit Menu
commands to the audio of one or more regions that are
labeled. The labels themselves are not affected.
Action Shortcut Description
Cut Alt + XSame as the Cut command, but operates on
labeled audio regions.
Delete Alt + KSame as the Delete command, but oper-
ates on labeled audio regions.
Split Cut Alt + Shift + XSame as the Split Cut command,
but operates on labeled audio regions.
Split Delete Alt + Shift + KSame as the Split Delete com-
mand, but operates on labeled audio regions.
Silence Audio Alt + LSame as the Silence Audio com-
mand, but operates on labeled audio regions.
Copy Alt + Shift + CSame as the Copy command, but
operates on labeled audio regions.
Split Alt + ISame as the Split command, but operates on
labeled audio regions or points.
Join Alt + JSame as the Join command, but operates on
labeled audio regions or points. You may need to select
the audio and use Edit > Clip Boundaries > Join , to join
all regions or points.
Detach at Silences Alt + Shift + JSame as the Detach
at Silences command, but operates on labeled audio re-
gions.
6.14.3 Select Menu
Select
Action Shortcut Description
All Ctrl + ASelects all of the audio in all of the tracks.
None Ctrl + Shift + ADeselects all of the audio in all of
the tracks.
Cursor to Stored Cursor Position (unassigned)Selects
from the position of the cursor to the previously stored
cursor position
Store Cursor Position (unassigned)Stores the current
cursor position for use in a later selection
At Zero Crossings ZMoves the edges of a selection re-
gion (or the cursor position) slightly so they are at a rising
zero crossing point.
228
Select: Tracks
For extending a selection to more tracks.
Action Shortcut Description
In All Tracks Ctrl + Shift + KExtends the current selection
up and/or down into all tracks in the project.
In All Sync-Locked Tracks Ctrl + Shift + YExtends the cur-
rent selection up and/or down into all sync-locked tracks
in the currently selected track group.
Select: Region
For modifying, saving and restoring a selection.
Action Shortcut Description
Left at Playback Position [When Audacity is playing,
recording or paused, sets the left boundary of a potential
selection by moving the cursor to the current position of
the green playback cursor (or red recording cursor). Oth-
erwise, opens the "Set Left Selection Boundary" dialog
for adjusting the time position of the left-hand selection
boundary. If there is no selection, moving the time digits
backwards creates a selection ending at the former cur-
sor position, and moving the time digits forwards provides
a way to move the cursor forwards to an exact point.
Right at Playback Position ]When Audacity is playing,
recording or paused, sets the right boundary of the selec-
tion, thus drawing the selection from the cursor position
to the current position of the green playback cursor (or
red recording cursor). Otherwise, opens the "Set Right
Selection Boundary" dialog for adjusting the time posi-
tion of the right-hand selection boundary. If there is no
selection, moving the time digits forwards creates a se-
lection starting at the former cursor position, and moving
the time digits backwards provides a way to move the
cursor backwards to an exact point.
Track Start to Cursor Shift + JSelects a region in the se-
lected track(s) from the start of the track to the cursor
position.
Cursor to Track End Shift + KSelects a region in the se-
lected track(s) from the cursor position to the end of the
track.
Store Selection (unassigned)Stores the end points of a
selection for later reuse.
Retrieve Selection (unassigned)Retrieves the end points
of a previously stored selection.
Select: Spectral
For making a selection of a frequency range.
Action Shortcut Description
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
Toggle spectral selection QChanges between selecting a
time range and selecting the last selected spectral selec-
tion in that time range. This command toggles the spec-
tral selection even if not in Spectrogram view, but you
must be in Spectrogram view to use the spectral selec-
tion in one of the Spectral edit effects.
Next Higher Peak Frequency (unassigned)When in
Spectrogram view, snaps the center frequency to the next
higher frequency peak, moving the spectral selection up-
wards.
Next Lower Peak Frequency (unassigned)When in Spec-
trogram views snaps the center frequency to the next
lower frequency peak, moving the spectral selection
downwards.
Select: Clip Boundaries
For modifying a selection, taking account of clips.
Action Shortcut Description
Previous Clip Boundary to Cursor (unassigned)Selects
from the current cursor position back to the right-hand
edge of the previous clip.
Cursor to Next Clip Boundary (unassigned)Selects from
the current cursor position forward to the left-hand edge
of the next clip.
Previous Clip Alt + PMoves the selection to the previous
clip.
Next Clip Alt + NMoves the selection to the next clip.
6.14.4 View Menu
View
Action Shortcut Description
History... (unassigned)Brings up the History window
which can then be left open while using Audacity nor-
mally. History lists all undoable actions performed in the
current project, including importing.
Karaoke... (unassigned)Brings up the Karaoke window,
which displays the labels in a "bouncing ball" scrolling
display
Mixer Board... (unassigned)Mixer Board is an alterna-
tive view to the audio tracks in the main tracks window.
Analogous to a hardware mixer board, each audio track
is displayed in a Track Strip.
Extra Menus (on/off) (unassigned)Shows extra menus
with many extra less-used commands.
Show Clipping (on/off) (unassigned)Option to show or not
show audio that is too loud (in red) on the wave form.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE
View: Zoom
Zoom in/out on the horizontal axis. Show more detail or
show a longer length of time.
Action Shortcut Description
Zoom In Ctrl + 1Zooms in on the horizontal axis of the au-
dio displaying more detail over a shorter length of time.
Zoom Normal Ctrl + 2Zooms to the default view which
displays about one inch per second.
Zoom Out Ctrl + 3Zooms out displaying less detail over a
greater length of time.
Zoom to Selection Ctrl + EZooms in or out so that the
selected audio fills the width of the window.
View: Track Size
Controls the sizes of tracks.
Action Shortcut Description
Fit to Width Ctrl + FZooms out until the entire project just
fits in the window.
Fit to Height Ctrl + Shift + FAdjusts the height of all the
tracks until they fit in the project window.
Collapse All Tracks Ctrl + Shift + CCollapses all tracks to
take up the minimum amount of space.
Expand Collapsed Tracks Ctrl + Shift + XExpands all col-
lapsed tracks to their original size before the last col-
lapse.
View: Skip to
Move forward/backwards through the audio
Action Shortcut Description
Selection Start Ctrl + [When there is a selection, moves
the cursor to the start of the selection and removes the
selection.
Selection End Ctrl + ]When there is a selection, moves
the cursor to the end of the selection and removes the
selection.
View: Toolbars
Toolbars can be used to determine which of the Audacity
toolbars are displayed. By default all toolbars are shown
except Spectral Selection and Scrub
Action Shortcut Description
Reset Toolbars (unassigned)Using this command posi-
tions all toolbars in default location and size as they were
when Audacity was first installed
229
Transport Toolbar (unassigned)Controls playback and
recording and skips to start or end of project when nei-
ther playing or recording
Tools Toolbar (unassigned)Chooses various tools for se-
lection, volume adjustment, zooming and time-shifting of
audio
Recording Meter Toolbar (unassigned)Displays recording
levels and toggles input monitoring when not recording
Playback Meter Toolbar (unassigned)Displays playback
levels
Mixer Toolbar (unassigned)Adjusts the recording and
playback volumes of the devices currently selected in De-
vice Toolbar
Edit Toolbar (unassigned)Cut, copy, paste, trim audio, si-
lence audio, undo, redo, zoom tools
Transcription Toolbar (unassigned)Plays audio at a
slower or faster speed than normal, affecting pitch
Scrub Toolbar (unassigned)Controls playback and
recording and skips to start or end of project when nei-
ther playing or recording
Device Toolbar (unassigned)Selects audio host, record-
ing device, number of recording channels and playback
device
Selection Toolbar (unassigned)Controls the sample rate
of the project, snapping to the selection format and ad-
justs cursor and region position by keyboard input
Spectral Selection Toolbar (unassigned)Displays and lets
you adjust the current spectral (frequency) selection with-
out having to be in Spectrogram view
6.14.5 Transport Menu
Transport
Action Shortcut Description
Rescan Audio Devices (unassigned)Rescan for audio de-
vices connected to your computer, and update the play-
back and recording dropdown menus in Device Toolbar
Transport: Play
These commands control playback in Audacity. You can
Start, Stop or Pause playback of the audio in your project.
Action Shortcut Description
Play/Stop SpaceStarts and stops playback or stops a
recording (stopping does not change the restart position).
Therefore using any play or record command after stop-
ping with "Play/Stop" will start playback or recording from
the same Timeline position it last started from. You can
also assign separate shortcuts for Play and Stop .
230
Play/Stop and Set Cursor XStarts playback like
"Play/Stop", but stopping playback sets the restart po-
sition to the stop point. When stopped, this command is
the same as "Play/Stop". When playing, this command
stops playback and moves the cursor (or the start of the
selection) to the position where playback stopped.
Loop Play Shift + SpacePlays the selection over and over
again.
Pause PTemporarily pauses playing or recording without
losing your place.
Transport: Record
These commands control recording in Audacity. You can
Start, Stop or Pause recording in your project. You can
either start a recording on your existing track or an a new
track.
Action Shortcut Description
Record RStarts recording at the end of the currently se-
lected track(s).
Record New Track Shift + RRecording begins on a new
track at either the current cursor location or at the begin-
ning of the current selection.
Timer Record... Shift + TBrings up the Timer Record di-
alog.
Pause PTemporarily pauses playing or recording without
losing your place.
Transport: Scrubbing
Scrubbing is the action of moving the mouse pointer right
or left so as to adjust the position, speed or direction of
playback, listening to the audio at the same time - a con-
venient way to quickly navigate the waveform to find a
particular event of interest. Speed changes are made by
rotating the mouse wheel while scrubbing.
Action Shortcut Description
Scrub (unassigned)Scrubbing is the action of moving the
mouse pointer right or left so as to adjust the position,
speed or direction of playback, listening to the audio at
the same time.
Seek (unassigned)Seeking is similar to Scrubbing except
that it is playback with skips, similar to using the seek but-
ton on a CD player.
Scrub Ruler (unassigned)Shows (or hides) the scrub
ruler, which is just below the timeline.
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
Transport: Cursor to
These commands let you move the cursor to the start or
end of the selection, track or any adjacent Clip that you
may have
Action Shortcut Description
Selection Start (unassigned)Moves the cursor to the left
edge of the current selection and removes the selection.
Selection End (unassigned)Moves the cursor to the right
edge of the current selection and removes the selection.
Track Start JMoves the cursor to the start of the selected
track.
Track End KMoves the cursor to the end of the selected
track.
Previous Clip Boundary (unassigned)Moves the cursor
position back to the previous clip boundary
Next Clip Boundary (unassigned)Moves the cursor posi-
tion forward to the next clip boundary
Project Start HomeMoves the cursor to the beginning of
the project.
Project End EndMoves the cursor to the end of the
project.
Transport: Play Region
These commands enable you to lock a play region and
unlock it
Action Shortcut Description
Lock (unassigned)Locks standard playback to the current
position of the playback region, or to the current position
of the Quick-Play region).
Unlock (unassigned)Removes the Play Region Lock.
Transport: Transport Options
This submenu lets you manage and set various options
for transport (playing and recording) in Audacity
Action Shortcut Description
Sound Activation Level... (unassigned)Sets the activation
level above which Sound Activated Recording will record.
Sound Activated Recording (on/off) (unassigned)Toggles
on and off the Sound Activated Recording option.
Pinned Play/Record Head (on/off) (unassigned)You can
change Audacity to play and record with a fixed head
pinned to the center of the Timeline.
Overdub (on/off) (unassigned)Toggles on and off the
Overdub option.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE
Software Playthrough (on/off) (unassigned)Toggles on
and off the Software Playthrough option.
6.14.6 Tracks Menu
Tracks
Action Shortcut Description
Resample... (unassigned)Allows you to resample the se-
lected track(s) to a new sample rate for use in the project
Remove Tracks (unassigned)Removes the selected
track(s) from the project. Even if only part of a track is
selected, the entire track is removed.
Sync-Lock Tracks (on/off) (unassigned)Ensures that
length changes occurring anywhere in a defined group
of tracks also take place in all audio or label tracks in that
group.
Tracks: Add New
Adds a new track
Action Shortcut Description
Mono Track Ctrl + Shift + NCreates a new empty mono
audio track.
Stereo Track (unassigned)Adds an empty stero track to
the project
Label Track (unassigned)Adds an empty label track to the
project
Time Track (unassigned)Adds an empty time track to the
project. Time tracks are used to speed up and slow down
audio.
Tracks: Mix
Mixes down selected tracks to mono or stereo tracks
Action Shortcut Description
Mix Stereo down to Mono (unassigned)Converts the se-
lected stereo track(s) into the same number of mono
tracks, combining left and right channels equally by av-
eraging the volume of both channels.
Mix and Render (unassigned)Mixes down all selected
tracks to a single mono or stereo track, rendering to the
waveform all real-time transformations that had been ap-
plied (such as track gain , panning, amplitude envelopes
or a change in project rate ).
Mix and Render to New Track Ctrl + Shift + MSame as
Tracks > Mix and Render except that the original tracks
are preserved rather than being replaced by the resulting
"Mix" track.
231
Tracks: Mute/Unmute
Mutes or unmutes audio tracks in the project
Action Shortcut Description
Mute All Tracks Ctrl + UMutes all the audio tracks in the
project as if you had used the mute buttons from the Track
Control Panel on each track.
Unmute All Tracks Ctrl + Shift + UUnmutes all the audio
tracks in the project as if you had released the mute but-
tons from the Track Control Panel on each track.
Tracks: Pan
Pans left right or center audio tracks in the project
Action Shortcut Description
Left (unassigned)Pan selected audio to left speaker
Right (unassigned)Pan selected audio centrally.
Center (unassigned)Pan selected audio to right speaker.
Tracks: Align Tracks
Commands that provide an automatic way of aligning se-
lected tracks with the cursor, the selection, or with the
start of the project.
Action Shortcut Description
Align End to End (unassigned)Aligns the selected tracks
one after the other, based on their top-to-bottom order in
the project window.
Align Together (unassigned)Align the selected tracks so
that they start at the same (averaged) start time.
Start to Zero (unassigned)Aligns the start of selected
tracks with the start of the project.
Start to Cursor/Selection Start (unassigned)Aligns the
start of selected tracks with the current cursor position
or with the start of the current selection.
Start to Selection End (unassigned)Aligns the start of se-
lected tracks with the end of the current selection.
End to Cursor/Selection Start (unassigned)Aligns the
end of selected tracks with the current cursor position or
with the start of the current selection.
End to Selection End (unassigned)Aligns the end of se-
lected tracks with the end of the current selection.
Move Selection with Tracks (on/off) (unassigned)Toggles
on/off the selection moving with the realigned tracks, or
staying put.
232
Tracks: Sort Tracks
Sorts all tracks in the project from top to bottom in the
project window, by Start Time or by Name.
Action Shortcut Description
by Start time (unassigned)Sort tracks in order of start
time.
by Name (unassigned)Sort tracks in order by name.
6.14.7 Generate Menu
Generate
Action Shortcut Description
Add / Remove Plug-ins... (unassigned)Selecting this op-
tion from the Effect Menu (or the Generate Menu or Ana-
lyze Menu ) takes you to a dialog where you can enable
or disable particular Effects, Generators and Analyzers
in Audacity. Even if you do not add any third-party plug-
ins, you can use this to make the Effect menu shorter or
longer as required. For details see Add / Remove Effects,
Generators and Analyzers .
Chirp... (unassigned)Generates four different types of
tone waveform like the Tone Generator , but additionally
allows setting of the starting and ending amplitude and
frequency.
DTMF Tones... (unassigned)Generates dual-tone multi-
frequency (DTMF) tones like those produced by the key-
pad on telephones.
Noise... (unassigned)Generates ’white’, ’pink’ or ’brown’
noise.
Silence... (unassigned)Creates audio of zero amplitude,
the only configurable setting being duration.
Tone... (unassigned)Generates one of four different tone
waveforms: Sine, Square, Sawtooth or Square (no alias),
and a frequency between 1 Hz and half the current
project rate.
Pluck... (unassigned)A synthesized pluck tone with
abrupt or gradual fade-out, and selectable pitch corre-
sponding to a MIDI note.
Rhythm Track... (unassigned)Generates a track with reg-
ularly spaced sounds at a specified tempo and number
of beats per measure (bar).
Risset Drum... (unassigned)Produces a realistic drum
sound.
Sample Data Import... (unassigned)Create audio from
imported numeric data.
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
6.14.8 Effect Menu
Effect
Action Shortcut Description
Add / Remove Plug-ins... (unassigned)Selecting this op-
tion from the Effect Menu (or the Generate Menu or Ana-
lyze Menu ) takes you to a dialog where you can enable
or disable particular Effects, Generators and Analyzers
in Audacity. Even if you do not add any third-party plug-
ins, you can use this to make the Effect menu shorter or
longer as required. For details see Add / Remove Effects,
Generators and Analyzers .
Repeat Last Effect Ctrl + RRepeats the last used effect
at its last used settings and without displaying any dialog.
Effect: Audacity
Effects built in to Audacity
Action Shortcut Description
Amplify... (unassigned)Increases or decreases the vol-
ume of the audio you have selected.
Auto Duck... (unassigned)Reduces (ducks) the volume
of one or more tracks whenever the volume of a spec-
ified "control" track reaches a particular level. Typically
used to make a music track softer whenever speech in a
commentary track is heard.
Bass and Treble... (unassigned)Increases or decreases
the lower frequencies and higher frequencies of your
audio independently; behaves just like the bass and tre-
ble controls on a stereo system.
Change Pitch... (unassigned)Change the pitch of a se-
lection without changing its tempo.
Change Speed... (unassigned)Change the speed of a
selection, also changing its pitch.
Change Tempo... (unassigned)Change the tempo and
length (duration) of a selection without changing its pitch.
Click Removal... (unassigned)Click Removal is designed
to remove clicks on audio tracks and is especially suited
to declicking recordings made from vinyl records.
Compressor... (unassigned)Compresses the dynamic
range by two alternative methods. The default " RMS "
method makes the louder parts softer, but leaves the qui-
eter audio alone. The alternative "peaks" method makes
the entire audio louder, but amplifies the louder parts less
than the quieter parts. Make-up gain can be applied
to either method, making the result as loud as possible
without clipping , but not changing the dynamic range
further.
Distortion... (unassigned)Use the Distortion effect to
make the audio sound distorted. By distorting the wave-
form the frequency content is changed, which will of-
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE
ten make the sound "crunchy" or "abrasive". Technically
this effect is a waveshaper. The result of waveshaping
is equivalent to applying non-linear amplification to the
audio waveform. Preset shaping functions are provided,
each of which produces a different type of distortion.
Echo... (unassigned)Repeats the selected audio again
and again, normally softer each time and normally not
blended into the original sound until some time after it
starts. The delay time between each repeat is fixed, with
no pause in between each repeat. For a more config-
urable echo effect with a variable delay time and pitch-
changed echoes, see Delay .
Equalization... (unassigned)Adjusts the volume levels of
particular frequencies.
Fade In (unassigned)Applies a linear fade-in to the se-
lected audio - the rapidity of the fade-in depends entirely
on the length of the selection it is applied to. For a more
customizable logarithmic fade, use the Envelope Tool
on the Tools Toolbar .
Fade Out (unassigned)Applies a linear fade-out to the
selected audio - the rapidity of the fade-out depends en-
tirely on the length of the selection it is applied to. For a
more customizable logarithmic fade, use the Envelope
Tool on the Tools Toolbar .
Invert (unassigned)This effect flips the audio samples
upside-down. This normally does not affect the sound
of the audio at all. It is occasionally useful for vocal re-
moval.
Noise Reduction... (unassigned)This effect is ideal for
reducing constant background noise such as fans, tape
noise, or hums. It will not work very well for removing
talking or music in the background. More details here .
Normalize... (unassigned)Use the Normalize effect to set
the maximum amplitude of a track, equalize the ampli-
tudes of the left and right channels of a stereo track and
optionally remove any DC offset from the track.
Paulstretch... (unassigned)Use Paulstretch only for an
extreme time-stretch or "stasis" effect, This may be
useful for synthesizer pad sounds, identifying perfor-
mance glitches or just creating interesting aural textures.
Use Change Tempo or Sliding Time Scale rather than
Paulstretch for tasks like slowing down a song to a "prac-
tice" tempo.
Phaser... (unassigned)The name "Phaser" comes from
"Phase Shifter", because it works by combining phase-
shifted signals with the original signal. The movement of
the phase-shifted signals is controlled using a Low Fre-
quency Oscillator (LFO).
Repair (unassigned)Fix one particular short click, pop or
other glitch no more than 128 samples long.
Repeat... (unassigned)Repeats the selection the speci-
fied number of times.
233
Reverb... (unassigned)A configurable stereo reverbera-
tion effect with built-in and user-added presets. It can
be used to add ambience (an impression of the space
in which a sound occurs) to a mono sound. Also use it
to increase reverberation in stereo audio that sounds too
"dry" or "close".
Reverse (unassigned)Reverses the selected audio; after
the effect the end of the audio will be heard first and the
beginning last.
Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift... (unassigned)This effect
allows you to make a continuous change to the tempo
and/or pitch of a selection by choosing initial and/or final
change values.
Truncate Silence... (unassigned)Automatically try to find
and eliminate audible silences. Don’t use with faded au-
dio.
Wahwah... (unassigned)Rapid tone quality variations,
like that guitar sound so popular in the 1970’s.
Effect: LADSPA
"Linux Audio Plug-in Audio" effects
Action Shortcut Description
SC4... (unassigned)This effect is a stereo compressor
with a variable envelope follower for RMS (average) /
peak behavior.
Effect: Nyquist
Effects created using a LISP-variant called "Nyquist".
Action Shortcut Description
Adjustable Fade... (unassigned)enables you to control
the shape of the fade (non-linear fading) to be applied by
adjusting various parameters; allows partial (that is not
from or to zero) fades up or down.
Clip Fix... (unassigned)Clip Fix attempts to reconstruct
clipped regions by interpolating the lost signal.
Crossfade Clips (unassigned)Use Crossfade Clips to ap-
ply a simple crossfade to a selected pair of clips in a sin-
gle audio track.
Crossfade Tracks... (unassigned)Use Crossfade Tracks
to make a smooth transition between two overlapping
tracks one above the other. Place the track to be faded
out above the track to be faded in then select the over-
lapping region in both tracks and apply the effect.
Delay... (unassigned)A configurable delay effect with
variable delay time and pitch shifting of the delays.
High Pass Filter... (unassigned)Passes frequencies
above its cutoff frequency and attenuates frequencies
below its cutoff frequency.
234
Limiter... (unassigned)Limiter passes signals below a
specified input level unaffected or gently reduced, while
preventing the peaks of stronger signals from exceeding
this threshold. Mastering engineers often use this type
of dynamic range compression combined with make-up
gain to increase the perceived loudness of an audio
recording during the audio mastering process.
Low Pass Filter... (unassigned)Passes frequencies be-
low its cutoff frequency and attenuates frequencies
above its cutoff frequency.
Notch Filter... (unassigned)Greatly attenuate ("notch
out") a narrow frequency band. This is a good way to
remove mains hum or a whistle confined to a specific fre-
quency with minimal damage to the remainder of the au-
dio.
Nyquist Prompt... (unassigned)Brings up a dialog where
you can enter Nyquist commands. Nyquist is a program-
ming language for generating, processing and analyzing
audio. For more information see Nyquist Plug-ins Refer-
ence.
Spectral edit multi tool (unassigned)When the selected
track is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view, ap-
plies a notch filter , high pass filter or low pass
filter according to the spectral selection made. This ef-
fect can also be used to change the audio quality as an
alternative to using Equalization .
Spectral edit parametric EQ... (unassigned)When the se-
lected track is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view
and the spectral selection has a center frequency and an
upper and lower boundary, performs the specified band
cut or band boost . This can be used as an alternative
to Equalization or may also be useful to repair damaged
audio by reducing frequency spikes or boosting other fre-
quencies to mask spikes.
Spectral edit shelves... (unassigned)When the selected
track is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view, ap-
plies either a low- or high-frequency shelving filter or both
filters, according to the spectral selection made. This can
be used as an alternative to Equalization or may also be
useful to repair damaged audio by reducing frequency
spikes or boosting other frequencies to mask spikes.
Studio Fade Out (unassigned)Applies a more musical
fade out to the selected audio, giving a more pleasing
sounding result.
Tremolo... (unassigned)Modulates the volume of the se-
lection at the depth and rate selected in the dialog. The
same as the tremolo effect familiar to guitar and keyboard
players.
Vocal Reduction and Isolation... (unassigned)Attempts
to remove or isolate center-panned audio from a stereo
track. Most "Remove" options in this effect preserve the
stereo image.
Vocal Remover... (unassigned)(Legacy effect) Attempts
to remove center-panned vocals from a stereo track. The
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
output from this effect will always be mono. Help text is
available from within the dialog.
Vocoder... (unassigned)Synthesizes audio (usually a
voice) in the left channel of a stereo track with a carrier
wave (typically white noise) in the right channel to pro-
duce a modified version of the left channel. Vocoding a
normal voice with white noise will produce a robot-like
voice for special effects.
6.14.9 Analyze Menu
Analyze
Action Shortcut Description
Add / Remove Plug-ins... (unassigned)Selecting this op-
tion from the Effect Menu (or the Generate Menu or Ana-
lyze Menu ) takes you to a dialog where you can enable
or disable particular Effects, Generators and Analyzers
in Audacity. Even if you do not add any third-party plug-
ins, you can use this to make the Effect menu shorter or
longer as required. For details see Add / Remove Effects,
Generators and Analyzers .
Contrast... Ctrl + Shift + TAnalyzes a single mono or
stereo speech track to determine the average RMS dif-
ference in volume (contrast) between foreground speech
and background music, audience noise or similar. The
purpose is to determine if the speech will be intelligible
to the hard of hearing.
Plot Spectrum... (unassigned)Takes the selected audio
(which is a set of sound pressure values at points in time)
and converts it to a graph of frequencies against ampli-
tudes .
Find Clipping... (unassigned)Displays runs of clipped
samples in a Label Track , as a screen-reader accessible
alternative to View > Show Clipping . A run must include
at least one clipped sample, but may include unclipped
samples too.
Beat Finder... (unassigned)Attempts to place labels at
beats which are much louder than the surrounding audio.
It’s a fairly rough and ready tool, and will not necessar-
ily work well on a typical modern pop music track with
compressed dynamic range . If you do not get enough
beats detected, try reducing the "Threshold Percentage"
setting.
Regular Interval Labels... (unassigned)Places labels in
a long track so as to divide it into smaller, equally sized
segments.
Sample Data Export... (unassigned)Reads the values of
successive samples from the selected audio and prints
this data to a plain text, CSV or HTML file. Further in-
formation may be added as a "header" at the top of the
file.
Silence Finder... (unassigned)Divides up a track by plac-
ing point labels inside areas of silence.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE
Sound Finder... (unassigned)Divides up a track by plac-
ing region labels for areas of sound that are separated by
silence.
6.14.10 Help Menu
Help
Action Shortcut Description
Quick Help (unassigned)A brief version of help with some
of the most essential information.
Manual (unassigned)Opens the manual in the default
browser.
Check for Updates... (unassigned)Checks online to see
if this is the latest version of Audacity.
About Audacity... (unassigned)Brings a dialog with infor-
mation about Audacity, such as who wrote it, what fea-
tures are enabled and the GNU GPL v2 license.
Help: Tools
Takes you to Screenshot tools and Benchmarking
Action Shortcut Description
Screenshot Tools... (unassigned)A tool, mainly used in
documentation, to capture screenshots of Audacity.
Run Benchmark... (unassigned)A tool for measuring the
performance of one part of Audacity.
Help: Diagnostics
A set of diagnostic tools
Action Shortcut Description
Audio Device Info... (unassigned)Shows technical infor-
mation about your detected audio device(s).
MIDI Device Info... (unassigned)Shows technical infor-
mation about your detected MIDI device(s).
Show Log... (unassigned)Launches the "Audacity Log"
window, the log is largely a debugging aid, having times-
tamps for each entry
Generate Support Data... (unassigned)Selecting this will
generate a Debug report which could be useful in aid-
ing the developers to identify bugs in Audacity or in third-
party plug-ins
Check Dependencies... (unassigned)Lists any WAV or
AIFF audio files that your project depends on, and allows
you to copy these files into the project
235
6.14.11 Ext-Bar Menu
Ext-Bar
Ext-Bar: Transport
Extra commands related to play and record
Action Shortcut Description
Play (unassigned)Play (or stop) audio
Stop (unassigned)Stop audio
Play One Second 1Plays for one second centered on the
current mouse pointer position (not from the current cur-
sor position). See this page for an example.
Play To Selection BPlays to or from the current mouse
pointer position to or from the start or end of the selec-
tion, depending on the pointer position. See this page for
more details.
Play Before Selection Start Shift + F5Plays a short period
before the start of the selected audio, the period before
shares the setting of the cut preview.
Play After Selection Start Shift + F6Plays a short pe-
riod after the start of the selected audio, the period after
shares the setting of the cut preview.
Play Before Selection End Shift + F7Plays a short period
before the end of the selected audio, the period before
shares the setting of the cut preview.
Play After Selection End Shift + F8Plays a short pe-
riod after the end of the selected audio, the period after
shares the setting of the cut preview.
Play Before and After Selection Start Ctrl + Shift +
F5Plays a short period before and after the start of the
selected audio, the periods before and after share the
setting of the cut preview.
Play Before and After Selection End Ctrl + Shift +
F7Plays a short period before and after the end of the
selected audio, the periods before and after share the
setting of the cut preview.
Play Cut Preview CPlays audio excluding the selection
Ext-Bar: Tools
Extra commands to select the tool, e.g. time-shift, en-
velopes, multi-tool.
Action Shortcut Description
Selection Tool F1Chooses Selection tool.
Envelope Tool F2Chooses Envelope tool.
Draw Tool F3Chooses Draw tool.
Zoom Tool F4Chooses Zoom tool.
236
Time Shift Tool F5Chooses Time Shift tool.
Multi Tool F6Chooses the Mulit-Tool
Next Tool DCycles forwards through the tools, starting
from the currently selected tool: starting from Selection,
it would navigate to Envelope to Draw to Zoom to Time
Shift to Multi-tool to Selection.
Previous Tool ACycles backwards through the tools,
starting from the currently selected tool: starting from
Selection, it would navigate to Multi-tool to Time Shift to
Zoom to Draw to Envelope to Selection.
Ext-Bar: Mixer
Extra commands related to volume
Action Shortcut Description
Adjust playback volume (unassigned)Displays the Play-
back Volume dialog. You can type a new value for the
playback volume (between 0 and 1), or press Tab, then
use the left and right arrow keys to adjust the slider.
Increase playback volume (unassigned)Each key press
will increase the playback volume by 0.1.
Decrease playback volume (unassigned)Each key press
will decrease the playback volume by 0.1.
Adjust recording volume (unassigned)Displays the
Recording Volume dialog. You can type a new value for
the recording volume (between 0 and 1), or press Tab,
then use the left and right arrow keys to adjust the slider.
Increase recording volume (unassigned)Each key press
will increase the recording volume by 0.1.
Decrease recording volume (unassigned)Each key press
will decrease the recording volume by 0.1.
Ext-Bar: Edit
Extra commands related to editing
Action Shortcut Description
DeleteKey BackspaceDeletes the selection. When focus
is in Selection Toolbar , BACKSPACE is not a shortcut but
navigates back to the previous digit and sets it to zero.
DeleteKey2 DeleteDeletes the selection.
Ext-Bar: Transcription
Extra commands related to play at speed
Action Shortcut Description
Play-at-Speed (unassigned)Play audio at a faster or
slower speed
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
Loop Play-at-Speed (unassigned)Combines looped play
and play at speed
Play Cut Preview-at-Speed (unassigned)Combines cut
preview and play at speed
Adjust playback speed (unassigned)Displays the Play-
back Speed dialog. You can type a new value for the
playback volume (between 0 and 1), or press Tab, then
use the left and right arrow keys to adjust the slider.
Increase playback speed (unassigned)Each key press
will increase the playback speed by 0.1.
Decrease playback speed (unassigned)Each key press
will decrease the playback speed by 0.1.
Move to Next Label Alt + RightMoves selection to the next
label
Move to Previous Label Alt + LeftMoves selection to the
previous label
Ext-Bar: Scrub
Extra commands related to scrubbing
Action Shortcut Description
Short seek left during playback LeftSkips the playback
cursor back one second by default.
Short seek right during playback RightSkips the playback
cursor forward one second by default.
Long seek left during playback Shift + LeftSkips the play-
back cursor back 15 seconds by default.
Long Seek right during playback Shift + RightSkips the
playback cursor forward 15 seconds by default.
Ext-Bar: Device
Extra commands related to selecting a device
Action Shortcut Description
Change recording device Shift + IDisplays the Select
recording Device dialog for choosing the recording de-
vice, but only if the "Recording Device" dropdown menu
in Device Toolbar has entries for devices. Otherwise, an
recording error message will be displayed.
Change playback device Shift + ODisplays the Select
Playback Device dialog for choosing the playback device,
but only if the "Playback Device" dropdown menu in De-
vice Toolbar has entries for devices. Otherwise, an error
message will be displayed.
Change audio host Shift + HDisplays the Select Au-
dio Host dialog for choosing the particular interface with
which Audacity communicates with your chosen playback
and recording devices.
6.14. COMMANDS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUT REFERENCE
Change recording channels Shift + NDisplays the Select
Recording Channels dialog for choosing the number of
channels to be recorded by the chosen recording device.
Ext-Bar: Selection
Extra commands related to selecting.
Action Shortcut Description
Snap To Off (unassigned)Equivalent to setting the Snap
To control in Selection Toolbar to "Off".
Snap To Nearest (unassigned)Equivalent to setting the
Snap To control in Selection Toolbar to "Nearest".
Snap To Prior (unassigned)Equivalent to setting the Snap
To control in Selection Toolbar to "Prior".
Selection to Start Shift + HomeSelect from cursor to start
of track
Selection to End Shift + EndSelect from cursor to end of
track
Selection Extend Left Shift + LeftIncreases the size of
the selection by extending it to the left. The amount of
increase is dependent on the zoom level. If there is no
selection one is created starting at the cursor position.
Selection Extend Right Shift + RightIncreases the size of
the selection by extending it to the right. The amount of
increase is dependent on the zoom level. If there is no
selection one is created starting at the cursor position.
Set (or Extend) Left Selection (unassigned)If playing or
recording, sets the left selection edge to the current cur-
sor position. If stopped, increases the size of the selec-
tion by extending it to the left.
Set (or Extend) Right Selection (unassigned)If playing or
recording, sets the right selection edge to the current cur-
sor position. If stopped, increases the size of the selec-
tion by extending it to the right.
Selection Contract Left Ctrl + Shift + RightDecreases the
size of the selection by contracting it from the right. The
amount of decrease is dependent on the zoom level. If
there is no selection no action is taken.
Selection Contract Right Ctrl + Shift + LeftDecreases the
size of the selection by contracting it from the left. The
amount of decrease is dependent on the zoom level. If
there is no selection no action is taken.
6.14.12 Ext-Command Menu
Ext-Command
Action Shortcut Description
Full screen (on/off) F11Toggle full screen mode with no
title bar
237
Ext-Command: Focus
Extra commands to set focus, usually focus on one track
Action Shortcut Description
Move backward from toolbars to tracks Ctrl + Shift +
F6Move backward through currently focused toolbar in
Upper Toolbar dock area , Track View and currently fo-
cused toolbar in Lower Toolbar dock area . Each use
moves the keyboard focus as indicated.
Move forward from toolbars to tracks Ctrl + F6Move for-
ward through currently focused toolbar in Upper Toolbar
dock area , Track View and currently focused toolbar in
Lower Toolbar dock area . Each use moves the keyboard
focus as indicated.
Move Focus to Previous Track UpFocus one track up
Move Focus to Next Track DownFocus one track down
Move Focus to First Track Ctrl + HomeFocus on first track
Move Focus to Last Track Ctrl + EndFocus on last track
Move Focus to Previous and Select Shift + UpFocus one
track up and select it
Move Focus to Next and Select Shift + DownFocus one
track down and select it
Toggle Focused Track ReturnToggle focus on current
track
Toggle Focused Track NUMPAD_ENTERToggle focus on
current track
Ext-Command: Cursor
Extra commands to move the cursorThe long and short
jump times are set by the long and short Seek Time when
playing values in Playback Preferences .
Action Shortcut Description
Cursor Left LeftWhen not playing audio, moves the edit-
ing cursor one screen pixel to left. When a Snap To op-
tion is chosen, moves the cursor to the preceding unit of
time as determined by the current selection format . If
the key is held down, the cursor speed depends on the
length of the tracks. When playing audio, moves the play-
back cursor as described at "Cursor Short Jump Left"
Cursor Right RightWhen not playing audio, moves the
editing cursor one screen pixel to right. When a Snap To
option is chosen, moves the cursor to the following unit
of time as determined by the current selection format . If
the key is held down, the cursor speed depends on the
length of the tracks. When playing audio, moves the play-
back cursor as described at "Cursor Short Jump Right"
Cursor Short Jump Left ,When not playing audio, moves
the editing cursor one second left by default. When play-
ing audio, moves the playback cursor one second left by
238
default. The default value can be changed by adjusting
the "Short Period" under "Seek Time when playing" in
Playback Preferences .
Cursor Short Jump Right .When not playing audio, moves
the editing cursor one second right by default. When
playing audio, moves the playback cursor one second
right by default. The default value can be changed by ad-
justing the "Short Period" under "Seek Time when play-
ing" in Playback Preferences .
Cursor Long Jump Left Shift + ,When not playing au-
dio, moves the editing cursor 15 seconds left by default.
When playing audio, moves the playback cursor 15 sec-
onds left by default. The default value can be changed
by adjusting the "Long Period" under "Seek Time when
playing" in Playback Preferences .
Cursor Long Jump Right Shift + .When not playing au-
dio, moves the editing cursor 15 seconds right by default.
When playing audio, moves the playback cursor 15 sec-
onds right by default. The default value can be changed
by adjusting the "Long Period" under "Seek Time when
playing" in Playback Preferences .
Clip Left (unassigned)Moves the currently focused audio
track (or a separate clip in that track which contains the
editing cursor or selection region ) one screen pixel to
left.
Clip Right (unassigned)Moves the currently focused au-
dio track (or a separate clip in that track which contains
the editing cursor or selection region ) one screen pixel
to right.
Ext-Command: Track
Extra commands to operate on a track that has focus
Action Shortcut Description
Change pan on focused track Shift + PBrings up the Pan
dialog for the focused track where you can enter a pan
value, or use the slider for finer control of panning than is
available when using the track pan slider.
Pan left on focused track Alt + Shift + LeftControls the
pan slider on the focused track. Each keypress changes
6.15 Libraries Preferences
Both the optional MP3 Export Library and the optional
FFmpeg Import/Export Library allow Audacity to im-
port and/or export many additional audio formats such
as AC3, AMR(NB), M4A and WMA, and to import au-
dio from video files.Accessed by:Edit > Preferences >
Libraries (on a Mac Audacity > Preferences > Libraries )
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
the pan value by 10% left.
Pan right on focused track Alt + Shift + RightControls the
pan slider on the focused track. Each keypress changes
the pan value by 10% right.
Change gain on focused track Shift + GBrings up the
Gain dialog for the focused track where you can enter a
gain value, or use the slider for finer control of gain than
is available when using the track pan slider.
Increase gain on focused track Alt + Shift + UpControls
the gain slider on the focused track. Each keypress in-
creases the gain value by 1 dB.
Decrease gain on focused track Alt + Shift + DownCon-
trols the gain slider on the focused track. Each keypress
decreases the gain value by 1 dB.
Open menu on focused track Shift + MOpens the Au-
dio Track Dropdown Menu on the focused audio track or
other track type . In the audio track dropdown, use Up,
and Down, arrow keys to navigate the menu and Enter,
to select a menu item. Use Right, arrow to open the "Set
Sample Format" and "Set Rate" choices or Left, arrow to
leave those choices.
Mute/Unmute focused track Shift + UToggles the Mute
button on the focused track.
Solo/Unsolo focused track Shift + SToggles the Solo but-
ton on the focused track.
Close focused track Shift + CClose (remove) the focused
trackonly.
Move focused track up (unassigned)Moves the focused
track up by one track and moves the focus there.
Move focused track down (unassigned)Moves the fo-
cused track down by one track and moves the focus
there.
Move focused track to top (unassigned)Moves the fo-
cused track up to the top of the track table and moves
the focus there.
Move focused track to bottom (unassigned)Moves the fo-
cused track down to the bottom of the track table and
moves the focus there.
6.16. MIDI DEVICES PREFERENCES
Libraries Preferences.Click on any other Preferences
sections in the above image to read about those Pref-
erences.
6.15.1 MP3 Export Library
• MP3 Export Library Version: This shows the cur-
rent version of the LAME MP3 encoding library
being used by Audacity for MP3 export. If a suit-
able version of LAME is not accessible to Audac-
ity, the message will instead state that the library is
6.16 MIDI Devices Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > MIDI Devices (on a
Mac Audacity > Preferences > MIDI Devices )
MIDI Devices Preferences.Click on any other Prefer-
ences sections in the above image to read about those
239
"not found". In that case, use the provided buttons
to either locate LAME on your computer or down-
load a free copy of it, following the instructions on
the FAQ:Installation, Startup and Plugins page.
• Locate If you already have the LAME library on disk
and Audacity cannot find it, use this button to tell
Audacity where it is.
• Download Use this to fetch a copy of the LAME li-
brary.
6.15.2 FFmpeg Import/Export Library
• FFmpeg Library Version: This shows the current
version of the FFmpeg library being used by Au-
dacity for custom export. If a suitable version of
FFmpeg is not accessible to Audacity, the message
will instead state that the library is "not found". In
that case, use the provided buttons to either locate
the FFmpeg library on your computer or download
a free copy of it, following the instructions on this
page .
• Locate If you already have the FFmpeg library on
disk and Audacity cannot find it, use this button to
tell Audacity where it is.
• Download Use this to fetch a copy of the FFmpeg
library.
Preferences.
6.16.1 Interface
The interface that Audacity should use through PortMidi.
The available options depend on the OS, but there is only
one option for each OS:
• On Windows, it is MMSystem.
• On Mac, it is CoreMIDI.
• On Linux, it is ALSA.
6.16.2 Playback
• Device: The MIDI device to play to.
• MIDI Synthesizer Latency (ms): The latency field
enables compensation for a MIDI device that has
latency between receiving events and actually play-
ing them - it provides a way to synchronize audio.
240
6.17 Modules Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Modules (on a Mac
Audacity > Preferences > Modules )
Modules Preferences.Click on any other Preferences
sections in the above image to read about those Pref-
erences.
6.17.1 Modules
No modules are yet shipped with Audacity. Nyquist
Workbench provides the ability to create and run arbi-
trary Nyquist code in Audacity from a graphical editor.
The Workbench can be compiled from our source code.
Nyquist Workbench is recommended (though not essen-
tial) for anyone interested in writing Nyquist plug-ins for
Audacity - good functionality to test Nyquist plug-ins is
also available in Nyquist Prompt .
Current Workbench features include:
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
•
• Full support for Generate, Process and Analyze ef-
fects
• Auto load last file
• Built-in output/debug screen
• Parentheses matching.
Mod-script pipe can only be compiled from our source
code. This is a GUI plug-in that allows Audacity to be
driven from an external Perl script, or using any other
scripting language that supports named pipes. Please
be aware of the security implications of allowing other
applications or processes to control Audacity. For more
information, see Scripting . Mod-track-panel: This is the
start of an experiment that will ultimately provide a more
flexible panel for the audio, label, MIDI and note tracks.
It is currently only of value to developers and must be
compiled from the latest Audacity source code.
6.17.2 Loading modules into Audacity
To use an experimental module such as Nyquist
Workbench:
1. Add a "modules" folder to the Audacity installation
folder
2. Add the file such as mod-nyq-bench.dll (Windows)
or mod-nyq-bench.so (Mac) to the Modules folder,
restart Audacity and open Modules Preferences
3. You should see that file is marked as "New":
4. Click the dropdown menu for the item, change it to
"Enabled", press OK then restart Audacity.
When you restart Audacity, you should now see an addi-
tional "Nyquist Workbench" entry at the bottom of View
Menu (or whatever feature the module enables).
If you compile a module yourself on some other day
than when you compiled Audacity, you will see a "Module
Unsuitable" error after enabling the module and restart-
ing Audacity. The only exception to this is if you build a
final Audacity release.If you see the "Module Unsuitable"
error you will need to rebuild Audacity and the module,
launch Audacity, change the entry for the module from
"Failed" to "Enabled", then restart Audacity.
6.18. MOUSE PREFERENCES
6.18 Mouse Preferences
Mac users:
• Use CloverLeaf in place of Ctrl in the bindings listed
on this page.
• CloverLeaf-Wheel-Rotate (the equivalent Audacity
binding on Mac for Zoom waveform in or out ) will
only work if you disable "Zoom using scroll ball
while holding Command" (or similar) in the System
"Mouse", "Universal Access" or "Accessibility" pref-
erencess.
• Alternatively, hold both CloverLeaf and Ctrl while
zoom scrolling.
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Mouse (on a Mac Au-
dacity > Preferences > Mouse )
Mouse Preferences.Click on any other Preferences sec-
tions in the above image to read about those Prefer-
ences.Currently, mouse bindings are not configurable.
The following mouse-with-keyboard shortcuts are avail-
able.
• Holding Shift then clicking on the Play button on
Transport Toolbar Loop Plays the track or selec-
tion over and over until you stop. When there is a
selection region, holding Ctrl (CloverLeaf on Mac)
then clicking the Play button will play by default two
seconds before the region and one second after it
in order to preview what deleting the region would
sound like. The durations played before and after
the region can be changed in the Cut Preview sec-
tion of Playback Preferences .
• Similarly, holding Shift then clicking on the Play-at-
Speed button on Transcription Toolbar Loop Plays
at your chosen adjusted speed and holding Ctrl
(CloverLeaf on Mac) then clicking the Play-at-
Speed button cut previews at adjusted speed.
• Holding Shift then clicking on the Record button
241
on Transport Toolbar records on a new track rather
than recording on the same track.
• Holding Shift then dragging in the Timeline and re-
leasing the drag will Loop Play that Quick-Play re-
gion .
• Holding Ctrl (CloverLeaf on a Mac) then dragging in
the Timeline and releasing the drag will play by de-
fault two seconds before the Quick-Play region and
one second after it. This provides a preview of what
cutting that region would sound like. The durations
played before and after the region can be changed
in the Cut Preview section of Playback Preferences
. Holding Ctrl and Shift (CloverLeaf and Shift on
Mac) then dragging in the Timeline loop plays the
Cut Preview.
• Holding Ctrl (CloverLeaf on a Mac) when the Multi-
Tool is being used temporarily converts the tool to
the Timeshift-Tool, so can be used to drag clips
from one place to another.
• Holding Ctrl or Shift while clicking in a different part
of a track’s waveform creates a selection from the
editing cursor to the click point, or expands or con-
tracts an existing selection to the click point.
• Holding Ctrl while clicking in the waveform of a dif-
ferent track creates a selection from the editing cur-
sor to the click point in both tracks. An existing
selection expands or contracts to the click point in
both tracks.
• Holding Shift while clicking in the waveform of a
different track creates a selection from the editing
cursor to the click point in both tracks and in any
tracks between. An existing selection expands or
contracts to the click point in both tracks and in any
tracks between.
• To preserve the current selection while removing it
from or adding it to other tracks, Ctrl-click or Shift-
click on the Track Control Panel of those tracks.
See Audacity Selection for details.
• Holding Shift then dragging when in in Time Shift
Tool shifts all clips in a track to left or right.
• Holding Ctrl(CloverLeaf on Mac} then dragging
when in Time Shift Tool lets you drag clips verti-
cally into another track without accidentally drag-
ging them left or right.
Most of the bindings are for click and drag gestures when
using one of the Audacity tools . "Left", "Right" and
"Middle" in the list refer to the mouse button to be clicked.
If your mouse has a standard scroll wheel or ball you can
also use the "Any" gestures listed above for vertical or
horizontal scrolling of tracks on the Audacity screen, or
for horizontal zooming in or out on the mouse pointer.
242
Horizontal scrolling and zooming using the mouse wheel
or ball requires the Shift or Ctrl key respectively to be
held down. On Mac Trackpads you can use two fingers to
scroll horizontally, or pinch/expand to zoom the waveform
in or out at the pointer position, without using a modifier
6.19 Recording Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > RecordingQ.E.D (on
a Mac Audacity > Preferences > RecordingQ.E.D )
Recording Preferences.Click on any other Preferences
sections in the above image to read about those Prefer-
ences.
6.19.1 Playthrough
• Other tracks while recording (overdub): Makes ex-
isting tracks in the project play when you click
the Record button in Transport Toolbar . You
can decide which tracks will play according to
their mute/solo buttons . When Overdub is en-
abled, recording will stop when the recording cur-
sor reaches the end of a selection region . Turn
overdub off if you want to record past the end of the
selection.
• Software Playthrough of input: Allows you to hear
the input by sending it to any chosen playback de-
vice . This permits the recording and playback de-
vice to be different. Expect some latency in the
sound that you hear, due to the time taken for the
computer to process the audio. This option may
cause recording dropouts on older, slower comput-
ers.
Software Playthrough must not be used for record-
CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES
key. Horizontal scrolling and pinch/expand should also
work on most touchpads on Windows machines, but you
may need to apply this horizontal scrolling modification
or to install special drivers for your touchpad.
ing computer playback because it will create feedback
echoes.
Useful Tips:
• If you enable monitoring with software playthrough,
you can listen to the input without recording it.
• For some examples of setting up equipment to
record without playthrough latency, see this Tutorial
about Recording overdubs .
• When recording from a microphone, listen in head-
phones so that the microphone hears only what you
are actually recording.
6.19.2 Sound Activated Recording
• Sound Activated Recording: Enables or disables
Sound Activated Recording. When enabled, click
the Record button in Transport Toolbar to start the
Sound Activated Recording session. Recording will
now occur whenever the received input is above
the Sound Activation Level you specify (see the
item below). Recording will pause whenever the
received input falls below that level. Press the Stop
button to stop the recording session.
You cannot pause Sound Activated recordings
manually using the Pause button or corresponding menu
item or shortcut.
• Sound Activation Level (dB): Sets the threshold
level in dB which triggers Sound Activated
Recording. The range of the scale is determined
by the Meter / Waveform dB range currently set in
Interface Preferences . Although dB are logarith-
mic units, the actual scale values are displayed
linearly (equally spaced for each value). The cur-
rently set dB value is displayed dynamically above
the center of the scale.
For easier access, Overdub, Software Playthrough and
Sound Activated Recording can be toggled on and off
by using their respective entries in Transport Menu , or
6.20. TRACKS BEHAVIORS PREFERENCES
use Keyboard Preferences to allocate a keyboard short-
cut to them.
6.19.3 Name newly recorded tracks
• Custom Track Name: Use this to replace Audacity’s
default name of Audio Track with one of your own
choosing.
• Track Number: Appends a track number to each
new track name.
• System Date: Appends the date to each new track
name, in year-month-day format.
• System Time: Appends the start time of the record-
6.20 Tracks Behaviors Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Tracks Behaviors (on
a Mac Audacity > Preferences > Tracks Behaviors )
Tracks Behaviors Preferences.Click on any other Pref-
erences sections in the above image to read about those
Preferences.
6.20.1 Behaviors
• Auto-select, if selection required: If you select no
audio before applying an effect, the effect will be
automatically applied to all audio in all tracks. This
also applies to other menu items requiring an audio
selection to be made. If you have a Time selec-
tion, made by using the Selection Toolbar , but with
no audio tracks selected, then the Auto-select will
operate on just that time range in all audio tracks.
243
ing to each new track name, in hours-minutes-
seconds format, 24-hour clock.
6.19.4 Options
• Always record on a new track: Setting this to be
"on" will cause Audacity to always record on a
new track when you press the Record button on
Transport Toolbar (or use the shortcut R).If you hold
the Shift button down, the Record button in Trans-
port Toolbar will temporarily change to . Then
clicking on this modified Record button (or using the
shortcut Shift + R) will cause Audacity to record at
the end of the currently selected, or only, track.
• Enable cut lines: Displays a light blue vertical line
at the left edge of a cut edit, which changes to red
after clicking elsewhere in the track. Click on the
line at any time to restore the cut audio; if you re-
store in error, use Edit > Undo Expand to get the
cut line back. To remove the line without restoring
audio, right-click over it. Edit > Undo Remove will
restore the line if you make a mistake.
• Enable dragging selection edges: Lets you ex-
pand or contract existing selection regions with the
mouse after they have been created. If unchecked
you must use the Selection Bar or keyboard to mod-
ify existing selection regions. See Audacity Selec-
tion for further details.
• Editing a clip can move other clips: If the track has
been split into more than one clip , any clips fol-
lowing to right of the edit point can always move as
necessary in response to pasting , cutting , delet-
ing or other change that adds or removes con-
tent.Unchecking "Editing a clip can move..." pins
clips so that they cannot move in response to an
edit in another clip. When removing content, any
following clips will not be allowed to move back.
When pasting, an error message will display if there
is not enough room to paste without moving the fol-
lowing clips.
• "Move track focus" cycles repeatedly through
tracks: When using the up and down arrow keys
to change which track is focused, moving the focus
off one end (top or bottom) makes the focus jump
to the other end.
• Type to create a label: When enabled (default), if
there is already a label track that has the yellow fo-
cus border, you do not need to use "Add Label at
244 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES

Selection" or its Ctrl + B shortcut to create a new
label. Just type your required label text to create
a new label at the position of the editing cursor or
selection region. If the label track does not have
If you select "Enable scrolling left of zero" then the nega-
focus, use the Up or Down arrow keys on your key-
tive numbers on the Timeline will be rendered in blue to
board to move focus into the label track. When this
act as a visual cue that this has been turned on.
preference is disabled, typing never creates a label
in the focused label track. This lets you use short-
cuts (for example, transport shortcuts to play audio
related to the editing cursor or selection) without
accidentally creating an unwanted label. When you
want to create a new label, use "Add Label at Se-
lection" or Ctrl + B or "Add Label at Playback Posi-
tion" Ctrl + M.
Even if "Type to Create a Label" is enabled, you cannot
type to create a new label, if:
• audio is playing, recording or paused, and the cur-
sor or selection is at the same position in waveform
and label track
• there is already a label at the exact same position
in the label track.
You can still use Ctrl + B to add a new label even if it’s at
the same position, or Ctrl + M to add a label at the play-
back, recording or paused position. You can also create a
label at the same position by moving focus to and typing
in another label track, as long as there is no label yet at
that position, and if audio is playing, as long as the cursor
or selection in the waveform is at a different position.
• Enable scrolling left of zero: Enables you to scroll
to the left of time zero on the Timeline . The de-
fault setting is "off". This can be make Scrubbing
from the start or end of the track easier when using
pinned playhead .
• Solo Button: The Solo button on the Track Control
Panels can behave in three different ways:
– In "Simple" mode (default), "Solo" means as
it does in common parlance - a track made
solo is the only one that can be heard. If a
track is solo, the mute buttons are set down
on all the other tracks, so that solo is just a
shortcut way of muting all tracks except one.
If on any occasion you want the Solo button to
select multiple tracks for listening, hold down
Shift when clicking Solo.
– "Multi-track" will suit those used to mixing
desks and other professional audio software.
Any number of tracks can be made solo so
that they mix together, but if any solo button
is down, the mute buttons have no effect. If
on any occasion you want the Solo button to
play only one track at a time (so that clicking
it releases any other solo buttons), hold down
Shift when clicking Solo.
– "None" mode has no solo buttons, so you se-
lect the tracks you want to play by unmuting
them (clicking the mute buttons so that they
are up).

6.21 Warnings Preferences

Warnings preferences let you disable or re-enable var-

ious advisory prompts or warnings. Accessed by:Edit
> Preferences > Warnings (on a Mac Audacity > Prefer-
ences > Warnings )

Warnings Preferences.Click on any other Preferences

sections in the above image to read about those Prefer-
6.21. WARNINGS PREFERENCES 245

ences.

6.21.1 Show Warnings/Prompts for

• Saving projects: Every time you save a standard

Audacity project or a compressed copy of a project
, Audacity will warn that this command is only for
an Audacity project and that you must use an ex-
port command to produce an audio file that you
can open in other applications. Once you under-
stand this, you can turn off both these warnings
from within either warning dialog.

• Low disk space at application start up: Audacity will

warn on start up or when using File > New to create
a new project if you have 100 MB or less space in
the temporary folder for recording or editing.

• When mixing down to stereo during export: Audac-

ity will warn when a stereo audio file will be created
as the result of an export operation that involves
mixing two tracks or more. If you normally want to
export to stereo audio files you can turn this warn-
ing off.

• Saving empty project: Audacity will warn when you

try to save (left-hand image) or close (right-hand
image) a project that previously contained tracks
but is now empty. This warning can only be turned
off in Preferences (not by a checkbox in the warn-
ing) because of the risk of accidental data loss if
the warning is disabled.
• When mixing down to mono during export: Audac-
ity will warn when a mono audio file will be created
as the result of an export operation that involves
mixing two tracks or more.
246 CHAPTER 6. PREFERENCES

2. Give you the opportunity to change that current im-

port option

3. Let you turn off this warning (this still respects the
button selected above for copy in or read directly,
even if you have changed it)

• When mixing with Custom FFmpeg export: Audac-

ity will warn that your export will be to a single file
accrding to your encoder settings.

• Importing uncompressed audio files: When you im-

port an uncompressed audio file Audacity will:
1. Tell you which import option is currently set in Im-
port / Export Preferences - copy in or read directly
Chapter 7
File Menu
7.1 File Menu
The File Menu provides commands for creating, opening
and saving Audacity projects , importing and exporting
audio files and performing batch operations using Chains
. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that command. Skip the image
7.1.1 New Ctrl + N
Creates a new and empty project window to start working
on new or imported Tracks. This new work environment
can then be saved as an Audacity Project File (.AUP) for
easy and full retrieval of its contents via the Save Project
or Save Project As... File menu functions.
7.1.2 Open... Ctrl + O
Launches a file selection window where you can:
• Open one or more Audacity Project files (.aup) or
• Import one or more audio files or lists of files
(.LOF) .
247
If an empty project window exists, that window will be
used for the first project or imported file. Any subsequent
opened projects or audio files will create new project win-
dows. If instead you want to add the content of an audio
file into a project that already contains one or more audio
tracks (for example, to mix two audio files together), use
File > Import > Audio... instead. Import means bringing
new content into an Audacity project by any means, such
as File > Open, File > Import or dragging files into the
project window. The content would typically be an audio
file like WAV or MP3 , but (using File > Import) could
also be a label track , a MIDI file or Raw Data . For
audio files, the importer used depends on the currently
selected file type in File > Open or File > Import > Au-
dio... and on settings in Extended Import Preferences .
See Importing Audio for more information.
7.1.3 Recent Files ("Open Recent" on Mac)
Lists the full path to the twelve most recently saved or
opened projects or most recently imported audio files.
The oldest item at the bottom is removed when a new
item is added to the top. When you delete an Audacity
project or audio file it will remain in the list, but will be
removed from the list if you select it.
• To clear the entire list, choose "Clear" underneath
the last item in the list.
• To manually remove an individual item from the list,
exit Audacity, open audacity.cfg in a text editor and
delete the unwanted item below the [Recent Files]
line. Take care not to delete the [Recent Files] line
itself.
248
7.1.4 Close Ctrl + W
Closes the current project window, prompting you to save
your work if you have not already saved.
7.1.5 Save Project Ctrl + S
Saves the current Audacity Project in uncompressed ,
lossless quality using the AU container format. An
AUP project file is created, along with a folder with the
same name as the AUP file that contains the project’s
audio data. For example, if you save a project as chan-
son.aup, a folder called chanson_data will contain the
audio data. Audacity projects are not intended to
be read by other applications, but to provide fast load-
ing and saving of audio within Audacity, with all project
data such as label tracks and envelope points retained
. When you are finished working on a project and you
want to use the results in another application, select one
of the Export commands. If you import uncompressed
files such as WAV and AIFF into your project with Import
/ Export Preferences set to "Read uncompressed audio
files directly from the original (faster)", you will create a
dependency on those files remaining accessible. In this
case, a Dependencies Dialog may appear when saving
the project. Follow the instructions in the dialog to either
"Copy All Audio..." (so removing all dependencies), or to
copy in selected files or none at all. If you choose to not
copy in any files, you must not move, rename or delete
those files, or the folder they are in. The dialog also
lets you choose future behavior when saving a project
that depends on imported files.
7.1.6 Save Project As...
Same as "Save Project" above, but allows you to save a
copy of an open project to a different name or location.
This can be useful if you want to preserve a snapshot of
the state of a project at a particular time, then proceed to
make further changes to the project you just saved.
7.1.7 Save Other
The Save Other submenu enables you to Export audio
from Audacity into audio file formats that can be read and
played by other applications. Additionally you can export
label files or MIDI or save a compressed copy of your
project in a set of Ogg Vorbis formatted files.
CHAPTER 7. FILE MENU
7.1.8 Import
The Import submenu enables you to import audio files or
label files into your project. Files in various audio formats
can be imported into Audacity. For details of the available
imports see this page .
7.1.9 Chains
A Chain is a sequence of automated commands similar
to a "macro". It is often used to batch process a group
of audio files, or to automate the application of a set of
effects to a project, with the same sequence of effects or
functions. The Chains submenu has two commands for
working with chains, one to create and Edit chains and
the other to Apply the chain .
7.1.10 Page Setup...
Opens the standard Page Setup dialog box prior to print-
ing.
7.1.11 Print...
Prints all the waveforms in the current project window
(and the contents of Label Tracks or other tracks), with
the Timeline above. Everything is printed to one page.
To include the Track Control Panel , or to print other parts
of the interface, you could use Screenshot Tools to cap-
ture a screen print to a file, then use the print function of
your favorite image editor.
7.1.12 Exit Ctrl + Q
Closes all project windows and exits Audacity. If there
are any unsaved changes to your project, Audacity will
ask if you want to save them. Note that it is not neces-
sary for you to save changes if you’ve already exported
your mix as a WAV or MP3 and you are now happy with
it. But if you are working on a mix and plan to continue
later where you left off, saving an Audacity Project will let
you restore everything, exactly as you left it. On a Mac,
the Exit command is not in the File Menu. Instead, use
"Quit" under the Audacity menu.
7.2. CHAINS - FOR BATCH PROCESSING AND EFFECTS AUTOMATION
7.2 Chains - for batch processing and effects automation
A Chain is a sequence of preconfigured commands in a
set order (mainly effects) that can be applied automati-
cally to projects or audio files. Any built-in , LADSPA ,
LV2 , Nyquist , VST or Audio Unit (Mac) effect shown in
the Effect Menu can be added to a Chain. You can also
add plug-ins in any format that are shown in the Gener-
ate or Analyze Menus (including VAMP analysis effects),
the built-in Find Clipping analyzer and a number of ex-
port commands. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
image to read about that command. Skip the image
There are two related Chain commands accessible from
the File Menu called Edit Chains and Apply Chain :
7.2.1 How to use Chains
The two uses of Chains are for:
• Batch processing (where many audio files are
processed unattended with one or more effects
then exported to a new file)
• Effects automation (where the selected audio in
the track or tracks in the current project is subjected
to the same prescribed sequence of effects, and
optionally, a file exported from the entire audio.)
Look first at Edit Chains to determine if an existing Chain
will suit your needs (Audacity only ships with one) or to
create a new chain. Next, use Apply Chain to perform the
action on your selected audio. See the examples below.
7.2.2 Edit Chains
Use File > Chains > Edit Chains... if you need to create
a new Chain or to edit an existing Chain.
• The Chain can include a number of common Au-
dacity functions and effects to be executed in any
order you specify.
249
• To create an audio file as part of the Chain process
you must include an "Export" command (such as
ExportWAV).
• In many cases the parameters for each command
in the Chain can be specified within the Edit Chains
dialog.
The left hand box in the dialog (labeled Chains) con-
tains a list of already defined Chains. Until you add a
new Chain, it only has a single built-in "MP3 Conversion"
Chain. You can:
• Use the Add button to create a new Chain
• Use left-click (or use the Up or Down arrow on the
keyboard) to select the Chain you want to work on
• Delete any user-added Chain with the Remove but-
ton
• Rename any user-added Chain with the Rename
button
The Remove and Rename buttons are grayed out when
the MP3 Conversion Chain is selected.The right-hand
box (labeled Chain) lists the ordered sequence of com-
mands for the Chain selected in the "Chains" box on the
left. You can:
• Add or remove commands for the selected Chain
• Change the order in which the commands execute
in the Chain
• Edit the parameters for some effects in the Chain
For further details on creating, editing and sharing
Chains, see the Edit Chains page.
7.2.3 Apply Chain
Use File > Chains > Apply Chain... to show the existing
chains. Select the chain you require by using left-click (or
using the Up or Down arrow on the keyboard) to select
the Chain you want to work on, then either:
• choose Apply to Current Project to run the Chain
on the entire project in the current window or
• choose Apply to Files... to run the Chain on se-
lected external audio files in a single directory
250
If you already have audio in the current project win-
dow, you must save and close that project using File >
Close before applying a Chain to files. For more details
see the Apply Chain page.
7.2.4 Chain Examples
In this section we look at a couple of examples of how
a Chain might be used. In the image below we have
added two additional Chains. It is important to note that
the only Chain that Audacity ships with is MP3 Conver-
sion (shown as selected in blue). All other Chains must
be added by the user.
Example 1: Loud MP3
A batch processing Chain to compress and normalize
WAV files then convert them to MP3:
1. Insert Compressor to reduce the dynamic range
of each WAV, also normalizing them to maximum
amplitude of 0 dB
2. Insert ExportMP3 to convert them to MP3 format
3. Click OK to close the "Edit Chains" window
4. Finally, choose File > Chains > Apply Chain... ,
select the "Loud MP3" Chain then click Apply to
Files... where you can select the files on which to
run the Chain.
CHAPTER 7. FILE MENU
Example 2: NR&EQ
An effects automation Chain for the current project that
applies noise reduction and equalization:
1. Insert Normalize with settings of:
(a) Remove any DC offset
(b) -10 dB (to allow for boosting frequencies
later in the Chain without clipping )
2. Insert Noise Reduction
3. Insert Equalization (to perform the frequency ad-
justment)
4. Insert another Normalize at different settings (with-
out offset removal, setting a final amplitude of -1
dB)
5. Click OK to close the "Edit Chains" window
6. Finally, choose File > Chains > Apply Chain... , se-
lect the "NR&EQ" Chain then click Apply to Current
Project to apply the Chain to the selected track(s)
in the current project window.
• If a Noise Profile exists, that Noise Profile will be
used. It is often best to capture a suitable Noise
Profile before running a Chain.
• If a Noise Profile does not exist:
– If the Chain is applied to the current project (as
above), the current selection is used to create
the Noise Profile. Therefore, other effect com-
mands in the Chain will also only apply to that
selection. If an export command is added, the
entire file will be exported.
– If the Chain is applied to files, the first file (all
of it) is used to create the Noise Profile. It may
be useful to prepare a file containing a suitable
Noise Profile and name it so that it is alpha-
betically the first file of those to be run in the
Chain.
< Back to: File Menu
7.3. FILE MENU: IMPORT
7.3 File Menu: Import
Enables you to import audio files or label files into your
project. Files in various audio formats can be imported
into Audacity. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
image to read about that command. Skip the image
7.3.1 Audio... Ctrl +Shift + I
Launches a file selection window where you can choose
to import one or more audio files into the current Audac-
ity project. The file(s) will always be added as a new
track to the project. This lets you mix two or more files
together.See Importing Audio for more information.
7.3.2 Labels...
Launches a file selection window where you can choose
to import a single text file into the project containing point
or region labels . For more information about the syntax
for labels files, see Importing and Exporting Labels .
7.3.3 MIDI...
Imports a MIDI (MIDI or MID extension ) or Allegro
(GRO) file to a Note Track where the Note track can be
played. This should just work on Windows but for play-
back on Mac and Linux additional software may be re-
quired, see this section on the Playing and Recording
page. Simple cut-and-paste edits can also be performed.
The result can be exported with the File > Save Other> >
Export MIDI command.
251
7.3.4 Raw Data...
Attempts to import an uncompressed audio file that might
be "raw" data without any headers to define its format,
might have incorrect headers or be otherwise partially
corrupted, or might be in a format that Audacity is un-
able to recognize. Raw data in textual format cannot be
imported. First, select the file in question in the "Select
any uncompressed audio file" dialog. Then select appro-
priate parameters to assist Audacity in the formatting of
the data. The fields in the dialog require you select:
• Encoding ( PCM , ADPCM, float...)
• Byte order (this is almost always Little-endian if the
file was created on Windows)
• Number of channels (expected to be found in the
file and created as a result)
• Start offset in bytes
• Percentage amount of the file to import
• Sample rate to be applied to the import (currently,
only rates between 100 Hz and 100000 Hz are sup-
ported)
< Back to: File Menu
252
7.4 File Menu
The File Menu provides commands for creating, opening
and saving Audacity projects , importing and exporting
audio files and performing batch operations using Chains
. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that command. Skip the image
7.4.1 New Ctrl + N
Creates a new and empty project window to start working
on new or imported Tracks. This new work environment
can then be saved as an Audacity Project File (.AUP) for
easy and full retrieval of its contents via the Save Project
or Save Project As... File menu functions.
7.4.2 Open... Ctrl + O
Launches a file selection window where you can:
• Open one or more Audacity Project files (.aup) or
• Import one or more audio files or lists of files
(.LOF) .
If an empty project window exists, that window will be
used for the first project or imported file. Any subsequent
opened projects or audio files will create new project win-
dows. If instead you want to add the content of an audio
file into a project that already contains one or more audio
tracks (for example, to mix two audio files together), use
File > Import > Audio... instead. Import means bringing
new content into an Audacity project by any means, such
as File > Open, File > Import or dragging files into the
project window. The content would typically be an audio
file like WAV or MP3 , but (using File > Import) could
also be a label track , a MIDI file or Raw Data . For
audio files, the importer used depends on the currently
selected file type in File > Open or File > Import > Au-
dio... and on settings in Extended Import Preferences .
See Importing Audio for more information.
CHAPTER 7. FILE MENU
7.4.3 Recent Files ("Open Recent" on Mac)
Lists the full path to the twelve most recently saved or
opened projects or most recently imported audio files.
The oldest item at the bottom is removed when a new
item is added to the top. When you delete an Audacity
project or audio file it will remain in the list, but will be
removed from the list if you select it.
• To clear the entire list, choose "Clear" underneath
the last item in the list.
• To manually remove an individual item from the list,
exit Audacity, open audacity.cfg in a text editor and
delete the unwanted item below the [Recent Files]
line. Take care not to delete the [Recent Files] line
itself.
7.4.4 Close Ctrl + W
Closes the current project window, prompting you to save
your work if you have not already saved.
7.4.5 Save Project Ctrl + S
Saves the current Audacity Project in uncompressed ,
lossless quality using the AU container format. An
AUP project file is created, along with a folder with the
same name as the AUP file that contains the project’s
audio data. For example, if you save a project as chan-
son.aup, a folder called chanson_data will contain the
audio data. Audacity projects are not intended to
be read by other applications, but to provide fast load-
ing and saving of audio within Audacity, with all project
data such as label tracks and envelope points retained
. When you are finished working on a project and you
want to use the results in another application, select one
of the Export commands. If you import uncompressed
files such as WAV and AIFF into your project with Import
/ Export Preferences set to "Read uncompressed audio
files directly from the original (faster)", you will create a
dependency on those files remaining accessible. In this
case, a Dependencies Dialog may appear when saving
the project. Follow the instructions in the dialog to either
"Copy All Audio..." (so removing all dependencies), or to
copy in selected files or none at all. If you choose to not
copy in any files, you must not move, rename or delete
those files, or the folder they are in. The dialog also
lets you choose future behavior when saving a project
that depends on imported files.
7.5. FILE MENU: SAVE OTHER
7.4.6 Save Project As...
Same as "Save Project" above, but allows you to save a
copy of an open project to a different name or location.
This can be useful if you want to preserve a snapshot of
the state of a project at a particular time, then proceed to
make further changes to the project you just saved.
7.4.7 Save Other
The Save Other submenu enables you to Export audio
from Audacity into audio file formats that can be read and
played by other applications. Additionally you can export
label files or MIDI or save a compressed copy of your
project in a set of Ogg Vorbis formatted files.
7.4.8 Import
The Import submenu enables you to import audio files or
label files into your project. Files in various audio formats
can be imported into Audacity. For details of the available
imports see this page .
7.4.9 Chains
A Chain is a sequence of automated commands similar
to a "macro". It is often used to batch process a group
of audio files, or to automate the application of a set of
effects to a project, with the same sequence of effects or
functions. The Chains submenu has two commands for
7.5 File Menu: Save Other
This enables you to Export audio from Audacity into au-
dio file formats that can be read and played by other ap-
plications. Additionally you can export label files or MIDI
or save a compressed copy of your project in a set of Ogg
Vorbis formatted files.Click, or hover, on any menu item
in the image to read about that command. Skip the
image
253
working with chains, one to create and Edit chains and
the other to Apply the chain .
7.4.10 Page Setup...
Opens the standard Page Setup dialog box prior to print-
ing.
7.4.11 Print...
Prints all the waveforms in the current project window
(and the contents of Label Tracks or other tracks), with
the Timeline above. Everything is printed to one page.
To include the Track Control Panel , or to print other parts
of the interface, you could use Screenshot Tools to cap-
ture a screen print to a file, then use the print function of
your favorite image editor.
7.4.12 Exit Ctrl + Q
Closes all project windows and exits Audacity. If there
are any unsaved changes to your project, Audacity will
ask if you want to save them. Note that it is not neces-
sary for you to save changes if you’ve already exported
your mix as a WAV or MP3 and you are now happy with
it. But if you are working on a mix and plan to continue
later where you left off, saving an Audacity Project will let
you restore everything, exactly as you left it. On a Mac,
the Exit command is not in the File Menu. Instead, use
"Quit" under the Audacity menu.
254
7.5.1 Exports to specific audio file formats
If there are multiple tracks in your project, they will be
automatically mixed in the exported data. For more infor-
mation about mixing, see Mix and Render on the Tracks
Menu .
For all types of audio export including Export Se-
lected Audio and Export Multiple , tracks that are muted
are not exported.
Export as MP3
Exports the current Audacity project in compressed MP3
( lossy ) audio file format.
Export as WAV
Exports the current Audacity project in uncompressed
WAV ( lossless ) audio file format.
Export as Ogg Vorbis
Exports the current Audacity project in compressed Ogg
Vorbis ( lossy ) audio file format.
7.5.2 Export Audio... Ctrl + Shift + E
Exports the current Audacity project as an audio file for-
mat that can be read by other applications. As with the
exports to specific audio file formats, if there are multiple
tracks in your project, they will be automatically mixed in
the exported data. For more information about mixing,
see Mix and Render on this page . You can choose the
exported file format and settings from the Export Audio
Dialog .
7.5.3 Export Selected Audio...
This is the same as Export Audio above, but it only ex-
ports the part of the project that is selected . For exam-
ple, to save a small piece of a long track as a separate
file, just select that audio as described in How do I select
audio in one track? before using Export Selected Audio.
7.5.4 Export Labels...
If you have any Label Tracks , this command will export all
their labels as a text file. The text in each label appears
as one line in the exported file, prefaced by the start time
CHAPTER 7. FILE MENU
and end time of the label (in seconds). If you have mul-
tiple label tracks, the labels in the uppermost label track
appear first in the file. To import the labels into an Au-
dacity project later, use the File > Import... command.
Export Labels is commonly used in speech transcription
or speech recognition research, after which the files can
be manipulated in any application that accepts text files.
Labels can also be modified after export for use as Cue
Sheets for CD burning or as movie subtitles. If a label
is created from a point or region in a Spectrogram track
where Spectral Selection is enabled (or if a label is other-
wise created when a low frequency and high frequency
value are already stored in the project), the exported la-
bels file also contains the frequency range for that label.
7.5.5 Export Multiple ... Ctrl + Shift + L
This allows you to do multiple exports from Audacity with
one command. Export either multiple files based on the
multiple tracks in the project, or based on the labels in a
single audio track. A great timesaver for splitting up long
recordings into separate CD tracks, or archiving multiple
working tracks. See the Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or
MiniDiscs to CD for an example of how this is used.
7.5.6 Export MIDI...
Export the currently selected Note Track as a MIDI or
Allegro file (which is like a MIDI file except that the notes
information is stored as plain text). You can choose in
the Import / Export Preferences whether to export Alle-
gro files with times and durations represented in seconds
(default) or in beats. Some applications that can play
MIDI files may not be able to play Allegro files. Only one
Note Track can be exported at a time. The entire Note
Track will be exported regardless of any selection made
in the track. If the Note Track has been time shifted to
start at a point other than zero, empty MIDI bars will be
added at the start.
To export an Allegro file the .gro file extension
must be manually added to the end of the exported file
name, except on Windows.
7.5.7 Save Compressed Copy of Project...
Saves a copy of your project in the compressed Ogg
Vorbis format, each track being saved as a sepa-
rate OGG file. When you quit Audacity you may still
be prompted about saving changes. Saving changes
would save a separate, standard uncompressed project
as above, so if you do not want that you can quit Audacity
without saving. The resulting _data folder for the project
is about eight times smaller than that created using ei-
ther "Save Project" command, so this may be useful for
7.6. EXPORT AUDIO
sending projects to others. There will be some resulting
loss of quality. Note that the quality loss will be increased
each time a compressed project is resaved as a com-
pressed project (for example, if you send a compressed
project to someone else, and they then edit it and send it
back to you as a compressed project). Most project data
will be retained, including labels, gain and pan settings,
track positions on the timeline, track order and metadata.
Clips will not be retained - spaces between clips will be
converted to silence. Volume envelopes present when
saving will be rendered, but the actual envelope points
will be lost. Opening a compressed project will be slower
7.6 Export Audio
The Export Audio dialog (for export of a single audio
file from the whole project) is accessed from File > Save
Other > Export Audio... . When you use File > Save
Other > Export Selected Audio... to export a single audio
file from a selection , the Export Selected Audio dia-
log appears. Both these dialogs are identical and let you
specify folder location, file name, format and encoding
options for your exported file. You can use File > Save
Other > Export Multiple... to export multiple audio files
(based on labels or multiple audio tracks ) in one process.
When you use the the Export Multiple dialog appears.
7.6.1 Export Audio or Export Selected Au-
dio dialog
In summary, there are five steps to follow when exporting.
255
than opening a standard project, because the OGG files
in the _data folder will be decompressed into Audacity’s
AU file format in order to work with the data. The AU files
will be in a separate folder inside the _data folder. The
OGG files will remain in the _data folder after opening
the project, but they can be deleted to save disk space.
Similarly when sending a saved compressed project to
someone, you can delete any folders containing AU files
that are inside the _data folder, because all the neces-
sary data is in the AUP file and the OGG file(s).
< Back to: File Menu
• Choose the folder to export to in Save in: then type
the file name you want.
• Select the type of audio file to export to.
• Set the Format Options (if those are available for
your selected format) if you want to change the
size, quality or other encoding choices for that se-
lected file format.
• Press Save.
• The Metadata Editor dialog will then appear (un-
less you have disabled it for the export step in the
Import/Export Preferences ). Edit Metadata lets
you enter embedded information in the file such
as artist, year or genre. Either leave the metadata
blank or complete the fields you require, then press
OK (not "Save...").
File name
Type the required file name. The correct file extension
- preceded by a period (dot) - will be added automatically
to the end of the file name, according to the format se-
lected in the "Save as type" list (see below). For example,
typing "08 Voodoo Chile" (without quotes) will produce a
file "08 Voodoo Chile.wav". For M4A and WMA formats
(for which the optional FFmpeg library is required), you
can add alternative extensions as specified in "FFmpeg
formats" below.Any other extensions can be added after
a file name as required, but Audacity will display a warn-
ing that this is not the normal extension for this file type,
and that some applications might not play files with non-
standard extensions.
Save as type
Clicking in the input box opens a dropdown menu en-
abling you to chose the file format you wish to export to:
256 CHAPTER 7. FILE MENU

Hover over each row in "Save as type:" in the image to

learn more. Skip the image
7.6. EXPORT AUDIO 257

7.6.2 Exporting multiple tracks as a single

file

If you use Export Audio or Export Selected Audio to ex-

port multiple tracks as a mono or stereo mixdown , or
as a multi-channel audio file by enabling Advanced Mix-
ing Options , please be aware that muted tracks are not
exported.

7.6.3 Cancelling the export process

See:
• Export Formats supported by Audacity for more de- You may abort the export process without writing the file
tails on the various format types that Audacity sup- by pressing Cancel in the Export Audio / Export Selected
ports for export Audio dialog, or in the Advanced Mixing Options or Meta-
data Editor dialogs (if those dialogs appear). If you Can-
• Exporting to an External Program for details of how
cel in any dialog, any changes you made to the "Save
to export audio for use in an external program
in:" directory or file type will not be preserved for next
• Custom FFmpeg Export Options for details on how time you export.
you can export a specific codec in a specific format
container
7.6.4 Export progress dialog
Format Options Once you have clicked the Save button in the export dia-
log and OK in Edit Metadata, Audacity will display a dia-
Notice with the image at the top of this page, for the de- log displaying progress of writing the exported file:
fault export to WAV format there are no export options.
However some formats do offer options for making set-
tings like quality or encoding.
Export options vary from one audio format to another:
• MP3 Export Options
• AAC Export Options
• AC3 Export Options
• AMR Export Options
• Custom FFmpeg Export Options
• FLAC Export Options
• MP2 Export Options
• Ogg Vorbis Export Options The colored bar is a visual indicator of how much of the
file has been written. The Elapsed Time and Remaining
• Other uncompressed files Export Options Time are estimates and may change as the export pro-
• WMA Export Options gresses. Clicking either the Stop or Cancel button will
halt the export where it is now, leaving the partially ex-
• Advanced Mixing Options ported file in place.
Chapter 8

Editing

8.1 Edit Menu

The Edit Menu provides standard edit commands (Undo, 8.1.2 Redo Ctrl + Y
Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete) plus many other
commands specific to editing audio or labels. There are
Redoes any editing operations that were just undone.
many commands available from this menu so some com-
After you perform a new editing operation, you can no
mands are grouped into submenus.Click, or hover, on
longer redo the operations that were undone.
any menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image

8.1.3 Cut Ctrl + X

Removes the selected audio data and/or labels and

places these on the Audacity clipboard. Audio or labels
after the selection move leftwards.

8.1.4 Delete Ctrl + K

Similar to Cut, but removes the audio data and/or labels

that are currently selected without copying them to the
Audacity clipboard.

Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf and Alt = Option. So, for

example, Ctrl + Alt + K = CloverLeaf + Option + K
8.1.5 Copy Ctrl + C

Copies the selected audio data to the Audacity clipboard

without removing it from the project.
8.1.1 Undo Ctrl + Z

Undoes the last editing operation you performed to your

project. You can undo as many times as you want, all
the way back to when you opened the window. To undo
many operations, select History... from the View Menu .
The name of this menu item will change to reflect what
will be undone; if you just recorded some audio, the menu
item name will be Undo Record.
8.1.6 Paste Ctrl + V
Pastes audio which has been cut or copied to the Audac-
ity clipboard, either inserting it into the selected track(s)
at the cursor point, or replacing the current selection re-
gion(s).

258
8.2. EDIT MENU: CLIP BOUNDARIES 259

8.1.7 Duplicate Ctrl + D useful for visually impaired users. It brings up a dialog
box showing all of your labels in a keyboard-accessible
Creates a new track containing only the current selection tabular view. Handy buttons in the dialog let you insert or
as a new clip. delete a label, or import and export labels to a file. See
Labels Editor for more details. See Edit Menu: Labels for
details of this sub-menu.
8.1.8 Remove Special

The Remove Special submenu has commands for more
"advanced" removal of audio and labels:
• Split Cut and Split Delete are a "special" cut or
delete which make the audio or labels to right of the
selection stay in current position instead of moving
leftwards.
• Silence Audio replaces the current selection with
silence.
• Trim Audio removes all audio from the current clip
except the selected part, creating its own clip from
the remaining, selected, audio.
8.1.9 Clip Boundaries
8.1.11 Labeled Audio
The Labeled Audio submenu has commands that offer
a time saving way of performing Edit Menu operations
on the audio of multiple fully selected range labels. The
commands apply to all labeled audio regions that are fully
inside a selection drawn in a label track. The selection
may extend beyond the label boundaries, but audio that
is not labeled and audio whose region label is only partly
within the selection will not be acted on. If none of the
audio tracks are included in the selection, the Labeled
Audio commands apply to all audio tracks in the project.
However if you include only certain audio tracks in the
selection, the Labeled Audio commands will only affect
those selected audio tracks. See Edit Menu: Labeled
Audio for details of this sub-menu.

The Clip Boundaries submenu has commands to create

or remove separate clips in the audio track. A clip inside
an audio track is a separate section of that track which
8.1.12 Metadata...
has been split so that it can be manipulated somewhat
independently of the other clips in the track. Use this function to edit the metadata tags that will be
applied to exported files.

8.1.10 Labels
8.1.13 Preferences... Ctrl + P
The Labels submenu has commands that enable you to
add and edit labels. This command invokes the Labels Displays the Preferences dialog. Preferences enable you
Editor which lets you add or remove Label Tracks and edit change most of the default behaviors and settings of Au-
their labels entirely using the keyboard, so is particularly dacity.

8.2 Edit Menu: Clip Boundaries

Items in the Clip Boundaries cascading Edit menu let

you create or remove separate clips in the audio track .
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that command. Skip the image
260 CHAPTER 8. EDITING

Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf and Alt = Option. So, for 8.2.3 Join Ctrl + J
example, Ctrl + Alt + J = CloverLeaf + Option + J
If you select an area that overlaps one or more clips, they
are all joined into one large clip. Regions in-between clips
8.2.1 Split Ctrl + I become silence.

Splits the current clip into up to three clips at the selec-

tion boundaries. The audio before, within, and after the
selection can now all be shifted independently

8.2.4 Detach at Silences Ctrl + Alt + J

In a selection region that includes absolute silence and

other audio, creates individual non-silent clips between
the regions of silence. The silence in the selection be-
comes blank space between the clips.

8.2.2 Split New Ctrl+ Alt + I

Does a Split Cut on the current selection in the current

track, then creates a new track and pastes the selection
into the new track.

If the selection is entirely silence, it becomes blank space

between the audio either side of the selection.
< Back to: Edit Menu
8.3. EDIT MENU: COPY, PASTE AND DUPLICATE 261

8.3 Edit Menu: Copy, Paste and Duplicate

Tools to copy, duplicate and paste audio and labels.Only

one item can be on the clipboard at a time.

8.3.1 Copy Ctrl + C

Copies the selected audio data to the Audacity clipboard

without removing it from the project.

8.3.2 Cut Ctrl + X

Similar to Copy, but removes the selected audio data and

and places these on the Audacity clipboard. Any audio Pasting outside a clip, with "Editing clips can move
data to the right of the selection are shifted to the left. other clips" not checked:

8.3.3 Paste Ctrl + V

Pastes audio which has been cut or copied to the Audac-

ity clipboard, either inserting it into the selected track(s)
at the cursor point, or replacing the current selection re-
gion(s). The behavior of the paste command changes
depending on the setting of "Editing clips can move other
clips" in Tracks Preferences . If the option is checked
pasting is always possible and following audio is shifted
to make room. If this option is not checked there must
be room for the pasted audio.Pasting inside a clip, with
"Editing clips can move other clips" checked:

Pasting into a new track

If you want to create a new track and paste into that,

When you select Paste and the cursor is outside a clip,
and there is enough room for the audio that is on the clip-
board, the audio on the clipboard can be inserted with-
out any other clips being shifted over if "Editing clips can
move other clips" is not checked. If "Editing clips can
move other clips" is checked, the following audio will al-
ways be moved. Pasting outside a clip, with "Editing
clips can move other clips" checked:
the paste will automatically create a new mono or stereo
track as appropriate, with the audio starting at time zero,
if you:
• Paste into an empty project window
• Click in the gray background underneath the last
track in the project to deselect all the tracks, then
paste.
• You can paste from a mono track into a stero track
- the mono audio will be replicated in both stereo
channels.
• You cannot paste from a stereo track into a mono
track. (You will get an error message if you try to do
this.)
If you want the paste to start at other than time zero you
must first use Tracks > Add New > Mono Track (or Add
262 CHAPTER 8. EDITING

New > Stereo Track), place the cursor where you want to
paste, then make the paste.

8.3.4 Duplicate Ctrl + D

One benefit of Duplicate is the ability to experiment with

Creates a new track containing only the current selection
effects . You can do that with the original track too, but
as a new clip. The new clip is at the same position on
you cannot change the volume of your effect and the orig-
the Timeline as the original audio. This is essentially a
inal audio separately, only lower the volume of the pro-
shortcut method of performing copy, add new track and
cessed audio later on. If you duplicate the audio then
paste, except that the duplicated audio is not copied to
use a reverb on that (with 100% reverb and 0% original
the Audacity clipboard, so cannot be pasted anywhere
signal), you can freely change the volume for both the
else.
original and reverb signal using the gain slider on each
track.
• You can do interesting things to your duplicates to
create special effects. With two versions of the
track to work with, you can silence a section, reverb
another section, phase a third, filter another (in one
track or the other) and see how that sounds.
< Back to: Edit Menu

8.4 Edit Menu: Find Zero Crossings

Find Zero Crossings has been moved (for Audacity Crossings.Accessed by: Select > At Zero Crossings or
2.2.0 and onwards) from the Edit menu to the Region its Z shortcut.
submenu of the Select Menu and renamed to At Zero

8.5 Edit Menu: Labeled Audio

Items in the Labeled Audio cascading Edit menu offer image

a time saving way of performing Edit Menu operations on
the audio of multiple fully selected range labels.

Note carefully that it is only the audio which is op-

erated on, the labels themselves and the Label Track are
not affected by most of the commands in this menu.
For example, if you have used Analyze > Sound Finder...
to label all very loud sounds in a piece of audio (such
as unwanted beeps or advertisements in a radio broad-
cast) you can use a Labeled Audio command to remove
all those sounds in one go.Click, or hover, on any menu
item in the image to read about that command. Skip the
8.5. EDIT MENU: LABELED AUDIO 263

Note that the audio associated with "Label 2" and Label
3" has been cut, but the audio associated with "Label 1"
Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf and Alt = Option. So, for and "Label 4" remains because Labels 1 and 4 were not
example, Ctrl + Alt + V = CloverLeaf + Option + V fully inside the selection.

8.5.1 Labeled Audio Submenu

8.5.3 Delete Alt + K
The commands apply to all labeled audio regions that are
fully inside a selection drawn in a label track. The selec- Removes the selected labeled audio data but does not
tion may extend beyond the label boundaries, but audio put it on the Audacity clipboard. Any audio data to the
that is not labeled and audio whose region label is only right of the selected labeled audio regions is shifted to
partly within the selection will not be acted on. the left.
• Region labels that touch each other without over-
lapping are treated as separate labeled regions.
• If two or more region labels overlap, they are 8.5.4 Split Cut Shift + Alt + X
treated as one labeled region.
• Labeled Audio Split can mark audio splits at point Same as Cut, but none of the audio data to right of the
labels as well as at region labels. selected labeled audio regions is shifted. Gaps are thus
left behind in the audio track which split the existing audio
To enable the Labeled Audio commands in the Edit
clip into multiple clips that can be moved independently
menu, the selection must be made in the Label Track
using Time Shift Tool .
and must fully include (or extend beyond) at least one re-
gion label, or must touch (or extend beyond) at least one
point label. If none of the audio tracks are included in
the selection, the Labeled Audio commands apply to all
audio tracks in the project. However if you include only
certain audio tracks in the selection, the Labeled Audio
commands will only affect those selected audio tracks.
See the examples below for a demonstration of the dif-
ference between selecting in the label track only versus
selecting in the label track and one or more audio tracks.
When Sync-Lock Tracks is on, the menu commands Edit
> Labels > Cut and Edit Labels > Delete are disabled.

8.5.2 Cut Alt + X

Removes the selected labeled audio data and puts it on 8.5.5 Split Delete Shift + Alt + K
the Audacity clipboard. Any audio data to the right of the
selected labeled audio regions is shifted to the left. Only
one item can be on the clipboard at a time, but it may Same as Split Cut, but the audio is not copied to the Au-
include multiple audio tracks and multiple audio clips . dacity clipboard.
264 CHAPTER 8. EDITING

8.5.6 Silence Audio Alt + L

The selected labeled audio regions are replaced with si-

lence.

Note that "Label 2" and "Label 3" are touching but not
overlapping, so they are still treated as separate labels
and the boundary between them is marked with a split
line.

8.5.9 Join Alt + J

Clips within the selected labeled audio regions are joined

into one clip by removing the split lines.
8.5.7 Copy Shift + Alt + C

The selected labeled audio is copied to the Audacity clip-

board.If we start with the selection as shown below and
selectEdit > Labelled Audio > Copy...

... then create a new audio track, press the Skip to Start
button and paste, the two audio regions associated with
Labels 2 and 3 are pasted starting from the start of the
new track, separated by blank space.
8.5.10 Detach At Silences Shift + Alt + J

In a labeled audio region that includes absolute silence

and other audio, creates individual non-silent clips be-
tween the regions of silence. The silence in the region
becomes blank space between the clips.

8.5.8 Split Alt + I

The audio track is split into multiple clips; a split is created

at the boundaries of every fully-selected label.

If the labeled audio region is entirely silence, it becomes

blank space between the audio either side of the region.
8.6. EDIT MENU: LABELS 265

8.5.11 Examples Result: Audio has been cut only in the regions where
the labels are fully inside the selection. Part of the first
Example 1 - selection in the Label Track only label is outside the selection so its audio is not affected
by the Split Cut operation. The final two labels overlap
each other, so are treated as one label.

Example 2 - selection in the Label Track and some

Audio Tracks

If instead the selection is made in the bottom two audio

tracks and the label track, applying the Edit > Labels >
Split Cut command results in this:

The selection shown above was created by clicking and

dragging in the label track. Applying the Edit > Labels >
Split Cut command results in this:

Result: Audio has been cut only in the selected tracks

and in the regions where the labels are fully inside the
selection. < Back to: Edit Menu

8.6 Edit Menu: Labels

Items in the Labels cascading Edit menu enable you to Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf and Alt = Option. So, for
add and edit labels.Click, or hover, on any menu item in example, Ctrl + Alt + V = CloverLeaf + Option + V
the image to read about that command. Skip the image

8.6.1 Edit Labels

This command invokes the Labels Editor which lets you

add or remove Label Tracks and edit their labels entirely
using the keyboard, so is particularly useful for visually
impaired users. It brings up a dialog box showing all of
your labels in a keyboard-accessible tabular view. Handy
buttons in the dialog let you insert or delete a label, or
import and export labels to a file. See Labels Editor for
more details.
266
8.6.2 Add Label At Selection Ctrl + B
This command will place a new label at your current cur-
sor position or selection. See this page for more details.
Creates a new label at the position of the editing cursor
or selection region. You can then title the label by typing
with the keyboard and hitting "Enter" when you’re done.
When you click in the label later it will recall the position
of the editing cursor or selection at which the label was
created. See Label Tracks for more information on how
to use label tracks.
8.6.3 Add Label At Playback Position Ctrl +
M can be turned off, if required, in Tracks Preferences by
This command will place a new label at your current play-
back or recording position. See this page for more de-
tails. Like Add Label at Selection but the label is added
at the current position during playback or recording. On
a Mac the shortcut for this command is (CloverLeaf + .).
8.6.4 Paste Text to New Label Ctrl + Alt + V
Pastes the text on the system clipboard (or text from a
label stored in the Audacity clipboard) to a new label at
the cursor or region position in the currently selected la-
bel track. If there is no selection in the label track a point
label is created. If a range is selected in the label track
a range label is created. A new label track is created if
none exists. The most recent text cut or copied to ei-
ther clipboard is pasted. If you have copied or cut a la-
bel to the Audacity clipboard, the text of that label will be
pasted. If you have cut or copied text to the system clip-
board from an application other than Audacity, that text
will be pasted. In the example below, the text "Question
1" was copied from a word processing document then the
"Paste Text to New Label" command was executed.
CHAPTER 8. EDITING
8.6.5 Type to Create a Label (on/off)
When the label track has the yellow focus border as in the
image above you can, if preferred, just type to create a
label containing that text rather than first using the menu
or shortcut to create the label. This default behaviour
unchecking the "Type to create label".
• When enabled (default), if there is already a label
track that has the yellow focus border, you do not
need to use "Add Label at Selection" or its Ctrl +
B shortcut to create a new label. Just type your re-
quired label text to create a new label at the position
of the editing cursor or selection region. If the label
track does not have focus, use the Up or Down ar-
row keys on your keyboard to move focus into the
label track.
• When this preference is disabled, typing never cre-
ates a label in the focused label track. This lets
you use shortcuts (for example, transport shortcuts
to play audio related to the editing cursor or se-
lection) without accidentally creating an unwanted
label. When you want to create a new label, use
"Add Label at Selection" or Ctrl + B or "Add Label
at Playback Position" Ctrl + M.
Even if "Type to Create a Label" is enabled, you cannot
type to create a new label:
• if audio is playing, recording or paused, and the cur-
sor or selection is at the same position in waveform
and label track
• if there is already a label at the exact same position
in the label track.
You can still use Ctrl + B to add a new label even if it’s at
the same position, or Ctrl + M to add a label at the play-
back, recording or paused position. You can also create
a label at the same position by moving focus to and typ-
ing in another label track, as long as there is no label yet
at that position, and if audio is playing, as long as the cur-
sor or selection in the waveform is at a different position.
< Back to: Edit Menu
8.7. EDIT MENU: REMOVE SPECIAL 267

8.7 Edit Menu: Remove Special

Items in the Remove Special cascading Edit menu re-
move audio or labels (or audio with labels if both are se-
lected ) by Split Cut and Split Delete. These removal
methods do not affect the audio or labels to right of the
selection. You can also silence or trim audio only, not
affecting labels.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
image to read about that command. Skip the image
to select only in the label track unless you want to cut
the audio as well as the label). The labels following the
deleted section do not move to the left. The labels still
correspond to the same audio regions. This is a quick
way to delete a label without affecting any other labels on
the Label Track. Split Cut with label selected:

Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf and Alt = Option. So, for

example, Ctrl + Alt + K = CloverLeaf + Option + K

You may hear a click at the edit points when you re-
move or paste audio. This can be caused by DC offset in
the waveform or by poor selection of the edit points. See
this Editing Frequently Asked Question for how to deal 8.7.2 Split Delete Ctrl + Alt + K
with this.
Same as Edit > Split Cut but the audio and/or labels are
not put on the clipboard. The following two commands af-
8.7.1 Split Cut Ctrl + Alt + X fect the audio in the selection but do not affect any labels
that are in the selection.
Same as Edit > Cut , but none of the audio data or la-
bels to right of the selection are shifted. A gap is thus left
behind in the audio track which splits the existing audio
clip into two clips that can be moved independently using 8.7.3 Silence Audio Ctrl + L
Time Shift Tool . Split Cut with audio selected:

Replaces the selected audio with silence.

This is also a useful command to remove one label of a

group of labels without affecting the other labels (be sure
268 CHAPTER 8. EDITING

8.7.4 Trim Audio Ctrl + T

Removes all audio from the current clip except the se-
lected part, creating its own clip from the remaining au-
dio. If there are other separate clips in the same track
these are not removed or shifted. Result: the audio in the clip to the right is unaffected.If an
entire clip (or clips) is selected then all other clips on the
track will be deleted. < Back to: Edit Menu

8.8 Edit Menu: Select

For 2.2.0 Select has been moved from the Edit Menu and selection.
given its own Select Menu . See this page for details on

8.9 Editing, resizing and moving Labels

Methods for changing labels: moving them, resizing

them, changing their text content.

8.9.1 Changing the length and position of

labels with the mouse

You can move a label by clicking and dragging its circle

handle. You can change the length of a label by click-
ing and dragging its triangle handle. Holding Shift while
dragging reverses this behavior, so that dragging a circle
handle changes the length of the label, and dragging a
triangle handle moves the label. For example, this lets
you resize a label by holding Shift while dragging its cir-
cle handle, then release Shift to move the resized label
without having to move the mouse pointer to its triangle
handle. In the case where two labels meet you can ad-
just the junction point where they meet by clicking and
dragging their shared circle handle.

8.9.2 Moving a point label

You can move a point label by clicking and dragging its

circle handle:
8.9. EDITING, RESIZING AND MOVING LABELS 269

Before After

8.9.3 Expanding a point label

You can expand a point label into a region label by click-

ing and dragging either of its triangle handles:

Before After You can change the length of a region label

by clicking and dragging one of its triangle handles:

Before After

8.9.4 Moving and resizing a region label

You can move a region label by clicking and dragging ei-

ther of its circle handles: Before After
270 CHAPTER 8. EDITING

8.9.5 Adjusting the junction point where

two labels meet

You can adjust the junction point where two labels meet
by clicking and dragging their shared circle handle:

Before After Contrast this to what happens if you click in

a label to select it, then move the label.

Before After

8.9.6 Moving a label when there is a selec-

tion

The illustration below shows what happens if you click in

a label to select it, press Enter, then move the label.

Before After

8.9.7 Using cut, copy and paste

The following examples of cutting labels with Edit > Cut

will move back any labels that follow to right of the re-
moved label(s). To cut the label without moving following
labels, use Edit > Remove Special > Split Cut .
8.9. EDITING, RESIZING AND MOVING LABELS
Cutting and Pasting Region Labels
You can cut and paste region labels using Edit > Cut and
Edit > Paste , but you have to make sure you do not select
any audio, or you will end up cutting and pasting audio
where you probably did not intend. In the image below,
the label was selected by clicking in it, then the audio
track was unselected by shift-clicking in the Track Control
Panel of the audio track (this can also be done with the
keyboard by Enter, Up then Enter). The label was then
cut to the clipboard with Edit > Cut :
To paste the label at a different point in the audio track,
either a) click in the audio track at the point where you
would like the label to begin then shift-click in the label
track to select it; or b) click in the label track at the point
where you would like the label to begin. The label can
then be pasted to that spot using Edit > Paste .
Cutting and Pasting Point Labels
You can also cut and paste point labels, but the proce-
dure is tricky. In the image below, the point label is se-
lected for editing as in the above example with a region
label, but there is no selected region in the label track.
What happens next depends on the setting of the "Select
all audio in project, if none selected" preference in Tracks
Preferences :
• If that preference is not selected, Edit > Cut will be
disabled and pressing Ctrl + X will do nothing.
• If that preference is selected and you do Edit > Cut
, all audio and labels in the project will be cut to the
271
clipboard.
To cut and paste a point label to a different location, first
select the text of the label as shown below. Note the
difference in appearance of selected label text (the text
is highlighted separately from the box) versus a selected
label (where the entire label box is highlighted).
Do Edit > Cut - the text of the label is cut to the clipboard,
leaving a label with no text. Press Delete to delete the
label. Click in the new location for the label and do Edit >
Labels > Paste Text to New Label :
8.9.8 Using the Context Menu
There is a handy feature where you can select an area
of text in a label then right-click to cut, copy or paste over
(if there is text currently in the clipboard) that text. This
allows you to click in another label, right-click, then paste
that text in. So in our example you could select and copy
"Question" and then paste it into the appropriate labels
without having to type that word every time. The exam-
ple below shows one way this can be used. Click in a
label, then select the label text. Note the difference in
appearance of selected label text (as shown below - the
text is highlighted separately from the box) versus a se-
lected label (where the entire label box is highlighted).
Right-click in the label:
Now select the range of audio corresponding to the sec-
ond question and click on Edit > Labels > Add Label at
Selection . Right click (control-click on a Mac) in the new
label:
272 CHAPTER 8. EDITING

The text "Question" will be pasted into the label, and all
you have to type is " 2" to complete the label. Alterna-
tively you could select the range in the label track instead
of the audio track, then Edit > Labels > Paste Text to New
Label to create the label with that text.
|< Label Tracks
Chapter 9
Selecting
9.1 Selecting Audio - the basics
This page explains only the basics of selecting audio for
typical Audacity use. This involves either:
• selecting the entire project , or
• mouse selecting only a region of audio in one or
more tracks .
Once all or a region is selected, you can then change
that selection’s sound with an effect . Another common
action is to delete or move the region of audio. This page
is only a brief summary of how to make selections in your
project. For further details and visual examples please
see the Selecting Audio page.
9.1.1 Selecting a region using the
mouse
The easiest way to select a region of audio is to click the
left mouse button anywhere inside of an audio track, then
drag (in either direction) until the other edge of your se-
lection is made, then release the mouse. If Selection tool
is not selected (default setting), choose from Tools
Toolbar, below:
9.1.2 Selecting the whole of an individual
track
The whole of an individual track can be selected by click-
ing in the Track Control Panel to the left of a track. Make
273
sure that you click in a neutral area of the Track Control
Panel, not inside one of the buttons or sliders.
9.1.3 Selecting the entire project
You can select the entire length of all tracks on screen
with Select > All or use the shortcut Ctrl + A(or Clover-
Leaf + A on a Mac).
9.1.4 Auto-Select
There is a setting in Tracks Behaviors Preferences called
"Auto-select, if selection required" that saves the need
to make a time selection where you want to apply the edit
to entire tracks.
• If you issue an editing command that depends on
having a time selection but there is no time selec-
tion present, the entire project is auto-selected.
• If some audio tracks are selected but not others,
the entire time range of just those selected tracks
is auto-selected.
This setting is "off" by default in Audacity. You will need
to turn it on if you wish to have Auto-select act on your
projects.
9.1.5 Links
> Forward to: Selecting Audio
|< Back to: Getting Started
274
9.2 Selecting Audio
Typical Audacity use involves either:
• selecting or autoselecting the entire project , or
• mouse -selecting only a range of audio in one or
more tracks , then modifying the selection’s sound
with an effect or deleting or moving the range of
audio.
You can also read here about selecting using only the
keyboard . An exact range accurate to various selection
formats (time units, samples or media frames) can be
selected using Selection Toolbar . You have advanced
flexibility to select only some of multiple tracks then to
select the entirety of those tracks or only a range within
them . Rather than change each track the same way, you
could instead select all or part of an individual track, and
then change each track in a different way.
9.2.1 Selecting the entire project
You can select the entire length of all tracks on screen
with Select > All or use the shortcut Ctrl + A(or Clover-
Leaf + A on a Mac).
Auto-select, if selection required
There is a setting in Tracks Behaviors Preferences called
"Auto-select, if selection required" that auto-selects
the entire project (whenever you issue an editing com-
mand that depends on a selection) if you have made no
explicit time selection in audio tracks. If you have a Time
selection, made by using the Selection Toolbar , but with
no audio tracks selected, then the Auto-select will oper-
ate on just that time range in all audio tracks.
9.2.2 Selecting regions using the
mouse
The easiest way to select a region of audio is to click
the left mouse button anywhere inside of an audio track,
then drag (in either direction) until the other edge of your
selection is made, then release the mouse. If it’s not
already selected, choose the Selection tool from
Tools Toolbar, below:
CHAPTER 9. SELECTING
Now click the left mouse button anywhere inside of an au-
dio track, and click and drag to the other edge of your se-
lection, and release. Normally, you select both the tracks
and the range simultaneously, by clicking and dragging.
For example, to create the selection in the image below,
make sure you’re using Selection Tool , click in the
track just after 7.0 seconds in the first track, then drag
rightwards to 20.5 seconds as displayed on the Timeline
, then downwards so that the gray selection region now
includes the second track:
Note that because the drag started in the second track
(as indicated by the yellow focus border) and extended
up into the first track, only those two tracks are selected,
as indicated by the blue color of the Track Control Panel
. Therefore, any operation you perform will now only af-
fect the selected area of the first two tracks. This, and
the method for selecting all audio are enough for using
selections in Audacity.
Mouse selection tips
Some tips:
• You can drag from left to right or from right to left, it
does not matter.
• You can start your selection in one track, and end
it in another track, and both tracks (plus the tracks
in-between) will all end up selected.
• If you move the mouse past the left or right edge
of the window while dragging, Audacity will scroll
the window in that direction as long as the mouse
button is down.
• Esc key aborts selection drags, and restores the
previous time selection, frequency selection (see
later on this page), and set of selected tracks.
• After making a selection you can modify it by going
back and dragging the left or right edge.
9.2. SELECTING AUDIO 275

9.2.3 Snap To was present (as a selection previously) will remain visi-
ble in the Timeline.
The Selection Toolbar has an Snap To option which force- • This gives you a way to play this selection even
snaps the cursor or selection edges to the closest posi- though no tracks are selected.
tion of the current selection format .
• Also you can restore selectedness of that region to
• Selecting Nearest from the Snap To dropdown
any of the tracks by holding Ctrl and clicking in the
menu will force-snap the cursor or selection edges
track’s Track Control Panel.
to the closest.
• Selecting Prior from the same menu will force-
snap the cursor or selection edges to the immedi- 9.2.6 Selecting using the keyboard
ately preceding position.
You can modify the selection entirely using the keyboard.
The currently focused track is indicated with a glow-
9.2.4 Boundary Snap Guides ing yellow border, as you can see from the track called
"Guest" in this image:
Boundary Snap Guides make it easy to make a selection
that starts or ends at a physical boundary, like a label or
clip. Whenever snapping is taking place, a yellow vertical
line appears to indicate the snap location.

Note carefully that this is distinct from the " Snap To

" options in Selection Toolbar which snap selection edges
(or the cursor) to time units, samples or media frames .

9.2.5 Selecting / deselecting tracks using

the mouse To change the focused track, press Up or Down arrow. In
this image, we pressed down arrow to change focus to
Tracks can be selected, deselecting any other tracks that the "Background" track:
are already selected, by clicking in the Track Control
Panel to the left of a track. Make sure that you click in
a neutral area of the Track Control Panel, not inside one
of the buttons or sliders. Clicking on a track’s Track Con-
trol Panel selects the entire track. That’s a very easy way
to apply an effect to an entire track. If you want to quickly
select the entirety of all tracks, you can choose Select >
All or use the Ctrl + A shortcut. There is another handy
way to select an entire track - just double-click inside it. If
the track has more than one clip , the double-click selects
just that clip. You can also add specific tracks to the se-
lection and remove specific tracks from the selection as
Once a track has focus, press Enter or Return to change
follows (remember to use CloverLeaf on Mac instead of
it from being selected to not selected, or from not se-
Ctrl):
lected to selected. Selections are only acted upon if the
• Holding Ctrl and clicking in a track’s Track Control track containing the selection is itself selected. If you only
Panel toggles the selectedness of that track only. have a cursor position, but not a selection, pressing Left
So if a track is not selected, Ctrl-clicking its Track or Right moves the cursor to left or right respectively, giv-
Control Panel selects it, or deselects it if it is al- ing you a new cursor position from which to start a selec-
ready selected. tion.
• If you select a track by clicking on its Track Con- • To create a selection starting from the cursor point,
trol Panel and then use Shift and click in another hold Shift while pressing Left or Right arrow to ex-
track’s Track Control Panel, all tracks between and tend the selection leftwards or rightwards respec-
including those two tracks will be selected. tively from the cursor point, or to further extend the
selection.
If you deselect all tracks (by toggling selectedness off in
all tracks or by clicking in the gray background under- • If you extended the selection too far, hold Ctrl +
neath the bottom track in the project), any region that Shift while pressing Left or Right arrow to contract
276
the selection from the right or left edge respectively.
You can always use Selection Toolbar if necessary to find
out if you have a selection (if there is only a cursor, the
"Length" radio button will show a zero time value).
Keyboard selection tips
Some tips: Once you have a selection, hold Shift while
pressing Up or Down arrow to extend or contract the se-
lection up or down tracks.
• Shift + Home creates a selection region from time
zero in the project (on the timeline above the wave-
form) to the cursor point.
• Shift + End creates a selection region from the cur-
sor point to the end of the project.
• Select > Region > Track Start to Cursor (or short-
cut Shift + J) creates a selection region in the se-
lected tracks from the start of the leftmost audio
track to the cursor point. The start of an audio track
(the point where its blue waveform begins) does not
have to be time zero.
• Select > Region > Cursor to Track End (or shortcut
Shift + K) creates a selection region in the selected
tracks from the cursor point to the end of the right-
most audio track.
Creating selections at an exact time
If you already know the exact times at which the selection
should start and end, you can use the [ shortcut when the
track is not playing, recording or paused to open the "Set
Left Selection Boundary" dialog. Use the time digits to
set the left-hand boundary of the selection as below. To
change the Selection Format of the time units or frame
boundaries, right-click (or use the keyboard Context Key)
or left-click the downward-pointing triangle to right of the
time digits.
• If the cursor is currently to left of where the selec-
tion should start, advance the current position of
the time digits to move the cursor rightwards to the
correct start position. Then use the ] shortcut to
bring up the "Set Right Selection Boundary" dialog.
Here you can set the time at which the selection
should end, which draws the selection.
• If the cursor is currently to right of where the selec-
tion should start, use [ if necessary to advance the
time digits so as to place the cursor at the intended
end of the selection. Then use [ again to set the left
boundary of the selection which will draw the se-
lection from that left boundary to your chosen end
position.
Exact selections can also be created directly within Se-
lection Toolbar by similarly manipulating the time digits.
CHAPTER 9. SELECTING
Sometimes you may want to create a new selection us-
ing the start point (left boundary) of the current selec-
tion as the new end point, or using the current end point
(right boundary) as the new start point. To do this, press
Left arrow to place the cursor where the beginning of the
selection was, or Right arrow to place the cursor where
the end of the selection was, in both cases removing the
selection. Now create and adjust the new selection as
above. If you select "Nearest" (or "Prior") in the Snap To
dropdown menu in Selection Toolbar , then using Left,
Right, Shift and Ctrl as above will move the cursor or se-
lection edge to the nearest (or previous) second, hun-
dredth of a second, CDDA frame or any chosen selection
format.
• Use [ or ] as above to force the cursor or selection
to a position outside the current selection format,
even if Snap To is enabled.
9.2.7 Selection Toolbar
One handy way to keep track of what you’ve selected
and to make very precise modifications is to use the Se-
lection Toolbar . For our purposes here, let’s concentrate
on its main purpose, the Selection boxes. By changing
the dropdown menu selection from "Start and End of
Selection" to "Start and Length of Selection", you can
display and control the length of the selection instead of
the endpoint. Which one is useful for you depends on
the circumstances: if you need a clip from a song that’s
exactly 30 seconds long, you may want to set the length
to 30, and then modify the start until you have just what
you want. Other times you may know the exact end time
but need to figure out where to start, independent of the
resulting length. Selection Toolbar also displays and can
move the cursor position without there being a region se-
lected. To move the cursor to an exact position using Se-
lection Toolbar, set the "Selection Start" and "End" boxes
to the same value. You can set the values displayed in
the Selection Toolbar boxes using the mouse and/or key-
board. To change a particular digit in a box, click on it, or
you can navigate to it using only the keyboard: Navigat-
ing into and through the Selection Toolbar controls
Key Action
Ctrl + F6 Move the focus to/from Selection Toolbar
Tab Move forwards through the Selection Toolbar con-
trols
Shift + Tab Move backwards through the Selection Tool-
bar controls
Left / Right Move cursor between digits or to/from
End/Length Once you have clicked on or navigated to a
digit, it will highlight in white to show it is active, as shown
in the image below:
9.2. SELECTING AUDIO
You can then increase or decrease the digit’s value by
scrolling the mouse wheel, by using Up arrow or Down
arrow or by typing a new value over the existing value.
After typing a value, the cursor automatically moves to
the next digit and selects it, so you can type the required
values one after the other. If you type the wrong digit(s)
it can be convenient to use Backspace which moves the
cursor back to the previous digit and resets it to zero.
Working with the Selection Toolbar digits
Key Action
Up arrow Increase the highlighted digit
Down arrow Decrease the highlighted digit
Backspace Move back to previous digit and reset it to
zero. Use the Delete or Ctrl + K shortcut to delete se-
lected audio while Selection Toolbar has focus. As an
alternative to navigating into Selection Toolbar, you can
use the [ and ] shortcuts to move the cursor or create
selections or to adjust existing selections .
Selection Formats
By default,Selection Toolbar lets you enter values in units
of hours, minutes and milliseconds. This is appropriate
and accurate enough for most purposes. However if you
need for example to make a selection that is accurate
to the nearest sample or is defined in CDDA or film
frames, numerous other Selection Formats are available.
To choose other formats, click the triangle to right of any
box. You can also select in or right-click over any digit in
a box (or use a keyboard equivalent).
9.2.8 Extending or contracting an existing
selection
Once you have a selected range you can move either
edge of the selection so as to expand or contract the se-
lected length, or you may want to expand the selection
at one edge and contract it at the other so as to select a
similar length in a slightly different place; Audacity offers
multiple methods to facilitate this:
• Hover the mouse pointer near the edge of a se-
lection, when you hover close enough to the edge
the mouse pointer changes to a hand with pointing
finger (indicating you can now click and drag the
selection). Then click and drag with the mouse to
move that edge of the selection.
277
If you want to turn off that feature, open Preferences ,
choose Tracks then uncheck "Enable dragging of left and
right selection edges".
• You can also extend or contract an existing selec-
tion by holding down the Shift key while left-clicking
the mouse near one of the edges of the selection.
The nearest edge of the selection will jump to the
current position of the mouse pointer. This is really
useful if you know exactly what you want to select
but it does not easily fit on the screen at once:
1. Click at one edge of the selection
2. Scroll until the other edge is in view
3. Shift-click to set the other edge of the selection.
• Hold Shift while pressing Left or Right to extend the
selection from the left or right edge respectively.
• Hold Ctrl + Shift while pressing Left or Right to con-
tract the selection from the right or left edge respec-
tively.
• Use Selection Toolbar to precisely place the selec-
tion boundaries by entering their positions.
• Use the [ or ] shortcut when the track is not playing,
recording or paused to open the "Set Left Selection
Boundary" or "Set Right Selection Boundary" dia-
log respectively. Then adjust the position of the left-
or right-hand selection boundary. As in Selection
Toolbar, to change the Selection Format of the time
units or frame boundaries, right-click (or use the
keyboard Context Key) or left-click the downward-
pointing triangle to right of the time digits.
Mac users: remember to substitute the Command
key for the Control key.
Including or excluding the existing range in other
tracks
You can also change which tracks are selected indepen-
dently of the range, so that selecting an extra track in-
cludes the selected range in that track, and deselecting a
selected track moves the selected range out of that track.
This gives you complete flexibility to extend, contract or
move the existing range up or down between multiple
278
tracks. To change which tracks are selected without
affecting the range, there are multiple methods.
• Hold Shift while clicking on the Track Control Panel
to the left of the waveform to toggle its selected-
ness.
• Press Up or Down to change the focused track,
then press Enter to toggle its selectedness.
• Hold Shift while pressing Up or Down arrow to ex-
tend or contract the selection up or down into adja-
cent tracks.
Use the first two of the above methods when you want to
select or deselect non-adjacent tracks. Note that it is pos-
sible to have a range selected but no tracks selected. In
that case, you will only see the evidence of the selected
range in the Timeline. Advanced: If you enable Sync-
Locked Track Groups you do not need to explicitly select
other tracks so as to maintain synchronization when in-
serting, removing or time-shifting audio.
9.2.9 Menu commands for selecting
The Select menu has several commands that are use-
ful for selecting. Please see the Select Menu page for
details.
9.2.10 Listening to the selection
With audio, it usually isn’t obvious from the waveform
what you want to select, so you really want to listen just
to the left and right edges of a selection to make sure
you are editing the correct part. Also because the pur-
pose of multiple tracks is usually to mix them together as
combined audio, by default the selected range plays for
all the visible tracks, selected or not. To change this you
can mute or solo individual tracks in the Track Control
Panel . But if you are new to audio editing, do not worry.
For now, you can just click and drag to create a selection
on a single track, and press Space to listen to all of it.
Come back here for more help when you start to work on
more advanced projects and are having trouble selecting
what you want.
Selecting while audio is playing
Sometimes the easiest way to select an exact portion of
audio is to mark the selection boundaries while you’re
playing (or recording) audio. To do this, press the [ short-
cut to mark the left edge of the audio, then the ] short-
cut to mark the right edge and draw the selection. After
you’ve done that, you’ll definitely want to listen to the se-
lection to make sure it was right. Press Space once to
CHAPTER 9. SELECTING
stop playback and then press Space again to hear just
the selection. There are additional keyboard shortcuts
that let you listen to just the beginning or end of a se-
lection - see Special Playback Keyboard Commands for
details.
9.2.11 Label Tracks
A useful way to retain a selection for future use is to la-
bel it. While the selection is highlighted press Ctrl + B to
label the selected region. For more information see La-
bel Tracks . The audio defined by a region label can be
quickly selected by left-clicking in the label. Tabbing like
this will always ensure that at least part of your revised
selection is shown on-screen.
Shortcuts
There are also two shortcut commands to aid navigation
between labels that have no menu item or button associ-
ated with them, they exist just as shortcuts:
• Alt + Right moves the cursor to the next labeled se-
lection (or point label)
• Alt + Left moves the cursor to the previous labeled
selection (or point label)
When the final label is reached in either direction Audac-
ity cycles around the label track. If you have multiple la-
bel tracks then these shortcut commands work on the
currently focused label track (the one with the yellow bor-
der). If there is more than one label track and none have
focus, then the first label track downwards from the fo-
cused audio track is used.
Note that this may have the effect of not having your
revised selection showing on-screen as these shortcuts
do not update the display accordingly.
9.2.12 Spectral Selection
Spectral selection is used to make selections that in-
clude a frequency range as well as a time range on
tracks in spectrogram view . Spectral selection is used
with special Spectral edit effects to make changes to the
frequency content of the selected audio. Among other
purposes spectral selection and editing can be used for
cleaning up unwanted sound, enhancing certain reso-
nances, changing the quality of a voice or removing
mouth sounds from voice work. All of the time-based se-
lection techniques (horizontal selection) are still available
when doing spectral selection. See the Spectral Selec-
tion page for more details.
9.3. SELECT MENU
9.3 Select Menu
The Select Menu provides a set of commands for defin-
ing selection regions (prior to acting on those regions with
edits, effects and exports) or the position of the editing
cursor. You can also select between and navigate clips
.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that command. Skip the image
Mac users:Ctrl = CloverLeaf. So, for example, Ctrl + A =
CloverLeaf + A
9.3.1 All Ctrl + A
Selects all of the audio in all of the tracks.
9.3.2 None Ctrl + Shift + A
Deselects all of the audio in all of the tracks.
9.3.3 Tracks
The Tracks submenu has commands to extend the cur-
rent selection up and/or down into all tracks, or into all
Sync-Locked tracks in the project.
9.3.4 Region
The Region submenu has commands for defining selec-
tion regions and lets you store and retrieve the position
of the editing cursor or selection region.
9.3.5 Spectral
The Spectral submenu has contains to enable you to
make Spectral selection which can be used to make se-
lections that include a frequency range as well as a time
range on tracks in Spectrogram view. Spectral selection
is used with special spectral edit effects to make changes
to the frequency content of the selected audio.
279
9.3.6 Clip Boundaries
The Clip Boundaries submenu lets you select between
the editing cursor and clip boundaries or to navigate
though clips, selecting all of the current clip.
9.3.7 Cursor to Stored Cursor Position
When playing or recording (or paused):, selection is
made from the the position of the Playback cursor or
Recording cursor to the position previously saved by
the Select > Store Cursor Position command. For eas-
ier use without having to Pause, you may want to add a
shortcut for "Cursor to Stored Cursor Position". When
there is no active audio: selects from the current posi-
tion of the editing cursor (or from the left edge of the cur-
rent selection region) to the stored position. Example:
Suppose you had paused playback (or stopped playback
and set cursor ) at the starting point of an intended se-
lection and had stored that position. You could then start
playback further along from the stored position in order
to find the ending point of the intended selection. When
you hear that ending, use "Cursor to Stored Cursor Posi-
tion" to select from the stored position to the position of
the playback cursor. You can then stop playback and the
selection region will be retained. An alternative proce-
dure if you want to store many positions is to add a label
when required at the editing cursor or playback/recording
cursor.
9.3.8 Store Cursor Position
Stores a cursor position as defined below, which can then
be used with the Select > Cursor to Stored Cursor Posi-
tion command to create or modify a selection region.
• If audio is not actively playing, recording or
paused: the stored cursor position is the position
of the editing cursor or of the left edge of the selec-
tion region.
• If audio is active: the stored cursor position is
the position of the Playback cursor or Record-
ing cursor at the time you issue the command
to store. For easier use without having to Pause,
you may want to add a shortcut for "Store Cursor
Position".
If you want to store the position of the editing cursor (or
both boundaries of a selection) while audio is active, use
the Select > Region > Store Selection command.
There is no visual cue marker to remind you what
position you saved, you will need to remember it.
280
9.3.9 At Zero Crossings Z
At Zero Crossings helps to avoid clicks at edit points
when making cuts and joins by moving the edges of a
selection region (or the cursor position) very slightly so
they are at a rising zero crossing point.
9.4 Select Menu: At Zero Crossings
At Zero Crossings adjusts the selection region (or the
cursor position) very slightly so that a boundary is at a
zero crossing (silent) point. This reduces the risk of
clicks at editing points.Accessed by: Select > At Zero
Crossings or its Z shortcut.
9.4.1 At Zero Crossings Z
Moves the edges of a selection region (or the cursor po-
sition) very slightly to be at a rising zero crossing point.
This is a point where a line joining the audio samples
rises from left to right and crosses the zero horizontal
line that represents silence. The shift in audio position is
not itself detectable to the ear, but the fact that the joins
in the waveform are now of matching height helps avoid
clicks when cutting or pasting audio.
9.5 Select Menu: Clip Boundaries
A set of commands to enable you to make selections
based on any Clips that you may have in the project.
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that command. Skip the image
CHAPTER 9. SELECTING
This feature does not necessarily find the nearest
zero crossing to the current position. It aims to find the
crossing where the average amplitude of samples in the
vicinity is lowest.
This works very effectively on mono tracks as illustrated
above. In stereo tracks , zero crossing points may oc-
cur at a different place in the left and right channels, so
there may still be a click at the edit point in one channel.
This can be solved by careful selection of edit points as
explained in this FAQ .
This feature does not necessarily find the nearest
zero crossing to the current position. It aims to find the
crossing where the average amplitude of samples in the
vicinity is lowest.
< Back to: Select Menu: Region
9.5.1 Previous Clip Boundary to Cursor
Previous Clip Boundary to Cursor and the three re-
lated commands below Cursor to Next Clip Boundary,
Previous Clip and Next Clip use the clips in the selected
track or tracks. If no tracks are selected, the clips in all
tracks are used.Selects from the current position of the
editing cursor or selection backwards to the previous clip
boundary, so extending the selection with each use to in-
clude further clips (or blank space) until the start of the
track is reached. Example:Starting with this selection ...
9.5. SELECT MENU: CLIP BOUNDARIES
after the first command the selection is extended from the
editing cursor position to the start of the clip:
after the second command the selection is extended to
the end of the previous clip:
and after the third command the selection is extended to
the start of the previous clip:
9.5.2 Cursor to Next Clip Boundary
Selects from the current position of the editing cursor
or selection forwards to the next next clip boundary, so
extending the selection with each use to include further
clips (or blank space) until the final clip is reached. Ex-
ample:Starting with this selection ...
after the first command the selection is extended from the
editing cursor position to the end of the clip:
after the second command the selection is extended to
the start of the next clip:
and after the third command the selection is extended to
the end of the next clip:
281
9.5.3 Previous Clip Alt + P
Moves or creates a selection so as to fully select in the
current clip where the editing cursor or selection is. How-
ever if that cursor is already exactly at the start of the
current clip or if the current clip is already fully selected,
this command will fully select in the previous clip. Further
use of Previous Clip then fully selects in the previous clip
until the first clip is reached. Example:Starting with this
selection ...
after the first command the clip containing the cursor is
selected:
after the second command the previous clip is selected:
Subsequent commands will do nothing since the first clip
in the track is selected.
9.5.4 Next Clip Alt + N
Moves or creates a selection so as to fully select in the
next clip. If the editing cursor is exactly at the start of a
clip, this command selects all of that current clip. Exam-
ple:Starting with this selection ...
after the first command the next clip is selected:
after the second command the next clip is selected:
282
Subsequent commands will do nothing since the last clip
9.6 Select Menu: Region
This set of commands let you define selection regions
and store and retrieve the position of the editing cursor
or selection region. Click, or hover, on any menu item in
the image to read about that command. Skip the image
9.6.1 Left at Playback Position [
When playing or recording: Sets the left boundary of
a potential selection by moving the cursor to the current
position of the green playback cursor (or red recording
cursor). The selection can then be drawn by using "Right
at Playback Position" (below). When there is no au-
dio playing or recording: Opens the "Set Left Selection
Boundary" dialog. This is useful for keyboard users or for
time-exact manipulation of the selection instead of using
Selection Toolbar . Move the selection boundary dialog’s
time digits backwards to create a selection leftwards from
the cursor position or to extend the current selection left-
wards. Move the time digits forwards to move the cursor
forwards to an exact point or to contract the current se-
lection from the left. See " Creating selections at an exact
time " for more details.
9.6.2 Right at Playback Position ]
When playing or recording: Sets the right boundary of
the selection, thus drawing the selection from the cursor
position to the current position of the green playback cur-
sor (or red recording cursor). This is a quick way to mark
a selection for future editing while playing or recording.
Selections can be labeled while playing or recording us-
ing Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection or shortcut
Ctrl + B. It will usually be more convenient while playing
CHAPTER 9. SELECTING
in the track is selected.To move the editing cursor to the
start of the next or previous clip without selecting its au-
dio, see the Transport > Cursor to commands for Previ-
ous Clip Boundary and Next Clip Boundary. < Back to:
Select Menu
or recording to use the equivalent keyboard shortcuts (
by default, [ and ] ) to set the left and right boundary
respectively.When there is no audio playing or record-
ing: Opens the "Set Right Selection Boundary" dialog.
Move the dialog’s time digits forwards to create a selec-
tion rightwards from the cursor position or to extend the
current selection rightwards. Move the time digits back-
wards to move the cursor backwards to an exact point or
to contract the current selection from the right.
9.6.3 Track Start to Cursor Shift + J
Selects a region in the selected track(s) from the start
of the track to the cursor position (or extends the current
selection so that it starts from the start of the track).
9.6.4 Cursor to Track End Shift + K
Selects a region in the selected track(s) from the cursor
position to the end of the track (or extends the current
selection so that it ends at the end of the track).
9.6.5 Store Selection
Stores the current position of the selection region or cur-
sor, as observed on the Timeline . The position of this
region or cursor can then be recalled by using Retrieve
Selection (see below). Using this command again will
overwrite the previously stored position information. The
position is saved in memory for each project. Therefore
using Retrieve Region will not have any effect in another
project unless you have already used Store Region in
that project. When you close a project, its stored region
is discarded. The Store Region command is grayed-out
if there are no audio tracks .
9.6.6 Retrieve Selection
Moves the selection region or cursor to the position
stored by the last Store Selection command (see above).
9.7. SELECT MENU: SPECTRAL
If a region is retrieved, this is only explicitly placed inside
those tracks which are currently selected .
• Only the position of the region or cursor is retrieved.
No audio content is retrieved. Labels or split lines
that were associated with the region or cursor are
not retrieved.
• The screen focus does not return to the retrieved
9.7 Select Menu: Spectral
Spectral selection is used to make selections that include
a frequency range as well as a time range on tracks in
Spectrogram view. Spectral selection is used with special
spectral edit effects to make changes to the frequency
content of the selected audio. Among other purposes,
spectral selection and editing can be used for cleaning up
unwanted sound, enhancing certain resonances, chang-
ing the quality of a voice or removing mouth sounds from
voice work. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the im-
age to read about that command. Skip the image
9.8 Select Menu: Tracks
These commands extend the current selection up and/or
down into all tracks, or Sync-Locked tracks in the
project.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image
to read about that command. Skip the image
283
position, so you may need to zoom out or scroll the
project to see the retrieved position.
• If the region was stored when in Spectrogram view
, the spectral selection within the region is also re-
trieved, even if the region is retrieved when in an-
other view. If the cursor position was stored when in
Spectrogram view, the vertical position (and hence
center frequency) of the click that placed the cursor
is retrieved.
< Back to: Select Menu
9.7.1 Toggle spectral selection Q
Changes between selecting a time range (and hence all
the frequencies in that range) and selecting the last se-
lected spectral selection in that time range. This com-
mand toggles the spectral selection even if not in Spec-
trogram view.
9.7.2 Next Higher Peak Frequency
When in Spectrogram view, snaps the center frequency
to the next higher frequency peak, moving the spectral
selection upwards. This does the same as clicking and
dragging the center frequency upwards.
9.7.3 Next Lower Peak Frequency
When in Spectrogram views snaps the center frequency
to the next lower frequency peak, moving the spectral se-
lection downwards. This does the same as clicking and
dragging the center frequency downwards.
< Back to: Select Menu
284 CHAPTER 9. SELECTING

9.8.1 In All Tracks Ctrl + Shift + K 9.8.2 In All Sync-Locked Tracks Ctrl + Shift
+Y

Extends the current selection up and/or down into all Extends the current selection up and/or down into all
tracks in the project. Sync-Locked tracks in the currently selected track group.

< Back to: Select Menu

Chapter 10

Transport Menu

10.1 Transport Menu

Transport Menu commands let you play or stop, loop 10.1.3 Scrubbing
play, scrub play or record (including timed and sound ac-
tivated recordings). Except for Scrub play , these play- Opens a cascading submenu where you can start, stop
back commands play at standard speed, or as speeded or switch to Scrub play or Seek play, or toggle the Scrub
up or slowed down over time by adding a Time Track en- Ruler on/off. Find out more about the Scrubbing sub-
velope. The easiest way to play at a fixed faster or slower menu here .
speed is to use Transcription Toolbar .Click, or hover, on
any menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image 10.1.4 Cursor to

The Cursor to submenu commands let you move the cur-

sor to the start or end of the selection, track or any adja-
cent Clip that you may have.

10.1.5 Play Region

The Play Region submenu commands enable you to lock

a play region and unlock it.

10.1.1 Play
10.1.6 Rescan Audio Devices
The Play submenu commands control playback in Audac-
ity. You can Start, Stop or Pause playback of the audio in Rescan for audio devices connected to your computer,
your project. and update the playback and recording dropdown menus
in Device Toolbar .

10.1.2 Record
10.1.7 Transport Options
The Record submenu commands control recording in Au-
dacity. You can Start, Stop or Pause recording in your The Transport Options submenu lets you manage and
project. You can either start a recording on your existing set various options for transport (playing and recording)
track or an a new track. in Audacity.

285
286 CHAPTER 10. TRANSPORT MENU

10.2 Transport Menu: Cursor to

These commands let you move the cursor to the start or Cursor moved to the end of the previously selected re-
end of the selection, track or any adjacent Clip that you gion with the selection removed.
may have. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image
to read about that command. Skip the image

10.2.3 Track Start J

Moves the cursor to the start of the selected track, re-

10.2.1 Selection Start moving any selection. If the left edge of the track is not
visible, scrolls the display so that the cursor is visible.
When there is a selection, moves the cursor to the start
of the selection and removes the selection without chang-
ing the zoom level. If the left edge of the selection is not
visible, scrolls the display so that the cursor is visible.

Cursor moved to the start of the previously selected re-

gion with the selection removed. The shorter track was the one selected, so the cursor is
moved to the 38 second mark at the beginning of that
track with the selection removed.

10.2.2 Selection End

When there is a selection, moves the cursor to the end of

the selection and removes the selection without chang-
ing the zoom level. If the right edge of the selection is not
visible, scrolls the display so that the cursor is visible.

10.2.4 Track End K

Moves the cursor to the end of the selected track, re-

moving any selection. If the right edge of the track is not
visible, scrolls the display so that the cursor is visible.
10.3. TRANSPORT MENU: PLAY
Operating on the same track selection as above, the cur-
sor is moved to the 1:28 mark at the end of the shorter
selected track with the selection removed.
10.2.5 Previous Clip Boundary
Moves the cursor position backwards to the previous clip
boundary.
• If the cursor is inside a clip, but not exactly on the
left boundary, this command will move the cursor to
the left boundary of the clip.
• If the cursor is exactly on the left boundary of a
clip, this command will move the cursor to the right
boundary of the previous clip.
• If the cursor is between clips, this command will
move the cursor to the right boundary of the pre-
vious clip.
• If the cursor is at the left edge of the first clip in the
track, this command does nothing.
Both Previous Clip Boundary and Next Clip Boundary
(below) use the clips in the selected track or tracks. If no
tracks are selected, the clips in all tracks are used.
10.3 Transport Menu: Play
These commands control playback in Audacity. You can
Start, Stop or Pause playback of the audio in your
project. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image
to read about that command. Skip the image
287
10.2.6 Next Clip Boundary
Moves the cursor position forwards to the next clip bound-
ary.
• If the cursor is inside a clip, but not exactly on the
right boundary, this command will move the cursor
to the right boundary of the clip.
• If the cursor is exactly on the right boundary of a
clip, this command will move the cursor to the left
boundary of the next clip.
• If the cursor is between clips, this command will
move the cursor to the left boundary of the next clip.
• If the cursor is at the right edge of the last clip in the
track, this command does nothing.
Both Previous Clip Boundary and Next Clip Boundary
will scroll the display to show the cursor if the result of the
command moves the cursor out of view.
10.2.7 Project Start Home
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the project. This
is useful if you want to play everything, or record a new
track starting from the beginning. Same as clicking the
Skip to Start button in Transport Toolbar .
10.2.8 Project End End
Moves the cursor to the end of the project. Same as
clicking the Skip to End button in Transport Toolbar .
< Back to: Transport Menu
10.3.1 Play/Stop Space
Starts and stops playback. If a region of a track is se-
lected , this command will play only that selection then
playback will stop. Otherwise, playback begins wher-
ever the editing cursor is and continues until the end of
the project is reached. Starting playback with this com-
mand is the same as clicking the Play button in Trans-
port Toolbar . When there is already playback or record-
ing (or playback or recording is paused ), this command
stops playback or recording immediately without chang-
ing the selection region or the position of the editing cur-
sor. Therefore using any play or record command after
288
stopping with "Play/Stop" will start playback or recording
from the same Timeline position it last started from. Stop-
ping playback with this command is the same as clicking
the Stop button in Transport Toolbar . If you want to
set separate keyboard shortcuts for Play and Stop you
can do this in Keyboard Preferences .
10.3.2 Play/Stop and Set Cursor X
Starts playback exactly like "Play/Stop", but stopping
playback (or recording) sets the editing cursor, or the left
edge of the selection region, to the stop point so that
playback can be resumed from there.
10.4 Transport Menu: Play Region
These commands enable you lot lock a play region and
unlock it.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image
to read about that command. Skip the image
10.4.1 Lock
Activating this menu item locks standard playback to the
current position of the playback region (or to the current
position of the Quick-Play region ). This locked position
10.5 Transport Menu: Record
These commands control recording in Audacity. You can
Start, Stop or Pause recording in your project. You can
either start a recording on your existing track or an a new
track.There is also a Timer Record function to enable you
to make unattended timed recordings.Click, or hover, on
any menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
CHAPTER 10. TRANSPORT MENU
10.3.3 Loop Play Shift + Space
Plays the selection over and over again. Same as holding
the Shift key while clicking the Play button in Transport
Toolbar .
10.3.4 Pause P
Temporarily pauses playing or recording without losing
your place. Same as clicking the Pause button in
Transport Toolbar .
< Back to: Transport Menu
is indicated by a red region in the Timeline instead of the
normal gray region in the Timeline. The locked region is
then always used when starting playback with a play but-
ton or with Space, instead of starting from the cursor or
region position in the waveform . See Play Region Lock
on the Timeline page for details. This menu item is only
active when there is a playback region or Quick-Play re-
gion in the Timeline displaying in normal gray (unlocked)
color.
10.4.2 Unlock
Removes the Play Region Lock. This menu item is only
active when the Lock is already active (the locked region
shows in red color in the Timeline). Play Region Lock or
Unlock may be performed even when the track is playing,
recording or paused.
< Back to: Transport Menu
10.6. TRANSPORT MENU: SCRUBBING
10.5.1 Record R
Clicking Record or using the R shortcut always begins
recording at the end of the currently selected track(s).
10.5.2 Record New Track Shift + R
This will cause Audacity to create a new track and begin
recording on that track from the current cursor position
(or from the left edge of a region on the Timeline). Starts
recording at the end of the currently selected track(s).
Append Record can also be started by holding Shift while
clicking the Record button in Transport Toolbar . When
you hold down the Shift key the Record button will change
to the Record New Track button.
10.6 Transport Menu: Scrubbing
A cascading submenu where you can start, stop or switch
to Scrub play or Seek play, or toggle the Scrub Ruler
on/off.Scrubbing or Seeking is the action of moving the
mouse pointer right or left so as to adjust the position,
speed or direction of playback, listening to the audio at
the same time - a convenient way to quickly navigate the
waveform to find a particular event of interest. Click, or
hover, on any menu item in the image to read about that
command. Skip the image
289
10.5.3 Timer Record... Shift + T
Brings up the Timer Record setup dialog for scheduling
when a recording ends and optionally, when it begins.
Pressing "OK" starts the process of recording, or wait-
ing for the recording to start. For full details of the timer
recording function please see the Timer Record page.
10.5.4 Pause P
Temporarily pauses playing or recording without losing
your place. Same as clicking the Pause button in
Transport Toolbar .
< Back to: Transport Menu
10.6.1 Scrub
Selecting Scrub play will put you into Scrub Play mode.
Scrub play will not start until you move the cursor hor-
izontally. Scrubbing is the action of moving the mouse
pointer right or left so as to adjust the position, speed or
direction of playback, listening to the audio at the same
time - a convenient way to quickly navigate the waveform
to find a particular event of interest. Speed changes are
made by rotating the mouse wheel while scrubbing.
10.6.2 Seek
Selecting this will put you into Seek play mode. Seeking
in the audio will start once you move the cursor horizon-
tally. Seeking is similar to Scrubbing except that it is play-
back with skips, similar to using the seek button on a CD
player. Even if you move the mouse pointer a long way
from the current position of the playhead, the playhead
290
will immediately move very close to the mouse pointer,
letting you move across the audio rapidly.
10.6.3 Scrub Ruler
The Scrub Ruler command is a toggle which enables you
to hide or show the Scrub Ruler (default is on). The
Scrub Ruler, the gray strip immediately below the Time-
line is the primary method for scrub or seek play. The
Scrub Ruler is set on and displayed by default in Audacity.
10.7 Transport Menu: Transport Options
This submenu lets you manage and set various options
for transport (playing and recording) in Audacity.Click, or
hover, on any menu item in the image to read about that
command. Skip the image
10.7.1 Sound Activation Level...
Sets the activation level above which Sound Activated
Recording will record.
10.7.2 Sound Activated Recording (on/off)
Toggles on and off the Sound Activated Recording op-
tion in Recording Preferences . This option can be useful
to save disk space when recording an intermittent input,
such as a call recording system. When turned on (indi-
cated by the check mark in the menu item), press the
Record button in Transport Toolbar to start the Sound
CHAPTER 10. TRANSPORT MENU
If you have turned it off you can get it displayed again by
right-clicking in the Timeline and selecting Enable Scrub
Ruler from the dropdown menu .
You can also turn the Scrub Ruler on or off by right-
clicking in the Timeline and choosing Enable or Disable
Scrub Ruler. < Back to: Transport Menu
Activated Recording session. Recording will now occur
whenever the received input is above the Sound Acti-
vation Level you specify (see the menu item below ).
Recording will pause whenever the received input falls
below that level. Press the Stop button to stop the record-
ing session. Sound Activated Recording can be com-
bined with Timer Record to set the start and end time of
a Sound Activated recording.
10.7.3 Pinned Play/Record Head (on/off)
You can change Audacity to play and record with a fixed
head pinned to the center of the Timeline. In this mode
the head remains static and the waveforms will move as
the audio is played or recorded. Clicking on this com-
mand cause the triange button at the left of the Time-
line to change to a drawing-pin. This indicates that the
play or record head is now pinned to the center of the
Timeline and when playing or recording takes place the
waveform will move continuously under the fixed head.
Clicking on this command againg will revert to unpinned
play and record head and the drawingpin changes back
to the triangle. See this section on the Timeline page for
more details.
10.7.4 Overdub (on/off)
Toggles on and off the Overdub option in Recording Pref-
erences . When turned on (indicated by the check mark
in the menu item), any existing audio tracks will play
when you start recording, according to the state of their
Mute/Solo buttons . Overdub is "on" by default in Audac-
ity.
10.7. TRANSPORT MENU: TRANSPORT OPTIONS 291

10.7.5 Software Playthrough (on/off) Tutorial about Recording overdubs .

Toggles on and off the Software Playthrough option in

Recording Preferences . When turned on (indicated by
the check mark in the menu item), input being recorded
will play, but there will be a noticeable delay (latency) be-
fore the input is heard. For some examples of setting up
equipment to record without playthrough latency, see this
Software Playthrough must be unchecked when
recording computer playback because it will create feed-
back echoes.
< Back to: Transport Menu
Chapter 11

Tracks Menu

11.1 Tracks Menu

Tracks Menu provides commands for: 11.1.3 Resample...

• Creating and removing tracks
• Applying operations to selected tracks such as mix-
ing , resampling , converting from stereo to mono,
aligning or muting
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that command. Skip the image
Allows you to resample the selected track(s) to a new
sample rate for use in the project, leaving the length (and
hence playback speed and pitch ) unchanged. To re-
sample for export , change the Project Rate in Selection
Toolbar .

11.1.4 Remove Tracks

Removes the selected track(s) from the project. Even

if only part of a track is selected, the entire track is re-
moved. You can also remove a track by clicking the X in
its upper left corner. To remove only the selected audio
in a track (without adding it to the clipboard) use Edit >
Delete or either Split Delete or Silence Audio at Edit >
Remove Special .

To change properties of individual audio tracks , such as

gain and pan, View Mode (such as the default Waveform 11.1.5 Mute/Unmute
view) and channel display, use the Audio Track Dropdown
Menu in the Track Control Panel .
The Mute/Unmute submenu enables you to mute or un-
mute all of the tracks in your project in one go, with-
out having to use the buttons Mute and Unmute in each
11.1.1 Add New track’s Track Control Panel .

The Add New submenu provides commands for adding

stereo or mono tracks, label tracks and time tracks. See
Tracks Overview for details of the different kinds of tracks. 11.1.6 Pan

The Pan submenu enables you to change the panning

11.1.2 Mix of all the tracks you have selected or partially selected,
in one go, without having to use the Pan sliders in each
The Mix submenu provides commands for mixing and track’s Track Control Panel . The panning choices are ex-
rendering your selected tracks to a singlestereo or mono treme Left or Right pan or Center pan. If no tracks are
track. selected, pan is changed in all tracks.

292
11.2. TRACKS MENU: ADD NEW
11.1.7 Align Tracks
The Align Tracks submenu provides a set of commands
to help you align your selected tracks in various ways. In
particular there are two very useful commands that en-
able you to align tracks end-to-end, one after the other,
or align them all together.
11.1.8 Sort Tracks
The Sort Tracks submenu provides commands to sort
your tracks by Track Names or the tracks’ start times.
11.2 Tracks Menu: Add New
This submenu enables you to add new tracks in your
project.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image
to read about that command. Skip the image
11.2.1 Mono Track Ctrl + Shift + N
Creates a new, empty mono audio track . This command
is rarely needed, since importing , recording and mixing
automatically create new tracks as needed. But you can
use this to cut or copy data from an existing track and
paste it into an empty track.
11.2.2 Stereo Track
Creates a new, empty stereo Audio Track . You may need
this if you start with a set of mono tracks and want to ex-
port a stereo mix.
293
11.1.9 Sync-Lock Tracks (on/off)
The Sync-Lock Tracks feature ensures that length
changes occurring anywhere in a defined group of tracks
also take place in all audio or label tracks in that group,
even if those tracks were not selected. This lets you keep
existing audio or labels synchronized with each other,
even when carrying out actions like inserting, deleting or
changing speed or tempo. You can turn this feature "on"
or "off" (default is unchecked "off") by clicking this menu
item. See Sync-Locked Track Groups for more informa-
tion.
11.2.3 Label Track
Creates a new, empty Label Track . When a label track
has the yellow focus border you can create a label just
by typing. Labels can be used for textual annotation and
are commonly used when exporting multiple files from a
single track.
11.2.4 Time Track
Creates a Time Track that can progressively increase or
decrease playback speed (and pitch) of all audio tracks
in the project. The range of possible speed warp is set in
the Set Range (upper and lower) option in the Time Track
dropdown menu to left of the track. The amount of and
direction of warping within that range is controlled using
Envelope Tool .
294 CHAPTER 11. TRACKS MENU

< Back to: Tracks Menu

11.3 Tracks Menu: Align Tracks

The Align Tracks submenu provides a set of commands
to help you align your selected tracks in various ways. In
particular there are two very useful commands that en-
able you to align tracks end-to-end, one after the other,
or align them all together. Click, or hover, on any menu
item in the image to read about that command. Skip the
image
the selected tracks in that group may become desynchro-
nized.
If a track contains multiple clips and one of the Align com-
mands is applied to that track then all the clips move and
maintain their relative positions to each other within the
track. The start of the first clip is the "start of the track"
and the end of the last clip is the "end of the track".

11.3.1 Align End to End

Aligns the selected tracks one after the other, based on

their top-to-bottom order in the project window. The first
selected track remains where it is, the start of the sec-
ond selected track aligns with the end of the first selected
track and so on. If you name a group of imported files
from an album so that their alphabetical order is the same
as the order you want to align them in, Align End to End
These commands provide an automatic way of aligning will make the imported files play in their album order. Af-
selected tracks with the cursor, the selection, or with the ter the align, all tracks in the project (not just the selected
start of the project. With the exception of the first two tracks) will be fitted to the window so that the end of the
commands ("Align End to End" and "Align Together"), last track will be visible in the project window. Before do-
each selected track is moved along equally so they re- ing Tracks > Align Tracks > Align End to End
main synchronized with each other. If a label track is
included in the selection, its labels will also move equally
so they remain synchronized. When aligning end to end
or aligning together, the tracks are always moved individ-
ually to enforce the requested alignment (as described
below). Label tracks are not affected by these two com-
mands. When there is a selection, the commands that
align tracks with the cursor/selection will align with the
start of the selection, and when there is a cursor, the
commands that align tracks with the cursor/selection will After doing Tracks > Align Tracks > Align End to End
align with the cursor.

If Sync-Lock Tracks is enabled, unselected tracks

in a Sync-Locked Track Group will also move so that all
the tracks in that group remain synchronized, except for
the Align "End to End" and "Together" commands where
only the selected tracks will move. Aligning end to end
or together overrides Sync-Lock Tracks if necessary, so
11.3. TRACKS MENU: ALIGN TRACKS 295

Note that zoom level has changed to display the entire 11.3.7 End to Selection End
project, and that the original selection has been retained.

Aligns the end of selected tracks with the end of the cur-
11.3.2 Align Together rent selection.

If you select multiple tracks, this command moves the

tracks so that they all start at the same time, so audio
within them changes its synchronization. The resultant
start time is an average of all of the tracks’ original start-
ing times. To adjust the starting times of tracks with com-
plete flexibility, use Time Shift Tool . Before doing Tracks
> Align Tracks > Align Together
After doing Tracks > Align Tracks > Align Together
11.3.8 Move Selection with Tracks (on/off)
When this option is off (not checked), the cursor or selec-
tion remains in its position relative to the Timeline . When
it is on, the cursor or selection is moved to maintain its
position relative to the tracks being moved. For example,
Tracks >Align Tracks > Start to Cursor/Selection Start will
align the selected tracks with the current cursor position
or selection start, but then also move the cursor or selec-
tion along so that it remains at the same position relative
to the new position of the aligned tracks. This option has
no effect on the Align End to End and the Align To-
gether commands. Before doing Tracks > Align Tracks >
Start to Zero

Note that the three tracks now start at the same time, and After doing Tracks > Align Tracks > Start to Zero, with
the start time is the average of the original start times of Move Selection with Tracks off.
the three tracks.

11.3.3 Start to Zero

Aligns the start of selected tracks with the start of the

project.

11.3.4 Start to Cursor/Selection Start

Note that the cursor remains at the same position relative
to the Time Line.After doing Tracks > Align Tracks > Start
Aligns the start of selected tracks with the current cursor
to Zero, with Move Selection with Tracks on.
position or with the start of the current selection.

11.3.5 Start to Selection End

Aligns the start of selected tracks with the end of the cur-
rent selection.

11.3.6 End to Cursor/Selection Start

Note that the cursor has moved to retain the same posi-
Aligns the end of selected tracks with the current cursor tion relative to the audio. < Back to: Tracks Menu
position or with the start of the current selection.
296 CHAPTER 11. TRACKS MENU

11.4 Tracks Menu: Mix

These commands provide tools for mixing and render- into separate tracks
ing your selected tracks to a singlestereo or mono track.
2. Close the unwanted track using the X button at the
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
top left of the Track Control Panel .
about that command. Skip the image

11.4.2 Mix and Render

Your audio tracks are implicitly mixed whenever you click

the Play button on Transport Toolbar or export audio .
Mix and Render explicitly mixes down all selected tracks
to a single mono or stereo track, rendering to the wave-
form all real-time transformations that had been applied
(such as track gain , panning, amplitude envelopes or a
change in project rate ). The resulting track (called "Mix")
replaces the selected tracks and is placed underneath
any tracks that were not mixed and rendered. Like all
tracks, the "Mix" track can be renamed using the Audio
11.4.1 Mix Stereo down to Mono Track Dropdown Menu .

Converts the selected stereo track(s) into the same num-

ber of mono tracks, combining left and right channels
equally by averaging the volume of both channels. An
important reason to convert stereo to mono is that it pro-
duces higher quality for the same bit rate (and hence
file size) in lossy , compressed audio files like MP3
or AAC . Stereo Track to Mono is not available with
stereo tracks split into left and right channels, or where
the start or end positions of the channels are different. If
you have a split stereo track, you can use the Track Drop-
down Menu to join the channels into a single stereo track
before converting to mono. This menu also lets you con-
vert a stereo track to a mono track containing only one of
the channels:
1. Choose "Split Stereo to Mono" from the Track Drop-
down Menu if your stereo track is not already split
If you try to mix two very loud tracks together, you
may get clipping (it will sound like pops, clicks and
noise). To avoid this, use the track gain controls to reduce
the amplitude of all of your tracks before mixdown. See
Mixing Audio Tracks for more details.
11.4.3 Mix and Render to New Track Ctrl +
Shift + M
This command performs the same actions as Mix and
Render above, except that the original tracks are pre-
served rather than being replaced by the "Mix" track.
< Back to: Tracks Menu

11.5 Tracks Menu: Pan

The Pan submenu enables you to change the panning

of all the tracks you have selected or partially selected,
in one go, without having to use the Pan sliders in each
track’s Track Control Panel . The panning choices are
extreme Left or Right pan or Center pan.If no tracks are
selected, pan is changed in all tracks.Click, or hover, on
any menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
11.6. TRACKS MENU: SORT TRACKS
11.5.1 Left
Pans the selected audio tracks (or all tracks if none is
selected) to the extreme left.
11.5.2 Right
Pans the selected audio tracks (or all tracks if none is
selected) to the extreme right.
11.6 Tracks Menu: Sort Tracks
The Sort Tracks submenu provides commands to
sort your tracks by Track Names or the tracks’ start
times.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to
read about that command. Skip the image
11.7 Tracks Preferences
Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > Tracks (on a Mac Au-
dacity > Preferences > Tracks )
297
11.5.3 Center
Pans the selected audio tracks (or all tracks if none is
selected) to the center.
< Back to: Tracks Menu
11.6.1 by Start time
Sorts all tracks in the project from top to bottom in the
project window. After the sort the top track will have the
earliest start time and the bottom track will have the latest
start time.
11.6.2 by Name
Sort all tracks in the project alphanumerically by track
name. Numbers precede letters, and upper-case letters
precede lower case letters. It does not use natural num-
ber sort, so "10" comes before "2" (but after "02").
< Back to: Tracks Menu
Tracks Preferences.Click on any other Preferences sec-
tions in the above image to read about those Prefer-
ences.
11.7.1 Display
• Pinned Recording/Playback head:You can change
Audacity to play and record with a fixed head
pinned to the center of the Timeline. In this mode
the head remains static and the tracks will move as
the audio is played or recorded.
• Auto-scroll if head unpinned: If Pinned Record-
ing/Playback head (see above) is unchecked as per
default, this option scrolls the Timeline leftwards
during standard play or recording when the play-
back or recording cursor reaches the right-hand
edge of the project. Most users would keep this
298 CHAPTER 11. TRACKS MENU

setting enabled. Turning it off: draws a vertical line from the track center line
to the sample dot, giving a clearer impression
– may prevent interrupted playback or recording
of the relative amplitude of the samples. As
on slower computers
seen in the images below, when zoomed out
– lets you drag the horizontal scrollbar at the close to the minimum for a stem plot, the hor-
bottom of the window to a new position then izontal distance between sample dots may be
restart playback from there more uneven than seen with the connect dots
default. Uneven spacing is due to "aliasing",
– halts Scrubbing and Seeking playback when but zooming in further will equalize the spac-
the playhead reaches either edge of the visi- ing whether choosing Connect dots or Stem
ble project plot.
– prevents losing sight of a selection edge when – Connect dots: This is alternative setting
making loops yields a waveform where each sample dot is
– makes it easier to listen repeatedly from a par- connected to the next sample by a line drawn
ticular start point without its visible surround- between them.
ings changing.
This preference may also be turned on and off dur-
ing playback using the Timeline right-click menu .
• Auto-fit track height: Tracks will be automatically re-
sized to fit in the vertical space of the project win-
dow if possible. All tracks that have not been col-
lapsed using the Track Collapse Button or Collapse
All Tracks menu item are resized so that each sep-
arate waveform has the same height. Accordingly
mono tracks will have the same height as each • Default audio track name: The default name that
other and stereo tracks will have the same height Audacity will use for new audio tracks other than
as each other (twice the height of the mono tracks). imported files. The Audacity default name is "Audio
Track".
• Default view mode: Choose the default view for all
newly-created audio tracks. The choices are the • Show audio track name as overlay: When this is
same as those available in the Audio Track Drop- enabled the audio track name is displayed superim-
down Menu . posed in yellow at top left of all audio tracks. Note
that the track name is always shown in the Track
• Display samples: This setting changes how Wave- Control Panel but will be truncated if the name is
form and Waveform dB views are displayed. It only too long to fit.
affects the appearance of the waveform when you
are so far zoomed in that you can see the individ-
ual sample dots. At lower zoom levels it makes no
difference.
– Stem plot: This is the default setting which
Chapter 12

View Menu

12.1 View Menu

View Menu has commands that determine the amount 12.1.3 Skip To
of detail you see in all the tracks in the project window.
It also lets you show or hide Toolbars and some addi-
tional windows such as Undo History .Click, or hover, on
any menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image

The Skip to submenu has commands that enable you to

readily skip the cursor position to the beginning or end of
your current selection.

Audio tracks support different View Modes such as

Waveform (the default), Waveform dB or Spectrogram
. These views can be changed individually for each
track using the Audio Track Dropdown Menu , or you
can change the default View Mode for all tracks in Tracks
Preferences . 12.1.4 History...

12.1.1 Zoom

The Zoom submenu has commands that enable you to

control the amount of audio, longer or shorter periods of
time, that is visible on your screen.
12.1.2 Track Size
The Track Size submenu contains commands that help
you to fit your project to the screen horizontally and verti-
cally.
Brings up the History window which can then be left open
while using Audacity normally. History lists all undoable
actions performed in the current project, including import-
ing. The right-hand column shows the amount of hard
disk space each operation used and the total space used
is shown in the first (uneditable) box beneath the list. In
the project shown in the image below we normalized both
the recorded track and the Risset Drum track, so Normal-
ize took a little more space than that taken by the record-
ing.

299
300
If you discard Undo levels you can reclaim the disk space
used by the project. To save the most space (removing
ability to undo or redo any past edits), select the bot-
tom Action in the list using the mouse or keyboard Up
or Down arrow, increase "Levels to Discard" to the high-
est possible number then click "Discard". You can also
easily jump back and forth between editing steps by se-
lecting the entries in the window. This can be quicker
than choosing Undo and Redo multiple times from the
Edit Menu . See Undo, Redo and History for details
on using the Undo History window.
12.1.5 Karaoke...
Karaoke... shows a bouncing ball that follows text as
audio plays. The Karaoke... command is enabled when-
ever you have at least one label track . If you have multi-
ple label tracks, it uses only the first one. For more details
see the Karaoke page.
12.1.6 Mixer Board...
Mixer Board... is an alternative view to the audio tracks
in the main tracks window, and is analogous to a hard-
ware mixer board. Each audio track is displayed in a
Track Strip. Each Track Strip has its own pair of meters,
gain slider, pan slider, and mute/solo buttons, echoing
that track’s controls in its Track Control Panel . The Mixer
Board... command is enabled whenever there’s an audio
track - it can even be brought up during playback. For
more details see the Mixer Board page.
CHAPTER 12. VIEW MENU
12.1.7 Extra Menus (on/off)
Shows extra menus with many extra less-used com-
mands. These appear after the help menu. An example
is shown below: Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
image to read about that command. Skip the image
12.1.8 Show Clipping
Click this menu item to turn display of clipped samples
on and off - a check mark in the item indicates that dis-
play is turned on. If turned on (the default is off), individ-
ual or multiple clipped samples display as a red vertical
line when in one of the waveform views . A sample is dis-
played as clipped if it touches or exceeds 0 dB and so
touches or exceeds the volume envelope defined by +1.0
to - 1.0 on the vertical scale to left of the waveform. A
run of four or more consecutive clipped samples will also
trigger the red clipping indicator in Meter Toolbar . A solid
block of red in the waveform will almost certainly indicate
multiple or extended runs of lost audio information above
0 dB, resulting in severe distortion. Avoid clipped sam-
ples where possible, for example by setting the recording
level correctly. You may turn "Show Clipping" off if it be-
haves sluggishly on slower machines.
By choosing Analyze > Find Clipping..., clipping can
also be shown diagrammatically in a Label Track so that
screen-readers can access the information.
12.1.9 Enter / Exit Full Screen (Mac only)
This menu item only appears on Mac OS X Lion and
above. Enter Full Screen enters full screen state, oc-
cupying the entire display and hiding the Audacity menu
bar and window buttons and the Dock. This is the same
as clicking the green window button top left of the Au-
dacity title bar. To leave Full Screen, hover your mouse
12.2. VIEW MENU: SKIP TO
at the top of the monitor to show the menu bar and win-
dow buttons then access View > Exit Full Screen or click
the green window button. The Mac keyboard shortcut
Ctrl + CloverLeaf + F to toggle full screen does not work
in Audacity and so does not appear alongside the En-
ter / Exit Full Screen menu items. Separate "App Short-
cuts" for "Enter Full Screen" and "Exit Full Screen" can
be added for Audacity in the Mac Keyboard Preferences,
but it is probably easier to use Audacity’s own shortcut
12.2 View Menu: Skip to
These commands enable you to readily skip the cursor
position to the beginning or end of your current selection.
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that command. Skip the image
12.2.1 Selection Start Ctrl + [
Attempts to move the left edge of the current selection
to the center of the screen, without changing the zoom
level. This is useful if you are zoomed far in at the right
edge of the selection and then wish to view the left edge,
which may be currently off screen. Also if you have lost
sight of the selection entirely by scrolling too far, either
this or the companion command "Selection End" (below)
will always bring the selection back on screen.
12.2.2 Selection End Ctrl + ]
Attempts to move the right edge of the current selection
to the center of the screen, without changing the zoom
301
COMMAND + / for "Full screen on/off" which performs
the same full screen function.
"Full screen on/off" is not interchangeable with the
menu item or full screen button. Thus the Audacity short-
cut cannot exit full screen entered by other methods, and
the other methods cannot exit full screen entered by us-
ing the Audacity shortcut.
level. This is useful if you are zoomed far in at the left
edge of the selection and then wish to view the right
edge.which may be currently off screen. Also if you have
lost sight of the selection entirely by scrolling too far, ei-
ther this or the companion command "Go to Selection
Start" ( above ) will always bring the selection back on
screen. Tips for usage of Selection Start and Selec-
tion End:
• Using either command after zooming in or out pro-
vides a keyboard method to zoom in or out on a se-
lection edge. To enable the keyboard shortcuts for
these commands go to the Keyboard Preferences
page and set the Defaults to Full. This is other-
wise possible only by Ctrl and mouse wheel scroll
while the mouse pointer is positioned at either se-
lection edge.
• In some cases. either command may have no effect
or the selection edge may not move fully to center if
the selection is over to left or right so that the Time-
line position cannot move sufficiently. For exam-
ple, a selection wholly to left of the waveform cen-
ter point cannot move if the visible left edge of the
waveform starts at time zero. If "Enable scrolling
left of zero" is enabled in Tracks Behaviors Pref-
erences then it will always be possible to scroll the
display so the cursor or selection edge is at the cen-
ter of the track display.
< Back to: View Menu
302 CHAPTER 12. VIEW MENU

12.3 View Menu: Toolbars

Toolbars provide quick access to many functions in Au- 12.3.3 Tools Toolbar
dacity. In some cases the functions provided by a tool-
bar are available only through that toolbar. Other than
the Spectral Selection Toolbar and the Scrub Toolbar , all
toolbars are enabled by default. If your desired toolbar
is not visible, choose View > Toolbars and click to put a
checkmark by the toolbar you wish to enable.

• The Meter toolbars are a special case. You may • Chooses various tools for selection, volume adjust-
have one or both of the separate Recording and ment, zooming and time-shifting of audio.
Playback Meter toolbars visible (both are visible by
default). Alternatively you can have only the Com-
bined Meter Toolbar visible (which displays record- 12.3.4 Recording Meter Toolbar
ing and playback levels in a single meter).

Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read

about that command. Skip the image
• Displays recording levels and toggles input monitor-
ing when not recording. Note the two vertical bars
at the right of this toolbar which mean that this tool-
bar can be resized by clicking and dragging on the
bars.

12.3.5 Playback Meter Toolbar

• Displays playback levels. Note the two vertical bars

at the right of this toolbar which mean that this tool-
bar can be resized by clicking and dragging on the
bars.
See Toolbars Overview for description of docking and us-
ing toolbars. This menu enables and disables the tool-
bars.
12.3.6 Mixer Toolbar

12.3.1 Reset Toolbars

• Adjusts the recording and playback volumes of the
Using this command positions all toolbars in default lo- devices currently selected in Device Toolbar .
cation and size as they were when Audacity was first in-
stalled. See this page for information on arranging your
Toolbars. 12.3.7 Edit Toolbar

12.3.2 Transport Toolbar • Cut, copy, paste, trim audio, silence audio, undo,
redo, four zoom tools.

12.3.8 Transcription Toolbar

• Controls playback and recording and skips to start

or end of project when neither playing or recording.
12.4. VIEW MENU: TRACK SIZE
• Plays audio at a slower or faster speed than nor-
mal, affecting pitch.
12.3.9 Scrub Toolbar
• Starts, stops or switches to Scrub play or Seek play,
and hides or displays the Scrub Ruler.
• This toolbar is not shown by default. Select View >
Toolbars > Scrub Toolbar to show the toolbar, which
by default docks in the upper dock.
12.3.10 Device Toolbar
• Selects audio host, recording device, number of
recording channels and playback device.Note the
two vertical bars at the right of this toolbar which
mean that this toolbar can be resized by clicking
and dragging on the bars.
12.3.11 Selection Toolbar
• Controls the sample rate of the project, snapping
to the selection format and adjusts cursor and re-
gion position by keyboard input.The default position
12.4 View Menu: Track Size
These commands help you to fit your project to the
screen horizontally and vertically. Click, or hover, on any
menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
303
of Selection Toolbar is at the bottom of the main Au-
dacity window, thus it is not visible in the Toolbars
image at the top of this page.
12.3.12 Spectral Selection Toolbar
• Displays and lets you adjust the current spectral
(frequency) selection without having to be in Spec-
trogram view .
• This toolbar is not shown by default. Select View >
Toolbars > Spectral Selection Toolbar to show the
toolbar, which by default docks in the lower dock,
beside or under Selection Toolbar .
• Choose your preferred format option from the drop-
down menu above the boxes: Center frequency
and Width or Low and High Frequencies .
In Center frequency and Width view, to clear the spec-
tral selection entirely just use the Delete key after having
clicked on any of the digits (note carefully that this is not
the Delete key on the numerical keypad). When in Low
and High Frequencies view you can clear either input box
individually with the Delete key. < Back to: View Menu
12.4.1 Fit to Width Ctrl + F
Zooms out until the entire project just fits in the width of
the project window.
12.4.2 Fit to Height Ctrl + Shift + F
Adjusts the height of tracks so they fit in the vertical space
of the project window if possible. All tracks that have not
been collapsed using the Track Collapse Button or Col-
lapse All Tracks menu item are resized so that each sep-
arate waveform has the same height. Accordingly mono
tracks will have the same height as each other and stereo
tracks will have the same height as each other (twice the
height of the mono tracks). For example, if you have two
304 CHAPTER 12. VIEW MENU

mono tracks with considerable space underneath them 12.4.4 Expand Collapsed Tracks Ctrl +
you can use this command to expand each track to fill Shift + X
half the available vertical space. If you want tracks to
automatically fit the vertical space without the need to Expands all tracks that were collapsed using the Col-
use the Fit Vertically command, enable Automatically fit lapse button or Collapse All Tracks menu item to the
tracks vertically zoomed in Tracks Preferences . height the tracks had before their last collapse.

12.4.3 Collapse All Tracks Ctrl + Shift + C

Collapses all tracks to take up the minimum amount of

space. To collapse or expand an individual track, click on
the Track Collapse Button with triangle icon at the bottom
of the track.

< Back to: View Menu

12.5 View Menu: Zoom

The Zoom commands enable you to control the amount
of audio, longer or shorter periods of time, that is visible
on your screen. See Also: Zooming for details about
other ways to zoom in and out, for example, using the
magnifier icons on the edit toolbar. Click, or hover, on
any menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
ways be possible for the zoom in or zoom out com-
mands to place the editing cursor or selection at the
center of the track display.
12.5.1 Zoom In Ctrl + 1
• View > Zoom > Zoom In: Doubles the current zoom
level.
Zooms in on the horizontal axis of the audio, displaying
more detail over a shorter length of time. You can also
use the Zoom tool from the Tools Toolbar to zoom in on
a particular part of the window.

12.5.2 Zoom Normal Ctrl + 2

• View > Zoom > Zoom Normal: Reverts back to Au-

The Zoom In and Zoom Out commands will attempt to
keep the editing cursor position, or the selection, cen-
tered in the track display. That may not always be possi-
ble.
• If the editing cursor or selection is near the start or
end of the track and "Enable scrolling left of zero"
is off (default setting), then it may not be possible
for the zoom in or zoom out commands to place the
editing cursor or selection at the center of the track
display.
• If "Enable scrolling left of zero" is on then it will al-
dacity’s default zoom, where you can see 5 - 10
seconds at a time.
Zooms to the default view, which displays about one inch
per second. It centers the cursor in the track display, or if
you have a selection it will attempt to keep some part of
a selection visible.
12.5.3 Zoom Out Ctrl + 3
• View > Zoom > Zoom Out: Cuts the current zoom
level in half.
12.5. VIEW MENU: ZOOM 305

Zooms out, displaying less detail over a greater length of
time.
12.5.4 Zoom to Selection Ctrl + E
• View > Zoom > Zoom to Selection: If you have au-
dio selected, this zooms and scrolls so that the se-
lection just fits in the window.
Zooms in or out so that the selected audio fills the width
of the project window. Its most useful purpose is to
zoom in when the selection is only a small part of the
visible waveform. If there is a region of audio selected
and it is not visible on the screen, the Zoom to Selection
command will move the selection to fill the track display.
< Back to: View Menu
Chapter 13
Effects
13.1 Effect Menu
Audacity includes many built-in effects and also lets
you use a wide range of plug-in effects. You can
download many free plug-ins for Audacity from our web-
site. Plug-ins always appear underneath the divider in
the Effect menu. Released builds of Audacity include
sample Nyquist and/or LADSPA effects.
To apply an effect, select part or all of the track(s) you
want to modify, and select the effect from the menu.
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that command. Skip the image
13.1.1 Using Effects
Titles which end in an ellipsis (...) will bring up a dialog
asking you for more parameters. All effects that have a
dialog let you hear the audio as modified by the effect
before you apply the effect to the waveform.
• Built-in effects , Nyquist plug-ins included in Audac-
ity and other Nyquist plug-ins have a Preview but-
ton - press this to listen if the current effect settings
produce what you want, and if not, change the set-
tings then Preview again. Press OK to apply the
effect to the waveform.
• All other effect types supported in Audacity (
LADSPA , LV2 , VST and Audio Units for Mac) sup-
306
port real-time preview - you can change the effect
settings while listening then press Apply to apply
the effect to the waveform.
Effects in the Effect menu that do not support real-
time preview will appear grayed out when playing or
recording.
13.1.2 Add / Remove Plug-ins...
Selecting this option from the Effect Menu (or the Gener-
ate Menu or Analyze Menu ) takes you to a dialog which
enables you to load and unload Effects (and Generators
and Analyzers) from Audacity. This enables you to cus-
tomize your Effect Menu making it shorter or longer as
required. For details see Add / Remove Effects, Genera-
tors and Analyzers . By default all the Built-in effects, with
the exception of Classic Filters, are loaded in Audacity.
Additional plug-ins can also be loaded into Audac-
ity. For details see the following FAQs for: Windows
, Mac and Linux See also this list of available Nyquist
effect plug-ins on the Audacity Wiki, that you can easily
download and add to Audacity.
13.1.3 Repeat Last Effect Ctrl +R
Using this command from the Effect menu will repeat the
last effect that you used at the same settings. For quick
access to the last used effect, you can use Ctrl + R to
repeat it the same settings. For effects that you use often
you can use Keyboard Preferences to set up keyboard
shortcuts for those effects.
13.2. EFFECT MENU: AUDACITY 307

13.1.4 Audacity built-in effects
Audacity’s built-in effects (those that appear in the appli-
cation irrespective of the contents of your Audacity and
other "Plug-Ins" folders) are above the divider in the Ef-
fect menu. Built-in effects support saving of user presets
but do not yet support real-time preview or import/export
of presets from/to other machines. Find out more about
the ’Audacity’ submenu for built-in effects here .
13.1.5 Nyquist effects
Mac and Linux. Please see the LADSPA section of the
Download page on the Audacity Website for more details
and links. LADSPA effects support real-time preview
. They do not support import/export of presets but do
support saving presets for use in Audacity only. A few
LADSPA plug-ins have an "Effect Output" section which
is populated after the effect is applied. Find out more
about the ’LADSPA’ submenu for plug-in effects here .
The following effect classes: LV2 and VST are always
third-party plug-ins added by the user.Audio Units (Mac
only), are added by the operating system, macOS, on
Apple Mac computers.

Nyquist plug-ins provide most of the optional effects un-

derneath the divider in the Effect menu. They are also 13.1.7 LV2 effects
used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio gen-
erators and analysis tools . A wide range of additional LV2 is a more advanced evolution of the LADSPA plug-in
Nyquist effect, generation and analysis plug-ins can be architecture. Note that LV2 effects in Audacity cannot yet
obtained from Download Nyquist Plug-ins on our Wiki. display a full graphical interface.
Nyquist effects support saving of user presets but do
not yet support real-time preview or import/export of pre-
sets from/to other machines. Find out more about the
13.1.8 VST effects
’Nyquist’ submenu for plug-in effects here .

Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is a software interface

13.1.6 LADSPA effects that integrates software audio synthesizer and effect
plug-ins with audio editors and recording systems, such
as Audacity.
LADSPA (Linux Audio Developer’s Simple Plug-in API)
plug-ins were originally developed for the Linux platform,
but ports of some plug-ins are available for Windows and
Mac as well. Most LADSPA plug-ins are effects, but they 13.1.9 Audio Unit effects (Mac only)
are also used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio
generators and can be used for audio analysis . Addi- Audio Unit (AU) is a system-level plug-in architecture pro-
tional LADSPA plug-ins can be downloaded for Windows, vided only on Mac computers.

13.2 Effect Menu: Audacity

Audacity’s built-in effects (those that appear in the appli-

cation irrespective of the contents of your Audacity and
other "Plug-Ins" folders) are above the divider in the Ef-
fect menu.Built-in effects support saving of user presets
but do not yet support real-time preview or import/export
of presets from/to other machines.Click, or hover, on any
menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
308
13.2.1 Built-in effects
Audacity’s built-in effects (those that appear in the appli-
cation irrespective of the contents of your Audacity and
other "Plug-Ins" folders) are above the divider in the Ef-
fect menu. Most of the built-in effects (and most Nyquist
effect plug-ins shipped with Audacity) have a Preview but-
ton. This allows you to listen to how the first six sec-
onds (by default) of the selected audio would sound if
you pressed OK to apply the effect. The preview length
can be changed on the Playback tab of Preferences .
All selected tracks are previewed irrespective of whether
the tracks are muted or soloed . This is because the ef-
fect is applied to the selected audio. If Preview does not
sound quite as you want, adjust the controls of the effect
and Preview again.Built-in effects support saving of user
presets but do not yet support real-time preview or im-
port/export of presets from/to other machines.Most of the
effects that are included with Audacity have a help
button in the bottom left corner. Clicking on it will take
you to help in the manual about that effect. The titles
below are also links to more detailed information about
each effect.
Amplify...
Increases or decreases the volume of the audio you have
selected. When you open the dialog, Audacity automat-
ically calculates the maximum amount you could amplify
the selected audio without causing clipping (distortion
caused by trying to make the audio too loud).
Auto Duck...
Reduces (ducks) the volume of one or more tracks when-
ever the volume of a specified "control" track reaches a
particular level. Typically used to make a music track
softer whenever speech in a commentary track is heard.
Bass and Treble...
Increases or decreases the lower frequencies and
higher frequencies of your audio independently. It be-
haves just like the bass and treble controls on a domestic
stereo system.
Change Pitch...
Change the pitch of a selection without changing its
tempo.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Change Speed...
Change the speed of a selection, also changing its pitch.
Change Tempo...
Change the tempo and length (duration) of a selection
without changing its pitch.
Classic Filters...
Provides three different types of filters which together
emulate the vast majority of analog filters, and provides
useful tools for analysis and measurement. Classic Fil-
ters is not loaded into the Effect Menu by default but you
can use Add / Remove Plug-ins... from the Effect Menu
to load it if required.
Click Removal...
Click Removal is designed to remove clicks on audio
tracks and is especially suited to declicking recordings
made from vinyl records. It will usually work best on very
short clicks. For broader individual pops in selections up
to 128 samples wide (about three milliseconds at 44100
Hz project rate), you could try the Repair effect.
Compressor...
Compresses the dynamic range by two alternative
methods. The default " RMS " method makes the louder
parts softer, but leaves the quieter audio alone. The al-
ternative "peaks" method makes the entire audio louder,
but amplifies the louder parts less than the quieter parts.
Make-up gain can be applied to either method, making
the result as loud as possible without clipping , but not
changing the dynamic range further.
Distortion...
Use the Distortion effect to make the audio sound dis-
torted. By distorting the waveform the frequency content
is changed, which will often make the sound "crunchy"
or "abrasive". Technically this effect is a waveshaper.
The result of waveshaping is equivalent to applying non-
linear amplification to the audio waveform. Preset shap-
ing functions are provided, each of which produces a dif-
ferent type of distortion.
13.2. EFFECT MENU: AUDACITY
Echo...
Repeats the selected audio again and again, normally
softer each time. The delay time between each repeat is
fixed, with no pause in between each repeat. For a more
configurable echo effect with a variable delay time and
pitch-changed echoes, see Delay...
Equalization...
Adjusts the volume levels of particular frequencies.
Fade In
Applies a fade-in to the selected audio, so that the am-
plitude changes gradually from silence at the start of the
selection to the original amplitude at the end of the selec-
tion. The shape of the fade is linear . The rapidity of the
fade-in depends entirely on the length of the selection it
is applied to.
Fade Out
Applies a fade-out to the selected audio, so that the am-
plitude changes gradually from the original amplitude at
the start of the selection down to silence at the end of the
selection. The shape of the fade is linear . The rapid-
ity of the fade-out depends entirely on the length of the
selection it is applied to.
Invert
Flips the audio samples upside-down. This normally
does not affect the sound of the audio at all. It is oc-
casionally useful for vocal removal.
Noise Reduction...
Reduces constant background noise such as fans, tape
noise, or hums. It will not work for removing talking or
music in the background.
Normalize...
Use the Normalize effect to set the maximum amplitude
of a track, equalize the amplitudes of the left and right
channels of a stereo track and optionally remove any DC
Offset from the track.
309
Paulstretch...
Use Paulstretch only for an extreme time-stretch or "sta-
sis" effect. This may be useful for synthesizer pad
sounds, identifying performance glitches or just creating
interesting aural textures. Use Change Tempo or Sliding
Time Scale rather than Paulstretch for tasks like slowing
down a song to a "practice" tempo.
Phaser...
The name "Phaser" comes from "Phase Shifter", be-
cause it works by combining phase-shifted signals with
the original signal. The movement of the phase-shifted
signals is controlled using a Low Frequency Oscillator
(LFO).
Repair
Fix one particular short click, pop or other glitch no more
than 128 samples long.
Repeat...
Repeats the selection the specified number of times.
Reverb...
Adds ambience or a "hall effect".
Reverse
Reverses the selected audio, so that it will sound as if it
is playing from the end to the start.
Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift...
Allows you to make a continuous change to the tempo
and/or pitch of a selection by choosing initial and/or final
change values.
Time Tracks can be used to bend tempo more flexibly
(also affecting pitch) using Envelope Tool .
Truncate Silence...
Automatically try to find and eliminate audible silences.
Don’t use with faded audio.
310 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS

Wahwah...
Rapid tone quality variations, like that guitar sound so
popular in the 1970’s. Wahwah uses a moving bandpass
filter to create its sound. A low frequency oscillator (LFO)
is used to control the movement of the filter throughout
the frequency spectrum . The phase of the left and right
channels is automatically adjusted when given a stereo
track, so that the effect seems to travel across the speak-
ers.
< Back to: Effect Menu

13.3 Effect Menu: Audio Unit

Audio Unit (AU) is a system-level plug-in architecture pro-
vided on Mac computers.It supports real-time preview
.Import/export of presets is supported (see the descrip-
tion below of how it works) and the saving of presets for
use in Audacity only.
between computers. To export a saved User Preset, se-
lect Export... from the Manage menu in the effect
dialog which brings up the following dialog:

13.3.1 Adding Audio Unit effects

For detailed instructions on installing Audio Unit plug-ins

for Audacity see: Installing Effect, Generator and Ana-
lyzer plug-ins on Mac OS X/macOS .

13.3.2 Saving, Exporting and Importing

Audio Unit Effect Presets

Save Preset...

To save the current effect settings as a User Preset, se-

lect Save Preset... from the Manage menu in the Select the user preset(s) you want to export then click
effect dialog which brings up the following dialog: OK to export each selected preset to a file. If there is
only one preset in the list you must still select it, or noth-
ing will be exported.

Import...

Select Import... from the Manage menu in the ef-

fect dialog which brings up the following dialog:
Type a name for the preset then click OK after which the
saved preset will appear in the "User Presets" list in the
Manage menu.

Export...

Before you can export a preset you must already have

saved it as a User Preset. Each preset for Audio Unit
effects is exported to a separate ".aupreset " file at
/Users/<yourUserName>/Library/Audio/Presets/Apple/<effectName>/.
Select the preset(s) you want to import then click OK to
A presets file lets you move settings for a particular effect import each preset file as a User Preset. Importing one
13.4. EFFECT MENU: LADSPA
or more presets does not load new settings into the ef-
fect. You must select one of the imported presets from
User Presets... in the Manage menu to load its
settings into the effect.
13.3.3 Audio Unit Effect Options
In the effect’s dialog, click the Manage button then
choose Options... to bring up the dialog illustrated
below. When you change the options in this dialog, the
changes apply only to the current effect that’s open. All
other Audio Unit effects will remain at the default options
shown below until you change their options.
13.4 Effect Menu: LADSPA
LADSPA (Linux Audio Developer’s Simple Plug-in API)
plug-ins were originally developed for the Linux platform,
but ports of some plug-ins are available for Windows and
Mac as well.
• Most LADSPA plug-ins are effects, but they are also
used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio
generators and can be used for audio analysis .
• Additional LADSPA plug-ins can be downloaded for
Windows, Mac and Linux. Please see the LADSPA
section of the Download page on the Audacity Web-
site for more details and links.
• LADSPA effects support real-time preview . They
do not support import/export of presets but do sup-
port saving presets for use in Audacity only. A few
LADSPA plug-ins have an "Effect Output" section
which is populated after the effect is applied.
• Loading of LADSPA effects is controlled by the
Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyz-
ers dialog.
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that command. Skip the image
311
• Latency Compensation: This setting (enabled by
default) compensates for waveform delay caused
by Audio Unit effects which preload audio data to
a buffer. Compensation may not work in all cases,
and for it to work, any compensation or latency re-
porting settings in the effect itself must be enabled.
If compensation fails or if this Audacity setting is
unchecked, effects that buffer audio will insert si-
lence at the start of the processed selection and
remove a corresponding amount of audio from the
end of the selection. Enabling or disabling compen-
sation is effective immediately.
• User Interface: The "Full" setting, enabled by de-
fault, allows most Audio Unit effects to display a
graphical (instead of a plain text) interface. If you
change this setting you must close the settings di-
alog, then close and reopen the effect to see the
change.
< Back to: Effect Menu
13.4.1 LADSPA plug-ins shipped with Au-
dacity
One sample LADSPA effect is included with Windows
and Mac builds of Audacity:
SC4...
A stereo compressor with a variable envelope follower
for RMS / peak behavior. Although shipped, SC4 is not
enabled by default on Mac. To enable it for use you will
need to use Add/Remove Plugins... from the top of the
Effect menu . See this page for details.
312
13.4.2 Adding a LADSPA plug-in
For detailed instructions on installing LADSPA plug-ins
for Audacity see: Windows , Mac or Linux
13.4.3 Saving LADPSA effect settings as a
User Preset
To save the current effect settings as a User Preset, in
the effect’s dialog, click the Manage button then choose
Save Preset... which brings up the following dialog:
Type a name for the preset then click OK after which the
saved preset will appear in the "User Presets" list in the
Manage menu.
13.5 Effect Menu: LV2
LV2 is a more advanced evolution of the LADSPA plug-
in architecture. Note that LV2 effects in Audacity cannot
yet display a full graphical interface. LV2 effects support
real-time preview . They do not support import/export of
presets but do support saving presets for use in Audacity
only. Most LV2 effects that have a graphical interface will
show that interface by default in Audacity. Some LV2 ef-
13.6 Effect Menu: Nyquist
Nyquist plug-ins provide most of the optional effects un-
derneath the divider in the Effect menu. They are also
used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio gen-
erators and analysis tools . A wide range of addi-
tional Nyquist effect, generation and analysis plug-ins
can be obtained from Download Nyquist Plug-ins on our
Wiki.Nyquist effects support saving of user presets but do
not yet support real-time preview or import/export of pre-
sets from/to other machines.Where a built-in or shipped
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.4.4 LADSPA Effect Options
In the effect’s dialog, click the Manage button then
choose Options... to bring up the dialog illustrated
below. When you change the options in this dialog, the
changes apply only to the current effect that’s open. All
other LADSPA effects will remain at the default options
shown below until you change their options.
• Latency Compensation: This setting (enabled by
default) compensates for waveform delay caused
by LADSPA effects which preload audio data to a
buffer. Compensation may not work in all cases,
and for it to work, any compensation or latency re-
porting settings in the effect itself must be enabled.
If compensation fails or if this Audacity setting is
unchecked, effects that buffer audio will insert si-
lence at the start of the processed selection and
remove a corresponding amount of audio from the
end of the selection. Enabling or disabling compen-
sation is effective immediately.
< Back to: Effect Menu
fects do not allow directly embedding their interface into
our effect dialog, so those effects will only show a textual
interface in Audacity. Some LV2 effects require features
that are not yet supported in Audacity, so display an error
message when applying the effect.
< Back to: Effect Menu
Nyquist effect has an interface, its description page (ac-
cessed by the links below) shows an image of the inter-
face and its default settings.Click, or hover, on any menu
item in the image to read about that command. Skip the
image
13.6. EFFECT MENU: NYQUIST
13.6.1 Nyquist effects
Nyquist effects support saving of user presets but do not
yet support real-time preview or import/export of presets
from/to other machines.Nyquist plug-ins provide most of
the optional effects underneath the divider in the Effect
menu. They are also used to provide some of Audac-
ity’s built-in audio generators and analysis tools . A wide
range of additional Nyquist effect, generation and anal-
ysis plug-ins can be obtained from Download Nyquist
Plug-ins on our Wiki. The Debug button in most Nyquist
effect dialogs opens a "Nyquist Output" window contain-
ing any informational or error output provided by the ef-
fect. This is primarily of use when writing or editing
Nyquist plug-ins. After pressing OK in this window, the
effect or other chosen action is attempted just as it would
be if pressing OK in the effect instead of using the De-
bug button. For detailed instructions on installing Nyquist
plug-ins for Audacity see: Windows , Mac or Linux To
load the new effects into Audacity so they are available in
the menu, use the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators
and Analyzers dialog.
Some Nyquist plug-ins could crash while process-
ing very long audio selections (typically an hour or more).
This is due to the plug-in using a large amount of mem-
ory and is a known issue in Audacity’s current Nyquist
implementation. Try using the plug-in on shorter selec-
tions instead.
13.6.2 Nyquist Workbench
For advanced users who can compile Audacity, Nyquist
Workbench gives the ability to run arbitrary Nyquist code
in Audacity from a graphical IDE (Integrated Develop-
ment Environment). See Nyquist Workbench in the Wiki
for details.
313
13.6.3 Nyquist plug-ins included in Audac-
ity
The following sample Nyquist plug-ins are included in re-
leased builds of Audacity:
Adjustable Fade...
Launches a dialog box where you can choose the shape
of the fade in or fade out to be applied. You can also cre-
ate fades to and from other than silence or full volume.
An example of this might be a fade in from 20% of the
original volume to 80% of the original volume.
Clip Fix...
Attempts to reconstruct clipped regions by interpolating
the lost signal.
Crossfade Clips
Applies a simple crossfade to a selected pair of clips in a
single audio track.
Crossfade Tracks
Applies a crossfade to a selected region of a pair of
tracks.
Delay...
A configurable delay effect with variable delay time and
pitch shifting of the delays.
High Pass Filter...
Passes frequencies above its cutoff frequency and atten-
uates frequencies below its cutoff frequency; this can be
used to reduce low frequency noise.
Limiter...
Limiter passes signals below a specified input level un-
affected or gently reduced, while preventing the peaks of
stronger signals from exceeding this threshold. Limiting
is a type of dynamic range compression. Mastering en-
gineers often use limiting combined with make-up gain
to increase the perceived loudness of an audio recording
during the audio mastering process.
314
Low Pass Filter...
Passes frequencies below its cutoff frequency and atten-
uates frequencies above its cutoff frequency; this can be
used to reduce high pitched noise.
Notch Filter...
Greatly attenuate ("notch out") a narrow frequency band.
This is a good way to reduce mains hum or a whistle con-
fined to a specific frequency with minimal damage to the
remainder of the audio.
Nyquist Prompt...
Launches a dialog where you can enter Nyquist com-
mands. Nyquist is a applicationming language for pro-
ducing and processing audio. For more information see
Nyquist Plug-ins Reference.
Spectral edit multi tool
Spectral edit multi tool (and Spectral edit paramet-
ric EQ and Spectral edit shelves described immedi-
ately following) are intended for working on a combined
frequency and time selection made when using Spectro-
gram view.If a fully defined spectral selection has been
made, choosing Spectral edit multi-tool applies the ap-
propriate filter for the selection. See Spectral edit multi
tool for more information.
Spectral edit parametric EQ...
If a fully defined spectral selection has been made, the
effect applies a band cut or band boost according to the
value you enter in the "Gain (dB)" control. See Spectral
edit parametric EQ for more information.
Spectral edit shelves...
If a fully defined spectral selection has been made, the ef-
fect applies a low shelf filter, high shelf filter or combined
low and high shelf filter according to the value you enter
in the "Gain (dB)" control. See Spectral edit shelves for
more information.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Studio Fade Out
Produces a smooth and musical sounding fade out, by
applying a sinusoidal fade with a progressive low pass
filter from full spectrum at the start of the selection to 100
Hz at the end.
Tremolo...
Modulates the volume of the selection at the depth and
rate selected in the dialog. The same as the tremolo ef-
fect familiar to guitar and keyboard players.
Vocal Reduction and Isolation...
Attempts to remove or isolate center-panned audio from
a stereo track. Vocals are often (but not always) recorded
in this way. The classic method achieves this by sub-
tracting one channel from the other, but the result will be
(dual) mono (this method can be found under the Actions
menu in this effect as "Remove Center Classic (Mono)"
and is a quick way to remove the center if only mono is
needed). All other "Remove" options in this effect pre-
serve the stereo image
Vocal Remover (for center-panned vocals)...
Attempts to remove center-panned audio from a stereo
track. Vocals are often (but not always) recorded in this
way. Vocals (or other audio) can only be removed with
this plug-in when panned to center, in other words sound-
ing equally loud in both left and right channels. Help text
is available from within the effect’s dialog box. This is a
"Legacy effect": the same result can be achieved by us-
ing the Remove Center Classic (Mono) option in Vocal
Reduction and Isolation .
Vocoder...
Vocoder synthesizes a modulator (usually a voice) in the
left channel of a stereo track with a carrier wave in the
right channel to produce a modified version of the left
channel. Vocoding a normal voice with white noise as
provided in the effect will produce a robot-like voice for
special effects. Other carriers can be used for subtly
different voices. Vocoder can only be applied to unsplit
stereo tracks.
< Back to: Effect Menu
13.7. EFFECT MENU: VST
13.7 Effect Menu: VST
VST effects support real-time preview .They support
import/export of presets (where the particular effect sup-
ports this) and support saving presets for use in Audacity
only.
13.7.1 Installing VST effects
For detailed instructions on installing VST plug-ins for Au-
dacity see: Windows , Mac or Linux
13.7.2 Adding a new VST effect in Audacity
A wide range of VST effects can be obtained online. VST
instruments are not supported. 64-bit VST effects are not
supported on Windows or Mac even on 64-bit systems.
Conversely on Linux 64-bit systems, only 64-bit VST’s
are supported. To add a new VST effect most easily on
Windows, put its DLL file into the "Plug-Ins" folder where
you have Audacity installed. On Mac, the easiest folder
to put the plug-in’s VST file in is ~/Library/Application
Support/audacity/Plug-Ins. Then use Effect > Add /
Remove Plug-ins... to enable the VST effects and load
them into Audacity, For details see Manage Effects . For
detailed instructions on installing VST plug-ins for Audac-
ity see: Windows , Mac or Linux .
13.7.3 Saving, Exporting and Importing
VST Effect Presets
Not all VST effects support importing and exporting of
presets. If an exported preset file is empty, the effect
probably does not support presets and Audacity will not
be able to import the saved presets.
Save Preset...
To save the current effect settings as a User Preset, se-
lect Save Preset... from the Manage menu in the
effect dialog, which brings up the following dialog:
315
Type a name for the preset then click OK after which the
saved preset will appear in the "User Presets" list in the
Manage menu.
Export...
Presets for VST effects are exported to a file. A presets
file lets you move settings for a particular effect between
computers on any operating platform that supports that
effect.Select Export... from the Manage menu in
the effect dialog to bring up the "Save VST Preset As:"
dialogBe sure to choose a file type in the “Save as type:”
dropdown menu (“Format” dropdown menu on Mac)Type
a name for the file in the "File Name" box ("Save As:" box
on Mac) then click OK to export the current effect settings
to a separate file.The following file formats are supported:
• XML format: The default choice, which saves an
Audacity VST preset file. This is the least flexible
choice, mainly useful for the small number of ef-
fects that do not support FXP presets. Most other
VST host applications do not support XML, so you
may only be able to share XML presets between
other computers running Audacity.
• FXP format: Saves a standard VST application file,
which is the most portable choice. It allows you to
save the currently visible settings. The saved pre-
set can then be loaded by the same effect running
in Audacity or most other VST host applications,
on any computer or operating platform it supports.
Similarly FXP presets saved by a given effect in any
VST host on any computer can be loaded into that
effect in Audacity.
• FXB format: Saves a standard VST bank file, con-
taining the current settings of all the factory presets
for the effect. The saved "bank" of factory presets
at your favorite settings can then be loaded by the
same effect running in Audacity or any other VST
host application supporting FXB presets, on any
computer or operating platform it supports. Simi-
larly an FXB bank saved by a given effect in any
VST host on any computer can be loaded into that
effect in Audacity. By default presets are saved to
the same location as the audacity.cfg file, but you
can choose to save them anywhere. Since there
is no distinction between preset files saved by dif-
ferent effects you may want to create a folder for
each effect you save presets for, or include the ef-
fect name in the file name.
On Mac and Linux please take note:
316
• the XML, FXP or FXB file extension is not automati-
cally added by Audacity - be sure to include it in the
file name (for example, "myPreset.fxp")
• make sure the file extension you add is the same
as that shown in the "File Format" dropdown menu,
otherwise the preset cannot be loaded.
Import...
Select Import... from the Manage menu in the
effect dialog to bring up the "Load VST Preset:" dialog-
Navigate to the place where you exported a VST preset
file.Click the open button to load the settings.Depending
on how the particular VST effect handles importing pre-
sets, the imported preset may show up in the User Pre-
sets submenu, the Factory Presets submenu or may not
show up at all.
13.7.4 VST Effect Options
In the effect’s dialog, click the Manage button then
choose Options... to bring up the dialog illustrated
below. When you change the options in this dialog, the
changes apply only to the current effect that’s open. All
other VST effects will remain at the default options shown
below until you change their options.
13.8 Real-time preview of effects
Real-time preview enables you to change effect set-
tings while playing and listening to the result in real-time,
rather than having to preview, tweak settings then pre-
view again. A real-time preview effect therefore includes
Play/Stop, Skip Backward and Skip Forward buttons in-
stead of a Preview button. Currently, the only effects
shipped with Audacity that support real-time preview are
Phaser , SC4 and Wahwah , but you can download ad-
ditional LADSPA , LV2 , VST and Audio Unit (for Mac)
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Buffer Size: Controls the number of samples sent
to the effect in each round of processing. The de-
fault buffer size of 8192 should be safe for all VST
effects. You can set a higher value which will allow
faster processing but some effects may not work at
higher values. Changing the buffer size is effective
immediately.
• Latency Compensation: This setting (enabled by
default) compensates for waveform delay caused
by VST effects which preload audio data to a buffer.
Compensation may not work in all cases, and for it
to work, any compensation or latency reporting set-
tings in the effect itself must be enabled. If compen-
sation fails or if this Audacity setting is unchecked,
effects that buffer audio will insert silence at the
start of the processed selection and remove a cor-
responding amount of audio from the end of the se-
lection. Therefore leave this option checked unless
a particular VST does not work even after reducing
the buffer size, in which case you can experiment
by unchecking this option. Enabling or disabling
compensation is effective immediately.
• Graphical Mode: This setting (enabled by default)
allows most VST effects to display a graphical (in-
stead of a plain text) interface. If you change this
setting you must close the settings dialog, then
close and reopen the effect to see the change.
< Back to: Effect Menu
effects, almost all of which will support real-time preview.
13.8.1 Real-time preview differences
An effect that supports real-time preview is different from
regular effects in the following ways.
• It can be opened when audio is playing or paused.
13.8. REAL-TIME PREVIEW OF EFFECTS
• It can be opened even when no audio is selected ,
as long as the track is selected.
• One regular effect can be opened and applied while
a real-time preview effect is open but not playing.
• Real-time preview settings can be changed while
audio is playing.
• When in Graphical Mode, live meters or graphs
should respond when audio is playing.
• You can start and stop audio playback, change the
selection, apply gain or pan to tracks or Mute or
Solo them while the effect dialog is open. You can
use the shortcuts Alt + F6 or Alt + Shift + F6 (use
the Option key instead of Alt on Mac) to move for-
ward or backward respectively between the effect
and the main project window.
• A selection must be present to apply the effect.
• You will hear a preview of applying the effect to the
selected track(s). Unselected tracks will not have
the effect applied to them but unlike in regular ef-
fects, unselected tracks will still be heard unless
you use the Mute/Solo state to silence them.
• The effect may be applied without closing the effect.
• User presets may be saved and loaded. As long as
you apply the effect, changes you make to an ef-
fect’s settings will be restored for use next time you
launch Audacity.
13.8.2 Real-Time preview with graphical in-
terface
When you open an effect that supports real-time preview
with graphical interface it will have these control icons at
the bottom of the effect dialog.
• Manage Effect menu:
– User Presets: If any user presets exist for this
effect this menu will list them. Select one of
the user presets to load it into the effect.
– Factory Presets: If any factory presets exist
for this effect this menu will list them. Select
one of the factory presets to load it into the
effect.
– Delete Preset: Select this option to delete a
previously saved user preset.
317
– Save As... Select this option to save the cur-
rent settings as a user preset.
– Import... Select this option to import a pre-
sets file (or multiple files for Audio Unit effects
on Mac).
– Export... Select this option to export a pre-
sets file (or multiple files for Audio Unit ef-
fects on Mac). Export lets you share presets
for this effect with other users on your com-
puter or to move them to another computer.
Many VST effects support import and export
of named factory presets in a single FXB file,
but LADSPA and LV2 effects do not support
import and export of presets at all. Please
click the links in the Options... section below
to see a full explanation of presets features for
each type of real-time preview effect.
– Options... Displays the options dialog for this
type of effect. See the sections for each type
of effect for a description of the options avail-
able.
* LADSPA Options
* LV2 Options
* VST Options
* Audio Unit Options
– About: Displays the effect type, effect name,
version, vendor, and description.
• Play/Stop: Click this button to begin playback. It
changes to the Stop button . Click it again to stop
playback. If there is no selection in the track(s),
restarting playback with this button will restart from
the original cursor point, just like pressing Play in
Transport Toolbar . However if there is a selection
you can use the real-time preview Play/Stop button
as a Pause button, pressing Stop to stop playback
then Play to resume from where you stopped play-
back inside the selection.
If you stop playback inside a selection with this but-
ton then do want to restart playback from the start
of the selection, either click the "Skip Backward"
button (see below) followed by the real-time pre-
view Play button, or use the Play button in Transport
Toolbar in the main project window.
• Skip Backward: When playback is stopped,
clicking this button will cause the next playback in
the effect to start from the start of the selection.
During playback, each click of this button will per-
form a short seek back . You cannot seek back
behind the editing cursor or behind the start of the
selection.
• Skip Forward: When playback is stopped, click-
ing this button will cause the next playback in the ef-
fect to start from the end of the selection. You can
318
use this to compare subsequent audio which you
may not want to apply the effect to. During play-
back, each click of this button will perform a short
seek forward .
• Enable: This checkbox contains a checkmark by
default Enable, which enables the effect.
Remove the checkmark Enable to disable the ef-
fect (also known as bypassing the effect). Dis-
abling makes the audio play as if the effect was
closed and the effect’s controls will no longer
change the audio. Disabling and enabling is a con-
venient way to compare the "dry" (non-affected)
sound with the "wet" (affected) sound while it plays
in real-time.
• Close Click this button to close the effect dialog.
Closing the effect without pressing "Apply" (below)
does not save the current settings of the effect for
use next time you launch Audacity.
• Apply Click this button to apply the effect to the se-
lected audio and save the current settings of the
effect for next time you launch Audacity. The effect
dialog will remain open after the effect is applied.
13.8.3 Real-Time preview with text-based
controls
If you use the Manage button then Options...
to disable graphical interface, the Manage button and
the Real-Time Preview playback controls display as text-
based buttons instead, as in the below image:
13.9 Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
This page is a quick index to the Effects, Generators and
Analyzers shipped with Audacity. You may also add new
plug-ins in various popular formats.
• An Effect changes the audio in some way.
• A Generator creates new audio, either in an exist-
ing track or in a new track.
• An Analyze tool performs analysis on a selection of
audio - it does not change the audio and does not
create new audio.
Although by default, no keyboard shortcuts are provided
for most Effect, Generate or Analyze commands, it is
possible to set up your own shortcut for any of these
commands. For instructions on how to do this please
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
As with the graphical interface, a single button starts and
stops playback, reading Start Playback when there is
no playback and Stop Playback when there is playback.
Text-based controls and textual interface will display au-
tomatically even if graphical interface is chosen if the ef-
fect does not provide a graphical interface of its own.
On Windows only, you can use the following single key
presses to operate the effect whenever focus is in either
the graphical or text-based interface:
• M to open the Manage menu, P to Start or Stop
playback, B to skip backward, F to skip forward, E
to enable/disable the effect.
13.8.4 Notes and Limitations
• Currently, real-time preview does not compensate
for the latency many plug-ins introduce in order to
provide smooth processing of audio. Real-time pre-
view therefore may have small gaps in the audio,
or timing artifacts may be audible when preview-
ing multiple tracks. However by default Audacity
compensates for latency when applying the effect
(unless you disable compensation in the options for
the effect). Therefore if you hear latency problems
in real-time preview, apply the effect and close it,
then listen to the result. If you do not like the result
you can simply use the Edit > Undo command, or
its shortcut Ctrl + Z(on Mac CloverLeaf + Z), open
the effect and try a different setting.
• So that real-time preview plays how the audio will
sound immediately after applying the effect, any ex-
isting volume envelopes or Time Tracks and the po-
sitions of gain or pan sliders are applied before pre-
view is heard.
see Keyboard Preferences . See this page for tips on
Navigating Effects without using a mouse.
When playing, recording or paused, the Effect
menu will appear grayed out, because changes to the
audio data cannot be made until you press the Stop
button .
13.9.1 Alphabetical Index of Effects , Gen-
erators and Analyzers
Adjustable Fade
13.9. INDEX OF EFFECTS, GENERATORS AND ANALYZERS 319

Contrast Chirp
Limiter Fade In
Repeat Phaser
Spectral edit parametric EQ Silence
Amplify Vocoder
Crossfade Clips Classic Filters
Low Pass Filter Fade Out
Reverb Plot Spectrum
Spectral edit shelves Silence Finder
Auto Duck Wahwah
Crossfade Tracks Click Removal
Noise Find Clipping
Reverse Pluck
Studio Fade Out Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift
Bass and Treble Clip Fix
Delay High Pass Filter
Noise Reduction Regular Interval Labels
Rhythm Track Sound Finder
Tone Compressor
Beat Finder Invert
Distortion Repair
Normalize Spectral edit multi tool Where an effect, generator or an-
Risset Drum alyzer has settings, its description page (accessed by the
links below) shows an image of the interface and its de-
Tremolo fault settings.
Change Pitch
DTMF Tones 13.9.2 Add / Remove Plug-ins...
Notch Filter
Selecting this option from the Effect Menu (or the Gener-
Sample Data Export
ate Menu or Analyze Menu ) takes you to a dialog where
Truncate Silence you can enable or disable particular Effects, Generators
and Analyzers in Audacity. Even if you do not add any
Change Speed
third-party plug-ins, you can use this to make the Effect
Echo menu shorter or longer as required. For details see Add
/ Remove Effects, Generators and Analyzers . By default
Nyquist Prompt all the built-in effects, with the exception of Classic Filters,
Sample Data Import are enabled in Audacity. Additional plug-ins can also be
loaded into Audacity:
Vocal Reduction and Isolation
• Installing Nyquist plug-ins on Windows , Mac or
Change Tempo Linux
Equalization – See also this list of downloadable Nyquist
Paulstretch plug-ins

SC4 • Installing VST plug-ins on Windows , Mac or Linux

Vocal Remover (legacy) • Other types of plug-in .

320
13.9.3 Effects by Function
See the Effect Menu for further details.
Make the sound louder or quieter
• Amplify : Increases or decreases the volume of
the audio you have selected.
• Auto Duck : Reduces (ducks) the volume of one
or more tracks whenever the volume of a specified
"control" track reaches a particular level. Typically
used to make a music track softer whenever speech
in a commentary track is heard.
• Compressor : Compresses the dynamic range
by two alternative methods. The default " RMS "
method makes the louder parts softer, but leaves
the quieter audio alone. The alternative "peaks"
method makes the entire audio louder, but amplifies
the louder parts less than the quieter parts. Make-
up gain can be applied to either method, making
the result as loud as possible without clipping , but
not changing the dynamic range further.
• Limiter : Limiter passes signals below a specified
input level unaffected or gently reduced, while pre-
venting the peaks of stronger signals from exceed-
ing this threshold. Mastering engineers often use
this type of dynamic range compression combined
with make-up gain to increase the perceived loud-
ness of an audio recording during the audio mas-
tering process.
• Normalize : Use the Normalize effect to set the
maximum amplitude of a track, equalize the ampli-
tudes of the left and right channels of a stereo track
and optionally remove any DC offset from the track.
• SC4 : This effect is a stereo compressor with a
variable envelope follower for RMS (average) / peak
behavior.
Although shipped as part of Audacity, SC4 is not enabled
by default. To enable it for use you will need to use
Add/Remove Plugins... from the top of the Effect menu .
See this page for details.
Fade a section in or fade it out
• Crossfade Clips : Use Crossfade Clips to apply
a simple crossfade to a selected pair of clips in a
single audio track.
• Crossfade Tracks : Use Crossfade Tracks to
make a smooth transition between two overlapping
tracks one above the other. Place the track to be
faded out above the track to be faded in then select
the overlapping region in both tracks and apply the
effect.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Fade In : Applies a linear fade-in to the selected
audio - the rapidity of the fade-in depends entirely
on the length of the selection it is applied to. For
a more customizable logarithmic fade, use the
Envelope Tool on the Tools Toolbar .
• Fade Out : Applies a linear fade-out to the se-
lected audio - the rapidity of the fade-out depends
entirely on the length of the selection it is applied
to. For a more customizable logarithmic fade,
use the Envelope Tool on the Tools Toolbar .
• Studio Fade Out : Applies a more musical fade
out to the selected audio, giving a more pleasing
sounding result.
• Adjustable Fade : enables you to control the
shape of the fade (non-linear fading) to be applied
by adjusting various parameters; allows partial (that
is not from or to zero) fades up or down.
For a discussion of what the different types of fade do,
see Fades .
Change the quality of the sound
• Bass and Treble : Increases or decreases the
lower frequencies and higher frequencies of your
audio independently; behaves just like the bass and
treble controls on a stereo system.
• Classic Filters : Offers three different types of
filter which together emulate the vast majority of
analog filters, providing a useful graphical tool for
analysis and measurement. This effect is not en-
abled by default. To enable it, use Effect > Add /
Remove Plug-ins... to open the Plug-in Manager:
Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog.
• Distortion : Use the Distortion effect to make the
audio sound distorted. By distorting the waveform
the frequency content is changed, which will of-
ten make the sound "crunchy" or "abrasive". Tech-
nically this effect is a waveshaper. The result of
waveshaping is equivalent to applying non-linear
amplification to the audio waveform. Preset shap-
ing functions are provided, each of which produces
a different type of distortion.
• Equalization : Adjusts the volume levels of partic-
ular frequencies.
• High Pass Filter : Passes frequencies above its
cutoff frequency and attenuates frequencies below
its cutoff frequency.
• Low Pass Filter : Passes frequencies below its
cutoff frequency and attenuates frequencies above
its cutoff frequency.
• Paulstretch : Use Paulstretch only for an extreme
time-stretch or "stasis" effect, This may be use-
ful for synthesizer pad sounds, identifying perfor-
13.9. INDEX OF EFFECTS, GENERATORS AND ANALYZERS
mance glitches or just creating interesting aural tex-
tures. Use Change Tempo or Sliding Time Scale
rather than Paulstretch for tasks like slowing down
a song to a "practice" tempo.
• Phaser : The name "Phaser" comes from "Phase
Shifter", because it works by combining phase-
shifted signals with the original signal. The move-
ment of the phase-shifted signals is controlled us-
ing a Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO).
• Spectral edit parametric EQ : When the selected
track is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view
and the spectral selection has a center frequency
and an upper and lower boundary, performs the
specified band cut or band boost . This can
be used as an alternative to Equalization or may
also be useful to repair damaged audio by reduc-
ing frequency spikes or boosting other frequencies
to mask spikes.
• Spectral edit shelves : When the selected track
is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view, ap-
plies either a low- or high-frequency shelving filter
or both filters, according to the spectral selection
made. This can be used as an alternative to Equal-
ization or may also be useful to repair damaged au-
dio by reducing frequency spikes or boosting other
frequencies to mask spikes.
• Tremolo : Modulates the volume of the selection at
the depth and rate selected in the dialog. The same
as the tremolo effect familiar to guitar and keyboard
players.
• Vocoder : Synthesizes audio (usually a voice) in
the left channel of a stereo track with a carrier wave
(typically white noise) in the right channel to pro-
duce a modified version of the left channel. Vocod-
ing a normal voice with white noise will produce a
robot-like voice for special effects.
• Wahwah : Rapid tone quality variations, like that
guitar sound so popular in the 1970’s.
Repair damaged audio
• Click Removal : Click Removal is designed to re-
move clicks on audio tracks and is especially suited
to declicking recordings made from vinyl records.
• Clip Fix : Clip Fix attempts to reconstruct clipped
regions by interpolating the lost signal.
• Noise Reduction : This effect is ideal for reduc-
ing constant background noise such as fans, tape
noise, or hums. It will not work very well for remov-
ing talking or music in the background. More details
here .
• Notch Filter : Greatly attenuate ("notch out") a
narrow frequency band. This is a good way to re-
321
move mains hum or a whistle confined to a specific
frequency with minimal damage to the remainder of
the audio.
• Repair : Fix one particular short click, pop or other
glitch no more than 128 samples long.
• Spectral edit multi tool : When the selected track
is in spectrogram or spectrogram log(f) view, ap-
plies a notch filter , high pass filter or low pass
filter according to the spectral selection made.
This effect can also be used to change the audio
quality as an alternative to using Equalization .
Make the sound faster, slower, lower pitched or
higher pitched
• Change Pitch : Change the pitch of a selection
without changing its tempo.
• Change Speed : Change the speed of a selection,
also changing its pitch.
• Change Tempo : Change the tempo and length
(duration) of a selection without changing its pitch.
• Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift : This effect al-
lows you to make a continuous change to the tempo
and/or pitch of a selection by choosing initial and/or
final change values.
• Paulstretch : Use Paulstretch only for an extreme
time-stretch or "stasis" effect, This may be use-
ful for synthesizer pad sounds, identifying perfor-
mance glitches or just creating interesting aural tex-
tures. Use Change Tempo or Sliding Time Scale
rather than Paulstretch for tasks like slowing down
a song to a "practice" tempo.
• Truncate Silence : Automatically try to find and
eliminate audible silences. Don’t use with faded au-
dio.
Add reverberation or echo
• Delay : A configurable delay effect with variable
delay time and pitch shifting of the delays.
• Echo : Repeats the selected audio again and
again, normally softer each time and normally not
blended into the original sound until some time af-
ter it starts. The delay time between each repeat is
fixed, with no pause in between each repeat. For a
more configurable echo effect with a variable delay
time and pitch-changed echoes, see Delay .
• Reverb : A configurable stereo reverberation ef-
fect with built-in and user-added presets. It can be
used to add ambience (an impression of the space
in which a sound occurs) to a mono sound. Also
322
use it to increase reverberation in stereo audio that
sounds too "dry" or "close".
For details of the underlying principles of delay and re-
verb effects please see this page in the Wiki.
Remove vocals
• Invert : This effect flips the audio samples upside-
down. This normally does not affect the sound of
the audio at all. It is occasionally useful for vocal
removal.
• Vocal Reduction and Isolation : Attempts to re-
move or isolate center-panned audio from a stereo
track. Most "Remove" options in this effect pre-
serve the stereo image.
• Vocal Remover : (Legacy effect) Attempts to re-
move center-panned vocals from a stereo track.
The output from this effect will always be mono.
Help text is available from within the dialog.
Manipulate Audio
• Repeat : Repeats the selection the specified num-
ber of times.
• Reverse : Reverses the selected audio; after the
effect the end of the audio will be heard first and the
beginning last.
Invoke Nyquist
• Nyquist Prompt : Brings up a dialog where you
can enter Nyquist commands. Nyquist is a pro-
gramming language for generating, processing and
analyzing audio. For more information see Nyquist
Plug-ins Reference.
13.9.4 Generators by Function
See the Generate Menu for further details.
Generate Tones
• Chirp : Generates four different types of tone
waveform like the Tone Generator , but additionally
allows setting of the starting and ending amplitude
and frequency.
• DTMF Tones : Generates dual-tone multi-
frequency (DTMF) tones like those produced by the
keypad on telephones.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Tone : Generates one of four different tone wave-
forms: Sine, Square, Sawtooth or Square (no
alias), and a frequency between 1 Hz and half the
current project rate.
Generate Silence or Noise
• Noise : Generates ’white’, ’pink’ or ’brown’ noise.
• Silence : Creates audio of zero amplitude, the only
configurable setting being duration.
Generate Instruments or Metronome
• Rhythm Track : Generates a track with regularly
spaced sounds at a specified tempo and number of
beats per measure (bar).
• Pluck : A synthesized pluck tone with abrupt or
gradual fade-out, and selectable pitch correspond-
ing to a MIDI note.
• Risset Drum : Produces a realistic drum sound.
Generate from Imported Data
• Sample Data Import : Create audio from imported
numeric data.
13.9.5 Analyzers by Function
See the Analyze Menu for further details.
Analyze Amplitude or Other Audio Properties
• Contrast : Analyzes a single mono or stereo
speech track to determine the average RMS dif-
ference in volume (contrast) between foreground
speech and background music, audience noise or
similar. The purpose is to determine if the speech
will be intelligible to the hard of hearing.
• Find Clipping : Displays runs of clipped sam-
ples in a Label Track , as a screen-reader acces-
sible alternative to View > Show Clipping . A run
must include at least one clipped sample, but may
include unclipped samples too.
• Plot Spectrum : Takes the selected audio (which
is a set of sound pressure values at points in time)
and converts it to a graph of frequencies against
amplitudes .
• Sample Data Export : Reads the values of suc-
cessive samples from the selected audio and prints
this data to a plain text, CSV or HTML file. Further
13.10. INSTALLING EFFECT, GENERATOR AND ANALYZER PLUG-INS ON LINUX
information may be added as a "header" at the top
of the file.
Divide Up Sounds or Silences using Labels
• Regular Interval Labels : Places labels in a long
track so as to divide it into smaller, equally sized
segments.
• Silence Finder : Divides up a track by placing
point labels inside areas of silence.
• Sound Finder : Divides up a track by placing re-
13.10 Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins on Linux
You can download and install plug-ins to add extra func-
tionality to Audacity. Plug-ins can give you extra effects,
or more audio generation and analysis capabilities. Au-
dacity on GNU/Linux supports a large number of Nyquist
, LADSPA , LV2 and VAMP effects. VST effects are now
supported in Audacity on Linux and can be installed as
described at VST Effects . However native Linux VST
effects are quite rare. Consequently, if a specific VST ef-
fect is required on Linux, it may be necessary to employ
workarounds such as running Audacity for Windows in a
virtual machine.
Audacity supports 64-bit effects in VST, LADSPA and
VAMP format on 64-bit Linux systems (conversely, 32-
bit plug-ins in those formats will not load into Audacity on
64-bit Linux).
13.10.1 Installing Nyquist plug-ins
Nyquist plug-ins provide most of the optional effects un-
derneath the divider in the Effect menu . They are also
used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio gen-
erators and analysis tools . A wide range of additional
Nyquist effect, generator and analysis plug-ins can be
obtained from Download Nyquist Plug-ins on our Wiki. If
the plug-in is downloaded as a ZIP archive, the contents
of the package must be extracted. This can usually be
achieved with the command:
unzip file.zip -d destination_folder
Alternatively, most Linux distributions include a GUI ap-
plication for extracting ZIP archives.
Per user installation
This is generally the preferred way to install Nyquist plug-
ins as it can be performed with standard user permis-
323
gion labels for areas of sound that are separated by
silence.
Mark Beats using Labels
• Beat Finder : Attempts to place labels at beats
which are much louder than the surrounding audio.
It’s a fairly rough and ready tool, and will not nec-
essarily work well on a typical modern pop music
track with compressed dynamic range . If you
do not get enough beats detected, try reducing the
"Threshold Percentage" setting.
sions.
1. If it does not already exist, create a folder called
.audacity-files in your home directory. Note that
the dot as the first character indicates that this
will be a hidden folder, so if using a graphical
file browser, enable viewing hidden files (for most
graphical file browsers, this is an option in the
"View" menu).
2. Add a sub-directory to .audacity-files and name
it plug-ins. The location of this folder may be
described as ~/.audacity-file/plug-ins, where "~/"
means your home folder.
3. Copy or move the Nyquist plug-in file (with ny
or NY file name extension ) into the ~/.audacity-
files/plug-ins folder.
• If the plug-in includes a help file or help folder,
that file should usually be copied or moved to
the same location as the NY file. Check the
plug-in documentation for details.
4. To enable the new effects so they are available in
the Audacity menu, use the Plug-in Manager: Ef-
fects, Generators and Analyzers dialog.
System-wide installation
This will install the plug-in for all users and requires root
permissions.
1. Copy or move the Nyquist plug-in file (with ny or NY
file name extension ) into:
• /usr/share/audacity/plug-ins if Audacity was
installed from a repository package
• /usr/local/share/audacity/plug-ins if you
compiled Audacity from source code.
324
• If the plug-in includes a help file or help folder,
that file should usually be copied or moved to
the same location as the NY file. Check the
plug-in documentation for details.
2. To enable the new effects so they are available in
the Audacity menu for the current user, use the
Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyz-
ers dialog.
Note that the effect is loaded per user, but will be avail-
able for loading to all users. Audacity can currently load
Nyquist plug-ins from other locations, but it is recom-
mended to use the locations listed above. In particular,
~/.audacity-data/Plug-Ins is now deprecated as a loca-
tion for Nyquist plug-ins, but at the moment it is still sup-
ported.
Some Nyquist plug-ins could crash while process-
ing very long audio selections (typically an hour or more).
This is due to the plug-in using a large amount of mem-
ory and is a known issue in Audacity’s current Nyquist
implementation. Try using the plug-in on shorter selec-
tions instead.
13.10.2 Installing VST plug-ins
Audacity supports almost all VST effect plug-ins on Linux
including "shell" VSTs that host multiple VST effects.
VST plugins for all users can be placed in a "plug-ins"
folder that you must add to /usr/bin/ (if you installed a
packaged version of Audacity) or to /usr/local/bin (if you
installed a self-compiled version of Audacity). Root per-
missions will be required for these operations. Audacity
can also load VST plug-ins from other system and user
locations including:
• All paths listed in the "VST_PATH" environment
variable
• ~/.vst (plug-ins can be added here with standard
user permissions)
• LIBDIR/vst (where LIBDIR is defined at build time)
• /usr/lib/vst
• /usr/local/lib/vst
• ~/.audacity-data/Plug-Ins (deprecated).
All the directories where you can place VST plug-ins are
searched recursively, which means that plug-ins that are
inside their own folder in that directory should still be
found by Audacity. You can install new VST effects into
Audacity by using the Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins...
menu item. This opens the Plug-in Manager: Effects,
Generators and Analyzers dialog where you can select
and enable the new effects then click OK to load them.
Next time you launch Audacity the enabled effect(s) will
be cached and you will not need to re-enable them.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
The list of effects in the dialog will include any de-
tected VST instrument (VSTi) plug-ins (such as synths)
and any real-time VST effects that are capable of chang-
ing audio data while it’s being written to disk. Neither of
these are yet supported and they will not load even if
you enable or re-enable them in the dialog.
Why do some VST plug-ins not work or display incor-
rectly?
Audacity will by default display VST effect plug-ins with
a full graphical interface where the plug-in supplies this.
VST instruments (VSTi) (such as synths) and real-time
VST effects (that change the audio data while it’s being
written) are not yet supported. These will not load even
if you enable or re-enable them in the Plug-in Manager:
Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog. VST 3 plug-ins
are not supported. If any plug-in displays incorrectly, you
can use the Manage button in the effect’s dialog
then choose Options... to open the
VST Effect Options for that effect. Then remove the
checkmark from the "Enable graphical interface" check-
box Enable graphical interface and click OK. When you
reopen the effect it will display a simpler tabular interface.
On GNU/Linux, 32-bit systems will have 32-bit ver-
sions of Audacity which will not see 64-bit VST plug-ins.
64-bit systems will have 64-bit versions of Audacity which
will see 64-bit VST plug-ins but will not see 32-bit plug-
ins. If you experience a problem with a specific VST ef-
fect plug-in in Audacity, please contact us.
13.10.3 Installing LADSPA plug-ins
The LADSPA plug-in architecture which was originally
developed on Linux. Audacity supports both LV2 and
LADSPA effects on GNU/Linux. You can download and
install a set of over 90 LADSPA plug-ins for all operating
systems. You can then choose which LADSPA plug-ins to
enable in the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and
Analyzers dialog. LADSPA plug-ins can be installed for
all users by putting the plug-ins into the Audacity "Plug-
Ins" folder:
• /usr/share/audacity/plug-ins if Audacity was in-
stalled from a repository package
• /usr/local/share/audacity/plug-ins if you com-
piled Audacity from source code.
These locations are usually set as read-only, so the plug-
ins will need to be copied as root (for example, by issuing
an appropriate root command in the terminal, or by us-
ing the terminal to open a file manager application with
13.10. INSTALLING EFFECT, GENERATOR AND ANALYZER PLUG-INS ON LINUX
root permissions). To enable the new effects so they are
available in the Audacity menu, use the Plug-in Manager:
Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog. Audacity can
also load LADSPA plug-ins from other system and user
locations including:
• All paths specified by the LADSPA_PATH environ-
ment variable
• ~/.ladspa (plug-ins can be added to here with stan-
dard user permissions)
• /usr/local/lib/ladspa
• /usr/lib/ladspa
• $LIBDIR/ladspa
• ~/.audacity-data/Plug-Ins (deprecated).
Audacity installed from a repository package or compiled
from source should automatically find LADSPA plug-ins
installed in /usr/lib/ladspa. This may not be the case if
you are compiling older source code. If necessary you
can set an environment variable to indicate to Audacity
where LADSPA plug-ins are installed. For Debian-based
distributions this can be done by entering the following
code at the command prompt (change <user> to your ac-
count username):
export LADSPA_PATH=$LADSPA_PATH:/home/<user>/.ladspa:/usr/local/lib/ladspa:/usr/lib/ladspa
If you wish this path to be set each time you boot, the
LADSPA_PATH environment variable may be added to
~/.profile or this file may be created if it does not exist.
An example of how to add the LADSPA_PATH environ-
ment variable:
LADSPA_PATH=$LADSPA_PATH:/home/<user>/.ladspa:/usr/local/lib/ladspa:/usr/lib/ladspaexport
LADSPA_PATH For OpenSuse 64, LADSPA plug-ins may
be found in /usr/lib64/ladspa. This path can be set by
adding the following line to your /etc/environment file:
LADSPA_PATH=/usr/lib64/ladspa LV2 and VAMP plug-
ins cannot be placed in the Audacity "Plug-Ins" folder
or your .audacity-files folder. LV2 plug-ins should
be installed by placing the complete .lv2 folder (not
the individual files in that folder) in the root of
~/.lv2, /usr/local/lib/lv2, /usr/local/lib64/lv2, /usr/lib/lv2 or
/usr/lib64/lv2. Alternatively the environment variable may
be set as in this example:
export LV2_PATH=$HOME/.lv2:/usr/local/lib/lv2:/usr/lib/lv2
13.10.4 Installing LV2 plug-ins
LV2 is a more advanced evolution of the LADSPA plug-in
architecture which was originally developed on Linux. To
325
add a new LV2 effect, place its complete ".lv2" folder
(not the files alone) at the top level of any of the following
searched for locations:
• ~/.lv2
• /usr/local/lib/lv2 or /usr/local/lib64/lv2
• /usr/lib/lv2 or /usr/lib64/lv2
Search paths where Audacity looks for LV2 plug-ins may
also be specified by setting the LV2_PATH environment
variable. The path listed below is legitimate.
• $HOME/.lv2:/usr/local/lib/lv2:/usr/lib/lv2 (as-
suming $PREFIX is /usr/local as it should be by
default)
Then use Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins... to enable the
LV2 effects and load them into Audacity, For details see
Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyzers .
13.10.5 Installing VAMP plug-ins
VAMP plug-ins are usually for analyzing audio so will ap-
pear under Audacity’s Analyze Menu . You can do in-
teresting things like attempt to track beats, note pitches,
chords or frequencies. Any VAMP plug-ins whose output
is suitable for a label track should work in Audacity on
GNU/Linux. To add a new VAMP analysis tool, add the
plug-in’s DLL, DYLIB or SO file and any supplied cate-
gory or RDF files to any of the VAMP search locations
then enable the tool in the Plug-in Manager: Effects,
Generators and Analyzers dialog. VAMP plug-ins may
be installed in
• $HOME/vamp
• $HOME/.vamp
• /usr/local/lib/vamp
• /usr/lib/vamp.
Alternatively the VAMP_PATH environment variable may
be set to any of those specified VAMP installation direc-
tories. VAMP plug-ins will normally be placed in the An-
alyze Menu of Audacity.
13.10.6 How can I solve Audacity crashing
after I add a plug-in?
Please see this FAQ If you discover a specific plug-in that
misbehaves in Audacity, please email our feedback ad-
dress. Please include any available Debug report that
Audacity generates.
326
13.11 Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins on Mac OS X/macOS
You can download and install plug-ins to add extra func-
tionality to Audacity. Plug-ins can give you extra effects,
or more audio generation and analysis capabilities.
13.11.1 Installing Audio Unit plug-ins
Audio Unit (AU) is a system-level plug-in architecture pro-
vided on Mac OS X and macOS computers.
• Audio Unit effects support real-time preview .
To add a new Audio Unit effect, place it in either of the
following system plug-in directories:
• ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (user
plug-ins)
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (system-
wide plug-ins)
Then use Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins... to enable
the Audio Unit effects and load them into Audacity, For
details see Manage Effects .
13.11.2 Installing Nyquist plug-ins
Nyquist plug-ins provide most of the optional effects un-
derneath the divider in the Effect menu . They are
also used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio
generators and analysis tools . A wide range of ad-
ditional Nyquist effect, generation and analysis plug-ins
can be obtained from Download Nyquist Plug-ins on
our Wiki. To install new Nyquist plug-ins, place them
in Audacity’s "Plug-Ins" folder at ~/Library/Application
Support/audacity/Plug-Ins. To load the new effects into
Audacity so they are available in the menu, use the Plug-
in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog.
Some Nyquist plug-ins could crash while process-
ing very long audio selections (typically an hour or more).
This is due to the plug-in using a large amount of mem-
ory and is a known issue in Audacity’s current Nyquist
implementation. Try using the plug-in on shorter selec-
tions instead.
13.11.3 Installing VST plug-ins
Audacity supports almost all VST effect plug-ins on
Mac including "shell" VST’s that host multiple VST ef-
fects. To install new VST plug-ins, place them in
Audacity’s "Plug-Ins" folder at ~/Library/Application
Support/audacity/Plug-Ins. Other possible locations on
Mac are:
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST
• All paths specified by the "VST_PATH" environ-
ment variable.
All the directories where you can place VST plug-ins are
searched recursively, which means that plug-ins that are
inside their own folder in that directory should still be
found by Audacity. You can install new VST effects into
Audacity by using the Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins...
menu item. This opens the Plug-in Manager: Effects,
Generators and Analyzers dialog where you can select
and enable the new effects then click OK to load them.
Next time you launch Audacity the enabled effect(s) will
be cached and you will not need to re-enable them.
The list of effects in the dialog will include any de-
tected VST instrument (VSTi) plug-ins (such as synths)
and any real-time VST effects that are capable of chang-
ing audio data while it’s being written to disk. Neither of
these are yet supported and they will not load even if
you enable or re-enable them in the dialog.
Why do some VST plug-ins not work or display incor-
rectly?
Audacity will by default display VST effect plug-ins with
a full graphical interface where the plug-in supplies this.
VST instruments (VSTi) (such as synths) and real-time
VST effects (that change the audio data while it’s being
written) are not yet supported. These will not load even
if you enable or re-enable them in the Plug-in Manager:
Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog. VST 3 plug-ins
are not supported. If any plug-in displays incorrectly, you
can use the Manage button in the effect’s dialog
then choose Options... to open the
VST Effect Options for that effect. Then remove the
checkmark from the "Enable graphical interface" check-
box Enable graphical interface and click OK. When you
reopen the effect it will display a simpler tabular interface.
On Mac, Audacity is a 32-bit application so will not
see 64-bit versions of VST plug-ins, even on 64-bit oper-
ating systems. If you experience a problem with a spe-
cific VST effect plug-in in Audacity, please contact us.
13.12. INSTALLING EFFECT, GENERATOR AND ANALYZER PLUG-INS ON WINDOWS
13.11.4 Installing LADSPA plug-ins
The LADSPA plug-in architecture was originally devel-
oped on Linux. Audacity supports LADSPA effects on
Mac as well as GNU/Linux. You can download and install
a set of over 90 LADSPA plug-ins. You can then choose
which LADSPA plug-ins to enable in the Plug-in Manager:
Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog. To install new
LADSPA plug-ins, place them in Audacity’s "Plug-Ins"
folder at ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/Plug-
Ins. Then use Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins... to
enable the LADSPA effects and load them into Audac-
ity, For details see Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators
and Analyzers . Audacity will also load LADSPA plug-ins
from the following system locations:
• The path specified by the LADSPA_PATH environ-
ment variable
• ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LADSPA
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LADSPA
13.11.5 Installing LV2 plug-ins
LV2 is a more advanced evolution of the LADSPA plug-
in architecture which was originally developed on Linux.
Audacity supports both LV2 effects on Mac as well as
GNU/Linux. There are not yet many pre-compiled LV2
plug-ins for Mac, though it may be possible to compile
some Linux LV2 plug-ins for other operating systems. To
add a new LV2 effect, place its complete ".lv2" folder
(not the files alone) at the top level of any of the following
searched for locations:
• ~/.lv2
• ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2
• /usr/local/lib/lv2
• /usr/lib/lv2
Search paths where Audacity looks for LV2 plug-ins may
also be specified by setting the LV2_PATH environment
variable. The path listed below is legitimate.
13.12 Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins on Windows
You can download and install plug-ins to add extra func-
tionality to Audacity. Plug-ins can give you extra effects,
or more audio generation and analysis capabilities.
327
• $HOME/.lv2:$HOME/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2:/Library/A
Ins/LV2:/usr/local/lib/lv2:/usr/lib/lv2
Then use Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins... to enable the
LV2 effects and load them into Audacity, For details see
Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyzers .
13.11.6 Installing VAMP plug-ins
VAMP plug-ins are usually for analyzing audio so will ap-
pear under Audacity’s Analyze Menu . You can do in-
teresting things like attempt to track beats, note pitches,
chords or frequencies. Any VAMP plug-ins whose output
is suitable for a label track should work in Audacity on
Mac. To add a new VAMP analysis tool, add the plug-
in’s DLL, DYLIB or SO file and any supplied category or
RDF files to any of the VAMP search locations then en-
able the tool in the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators
and Analyzers dialog.
13.11.7 Uninstalling plug-ins
Plug-ins can be removed using Effect > Add / Re-
move Plug-ins... and then removing the file from
the relevant file location, so that they do not appear
again in Plug-in Manager. Plug-ins shipped with Au-
dacity can be found inside Audacity.app (in the Ap-
plications folder, or wherever you have installed Au-
dacity). The path to the plug-ins is for example
/Applications/Audacity.app/Contents/plug-ins. You can
reach the Contents directory by right-clicking or Ctrl-
clicking over Audacity.app and selecting Show Package
Contents.
13.11.8 How can I solve Audacity crashing
after I add a plug-in?
Please see this FAQ If you discover a specific plug-in that
misbehaves in Audacity, please email our feedback ad-
dress. Please include any available Debug report that
Audacity generates.
13.12.1 Installing Nyquist plug-ins
Nyquist plug-ins provide most of the optional effects un-
derneath the divider in the Effect menu . They are also
used to provide some of Audacity’s built-in audio gen-
erators and analysis tools . A wide range of additional
Nyquist effect, generation and analysis plug-ins can be
328 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS

obtained from Download Nyquist Plug-ins on our Wiki.
To add a new Nyquist plug-in, put it in the Audacity "Plug-
Ins" folder. The "Plug-Ins" folder is in the directory where
Audacity resides - usually:
• C:
Program Files or,
• C:
Program Files (x86) on 64-bit machines.
You may also install Nyquist plug-ins to the Plug-Ins
folder in Audacity’s folder for application data . To load
the new effects into Audacity so they are available in the
menu, use the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and
Analyzers dialog.
Some Nyquist plug-ins could crash while process-
ing very long audio selections (typically an hour or more).
This is due to the plug-in using a large amount of mem-
ory and is a known issue in Audacity’s current Nyquist
implementation. Try using the plug-in on shorter selec-
tions instead.
13.12.2 Installing VST plug-ins
Audacity supports almost all VST effect plug-ins on Win-
dows including "shell" VST’s that host multiple VST ef-
fects. To install new VST effects, place them in the "Plug-
Ins" folder inside the Audacity installation folder. On Win-
dows, this is usually under C:
Program Files (or C:
Program Files (x86) on 64-bit Windows). Other possible
locations on Windows are
• The Plug-Ins folder in Audacity’s folder for applica-
tion data
inside their own folder in that directory should still be
found by Audacity.You can install new VST effects into
Audacity by using the Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins...
menu item. This opens the Plug-in Manager: Effects,
Generators and Analyzers dialog where you can select
and Enable the new effects then click OK to load them.
Next time you launch Audacity the enabled effect(s) will
be cached and you will not need to re-enable them.
The list of effects in the dialog will include any de-
tected VST instrument (VSTi) plug-ins (such as synths)
and any real-time VST effects that are capable of chang-
ing audio data while it’s being written to disk. Neither of
these are yet supported and they will not load even if
you enable or re-enable them in the dialog.
Why do some VST plug-ins not work or display incor-
rectly?
Audacity will by default display VST effect plug-ins with
a full graphical interface where the plug-in supplies this.
VST instruments (VSTi) (such as synths) and real-time
VST effects (that change the audio data while it’s being
written) are not yet supported. These will not load even
if you enable or re-enable them in the Plug-in Manager:
Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog. VST 3 plug-ins
are not supported. If any plug-in displays incorrectly, you
can use the Manage button in the effect’s dialog
then choose Options... to open the
VST Effect Options for that effect. Then remove the
checkmark from the "Enable graphical interface" check-
box Enable graphical interface and click OK. When you
reopen the effect it will display a simpler tabular interface.

• C:
Program Files On Windows Audacity is a 32-bit application so will
Steinberg not see 64-bit versions of VST plug-ins, even on 64-bit
VSTPlugins (or C: operating systems. If you experience a problem with a
Program Files (x86) specific VST effect plug-in in Audacity, please contact us.
Steinberg
VSTPlugins on 64-bit systems).
• Windows Registry key HKCU 13.12.3 Installing LADSPA plug-ins
Software
VST The LADSPA plug-in architecture was originally devel-
VSTPluginsPath oped on Linux. Audacity supports LADSPA effects on
Windows as well as GNU/Linux. You can download and
• Windows Registry key HKLM
install a set of over 90 LADSPA plug-ins for Windows.
Software
You can then choose which LADSPA plug-ins to enable
VST
in the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyz-
VSTPluginsPath
ers dialog. To add a new LADSPA plug-in, put it in the
• All paths specified by the "VST_PATH" environ- Audacity "Plug-Ins" folder. The "Plug-Ins" folder is in the
ment variable. directory where Audacity resides - usually:
All the directories where you can place VST plug-ins are • C:
searched recursively, which means that plug-ins that are Program Files or,
13.13. NAVIGATING EFFECTS WITHOUT USING A MOUSE
• C:
Program Files (x86) on 64-bit machines.
You may also install LADSPA plug-ins to the Plug-Ins
folder in Audacity’s folder for application data . Audac-
ity will also load LADSPA plug-ins from the path specified
by the LADSPA_PATH environment variable.Then use
Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins... to enable the LADSPA
effects and load them into Audacity, For details see Plug-
in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyzers .
13.12.4 Installing LV2 plug-ins
LV2 is a more advanced evolution of the LADSPA plug-
in architecture which was originally developed on Linux.
Audacity supports both LV2 effects on Windows as well
as GNU/Linux. There are not yet many pre-compiled LV2
plug-ins for Windows, though it may be possible to com-
pile some Linux LV2 plug-ins for other operating systems.
To add a new LV2 effect, place its complete ".lv2" folder
(not the files alone) at the top level of any of the following
searched for locations:
• Users
<username>
AppData
Roaming
LV2 (or Documents and Settings
<username>
Application Data
LV2)
• Program Files
Common Files
LV2 (or Program Files (x86)
Common Files
LV2 on 64-bit systems)
13.13 Navigating Effects without using a mouse
Here are a few tips to make it easier to access the effect
you want from the Effect menu without using a mouse.
13.13.1 Accessing effects with shortcuts
Shortcuts can be added, or changed, in Keyboard Prefer-
ences to items in the Generate, Effect or Analyze menus,
including plug-ins that you added yourself. The shortcut
activates the effect if the effect has no dialog, or opens
the effect dialog.
• – On Linux you may have to hold down Alt.
• Repeat Last EffectCtrl + R(or CloverLeaf + R on
Mac) can be used to repeat the last used effect at
329
Search paths where Audacity looks for LV2 plug-ins may
also be specified by setting the LV2_PATH environment
variable. The path listed below ais legitimate.
• %APPDATA%
LV2;%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%
LV2;%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)%
LV2
Then use Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins... to enable the
LADSPA effects and load them into Audacity, For details
see Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyzers
.
13.12.5 Installing VAMP plug-ins
VAMP plug-ins are usually for analyzing audio so will ap-
pear under Audacity’s Analyze Menu . You can do in-
teresting things like attempt to track beats, note pitches,
chords or frequencies. Any VAMP plug-ins whose out-
put is suitable for a label track should work in Audacity
on Windows. To add a new VAMP analysis tool, add the
plug-in’s DLL, DYLIB or SO file and any supplied cate-
gory or RDF files to any of the VAMP search locations
then enable the tool in the Plug-in Manager: Effects,
Generators and Analyzers dialog.
13.12.6 How can I solve Audacity crashing
after I add a plug-in?
Please see this FAQ If you discover a specific plug-in that
misbehaves in Audacity, please email our feedback ad-
dress. Please include any available Debug report that
Audacity generates.
its last used settings. If you obtain a noise profile
with Noise Reduction and then use "Repeat Last
Effect", noise will be reduced at the current settings
rather than obtaining a new noise profile.
13.13.2 Other keyboard methods
• On Windows and Linux, pressing Alt then C
opens the Effect menu and takes you to the top of
the list without having to use a mouse
• You can scroll up and down the menu one item at a
time with the up and down arrow keys. If you are al-
330
ready at the top of the menu, the up arrow will skip
to the bottom item of the menu.
– On Linux, effects underneath the divider are
grouped as "Plugins 1 - 15", "Plugins 16 - 30"
and so on. Use Right Arrow to move into the
list of plug-ins in the group.
• Press Enter on the keyboard to open the high-
lighted effect.
• Once in the Effect, you can use Tab to navigate for-
wards through the text boxes, sliders and buttons.
Hold Shift while pressing Tab to skip backwards.
You can use the arrow keys, Home, End. Page Up
or Page Down to control a slider.
– On Mac, use Page Up or Page Down to move
to the start or end of the slider respectively.
Home and End do not work with sliders.
• Once you have used an effect, you can use "Re-
peat Last Effect" at the top of the menu to repeat
that effect with those last used parameters. This
also has a shortcut Ctrl + R(or CloverLeaf + R on
a Mac). You can change this shortcut to something
else in the Keyboard Preferences .
Faster navigation
• On Windows, at any stage when the menu is open
you can navigate to the next effect starting with a
particular letter by typing that letter. For example,
from the top of the menu:
– press H then H to reach "High Pass Filter" (un-
derneath the divider, because the effect is in
Audacity’s Plug-Ins folder)
– press C then C to reach "Change Speed".
• On Linux, seeking effects by letter does not work
but you can use Page Up or Page Down instead
(which do not work on Windows) to skip items, fol-
lowed by up or down arrow.
• On Mac, hold Ctrl and press F2 then type the first
few letters of the root menu item, then type the first
few letters of the item required in that menu.
– Tabbing between buttons in dialogs is off by
default. Tabbing can be enabled by open-
ing the System Keyboard Preferences, choose
the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab, then under "Full
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Keyboard Access", choose the radio button
"All controls".
13.13.3 Advanced: Scripting methods
The following applications allow you to write a script that
can execute a single or multiple Audacity commands in
response to any key press or other trigger such as a sys-
tem event. Windows:
• Actiona (freeware)
• AutoHotKey (open source)
• Macro Creator (freeware)
• PowerPro (freeware)
• Robotask (paid for)
Mac:
• Automator (built into OS X and macOS)
• Apple UI Scripting: Audacity does not directly
support AppleScript but you can use UI script-
ing instead. This must be enabled in the Ac-
cessibility section of your Mac’s System Prefer-
ences (in OS X Mavericks, you have to go to
the Accessibility section of the Security & Pri-
vacy Preferences then drag Audacity from /Ap-
plications into the applications list in Accessi-
bility). See this Forum topic for more help:
https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?p=163988#p16
• Keyboard Maestro (paid for)
• QuickKeys (paid for)
GNU/Linux:
• Actiona
• autokey
Example in AutoHotKey#u:: ; After launching this
script, hold WIN and press U to run the actions below
Send !{c}f{Enter} ; Send keystrokes Alt, C then F to run
Fade In sleep, 3000 ; wait 3 seconds to allow Fade In
to complete Send !{c}a{Enter}{Enter} ; Send Alt, C, Enter
and Enter to launch and execute Amplify See more ex-
amples.To run multiple effects on a project or a batch of
audio files you can instead create and apply an Audacity
Chain . Advanced users who can compile Audacity can
use Scripting .
13.14. AMPLIFY
13.14 Amplify
Use the Amplify effect to change the volume of the se-
lected audio track(s) . Amplify always preserves the rel-
ative volumes of the tracks and/or channels . You can
also use the "Amplification (dB)" box in Amplify as a quick
check of the current peak level of the selection.Accessed
by:Effect > Amplify...
When the Amplify dialog first appears it shows in
the Amplification (dB) box the amplification amount
needed to create a New Peak Amplitude of 0 dB , thus
maximizing the volume of the selected track. If this is
your goal you can just click the OK button. Note that
when applied to a single stereo track or to multiple tracks,
Amplify shows the amplification needed to maximize the
volume of the loudest track or channel and will apply
that amount of amplification to all selected tracks and/or
channels. In this way, Amplify preserves the relative vol-
umes of the selected tracks and/or channels. This is dif-
ferent from the Normalize effect which can be optionally
set to maximize the volume of each track or channel in-
dependently.For a full discussion of the differences, see
Amplify and Normalize .
13.14.1 Amplification (dB)
• Input Box: Type a value for the amount of amplifi-
cation you would like to apply. Positive values make
the sound louder, negative values make it quieter.
As you type, the New Peak Amplitude input box
will be updated.
If you take the negative of the value shown in the Am-
plification (dB) box, this will give you the current peak
amplitude of the selection. For example, in the image
above, the audio selection had a peak amplitude of -3 dB.
• Slider: Drag the slider right to make the sound
louder, or to the left to make it quieter. As you drag,
your selected value will be updated in the input box,
and the New Peak Amplitude input box will be up-
dated.
331
13.14.2 New Peak Amplitude (dB)
Type in the value you would like for the new peak ampli-
tude of your track. As you type, the Amplification input
box will be updated.
13.14.3 Allow Clipping
If this box is not checked, and you attempt to enter an
Amplification value that will result in a New Peak Am-
plitude of greater than 0 dB, the OK button will become
inactive. This will prevent you from applying too much
amplification. If this box is checked you can apply as
much amplification as you want, possibly creating a hor-
ribly distorted sound.
13.14.4 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.14.5 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
332
13.15 Amplify and Normalize
Amplify and Normalize are very similar effects, but have
some subtle differences. Normalize has its own option for
correcting DC offset . Amplify has its own option to enter
the volume change to be applied and to allow "clipping"
by amplifying to above 0.0 dB. The two effects behave
differently if used on multiple tracks or channels.
Applying level changes
The Normalize effect offers the option to "Normalize max-
imum amplitude to" a chosen level. The Amplify effect of-
fers two interdependent options (meaning that changing
one changes the other): "Amplification (dB)", and "New
Peak Amplitude (dB)". The slider can also be used to
choose the amplification level without entering any text
input. For a single mono track, these are essentially dif-
ferent ways of saying the same thing. If we have a track
whose peak amplitude is -6 dB (+0.5 to -0.5 on the verti-
cal scale), there are three ways to bring the peak up to 0
dB (+1.0 to -1.0 on the vertical scale).
1. "Normalize the maximum amplitude" to -0.0 dB
2. Set "Amplification (dB)" to 6 dB
3. Set "New Peak Amplitude (dB)" to -0.0 dB
With a -6 dB track, Amplify will always default to the
above "Amplification (dB)" and "New Peak Amplitude
(dB)" values, because it always defaults to amplifying to
0.0 dB. If the DC offset correction in Normalize is not ap-
plied, each of these methods will do exactly the same
thing and the resulting audio will be identical.
Using Normalize with DC offset correction
If DC offset is present, you should always use DC offset
correction . A minimal amount of offset is very common,
but large amounts (such as in Figure 1 below) should not
normally happen.
Figure 1In Figure 1 you can see that the upper track is
not centerd on the horizontal line, but above it. It is "off-
set". We can correct this fault by using the Normalize
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
effect with "Remove any DC offset" selected. Using Nor-
malize with this selected (but with "Normalize maximum
amplitude to" not selected) will correct this offset without
making any other changes to the amplitude - the result
will look like the lower track.
Figure 2In the upper track in Figure 2 we show the offset
upper track from Figure 1 after applying Amplify. In the
lower track we see that amplified waveform after apply-
ing Normalize with DC offset correction. In both cases
the maximum peak amplitude was set to 0.0 dB, but note
that in the upper (amplified) track, the resulting waveform
is noticeably smaller than in the lower (normalized) track.
Note also that the DC offset has become worse after
amplifying than it was in Figure 1 - the offset has also
been amplified. The reason that the Amplified waveform
is smaller is that the positive peaks above the horizontal
line have been shifted up vertically by the DC offset, so
although the positive peak is at 0.0 dB (+1.0 on the ver-
tical scale), the negative peak below the horizontal is far
away from -1.0. If your recordings regularly produce no-
ticeable DC offset , this indicates a fault in your system,
usually with either the soundcard or its drivers. Connect-
ing faulty sound sources can also cause this problem.
These issues should be corrected as necessary by up-
dating the drivers or fixing the hardware.
• Newer Windows PCs may have a DC offset can-
cellation feature when recording from the built-in
sound inputs; see the DC offset page.
13.15.1 Differences between Amplify and
Normalize on multiple tracks or
channels
Amplify multiple audio tracks
If you select multiple tracks and apply the Amplify effect,
then all audio tracks will be amplified by the same
amount. For example, if you enter 3 dB in "Amplifica-
tion (dB)", all audio tracks will be amplified by 3 dB, ir-
respective of their original level. Whatever peak volume
differences there were between the tracks (or channels
13.15. AMPLIFY AND NORMALIZE
within a track) will be preserved. In particular Amplify
will always preserve the left-right balance of a stereo pair
within a track.
Normalize multiple audio tracks or channels
The Normalize effect can optionally operate evenly on the
channels of a stereo pair (as Amplify does) thus retain-
ing the Left-Right balance all stereo channel pairs within
the selected tracks. A new checkbox has been added:
"Normalize stereo channels independently" which is set
by default to "off". If this checkbox is unchecked then all
selected audio tracks will be normalized to the same
peak level. If this checkbox is checked then all audio
channels within the selected tracks will be independently
normalized to the same peak level.
Visual comparison
Let us see this comparison on a stereo track. In Figure
3 below there are two stereo tracks - they each have two
audio channels, Left and Right. Note that the peak am-
plitude of the Left (upper) channel of each stereo pair is
quite a bit greater than the peak amplitude of the Right
(lower) channel.
Figure 3In Figure 4 below we can see the clear dif-
ference between the processed tracks after Amplifying
the upper track to 0.0 dB, and Normalizing the lower
track to 0.0 dB (with stereo channels normalized inde-
pendently; you can choose to "Normalize stereo chan-
nels independently" or not.
333
Figure 4Note that in the upper stereo track, both Left
and Right channels have been amplified by the same
amount (about 1.0 dB). Only the Left channel has a re-
sultant peak value of 0.0 dB, because the Right channel
was of lower amplitude. In the lower track, Normalize
has processed each channel independently to give both
channels a resultant peak value of 0.0 dB.
13.15.2 Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages of Amplify
• Change the level of one or more tracks or chan-
nels by the same amount, preserving the balance
between them
• Slider for quick amplification adjustment
• Automatically calculates the amplification re-
quired to set the loudest track or channel to maxi-
mum volume without clipping
• Can also be set to allow clipping
For example, to increase the level of several tracks by 2
dB, use the Amplify effect and enter "2" (without quotes)
in the "Amplification (dB)" box.
Advantages of Normalize
• Correct DC offset
• Adjust multiple audio tracks or channels to the
same peak level, removing any level disparity
between them
– There is an option to normalize stereo
channels as a pair (retaining the balance be-
tween the channels) instead of independently.
• Normalization above the clipping level of 0 dB
is disallowed
334
For example, if you have accidentally recorded one chan-
nel quieter than the other in a stereo recording (a com-
mon scenario with LP or tape recordings), normalizing
the channels independently will go a long way toward
restoring a correct balance. Note because normalization
is based on "peak" rather the "average" level, it does not
necessarily result in processed tracks actually sounding
equally loud.
When not to use Amplify
If your audio has DC offset present, you should use Nor-
malize to correct that offset. If you are applying a Chain
and want to bring a track or files to a specific level, use
Normalize instead. Amplify in a Chain will not make the
track or file as loud as possible if "New Peak Amplitude
(dB)" is set to 0 dB and will not set the amplitude to any
other chosen amount in that box. Because Amplify is
13.16 Auto Duck
Auto Duck reduces (ducks) the volume of one or more
selected tracks whenever the volume of a single unse-
lected "control track" placed underneath reaches a par-
ticular threshold level. The effect can be used to create
voice-overs for podcasts or DJ sets, for automatic "ramp-
ing" of background music in radio productions and for
turning down a voice in original language as soon as its
translation kicks in.Accessed by:Effect > Auto Duck...
13.16.1 Preparation
1. Select the track(s) or region(s) whose volume you
want to modify (for example, a background music
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
being applied automatically it can only apply the "Ampli-
fication (dB)" amount as saved in the "Ratio" parameter.
When not to use Normalize
If multiple tracks contain intentional differences in peak
levels, you should never normalize any of them. The only
way to preserve the relative balance between them is to
select them all as a group and amplify them, so they are
all scaled up by the same amount. You *can* normal-
ize stereo tracks without changing their channel balance,
but only if a) the stereo track is not split into Left and
Right and b) "Normalize stereo channels independently"
is unchecked. If tracks with intentional peak differences
have DC offset that needs correction, then you can and
should use Normalize, but with "Normalize maximum am-
plitude to" unchecked.
track).
2. Deselect the track that is to act as the control track
(for example, a spoken commentary). Note that
the first unselected track underneath the selected
track(s) acts as the control track.
3. Place the tracks so that at least one of the selected
tracks to be modified is above the unselected con-
trol track. Any other tracks below the unselected
control track will also be modified if they are se-
lected. You can use the Audio Track Dropdown
Menu to move tracks up or down if needed.
• The control track should be properly synchro-
nized with the tracks to be "ducked" - you can
use Time Shift Tool to align the tracks with
each other as required.
4. Choose "Auto Duck" from the Effect Menu .
Auto Duck analyzes the control track first of all, then
applies the effect to the selected track(s). This second
stage takes longer to complete than the first, so the es-
timated time remaining in the progress bar may be an
underestimate until the later stages of processing.
13.16.2 Graph and Parameters
All the effect parameters can be set by inputting values
in the boxes. The graph above the input boxes is a con-
venient visual representation of the changes made to the
volume of the ducked track when Auto Duck takes ef-
fect. If preferred, you can modify the Duck amount and
13.17. BASS AND TREBLE
Fade Down and Fade Up lengths by dragging the "con-
trol points" (the small white circles) on the graph. Simply
hover over a control point with the mouse and drag in the
direction indicated by the cursor arrows.
• Duck Amount: The amount (default: -12 dB ) of
volume reduction in the selected track when a sig-
nal above the threshold level is detected
• Maximum Pause: Avoids over-rapid volume
changes by setting a length of time following the
ramp down that must be exceeded before the vol-
ume is ramped up again. The default value is 1
second, but irrespective of the setting, volume will
not ramp up unless the pause is at least as long as
the fade down length plus the fade up length.
• Fade Down Lengths: The length of time over
which the selected tracks fade down to the ducked
volume (default: 0.5 seconds).
• Fade Up Lengths: The length of time over which
the selected tracks fade up from the ducked volume
(default: 0.5 seconds)
The "outer" and "inner" fade lengths both adjust the per-
ceived speed of the fade. In effect, the inner length con-
trols the length of time the ducked track is attenuated by
the full Duck amount. If you play with the fade lengths
you will be able to see this in the graph.
• Threshold: The level (default: -30 dB) used for de-
tecting a signal in the control track.
13.17 Bass and Treble
Bass and Treble increases or decreases the lower fre-
quencies and higher frequencies of your audio inde-
pendently. It behaves just like the bass, treble and vol-
ume controls on a domestic stereo system.Accessed
by:Effect >Bass and Treble...
13.17.1 Bass (dB)
The amount of gain (amplification above 0 dB or at-
tenuation below 0 dB) to bass (low) frequencies. Set this
to a positive amount to boost the bass, or to a negative
amount to reduce the bass. Bass gain is applied to fre-
335
13.16.3 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.16.4 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
quencies lower than 1000 Hz, with the most gain being
applied to frequencies about 100 Hz or lower.
13.17.2 Treble (dB)
The amount of gain (amplification above 0 dB or atten-
uation below 0 dB) to treble (high) frequencies. Set this
to a positive amount to boost the treble, or to a negative
amount to reduce the treble. Treble gain is applied to fre-
quencies higher than 1000 Hz, with the most gain being
applied to frequencies above 10000 Hz.
13.17.3 Volume (dB)
This increases or reduces the overall level by up to +/- 30
dB.
• Applying a boost to the bass or treble will tend
to increase the overall level. As a result, the final
level may be pushed so high that it distorts ( clips
336
). To avoid clipping, reduce the level by setting the
Volume control lower.
• Reducing the bass or treble may make the final
level too quiet. To compensate for the lower level,
set the Volume control higher.
If both the treble and bass frequencies are increased and
the overall volume lowered, the overall effect is a reduc-
tion in the middle frequencies. Similarly, reducing both
the bass and treble and increasing the volume has an
overall effect of boosting the middle frequencies.
13.17.4 Link Volume control to Tone con-
trols
When this is enabled (checked), adjusting either the Bass
or Treble controls will automatically adjust the Volume
control so as to lessen the change in the resulting output
level. Even when linking the Volume control, the overall
output level may still change a little, depending on the
frequency content and how much the bass or treble are
changed. Therefore always check Playback Meter Tool-
bar for possible clipping when trying out different bass
and treble settings. Even when linked, you can still adjust
the Volume control independently of the tone controls.
13.17.5 Technical details
Bass and Treble is a two-band Equalizer.
• The Bass control is a low-shelf filter with the half
gain frequency at 250 Hz.
• The Treble control is a high-shelf filter with the half
gain frequency at 4000 Hz.
• All slider controls have a gain range of +/- 30 dB.
The half gain frequency is the frequency at which the
gain is half of the filter gain. For example, if the filter
gain was +10 dB then the half gain frequency would be
the frequency at which the gain is +5 dB. However for
shelf filters the half gain frequency is typically a fixed fre-
quency regardless of the amount of gain. For other types
of filter it is more common to define the cutoff frequency
as the frequency at which the gain is -3 dB.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.17.6 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Start Playback starts playback of the effect preview
• Skip Backward skips forward through the effect pre-
view
• Skip Forward skips forward through the effect pre-
view
• Enable listen to the preview with and without the
effect applied
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.17.7 Real-time preview
This effect supports Real-time preview - effect settings
can be changed while playing and listening to the result
in real-time. Text-based button controls are provided as
in the image above. The Enable checkbox acts like a
live "Bypass" control. Uncheck the checkbox Enable
to hear the audio without the effect applied, and recheck
the box Enable to hear the effect applied at its current
settings. The Manage button accesses choices to add,
delete, import or export presets for this effect and to set
options for this effect. For details see Manage presets .
13.17.8 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.18. CHANGE PITCH
13.18 Change Pitch
Use Change Pitch to change the pitch of a selec-
tion without changing its tempo (speed). To change pitch
and tempo simultaneously, use Effect > Change Speed...
.Accessed by:Effect > Change Pitch...
Change Pitch works by applying an up or down per-
centage change to the existing pitch of a selection.
As well as choosing the percent change directly you can
define it as:
• a change from one pitch to another
• a change in semitones
• a change from one frequency to another.
Change Pitch senses the first detectable pitch in
a selection and sets "Pitch from" and "Frequency (Hz)
from" accordingly. These two controls are not a detec-
tion of the "key" or "tonality" of music.
13.18.1 Pitch
If you know both the key the original recording is in and
the key you want to change it to, change both the Pitch
"from" and "to" values.
• Estimated Start Pitch: Attempts to detect the
pitch of the most meaningful note at the start of the
selection. The letter (with sharp "#" / flat "b" suf-
fix as required) indicates the musical note and the
number indicates the octave position of the note.
The frequency of the detected pitch is given in
parentheses. For example, if you have a very short,
quiet note on A3 followed by a longer, louder note
on C4 Audacity will probably detect C4 but if the
second note is the same volume then Audacity will
probably detect A3.
337
• "from" and "to" controls: The "from" and "to"
controls each have a dropdown menu for selecting
the musical note, then to right of that menu, a text
box for selecting the octave of that note.
• Semitones (half-steps): If you do not know the
key the original recording is in but you know how
many semitones it needs to be changed, enter that
value here. For example you could duplicate a vo-
cal track and then apply Change Pitch with a value
of +7 semitones (a major fifth) to create a harmony
vocal.
If you change the Pitch "to" note when the "from"
and to" octaves are the same, this could mean either an
increase or decrease in pitch depending on the "from"
Pitch.So it is recommended to check in the "Semitones
(half-steps)" box if the value is going down (minus sign)
or up (no sign) as you intend. If you need to change pitch
in the other direction you can change the semitones value
instead (see the example below) or change the "to" oc-
tave number.
13.18.2 Frequency (Hz)
The "from" input box initializes to the first meaningful de-
tected pitch in the selection and does not update if the
other controls are changed. However if you know the
original frequency and the frequency you want to change
to, you can enter these in the "from" and "to" boxes. De-
tection of a steady sine tone will often be very accu-
rate (with the upper frequency limitation noted below )
in which case you may only need to change the "to" input
box to the desired frequency for the tone.
• Percent Change: If you would like to change the
pitch by a given percent, enter a value in this input
box or use the slider.
13.18.3 Use high quality stretching (slow)
If this checkbox is enabled, the same SBSMS high quality
algorithm is used that is used in the Sliding Time Scale
/ Pitch Shift effect. Change Pitch will process much more
slowly if this checkbox is enabled, but the exact length
of the selection will be preserved. For small to moder-
ate tempo changes, the resulting quality will usually be
higher, especially with percussive music (such as piano
music).
338
13.18.4 Example
Change the known key from A to the C#/Db above
that AIf we have music that we know is in the key of A,
Audacity may estimate the pitch as A if the first note is
an A. However, music does not always start on the same
note as the musical key it’s in, so the detected note will
not necessarily be an A. That does not matter because
we know the current key and the key we want to change
to. Whatever the detected pitch, we’ll set the "from" pitch
to be an A and the "to" pitch to be the C#/Db above that
A. In the image above, the first note detected was actu-
ally B4. This makes it the second note in the scale of A
major or A minor in fourth octave position (that is, nearly
an octave above C4 which is commonly known as "Mid-
dle C").
1. Change "from" pitch to A by clicking in the drop-
down menu.
2. Change "to" pitch to C#/Db by clicking in the drop-
down menu.
3. Observe the octave text box to right of "to" pitch is
still at 4, indicating a pitch change down of 8 semi-
tones.
4. Click the upward-pointing arrow to right of the "to"
octave text box (or click in or select the box and
press Up arrow) to change the octave to 5. This is
necessary because the octave number always in-
creases by 1 when moving up through C.
5. We now have the change we want from A4 to
C#/Db5, so we could click OK to make the change.
Before changing the pitch, observe that the pitch change
could have been entered in other ways. Had we realised
that A to C#/Db was 4 semitones, we could have left
the pitch controls alone and just entered 4 in "Semitones
(half-steps)". It does not matter that the pitch change in-
dicated would have been from B4 to D#/Eb5, because
it is the interval of 4 semitones that Audacity is apply-
ing.We could also have achieved an identical result by
simply setting the "Percent Change" to 25.992 (if we hap-
pened to know that 4 semitones upwards is equivalent to
25.992%).
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.18.5 Limitations
Change Pitch is a time-stretching effect, because it de-
fies the normal expectation that to lower the pitch of the
audio it is necessary to reduce its speed (and thus its
length) and vice versa. As with any time-stretching effect,
some audible distortions will be expected, particularly at
more extreme settings. Change Pitch by default does not
keep the length of the selection exactly as before. En-
able the checkbox Use high quality stretching (slow) if it
is important to keep the exact same length, for example
if changing the pitch of individual very short notes. The
highest reliable detection frequency is about 1/8th of the
sample rate . So for a sample rate of 2000 Hz , pitch
detection will not be accurate much above 250 Hz and for
the default project rate of 44100 Hz, detection will not be
accurate much above 5500 Hz.
13.18.6 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.18.7 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.19. CHANGE SPEED
13.19 Change Speed
Use Change Speed to change the speed of a selec-
tion , affecting its tempo, pitch and frequency con-
tent. When reducing speed, all frequencies become
lower. When increasing speed, all frequencies become
higher. To change tempo without affecting pitch or fre-
quency range, use Effect > Change Tempo or Effect >
Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift .All controls are linked, so
changing one will change the others.Accessed by:Effect
> Change Speed...
13.19.1 Speed Multiplier
This sets how many times faster or slower the audio will
play. For example, setting this to "2.000" will double the
speed (and raise the pitch by one octave), or setting this
to "0.500" will halve the playback speed (and lower the
pitch by one octave). Values between 0.010 (1/100th of
the original speed) and 50.000 (50 times faster) are per-
mitted. Values outside of this range will gray out the OK
and Preview buttons and cannot be applied.
13.19.2 Percent Change
If you know how much you want to change the speed of
the audio in percent, enter that value here. You can also
drag the slider to choose a Percent Change - the input
box and the Speed Multiplier will update as you drag the
slider. Values between -99.000 % (equivalent to 1/100th
of the original speed) and 4900.000 % (equivalent to 50
times faster) are permitted. Values outside of this range
will gray out the OK and Preview buttons and cannot be
applied. Examples:
1. A change of +100 % (double speed) is the same as
multiplying the speed (Speed Multiplier setting) by
2.
2. A change of -50 % (half speed) is the same as mul-
tiplying the speed by 0.5.
339
3. A change of +20 % is the same as multiplying the
speed by 1.2.
4. A change of -20 % is the same as multiplying the
speed by 0.8
13.19.3 Standard Vinyl rpm
If you have a recording of a record that was played back
and recorded at the wrong speed you can correct that
using these two dropdown menus. In the from dropdown
choose the speed the record was played back at then in
the to dropdown choose the speed it should have been
played back at.
13.19.4 Selection Length
The Current Length time control indicates the length of
the current selection. This control is for information only
and cannot be modified. The New Length time control
sets the length that the selection will be after applying
the effect. The Selection Format may be changed by se-
lecting the required option from the dropdown menu of
the New Length control. To access the dropdown menu,
click the little black downwards-pointing triangle on the
right end of the time control, right-click over any of its time
digits, or select any of the digits then use the keyboard
Menu Key. Changing the format in the New Length con-
trol will also update the digits in the Current Length con-
trol.
13.19.5 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
340
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.20 Change Tempo
Use Change Tempo to change the tempo and thus the
length (duration) of a selection , without changing its
pitch . To change tempo and pitch simultaneously, use
Effect > Change Speed .Accessed by:Effect > Change
Tempo...
The input boxes are linked. Therefore changing the value
in one box will change the values in other boxes as ap-
propriate.
13.20.1 Percent Change
If you know the amount you want to change the tempo of
the selection, enter that value in the input box. You can
also drag the slider to select a value: the input box will
update as you drag the slider.
13.20.2 Beats per minute (BPM)
If you know the BPM of the selection and the BPM you
want to change it to, enter those values here. The
BPM "to" value will then update the Percent Change and
Length "to" values.
13.20.3 Length
If you know what you would like the new length of the
selection to be, enter that value in the to input box. The
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.19.6 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
from box shows the current length of the selection and
cannot be changed. This is useful if you have a piece of
narration that is just a little bit too long or too short to fit
where you want it.
13.20.4 Use high quality stretching (slow)
If this checkbox is enabled, the same SBSMS high qual-
ity algorithm is used that is used in the Sliding Time
Scale / Pitch Shift effect. Change Tempo will process
much more slowly if this checkbox is enabled, but will re-
tain the complete content. For small to moderate tempo
changes, the resulting quality will usually be higher, es-
pecially with percussive music (such as piano music).
13.20.5 Limitations
Change Tempo is a time-stretching effect, because it de-
fies the normal expectation that reducing the speed of the
audio (thus increasing its length) will reduce the pitch and
vice versa. As with any time-stretching effect, some audi-
ble distortions will be expected at more extreme settings.
When using the default (fast) algorithm, Change Tempo
may remove some audio from the start or end of the se-
lection, or not stretch the end of the content to the end
of the selection when slowing down. Both of these symp-
toms may leave a short silence at the end of the resultant
selection. If the exact length of the audio is important, se-
lect the Use high quality stretching (slow) option. The de-
fault (fast) algorithm may sometimes sound echoey, es-
pecially when slowing down percussive music. For small
to moderate tempo changes, use the "high quality" op-
tion to avoid this problem. The "high quality" algorithm is
only suitable for small to moderate tempo changes and
the sound quality will deteriorate very badly for extreme
changes. For extreme slowing down, consider using the
Paulstretch effect.
13.20.6 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
13.21. SLIDING TIME SCALE / PITCH SHIFT 341

• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail changed.
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .

• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio • brings you to the appropriate page in the
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur- Manual, this page.
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de- 13.20.7 Links
fault setting is 6 seconds.
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings. |< Effect Menu

13.21 Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift

Bold textSliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift... allows you 13.21.1 Tempo Change
to make a continuous change to the tempo and/or pitch
of a selection by choosing initial and/or final change val- Initial and final tempo change values can be managed
ues. Tempo changes made without selecting a pitch using the slider (which will move in whole number val-
change preserve the original pitch, and pitch changes ues only) or by entering a value in the box, which can be
made without selecting a tempo change preserve the either a whole number or a number including a fraction.
original tempo. By changing only one of tempo and pitch
and choosing the same initial and final value, you can
use Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift in the same way as Initial (%)
Change Tempo or Change Pitch to produce a high qual-
ity fixed change. However Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift
The percentage of the original rate required for the begin-
lets you for example set the initial tempo change to -50%
ning of the processed audio. Positive percentages speed
while also setting the final tempo change to +20%, the
the audio up and negative percentages slow the audio
initial pitch change to +3 semitones and the final pitch
down: -50% is half-speed, 0% is unchanged, 50% is 1.5
change to +1 semitones.
times the original speed, 100% is double speed and so
on.

Because of the high quality algorithm used, Sliding Final (%)

Time Scale / Pitch Shift is normally slower compared
to performing the same effect with Change Tempo or The percentage of the original rate required for the end
Change Pitch. Accessed by:Effect > Sliding Time Scale of the processed audio.
/ Pitch Shift...

13.21.2 Pitch Shift

The two "Initial" input boxes are interdependent. Entering

the required value in one of the boxes for Initial Pitch Shift
will automatically display the equivalent value in the other
Initial box. Similarly, entering a value in either "Final" in-
put box will display the equivalent value in the other Final
box.

Initial (semitones)

Enter the pitch shift in semitones (half steps) required for

the beginning of the processed audio.
342
Initial (%)
Alternatively, enter the pitch shift as a percentage of the
original frequency as required for the beginning of the
processed audio.
Final (semitones)
Enter the pitch shift in semitones (half steps) required for
the end of the processed audio.
Final (%)
Alternatively, enter the pitch shift as a percentage of the
original frequency as required for the end of the pro-
cessed audio.
13.21.3 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
13.22 Chris’s Dynamic Compressor
13.22.1 An alternative Free Compressor
Chris’s dynamic compressor by the late Chris Capel
is a popular Nyquist plug-in that tries to even out abrupt
changes of volume by employing "lookahead" (this at-
tempts to anticipate volume changes by starting to ap-
ply compression before the volume rises to the threshold
level). There are options to soften the softer audio and
invert loudness.
13.22.2 Several versions of this plug-in
may be downloaded
• An archived 1.1 version of this plug-in can be
downloaded by left-clicking this link, then use the
browser feature to save the web page in text for-
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
Time Tracks can be used to bend tempo more flexibly
(also affecting pitch) using the Envelope Tool .
13.21.4 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
mat. Right-click and "Save Link As" or "Save Tar-
get As" may also work in some browsers. Archived
documentation can be found here.
• A more advanced 1.2.6 version of this plug-in can
be downloaded here. You can also listen to an au-
dio podcast explaining how to use the effect.
• Neither of the above versions can be mod-
ified or redistributed. We hope to make a
freely-licensed version of this plug-in available
for separate download later, based on Chris’s
1.2.7 Beta version which has a free MIT Li-
cense. For more information, please visit
https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=58958
.
See instructions for Nyquist plug-in installation in the Au-
dacity Wiki.
13.23. CLASSIC FILTERS
13.23 Classic Filters
Classic Filters offers three different types of filter
which together emulate the vast majority of analog filters,
providing a useful graphical tool for analysis and mea-
surement. Accessed by:Effect > Classic Filters.... This
effect is not enabled by default. To enable it, use Effect
> Add / Remove Plug-ins... to open the Add / Remove
Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog.
13.23.1 Graph Scale and Sliders
• Vertical Scale: This scale is in dB and shows the
amount of gain (amplification above 0 dB or atten-
uation below 0 dB) that will be applied to the audio
at any given frequency .
• Horizontal Scale: This shows the frequencies in
Hz to which volume adjustments will be applied.
Dragging the Classic Filters window wider displays
some additional points on the scale.
• Vertical scale sliders: By default the vertical scale
reads from 0 dB to -10 dB, but these two sliders to
left of the scale let you adjust the upper and lower
dB values so as to change the visible range on the
graph. Note that moving either slider may change
the horizontal position of the 0 dB line.
13.23.2 Filter Type
• Butterworth: An analog Butterworth filter provides
a "maximally flat" passband (ie. no ripples), the
magnitude response at the cutoff frequency is -3
dB, and above (for lowpass) or below (for highpass)
the cutoff frequency, the attenuation increases at
approximately 6 dB per octave times the filter order
(so e.g. 60 dB per octave for 10th order).
• Chebyshev Type I: Chebyshev Type I filters are
similar to Butterworth filters, except that a) the mag-
nitude response of the passband has "ripples" in it
343
(usually small), b) at the cutoff frequency the mag-
nitude response is equal to the ripple value, and c)
above (below for highpass) the cutoff frequency, the
stopband attenuation increases more rapidly, for a
given filter order, than Butterworth.
• Chebyshev Type II: Chebyshev Type II filters are
similar to Butterworth, including the flat passband
response, except that a) at the cutoff frequency the
magnitude response is equal to the ripple value, b)
above (below for highpass) the cutoff frequency, the
stopband attenuation increases more rapidly, for a
given filter order, than Butterworth, and c) the stop-
band attenuation varies from infinite to the ripple
value. (Here it’s common to use a ripple value of
20, 30 or more dB).
For details about these filters see the Wikipedia pages
on Butterworth filters and see Chebyshev filters.
13.23.3 Subtype
• Lowpass: The filter passes low frequencies and
attenuates high frequencies.
• Highpass: The filter passes high frequencies and
attenuates low frequencies.
13.23.4 Order
Choose a value between 1 and 10. "1" - first-order filters
- have the most gradual cutoff slope
13.23.5 Cutoff
Enter the cutoff frequency.
13.23.6 Passband Ripple
• For Butterworth filters no value can be entered and
any value displayed is ignored.
• For Chebyshev Type I filters type in the acceptable
amount of passband ripple. Higher values of pass-
band ripple will also increase the cutoff slope.
• For Chebyshev Type II filters no value can be en-
tered and any value displayed is ignored.
344
13.23.7 Minimum Stopband Attenuation
• For Butterworth filters no value can be entered and
any value displayed is ignored.
• For Chebyshev Type I filters no value can be en-
tered and any value displayed is ignored.
• For Chebyshev Type II filters type in the desired
amount of stopband ripple.
13.23.8 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
13.24 Click Removal
Click Removal attempts to remove clicks on audio tracks
and is especially suited to declicking recordings made
from vinyl records, without damaging the rest of the au-
dio.For alternative click removal techniques se the tutorial
Click and pop removal techniques .Accessed by:Effect
> Click Removal...
13.24.1 Select Threshold
Entering a lower value or moving the slider left will detect
softer clicks. Setting this too low may cause false click
detection and damage the audio. Setting it too high may
leave audible clicks that you’d rather it removed.
13.24.2 Max Spike Width
Enter a value or move the slider to set the length of the
spike that is considered to be a click. Setting this too
high may cause false click detection and damage the au-
dio. Setting it too low may leave audible clicks that you’d
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.23.9 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
rather it removed.
If Click Removal displays a message that the algorithm is
not effective on the audio and nothing changed, try mak-
ing a larger selection. Lowering the Threshold value or
increasing the Max Spike Width may also enable Click
Removal to act on the audio.
13.24.3 Limitations
• Click Removal requires an audio selection of more
than 4096 samples . This is about 93 milliseconds
at 44100 Hz project rate as shown in Selection
Toolbar .
• The Click Removal algorithm does not work on all
clicks, and so may trigger the "not effective" mes-
sage above even on a full selection that has some
clicks.
– Very soft and rapid light ticks that sound like
crackle from static electricity (often heard on
recordings from vinyl records) will not be ef-
fectively removed. For this type of noise you
should use the Noise Reduction effect.
– If individual brief or subtle clicks are not dealt
with by Click Removal, try the Repair effect
13.25. CLICK REMOVAL USING THE SPECTROGRAM VIEW
on those individual clicks. Repair can work on
a selection up to 128 samples wide (about
three milliseconds at 44100 Hz project rate).
– Broader clicks of 10 milliseconds or longer
may not be removed. In this case there are
a couple of optional Nyquist Plugins that you
can install. Use PopMute to heavily attenuate
loud clicks and pops to make them less ob-
trusive. Really loud and wide glitches that still
sound too bad can be repaired by using EZ-
Patch to replace the glitch with adjacent un-
damaged audio.
– Also see Sample workflow for LP digitiza-
tion which lists some alternative click removal
methods or alternative click removal software
that you can use as part of your audio restora-
tion routine.
13.24.4 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
13.25 Click removal using the Spectrogram view
This is a workflow Tutorial which gives steps to remove
hard-to-spot clicks using Audacity’s Spectrogram view.In
the example the user can hear some clicks but cannot
spot them with the default Waveform view despite zoom-
ing in quite far. In Waveform view loud clicks often show
up as easily seen spikes but smaller, lower amplitude
clicks can be very hard to spot without changing to Spec-
trogram view.
13.25.1 Clicks heard on playback
The user has identified a region where there are some
clicks by listening closely on his/her headphones, and
has zoomed in to try to spot them but it’s very hard to
identify them visually in the default waveform view.
345
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.24.5 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.25.2 Spectrogram view
So we change to the Spectrogram view (use the drop-
down menu from the downward-pointing black triangle in
the Track Control Panel ). This gives us a better chance
of seeing clicks because Spectrogram view picks up the
greater energy in the click compared to the surrounding
audio.
346 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS

13.25.4 Zoom in to clicks and delete or re-

pair

Clicks are pink Now zoom in to see the clicks in the selection more
clearly (spot the little vertical spikes in the waveform). Se-
lect a little more than the exact part of the selection that
contains clicks by clicking and dragging with your mouse:
In the Spectrogram view the clicks will normally show up
as vertical pink (or possibly vertical red) lines. Note that
the Spectrogram view has identified two regions of clicks
between 55.70 and 55.80 seconds that do not look like
clicks in Waveform view. Because we want to zoom in on
these regions later, we will not select from 55.70 to 55.80
seconds but for now, just select the second clicky region.
To select this region, click and drag with your mouse and
then label the region by using Ctrl + B(on a Mac Clover-
Leaf + B ) and typing a label name.

Use Select > Region > Ends to Zero Crossings or its Z

shortcut. Now use the Delete key or the Ctrl + K key-
board shortcut (on a Mac CloverLeaf + K ) to delete the
selection, resulting in the image below:

13.25.3 Back to Waveform

When you used Zero Crossings this tried to move the

Change back to Waveform view as it is easier to work selection edges a very small distance to a place where
with to make the repairs. the audio sample dots were at zero amplitude (exactly
13.25. CLICK REMOVAL USING THE SPECTROGRAM VIEW 347

on the center line). This helps to avoid a click at the new Select the discontinuity
join after deleting the selection, but a residual click is still
possible. Therefore the next step coming up will be to
listen to the audio after the deletion. Deletion removes a Select the waveform around the discontinuity; a maxi-
very small portion of the audio; you may instead prefer to mum of 128 samples (the maximum length for the Repair
retain the original audio length, not least because remov- effect).
ing longer selections may be audible. As an alternative
to deletion, zoom in much closer to each click and then
for each click, use either of the following techniques:

• carefully use Draw Tool to smooth the waveform

manually

• select a very small region (up to 128 samples in

length) that includes both a click and some undam-
aged audio, then use the Repair effect.

13.25.5 Test the click deletion

Now test the result (this is easier using headphones).

Zoom out and play from a little before the point where
the selection was deleted. Note that we deliberately did
not yet remove the label of the previously clicky region as
Repair the discontinuity
this helps us to identify the location as we play back for
testing.

Now use Effect > Repair to fix the discontinuity; note the
resulting smooth curve.

If you are happy with the audible results then there is no

further work to be done on this particular click.

13.25.6 If a discontinuity is heard at the

join

If a residual click is heard after deletion despite using
Zero Crossings, the click will probably be in one of
the channels in a stereo track. The zoomed in exam-
ple below shows a very obvious visual discontinuity in
both channels of the stereo track resulting from not us-
ing Zero Crossings before deletion. Any residual clicks
heard must be repaired. You could use Draw Tool as
above, but we will repair the discontinuity shown below
automatically using the Repair effect.
13.25.7 Final test of the repaired region
As a final step you should audibly test all repairs in the
region chosen in Spectrogram view, again preferably on
headphones. Zoom out sufficiently and start playback a
little earlier, so you can play a reasonable amount of au-
dio either side of the label (which we’ve still retained to
identify the repaired location):
348
Once you are happy with the results, the label can be
deleted if required (see this page ).
13.26 Clip Fix
Clip Fix... attempts to reconstruct clipped regions by
interpolating the lost signal. It is only likely to be effective
for repairing lightly clipped audio. Accessed by:Effect >
Clip Fix...
13.26.1 Threshold of Clipping (%)
How close to the maximum sample magnitude any sam-
ple must be to be considered clipped.
• If processing is slow, select only a few seconds of
clipped audio at a time.
• This effect assumes that the audio is clipped at the
same dB level for both positive and negative peaks.
If either the top or bottom of the waveform is suc-
cessfully reconstructed but not both, try applying
DC offset correction before applying Clip Fix.
13.26.2 Reduce amplitude to allow for re-
stored peaks (dB)
This enables you to reduce the amplification of the cur-
rent selection (default is -9 dB) to provide headroom for
the clip-fixed reconstruction.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Undo your repairs if you are unhappy with the result
If you are unhappy with your results you can use Edit >
Undo repeatedly to revert back to your original unedited
audio. Alternatively you may use the View > History...
command to choose or compare several previous editing
states.
13.25.8 Deal with the remaining clicks
Now we have to repeat the process of finding the exact
clicks within the first clicky region identified by Spectro-
gram, repair those clicks and audition the repairs, then
likewise with any further clicks in our audio. If you have
been making a lot of repairs you may want to take a break
and come back to listen to the whole repaired track a little
later.
13.26.3 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• Debug applies the effect to the selected audio with
the current effect settings, but unlike OK the effect
runs in debug mode. This is primarily of use when
writing or editing Nyquist plug-ins.
– In addition to the normal plug-in behavior, a
"debug window" opens to display error mes-
sages, normally the debug window will be
empty..
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.27. COMPRESSOR
13.26.4 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
13.27 Compressor
The Compressor effect reduces the dynamic range of
audio. One of the main purposes of reducing dynamic
range is to permit the audio to be amplified further (with-
out clipping ) than would be otherwise possible. There-
fore by default the Compressor amplifies audio as much
as possible after compression . The resultant increase
in average or RMS level can be useful for audio played
in a noisy environment such as in a car, or in speech,
to make a distant voice sound as loud as a close one.
Because the gain changes relatively slowly, a compres-
sor does not distort the signal in the way that a Limiter or
clipping would do.Accessed by:Effect > Compressor...
13.27.1 Graph
The graph shows the input level along the bottom (hori-
zontal axis) and the output level scale on the left (vertical
axis) to illustrate the dynamic range compression effect.
The graph will change as you adjust the Threshold and
Ratio sliders, reflecting those settings. The graph does
not reflect changes in any of the other controls, although
they all affect how the audio sounds after applying the
effect.
349
|< Effect Menu
13.27.2 Controls
The principle of how each control works is described be-
low. In practice the effect works internally in a rather more
complex manner in that, as it processes the sound, it
looks ahead to determine if there are high peaks com-
ing up. This enables the "attack" stage of the effect to
work in advance of increasing level as can be seen in
the example below. This feature is called look-ahead and
it is enabled within the effect with no user adjustment.
The benefit of look-ahead is that sudden peaks do not
pass through the effect before the gain has had time to
change.
• Threshold: The level above which compression is
applied to the audio.
• Noise Floor : The compressor adjusts the gain
on audio below this background level so as to pre-
vent it being unduly amplified in processing. This
is mainly useful when compressing speech, to pre-
vent the gain increasing during pauses and so over-
amplifying the background noise.
• Ratio: The amount of compression applied to the
audio once it passes the threshold level. The higher
the Ratio the more the loud parts of the audio will
be compressed. The Ratio sets the slope of the
blue line on the graph above the threshold.
• Attack Time: How soon the compressor starts to
compress the dynamics after the threshold is ex-
ceeded. If volume changes are slow, you can push
this to a high value. Short attack times will result
in a fast response to sudden, loud sounds, but will
make the changes in volume much more obvious to
listeners.
• Release Time: How soon the compressor starts
to release the volume level back to normal after
the level drops below the threshold. A long time
value will tend to lose quiet sounds that come after
loud ones, but will avoid the volume being raised
too much during short quiet sections like pauses in
speech.
• Make-up gain for 0 dB after compressing: Am-
plifies the resultant audio in all selected tracks after
compression to a peak level of 0 dB. All tracks are
amplified by the same amount as in the Amplify ef-
fect.
350 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS

• Compress based on Peaks: Base the threshold

and gain adjustment on peak values of the wave-
form rather than the average (RMS) value used
when in default (unchecked) state.

• When using RMS, the compressor uses "down-

ward" compression, making louder sounds above
the threshold quieter while leaving quieter ones be-
low it untouched.
After Compression:In this example:
• When using peak values, "upwards" compression
is applied which makes the audio louder, but ampli-
fies the louder sounds above the threshold progres-
sively less than those below it. Where the original
(input) level is 0 dB there is no amplification.
13.27.3 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Compressing based on peaks is enabled so au-
dio with a peak level below the threshold is boosted.
You can see that the audio before 1.5 seconds on
the Timeline has been made louder than it was in
the "Before Compression" image.
• Attack is 0.5 seconds, during which period the
compressor progressively anticipates the coming
peak.
• Release is 1.0 seconds, during which period the
boost to the quieter audio is progressively resumed.
• Ratio is 10:1.

• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to

manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .

• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio

would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.

• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the

current effect settings. 13.27.5 Further reading on compressors
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed. There are some good (but not too technical) explanations
of compression here:
• Compressors demystified (Harmony Central)
• brings you to the appropriate page in the • Compression Made Easy with audio files (Sound
Manual, this page. On Sound)
More advanced:
• Advanced Compression Techniques Part 1 and
13.27.4 Example Part 2 (Sound On Sound)

Before Compression:A simple sine wave that begins at

-12 dB , jumps up to 0 dB, then drops back down to -12
13.27.6 An alternative free compressor
dB, to demonstrate how the Audacity compressors han-
dle signals. When Compress based on Peaks is not Please see Chris’s Dynamic Compressor for a popular al-
selected, audio with an RMS level beyond the thresh- ternative compressor which may be downloaded for free.
old range will be reduced. If Make up gain is enabled
then the entire selection will be boosted to make up for
this gain reduction. When Compress based on Peaks 13.27.7 Links
is selected, audio with a peak level within the threshold
range will be boosted. |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
13.28. CONTRAST
|< Effect Menu
13.28 Contrast
Contrast Analysis can analyze two different selections
in an audio track so as to determine the RMS differ-
ence (contrast) between foreground (speech) and back-
ground (music, audience noise or similar). The purpose
is to determine if the speech will be intelligible to the
hard of hearing. You can also use the tool more gen-
erally to measure the RMS level of selections.Accessed
by:Analyze > Contrast...
To use Contrast Analysis, select a region in an audio
track that is typical of foreground audio, either by click-
ing and dragging with the mouse, or by entering start
and end values in Selection Toolbar . Open Contrast
and measure that selection. Use the mouse or Selec-
tion Toolbar again to select a region that is typical of
background audio and measure that in Contrast. Con-
trast then displays the RMS difference between the se-
lections. The time controls in Contrast are intended only
to show the time range of a selection once it has been
measured in Contrast Analysis. The controls cannot be
used to change the selection.
13.28.1 Instructions
With a single audio track selected, choose Analyze >
Contrast... then:
Step One:
• Select a region containing the speech (this is the
"foreground" selection)
• Click the Measure selection button in the "Param-
eters" box in the "Foreground:" row; the start and
end times of the selection will be displayed
• The RMS of the selected foreground audio will be
displayed in the "Volume" box at the end of the row.
351
Step Two:
• Select a region containing only the background
sound (this is the "background" selection)
• Click on the Measure selection button in the "Pa-
rameters" box in the "Background:" row ; the start
and end times of the selection will be displayed
• The RMS of the selected background audio will be
displayed in the "Volume" box at the end of the row.
• The Start and End times of the regions that have
been measured are displayed in the time controls.
Result:
• Contrast Result: Shows if the difference between
foreground and background gives a pass or fail
against the "WCAG 2.0, Success Criteria 1.4.7"
guideline for accessible audio. A pass is given if
the difference is 20 dB or more.
• Difference: The actual RMS difference value
found.
To ensure the track is fully compliant with WCAG2,
you should check the contrast between foreground and
background in several places.
13.28.2 The Buttons
• Reset Clears all the parameters and result values.
• Export Saves the foreground/background values
and the result to a text file for proof that you
checked your audio file. If you export again to the
same file, the new result will be appended under-
neath the previous one.
• Close Clears (resets) and closes the Contrast Anal-
ysis window.
• Links to this "Contrast" page.
352
13.28.3 Limitations
• Contrast does not include any audio behind time
zero (0.0 on the Timeline ) in its RMS calculation.
Audio behind zero is indicated by two left-pointing
arrows at the start of the waveform.
• Although Contrast can only display the RMS val-
ues of two selections at once, you may open a new
project and analyze two different selection in that
project.
• Empty track space within the selected region is ig-
nored by the analysis ("silent" or low volume audio
13.29 DC offset
DC offset is a mean amplitude displacement from zero.
In Audacity it can be seen as an offset of the recorded
waveform away from the center zero point. DC offset is
a potential source of clicks, distortion and loss of audio
volume.
13.29.1 Background
DC offset is an offsetting of a signal from zero. On the
Audacity waveform it would mean that the waveform in
default view appears not to be centered on the 0.0 hori-
zontal line, as in the upper track in this image:
The cause is almost always a fixed voltage offset some-
where in the audio chain before the analog signal is con-
verted to digital values. For example, the voltage may be
directly caused by a faulty soundcard, or may come from
some other device that is attached to the card. Any off-
set is normally so small as to not be noticeable, but with
defective or poor quality hardware it may become large
enough to be a problem.
You should check for and remove offset in any audio
you are working with before editing it, even if the audio
is not your own recording but an audio file you have ob-
tained elsewhere.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
that looks like a "flat line" is taken into account by
the analysis).
• For correct measurement of stereo tracks, audio
data must be present in both left and right channels
of the selection.
13.28.4 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Analyze Menu
• A sound that has DC offset will not be at its loud-
est possible volume when amplified or normalized.
This is because the offset reduces the headroom
between the peak level of the audio and the maxi-
mum possible level without clipping . This problem
can possibly extend to the mix as a whole, since a
sound with DC offset and a sound without DC offset
will have DC offset when mixed.
• DC offset can cause inaudible low level distortion.
The distortion may become audible when effects
that change the frequency content are applied, or
when exporting the audio to a size-compressed for-
mat like MP3 .
• DC offset can cause audible clicks where audio
sections are cut and pasted together, and can
cause a click on playback at the start and end of
the track, even without editing.
• DC offset will become worse if the recording is am-
plified.
13.29.2 Removing DC offset
Audacity’s Normalize Effect
Audacity’s DC removal method performs a calculation to
make the average positive and negative sample values
equal. To perform removal, choose Effect > Normalize...,
with the option checked "Remove any DC offset (center
on 0 vertically)". Uncheck the "Normalize maximum am-
plitude..." box unless you want to run Normalize as well
(see Amplify and Normalize for what Normalize does and
when to use it).
13.30. DELAY
LADSPA dcRemove
An alternative method is to use the dcRemove plug-in in
the swh LADSPA plug-ins bundle. Links to the bundle are
on this page on the Audacity wiki. The plug-in dcRe-
move uses a High Pass Filter to remove the DC (0 Hz)
component from the audio.
Cancel DC offset in sound devices on Windows
Newer Windows PCs may have a DC offset cancellation
feature when recording from the built-in sound inputs. To
check for or enable this:
1. Right-click over the speaker icon in the System Tray
> Recording Devices, or click Start > Control Panel
> Hardware and Sound > Sound, then the "Record-
ing" tab
2. Right-click over empty space, show disabled and
disconnected devices, then right-click over each
device and enable it
3. Right-click or select each device, choose "Proper-
ties" then look in the "Enhancements" tab
4. If there is no "Enhancements" tab, look in the
sound device’s own control panel in "Hardware and
Sound".
13.30 Delay
Use Delay to create a multiple echo effect with op-
tions for variable delay times between successive echoes
and the number, amplitude and pitch of successive re-
peats.Accessed by:Effect > Delay...
353
13.29.3 Limitations of offset removal
Audacity’s DC offset removal method could potentially
create a new offset and therefore a click in some rare
cases. Two cases are noteworthy:
• where only part of the audio is offset, for example
if absolute silence with no offset has been inserted
into an offset recording.
• where the offset is not constant. Strictly speaking
this is not DC offset, it is sub-sonic modulation or
"slowly changing DC bias", but over a short time
period it looks very much like DC offset.
In the case where some sections of the audio are clearly
offset and some not, the solution in Audacity is to first
carefully select each section of non-offset audio then use
Edit > Clip Boundaries > Split New to split it a new track.
Then remove the offset from the remaining audio, and
paste the non-offset audio back. Use Select > Region >
Ends to Zero Crossings before split and paste if the non-
offset audio is not absolute silence. High Pass DC re-
moval may well remove offset without adding new clicks
if the offset is not constant.
Note: Removing offset after the event does not
reinstate the original loss of headroom. Without off-
set it would have been possible to record louder, so with
greater dynamic range and greater signal-to-noise ratio.
It is always preferable to try to find and fix the source of
the offset in the hardware. Updating your sound device
drivers might help, too.
13.30.1 Delay type
• Regular: Each echo is delayed by the same
amount.
• Bouncing ball: Makes the echoes occur increas-
ingly close together (faster).
• Reverse bouncing ball: Makes the echoes occur
increasingly far apart (slower).
13.30.2 Delay level per echo (dB)
This controls the amount in dB by which each succes-
sive echo will change loudness. The more negative this
value, the more the echoes will die away. Positive values
cause successive echoes to be louder. When set to 0.0,
all echoes will be the same volume.
354
Because echoes are often added to the original au-
dio, the processed audio will often have a higher peak
level than the original. If the output exceeds 0 dB (full
track height) and so triggers the red clipping warning
lights in Playback Meter Toolbar , you should open Effect
> Amplify... , ensure "Amplification (dB)" shows a nega-
tive dB value (not "0.0 dB") then click OK. If "Amplifica-
tion (dB)" in Amplify shows "0.0 dB", the track does not
contain 32-bit audio and the clipping cannot be repaired.
In that case, Edit > Undo Delay, use Amplify to reduce
the track to a lower amplitude then reapply Delay.
13.30.3 Delay time (seconds)
This controls the time between echoes. For the Bouncing
Ball types of delay, this sets the delay time for the longest
(slowest) echo.
13.30.4 Pitch change effect
• Pitch/Tempo: Changes the pitch in the same
way that the Change Speed effect causes a change
in pitch. The sound quality of each echo is very
good, but an increase in pitch speeds up the
delayed audio and a decrease in pitch slows it
down. The echoes will be noticeably desynchro-
nized with any comparable echoes in other tracks
where "Pitch/Tempo" was not applied.
• LQ Pitch Shift: Changes the pitch while maintain-
ing the same tempo in a similar way to the Change
Pitch effect. The sound quality of each echo is of
lower quality than the "Pitch/Tempo" effect (includ-
ing a short additional echo on percussive sounds)
and the delay time will often be a little longer than
specified. However, interesting "spiraling" effects
can be produced.
13.30.5 Pitch change per echo (semitones)
This controls the amount in semitones by which each
successive echo will change pitch. The change can be
set to fractions of a semitone which can produce a "glis-
sando" type of delay. When set to zero, the pitch change
effect is disabled.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.30.6 Number of echoes
This controls how many echoes are produced.
13.30.7 Allow duration to change
• Yes: (Default). Allows the processed audio to
lengthen so as to accommodate all the requested
echoes.
• No: The processed audio is trimmed to the same
length as the original selection. Any echoes that
would have occurred after the end of the original
selection will be deleted. Choose this option if you
need to keep the delayed track synchronized with
other tracks in the project.
13.30.8 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.30.9 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.31. DISTORTION
13.31 Distortion
Use the Distortion effect to make the audio sound dis-
torted. By distorting the waveform the frequency content
is changed, which will often make the sound ’crunchy’ or
’abrasive’.Technically this effect is a waveshaper. The re-
sult of waveshaping is equivalent to applying non-linear
amplification to the audio waveform. Preset shaping
functions are provided, each of which produces a dif-
ferent type of distortion. Presets are provided in the
Manage menu, which suggest typical settings for a wide
range of uses.Accessed by:Effect > Distortion...
For more "analog" sounding distortion, the track
should be resampled to a high sampling rate so as to
reduce aliasing. Equalization may also be applied, be-
fore or after applying the distortion effect to modify the
timbre of the distorted audio.
13.31.1 Distortion type
These are the shaping functions. Each type defines how
the input signal is mapped to the output level. Each dis-
tortion type has one or more control parameters that de-
termine how the shaping function is applied. There is a
total of five slider controls. The controls are enabled or
disabled automatically depending on which "type" of dis-
tortion is selected. For all distortion types, input signals
above 0 dB are "hard clipped" at 0 dB in addition to the
specified ’shaping’.
Clipping Distortion
Hard Clipping
This type of distortion cuts off peaks at the top and bot-
tom of the waveform. Note that hard clipping is very likely
to cause aliasing distortion , which may be undesirable.
• Clipping level (-100 to 0 dB): Peaks greater than
this level are cut off. The slider control has a log-
arithmic scale to allow settings close to 0 dB to be
made more easily and accurately.
355
• Drive (0 to 100): When set to greater than 0, the
waveform is amplified this amount (dB) prior to be-
ing clipped.
• Make-up Gain (0 to 100): When set greater than 0,
the output from the effect is amplified. When set to
100, the amplification is such that an input level of
0 dB (full track height) will produce an output level
of 0 dB.
Soft Clipping
This type of distortion is similar to Hard Clipping except
that ’corners’ where clipping intersects with the waveform
are rounded. This is achieved by progressively reduc-
ing the gain when the input is above the clipping thresh-
old. The softer the clipping, the more rounded the clipped
peaks and the less risk of aliasing distortion.
• Clipping threshold (-100 to 0 dB): The level at
which gain reduction (clipping) starts. The slider
control has a logarithmic scale to allow settings
close to 0 dB to be made more easily and accu-
rately.
• Hardness (0 to 100): The ’hardness’ of the clipping
(100 % being "hard").
• Make-up Gain (0 to 100): When set greater than 0,
the output from the effect is amplified. When set to
100, the amplification is such that an input level of
0 dB (full track height) will produce an output level
of 0 dB.
Note that even without "Make-up Gain", the output level
may be higher than the clipping threshold because the
peaks are in effect ’squashed’ flatter rather than being
completely cut off.
Overdrive Distortion
For all three ’Overdrive’ types, the shaping function is a
continuous smooth curve.
Soft Overdrive
This is the "softest" of the overdrive types and produces
the least amount of high harmonics. It can be useful for
reducing the dynamic range (thus increasing the sustain
of musical instruments) while adding the least amount of
"crunch" to the sound.
• Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount /
strength of the distortion.
356
• Output level (0 to 100): An output level adjust-
ment. When set to 0 the output is silent.
Medium Overdrive
• Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount /
strength of the distortion.
• Output level (0 to 100): An output level adjust-
ment. When set to 0 the output is silent.
Hard Overdrive
This is the "hardest" of the overdrive types and produces
the greatest amount of high harmonics. This would typi-
cally be used for producing a heavily distorted effect.
• Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount /
strength of the distortion.
• Output level (0 to 100): An output level adjust-
ment. When set to 0 the output is silent.
Harmonic Distortion
These types of distortion create a series of odd or even
harmonics. "Odd" harmonics have frequencies that are
an odd number of times higher than the fundamental fre-
quency, whereas even harmonics are an even number of
times higher than the fundamental frequency. For exam-
ple, the second harmonic of a 440 Hz sine wave is a sine
wave with a frequency of 880 Hz. Note that because real
world sounds contain many frequencies, these distortion
effects are unlikely to create recognizable "harmony" type
sounds, but rather will produce distortion with a unique
tonal character.
Cubic Curve (odd harmonics)
This shaping function is often used in electric guitar dis-
tortion effects as it is possible to avoid aliasing distortion
with only a modest amount of oversampling . This imple-
mentation does not use oversampling, though oversam-
pling can be applied manually by resampling the track to
a higher rate prior to applying this distortion effect. One
limitation of this type of distortion is that even when ap-
plied fully, the effect is still quite mild. Stronger effects
can be achieved by applying the algorithm multiple times,
which can be achieved by setting the "Repeat process-
ing" control greater than 0. When applied once only, each
frequency component of the sound gains one harmonic
overtone that is 3 times the original frequency. When the
effect is applied multiple times, additional odd numbered
harmonics are created.
• Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount /
strength of the distortion.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Output level (0 to 100): An output level adjust-
ment. When set to 0 the output is silent.
• Repeat processing (0 to 5): The number of times
to repeat the distortion algorithm. When set to 0
the effect is applied once only.
Even Harmonics
This type of distortion produces a series of harmonics
that are 2, 4, 6... times the frequency of the original
waveform (even numbers). Producing even harmonics
requires that the waveform is distorted asymmetrically,
which if not corrected will produce substantial DC offset .
To counter the DC offset, a DC blocking filter is provided.
• DC blocking filter (checkbox) When checked, a
low frequency filter is applied which will reduce the
DC component of the processed audio.
• Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount /
strength of the distortion.
• Harmonic brightness (0 to 100): Higher values
produce a greater number of harmonics.
Hybrid Distortion
This type of distortion is distinct from the other presets
in that the shaping functions curves in two directions (an
"S" shape). Thus low level signals are "expanded" down-
wards, becoming quieter, while medium level signals are
made louder creating dynamic range compression for
louder sounds.
Expand and Compress
The transformation shape for this type of distortion is a
sinusoidal "S" shape for both positive and negative go-
ing signals. The distortion of high peaks is similar to soft
clipping or overdrive, while distortion of low level sounds
is similar to crossover distortion.
• Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount /
strength of the distortion.
• Output level (0 to 100): An output level adjust-
ment. When set to 0 the output is silent.
Modeled Distortion
These distortion types are modeled on other effects.
"Leveller" and "Hard Limiter 1413" were included in old
versions of Audacity.
13.31. DISTORTION
Leveller
This type of distortion is modeled on the "Leveller" (or
"Leveler") effect that was included in older versions of Au-
dacity.
• Noise floor (-80 to -20): [default = -70] This is
equivalent to the "Noise Threshold" setting in the
original "Leveller" effect. It sets the noise threshold
for the effect. For audio that is not already at maxi-
mum volume, higher threshold settings tend to am-
plify the audio by a lesser amount, and may reduce
the chance of background noise becoming obtru-
sive.
• Levelling fine adjustment (0 to 100): [default = 0]
This is an additional control that was not available
in the original effect. It allows fine adjustment of the
amounts of "levelling".
• Degree of Levelling (0 to 5): [default = 1] Controls
the amount of levelling that is applied to the signal.
When the fine adjustment is at zero, the amounts 0
to 5 are equivalent to the original effect choices: 1
= Light, 2 = Moderate, 3 = Heavy, 4 = Heavier, 5 =
Heaviest.
Rectifier Distortion
This type of distortion is modeled on a simple electronic
component called a rectifier.
• DC blocking filter (checkbox) When checked, a
low frequency filter is applied which will reduce the
DC component of the processed audio.
• Distortion amount (0 to 100): The amount /
strength of the distortion. From 0 to 50 % the lower
half of the waveform is progressively clipped (hard
clipping) until at 50 % only the upper half of the
waveform remains (equivalent to half wave rectifi-
cation.. From 50 to 100 %, the lower half of the
input waveform is progressively reproduced on the
positive side (upper half) of the audio channel, until
at 100% the waveform comprises of the upper half
plus the inverted lower half of the original waveform
(equivalent to full wave rectification)
Hard Limiter 1413
This type of distortion is modeled on the "Hard Limiter"
LADSPA plug-in that was included in older versions of
Audacity. The default settings are different from the orig-
inal effect (the original defaults would produce no effect).
• dB limit (-100 to 0dB): [default = -6] This is the
amplitude level above which the input signal is pro-
cessed. If the Wet level is 100% and Residue level
0%, the peak level of the result will be clipped down
to this level.
357
• Wet level (-100 to 0dB): [default = 50] This is the
percentage of the clipped signal that is fed to the
output. It thus acts as a volume control for audio
below the dB limit. When set to 100%, all sounds
below the dB limit are fed to the output. At lower
settings, the volume of the result will be reduced.
• Residue level (-100 to 0dB): [default = 50] This
allows a proportion of the signal that has been re-
moved by clipping to be added back to the output
and so soften the effect. When set to 0%, all of
the clipped signal is discarded. At higher settings,
some of the clipped signal will be restored, mak-
ing the limit softer. More peaks and troughs of the
original waveform will be retained, and the resul-
tant volume level will be higher than that set in the
dB limit.
13.31.2 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage opens a dropdown menu enabling you to
select factory presets, save or delete user presets,
and see some detail about the tool. For details of
these menu items, see Manage presets . The in-
cluded factory presets are:
• Defaults The factory default setting.
• Hard clip -12dB, 80% make-up gain Distortion
that clips peaks at -12 db and then boosts the out-
put level
• Soft clip -12dB, 80% make-up gain Similar to the
"Hard clip" preset but with slightly rounded clipping
for less aliasing.
• Fuzz Box A clipping effect commonly used with
electric guitars.
• Walkie-talkie A heavily distorted effect suggestive
of military walkie-talkies. May be used in conjunc-
tion with the Equalization effect for a more authentic
walkie-talkie effect.
• Blues drive sustain A soft overdrive effect that
raises the volume of quiet sounds.
• Light Crunch Overdrive A medium/strong over-
drive effect, reminiscent of high input gain on a gui-
tar amplifier.
• Heavy OverdriveSevere distortion. A "turn it up to
11" type effect.
• 3rd Harmonic (Perfect Fifth) When applied to a
sine tone , adds one harmonic that is three times
the frequency of the original tone.
• Valve Overdrive A fairly subtle overdrive effect with
even harmonics. Even harmonics have frequencies
358
that are even number multiples of the original fre-
quencies.
• 2nd Harmonic (Octave) When applied to a sine
tone , adds one harmonic that is double the fre-
quency of the original tone (one octave above).
• Gated Expansion Distortion Heavily distorts both
high and low level signals, making peaks "crunchy"
and quiet parts much quieter.
• Leveller, Light, -70dB noise floor The same as
the "Leveller" effect that was shipped in earlier ver-
sions of Audacity.
• Leveller, Moderate, -70dB noise floor
• Leveller, Heavy, -70dB noise floor
• Leveller, Heavier, -70dB noise floor
• Leveller, Heaviest, -70dB noise floor
• Half-wave Rectifier Equivalent to half-wave rectifi-
cation.
• Full-wave Rectifier Equivalent to full-wave rectifi-
cation.
13.32 Echo
This effect repeats the audio you have selected again
and again, normally softer each time. The delay time
between each repeat is fixed, with no pause in between
each repeat.Accessed by:Effect > Echo...
Unless your requested echo length (delay time) is less
than the length of the selection, no echoes will be cre-
ated. Also Echo does not generate additional audio be-
yond that selected. So if necessary you must add suffi-
cient silence to the end of your track(s) to accommodate
your echo settings. To add silence:
1. Click in the selection and press End on your key-
board, or choose Transport > Cursor To > Track End
2. Choose Generate > Silence...
3. Choose the duration of the silence you want to add
to the selected audio, and click OK.
This leaves the generated silence selected. Before run-
ning the Echo effect itself, click in the Track Control Panel
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Full-wave Rectifier (DC blocked) Equivalent to
full-wave rectification with a high pass filter to re-
duce DC offset
• Percussion Limiter A hard clipping limiter that re-
stores a portion of the clipped peaks to make the
distortion less harsh. Can be effective for limiting
peaks and adding "bite" to percussive sounds like
snare drums and hi-hats.
• Start Playback ...
• Skip Backward ...
• Skip Forward ...
• Enable
• Close ...
• Apply ...
13.31.3 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
to select both the original audio and the inserted silence
(or hold Shift and press Home).
13.32.1 Delay time (seconds)
The amount of delay between the echoes, in other words
the length of each echo.
13.32.2 Decay factor
Usually a number between 0 and 1. A value of 0 means
no echo, and a value of 1 means that each echo is ex-
actly as loud as the original, so this merely extends the
current selection unchanged. A value of 0.5 reduces the
amplitude or loudness of each echo by half each time,
so the audio dies out quite slowly. Smaller values make
it die out more quickly. Values above 1 increase the am-
plitude of the echo each time, which you could use as a
special effect.
Because echoes are often added to the original au-
dio, the processed audio will often have a higher peak
level than the original. If clipping results, you can Edit
> Undo the Echo effect, Effect > Amplify to a lower level,
then apply Echo again. Using Echo for loops: Echo
13.33. EQUALIZATION
can be used to create a simple loop with volume changes
without any problem about gaps between each segment
of the loop.
• If you want a loop with no volume changes, use Ef-
fect > Repeat... instead.
• You can also create echoes with Effect > Delay...
which generates the additional audio needed for
your chosen delay time and number of echoes.
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
13.33 Equalization
Equalization is a way of manipulating sounds by Fre-
quency . It allows you to increase the volume of some
frequencies and reduce others. This is a more advanced
form of the EQ and Tone controls on many audio sys-
tems. As an example of equalization, the curve shown
below changes the balance of high and low frequencies
in the audio to make it sound like an AM radio broadcast.
High frequencies (above 6000 Hz) and low frequencies
(below 100 Hz) are reduced in volume by 20 dB . Ac-
cessed by:Effect > Equalization...
The Equalization effect has two modes: "Draw curves"
and "Graphic EQ". These modes are selected by the
radio buttons below the graph. The graph scale with slid-
ers and most Equalization settings are common to both
modes.
359
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.32.3 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.33.1 Graph Scale and Sliders
• Vertical Scale: This scale is in dB and shows the
amount of gain (amplification above 0 dB or atten-
uation below 0 dB) that will be applied to the audio
at any given frequency .
• Horizontal Scale: This shows the frequencies in
Hz to which volume adjustments will be applied.
Dragging the Equalization window wider displays
some additional points on the scale and makes it
easier to plot the graph accurately.
• Vertical scale sliders: By default the vertical scale
reads from + 30 dB to - 30 dB, but these two sliders
to left of the scale let you adjust the upper and lower
dB values so as to change the visible range on the
graph. Note that moving either slider changes the
horizontal position of the 0 dB line. Reducing the
visible range lets you make a finer adjustment to
how loud the frequencies sound, but the changes
will be more subtle because the volume adjustment
will be less.
13.33.2 Draw Curves
• Equalization Curves and Control Points: If you
look closely at the curve in the image above, you’ll
see it’s composed of a blue curve joining together
a number of white circles, and a green curve which
follows the general shape of the blue curve. The
white circles are called "control points". When in
"Draw Curves" mode, the blue curve is drawn by
360
either clicking in the graph at any position, or click-
ing on the blue curve and dragging it to a position.
Doing either creates a control point at that posi-
tion, then creating further control points draws the
curve. To remove a control point, drag it outside the
graph.The green curve is the one that Audacity ac-
tually uses to perform the effect, taking into account
the limitations of the equalization algorithm . The
green curve usually follows the blue curve closely,
but will be forced to a smoother path if there are
sudden changes in amplitude over a small fre-
quency range.
• Linear Frequency Scale: When this box is
unchecked, the horizontal frequency scale is log-
arithmic , giving more detail at the lower frequen-
cies. This corresponds roughly to our greater sensi-
tivity to lower frequencies. When checked, the fre-
quency scale is linear , displaying equal frequency
ranges for each unit of the scale. This can be useful
for precision adjustments at high frequencies. This
control is available only in "Draw Curves" mode.
Example: You want to make an audio selection sound
"brighter" by reducing the frequencies below 100 Hz by
10 dB, and increasing those over 5000 Hz by 10 dB:
1. If the line in the graph is not already horizontal at
the 0 dB position, click "Flat" (see below).
2. Click at the point that is opposite both -10 dB on the
vertical scale and 100 Hz on the horizontal scale.
3. Click at the point that is opposite both +10 dB on the
vertical scale and 5000 Hz on the horizontal scale.
4. Create extra control points if desired between 100
Hz and 5000 Hz to modify whether particular fre-
quencies between those two levels should be re-
duced or increased in volume.
No account is taken of whether your equalization
curve will result in the selection being amplified beyond
the clipping (distortion) level. If your curve amplifies
any frequencies, especially the lower frequencies which
are normally the loudest, Effect > Normalize the track(s)
first to -3 dB or lower. If necessary you can always Edit >
Undo the Equalization, Normalize again to a lower level,
then re-apply Equalization.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.33.3 Graphic EQ
• Frequency Sliders: In "Graphic EQ" mode, the
equalization curve is drawn by manipulating a set
of sliders. Each slider adjusts the gain of a specific
range of frequencies, the gain being maximized at
(centered on) the frequency stated on the slider.
Click and drag the slider up or down to increase or
decrease the volume by a maximum of 20 dB. You
can Tab between each slider. You can get to an ex-
act slider value but the method depends to some
extent on your operating system. Try:
– Clicking above or below the slider to increment
it up or down by a fixed value in whole dB
– Clicking above or below the slider to jump to a
nearby whole dB value
– Using the arrow keys on the keyboard to incre-
ment by 1 dB
– Holding down Shift then either dragging the
slider handle or using the arrow keys to incre-
ment by 0.1 dB.
The current value of the slider can be seen by hov-
ering over it with the mouse.
In "Graphic EQ" mode only, a dropdown box lets you
choose between three different interpolation methods.
B-spline tends to reduce somewhat the amount of gain
set on the sliders, whilst spreading it to more of the sur-
rounding frequencies. Cubic affects the surrounding fre-
quencies the most, introducing a small opposite gain (for
example an attenuation if you specified an amplification)
at frequencies furthest from the frequency stated on the
slider.
13.33.4 Equalization settings and presets
• Draw Curves: Selecting this radio button gives you
the "Draw Curves" mode, in which the equalization
curve is drawn by manipulating control points.
13.33. EQUALIZATION 361

• Graphic EQ: This button switches to the simpler
"Graphic EQ" mode, in which the equalization
curve is drawn by adjusting the frequency sliders.
• Length of filter: How many samples of audio
Audacity processes in each analysis step. Gener-
ally, it’s best left at the default value of 4001. If the
green curve Audacity uses to perform the effect is
very different from the blue curve you created, try
increasing the length of the filter . Higher settings
will process the audio in a greater number of nar-
row frequency bands, but may introduce ringing ar-
tifacts at very high settings.
(where the scale starts at 0 Hz) then switch to log-
arithmic view (where the scale starts at 20 Hz), the
curve will switch to "unnamed". In that case Audac-
ity will put a point in at 20 Hz at the dB level you
wanted at 10 Hz.
• Save/Manage Curves: This opens the "Manage
Curves" dialog described below .
• Flatten: A quick way to set a "level response curve".
This means the curve on the graph is drawn from
left to right at 0 dB on the vertical scale, so that no
frequencies will have their volume level modified.

– At high sample rates the actual time repre- • Invert: Turns the current curve in the window up-
sented by a given number of samples will be side down, changing positive gains at a particular
less and the frequency bands will be broader frequency into negative, and vice versa. To negate
so as to cover the increased frequency range. incorrect RIAA equalization of a 78 rpm record that
As a result, the green curve will fit to the blue was recorded with a modern turntable, you can ap-
line less closely at any given "Length of filter" ply the already supplied "Inverse RIAA" curve in the
than for lower sample rates. "Select Curve" dropdown, without using the "Invert"
button.
– A shorter filter length may sometimes be
preferable. It will take less time to process the
effect, and the smoother curve produced may
actually sound better, unless you are modify- 13.33.5 Manage Curves
ing very low frequencies.
• Select curve: Click the dropdown triangle to se-
lect from a list of preset equalizations. These are
either your own saved presets (see "Save/Manage
Curves" below) or built-in presets, such as filters
to remove unwanted low frequencies that could
cause poor sound, or the RIAA curve to equalize
an LP recorded into Audacity without equalization.
A curve will display as an "unnamed" curve if it is
not yet saved as a preset, or if it is a modified pre-
set.
There will also be the following instances where curves
can only be matched approximately, so will display as
"unnamed":
• In "Graphic EQ" mode, built-in presets will display
as "unnamed" because they were built using the
differently calculated "Draw curves" mode.
• Your own saved presets will always display with
their saved name if loaded in the same mode you
saved them in. In "Graphic EQ" mode, only pre-
sets saved in that mode will display with their saved
name. In "Draw Curves" mode, a curve created in
"Graphic EQ" mode can be displayed as its saved
name if loaded from within "Draw Curves". If that
curve is loaded in "Graphic EQ" mode and then
switched to "Draw Curves", it will display as "un- • Move Up Move the selected preset up in the list.
named". • Move Down Move the selected preset down in the
• Any curve in either mode will display as "unnamed" list.
if there are points in the curve that are outside the • Rename Give the preset a new name.
range of the Horizontal Scale. For example, if you
have a point at 10 Hz in a curve saved in linear view • Delete Remove the preset from the list.
362
• Import Import new presets from an XML file, adding
them to the current list.
• Export Export the curves selected in "Manage
Curves" to a new XML file. Be sure to add ".xml"
to the end of the file name on Mac and Linux. You
could use this to export your custom EQ curves to
share them on the EQ Curves Download page on
the Audacity wiki.
• Get More Clicking this button takes you to the EQ
Curves Download page on the Audacity wiki, where
you can download the latest default curve set, or
other curve sets created by users for specific pur-
poses such as applying the proper equalization to
78 rpm records.
• Defaults Restore the list to the default setting.
Warning: you will lose any custom presets you have
created.
• Cancel Close the dialog without making any
changes.
• OK Close the dialog and accept the changes.
Examples:To save a new preset, modify the curve then:
1. Click "Save/Manage Curves..." ("unnamed" will al-
ready be selected)
2. Click the "Rename" button
3. Give the new preset a name not already in the
"Curve Name" list
4. Click the "OK" button.
To modify and save an existing preset, save in the
same way by renaming the resulting "unnamed" curve
as the original name:
1. Click "Save/Manage Curves..." ("unnamed" will al-
ready be selected)
2. Click the "Rename" button
3. Type the original name of the curve exactly as in
the "Curve Name" list
4. When the "Curve exists" prompt appears, choose
"Yes" to overwrite the curve
5. Click the "OK" button.
The updated curve for the preset will still show as "un-
named" in the "Select Curve" box but is identical to the
curve obtainable by selecting the name of the preset.
13.33.6 Other buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
click "About" to see some details about the effect.
The Presets features are not working yet. Use Save
/ Manage Curves to save, rename, export and import pre-
defined curves.
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
EQCurves.xml file: This is a text file located in Audac-
ity’s folder for application data . This file stores:
• the last "unnamed" curve visible on the graph (the
save is made whenever you press "OK" in Equal-
ization)
• all the named presets.
While you can edit this file manually, for example to cre-
ate closely spaced points or points below 20 Hz, the
syntax of the file must be completely correct. It is usu-
ally easier to make curve changes directly inside Equal-
ization. EQDefaultCurves.xml file: This text file which
ships with Audacity is located outside Audacity’s folder for
application data. The file contains the default curves Au-
dacity ships with and which are restored when you press
"Defaults" in "Save/Manage" Curves...". This file should
not be edited. Doing so may prevent new or updated
curves in future versions of Audacity from being installed
correctly.
13.33.7 Limitations
To process Equalization, all tracks in the project must
have the same sample rate. To change the sample rate
of a track without affecting speed or pitch, use Tracks >
Resample... .
13.33.8 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.34. FADES
13.34 Fades
Audacity ships with several types of fade effects: a pair
of simple linear fades , a pair of fades to help you make a
crossfade , a more musically pleasing fade out (similar to
that used in many recording and mastering studios) and
a powerful customizable fade. For more detail on fading
please see Fade and Crossfade
13.34.1 Linear Fades
These basic fades apply a fade to the selected audio
such that the amplitude of the selection goes from ab-
solute silence to the original amplitude (Fade In), or from
the original amplitude to absolute silence (Fade Out).
The shape of the fade is linear , so it appears as a
straight line from beginning to end (when viewed in the
default linear Waveform View Mode). The speed of the
fade in or out is therefore constant throughout its length
and depends entirely on the length selected for the fade.
Fade In
Accessed by:Effect > Fade In
A fade in is often applied over a very short audio selec-
tion (less than a second). You may get a more "musical"
result by applying a linear fade in three times to the same
audio selection. This approximates an exponentially
shaped fade in.
Fade Out
Accessed by:Effect > Fade Out
A fade out is often applied to a longer selection than a
fade in, typically to a selection up to about ten seconds
long.
363
13.34.2 Studio Fade Out
Accessed by:Effect > Studio Fade OutProduces a
smooth and "musical" sounding fade out from original
volume to silence by applying a doubly-curved (S-shape)
fade and fading out the higher frequencies a little quicker
than the lower frequencies. It gives a "going off into the
distance" type of sound rather than sounding like a "me-
chanical" fade out. This technique has found favor in
recording studios for CD and LP tracks.
You can make a simple customization of the shape of any
of the above fades by repeating it using Repeat Last Ef-
fect ( Ctrl + R ). If you repeat a fade in, the audio will
remain quiet for longer then rise more rapidly to the orig-
inal level. Repeating a fade out will cause the level to
initially drop more rapidly then tail off at a lower level.
13.34.3 Adjustable Fade
This has a dialog box where you can choose the shape of
the fade in or fade out to be applied. You can also create
"partial" fades to and from other than silence and origi-
nal volume. An example of this might be a fade in from
20% of the original volume to 80% of the original vol-
ume. The "Handy Presets" at the bottom offer a choice
of six pairs of fade in or fade out shapes, fading between
silence and original volume. Accessed by:Effect > Ad-
justable Fade...
Choosing a preset disables all the other controls ir-
respective of their setting. Therefore to make a partial
fade you must choose the Start and End values then use
364
the other controls above to determine the fade shape and
direction.
Example of fading using Adjustable Fade
The image below shows the result of a partial fade down
from original volume to 30%, applied to a the selected
part of a constant amplitude sine tone. The shape is ex-
ponential (the fade down becomes slower with time), as
produced by setting "Mid-fade Adjust" to a value of -50%.
By using Adjustable Fade with different settings on dif-
ferent sections of the audio, almost any fade shape or
combination of shapes can be produced, entirely using
the keyboard.
13.35 Fade and Crossfade
Fade effects are among the most common effects used in
audio production. They can be used to create a smooth
lead in or a gradual end to a musical recording. Short
fades can be useful for avoiding clicks at the beginning
of an audio clip. They may be used to create a smooth
transition from one piece of audio to another. Fade ef-
fects frequently produce a transition from silence (fade
in) or a transition to silence (fade out) but may equally
refer to a transition from one volume level to another qui-
eter or louder level. A crossfade is when one section of
audio fades out while another fades in.The standard fade
types described on this page may be produced quickly
and easily using the presets in the Adjustable Fade ef-
fect.
13.35.1 Linear Fade
The default setting of the Adjustable Fade effect pro-
duces a linear fade-in.
• Although fades commonly start or end at silence
(fade-in and fade-out respectively), a fade is sim-
ply a transition from one amplitude level to another.
The Adjustable Fade effect allows fading from any
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.34.4 Crossfades
While you can manually create a custom crossfrade us-
ing the fades on this page, the esiest way to make a
crossfade between two tracks is to use on of the two
crossfade effects available in Audacity.
• Crossfade Clips : This is a simple tool which cross-
fades between two adjacent clips in the same track.
• Crossfade Tracks : The second is a more precise
tool that crossfades between two separate audio
tracks. The tracks should be positioned one above
the other, with the start of the lower track overlap-
ping the end of the upper track. Select the overlap-
ping region in both tracks and apply the effect. The
selected region of the upper track will fade out, and
the selected part of the lower track will fade in. For
detailed information and advanced techniques see:
Creating a Crossfade .
13.34.5 Links
> Fade and Crossfade
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
arbitrary level to any other level.
This is the most simple type of fade where the level rises
or falls at a constant rate. A linear fade in from silence
is easily created in Audacity using Effect > Fade In . A
linear fade out to silence is created using Effect > Fade
Out . The "shape" of a fade is commonly described in
terms that suggest the appearance of a constant level
signal that has had the effect applied to it. For example,
if a linear fade in is applied to a generated tone, the fade
can be seen to follow a straight line from silence up to the
original level.
13.35.2 Exponential Fade
The Adjustable Fade effect has Exponential presets for
fading in or out. This is another very common fade type.
13.35. FADE AND CROSSFADE
Its popularity stems from the fact that it closely models
the way in which sounds naturally decay. For example,
comparing the waveform of a gunshot recording with that
of a bell, we can clearly see that although the time scales
are very different, the shape of the sound as it decays is
very similar:
In Audacity, the Envelope Tool produces exponential
fades. A similar (but not identical) fade shape may be
produced by applying a linear fade several times to the
same selection. For example, here is a fade created by
applying the Fade Out effect, then repeating it three times
using the Ctrl + R shortcut (Repeat Last Effect).
Exponential curves may also be used as a fade-in.
13.35.3 Logarithmic Fade
The Adjustable Fade effect has Logarithmic presets for
fading in or out. Essentially the same as an exponential
fade, but curving the other way.
365
13.35.4 Equal Power Fade
The "Cosine" presets in the Adjustable Fade effect pro-
duce this type of fade.If one sound is fading out while
another sound is fading in, this is called a crossfade . A
common problem when crossfading two sounds using lin-
ear fade effects is that the volume level may drop a little
midway through the transition. To mitigate this problem it
is common to use a fade shape that, compared to a lin-
ear fade, bows up in the middle, so that the volume level
stays a little higher in the middle of the transition. One of
the most commonly used crossfade shapes is an "Equal
Power Fade"; so called because the average power (and
hence loudness) remains fairly constant during a cross-
fade transition for music and other uncorrelated sounds.
The next image shows two tracks, one with white noise
and one with pink noise that are crossfading using Equal
Power Fades.
13.35.5 Sine Curve Fade
The "S-Curve" presets in the Adjustable Fade effect pro-
duce this type of fade. A raised sine curve (or cosine
curve) is based on the shape of a sine wave. This fade
type is often used for fading out music as it produces a
smoother, more musical sounding fade out than a linear
fade. It is also sometimes used as an alternative to the
Equal Power Fade for crossfading as it avoids the possi-
bility of the peak level increasing during the crossfade
(Like linear fades, it produces an "Equal Gain" cross-
fade).
366
13.35.6 DJ Crossfade Curve
DJ Mixers have a crossfade slide control that is essen-
tially two faders back to back in one unit. Moved in one di-
rection it will fade in source A and fade out source B, and
when moved to the other extreme it will fade out source A
and fade in source B. Early DJ mixing desks crossfaders
produced a (roughly) equal power crossfade, but in re-
sponse to demand from DJs, other fade shapes were de-
veloped that have a more pronounced curve, thus mak-
ing the mix more pronounced during the transition. More
information about the history of DJ crossfaders can be
found on the Rane website. Modern DJ mixers provide
a curve control to provide adjustment of the fade taper
contour. This works in a similar manner to the Mid-fade
adjust control in Audacity’s Adjustable Fade effect. The
image below compares the shapes of an equal power
fade with a high curve fade that is similar to what would
be achieved by setting the curve control fairly high on a
DJ mixer’s crossfader.
13.35.7 Adjustable Fade
This is a more sophisticated and advanced fade that of-
fers you settings to control the shape of the fade. It en-
ables you to increase or reduce the audio volume by a
varying amount. This effect is more versatile than Fade
In and Fade Out in that it can fade to or from any am-
plification level rather than only between silence and the
original level.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.35.8 Creating Fades with the Envelope
Tool
The main advantage of creating fades with the Envelope
Tool is that it is non-destructive. The envelope may be
changed or removed at any time with no loss to the audio
data. See this page for details of how to use the Envelope
Tool to create a fade.
13.35.9 Creating a Crossfade
The purpose of a crossfade is to produce a smooth tran-
sition between two sections of audio. The two sections
overlap and as one section fades out the other fades in.
This technique is commonly used by DJ’s, for "compi-
lation" tracks and mashups. The use of crossfades is
not limited to joining pieces of music, but can be used
in many other situations where a smooth transition is
required, including editing speech recordings, extend-
ing songs, creating loops for audio sequencers, repair-
ing damaged recordings and much more. There are two
crossfade effects available in Audacity
• The first is a simple one which crossfades between
two adjacent clips in the same track, see Crossfade
Clips
• The second is a more precise tool that crossfades
between two separate audio tracks. See the Cross-
fade Tracks effect. For detailed information and ad-
vanced techniques, see: Creating a Crossfade .
13.35.10 Examples
Example 1: Using a fade to remove a click from the
start of a sound When editing sounds, clicks can of-
ten be avoided by ensuring that edit points occur at zero
crossing points (where the waveform crosses the center
zero line).If a sound starts suddenly, there will often be
a noticeable click at the beginning. This is due to the
waveform suddenly jumping from silence to the start of
the waveform. This "jump" is often visible by zooming
in closely on the start of the sound so you can see the
original sample dots:
13.36. ADJUSTABLE FADE
Applying a short, linear fade in can eliminate the click by
smoothing the transition from silence to the start of the
sound.
Example 2: Adding an extract of music to a presen-
tation using fadesFor presentations, whether you are
using PowerPoint, OpenOffice Impress, a slide show for
YouTube or any other audio-video presentation, it is of-
ten desirable to include audio clips within the presenta-
tion. Rather than simply cutting a recording to the re-
quired length, applying a fade in and fade out to the audio
clip can add a touch of professionalism to the production.
The duration of the fade as well as the shape of the fade
are crucial to the overall effect. Typically an audio clip will
13.36 Adjustable Fade
Adjustable Fade increases or reduces the audio vol-
ume by a varying amount. This effect is more versatile
than Fade In and Fade Out in that it can fade to or from
any amplification level rather than only between silence
and the original level.Accessed by: Effect > Adjustable
Fade...
13.36.1 Fade Type
There are just two basic fade types available from this
dropdown, either of which may be "Up" (from a low level
367
have a relatively short fade in and a longer fade out, but
there are no hard and fast rules. Audacity allows you to
experiment with different fade lengths. When preparing
audio clips for use in your presentation you can export
several versions with differing fade lengths, then when
putting together the presentation, try your alternative ver-
sions and use whichever you most like. Fading in music
with an exponential shape fade is often very effective as
you get a hint of the music first, then it rapidly fades to
full volume. For fading out music, a sine curve fade often
works well.
See also: Mixing
13.35.11 Other plug-ins and tools for
fades
See this page for details of other plug-ins and tools for
making fades. The page carries information on the fol-
lowing:
• Fade In and Out
• Text Envelope
• Creating Fades from the Nyquist Prompt .
to a higher level) or "Down" (from high level to a lower
level).
1. Fade Up: provides a linear or simple curve fade up
from a low gain setting to a higher gain setting.
2. Fade Down: provides a linear or simple curve
fade down from a high gain setting to a lower gain
setting. A "simple" curve is one that curves in
one direction only, for example the level may be
changed slowly at first and progressively change
more rapidly, or may change rapidly at the start of
the fade and then gradually level out.
3. S-Curve Up: provides a "double" curve that bends
one way and then the other. The level will rise
gradually at first, then progressively more steeply
toward the middle of the fade before gradually lev-
eling out.
4. S-Curve Down: The level will fall gradually at first,
then progressively more steeply toward the middle
of the fade before gradually leveling out.
368
13.36.2 Mid-fade Adjust
This slider control has a range of +/- 100 (default 0). It al-
lows the shape of the fade that has been selected in the
"Fade Type:" menu to be modified. Setting this control
greater than zero will tend to push up the center of fade,
whereas negative values will tend to pull down the level
in the middle of the fade.
• When used with "Fade Type: = Fade Up", a value
of zero (default) will produce a linear fade.
– Values greater than zero will cause the fade to
rise more rapidly at first before leveling out to
the higher amplification level.
– Values less than zero will cause the fade to
rise slowly at first then gradually rise more
rapidly.
– The further away from zero that this is set, the
more curved the fade will be.
– The mid fade amplification will never be less
than the start of the fade or greater than the
end of the fade.
• When used with "Fade Type: = Fade Down", a
value of zero (default) will produce a linear fade.
– Values greater than zero will cause the fade to
fall gradually at first then progressively more
steeply as it approached the final level.
– Values less than zero will cause the fade to fall
rapidly at first then progressively level out.
– The further away from zero that this is set, the
more curved the fade will be.
– The mid fade amplification will never be
greater than the start of the fade or less than
the end of the fade.
• When used with "Fade Type: = S-Curve Up or S-
Curve Down", half way through the fade the gain
will be exactly half way between the starting point
and end point.
– With values greater than zero the fade will re-
tain its "double curve" character but will be a
bit higher at the mid point.
– With values greater than zero the fade will re-
tain its "double curve" character but will be a
bit lower at the mid point.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.36.3 Start/End as
This dropdown enables you to choose between percent-
age or dB as the units to be used in the Start and End
gain parameter boxes below.
The final two text boxes must contain one number
each. They define the initial and final gain (amplification
amount) of the fade. It is unimportant if these are entered
with the initial gain in the first text box and the final gain
in the last, or the other way around as the direction of the
fade is determined by the Fade Type: selection.
13.36.4 Start (or end)
Enables you to set the Start (or end) gain. If you are us-
ing percentage units, the default value of 0 (silence) will
give you the start of a fade up from silence.
13.36.5 End (or start)
Enables you to set the End (or start) gain. If you are us-
ing percentage units, the default value of 100 (the original
level or unity gain) will give you the final gain for a fade
up to full volume. . A good way to get a feel for how the
controls work is to try them out on generated white noise
.
13.36.6 Handy Presets
A number of fixed preset curve shapes are available from
this dropdown selector: Linear, Exponential, Logarithmic,
Rounded, Cosine and S-Curve.
Important: Selecting a preset curves will override
all other parameter settings dialog box for this effect. To
make the other parameters operable you will need to set
"None Selected" from this dropdown. All presets either
fade in from silence to the original level, or fade out from
the original level to silence. Note that unlike the Fade
In and Fade Out effects in the top section of the Effect
menu, this effect will treat empty space in the selected
region as silence, It is therefore important to select ex-
actly the region that you want the effect to be applied to.
13.36. ADJUSTABLE FADE
• Linear fade-in from silence to original level Fade Up 0 0
• None Selected: Manual settings. Fade Type, Mid
Fade Adjust, Start and End settings are all func-
tional.
• Linear In: Same as the Fade In effect.
• Linear Out: Same as the Fade Out effect.
• Exponential In: The level rises exponentially, sim-
ilar to using the Envelope Tool .
• Exponential Out: The level falls exponentially,
similar to using the Envelope Tool .
• Logarithmic In: A "convex" curve that rises mod-
erately steeply from silence and progressively less
steeply.
• Logarithmic: A "convex" curve that falls gently ini-
tially then progressively more rapidly.
• Rounded In: A "convex" curve that rises abruptly
from silence then progressively less steeply.
• Rounded Out: A "convex" curve that falls gradu-
ally from the initial level, then progressively more
steeply to a fairly abrupt end.
• Cosine In: A "convex" curve that rises moderately
steeply from silence and gradually levels out to cre-
ate a smooth transition to the original level
• Cosine Out: A "convex" curve with a smooth tran-
sition from the original level, progressively falling
more steeply to silence.
• S-Curve In: A "double" curve that creates a
smooth transition from silence, gradually rising
more steeply, then leveling out to create a smooth
transition to the original level.
• S-Curve Out: A "double" curve that creates a
smooth transition from the original level, gradually
falling more steeply, then leveling out to create a
smooth transition to silence. Similar to the Studio
Fade Out effect.
13.36.7 Example Settings
These settings assume that Start and End are set as "%
of Original". Note that the order of the ’Start’ and ’End’
settings is unimportant.
Desired EffectFade TypeMid-Fade Adjust (%)Start (or
End)End (or start)
369
100
Linear fade-out from original level to silence Fade Down
0 0 100
Linear fade from original level to half volume Fade Down
0 50 100
Exponential fade-out similar to using Envelope Tool Fade
Down Less than 0 0 100
Fade-out for ’Equal Power’ crossfade Fade Down +50 0
100
Fade-in for ’Equal Power’ crossfade Fade Up +50 0 100
Similar to ’Studio Fade Out’ effect S-Curve Down 0 0 100
Smooth change from half of original volume to twice orig-
inal volume S-Curve Up 0 50 200
13.36.8 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.36.9 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
370 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS

13.37 Creating a Crossfade

The purpose of a crossfade is to produce a smooth tran-
sition between two sections of audio. The two sections
overlap and as one section fades out the other fades in.
This technique is commonly used by DJ’s, for "compi-
lation" tracks and mashups. The use of crossfades is
not limited to joining pieces of music, but can be used in
many other situations where a smooth transition is re-
quired, including editing speech recordings, extending
songs, creating loops for audio sequencers, repairing
damaged recordings and much more.
13.37.3 Align tracks more precisely
Tracks will often begin and end with a short period of si-
lence. Leading/trailing silence may be removed by select-
ing and deleting. Audacity’s Cut Preview can be useful to
check that the selection to be deleted is correct. The end
of the first track will be the point at which the first track fi-
nally stops (has faded to silence). The start of the second
track will be the point at which the second track starts to
fade in.

13.37.1 How to crossfade two tracks

First, the tracks should be imported or recorded . By de-

fault, importing two audio files will create two audio tracks
one above the other. Similarly, recording a new track will
by default create a new track below any other tracks in
the project. This is the arrangement that we want as
the starting point (for clarity the illustrations show mono
tracks, but the procedure is exactly the same for stereo
tracks). If you want to crossfade multiple songs that are
currently one after the other in a single audio track then
before making a crossfade using the methods described
in this article you must select the first song, use Edit
> Clip Boundaries > Split New to move that song to its
own separate track, then select and Split New the other
songs.
For rhythmic music it will often sound best if the second
track is carefully positioned so that the beats in the sec-
ond track line up with the beats in the first track. If the
tempi of the tracks are different it will not be possible to
make all of the beats line up. In this case, try to make the
beats align at a point just to left of halfway through the
overlap. Zoom in/out as necessary to see an appropriate
level of detail.

13.37.2 Roughly position the tracks

Drag the second track to roughly the right place using the
Time Shift tool . Don’t worry about getting the position
too precise at this stage as we will adjust the position
later. For crossfading two music tracks, an overlap of
around 5 seconds is usually suitable, though sometimes
a much shorter, or longer crossfade may sound better.
How long the crossfade transition lasts is largely a mat-
ter of personal taste. After selecting the region to be crossfaded, create a split
at both ends of the selection using Ctrl + I. The split
marks will greatly facilitate selecting the appropriate ar-
eas in each track.

For detailed information about handling Tracks and Clips,

see Audio Tracks and Clips .
13.38. CREATING FADES WITH THE ENVELOPE TOOL
13.37.4 Trim the tracks
If, as in the images above, it is necessary to trim the
tracks further, select the unwanted region after the fade
out (in the upper track in this case) by double-clicking in
it, then delete it. When deleting the audio before the fade
in (in the lower track in this case) use Edit > Remove Spe-
cial > Split Delete , or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt +
K so as to avoid moving the remaining part of the track.
13.37.5 Apply fades
The quickest way to apply the fades is with the Cross-
fade Tracks effect. This effect applies a fade-out to the
upper selected track, and a fade-in to the lower of the two
tracks. For more complex fading, the Adjustable Fade ef-
fect may be applied to each of the tracks in turn, applying
13.38 Creating Fades with the Envelope Tool
The principal advantage of creating fades with the Enve-
lope Tool is that it is non-destructive. The envelope may
be changed or removed at any time with no loss to the
audio data.Because the Envelope Tool uses exponential
fades, creating a precise fade shape can be very fiddly,
but with patience almost any type of fade shape can be
achieved.
• The fade shape does not need to look exactly
smooth to provide an effective fade. Check what
the fade sounds like before spending an unneces-
sary amount of time trying to make the fade look
right. The sound is far more important than what it
looks like.
• To make small adjustments to the envelope it can
be useful to expand the track vertically .
When related to fades, the terms exponential and loga-
rithmic are frequently interchanged, which can be confus-
ing, but it is really just a matter of perspective. Exponen-
tial growth is said to occur when something increases at
an ever greater rate, whereas exponential decay is said
371
a fade-out to the overlapping section in the first track, and
a fade-in to the overlapping section of the second track.
Using linear fades can cause the volume level to drop
midway through the fade.
• For rhythmic music with closely matched tempo this
will often be undesirable and may be prevented by
using fade shapes that bow up higher than a linear
fade (such as the Equal Power fade shape).
• For crossfading music where there is a substantial
difference in tempo, a smoother sounding cross-
fade may be achieved by allowing the volume to
drop by the use of fade shapes that dip lower than
a linear fade.
to occur when something decreases at an ever decreas-
ing rate. Logarithmic is the inverse of exponential, so if
something is growing exponentially over time, then the
time taken for a given amount of growth is shortened log-
arithmically. Within this article the term exponential is
used in the sense of "exponential decay", where the level
gets closer and closer to a target level without ever reach-
ing it. For an exponential fade out, this means that the
audio level will get quieter and quieter but will never be to-
tally silent. In practice, it is usual that an exponential fade
out will only actually follow the logarithmic/exponential
scale until it is very close to silence and will then be made
to go silent by either dropping directly from the very low
level to silence, or via a short linear fade to silence.
13.38.1 Tips for drawing fades with the En-
velope Tool:
In this example we will create a fade that starts at full
volume, then starts to fade slowly, then gradually more
372 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS

rapidly to silence, as illustrated here: "end position" of the fade.

• Drag the control point up or down toward the verti-
cal center of the track.
• Note that the fade will be almost silent for a large
section of the fade.

• Begin the fade by setting a control point at the time

position where the fade starts at full volume:
• Click on the waveform with the envelope tool at the
"start position" of the fade. • Click where you want to add additional control
points as necessary to push out the envelope to
• Drag the control point vertically to the nearest edge the required shape.
of the track to achieve full volume.
• Note that if you drag the point beyond the edge of
the track, the control point will be removed.
• Set a control point where the fade becomes silent.
• Click on the waveform with the envelope tool at the

13.39 Crossfade Clips

Crossfade Clips applies a simple crossfade to a se- 3. Apply the effect.

lected pair of clips in a single audio track. Accessed
by:Effect > Crossfade ClipsThere are no parameters to 4. The selected regions will be crossfaded.
set for this effect; the effect operates on the audio that is
Note, the audio clips do not need to be touching. Any
currently selected.If the crossfade takes an appreciable
white-space between the clips is ignored. If the selected
time, a progress dialog will appear as below:
region is continuous audio with no splits, the first half and
last half of the selected audio will be crossfaded. Ad-
vanced Tip: A discontinuity in a waveform, such as a
large click, may be smoothed by applying a short cross-
fade across the glitch.

13.39.2 Limitations

These should not occur in normal usage:

• There may be no more than two clips selected in

each channel.
Crossfade Clips progress dialog
• The selection may not start or end in white-space.

13.39.1 Instructions
13.39.3 Examples
1. Place two audio clips into the same track.
2. Select (approximately) the same amount of audio Example of using the effect for a simple crossfade1)
from the end of one clip and the start of the other. Place your audio clips end to end in a track.
13.40. CROSSFADE TRACKS 373

Example of using the effect to repair a glitchYou can

use Crossfade Clips to fix glitches when there are no
2) Zoom in a bit. convenient zero crossing points for making a clean edit.
1) Audio surrounding the glitch is selected

3) Select the part that you want to crossfade (does not 2) Using Effect > Crossfade Clips repairs the glitch.
matter if the tracks are right up against each other or not
- just select the parts to crossfade).

13.39.4 Links

|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers

4) Select the Effect > Crossfade Clips. 5) Simple cross-
fade completed |< Effect Menu .

13.40 Crossfade Tracks

Use the Crossfade Tracks effect to make a crossfade or Clips .Accessed by:Effect > Crossfade Tracks...
smooth transition across two tracks. The tracks should
be positioned with the track to be faded out above the
track to be faded in, and with the start of the lower track
positioned before the end of the upper track so as to cre-
ate an overlap between them. Select the overlapping re-
gion in both tracks (see example below) and apply the
effect. To apply a simpler (non-configurable) crossfade
between audio clips on the same track, see Crossfade
374
13.40.1 Fade Type
Constant Gain
This is the default. It fades out the upper track, and fade
in the lower track with linear fades (the same type of fade
as is achieved by using the Fade In / Fade Out effects).
"Constant Gain" ensures that, as long as the original au-
dio is not clipped, the crossfade will not clip - this is the
default. However, "Constant Gain" crossfades may cause
the overall volume to dip slightly during the fade.
Constant Power 1
"Constant Power" fades combat the tendency of the vol-
ume dipping, so will often be the preferred choice, though
care needs to be taken when using this type of crossfade
as the peak level may rise during the course of the fade.
"Constant Power 1" is generally a good choice as a gen-
eral purpose crossfade effect.
Constant Power 2
As with "Constant Power 1", this option is also designed
to maintain a fairly constant volume through the course of
the fade. This variation of the constant power fade starts
to fade in a little more rapidly than "Constant Power 1"
and the crossfading may sound a bit abrupt in the first
or last moments of the fade, though it may be preferred
when crossfading songs that are beat-matched. This ver-
sion is based on the legacy "Cross Fade In" and "Cross
Fade Out" effects of previous versions of Audacity.
Custom Curve
The preset options will cater for most crossfading tasks,
but if fine control over the effect is required, the custom
curve option may be useful. This option enables the
"Custom Curve" slider control, which allows the rate at
which the tracks crossfade to be manually adjusted.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.40.2 Custom curve
This text box / slider control has no effect unless "Custom
Curve" is selected as the "Fade Type". When enabled,
it controls the curvature of the fade in a similar way to
the "curve" control on a DJ mixer. When set to zero, the
crossfade is effectively the same as the "Constant Gain"
preset. High settings are useful if you want both tracks to
be strongly present during the crossfade time, though it is
not likely that the maximum setting will be often required.
At maximum (1.0), the upper track will maintain close to
full volume until close to the end of the crossfade, and
will then fade out rapidly, while the lower track will fade
in very rapidly to almost full volume. The overall volume
is likely to be noticeably higher during the crossfade pe-
riod. When set to the half way position (0.5), the fade
is approximately a "constant power" type curve, and will
usually maintain a fairly steady volume throughout the
crossfade.
13.40.3 Fade Direction
Automatic
The effect will attempt to automatically work out whether
a fade-in or fade-out is required. This is the default and
will usually give the correct result. If you get a fade-out
where you want a fade-in, or vice versa, then undo the
operation Ctrl + Z and use one of the other two choices
listed below. How automatic fade direction works:The
automatic setting is based on the proximity of the ends of
the selection to the ends of the selected audio clip(s). If
the start of the selection is closer to the start of the se-
lected audio clip than the end of the selection is to the
end of the audio clip, the effect creates a fade-in. Con-
versely, if the end of the selection is at or near the end
of the selection, and the start of the selection is not at or
near the start of the audio clip. then a fade-out will occur.
In the unlikely event that both ends of the selection are
exactly the same distance from the ends of the selected
audio clip, the effect will fade out.
Alternating Out / In
The selected region in the first selected track will fade
out. If more than one track is selected, the selected re-
gion in the next selected track will fade in. If more than
two tracks are selected, the fade direction will continue to
alternate fade-out / fade-in / fade-out... .
Alternating In / Out
The selected region in the first selected track will fade
in. If more than one track is selected, the selected re-
gion in the next selected track will fade out. If more than
13.40. CROSSFADE TRACKS 375

two tracks are selected, the fade direction will continue to The Crossfade Tracks effect can then be applied to com-
alternate fade-in / fade-out / fade-in ... . plete the fade out and fade in.

13.40.4 Buttons

Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-

sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the Optional extra steps
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed. The two tracks will automatically be mixed to one file on
export, but if preferred, the tracks may be mixed down to
one track within the project by applying Mix and Render
• brings you to the appropriate page in the from the Tracks menu . Mixing down to a single track can
Manual, this page. be useful when using "constant power" or custom curves,
as it then allows the mix to be Normalized before export.
Example of using the effectThe first step is to align the
tracks (they may be mono or stereo tracks) so that the
start of the lower track overlaps the the end of the upper
track. Typically this would be done using the Time Shift
Tool . Then the overlapping region must be selected. Se-
lecting may be achieved by clicking on the upper track 13.40.5 Additional Information
at the start position of the crossfade, then while holding
down the left mouse button, drag down and across to the
end of the crossfade region in the lower track. For additional information and advanced techniques, see
the detailed article: Creating a Crossfade .

13.40.6 Links

|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers

|< Effect Menu

376
13.41 Other plug-ins and tools for fades
This page lists some downloadable or more advanced
tools for making fades .
13.41.1 Fade In and Out
This is a Nyquist plug-in that can apply a linear fade in
and fade out to the selected audio. Nyquist plug-ins ex-
tend the capabilities of Audacity and are supported on
Windows, Mac and GNU/Linux. Instructions for installing
Nyquist plug-ins can be found on our Wiki page Down-
load Nyquist Plug-ins.This tool was written by David R
Sky to provide a simple, accessible way for visually im-
paired and other non-mouse users to apply fade in and
out effects. The current Audacity 2.x has a Selection
Toolbar providing a screen-reader friendly display of se-
lection start time and duration (* except on Linux) which
can be used for similar purpose, but this effect may be
found to be quicker and easier to use.
13.41.2 Text Envelope
This is a Nyquist plug-in that can apply multiple changes
to the amplitude of the selected audio, fading from one
level to another as required. This tool was written by
Steve Daulton to provide an accessible alternative to the
"Envelope Tool" for visually impaired and other users that
do not use pointing devices.
13.42 High Pass Filter
High Pass Filter passes frequencies above its cutoff fre-
quency and attenuates frequencies below its cutoff fre-
quency. This effect can therefore be used to reduce low
frequency noise.Accessed by:Effect > High Pass Filter...
13.42.1 Rolloff (dB per octave)
Sets the steepness of the attenuation. Higher rolloff val-
ues give a steeper attenuation of frequencies below the
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.41.3 Creating Fades from the Nyquist
Prompt
Nyquist is a programming language that is included in Au-
dacity. It can be used to write plug-ins for Audacity that
may provide new effects, generators and analysis plug-
ins. Nyquist commands may also be run directly in Au-
dacity by entering code into the Nyquist Prompt Effect.
Below are a few short code samples that may be run
in the Nyquist Prompt to produce fades to selected au-
dio. More information about Nyquist programming may
be found in the Nyquist section of the Wiki. The code
examples below require that the "Legacy (version 3) syn-
tax" option is selected; Linear Fade Out: (mult s (pwlv 1 1
0)) ; Linear Fade In. ; To avoid a click at the end, the pwlv
envelope ; extends beyond the end of the selection. (mult
s (pwlv 0 1 1 1.1 1)) ; Multi-step fade out. (mult s (pwlv 1
0.4 0.775 0.8 0.447 0.9 0.316 0.95 0.224 1.0 0.0)) ; sine
curve fade in: (mult s 0.5 (sum 1 (osc (hz-to-step (/ (get-
duration 2))) 1 *table* -90))) ; wiggly fade: (setf wiggle
(mult 0.2 (hzosc (/ 6.0 (get-duration 1))))) (mult s (sum
1.0 wiggle)) The above examples may be run without the
"Legacy (version 3) syntax" option selected if the S pa-
rameter is replaced with *track*. One example using ver-
sion 4 syntax is given below.; wiggly fade out (version 4
syntax): (setf wiggle (mult 0.2 (hzosc (/ 6.0 (get-duration
1))))) (mult *track* (pwlv 1 1 0) (sum 1.0 wiggle))
cutoff frequency. For example, with a rolloff of 6 dB per
octave, the sound decreases by 6 dB in amplitude for
each octave below the cutoff frequency (an octave above
is double the frequency).
13.42.2 Cutoff frequency (Hz)
Sound below this cutoff frequency in Hz is not elimi-
nated but increasingly attenuated as the frequency falls
further below the cutoff. The cutoff frequency (sometimes
also called corner frequency ) defines the point at which
the audio is reduced by 3 dB. Thus there will also be a
small and decreasing amount of attenuation just above
the cutoff frequency as in the following image.
13.43. LOW PASS FILTER
To achieve more attenuation, run the effect again or use
a greater rolloff.
13.42.3 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
13.43 Low Pass Filter
Low Pass Filter passes frequencies below its cutoff fre-
quency and attenuates frequencies above its cutoff fre-
quency. This effect can therefore be used to reduce high
pitched noise.Accessed by:Effect > Low Pass Filter...
13.43.1 Rolloff (dB per octave)
Sets the steepness of the attenuation. Higher rolloff val-
ues give a steeper attenuation of frequencies above the
cutoff frequency. For example, with a rolloff of 6 dB per
octave, the sound decreases by 6 dB in amplitude for
each octave above the cutoff frequency (an octave above
is double the frequency).
377
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.42.4 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.43.2 Cutoff frequency (Hz)
Sound above this cutoff frequency in Hz is not elimi-
nated but increasingly attenuated as the frequency rises
further above the cutoff. The cutoff frequency (some-
times also called corner frequency ) defines the point at
which the audio is reduced by 3 dB. Thus there will also
be a small and decreasing amount of attenuation just be-
low the cutoff frequency as in the following image.
To achieve more attenuation, run the effect again or use
378 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS

a greater rolloff. • OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.

13.43.3 Buttons • Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to Manual, this page.
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur- 13.43.4 Links
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds. |< Effect Menu

13.44 Invert

Invert flips the audio samples upside-down, revers- Usage Examples

ing their polarity. The positive samples (above the hor-
• Manually remove vocals: This will only work
izontal zero line in the Audacity Waveform ) are moved
where the left and right channels of a stereo song
below the zero line (so becoming negative), and nega-
both contain equal amounts of the exact same vo-
tive samples are made positive.Invert does not usually
cals, but unequal amounts of background instru-
affect the sound of the audio at all, but it can be used
ments.
for audio cancellation. If Invert is applied to one track
and that track is mixed with another uninverted track that 1. Use the Audio Track Dropdown Menu and
has identical audio, the identical audio is cancelled out choose Split Stereo to Mono .
(silenced).Accessed by:Effect > InvertThere is no effect
2. Select one channel but not the other, apply In-
dialog containing parameters for this effect; Invert oper-
vert and then Play. The vocals in each track
ates directly on the selected audio. If the inversion takes
will cancel each other out, leaving just the in-
an appreciable time, a progress dialog will appear as be-
strumentals.
low:
• Also see the similar but more configurable Vocal
Remover effect.
• Find out how different the stereo channels are:
Use the same steps 1 and 2 above on any stereo
track. If the audio is just as loud after the steps as
before, the channels are very different. If the re-
sult is silence, the track is not really stereo but dual
mono, where both left and right contain completely
identical audio.

13.44.1 Links

|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers

|< Effect Menu
13.45. NOISE REDUCTION
13.45 Noise Reduction
Noise Reduction can reduce constant background
sounds such as hum, whistle, whine, buzz, and "hiss",
such as tape hiss, fan noise or FM/webcast carrier noise.
It is not suitable for individual clicks and pops, or irregu-
lar background noise such as from traffic or an audience.
To use Noise Reduction, you need a region in the wave-
form that contains only the noise you want to reduce. Be
aware that it may be impossible to get a satisfactory re-
moval when the noise is very loud, when the noise is
variable, when the music or speech is not much louder
than the noise or when the noise frequencies are very
similar to those of the music or speech.
If your problem is mains hum or a high-pitched whis-
tle, the use of a Notch Filter may help, which should be
carried out before applying Noise Reduction.Accessed
by:Effect > Noise Reduction...
13.45.1 Step 1 - Get Noise Profile
This first step teaches Audacity about the noise you want
to remove by identifying the noise floor of the different
frequencies that make up the noise.
1. Select a region of the waveform which contains
only noise. A minimum of 2048 samples (0.05 sec.
at 44100 Hz sample rate ) is needed, below which
an error will be shown. A longer profile is better.
If there are very different types of noise in different
places in the track, they are best dealt with by grab-
bing the profile for the first type, reducing the noise
for it, then grabbing the profile of the next type of
noise and reducing that.
2. Click Effect > Noise Reduction....
3. Click Get Noise Profile.
379
Duplicating a very short sample of noise in order to get a
long enough sample for the noise profile will not help.
Noise Reduction calculates the statistics of the noise.
Examining repeated blocks of the same noise will not
change the statistics.
13.45.2 Step 2 - Reduce the Noise
1. Select the entire region of waveform from which
you want to reduce the noise, then set the Noise
Reduction parameters. This is often best done by
trial and error, adjusting the sliders and using the
Preview button to listen to a few seconds of audio
after noise reduction. Listening to the Residue (the
sound that will be filtered out when you apply "Re-
duce") can also be useful in determining how much
damage is being done to the desired (non-noise)
sound.
2. Click Effect > Noise Reduction....
• Noise Reduction (dB): Controls the amount
of volume reduction to be applied to the iden-
tified noise. Use the lowest value that reduces
the noise to an acceptable level. Higher val-
ues than necessary may make the noise even
quieter, but will result in damage to the audio
that remains.
• Sensitivity: Controls how much of the au-
dio will be considered as noise, on a scale of
0 (off) to 24 (maximum). Greater sensitivity
means that more noise will be removed, pos-
sibly at the expense of removing some of the
desired signal as well. Lower values may re-
sult in the appearance of artifacts in the noise-
reduced audio. Set this control to the low-
est value that achieves effective noise removal
without the introduction of artifacts.
• Frequency Smoothing (bands): At values of
1 or higher, this control spreads the noise re-
duction into the specified number of neighbor-
ing bands. This modifies the signal you were
intending to keep, but if artifacts remain in the
noise-reduced audio the smoothing can make
those artifacts sound more acceptable. There
is a chance that smoothing will make the de-
sired audio less clear, so where your desired
signal is strong and of wide frequency range
and the noise is light, try leaving this control
at 0 (off). If you hear artifacts in the noise-
reduced audio after setting Sensitivity as high
as possible without eliminating desired audio,
try setting Frequency Smoothing to a value be-
tween 1 and 6 bands. The width (in Hertz) of
380
a frequency band is dependent on the sam-
pling frequency of the track. Width = sam-
pling frequency / 2048 = 21.53 Hz at 44100 Hz
sampling rate.Time smoothing is always ap-
plied by Noise Reduction (attack of 20 millisec-
onds and release of 100 milliseconds) but the
settings are not configurable. Any frequency
smoothing you request is applied after time
smoothing.The default setting is setting is 3,
settings lower than this tend to favor music and
higher settings tend to favor spoken word.
• Noise:
– Reduce: Select this option to filter out the
noise from the selection.
– Residue: Select this option to hear the
sound that would be filtered out if you
chose "Reduce". This is useful for finding
the optimum settings that do not damage
the audio. If you can hear recognizable
bits of the desired sound in the residue, it
is likely that you have set Noise Reduction
too high or Sensitivity too high.
13.45.3 The buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
Artifacts : These typically consist of random bursts
of very short tones at random frequencies, sometimes
called "musical noise", "bird song" or "tinkly-bells". These
may be visible in Spectrogram view. Artifacts can happen
if the noise floor is higher than was estimated, either be-
cause Sensitivity was set too low, or because the noise
profile was not representative of the noise throughout the
track. Although most of the noise will be suppressed
most of the time, random artifacts may occur, which can
be even more objectionable than the original noise. For a
more technical explanation of artifacts, see How Audacity
Noise Reduction Works in the Wiki.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.45.4 Tips
After creating a noise profile, {shortcut|Ctrl + R}} or Ef-
fect > Repeat Noise Reduction will apply Noise Reduc-
tion at its current settings. Reducing noise usually re-
sults in some distortion. This is normal and there is noth-
ing you can do about it. When there’s only a little bit of
noise, and the signal (that is, the voice, music or other
desired sound) is much louder than the noise, this effect
works well and there’s very little audible distortion. Un-
fortunately, when the noise is very variable or very loud
(the signal is not much louder than the noise) the result
may be too distorted. If you are still having problems the
following tips may help.
• Select Residue from the Noise: options, click
Preview, listening for unwanted traces of the de-
sired signal. You can usually reduce the amount
of desired sound in the residue by decreasing Sen-
sitivity or decreasing Noise Reduction.
– Decreasing Sensitivity decreases the chance
of losing sound you want to keep (as indi-
cated by hearing bits of the desired audio in
the residue), but increases the chance of there
being artifacts sounding like "tinkly bells" when
applying the effect with Reduce selected.
– Decreasing Noise Reduction also decreases
the chance of losing sound you want to keep
(as indicated by hearing bits of the desired
audio in the residue), but will increase the
amount of noise remaining in the result when
applying the effect with Reduce selected.
• When you have found settings of Sensitivity and
Noise Reduction that appear to do the least dam-
age to the desired sound (based on there being lit-
tle of that sound in the residue), click the Reduce
radio button then click OK to apply the effect.
• Amplification or normalization may be done before
or after Noise Reduction.
• Do any Notch Filtering or Click Removal before do-
ing noise reduction.
• Do any compression or any other effects not men-
tioned above after doing noise reduction, not be-
fore.
When using Noise Reduction in Chains the pro-
file is captured as below.
• If a Noise Profile exists, that Noise Profile will be
used. It is often best to capture a suitable Noise
Profile before running a Chain.
• If a Noise Profile does not exist:
– If the Chain is applied to the current project,
the current selection is used to create the
13.46. NORMALIZE
Noise Profile. Therefore, other effect com-
mands in the Chain will also only apply to that
selection. If an export command is added, the
entire file will be exported.
– If the Chain is applied to files, the first file (all
of it) is used to create the Noise Profile. It may
be useful to prepare a file containing a suitable
Noise Profile and name it so that it is alpha-
betically the first file of those to be run in the
Chain.
Advanced Tips
• For a more technical explanation of the algorithm
used in Noise Reduction, see Noise Reduction al-
gorithm in the Wiki.
• Also see Sample workflow for LP digitization which
lists some alternative noise reduction software that
you can use as part of your audio restoration rou-
tine.
13.46 Normalize
Use the Normalize effect to set the peak amplitude of
a single track, make multiple tracks have the same peak
amplitude and equalize the balance of left and right chan-
nels of stereo tracks. Optionally you can remove any DC
offset from the tracks.Accessed by:Effect > Normal-
ize...
13.46.1 Remove DC offset
When this box is checked Normalize attempts to remove
any DC offset in the selection by centering the waveform
on the 0.0 amplitude level. Technically, it does this by
finding the average of all the sample values in the se-
lection, then subtracting that average value from all the
samples. Removing any DC offset (and preventing it oc-
curring in your hardware in the first place) is important.
DC offset can cause clicks or distortion and limits the
headroom available for normalization, thus restricting
the loudness that can be achieved. See our the DC off-
set page for more help. If you are sure your tracks have
no offset, unchecking this option will speed up Normalize
381
13.45.5 Limitations
• Taking a noise profile in a track at one sample rate
then removing noise in another track at a different
rate will produce poor results and is therefore pro-
hibited with an error "Sample rate of the noise pro-
file must match that of the sound to be processed".
• Taking a noise profile over two or more tracks at
different sample rates is prohibited with an error
"All Noise Profile data must have the same sample
rate".
13.45.6 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
to some extent. Newer Windows PCs may have a DC off-
set cancellation feature when recording from the built-in
sound inputs. To check or enable:
1. Right-click over the speaker icon in the System Tray
> Recording Devices, or click Start > Control Panel
> Hardware and Sound > Sound, then the "Record-
ing" tab
2. Right-click over empty space, show disabled and
disconnected devices, then right-click over each
device and enable it
3. Right-click or select each device, choose "Proper-
ties" then look in the "Enhancements" tab
4. If there is no "Enhancements" tab, look in the
sound device’s own control panel in "Hardware and
Sound".
13.46.2 Normalize Maximum Amplitude to
Enter the value for the maximum amplitude you would
like the processed selection to have. The initial default
setting is -1 dB, but you can change this. Your choice
of settings will be remembered for next use of Normalize
any time you change it. A level of -1 dB is just below the
maximum amplitude (0 dB) possible without clipping ,
but gives a little headroom for effects and distortion-free
playback on all equipment. Enter a more negative value
(for example, -3 dB) to normalize to lower amplitudes.
382
Entering a positive value is disallowed and causes the
"OK" and "Preview" buttons to be disabled. Use Effect >
Amplify... if you need to increase amplitude above the 0
dB clipping level.
13.46.3 Normalize stereo channels inde-
pendently
When this box is unchecked (the default), Normalize will
work on the channels of a stereo track as a pair and
change the level of both channels by the same amount.
Use this if your audio is already correctly balanced as this
mode will preserve its original stereo balance. When this
box is checked, Normalize will adjust the amplitude sep-
arately for the left and right channels of a stereo track.
This is useful for correcting stereo recordings of LPs and
cassettes which may be unbalanced, as long as signifi-
cant clicks are removed first.
13.46.4 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Tips
Workflow order
• Immediately after recording capture (or import) of
your audio this effect should be used solely to re-
move any DC offset that may be present with no
amplitude adjustment applied at this stage.
• Adjusting the audio’s maximum amplitude with this
effect is normally best performed as a final editing
step prior to export of the production audio.
Normalizing multiple audio tracks
If you select multiple tracks and apply the Normalize ef-
fect, then all audio tracks will be independently nor-
malized to the same peak level. For example, if you
set "Normalize Maximum Amplitude to:" 0.0 dB, every
selected audio track will be normalized to 0.0 dB, irre-
spective of its original level. Whatever peak volume dif-
ferences there were between the tracks will be removed.
Difference from the Amplify... effect
With Amplify, if you select multiple tracks and apply the
effect, then all audio tracks will be amplified by the
same amount thus preserving the balance between the
tracks. Normalize offers the option to remove DC offset,
Amplify does not offer that option. Normalize does not
allow clipping above 0 dB, but Amplify does. For a more
thorough discussion of differences, see Amplify and Nor-
malize .
13.46.5 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.47. NOTCH FILTER 383

13.47 Notch Filter

Notch Filter sharply attenuates frequency-specific noise 13.47.4 Examples

like mains hum or electrical whistle with minimal damage
to the remaining audio, by cutting a "notch" out of the fre-
quency spectrum at that point.Accessed by:Effect >
Notch Filter...
13.47.1 Frequency
Enter any frequency up to half the sample rate into the
frequency text box (default is 60 Hz). Frequency greater
than half the sample rate of the track are not valid be-
cause a track can only contain frequencies up to half its
sample rate.
13.47.2 Q factor
This determines the width of the notch cut from your au-
dio (default value is 1). Values above 1 create a narrower
notch, and values below 1 create a wider notch. The Q
Factor must be at least 0.1).
13.47.3 Buttons
Example 1: Mains Hum Removal
Choose 60 Hz as "Frequency" for North America, or 50
Hz for the United Kingdom and most other countries. A
table of mains frequencies by country is here. Recorded
hum often contains noisy harmonic frequencies above
the fundamental frequency of the hum. A good approach
is thus to apply Notch Filter to the fundamental hum fre-
quency (for example, 50 Hz or 60 Hz), then use Analyze
> Plot Spectrum... to identify other broad noise spikes
(for example, at 180 Hz and 300 Hz). You may want to
increase the spectrum Size and use the "Log" Axis to see
more clearly. Run Notch Filter again at each of the other
noise frequencies, then use Effect > Noise Reduction at
mild settings to remove any residual harmonics.
• It is recommended to increase the Q factor when
removing higher harmonics so as to lessen possi-
ble audio artifacts. Generally, a Q of between 2 and
10 works well for mains hum removal. Choosing
appropriate Frequency and Q factor settings from
the noise spikes in Plot Spectrum is an approxima-
tion, due to inevitable interpolation errors from
whichever "windowing" function is chosen. How-
ever a good method for calculating Frequency and
Q factor from Plot Spectrum can be found in this
Audacity Forum topic.
The below image shows a spectrum plot of some music
from which a notch of 60 Hz hum has been cut. Before
applying the effect, the hum displayed a prominent spike
at this frequency, extending to the top of the graph.

Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-

sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.

Depending on the audio, you might find in this case that

• brings you to the appropriate page in the the spectrum had been notched too deeply, thus affecting
Manual, this page. the content, and that a higher Q factor would have been
384
preferred. You might want to notch the visible spikes at
about 100 and 350 Hz as well. As always with Audacity,
you can Edit > Undo and experiment with different notch
filter settings.
Example 2: High pitched whistle
13.48 Paulstretch
Use Paulstretch to slow down audio by extreme
amounts without changing the pitch. Accessed by:Effect
> Paulstretch...
13.48.1 Stretch Factor
This sets how much longer the processed sound will be
relative to the original. For example, setting this to 10 will
stretch 1 minute of audio into approximately 10 minutes
of audio, somewhat less at higher Time Resolutions.
13.48.2 Time Resolution (seconds)
In order for the effect to work, this value must be smaller
than the selected area in the waveform. Small values
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
In this case the frequency analysis at Analyze > Plot
Spectrum... is fairly smooth except for a tall peak on
the right. Place the mouse’s cross-hair pointer over that
peak. Audacity shows the peak more accurately to be at
18996 Hz which will be the frequency to enter in Notch
Filter.
13.47.5 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
have good time resolution, but poor frequency resolu-
tion, so you may still be able to detect a rhythm (albeit
a very slow rhythm). Large values have poor time reso-
lution, but have great frequency resolution, so transients
will disappear but pitch differences may be better pre-
served. Usually, a value of 0.25 seconds is good for most
music. Very large values (greater than 2 seconds) can be
used for special effects such as "smearing" a song into a
sound-texture, even if the Stretch Factor is close to 1.0.
13.48.3 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
13.49. PHASER
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
13.49 Phaser
The name "Phaser" comes from "Phase Shifter", be-
cause it works by combining phase-shifted signals with
the original signal. The movement of the phase-shifted
signals is controlled using a Low Frequency Oscilla-
tor (LFO).The interaction of the phase shifted signal with
the original signal creates a sweeping notch filter effect
that sounds similar but more subtle than a flanger ef-
fect.Accessed by:Effect > Phaser...
The output from this effect may have higher ampli-
tude than the original audio. If the output exceeds 0 dB
(full track height) and so triggers the red clipping warn-
ing lights in the Playback Meter , you should open Effect >
Amplify... , ensure "Amplification (dB)" shows a negative
dB value (not "0.0 dB") then click OK. If "Amplification
(dB)" in Amplify shows "0.0 dB", the track does not con-
tain 32-bit audio and the clipping cannot be repaired. In
that case, Edit > Undo Phaser, use Amplify to reduce the
track to a lower amplitude then reapply Phaser.
13.49.1 Stages
The Phaser effect consists of a series of filters that each
produce a frequency-dependent delay. By mixing some
of the original signal with the delayed signal, phase can-
cellation will occur at a particular frequency, creating a
marked notch (reduction in level) at that frequency. When
the original and delayed signals are "in phase" with each
other, that frequency will be boosted to a higher level,
creating a peak at that frequency. Each "stage" in the
effect adds more notches and peaks in the frequency re-
sponse, giving more complexity to the sound.
385
Manual, this page.
13.48.4 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.49.2 Dry/Wet
When set to 0, only the "Dry" (unprocessed) signal is pro-
duced. When set to 255 (maximum), only the delayed
signals are produced. Because the effect’s sound re-
sults from phase interaction, the effect sounds strongest
when the Dry/Wet mix is set at the default halfway posi-
tion (128).
13.49.3 LFO Frequency (Hz)
This is a low frequency oscillator (LFO) control that ad-
justs the rate at which the effect sweeps up and down
across the frequency range.
13.49.4 LFO Start Phase (deg.)
The start position of the low frequency oscillator is ad-
justable between 0 and 360 degrees. When set at zero
(the default) the filters begin sweeping from high fre-
quency down to low frequency. When set at 180 degrees,
the filters begin by sweeping up from low frequency.
13.49.5 Depth
The depth control governs how high the filter frequencies
sweep. At a low setting the phaser will primarily affect
bass frequencies. At higher settings the phaser effect
can sweep high into the treble.
13.49.6 Feedback (%)
By adjusting the feedback control, the processed signal
can be passed back through the effect, creating a more
pronounced effect. At high settings, the effect will be-
come highly resonant, similar to a Wahwah effect. At
negative settings. an inverted signal is fed back into the
effect, creating another variant of the effect.
386
At maximum or minimum feedback settings, the ef-
fect becomes unstable and will create massive distortion.
13.49.7 Output gain (dB)
Controls the amount of gain (volume) positive or negative
that will be applied by the effect.
13.49.8 Real-time preview
This effect supports Real-time preview - effect settings
can be changed while playing and listening to the result
in real-time. Text-based button controls are provided as
in the image above. The Enable checkbox acts like a
live "Bypass" control. Uncheck the checkbox Enable
to hear the audio without the effect applied, and recheck
the box Enable to hear the effect applied at its current
settings. The Manage button accesses choices to add,
delete, import or export presets for this effect and to set
options for this effect. For details see Manage presets .
13.49.9 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
13.50 Repair
Repair removes a very short region of damaged or de-
stroyed audio, replacing it with an estimated region of au-
dio based on what is happening either side of the region.
It may be used for example to repair a click on a vinyl
record, or a tape dropout.Accessed by:Effect > Repair
13.50.1 Requirements
The Repair effect can only be used on selection regions
up to 128 samples long (for most audio, only a few
thousandths of a second). Above this length, it becomes
too hard to guess what should be going on in the section
under repair. You will get an error message if you select
too much audio to try and repair. In general, the shorter
the section of audio you select to repair, the better the
results will be. The Repair effect is unusual because it
requires there to be audio outside the selection region
on at least one side of the section to be repaired. Ex-
amining this audio lets Audacity interpolate (make an
informed guess about) the bad section. If the surround-
ing audio in the track is very short or non-existent there
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Start Playback starts playback of the effect preview
• Skip Backward skips forward through the effect pre-
view
• Skip Forward skips forward through the effect pre-
view
• Enable listen to the preview with and without the
effect applied
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.49.10 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
may not be enough information to make the interpolation,
and an error message will be shown. For example, it is
not possible to select a region up to 128 samples long
in one track, paste or duplicate it into a new empty track
and then repair it, because there will then be no audio
either side of the region to examine. When using Repair
it is often convenient to set Selection Toolbar bar to show
hh:mm:ss + samples, then click the Length radio but-
ton to ensure you are only selecting up to 128 samples.
13.50.2 Usage
1. Select the approximate region of audio. Zoom in
until you can start to see the individual dots (sam-
ples) in the waveform , and then reselect the short-
est possible piece of audio for replacement.
2. Click Effect > Repair to replace the selected audio
with the repaired audio.
3. Zoom back out (or grab the handle on the horizontal
scrollbar at the bottom of the screen and drag left-
13.51. REPEAT
wards), click a few seconds before the region you
were repairing, and play from there to hear if the
repair sounds OK. If not, click Edit > Undo and try a
different region to repair. Include a little more on ei-
ther side of the problem if the original damage was
still obvious, or less if the repaired region sounded
different, but incorrect.
Tips:
• When trying to repair a section of audio that has
been clipped , click first in the Track Control Panel
to select all the track, then Effect > Amplify to make
it quieter. This gives some headroom for Repair to
work in. You can click View > Show Clipping to indi-
13.51 Repeat
Repeat repeats the selection the specified number of
times. Accessed by:Effect > Repeat
13.51.1 Number of repeats to add
Specifies the number of times the selected audio will be
repeated. The default setting is 1 repeat (that is you will
than have two copies of the selected audio).
13.51.2 Current selection length
Shows what the resultant selection length of the currently
selected aufio is prior to the repeat.
13.51.3 New selection length
Shows what the resultant selection length will be, de-
pending on the specified number of repeats. The resul-
tant selection includes both the originally selected audio
and the inserted audio that has been repeated.
387
cate clipped samples. If there is still clipped audio
after Repair, Edit > Undo, extend the region a lit-
tle further either side of the clipping, then Repair
again.
• If only one channel of a stereo track is damaged,
you can repair only the relevant channel by click-
ing on the Audio Track Dropdown Menu and select-
ing "Split Stereo Track". After repairing the sin-
gle channel, you can rejoin the channels by using
"Make Stereo Track" in the same menu in the up-
per track.
13.50.3 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
• If the selection to be repeated borders the right
edge of an audio clip , each repeat becomes a sep-
arate clip bordered by black vertical split lines .
• Any audio to right of the inserted repeats is moved
to right, and so not overwritten. However the re-
peat will not be allowed if it would move other clips
and "Editing a clip can move other clips" in Tracks
Preferences is unchecked.
• Repeat does not copy the original or resultant se-
lection to the Audacity clipboard.
13.51.4 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
388
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.52 Reverb
Reverb adds reverberation (rapid, modified repetitions
blended with the original sound that gives an impression
of ambience). The Reverb effect is based on the original
"freeverb" algorithm. Adding reverberation is sometimes
desirable for concert halls that are too small or contain
so many people that the hall’s natural reverberance is di-
minished. Applying a small amount of stereo reverb to
an untreated mono signal duplicated into a two-channel
stereo track will usually make it sound more natural. This
effect has factory presets .Note that this effect may in-
crease the volume, so the "Dry Gain" should normally be
set below 0 dB in order to prevent clipping . To allow
the effect’s reverb tail to be audible, the selection must
be extended beyond the end of the audio, which may re-
quire adding silence to the end of the track.Accessed
by:Effect > Reverb...
13.52.1 Settings
• Room Size (%): Sets the size of the simulated
room. 0% is like a closet, 100% is like a huge cathe-
dral or large auditorium. A high value will simulate
the reverberation effect of a large room and a low
value will simulate the effect of a small room.
• Pre-delay (ms): Delays the onset of the reverber-
ation for the set time after the start of the original
input. This also delays the onset of the reverb tail.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
13.51.5 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
The maximum pre-delay is 200 milliseconds. Care-
ful adjustment of this parameter can improve the
clarity of the result.
• Reverberance (%): Sets the length of the rever-
beration tail. This determines how long the rever-
beration continues for after the original sound being
reverbed comes to an end, and so simulates the
"liveliness" of the room acoustics. For any given re-
verberance value, the tail will be greater for larger
room sizes.
• Damping (%): Increasing the damping produces a
more "muted" effect. The reverberation does not
build up as much, and the high frequencies decay
faster than the low frequencies. Simulates the ab-
sorption of high frequencies in the reverberation.
• Tone Low (%): Setting this control below 100% re-
duces the low frequency components of the rever-
beration, creating a less "boomy" effect.
• Tone High (%): Setting this control below 100%
reduces the high frequency components of the re-
verberation, creating a less "bright" effect.
• Wet Gain (dB): Applies volume adjustment to the
reverberation ("wet") component in the mix. In-
creasing this value relative to the "Dry Gain" (be-
low) increases the strength of the reverb.
• Dry Gain (dB): Applies volume adjustment to the
original ("dry") audio in the mix. Increasing this
value relative to the "Wet Gain" (above) reduces
the strength of the reverb. If the Wet Gain and Dry
Gain values are the same, then the mix of wet ef-
fect and dry audio to be output to the track will be
made louder or softer by exactly this value (assum-
ing "Wet Only" below is not checked).
• Stereo Width (%): Sets the apparent "width" of the
Reverb effect for stereo tracks only. Increasing this
value applies more variation between left and right
channels, creating a more "spacious" effect. When
set at zero, the effect is applied independently to
left and right channels.
• Wet Only: When this control is checked, only the
wet signal (added reverberation) will be in the re-
sulting output, and the original audio will be re-
moved. This can be useful when previewing the
13.52. REVERB 389

effect, but in most cases you should uncheck this 13.52.4 Examples
when applying the effect. Wet Only may be used
however to create a "reverb only" track that you can
then mix in greater or lesser proportion with the
original track. See Examples below for complete
steps.
Always add a few seconds of silence to any track to which
you intend to apply the Reverb effect. The reverb tail will
continue for several seconds after the sound ends. If you
13.52.2 Factory Presets do not add silence to the end of the track the reverb will
cut off unnaturally.
The following presets are provides available from the
Manage menu:
Apply a rich and bright reverb to a "dry" vocal record-
• Defaults (the default settings) ing
• Vocal I
This method uses the built-in preset Vocal II. Alterna-
• Vocal II tively, Vocal I produces a softer, less noticeable reverb.
For advanced users, any preset can be used as a starting
• Bathroom point for creating new presets.
• Small Room Bright 1. Ensure that there is a few seconds of silence at the
• Small Room Dark end of the audio so that the final note can fade away
naturally. If necessary, add a few seconds of si-
• Medium Room lence to the end of the track (see steps 1.1 to 1.4 in
the example below ).
• Large Room
2. Select the audio track that contains the vocal
• Church Hall recording.
• Cathedral 3. Click Effect > Reverb to launch the Reverb effect.

Custom presets may also be defined by the user. 4. In the "Presets" panel, click the Load button, select
Vocal II from the list then click OK. The controls will
now have been adjusted according to the selected
preset.
13.52.3 Buttons
5. Click on the OK button.

Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
If the vocal track was a mono track, a more "spacious"
reverb effect can be created by making the track into
a stereo track before applying the Reverb effect as de-
scribed in steps 1 to 4 below .

• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
Keep the reverb effect on a separate track
With this method, you duplicate the track to want to apply
reverb to, then apply the Reverb effect to the duplicate
track, checking the "Wet Only" checkbox in the Reverb
dialog. You can then control the amount of reverb in the
final mix by adjusting the Track Gain Sliders on the re-
verbed and original track. This gives you the flexibility to
tweak the proportion of reverb at any time after applying
the effect.
1. Add a few seconds of silence to the end of the track:
(a) Click the Skip to End button on Transport Tool-
bar or press the shortcut K
(b) Click Generate > Silence
390
(c) Choose how much silence to add (20 seconds
is the most you will ever need, 5 second will
often be adequate)
(d) Click OK to add the silence to the end of the
track.
2. Select the entire track by clicking on the empty
space in the Track Control Panel or use Shift + J.
3. Click Edit > Clip Boundaries > Join or use its short-
cut Ctrl + J.
4. Duplicate the track by selecting the track then click-
ing Edit > Duplicate.
5. Select the duplicate track on its own.
6. Apply the Reverb effect to the duplicate track, mak-
ing sure the Wet Only checkbox has the check-
mark.
7. Play the tracks then use the Gain Slider on the re-
verbed (wet) track and on the original track to mix in
a pleasing amount of reverb. Make sure the com-
bined gain is low enough so that the red clipping
indicators at the end of the Playback Meter’s play-
back bars do not come on.
Adding stereo reverb to a mono track
It is often desirable to add reverb to a mono track (such
as a vocal) but add a stereo "spread" to the reverb. This
is generally more pleasing and sounds better when the
final mix is in stereo.
1. Add a few seconds of silence to the end of the track
(steps 1.1 through 1.5 in the example above).
2. Duplicate the track by selecting the track then click-
ing Edit > Duplicate.
3. From the Audio Track Dropdown Menu on the upper
track, select Make Stereo Track .
4. Select the new stereo track.
13.53 Reverse
Reverse reverses the selected audio, so that the end
of the audio will be heard first and the beginning last.
Some people reverse small portions of audio to make in-
appropriate language unintelligible, while others believe
you can hear subliminal messages if you listen to speech
backwards. You can also create interesting sound effects
by recording natural events and reversing the audio.
Please note that Note Tracks cannot be reversed
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
5. Apply the Reverb effect to the track, choosing a
pleasing value for "Stereo Width" and making sure
to uncheck the Wet Only checkbox.
This method can be expanded to incorporate the re-
verb on a separate track, as follows.
1. Add a few seconds of silence to the end of the track
(steps 1.1 through 1.5 in the first example).
2. Duplicate the track (select the track then click Edit
> Duplicate).
3. From the Audio Track Dropdown Menu on the upper
track, select Make Stereo Track .
4. Select the new stereo track.
5. Duplicate the track by selecting the track then click-
ing Edit > Duplicate.
6. Select the duplicate track on its own.
7. Apply the Reverb effect to the duplicate track, mak-
ing sure the Wet Only checkbox has the check-
mark.
8. From the Audio Track Dropdown Menu of the origi-
nal track, select Split Stereo to Mono .
9. Delete one of the two resulting mono tracks by
clicking the Track Close Button or selecting that
track then choosing Tracks > Remove Tracks(this
last step is not strictly necessary, but reduces track
clutter and makes it clear that the original track is
mono.)
10. Play the tracks then as in the first example, adjust
the Gain Sliders of the reverbed (wet) and original
tracks to mix in a pleasing amount of reverb, ensur-
ing that the result does not clip.
13.52.5 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
(as they are nor really audio, merely a form of musical
"score")Accessed by:Effect > ReverseThere are no pa-
rameters to set for this effect; the effect operates on the
audio that is currently selected. A Label Track can only
be reversed, in full or in part, if it is selected along with
some associated audio.If the reversal takes an apprecia-
ble time, a progress dialog will appear as below:
13.54. SPECTRAL SELECTION 391

Reverse progress dialogIf the track or tracks in which

your selection is made form part of a Sync-Locked Track
Group then all audio within the selected time range in all
tracks of that Sync-Locked Track Group will be reversed,
as will labels within any associated Label track.

13.53.1 Links

|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers

|< Effect Menu

13.54 Spectral Selection

Spectral Selection is used to make selections that in-

clude a frequency range as well as a time range on tracks
in Spectrogram view. Spectral Selection is used with
special spectral edit effects to make changes to the fre-
quency content of the selected audio. Among other
purposes, spectral selection and editing can be used
for cleaning up unwanted sound, enhancing certain res-
onances, changing the quality of a voice or removing
mouth sounds from voice work.All of the time-based se- To define a time range change the track to Spectrogram
lection techniques (horizontal selection) are still available view, hover at a vertical position that you want to be the
when making a spectral selection. approximate center frequency to act on then click and
drag a selection horizontally. A horizontal line appears
beside the I-Beam mouse pointer that defines the center
Spectral Selection is disabled by default.In or- frequency. Drag vertically (with or without continuing to
der to use Spectral Selection you must first enable the drag horizontally) to define the bandwidth (range of fre-
Enable Spectral Selection checkbox in either: quencies) to be acted on. A "box" containing a combined
frequency and time range is now drawn in a colored tint
• Spectrograms Preferences , or as shown below (the exact color of the tint will depend on
the version of Audacity and the settings of your monitor):
• Spectrogram Settings for an audio track, ac-
cessed by opening the dropdown menu in its Track
Control Panel then choosing Spectrogram Set-
tings... (if "Spectrogram Settings..." is grayed out,
select "Spectrogram" then reopen the menu).

– Note: this latter choice will only turn on Spec-

tral Selection for that particular track while the
project window is open.
The center frequency is proportionally in the center and
is a geometric mean (which is appropriate for filtering
purposes) rather than an arithmetic mean. Thus if as
in the above image the Spectrogram scale is set to the
13.54.1 Making a Spectral Selection default "Linear" choice (using Spectrograms Preferences
or the track’s Spectrogram Settings in the Audio Track
Dropdown Menu ), the center line will appear below the
Here is a track with a few seconds of speech shown in visual center of the frequency range. The center line will
waveform view: be visually centered in Logarithmic scale.If either the low
392
or high frequency limits are not defined, no center fre-
quency will be shown. In the illustration below, the selec-
tion has been dragged from about 5000 Hz to the bottom
of the track. The high frequency selection is about 5000
Hz and the low frequency selection is not defined, so the
selection includes everything below 5000 Hz:
If the selection is dragged up to the top of the track, then
the high frequency will be undefined, so the selection will
include everything above the low frequency limit. If nei-
ther the upper or lower frequency limits are defined, then
the full frequency range is selected, just like a ’normal’
audio selection.
13.54.2 Adjusting a Spectral Selection
When you hover the mouse pointer over the center fre-
quency line it changes to a double triangle to show that
the center frequency can be dragged. When you click
and drag to move the center frequency and the current
frequency range to a new position, the center frequency
will snap to frequency peaks. To move the center fre-
quency smoothly (without snapping to frequency peaks)
hold down the Shift key then left click and drag.
The bandwidth in octaves around the center frequency is
preserved when dragging the center frequency. There-
fore in Spectrogram view the frequency range will ex-
pand when dragging the center frequency to higher fre-
quencies and will contract when dragging to lower fre-
quencies, but in Spectrogram Logarithmic view the ver-
tical height of the frequency/time box will remain con-
stant.To adjust the bandwidth of the selection hover the
mouse over the upper or lower boundary until the pointer
changes to a double triangle then left click and drag. This
moves the upper and lower frequency boundaries so they
remain equally spaced around the center frequency (thus
not changing the center frequency).
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
To adjust the upper or lower boundary while holding the
opposite boundary constant hold down the Shift key then
hover the mouse near the upper or lower boundary un-
til the pointer changes to a single triangle then click and
drag (this will change the center frequency).
Tips:
• When the lower boundary is at 0 Hz you can drag
that boundary up by carefully hovering the mouse
near the bottom of the track until the single down-
arrow pointer appears then left clicking and drag-
ging up.
• When the upper boundary is at the Nyquist fre-
quency of the track you can drag that boundary
down by carefully hovering the mouse near the top
of the track until the single up-arrow pointer ap-
pears then left clicking and dragging down.
• You can use the Spectral Selection Toolbar to cre-
ate and/or precisely adjust a spectral selection us-
ing the keyboard.
Storing the frequency range in a Label
If you add a label at a time region, that region’s Low Fre-
quency and High Frequency are stored in the label and
recalled when you select the label. Similarly if you add
a label at the cursor position, the frequency at which you
clicked to set the cursor is stored in the label. If you sub-
sequently want to change the Low Frequency and High
Frequency stored by the label, select and right-click the
label (or use the Menu key) then choose "Edit..." to open
the label in Labels Editor .
Toggling Spectral Selection on and off
Press the shortcut Q key to change from the last selected
spectral selection (one that has at least the lower or up-
per boundary defined) to one where the lower boundary
is 0 Hz and the upper boundary is the Nyquist frequency
13.54. SPECTRAL SELECTION
of the track. In this case there is no longer a spectral se-
lection (all frequencies are selected which is the same as
making a time selection in waveform view). Press the Q
key again to restore the previous upper and lower bound-
aries. This command works whether in a Spectrogram
view or not.
13.54.3 Spectral editing
To make use of the frequency range defined in a spec-
tral selection you must currently use one of the specific
spectral effects (detailed below) whose name begins with
"Spectral edit". All other effects, as well as all the time-
based editing commands (such as Cut, Copy, Delete or
Trim) are available when there is a spectral selection but
those effects and commands will not take into account
the frequency range of the spectral selection.
Spectral edit multi tool
Use this to greatly attenuate or remove part of the fre-
quency range in the spectral selection, for example to
repair damaged audio. Depending on how the track is
displayed and what spectral selection has been made,
this effect will do one of the following:
• When the track is not in Spectrogram view with
Spectral Selection enabled, an error message will
be displayed.
• When the spectral selection has a center frequency
and an upper and lower boundary this effect per-
forms as a notch filter with the center frequency
defined by the center frequency of the spectral se-
lection and the width defined by the upper and
lower boundaries of the spectral selection.
• When the lower frequency bound of the spectral se-
lection is undefined, this effect performs a high
pass filter with a rolloff of 12 dB/octave and with
the cutoff frequency defined by the upper boundary
of the spectral selection. Note that setting the lower
frequency bound to 0 Hz will not apply the filter be-
cause 0 Hz is zero, not nil (undefined).
• When the upper frequency bound of the spectral
selection is undefined, this effect performs a low
pass filter with a rolloff of 12 dB/octave and with
the cutoff frequency defined by the lower boundary
of the spectral selection.
• When both the upper and lower frequency bound of
the spectral selection are undefined, an error mes-
sage will be displayed. You should go back and
define one or both frequency bounds.
If the attenuation is not sufficient, you can use Ctrl + R to
repeat the effect. You can see some specific examples of
this effect on the Spectral edit multi tool page.
393
Spectral edit parametric EQ
Use this like an Equalizer to modify the tone quality,
boosting or reducing the amplitude of the selected fre-
quency band using the Gain control. As with an Equal-
izer, frequencies outside the selected band may be
boosted or reduced, but less so than those within the fre-
quency band. Depending on how the track is displayed
and what spectral selection has been made, this effect
will do one of the following:
• When the track is not in Spectrogram view with
Spectral Selection enabled, an error message will
be displayed.
• When the spectral selection has a center frequency
and an upper and lower boundary this effect per-
forms a band cut or band boost according to
the value entered in the "Gain (dB)" control. The
center frequency is defined by the center frequency
of the spectral selection, the bandwidth is defined
by the upper and lower boundaries of the spectral
selection.
• When either the upper or lower frequency boundary
is undefined, an error message will be displayed to
that effect. If the lower frequency boundary is 0 Hz
there is no center frequency or bandwidth and an
error message will state that the lower frequency
must be above 0 Hz.
You can see some specific examples of this effect on the
Spectral edit parametric EQ page.
Spectral edit shelves
A shelf filter curve is flat at both ends rather than flat only
at the frequencies being passed. Use these filters when
you don’t want to reduce the lowest bass or highest tre-
ble frequencies in the spectral selection as much as you
would with a standard high pass or low pass filter,
or if you actually want to boost either the low or high fre-
quencies respectively.Depending on how the track is dis-
played and what spectral selection has been made, this
effect will do one of the following:
394 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS

• When the track is not in Spectrogram view with

Spectral Selection enabled, an error message will
be displayed.

• When the spectral selection begins at 0 Hz or

its lower bound is undefined, this effect applies a
low frequency shelving filter with the half-gain fre-
quency (the mid-point of the gain section of the Start by making a rough selection around the whistle:
curve) defined by the upper boundary of the spec-
tral selection. The gain control sets the amount of
low-frequency boost or cut. This is similar to adjust-
ing the bass control on a stereo.

• When the spectral selection ends at the Nyquist fre-

quency of the track or its upper bound is undefined,
this effect applies a high frequency shelving filter
with the half-gain frequency defined by the lower Click and drag on the vertical scale to zoom in on the
frequency of the spectral selection. The gain con- offending frequencies:
trol sets the amount of high-frequency boost or cut.
This is similar to adjusting the treble control on a
stereo.

• When the spectral selection has a center frequency

and upper and lower frequency boundaries this ef-
fect applies both low- and high-frequency shelving
filters. In this case the half-gain frequency of the
low shelving filter is defined by the lower frequency The center frequency line is close (but not exactly on)
boundary of the spectral selection and the half-gain the whistle and the range of frequencies extends too far
frequency of the high shelving filter is defined by above and below the whistle:
the upper frequency boundary of the spectral se-
lection. The gain control sets the amount of boost
or cut between the two frequency boundaries.

• When the spectral selection begins at 0 Hz and

ends at the Nyquist frequency, applying the effect
will not change the audio. If the start and end of the
selection are both undefined, an error message will
be displayed. You should go back and define one Snap the center frequency line to the whistle by hovering
or both frequency bounds. the mouse over the center line until the double triangle
cursor appears, then click and drag to snap the center
You can see some specific examples of this effect on the line to the whistle frequency:
Spectral edit shelves page.

Due to a limitation in Nyquist effects the effect dia-

log will be displayed before any error message.

13.54.4 Example of using spectral editing Hover the mouse over the upper or lower boundary until
to remove an unwanted whistle the double-triangle cursor appears, then click and drag
noise to adjust the bandwidth of the selection to just cover the
whistle:

For this example the window size was set to 2048 in

Spectrograms Preferences . This gives finer frequency
resolution. See Spectrogram View for more details. Here
is the same audio as in the images above, but this
time contaminated by an annoying high-frequency whis-
tle. You can see the whistle just above 5 kHz.
13.55. SPECTRAL EDIT MULTI TOOL 395

Finally, select Effect > Spectral edit multi-tool which per-
forms a notch filter effect on the selected frequencies.
The whistle is gone.
13.54.5 Limitations
The permitted upper frequency of the spectral selection
is determined by the Project Rate and not by the track
sample rate. Therefore if a project includes a track that
has a lower sample rate than the project rate, Spectral
Selection Toolbar could display an "illegal" frequency
selection above the Nyquist frequency for the track at the
lower project rate. Audacity will disregard this "illegal" se-
lection when running Spectral edit effects.

13.55 Spectral edit multi tool

The Spectral edit multi tool is used with a Spectral Se-
lection to apply either a notch filter , high-pass filter
or low-pass filter to the selection, depending on the
type of selection made. Accessed by:Effect > Spectral
edit multi tool...Depending on how the track is displayed
and what spectral selection has been made, this effect
will do one of the following:
• When the track is not in a Spectrogram View with
Spectral Selection enabled, an error message will
be displayed
13.55.1 Examples
Notch Filter
If you make a spectral selection that has both an upper
and lower boundary, selecting Effect > Spectral edit multi
tool will apply a notch filter. In the following example the
spectral selection had a center frequency of 2000 Hz and
a bandwidth of 0.5 octave.

• When the spectral selection has a center, up-

per and lower frequency this effect performs as a
notch filter with the center frequency defined by
the center frequency of the spectral selection and
the width defined by the upper and lower frequen-
cies of the spectral selection

• When the spectral selection begins at 0 Hz this ef-

fect performs a high pass filter with a rolloff of 12
dB/octave and with the cutoff frequency defined by
the upper frequency of the spectral selection

• When the spectral selection ends at the Nyquist fre-

quency of the track this effect performs a low pass In the following example the spectral selection had a cen-
filter with a rolloff of 12 dB/octave and with the cut- ter frequency of 2000 Hz and a bandwidth of 2 octaves.
off frequency defined by the lower frequency of the
spectral selection

• When both the upper and lower frequency bound of

the spectral selection are undefined, an error mes-
sage will be displayed. You should go back and
define one or both frequency bounds.

If the attenuation is not sufficient, you can use Ctrl + R to

repeat the effect.
396
High-pass filter
If you make a spectral selection that has the lower bound-
ary at 0 Hz, selecting Effect > Spectral edit multi tool will
apply a high-pass filter.In the following example the spec-
tral selection had a lower boundary of 0 Hz and an upper
boundary of 500 Hz.
13.56 Spectral edit parametric EQ
The Spectral edit parametric EQ tool is used with a
Spectral Selection to apply either a band boost filter ,
or band-cut filter to the selection. Accessed by:Effect
> Spectral edit parametric EQ...
Depending on how the track is displayed and what spec-
tral selection has been made, this effect will do one of the
following:
• When the track is not in Spectrogram View with
Spectral Selection enabled, an error message will
be displayed
• When the spectral selection has a center, upper
and lower frequency this effect performs a band
cut or band boost according to the value entered
in the "Gain (dB)" control. The center frequency is
defined by the center frequency of the spectral se-
lection and the bandwidth is defined by the upper
and lower frequencies of the spectral selection.
• When either the upper or lower frequency boundary
is undefined, an error message will be displayed to
that effect. If the lower frequency boundary is 0 Hz
there is no center frequency or bandwidth and an
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Low-pass filter
If you make a spectral selection that has the upper
boundary at the Nyquist frequency of the track, select-
ing Effect > Spectral edit multi tool will apply a low-pass
filter.In the following example the spectral selection had a
lower boundary of 0 Hz and an upper boundary of 2000
Hz.
error message will state that the lower frequency
must be above 0 Hz.
Due to a limitation in Nyquist effects, the effect dia-
log will be displayed before any error message.
13.56.1 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
13.57. SPECTRAL EDIT SHELVES
Manual, this page.
Band Cut
In the following example the spectral selection had a cen-
ter frequency of 2000 Hz and a bandwidth of 2 octaves.
In the Spectral edit parametric EQ dialog, the Gain was
set to -20 dB.
13.57 Spectral edit shelves
The Spectral edit shelves effect is used with a Spectral
Selection to apply either a low-shelving filter or a high-
shelving filter to the selection, depending on the type
of selection made. Accessed by:Effect > Spectral edit
shelves...
A shelf filter curve is flat at both ends rather than flat only
at the frequencies being passed. Use these filters when
you don’t want to reduce the lowest bass or highest tre-
ble frequencies in the spectral selection as much as you
would with a standard high pass or low pass filter,
or if you actually want to boost either the low or high fre-
quencies respectively. Depending on how the track is
displayed and what spectral selection has been made,
this effect will do one of the following:
• When the track is not in Spectrogram View with
Spectral Selection enabled, an error message will
be displayed
• When the spectral selection begins at 0 Hz or
its lower bound is undefined, this effect applies a
low frequency shelving filter with the half-gain fre-
397
Band Boost
In the following example the spectral selection had a cen-
ter frequency of 2000 Hz and a bandwidth of 2 octaves.
In the Spectral edit parametric EQ dialog, the Gain was
set to +10 dB.
quency (the mid-point of the gain section of the
curve) defined by the upper boundary of the spec-
tral selection. The gain control sets the amount of
low-frequency boost or cut. This is similar to adjust-
ing the bass control on a stereo.
• When the spectral selection ends at the Nyquist fre-
quency of the track or its upper bound is undefined,
this effect applies a high frequency shelving filter
with the half-gain frequency defined by the lower
frequency of the spectral selection. The gain con-
trol sets the amount of high-frequency boost or cut.
This is similar to adjusting the treble control on a
stereo.
• When the spectral selection has a center frequency
and upper and lower frequency boundaries this ef-
fect applies both low- and high-frequency shelving
filters. In this case the half-gain frequency of the
low shelving filter is defined by the lower frequency
boundary of the spectral selection and the half-gain
frequency of the high shelving filter is defined by
the upper frequency boundary of the spectral se-
lection. The gain control sets the amount of boost
or cut between the two frequency boundaries.
• When the spectral selection begins at 0 Hz and
ends at the Nyquist frequency, applying the effect
will not change the audio. If the start and end of the
selection are both undefined, an error message will
398 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS

be displayed. You should go back and define one High-shelving filter

or both frequency bounds.
Due to a limitation in Nyquist effects, the effect dia-
log will be displayed before any error message.
In the following example the spectral selection had a
lower boundary of 5000 Hz and an upper boundary of
the Nyquist frequency of the track. In the Spectral edit
shelves dialog, the Gain was set to -20 dB.

13.57.1 Buttons

Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-

sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the Combined low-shelving and high-shelving filters
current effect settings.
In the following example the spectral selection had a
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un- lower boundary of 200 Hz and an upper boundary of
changed. 10000 Hz. In the Spectral edit shelves dialog, the Gain
was set to -20 dB.

• brings you to the appropriate page in the

Manual, this page.

13.57.2 Examples

Low-shelving filter

In the following example the spectral selection had a

lower boundary of 0 Hz and an upper boundary of 500
Hz. In the Spectral edit shelves dialog, the Gain was set
to -20 dB.
13.58. TREMOLO
13.58 Tremolo
Tremolo modulates the volume of the selection at the
depth and speed selected in the dialog. This is the same
as the tremolo effect familiar to guitar and keyboard play-
ers. Accessed by:Effect > Tremolo...
13.58.1 Waveform type
Determines the "shape" of each tremolo (how it pro-
gresses between the lowest and highest volume as de-
termined by the wetness level). Choice of sine, triangle,
sawtooth, inverse sawtooth, square.
13.58.2 Starting phase (degrees)
Sets where to start the tremolo in the waveform cycle.
The default (zero) starts the tremolo at the start of the cy-
cle (as the waveform starts to rise from the lowest point).
13.58.3 Wet level (percent)
Sets the depth of tremolo. 0% is no tremolo, 100%
sweeps between zero and maximum volume based on
the original amplitude level.
13.59 Truncate Silence
Truncate Silence automatically reduces the length of
passages where the volume is below a specified level.
• Silences are detected if they remain below the
specified level for at least the specified time dura-
tion.
• Detected silences (defined as above) are then
made shorter by deleting a section from the mid-
dle of the silent region.
• White space between or preceding audio clips will
be regarded as absolute silence and will always be
399
13.58.4 Frequency (Hz)
Controls the speed of the oscillation; use higher frequen-
cies for faster oscillation.
13.58.5 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.58.6 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
removed if at least as long as the specified time du-
ration.
• Labels in selected or Sync-Lock-selected label
tracks will be truncated, deleted or moved back by
silence truncation.
For the purposes of this effect, the words "silence"
and "silent" mean sounds that are below the detection
level.Accessed by:Effect > Truncate Silence...
400
13.59.1 Detect Silence
There are two controls that determine which audio will be
treated as "silence":
1. Level (dB): To be treated as silence, the audio must
be below this level. If not enough silences are being
reduced, increase the level to a higher (less nega-
tive) number. Note that due to rounding, audio may
be truncated that appears in the Amplify effect to
be exactly at the level you enter here.
2. Duration (seconds): The minimum duration that
will be treated as silence. To be treated as silence,
the audio must remain below the "Level (dB)" en-
tered for at least this amount of time. If not enough
silences are being reduced, reduce this duration
level. The shortest duration value you can enter
is 0.001 seconds.
13.59.2 Action
There are two methods available for shortening the si-
lence. The simplest method is by truncating the silence
(default mode) and a more advanced method is by com-
pressing the length of the silence.
Truncate Detected Silence
When this method is selected, silences are simply short-
ened to the "Detect Silence" duration (see example be-
low ). When this method is selected, the "Truncate to:"
(seconds) control is available lower down the interface
and the "Compress to:" (percent) control is grayed out.
All detected silences are shortened to the same dura-
tion. When the audio remains below the "Detect Silence"
level for at least the "Detect Silence" duration, it will be
reduced to the "Truncate to" duration entered here.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Compress Excess Silence
This is a more advanced mode that allows silences to be
shortened proportionally according to their original dura-
tion. When this method is selected, silence in excess of
the "Detect Silence" duration is reduced to a percentage
of its original duration (see example below ).When this
method is selected, the "Compress to:" (percent) control
is available lower down the interface and the "Truncate
to:" (seconds) control is grayed out. Because silences
are reduced by a specified percentage, the final dura-
tion of each detected silence varies according to its orig-
inal length. When the audio remains below the "Detect
Silence" level for at least the "Detect Silence" duration,
any silence in excess of the "Detect Silence" duration is
reduced to the "Compress to" percentage entered here.
The entire detected silence is not proportionally reduced.
Truncate tracks independently
When the effect is run on multiple selected tracks the
Truncate tracks independently checkbox determines
whether to treat the tracks as a mix that must be kept
synchronized or to process the tracks independently one
after the other.
• When checked "off" (default), silence is only re-
moved where it occurs in the same place in all the
selected tracks. If the silence is in different places
in each selected track, running the effect with this
option enabled will not remove any silence.
• When checked "on", each selected track is pro-
cessed individually. All the specified silence will be
removed but different parts in each track may no
longer be synchronized with each other. Choose
this option to truncate silence in multiple different
songs which you imported into separate Audacity
tracks, and so are not part of a mix.
Usage with Sync-Locked Track Groups enabled:
• If you do not select all audio tracks in the Group,
the unselected tracks will have the same sections
removed as are removed from the selected tracks,
whether those sections in the unselected tracks are
silent or not.
• If truncating tracks independently, only one audio
track in each Group can be selected, because inde-
pendent truncation of multiple tracks would desyn-
chronize the tracks.
13.59.3 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
13.59. TRUNCATE SILENCE
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.59.4 Limitations
Truncate Silence only removes audio, it does not reduce
or eliminate noise in the silent sections that it keeps.
Using Truncate Silence on selections which have
fade outs or fade ins may remove the quietest part of
fades. If you need to add fades, it is usually best to apply
Truncate Silence before adding fades.
13.59.5 Examples
Truncate Detected Silence examples:
Shorten all silences that are longer than 2 seconds
to 2 seconds
This may be useful for shortening inter-track gaps from
an LP or cassette recording.
1. Set the Operation mode in the dropdown to " Trun-
cate Detected Silence ".
2. Set the detection " Level: " control. If there is no-
ticeable background noise you may need to set this
as a higher (less negative) value than the default.
3. Set the detection " Duration: " control to 2 seconds.
Silences of 2 seconds or more will be chosen by
the effect for truncation.
4. Set the " Truncate to: " control to 2 seconds. All
detected silences will be truncated to 2 seconds.
5. Click OK.
401
Shorten silences that are 20 seconds or longer to 5
seconds
This may be useful for removing long pauses in a speech
recording, without affecting the natural rhythm of the
speech.
1. Set the Operation mode in the dropdown to " Trun-
cate Detected Silence ".
2. Set the detection " Level: " control.
3. Set the detection " Duration: " control to 20 sec-
onds. Silences of 20 seconds or more will be cho-
sen by the effect for truncation.
4. Set the " Truncate to: " control to 5 seconds. Si-
lences of 20 seconds or more will be truncated to
5 seconds. Silences of less than 20 seconds will
remain unchanged.
5. Click OK.
Compress Excess Silence examples:
Compress silences that are longer than 2 seconds
This may be useful when a subtle reduction of longer si-
lences is required while maintaining a sense of the rela-
tive length of each silence. In this example we will use a
compression setting of 50% for simplicity.
1. Set the Operation mode in the dropdown to " Com-
press Excess Silence ".
2. Set the detection " Level: " control.
3. Set the detection " Duration: " control to 2 seconds.
4. Set the " Compress to: " control to 50 percent.
5. Click OK.
• Silences that were originally less than 2 seconds
duration will be unaffected.
• Silences that were originally exactly 2 seconds du-
ration will be detected, but the excess silence is
zero so no shortening will occur.
• All silences that were longer than 2 seconds are
shortened.
• The new length of the silence will be comprised of
2 seconds (the ignored duration) plus half (50%) of
any additional silence.
Example: With the above settings, for an 8 second si-
lence, there are 6 seconds beyond the 2 second detec-
tion period: The 8 second silence will therefore be re-
duced to 2 seconds plus 50% of 6 seconds, that is 2 + 3
= 5 seconds.
402
Compress all silences to half their original duration
Strictly speaking all silences cannot be selected because
there is a fixed minimum length of silence that can be
detected of 0.001 seconds. However, 0.001 seconds (1
millisecond) is an extremely short period, so we are able
to compress all noticeable silences to half their original
length. This may be useful to shorten a recorded lecture
or dictated notes without affecting the words.
1. Set the Operation mode in the dropdown to " Com-
press Excess Silence ".
2. Set the detection " Level: " control.
3. Set the detection " Duration: " control to 0.001 sec-
13.60 Vocal Reduction and Isolation
Vocal Reduction and Isolation attempts to remove or
isolate center-panned audio from a stereo track. Vo-
cals are sometimes (but not always) recorded in this
way. The simplest and quickest removal method sub-
tracts one channel from the other, but the result will be
(dual) mono. This method is available at "Remove Center
Classic: (Mono)" under Action . All other "Remove" op-
tions in this effect preserve the stereo image. The Isolate
options all return (dual) mono output. The narrowness of
the center slice can be adjusted with the "Strength" slider.
Center isolation is not possible using the classic subtrac-
tion method. The Analyze option displays the amount of
correlation between the stereo channels and the degree
of likelihood that center removal or isolation will work ef-
fectively.
• See also the tutorial on Vocal Removal and Isola-
tion
Accessed by:Effect > Vocal Reduction and Isolation...
13.60.1 Action
• Remove Vocals: (default). If the audio is center-
panned, removes the vocal range defined by the
Low Cut and High Cut sliders, and returns it as a
stereo track. Audio is said to be "center-panned" if
it is common to both left and right channels.
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
onds. Note that if set to 0 the Preview and OK but-
tons are grayed out and a message is shown above
the buttons: Minimum detection duration: 0.001
seconds..
4. Set the " Compress to: " control to 50 percent.
5. Click OK.
13.59.6 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
• Isolate Vocals: If the audio is center-panned, ex-
tracts the slider-defined vocal range and returns it
as a (dual) mono track.
• Isolate Vocals and Invert: If the audio is center-
panned, extracts the slider-defined vocal range and
returns it as an inverted (dual) mono track.
Inverting a waveform is the action of flipping the audio
samples upside-down, reversing their polarity. The posi-
tive samples (above the horizontal zero line in the Audac-
ity Waveform) are moved below the zero line (so becom-
ing negative), and negative samples are made positive.
• The "and Invert" options may be useful when pro-
cessing using duplicated tracks. See the examples
below.
• Remove Center: Removes all audio (the whole fre-
quency spectrum ) that is common to both left and
right channels and returns a true stereo track.
The Low Cut and High Cut sliders have no effect when
"Remove Center" is selected.
• Isolate Center: If the audio is center-panned, ex-
tracts the whole frequency spectrum and returns it
as a (dual) mono track.
• Isolate Center and Invert: If the audio is center-
panned, extracts the whole frequency spectrum
from and returns it as an inverted (dual) mono track.
The Low Cut and High Cut sliders have no effect when
either "Isolate Center" action is selected
• Remove Center Classic: (Mono): Removes all
audio (the whole frequency spectrum ) that is com-
mon to both left and right channels and returns a
(dual) mono track. This is identical to full frequency
removal in the legacy Vocal Remover effect.
13.60. VOCAL REDUCTION AND ISOLATION
This option is usually much quicker than the other actions
because the processing is much simpler.
• The "Strength", "Low Cut" and "High Cut" slid-
ers have no effect when "Remove Center Classic:
(Mono)" is selected.
• Analyze: Tells you how great the chances are of
a successful vocal reduction or isolation. It returns
also the average Pan position for the selected au-
dio. See below for an in-depth explanation.
13.60.2 Strength
The shape of the center is not a thin band but rather like
a tent with a pole in the middle. This means that there
will always audio from other pan positions included. The
Strength slider modifies the shape of the center. Higher
values increase the degree of reduction or isolation. Zero
is off (no reduction or isolation). This slider has no effect
with the "Remove Center Classic: (Mono)" choice.
Remove
• Less than 1.0: Produces a notch with a V shape
like a ship’s keel, but also with a sharp point. Use
this setting to preserve some amount of the center.
• 1.0 - the default: Produces a notch with a V shape.
The power distribution is preserved. This is the
ideal setting for most cases.
• Greater than 1.0: Produces a notch with a U
shape. This removes some audio adjacent to the
center, as well as the center. Note that this will not
remove stereo reverberation since it is distributed
over the entire pan width.
Isolate
• Less than 1.0: Produces a peak like a U shape
upside down, similar to an arch. Only extreme left
and right are eliminated.
• 1.0 - the default: Produces a peak like a V shape
upside down. The power distribution is preserved.
You might want a higher value when a lot of side au-
dio leaks in. This is also the recommended setting
when working with two tracks (options with ...and
Invert).
• Greater than 1.0: Produces a peak with an A
shape like the Eiffel Tower (with a sharp point). This
will attenuate most of the side energy but might pro-
duce artifacts or musical noise. Normalize the au-
dio after using Isolate with a high strength setting.
403
13.60.3 Low Cut for Vocals
All actions with Vocals in the name use this value. The
frequencies below will either not be removed or not be
included in the isolated audio. It is useful to exclude bass
and kick drum. The default value of 120 Hz is good for
most lead vocals, or even low male voices. You can enter
a higher value around 170 Hz for female voices and about
230 Hz for those of children. This control only affects "
Actions " that contain the word Vocals in their name.
13.60.4 High Cut for Vocals
All actions with Vocals in the name use this value. The
frequencies above will either not be removed or not be
included in the isolated audio. It is useful to exclude high
sounds like bells, cymbals or Hi-hat. Note that human
sounds like S or Z can also be very high in frequency -
5000 to 8000 Hz, so listen carefully to the preview. This
control only affects " Actions " that contain the word Vo-
cals in their name.
13.60.5 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.60.6 Interpreting the analysis results
It is recommended to analyze the audio prior to actual
processing of the effect. Analysis is very fast compared
to the time needed for processing. The two important
values are:
• Pan Position: This gives the average pan position
for the whole selected audio. The value of the track
pan slider is not included in this calculation.
404
• Correlation: This is a measure for the similarity
of the two channels. Values of +/-100 mean that
the channels are exactly the same, even if one is
inverted. A value of 0 means no relationship. It
is fruitless to attempt removal or isolation in these
cases. The ideal value is normally around +50. Val-
ues below 0 are rare and indicate that the stereo
width is more than 100%. Inverting one channel
makes the correlation positive.
Sometimes the lead vocals are not exactly in the middle.
In this case, select a short portion of audio where only
the voice is audible and no other instrument. Choose
Analyze.
1. The correlation should be fairly high (around 100)
which would indicate that there is indeed only the
voice.
2. Copy the value for the Pan Position. Double-click in
the Pan slider to open the adjustment dialog then
paste in the value with reversed sign (that is, put a
minus sign in front of a positive value and a positive
sign in front of a negative value).
3. Mix and render the track. The voice will now be
exactly centered and you can remove or isolate it.
4. Don’t forget to readjust the selection.
13.60.7 Limitations
• The input must be a true stereo track and not mere
(dual) mono.
• Stereo Reverberation will not be fully removed be-
cause it is independently distributed over the whole
stereo image.
• Naturally the plug-in does not know what kind of
audio is in the center. All is removed or isolated
equally, whether vocals, bass or solo instruments.
• This effect is quite slow, except for the "Remove
Center Classic: (Mono)" and "Analyze" actions.
The whole processing is done in memory. Long se-
lections (over half an hour) might therefore cause Audac-
ity to crash.
13.60.8 Examples
This effect can be used in a variety of ways:
• Creating a Karaoke version from an original song
Choose Remove Vocals if you want to keep some bass
and drum beat.
• Creating an acapella version from an original song
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
Choose Isolate Vocals with a high Strength value. The
result will probably still have some music in it. It is there-
fore better suited for a remix with a different accompa-
niment. Pure vocal versions have to be post-processed
with other tools.
• Alternative to "Auto Duck" with podcasts
Duplicate the track and choose Isolate Center and In-
vert on the second track. Record your voice. Silence the
second track where you don’t speak and the original mu-
sic should be heard. On the same track, make fades at
the boundaries (where the speech starts or stops).
• Removing excessive stereo reverb from a vocal or
instrument track.
Use Isolate... to make a single vocal or instrument track
"dry" again.
• Removing random system noise from a two chan-
nel recording of a mono source.
use Isolate... to remove random noise produced by the
soundcard, the cables or the computer itself.
• Removing single words or phrases
You can remove offending content from a song or movie
dialog by selecting it and choosing Remove Vocals.
Mask it with other sounds, if necessary.
• Amplifying dialogs in a movie.
Duplicate the track, isolate the vocals and adjust the gain.
• Converting stereo files into 3.1, 5.1 and other multi-
channel formats.
Duplicate the track and choose "Isolate Center and In-
vert" on the second track. Render all to a new track.
Delete the first track, invert the second track and split
the third track. Rearrange the tracks accordingly. Thus
you end up with "Front Left", "Center" and "Front Right"
eventually.
• Extracting instrument solos
Isolate the center if the solo is there, otherwise remove
the center, split to mono and delete the superfluous track.
• Blending between original, karaoke version and vo-
cals only
Duplicate the track and choose Isolate Vocals and In-
vert on the second track. Choose the envelope tool or
fade effects to gradually change from one mode to the
other. Silencing the first track results in the vocals being
isolated. Silencing the second track produces the original
audio. Playing both tracks together removes the vocals.
• Correcting the pan position
Analyze the whole track and copy the value for the pan
position. Paste the value into the pan dialog and reverse
the sign, that is, set a minus sign in front of positive val-
ues and vice-versa.
13.61. VOCAL REMOVER
• Measuring similarity between two mono tracks
Make the two tracks stereo and choose Analyze. The
correlation value is the measure for the similarity in per-
cent.
• Applying a brick wall filter to mono tracks
Duplicate a mono track, make it stereo and choose Iso-
late Vocals for band pass and Remove Vocals for band
13.61 Vocal Remover
Vocal Remover (for center-panned vocals)... attempts
to remove center-panned audio from a stereo track. Vo-
cals are sometimes (but not always) recorded in this way.
Note that although two channels of output are produced,
the result is mono because both channels will be panned
to center.
• See also the tutorial on Vocal Removal and Isola-
tion
This is now a "Legacy effect". The Vocal Reduction
and Isolation effect has a Remove option Remove Cen-
ter Classic (Mono) which is identical to removing the full
frequency range using this effect. Accessed by:Effect >
Vocal Remover...
13.61.1 Requirements
This plug-in can only remove vocals (or other audio)
when the vocal is panned to center (that is, identical in
both left and right channels). The lead vocal is some-
times recorded this way. When one channel is inverted
and then both panned to center, any audio which is iden-
tical in both channels is canceled out, so becomes in-
audible. This means that if the audio you do not want to
remove also happens to be center-panned, it will be can-
celed out along with the vocals. Kick drum and bass are
examples of audio that is often center-panned and can
thus disappear when vocals are removed. If the vocals
differ in pitch (and thus in frequency) from other center-
panned parts, removing only selected frequencies from
the audio can solve such problems. There is no guaran-
tee vocals will be significantly attenuated by this plug-in.
The vocals may be panned left and/or right or treated
405
stop filtering. Adjust the frequencies accordingly.
13.60.9 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
with stereo reverberation. It is possible to find plug-ins
that can be run in Audacity that may be able to attenuate
vocals by other than inversion. See the Wiki page Vocal
Removal for details. Vocal Remover (for center-panned
vocals)... requires a stereo track and works best on au-
dio in a lossless format like WAV or AIFF rather than a
compressed, lossy format like MP3 . If your song is on a
CD, use a application like CD-ex to rip it to WAV or AIFF
before using Vocal Remover.
13.61.2 Remove vocals or view Help
• To run the effect, select Remove Vocals (the de-
fault).
• To View the built-in help screens, select View Help.
13.61.3 Removal choice
Vocal Remover has three choices of removal methods:
• Simple (entire spectrum)
This inverts one channel in its entirety; if all the audio ex-
cept the vocals is panned hard away from center, this will
work the best. If some of the other audio is common to
both channels, this choice may remove too much music,
in which case one of the other options may work better.
• Remove frequency band
This removes frequencies in a band whose upper and
lower limit you specify in the Frequency band lower and
upper limits... box retaining the others. Try this choice,
entering the approximate frequency range of the vocals,
if they are apparently at a very different pitch than the
other audio (for example, a high female voice).
• Retain frequency band
This removes only those frequencies lying outside the
limit you specify in the Frequency band lower and up-
per limits... box retaining the others. This choice can
help if there is audio of a particular frequency range (such
as low drums or bass) which is lost when using the other
406
methods. Enter the approximate frequency range of the
audio you wish to retain.
13.61.4 Frequency band lower and upper
limit (Hz)
This control must contain two numbers, sepa-
rated by one or more spaces (default: 500 2000). When
using either the Remove frequency band or Retain fre-
quency band option, the lower and upper limits of the
frequency band in Hz are defined by this control. The
two defining frequencies must be typed as numbers with
no additional text. Neither frequency should exceed half
of the track sample rate (as indicated in the Track Control
Panel ). As a rough guide, the range of the human voice
is approximately 150 to 7000 Hz, though the strongest
components are usually in a narrower range of approxi-
mately 300 to 3000 Hz.
13.61.5 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
13.62 Vocoder
Vocoder... synthesizes a modulator (usually a voice) in
the left channel of a stereo track with a carrier wave in
the right channel to produce a modified version of the left
channel. Vocoding a normal voice with white noise as
provided in the effect will produce a robot-like voice for
special effects. Other carriers can be used for subtly dif-
ferent voices, such as a sawtooth tone, a musical tone or
a synthesized string chord. The Audacity Vocoder effect
simulates a classical analog multiband vocoder, as de-
scribed in the "History" section of the Wikipedia Vocoder
page. Accessed by:Effect > Vocoder...
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.61.6 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
Vocoder only works on unsplit stereo tracks.
13.62.1 Distance
Defines the distance between the center frequency of
the vocoder band to the cutoff frequency of the respec-
tive envelope low pass filter. With the default distance
of 20.0 the envelope signals ( generated from the mod-
ulator bandpass filters) are twenty times slower than the
center frequency of the bandpass filters of the respec-
tive vocoder band. The distance controls the "responsiv-
ness" of the Vocoder to changes in the modulator signal.
The higher the distance, the slower the response. The
smaller the distance, the more of the original modulator
signal can be heard in the output signal.
13.62.2 Output choice
• Both channels: The modulated vocoder output
signal is duplicated into both stereo channels. This
is most convenient when fine-adjusting the vocoder
output using headphones.
13.62. VOCODER
• Right only: The modulated vocoder output sig-
nal appears only in the right channel, while the left
channel still contains the unmodified modulator sig-
nal. This is useful when applying a mono modula-
tor to a stereo carrier, since the modulator can be
reused when processing the right channel of the
carrier.
13.62.3 Number of vocoder bands
Defines the frequency resolution of the Vocoder. This
behaves similarly to a multiband equalizer. The more
bands, the finer the different frequencies that can be ma-
nipulated and modulated. The default setting is 40. In-
creasing the number of Vocoder bands slows down the
processing time.
13.62.4 Amplitude of original audio (per-
cent)
Defines how much of the original audio signal shall be
contained in the carrier signal; the default setting is
100%.
13.62.5 Amplitude of white noise (percent)
The amount of white noise that is added to the right chan-
nel before applying the vocoder; the default setting is 0%.
13.62.6 Amplitude of Radar Needles (per-
cent)
The amplitude of "radar needles" that are added to the
right channel before applying the vocoder. The default
setting is 0%. "Radar needles" are a series of very short
pulses (clicks), also known as "pulse train" in speech syn-
thesizers. They have a pulse width of only one sample
and a spectrum ranging from the frequency specified by
the Frequency slider (below) up to much greater than 20
kHz.
13.62.7 Frequency of Radar Needles (Hz)
The number of "radar needles" per second where only
one sample per period has a non-zero value. This is the
most-broadband signal possible, even more broadband
than white noise. The default setting is 30.0 Hz. See also
Wikipedia Dirac Comb for a detailed description.Best re-
sults may be obtained if you first mix the radar needles
with another sound, then apply Vocoder.
407
13.62.8 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
Usage examples with stereo and mono modulators
and carriers
Keeping the voice prominent in the processed au-
dio:If you have a carrier signal with a very limited spec-
trum and most of the voice gets lost after processing be-
cause the spectra are too different you have two choices:
1. Add some white noise - the result will sound like an
old tape recorder
2. Add some low-frequency radar needles - this will
sound like a tremolo.
This section uses the terms "modulator" and "carrier". In
a vocoder, the modulator is the signal that modulates or
controls the carrier signal. In audio context, the modula-
tor is the sound you want to change (often a voice talk-
ing or singing), and the carrier you use to change that
sound is often a steady musical tone or note, or some-
times a natural sound like some kind of noise. So for
the purposes of the steps in all the following examples,
we assume the modulator to be a "voice" track and the
carrier to be a "music" track. The modulator and car-
rier will thus usually be two separate audio tracks. Self-
made voice or speech recordings are usually mono, but
voice or speech recordings from radio or CD often con-
tain stereo reverb effects. Music signals can be either
mono or stereo. There are thus four different practical
cases:
• Case 1: Applying a mono modulator to a mono car-
rier - the simplest case
• Case 2: Applying a mono modulator to a stereo
carrier - the most common case
408
• Case 3: Applying a stereo modulator to a mono
carrier
• Case 4: Applying a stereo modulator to a stereo
carrier
To apply the Vocoder effect, Audacity needs to combine
the modulator and carrier signals into a stereo audio track
where the modulator is in the left channel (the upper
waveform of the stereo track) and the carrier is in the
right channel (the lower waveform). The remainder of
this section thus describes the steps needed to combine
the signals in the four cases above. "Stereo" means two-
channel stereo, because in Audacity stereo signals with
more than two channels are handled as multiple mono
tracks - there is no standard way to handle audio signals
with more than two channels. Vocoding a Dolby 5.1 sig-
nal in Audacity means "Applying a mono modulator to a
mono carrier" six times on six mono tracks.
Case 1: Applying a mono modulator to a mono car-
rier
This means that the modulator (voice) and carrier (music)
initially are two separate Audacity mono audio tracks.
1. If necessary, move the voice track directly above
the music track.
2. In the upper track (voice), open the Audio Track
Dropdown Menu and choose "Make Stereo Track".
3. Select the stereo track and apply Vocoder with "out-
put choice" set to "both channels". You now have a
"dual mono" track where the same content is in left
and right channels of the stereo track.
4. Select the stereo track and choose Tracks > Mix >
Mix Stereo down to Mono to make a mono track
again.
Case 2: Applying a mono modulator to a stereo car-
rier
This means that the modulator (voice) is a mono audio
track and carrier (music) is a stereo audio track. This is a
very common case because voice recordings are usually
mono while music recordings are most often stereo.
1. Open the Audio Track Dropdown Menu of the
stereo music track and choose "Split Stereo Track".
We now have a "Left" music track above a "Right"
music track.
2. If necessary, move the voice track directly above
the left music track.
3. In the voice track, open the Track Dropdown Menu
and choose "Make Stereo Track".
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
4. Select only the upper stereo track and apply the
Vocoder with "Output choice" set to "right only".
This processes the "Left" channel of the original
music track, and lets us retain the mono voice track
for reuse in step 8.
5. In the upper stereo track, open the Track Dropdown
Menu and choose "Split Stereo Track"
6. Move the first track down one track so that it is
above the right music track
7. Open the Track Dropdown Menu in the second
track and choose "Make Stereo Track".
8. Select only the resulting stereo track and apply
Vocoder with "output choice" set to "both channels".
This now processes the "Right" channel of the orig-
inal music track.
9. Select the stereo track, and choose Tracks > Mix >
Mix Stereo down to Mono .
10. In the upper mono track, open the Track Dropdown
Menu and choose "Make Stereo Track". Now we
have the two processed music channels combined
into a stereo track.
Case 3: Applying a stereo modulator to a mono car-
rier
This means that the modulator (voice) is a stereo track
and carrier (music) is a mono audio track.
1. If necessary, move the stereo voice track above the
mono music track.
2. Select the (upper) stereo voice track, open the Au-
dio Track Dropdown Menu and choose "Split Stereo
Track".
3. Select the mono (third) music track, and choose
Edit > Duplicate.
4. Move the first music track (the third track on screen)
up one track so that you now from top to bottom of
the screen:
(a) "Left" voice track
(b) The original mono music track
(c) "Right" voice track
(d) The duplicated mono music track.
5. Select the "Left" voice track, open the Track Drop-
down Menu and choose "Make Stereo Track".
6. Select only the track you just made into stereo
(the upper stereo track) and apply the Vocoder with
"Output choice" set to "both channels".
7. Select only the stereo track you just processed, and
choose Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo down to Mono .
13.63. WAHWAH
8. Select the "Right" voice track, open the Track Drop-
down Menu and choose "Make Stereo Track".
9. Select only the track you just made into stereo
(the lower stereo track) and apply the Vocoder with
"Output choice" set to "both channels".
10. Select only the stereo track you just processed, and
choose Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo down to Mono .
11. Open the Track Dropdown Menu in the upper track
and choose "Make Stereo Track". Now we have
a stereo track, containing processed left and right
channels of the original stereo voice and mono mu-
sic track.
Case 4: Applying a stereo modulator to a stereo car-
rier
This means that the modulator (voice) and the carrier
(music) are both stereo audio tracks.
1. If necessary, move the stereo voice track above the
stereo music track.
2. Select the (upper) stereo voice track, open the Au-
dio Track Dropdown Menu and choose "Split Stereo
Track".
3. Select the (lower) stereo music track, open the
Track Dropdown Menu and choose "Split Stereo
Track".
4. Move the "Left" music track up one track so that you
now have two "Left" tracks above two "Right" tracks.
13.63 Wahwah
Rapid tone quality variations, like that guitar sound so
popular in the 1970’s.Accessed by:Effect > Wahwah...
This effect uses a moving bandpass filter to create its
sound. A low frequency oscillator (LFO) is used to move
the pass-band back and forth in the frequency spectrum.
Resonances accentuate tones near that center of the
band, and as that center frequency varies the accentu-
ated frequencies vary too.
409
5. Select the "Left" of the voice track (the uppermost
track), open the Track Dropdown Menu and choose
"Make Stereo Track".
6. Select only the track you just made into stereo
(the upper stereo track) and apply the Vocoder with
"Output choice" set to "both channels".
7. Select the "Right" of the voice track (the third track),
open the Track Dropdown Menu and choose "Make
Stereo Track".
8. Select only the track you just made into stereo
(the lower stereo track) and apply the Vocoder with
"Output choice" set to "both channels".
9. Select both stereo tracks. You can do this by hold-
ing Shift on the keyboard while clicking in the upper
(unselected) stereo track, or hold Shift while press-
ing Up arrow on the keyboard. With both tracks
selected, choose Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo down
to Mono .
10. Open the Track Dropdown Menu in the upper track
and choose "Make Stereo Track". Now we have
a stereo track, containing processed left and right
channels of the original stereo voice and stereo mu-
sic track.
13.62.9 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
The output from this effect may have higher ampli-
tude than the original audio. If the output exceeds 0 dB
(full track height) and so triggers the red clipping warn-
ing lights in the Playback Meter , you should open Effect >
Amplify... , ensure "Amplification (dB)" shows a negative
dB value (not "0.0 dB") then click OK. If "Amplification
(dB)" in Amplify shows "0.0 dB", the track does not con-
tain 32-bit audio and the clipping cannot be repaired. In
that case, Edit > Undo Wahwah, use Amplify to reduce
the track to a lower amplitude then reapply Wahwah.
13.63.1 LFO Frequency
Sets the speed at which the bandpass filter is swept back
and forth.
410
13.63.2 LFO Start Phase
The start position of the LFO cycle. This determines
whether the bandpass filter starts at its lowest, mid or
highest frequencies. Another way to look at it is that it
determines whether at the start of the effect the pitch is
rising or falling.
13.63.3 Depth
Determines the range of frequencies that are swept
through by the bandpass filter. Higher values will sweep
the filter to higher frequencies and so give more variation
to the sound quality over a complete LFO cycle. Lower
values will give a more constant sound effect.
13.63.4 Resonance
Determines the degree of resonance in the bandpass fil-
ter. Higher values give a more "peaky" effect.
13.63.5 Wah Frequency Offset
Determines the "base" frequency of the bandpass filter.
Higher values will shift the filter’s frequency range up-
wards. To achieve a Wah effect that’s in the low frequen-
cies the frequency offset needs to be set to a low value.
13.63.6 Output gain (dB)
Controls the amount of gain (volume) positive or negative
that will be applied by the effect.
13.63.7 Real-time preview
This effect supports Real-time preview - effect settings
can be changed while playing and listening to the result
13.64 SC4
SC4 is a stereo compressor with a variable envelope
follower for RMS / peak behavior. Unlike the built-in
Compressor , SC4 does not "look-ahead" in order to be-
gin reducing volume before a peak occurs. Accessed
by:Effect > SC4...
CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS
in real-time. Text-based button controls are provided as
in the image above. The Enable checkbox acts like a
live "Bypass" control. Uncheck the checkbox Enable
to hear the audio without the effect applied, and recheck
the box Enable to hear the effect applied at its current
settings. The Manage button accesses choices to add,
delete, import or export presets for this effect and to set
options for this effect. For details see Manage presets .
13.63.8 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Start Playback starts playback of the effect preview
• Skip Backward skips forward through the effect pre-
view
• Skip Forward skips forward through the effect pre-
view
• Enable listen to the preview with and without the
effect applied
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
13.63.9 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
13.64. SC4
• On Mac, SC4 has to be enabled at Add / Remove
Plug-ins... .
• On GNU/Linux, SC4 is not installed by default. If
SC4 is not available in your copy of Audacity, you
can obtain SC4 in the LADSPA-swh plugins set and
then install it.
13.64.1 Effect Settings
RMS/peak
The balance between the RMS and peak envelope fol-
lowers. The followers use the amplitude variation in-
formation in the waveform to affect the gain applied by
the compressor. The RMS follower is generally better for
subtle, musical compression and the peak follower is bet-
ter for heavier, fast compression and percussion.
Attack time (ms)
How soon the compressor starts to compress the dynam-
ics after the threshold is exceeded, in milliseconds.
Release time (ms)
How soon the compressor starts to release the volume
level back to normal after the level drops below the
threshold, in milliseconds.
Threshold level (dB)
The level at which the compressor will start to apply.
Ratio (1:n)
The gain reduction ratio used when the signal level ex-
ceeds the threshold level. Higher ratios reduce the gain
more. You must move this control from the default ratio
of 1:1 for the effect to apply.
Knee radius (dB)
The distance from the threshold where the knee curve
starts.
Makeup gain (dB)
The amount of gain added to the processed result.
411
13.64.2 Effect Output
Amplitude (dB)
After applying the effect, this displays what was the origi-
nal RMS ( dB ) level of the selection before compression.
Gain reduction (dB)
Displays the degree of gain reduction that the effect ap-
plied to the original selection, in dB. The Effect Output
values are not editable and only change on applying the
effect, so will appear as zero when you first open the ef-
fect. If you close and reopen the effect, the Amplitude
(dB) always displays the input level prior to the last ap-
plication of the effect, not the current RMS level of the
selection.
13.64.3 Real-time preview
This effect supports Real-time preview - effect settings
can be changed while playing and listening to the result
in real-time. Text-based button controls are provided as
in the image above. The Enable checkbox acts like a
live "Bypass" control. Uncheck the checkbox Enable
to hear the audio without the effect applied, and recheck
the box Enable to hear the effect applied at its current
settings. The Manage button accesses choices to add,
delete, import or export presets for this effect and to set
options for this effect. For details see Manage presets .
13.64.4 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Start Playback starts playback of the effect preview
• Skip Backward skips forward through the effect pre-
view
• Skip Forward skips forward through the effect pre-
view
• Enable listen to the preview with and without the
effect applied
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
412 CHAPTER 13. EFFECTS

13.64.5 Links
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page. |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
Chapter 14
Generator Menu
14.1 Examples of Generator Usage
14.1.1 Example 1: Insert two seconds of si-
lence at the start of the track as a
"lead-in"
1. Click the the "Skip to Start" button or press Home
to place the cursor at the start of the track.
2. Choose Silence from the Generate menu, ac-
cessed by: Generate > Silence... .
3. Specify two seconds of silence by clicking on the
final digit of the two digits that represent seconds,
then overtype it with "2". The highlight then moves
to the next digit.
• If the value is showing at 30.000 seconds with
"3" highlighted, type "02".
• To change the digit that is highlighted, either
click on the one you want to highlight, or move
the highlighting by using the Left or Right ar-
row keys on your keyboard.
4. Click the OK button or press Enter on your key-
board.
14.1.2 Example 2: Replace a 30 second
section of audio starting at 1 minute
15 seconds with a tone
1. Click in the track at 1 minute 15 seconds (under-
neath "1:15" in the Timeline above the track).
• Or for greater accuracy, enter 1 minute 15 sec-
onds in the Selection Start box of Selection
Toolbar .
413
2. Drag your mouse to the right to select 30 seconds
of audio, then release the mouse button.
• Or for greater accuracy, select the End but-
ton in the End/Length box of Selection Tool-
bar , then enter 1 minute 45 seconds in that
box.
• Alternatively, select the Length button and
enter 30 seconds.
3. Choose Tone from the Generate menu, accessed
by: Generate > Tone... .
• If you used the mouse and now see in "Du-
ration" that the selection is a little too short
or long, move the highlighted digit as required
using the Left or Right arrow keys on your key-
board, then type over that digit. To generate
exactly 30 seconds, all the digits for samples
should be zero.
4. Specify the Waveform type, Frequency and Am-
plitude required in the dialog box.
5. Click the OK button or press Enter on your key-
board.
Advanced: To insert or replace audio whose length must
be specified in CDDA or film frames:
1. Open the context menu by clicking the triangle to
right of the Duration digits
2. Choose the required Selection Format .
You can also open the context menu by hovering over
or selecting in the Duration digits, then right-clicking or
using a keyboard equivalent. |< Generate Menu
414
14.2 Chirp
Chirp produces four different types of tones. Accessed
by:Generate > Chirp...
The image above illustrates replacing a selection re-
gion with generated audio.Chirp produces four differ-
ent types of tones like the Tone Generator but addition-
ally allows setting of the start and end amplitude and fre-
quency. Short tones can be made to sound very much
like a bird-call.
14.2.1 Waveform
Generates one of four different tone waveforms . The
name of each tone roughly describes its appearance
when zoomed in sufficiently to see each cycle of the
waveform.
• Sine: A mathematical curve that describes a
smooth repetitive oscillation. It contains no over-
tones so sounds very "pure".
• Square: Has fixed maximum and minimum values
of identical duration with a near-vertical line be-
tween them, giving a characteristic "castle turret"
shape. It contains every other overtone. Square
waves are distinguished by having identical peak
and RMS levels and so their waveforms show as
entirely light blue when zoomed out.
• Sawtooth: Has a gradual upwards slope followed
by a shorter downwards slope. It contains all over-
tones, so sounds very "nasal", "bright" and pene-
trating.
• Square (no alias): Similar to the Square wave but
does not produce aliasing distortion. This makes it
take longer to generate the tone.
14.2.2 Frequency
As with Tone , frequencies can be specified anywhere be-
tween 1 Hz and half the current project rate as shown
in Selection Toolbar .
CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
14.2.3 Amplitude
Lets you type an amplitude value for the loudness of
the generated audio. Permitted values are between 0
(silence) and 1 (the maximum possible volume without
clipping ), with a default of 0.8.
14.2.4 Interpolation
You can choose linear (default) or logarithmic interpola-
tion.
14.2.5 Duration
Type (or use the keyboard arrows) to enter the required
Duration. If the first digit you want is highlighted, just
type the whole number. If the required first digit is not
highlighted, use Left or Right arrow on your keyboard to
move to the first digit, then type. You can also increment
a highlighted digit with keyboard Up or Down arrow in-
stead of typing.
• When generating at the cursor, Duration initial-
izes to 30.000 seconds (except for the DTMF gen-
erator which defaults to 1.000 second). However,
your last entered Duration is always remembered.
• When replacing a selection region, Duration al-
ways displays the exact duration of that selection to
the nearest audio sample .
14.2.6 The command buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
14.3. DTMF TONES
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
14.3 DTMF Tones
DTMF Tones generates dual-tone multi-frequency
(DTMF) tones like those produced by the keypad on tele-
phones. Accessed by:Generate > DTMF Tones...
The image above illustrates replacing a selection re-
gion with generated audio.
14.3.1 DTMF sequence
For each tone you wish to generate, enter numbers from
0 to 9, lower case letters from a to z, and the * and #
characters. You can also enter the four "priority" tones
used by the US Military (upper case A, B, C and D).
14.3.2 Amplitude
Lets you type an amplitude value for the loudness of
the generated audio. Permitted values are between 0
(silence) and 1 (the maximum possible volume without
clipping ), with a default of 0.8.
14.3.3 Duration
Type (or use the keyboard arrows) to enter the required
Duration. If the first digit you want is highlighted, just
type the whole number. If the required first digit is not
highlighted, use Left or Right arrow on your keyboard to
move to the first digit, then type. You can also increment
a highlighted digit with keyboard Up or Down arrow in-
stead of typing.
415
14.2.7 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Generate Menu
• When generating at the cursor, Duration initial-
izes to 30.000 seconds (except for the DTMF gen-
erator which defaults to 1.000 second). However,
your last entered Duration is always remembered.
• When replacing a selection region, Duration al-
ways displays the exact duration of that selection to
the nearest audio sample .
14.3.4 Tone/silence ratio
Use the slider to select the ratio between the length of
each tone in the series and the length of the silences
between them. This ratio is displayed underneath the
slider as the "duty cycle" along with the resulting dura-
tion of each tone and silence. Changing the DTMF Dura-
tion changes the duration of each tone and silence while
retaining the ratio between them. For example, if you
generate four tones in a sequence lasting four seconds,
choosing a duty cycle of 50% in order to make the tones
and silences of equal duration, the four tones and the
three silences between them will all be 571 milliseconds
long.
14.3.5 The command buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
416
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
14.4 Generate Menu
Generate Menu lets you create audio containing tones,
noise or silence. Generated audio can be inserted at the
cursor position so as to extend the track, or can replace
an existing selection with the newly generated audio. Al-
though by default, no keyboard shortcuts are provided for
the generators, it is possible to create your own shortcut
for any Generate command. See Keyboard Preferences
for help with creating shortcuts.Click, or hover, on any
menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
14.4.1 Audacity’s Generators
• The built-in generators are: Chirp , DTMF , Noise ,
Silence and Tone .
• The plugin generators included with Audacity are:
Rhythm Track , Pluck , Risset Drum and Sample
Data Import . Other plug-ins can be added in vari-
ous formats.
14.4.2 Add / Remove Plug-ins...
Selecting this option from the Generate Menu (or the
Effect Menu or Analyze Menu ) takes you to a dialog
which enables you to load and unload Generators (and
Effects and Analyzers) from Audacity. This enables you
to customize your Generate Menu making it shorter or
longer as required. For details see Plug-in Manager: Ef-
fects, Generators and Analyzers . Additional plug-ins can
also be loaded into Audacity. For details see the follow-
ing FAQs: Windows , Mac and Linux See also this list
of available Nyquist generator plug-ins on the Audacity
Wiki, that you can easily download and add to Audacity.
CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
14.3.6 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Generate Menu
14.4.3 Using Audacity’s Generators
• Generate audio into a new track: If there are no
existing tracks, choose the required generator. If
there are existing tracks, click outside the tracks (in
the gray background) to deselect them, then Gen-
erate.
• Insert generated audio at the cursor position:
Place the cursor in the track then Generate. The
specified duration of audio will be inserted into the
selected track(s) at the cursor position. The total
length of the selected track(s) will therefore be in-
creased.
• Replace an existing selection with generated
audio: Select the region then Generate. The se-
lected region(s) will be replaced with the generated
audio. The total length of the selected track(s) will
remain the same, unless you change the length in
the generator to replace the selection with a longer
or shorter one.
Having placed the cursor or selected the region, there
are several ways to select extra tracks so as to generate
into those at the same time. The simplest method is to
hold down Shift then use Up or Down arrow on the key-
board. See How do I extend or move the selected region
into other tracks? .
Amplitude
All built-in generators (except of course Silence) let you
type an amplitude value for the loudness of the gen-
erated audio. Permitted values are between 0 (silence)
and 1 (the maximum possible volume without clipping
), with a default of 0.8.
Duration
Type (or use the keyboard arrows) to enter the required
Duration. If the first digit you want is highlighted, just
type the whole number. If the required first digit is not
highlighted, use Left or Right arrow on your keyboard to
move to the first digit, then type. You can also increment
a highlighted digit with keyboard Up or Down arrow in-
stead of typing.
14.4. GENERATE MENU
• When generating at the cursor, Duration initial-
izes to 30.000 seconds (except for the DTMF gen-
erator which defaults to 1.000 second). However,
your last entered Duration is always remembered.
• When replacing a selection region, Duration al-
ways displays the exact duration of that selection to
the nearest audio sample .
Selection Format for Duration
Whether generating in a selection or not, you can change
the Selection Format to another unit of Duration so that
the generation will be in those units. To do this, open the
context menu by clicking the triangle to right of the dig-
its. You can also open the menu by hovering over or se-
lecting in the Duration digits, then right-clicking or using
a keyboard equivalent. Examples of Generator Usage:
see Examples of Generator Usage for some examples of
using the Audacity generators.
14.4.4 Built-in Generators
Chirp...
Chirp produces four different types of tones like the Tone
Generator but additionally allows setting of the start and
end amplitude and frequency. Short tones can be made
to sound very much like a bird-call. As with Tone, fre-
quencies can be specified anywhere between 1 Hz and
half the current project rate as shown in Selection Tool-
bar .
DTMF Tones...
Generates dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones like
those produced by the keypad on telephones. For each
tone you wish to generate, enter numbers from 0 to 9,
lower case letters from a to z, and the * and # characters.
You can also enter the four "priority" tones used by the
US Military (upper case A, B, C and D).
Noise...
Generates one of three different types of noise. White
noise is that which has the greatest ability to mask other
sounds, as it has similar energy at all frequency levels.
Pink noise and Brownian noise both have more energy
at lower frequencies, especially Brownian, which has the
most muffled, low pitched sound of the three types. By
their nature, pink and Brownian noise may have a few
peaks not exactly at the requested amplitude if the tracks
are only a few seconds long.
417
Silence...
Generates audio of zero amplitude, the only configurable
setting being duration. When applied to an audio selec-
tion, the result is identical to Edit > Remove Special >
Silence Audio .
Tone...
Generates one of four different tone waveforms : Sine,
Aquare, Sawtaooth and Square (no alias). The name
of each tone roughly describes its appearance when
zoomed in sufficiently to see each cycle of the wave-
form.
14.4.5 Plug-in Generators
Any additional generators which appear underneath the
menu divider are Nyquist , LADSPA or LV2 plug-ins. Click
the links in the preceding sentence to see how to add
new plug-ins of each type. Audacity includes the follow-
ing Nyquist generators, but more are available on Down-
load Nyquist Plug-ins on our Wiki.
Nyquist generators do not usually take the
length of selected audio as the length of the audio
to be generated. Instead, specify the length required
in the appropriate input field(s) of the plugin. Any se-
lected audio will be replaced by the length of audio spec-
ified in the plug-in, thus the total length of the track(s)
will change unless the selected and specified lengths are
identical. The description page for each plug-in genera-
tor (accessed by the links below) shows an image of the
interface and its default settings.
Pluck...
A synthesized pluck tone with abrupt or gradual fade-out,
and selectable pitch corresponding to a MIDI note.
Rhythm Track...
Generates a track with regularly spaced sounds at a
specified tempo and number of beats per measure (bar).
It can be used like a metronome for setting a steady beat
against which an overdub recording can be made.
Risset Drum...
Produces a realistic drum sound consisting of a sine
wave ring-modulated by narrow band noise, an enhar-
monic tone and a relatively strong sine wave at the fun-
damental.
418
Sample Data Import...
Produces audio from imported numeric data.
14.5 Limiter
Use the Limiter effect to pass signals below a speci-
fied input level unaffected or gently reduced, while pre-
venting the peaks of stronger signals from exceeding this
threshold. Mastering engineers often use limiting com-
bined with make-up gain to increase the perceived loud-
ness of an audio recording during the audio mastering
process. This limiter effect provides two basic types of
effect; "limiting" and "clipping". The "limiting" effect is a
special kind of dynamic compression that responds very
rapidly to peaks in the waveform. The "clipping" effect is a
kind of distortion that changes the shape of the waves by
"clipping" off the high and low peaks.Accessed by:Effect
> Limiter...
14.5.1 Type
Soft Limit (default) progressively reduces the gain as the
amplitude of the waveform approaches the "Limit to (dB)"
threshold and prevents the waveform from exceeding that
level. Hard Limit makes no change to the audio until the
peaks reach the "Limit to (dB)" threshold. Where the in-
put level (after applying optional input gain ) exceeds the
threshold, an equal amount of negative gain is applied so
that the peaks never exceed the threshold. Hard Clip-
ping is the simplest method for reducing peaks. It just
chops off the peaks at the "Limit to" threshold. Note that
clipping causes distortion. Hard clipping may be useful
for purposefully introducing distortion on high peaks, for
example to add high harmonics to percussive sounds.
Excessive use of hard clipping creates a harsh distortion
that is usually unpleasant. For heavier use of distortion
the "Soft Clipping" option may be preferable. Hard clip-
ping may also be useful for producing synthetic signals
for scientific purposes. Soft Clipping works in much the
CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
same way as "Hard Clipping", but is less fierce in that
it "squashes" the peaks rather than cutting them off flat.
Soft clipping starts to reduce the peaks a little below the
threshold level and progressively increases its effect as
the input level increases such that the threshold is never
exceeded. When applied heavily, the effect is similar to
a "Fuzz Box" effect. The difference between "Hard" and
"Soft" clipping is that "Hard" clipping cuts off the peaks
flat, whereas "Soft" clipping rounds the corners where the
waveform has been clipped, resulting in a softer sound-
ing distortion.
14.5.2 Input Gain
Amplifies the audio before applying the limiter. As the
limiter acts on audio peaks that exceed the Limit to (dB)
threshold, it will clearly have little or no effect on audio
tracks in which all of the audio is below the threshold
level. In such cases, the audio should be amplified before
limiting so that the limiter can work properly. Amplifica-
tion could be applied using Audacity’s Amplify effect, or
more conveniently using the "Input Gain" controls. For
mono tracks, only the "mono/Left" gain control has any
affect. For stereo tracks the left and right channel gains
may be adjusted independently of each other.
14.5.3 Limit to (dB)
Limits the amplitude (after optional amplifying) to this
level. Whichever type is selected, the limiter prevents the
waveform from exceeding this level. (Note that makeup
gain , if used, is applied to the waveform after it has been
limited.)
14.5.4 Hold
This applies only to the "Hard Limiter" and "Soft Limiter"
settings. It has no effect when using either of the "Clip"
settings.In order to catch even the most sudden peak, the
limiter "looks ahead" to see when the next peak is com-
ing, and begins to reduce the gain just a little in advance
of the peak. The gain level is then held at the reduced
level for a short while before being released back to the
normal level. Looking ahead and holding the gain level
allows the gain to adjust more smoothly and reduces the
14.6. ADD / REMOVE EFFECTS, GENERATORS AND ANALYZERS
amount of distortion. The shorter the "Hold" duration, the
faster the limiter responds to changes in input level. It is
generally desirable for the limiter to respond very rapidly,
but responding too rapidly will produce distortion, espe-
cial when processing low frequency sounds such as a
double bass. Normally this control can be left at the de-
fault (10 ms) setting.
14.5.5 Apply makeup gain
Amplifies the output (post limiter) close to 0 dB (usually
just a little below 0 dB). This is useful when using the
limiter to maximize loudness.
14.5.6 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
14.6 Add / Remove Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Use the Effects, Generators and Analyzers Plug-in
Manager to add or remove shipped effects and plug-ins
and third-party plug-ins of supported types , without the
need to restart Audacity.Accessed by:Effect > Add / Re-
move Plug-ins..., Generate > Add / Remove Plug-ins... or
Analyze > Add / Remove Plug-ins... .
By default all the Built-in effects, with the exception of
Classic Filters , are loaded in Audacity. The shipped
419
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
Basically, a limiter reduces the gain (negative amplifica-
tion) when the audio exceeds the "threshold" ("Limit to")
level. The "Hold" time is how long (in milliseconds) the
gain remains at the reduced level before returning back to
normal. Usually you would want the gain to return back to
normal pretty quickly after the peak has passed because
you normally only want to limit the peaks and then return
back to normal as quickly as possible. However, there
is a problem if the limiter responds too quickly, and this
is most noticeable when processing bass instruments. If
there is a very low note, say below 100 Hz, then the time
from one peak to the next may be longer than the "hold"
time. Thus the gain will start to reduce as the peak level
rises, then will start to "release" (return to normal gain)
between one peak and the next. This rapid "fluttering"
of the gain level distorts the waveform, which is usually
undesirable. The solution to the problem is simple - just
hold the gain at the reduced level for a little while so that
the limiter is responding to the overall shape of the note
and not the individual waveform peaks.
14.5.7 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
plug-ins must be enabled using this dialog.
14.6.1 Radio buttons
Every time you open the dialog, Audacity scans for all
detected plug-ins and lists these together with the built-in
effects it ships with. Select the All button to see all those
built-in effects and plug-ins and their current disabled, en-
abled or "new" state (see below). The buttons Disabled,
Enabled and New enable you to list only those effects,
generators and analyzers in that respective state.
14.6.2 Enabling and disabling
All effects shown in the dialog as Enabled will be visible
in the appropriate menu: Effect, Generate or Analyze.
420
New relates to those effects that have never been reg-
istered as Enabled in your installation of Audacity. Use
this New view to quickly locate an effect that you have
just added to your system and wish to enable. To change
the state of any effect, generator or analyzer select it by
clicking on it in the list in the dialog, then use either the
Enable or Disable button and click the OK button. Note
that escaping, clicking Cancel or the window close but-
ton will discard your changes. Alternatively you can use
Space to toggle the state of the effect from New to En-
abled and thence between Enabled and Disabled.
• Press Select All to select all items in the view you
are in. The items will now appear with light gray
background. The Clear All button deselects all
items and can be used to change your mind and
quickly enable only one or two individual effects.
• Multiple individual items from the list can be se-
lected using Ctrl + Click to select each additional
item or Shift + Click to select a range of items.
14.7 Manage presets
Most effects, generators and analyzers in Audacity have
a Manage button in their dialog. Clicking this button
opens a dropdown menu enabling you to manage pre-
sets for the tool and to see some details about the tool.
Accessed by: The Manage or button at the bot-
tom left of effects, generators and analyzers dialogs:
Example of the Normalize effect showing the "Man-
age" dropdown menu
CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
Once enabled, an effect can only be disabled (which re-
moves it from the menu) or re-enabled. Unless you are
in the "All" view, changing the state of an effect always
removes it from the view you are in. The effect can then
be seen in the appropriate view for its current state. Dis-
abling an effect only disables it in Audacity, and does not
uninstall it from your system.
14.6.3 Resetting effects
Resetting your Audacity settings (for example, by rein-
stalling Audacity using the Windows installer with "Reset
Preferences" enabled) does not change the enabled or
disabled state of your effects. If you want to go back to
the enabled effects, generators and analyzers that Au-
dacity was installed with (Classic Filters and all shipped
or third-party plug-ins are "New" and not in the menus),
exit Audacity, open Audacity’s folder for application data
and delete the file "pluginregistry.cfg".
14.7.1 User Presets
Lets you choose from presets that you have already
saved in Audacity (see below). In the image above, this
option is grayed out because no user presets have yet
been saved.
14.7.2 Save Preset...
After you have made adjustments to the settings for the
tool, you can use this option to save these settings for
later use. When you name the preset you may choose
the name of an existing preset and thus update it. Note
that generators do not save the ’Duration’ setting.
14.7.3 Delete Preset
Deletes any user preset that you may previously have
saved. In the image above this option is grayed out be-
cause no user presets have yet been saved.
14.7.4 Factory Presets
The "Defaults" Factory Preset lets you reset the effect
to default settings. For most built-in effects and all plug-
ins shipped with Audacity, "Defaults" is the only available
Factory Preset. Third-party plug-ins may offer multiple
named factory presets which you can choose from.
14.8. MENU REFERENCE
14.7.5 Import...
Imports presets which you have exported using the Ex-
port option (below) on this or other machines or which
you have exported from other software that supports a
compatible preset. Available only for VST and Audio Unit
(Mac) effects.
14.7.6 Export...
Exports presets for use in Audacity on other machines
or for use in other software that supports import of a
compatible preset. Available only for VST and Audio Unit
(Mac) effects.
14.7.7 Options...
All plug-ins (except Nyquist ) have per-effect options ac-
cessed by this menu for one or more of Latency Com-
pensation, Graphical Mode or Buffer Size. If there are no
14.8 Menu Reference
Many commands in Audacity appear in one of the menus
and are documented on the following pages. Other func-
tions can be found in Toolbars or run by using the ap-
propriate keyboard shortcut listed in Keyboard Shortcut
Reference . Shortcuts can be changed or added in Key-
board Preferences .
14.8.1 The Menu bar
Image of the Menu bar as it appears on Windows
Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read
about that menu entry.
Menu What you’ll find there
Audacity (Mac Only)About Audacity, Preferences, Sys-
tem Services, Show and Hide Audacity and other appli-
cations, and Quit.
File Working with Audacity project files and other audio
files.
Edit Altering the audio in your project.
Select Making selections of tracks, or within tracks, in
your project.
421
options available (as in the Normalize image above) then
this menu item will be grayed out.
14.7.8 About
Selecting "About" from the Manage button displays an
information dialog for the tool.
• Type: Indicates whether this is a built-in Audacity
tool (as the Normalize example is) otherwise indi-
cates the type of plug-in it is, for example, Nyquist,
LADSPA or VST.
• Name: The name of the effect, generator or ana-
lyzer.
• Version: Where available, shows the version num-
ber of the tool.
• Vendor: Shows who has provided the tool.
• Description: Where available, provides a brief de-
scription of the tool’s features. For VST effects, nor-
mally shows the number of audio inputs and out-
puts.
View Change Zoom levels. Show clipping , Undo His-
tory , Mixer Board , Toolbars and Karaoke window .
Transport Control recording and playback.
Tracks Adding, aligning and labeling audio tracks.
Generate Creating new audio in your project. Audio gen-
erating plug-ins will also appear here.
Effect Processing the audio in your project. External Ef-
fects plug-ins will also appear in this menu.
Analyze Analyzing the audio in your project. External
plug-ins that act on audio but do not produce audio out-
put will appear here, as well as tools like Silence Finder
and spectrograms.
Window (Mac Only)Minimize and zoom windows, choose
the project window to bring to the front.
Help Short and full Help; capture Audacity screenshots;
download current Audacity; audio device information;
show the Log and generate support data; Audacity ver-
sion number, license and build information.
14.8.2 The Extended Menu bar
There are two additional menu items that are hidden by
default. They can be turned on at View > Extra Menus
422
(on/off) or the Interface pane of Preferences . The Ex-
tended Menu bar adds menu access to many less fre-
quently used commands. These are particularly useful
to visually-impaired or motion-impaired users, but others
may find them useful too. Image of the Extended Menu
bar as it appears on Windows
Click, or hover, on either of the Ext- items at the end of
the image to read about those menu entries.
Menu What you’ll find there
Ext-Bar The Ext-Bar menu provides access to Toolbar
14.9 Noise
Noise generates one of three different types of noise:
white, pink or brownian. Accessed by:Generate >
Noise...
The image above illustrates replacing a selection re-
gion with generated audio.
14.9.1 Noise
Generates one of three different types of noise.
• White noise is that which has the greatest ability to
mask other sounds, as it has similar energy at all
frequency levels.
• Pink noise and Brownian noise both have more
energy at lower frequencies, especially Brownian,
which has the most muffled, low pitched sound of
the three types. By their nature, pink and Brownian
noise may have a few peaks not exactly at the re-
quested amplitude if the tracks are only a few sec-
onds long.
14.9.2 Amplitude
Lets you type an amplitude value for the loudness of
the generated audio. Permitted values are between 0
CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
operations that are not available in the default Audac-
ity menus. These will be of most interest to visually-
impaired users or those who have difficulty using the
mouse. Shortcuts can be assigned to these commands
if required.
Ext-Command The Ext-Command menu provides access
to extra commands for track focus and movement of the
editing or playback cursor that are not available in the
default Audacity menus. These will be of most interest to
visually-impaired users or those who have difficulty using
the mouse. Shortcuts can be assigned to these com-
mands if required.If you only require regular access to a
small set of these commands you can set shortcuts for
them and leave the extra menus hidden.
(silence) and 1 (the maximum possible volume without
clipping ), with a default of 0.8.
14.9.3 Duration
Type (or use the keyboard arrows) to enter the required
Duration. If the first digit you want is highlighted, just
type the whole number. If the required first digit is not
highlighted, use Left or Right arrow on your keyboard to
move to the first digit, then type. You can also increment
a highlighted digit with keyboard Up or Down arrow in-
stead of typing.
• When generating at the cursor, Duration initial-
izes to 30.000 seconds (except for the DTMF gen-
erator which defaults to 1.000 second). However,
your last entered Duration is always remembered.
• When replacing a selection region, Duration al-
ways displays the exact duration of that selection to
the nearest audio sample .
14.9.4 The command buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
14.10. NYQUIST PROMPT
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
14.10 Nyquist Prompt
Nyquist Prompt lets you run and debug code snippets
for your own plug-ins created using the Nyquist program-
ming language. See Nyquist Plug-ins Reference - Au-
dacity Wiki for more information about writing Nyquist
code.To use Nyquist Prompt, first select some audio.
If the code you want to test generates audio, you can
avoid the initial steps of preparing an audio selection
by installing the Nyquist Generate Prompt plug-in in-
stead.Accessed by:Effect > Nyquist Prompt...
14.10.1 Enter Nyquist Command
Type the command as required. Enter on the keyboard
moves the cursor to a new line. The last entered code
is stored in the pluginsettings.cfg file in Audacity’s folder
for application data so is retained after exiting Audacity.
Plugin GUI can be tested if you include complete Nyquist
Plug-in Headers.
14.10.2 Use legacy (version 3) syntax
When selected, commands entered in the main text win-
dow will be interpreted as the "version 3" code. When not
selected (default), commands entered in the main text
window will be interpreted as "version 4" code. Version
4 code includes a number of variables that are not avail-
able in version 3. In particular, the S variable is no longer
used to pass sound from Audacity to Nyquist. In version
423
Manual, this page.
14.9.5 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Generate Menu
4 the S variable has been replaced by *TRACK*. Full de-
tails about the difference between version 3 and version
4 code can be found in the Audacity wiki.
14.10.3 Buttons
• Load Load a Nyquist plugin or script file saved with
.ny extension.
• Save Save the current contents of the editor win-
dow as an .ny file.
• Manage Opens a dropdown menu where you can
save the window contents as a preset then reload
those contents by selecting the preset. You can
also see some descriptive text about the plugin. For
details see Manage presets .
• Preview Previews what the code would sound like
if applied. As with preview in all effects, playback
lasts for the length of preview specified in Playback
Preferences .
Plugin authors should use this button to test if a Preview
button in their plug-in would accurately preview the ef-
fect as applied to the waveform . Preview should not be
used in effects that change over time (such as a fade
effect) because Audacity’s preview as currently imple-
mented only applies the effect to the length of the pre-
viewed selection.
• Debug The Debug button works as it does in all
Nyquist effects . Clicking this button shows a
progress dialog for processing the code, followed
by an uneditable "Nyquist Output" window listing
any errors or other output. Click OK to close the
output window and process the command, or use
Enter on the keyboard. Hold Ctrl on Windows or
CloverLeaf on Mac before pressing Enter.
• OK Applies the code to the waveform selection
without debug output. Your entered code will be
retained next time you open Nyquist Prompt in the
Audacity session. Using the keyboard, hold Ctrl on
Windows (or CloverLeaf on Mac) then press Enter.
424
• Cancel No code is processed or debugged. Any
code you entered after opening the window this
time will be discarded.
The Nyquist prompt supports both LISP syntax and SAL
syntax. If the code you enter cannot be recognized as
valid Nyquist code in either LISP or SAL syntax, an error
message will appear with a hint about making a correc-
tion.
14.11 Plot Spectrum
Plot Spectrum takes the selected audio (which is a set
of sound pressure values at points in time) and con-
verts it to a graph of frequencies (the horizontal scale
in Hz ) against amplitudes (the vertical scale in dB
).Accessed by:Analyze > Plot Spectrum...
Plots are made using a mathematical algorithm known
as a Fast Fourier Transform or FFT . This gives a value
for each narrow band of frequencies that represents how
much of those frequencies is present. All the values are
then interpolated to create the graph. Plot Spectrum take
the audio in blocks of ’Size’ samples, does the FFT, and
averages all the blocks together.
CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
Advanced users: An experimental "Nyquist Workbench"
graphical editor module is available if you compile the
module and Audacity from source code, then enable the
module in Modules Preferences .
14.10.4 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Effect Menu
14.11.1 Algorithm
Determines what type of processing is done on the audio
data.
• Spectrum: (default) - Plots the FFT of the data as
described above.
• Autocorrelation: These options measure to what
extent the sound repeats itself. This is done by tak-
ing two copies of the audio, and moving one forward
by one sample. The two copies are then multiplied
together, and all the values added up. This is re-
peated for two samples difference and so on, up
to the number of samples in the size option. This
gives a small result if the waveform is random (for
example, noise) and a large result if it is repetitive
(like a musical note). By looking at the peaks in
the plot, the key frequencies present can be deter-
mined even if there is a lot of noise.
• Cepstrum: The cepstrum of an audio signal is
related to the spectrum, but presents the rate of
change in the different spectrum bands. It’s par-
ticularly useful for properties of vocal tracks and is
used, for example, in software to identify speakers
by their voice characteristics.
14.11.2 Size
This controls how many frequency divisions are used for
the spectrum, or how many samples are used for auto-
correlation. In Spectrum, a larger size gives more ac-
curate frequency resolution (narrow bands), but aver-
ages the result over a longer period of time (because
more samples are needed for the calculation). In Au-
tocorrelation, a larger size looks for repeating patterns
over a larger range of time offsets, and so will de-
tect lower frequency patterns. With either algorithm,
Audacity will show a warning if the selected region
14.11. PLOT SPECTRUM
is too short for the chosen size. There is an au-
dio version of the Uncertainty Principle that says "Fre-
quency_Resolution*Time_Resolution = 2." Size lets you
choose the FFT size which is the number of consecu-
tive audio samples to be analyzed. If you choose 1024
samples, you will get 512 frequency bins covering the
frequency range up to half the sampling frequency. Most
projects use 44100 Hz sampling frequency. Thus, in this
example, Time_Resolution = 1024/44.1 = 23.2 millisec-
onds and the frequency resolution is 44100/2/512 = 43
Hz .
14.11.3 Function
Function offers choices like Rectangular, Hanning, Ham-
ming and others. We suggest you use the default Han-
ning (actually it is a Hann window, but Hanning is widely
accepted) for most situations. The fundamental principle
at work here is that the way we observe our data changes
what we see. The "true spectrum" of your project would
be computed over the entire project and would provide
very detailed frequency resolution but essentially no time
resolution at all. In other words, this "true spectrum"
would offer an average frequency distribution over the
entire project. If we select a short interval of audio, the
short-time spectrum has frequency resolution limited
by the observation window time AND the result is affected
by the spectrum of the window itself. For general audio
analysis, the Rectangular window is least desirable, and
the other options offer slightly different effects.
• Currently, only the first 10485760 samples (237.8
seconds at 44100 Hz sample rate) of selected au-
dio can be analyzed.
• The spectrum analysis shows the sum of all se-
lected channels, so shows the sum of left and right
channels in a stereo track. If there are two selected
channels with identical audio, the same peak will
be 6 dB higher than if one channel was selected.
14.11.4 Axis
When using the Spectrum, the frequencies can be dis-
played on a logarithmic scale (default)or a linear
scale. The default log scale gives greater display width to
low and mid-range frequencies with "mid range" frequen-
cies occurring close to the middle of the graph. Linear
view (which gives equal width to each "Hz" increment
on the scale), can be useful to show high harmonics (a
component frequency of the sound that is a whole num-
ber multiple of the fundamental frequency) or other very
high frequency content.
425
14.11.5 Zooming
To the right of the spectrum are two sliders to control
zooming of the spectrum plot:
• The zoom slider on the far right with the magnify-
ing glass icons. Move this up to increase the verti-
cal magnification of the plotted spectrum and down
again to reduce it.
• The scroll bar, to the left of the zoom slider. At de-
fault normal zoom this fills the slider and is inop-
erable but as you increase the vertical magnifica-
tion the scrollbar shrinks and can be moved up and
down to show different parts of the magnified spec-
trum plot.
14.11.6 Buttons
•
• Export... Exports the spectrum to a text file. You
could open this text file in another application for
further analysis. Note that if you export again to
the same file, the new spectrum will be appended
underneath the previous one.
• Replot Allows you to replot the spectrum when the
selection changes.
• Close Closes the Frequency Analysis window and
saves its current settings. If you then open a new
project and open an analysis window in that project,
the settings saved by the last closed analysis win-
dow will be used.
• Links to this "Plot Spectrum" page.
If you close the analysis window in any other way (such
as the operating system’s window close button or by us-
ing File > Close ), the analysis settings are discarded
when you close the project that was using the analysis
window. Using other than the Audacity Close button may
be useful if you are examining audio with settings you do
not normally use. The next analysis window you open in
a new project will then use your normal saved settings.
Grids (checkbox)
Turns the measurement grids on and off.
14.11.7 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Analyze Menu
426 CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU

14.12 Pluck

Pluck generates a synthesized pluck tone with abrupt or 14.12.4 Buttons

gradual fade-out, and selectable pitch corresponding to a
MIDI note.Accessed by:Generate > Pluck...
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:

• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to

manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .

• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio

would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
14.12.1 Pluck MIDI pitch fault setting is 6 seconds.

MIDI values indicate what pitch to use. Examples:
• C notes are: 24, 36, 48, 60 (middle C, default), 72,
84, 96, 108
• C# (C sharp) above middle C is 61.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.

14.12.2 Fade-out type • brings you to the appropriate page in the

Manual, this page.
Enables you to choose between an "abrupt" or a
"gradual" fade out for the pluck.

14.12.5 Links
14.12.3 Duration [seconds]
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Specifies the length of the specified pluck. The default is
1.0 seconds. |< Generate Menu

14.13 Rhythm Track

Rhythm Track generates a sequence of regular pulses

at the selected tempo, beats per measure and either
number of measures or track duration, using a selectable
sound. It can thus be used like a metronome for setting a
steady beat against which an overdub recording can be
made. Accessed by:Generate > Rhythm Track...
14.13. RHYTHM TRACK
14.13.1 Action choice
Choose "Generate Track" unless you want to select ei-
ther of the two help screens.
14.13.2 Tempo (beats per minute)
The total number of beats (clicks) per minute, default is
120.
14.13.3 Beats per measure (bar)
The first beat of each measure is always louder than the
remaining beats in the measure. So for example, three
beats per measure will sound like a waltz in 3/4 time
signature, and four beats per measure (the default) will
sound like the 4/4 of a march or like most pop songs.
14.13.4 Swing amount
When set to zero, each beat has the exact length speci-
fied by the Tempo (beats per minute). When set to a non-
zero amount, alternate beats are delayed or advanced to
give a swing feel. At maximum / minimum settings the
rhythm plays with triplet timing.
14.13.5 Number of measures (bars)
Beats per measure is repeated for the chosen number of
measures. The default is 16 measures. The combination
of tempo, beats per measure and number of measures
determines the length of the generated track unless the
rhythm track duration is specified (see the next control).
14.13.6 Optional rhythm track duration
(minutes seconds)
If you enter a value into this field either [minutes seconds]
separated by a space or simply [seconds], the generated
rhythm track will be at or slightly longer than this duration.
The end of the track is extended into a whole measure if
the entered duration does not produce a complete final
measure. Use whole numbers only.
14.13.7 Start time offset (seconds)
Makes the rhythm track start at a later point on the Time-
line than the very beginning (zero seconds). The maxi-
mum of 30 seconds and the default is zero.
427
14.13.8 Beat sound
Choose which sound to use for the beats. The default is
"Metronome tick".
14.13.9 MIDI pitch of strong beat
The pitch of the first beat in each measure. The MIDI
values indicate what pitch to use. Examples:
• C-notes are 24, 36, 48, 60 (middle C), 72, 84, 96,
108
• C# (C sharp) above middle C is 61
• The default is 92 (G#).
14.13.10 MIDI pitch of weak beat
The pitch of the remaining beats in each measure. The
default is 80 (G# an octave below the strong click). Tips:
• Once created, the track can be edited (for example,
its volume changed) like any audio track .
• When exporting your finished work, use the Track
Control Panel to either close or mute the Rhythm
Track, so that it’s not audible in the exported file.
14.13.11 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
14.13.12 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Generate Menu
428
14.14 Risset Drum
Risset Drum produces a sound based on work by the
composer of electronic music, Jean Claude Risset. It
consists of band-pass filtered noise, an enharmonic tone
and a relatively strong sine wave at the fundamen-
tal.Accessed by:Generate > Risset Drum...
14.14.1 Frequency (Hz)
The pitch of the drum note expressed in Hz . This tunes
the "fundamental frequency" or "base note" of the sound.
14.14.2 Decay (seconds)
Determines the length of the drum sound. Longer sounds
can sound similar to a gong.
14.14.3 Center frequency of noise (Hz)
The center frequency of the band-pass filter that is ap-
plied to the noise. Higher frequencies can sound as if
small cymbals are vibrating with the drum stroke.
14.14.4 Width of noise band (Hz)
The minimum width of the band-pass filter that is applied
to the noise. Higher values can increase the impression
of a gong sound.
CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
14.14.5 Amount of noise in mix (percent)
The amount of noise in the drum sound as a percentage
of the mix. Values near maximum can sound like a gun
shot if other controls are left at default values.
14.14.6 Amplitude (0-1)
The peak amplitude of the generated sound.
14.14.7 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
14.14.8 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Generate Menu
14.15. SILENCE
14.15 Silence
Silence generates audio of zero amplitude; that is, si-
lence. The only configurable setting being duration.When
applied to an audio selection, the result is identical to
Edit > Remove Special > Silence Audio . Accessed
by:Generate > Silence...
The image above illustrates replacing a selection re-
gion with generated audio.
14.15.1 Duration
Type (or use the keyboard arrows) to enter the required
Duration. If the first digit you want is highlighted, just
type the whole number. If the required first digit is not
highlighted, use Left or Right arrow on your keyboard to
move to the first digit, then type. You can also increment
a highlighted digit with keyboard Up or Down arrow in-
stead of typing.
• When generating at the cursor, Duration initial-
izes to 30.000 seconds (except for the DTMF gen-
erator which defaults to 1.000 second). However,
your last entered Duration is always remembered.
• When replacing a selection region, Duration al-
14.16 Tone
Tone produces four different types of tones. Creating
tones at or close to half a given sample rate may (cor-
rectly) generate either silence or a pulsing rather than
steady tone, according to the type of waveform cho-
sen.Accessed by:Generate > Tone...
429
ways displays the exact duration of that selection to
the nearest audio sample .
14.15.2 The command buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
14.15.3 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Generate Menu
14.16.1 Waveform
Generates one of four different tone waveforms . The
name of each tone roughly describes its appearance
when zoomed in sufficiently to see each cycle of the
waveform.
• Sine: A mathematical curve that describes a
smooth repetitive oscillation. It contains no over-
tones so sounds very "pure".
• Square: Has fixed maximum and minimum values
of identical duration with a near-vertical line be-
tween them, giving a characteristic "castle turret"
shape. It contains every other overtone. Square
waves are distinguished by having identical peak
430
and RMS levels and so their waveforms show as
entirely light blue when zoomed out.
• Sawtooth: Has a gradual upwards slope followed
by a shorter downwards slope. It contains all over-
tones, so sounds very "nasal", "bright" and pene-
trating.
• Square (no alias): Similar to the Square wave but
does not produce aliasing distortion. This makes it
take longer to generate the tone.
14.16.2 Frequency
As with Chirp , frequencies can be specified anywhere
between 1 Hz and half the current project rate as shown
in Selection Toolbar . One half is the maximum because
any given sample rate can only carry frequencies up to
half that rate. Although frequencies above 20000 Hz can-
not be heard by most humans, generating at up to half
the sample rate (22050 Hz at Audacity’s default 44100
Hz) can have scientific uses, for example in measuring
impulse responses.
14.16.3 Amplitude
Lets you type an amplitude value for the loudness of
the generated audio. Permitted values are between 0
(silence) and 1 (the maximum possible volume without
clipping ), with a default of 0.8.
14.16.4 Duration
Type (or use the keyboard arrows) to enter the required
Duration. If the first digit you want is highlighted, just
type the whole number. If the required first digit is not
highlighted, use Left or Right arrow on your keyboard to
move to the first digit, then type. You can also increment
CHAPTER 14. GENERATOR MENU
a highlighted digit with keyboard Up or Down arrow in-
stead of typing.
• When generating at the cursor, Duration initial-
izes to 30.000 seconds (except for the DTMF gen-
erator which defaults to 1.000 second). However,
your last entered Duration is always remembered.
• When replacing a selection region, Duration al-
ways displays the exact duration of that selection to
the nearest audio sample .
14.16.5 The command buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
14.16.6 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Generate Menu
Chapter 15
Analysis Menu
15.1 Analyze Menu
The Analyze Menu contains tools for finding out about
the characteristics of your audio, or labeling key features.
Plug-ins that accept audio input but produce no audio
output will be placed in the Analyze menu, with the anal-
ysis results being provided by labels (or in some optional
LADSPA plug-ins by an "Effect Output" section in the
plug-in itself). Although by default, no keyboard shortcuts
are provided for most of the analysis tools, it is possible to
set up your own shortcut for any Analyze command. For
instructions on how to do this please see Keyboard Pref-
erences .Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image
to read about that command. Skip the image
• Many of the analysis tools shipped in Audacity are
Nyquist plug-ins which can be edited in any text ed-
itor. See Nyquist Plug-ins Reference on our Wiki
for more details about the Nyquist format. You can
download additional Nyquist analysis plug-ins. The
built-in analyzers are LADSPA effects. Some ad-
ditional LADSPA analysis plug-ins for Linux can be
downloaded from http://www.ladspa.org/.
• The description page for each shipped analysis ef-
fect (accessed by the links below) shows an image
of the interface and its default settings.
431
15.1.1 Audacity’s Analysis Tools
• There are three built-in LADSPA analysis tools:
Contrast , Plot Spectrum and Find Clipping
• There are five Nyquist plug-in analysis tools
shipped with Audacity: Beat Finder , Regular Inter-
val Labels , Sample Data Export , Silence Finder
and Sound Finder
• Vamp Analysis Plug-ins can also be added.
15.1.2 Add / Remove Plug-ins...
Selecting this option from the Analyze Menu (or the Effect
Menu or Generate Menu ) takes you to a dialog which
enables you to load and unload Analyzers (and Effects
and Generators) from Audacity. This enables you to cus-
tomize your Analyze Menu making it shorter or longer as
required. For details see Plug-in Manager: Effects, Gen-
erators and Analyzers . Additional plug-ins can also be
loaded into Audacity. For details see the following FAQs:
Windows , Mac and Linux See also this list of available
Nyquist analyzer plug-ins on the Audacity Wiki, that you
can easily download and add to Audacity.
15.1.3 Built-in LADSPA analysis tools
Contrast... Ctrl + Shift + T
Analyzes a selected, single non-stereo audio track to de-
termine the average rms difference in volume (con-
trast) between foreground (the speech) and background
(music, audience noise or similar). The purpose is to
determine if the speech will be intelligible to the hard of
hearing.
432
Plot Spectrum...
Takes the selected audio (which is a set of sound pres-
sure values at points in time) and converts it to a graph
of frequencies (the horizontal scale in Hz ) against am-
plitudes (the vertical scale in dB ).
Find Clipping...
Displays runs of clipped samples in a Label Track , as
a screen-reader accessible alternative to View > Show
Clipping . A run must include at least one clipped sam-
ple, but may include unclipped samples too.
15.1.4 Nyquist Plug-in analysis tools
shipped with Audacity
To add a new Nyquist plug-in, put it in the Audacity "Plug-
Ins" folder.
• On Windows the "Plug-Ins" folder is in the direc-
tory where Audacity resides - usually C:
Program Files on 32-bit Windows or C:
Program Files (x86) on 64-bit Windows.
• On Mac the "Plug-Ins" folder is at ~/Li-
brary/Application Support/audacity/Plug-Ins.
• On Linux, the "plug-ins" folder is in
usr/share/audacity if you installed an Audac-
ity package supplied by your distribution, or
usr/local/share/audacity if you compiled Audacity
from source code. Optionally a "plug-ins" folder can
be created in the home directory thus: ~/.audacity-
files/plug-ins (you can also call the folder "plug-
ins").
To load the new effects into Audacity so they are available
in the menu, use the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Genera-
tors and Analyzers dialog.
Beat Finder...
Attempts to place labels at beats which are much louder
than the surrounding audio. It’s a fairly rough and ready
tool, and will not necessarily work well on a typical mod-
ern pop music track with compressed dynamic range
.
Regular Interval Labels...
Places labels in a long track so as to divide it into smaller,
equally sized segments. For example, this can be useful
for distributing a large file on the internet. You can either
choose the number of labels to be created, or the interval
CHAPTER 15. ANALYSIS MENU
between them. Each label produced contains the chosen
label text.
Sample Data Export...
Reads the values of successive samples from the se-
lected audio and prints this data to a plain text, CSV or
HTML file. The following two related "Silence Finder"
and "Sound Finder" tools are very useful to label the
different songs or sections in a long recording, such as
the tracks from an LP or cassette.
Silence Finder...
Divides a track up by placing point labels inside areas of
silence. Use this if you just want to split the recording into
tracks at a specific point without removing the silences
between them.
Sound Finder...
Divides a track up by placing region labels for areas of
sound that are separated by silence. Use this to make
the labels show the exact region of each track to be ex-
ported. This lets you remove some or all of the silence
between the tracks.
15.1.5 Vamp Analysis Plug-ins
You can also add some additional analysis tools in the
Vamp plug-in format for viewing and analysing the de-
scriptive contents of music audio files. Typical things that
a Vamp plug-in might calculate include the locations of
moments such as note onset times and power or funda-
mental frequency data. Plug-ins that produce graphs or
other visuals will not work in Audacity, only plug-ins that
are suitable for writing to labels . To add a new VAMP
analysis tool, add the plug-in’s DLL, DYLIB or SO file (and
any supplied category (CAT) or RDF (TTL or N3) files) to
one of the paths listed in the green box below. To run a
Vamp plug-in, select the audio and run the plug-in from
the menu. An annotated label track appears showing the
result. {{note|
Currently Audacity cannot load Vamp plug-ins from
the Audacity "Plug-Ins" folder. Vamp plug-ins are loaded
from the following standard directories each time you
launch Audacity:
• On all platforms: any directories listed in the
VAMP_PATH environment variable
• additionally on Windows:
15.2. BEAT FINDER 433

– C: plug-ins)
Program Files
Vamp Plugins on Windows 32-bit or C: • additionally on Linux/Unix:
Program Files (x86) – $HOME/vamp
Vamp Plugins on Windows 64-bit.
– $HOME/.vamp
• additionally on OS X:
– ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Vamp (user plug-ins) – /usr/local/lib/vamp (user plug-ins)

– /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Vamp (system-wide – /usr/lib/vamp (system-wide plug-ins).

15.2 Beat Finder

Beat Finder attempts to place labels at beats which are
much louder than the surrounding audio. It’s a fairly
rough and ready tool, and will not necessarily work well
on a typical modern pop music track with compressed
dynamic range .Accessed by:Analyze > Beat Finder...
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• Preview plays a short preview of what the audio
would sound like if the effect is applied with the cur-
rent settings, without making actual changes to the
audio. The length of preview is determined by your
setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback , the de-
fault setting is 6 seconds.

• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the

current effect settings.

• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-

changed.
15.2.1 Threshold Percentage

Sets the beat detection threshold. The default setting is • brings you to the appropriate page in the
65%. The setting can be changed by typing directly into Manual, this page.
the box or by using the slider. If you do not get enough
beats detected, try reducing the "Threshold Percentage"
setting.
15.2.3 Links
15.2.2 Buttons
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults: |< Analyze Menu

15.3 Find Clipping

This displays runs of clipped samples in a Label Track ,

as a screen-reader accessible alternative to View > Show
Clipping . A run must include at least one clipped sam-
ple, but may include unclipped samples too.Accessed
by:Analyze > Find Clipping...
434 CHAPTER 15. ANALYSIS MENU

15.3.1 Start Threshold
This is the number of contiguous clipped samples (de-
fault 3 samples) that must be present before they will be
labeled as an individual run. The higher the threshold,
the less likely a clipped region will be recognized and the
fewer labels that will be generated.
15.3.2 Stop Threshold
This is the number of contiguous unclipped samples
(default 3 samples) that must be present before the run
of clipped samples will be terminated. The higher the
threshold, the longer a clipped region will be and the
fewer labels that will be generated.Each individual run
of clipped samples is marked in the format "number of
number". For example, "11 of 11" means there are 11
samples in this run of clipped samples and all of them
are clipped, while "9 of 11" means only nine samples in
the run of 11 are clipped. In the case of a stereo track
each channel will have its own label; if at one point both
channels are clipped two labels will appear one above
the other.Unlike View > Show Clipping and Meter Tool-
bars "Find Clipping" is not automatically updated. After
any editing that affects volume, or after import or record-
ing of a new track, Find Clipping must be run again. La-
bels from another run of Find Clipping will be added to
the existing label track - close the label track using the
[X] on the left of the track if you want to view only labels
for current clipping.
15.3.3 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
15.3.4 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Analyze Menu

15.4 Regular Interval Labels

Regular Interval Labels places point labels in a label

track so as to divide the associated audio into smaller,
equally-sized segments. This can be useful for distribut-
ing a large file on the internet or ensuring that all exported
files are the same size. You can either choose the num-
ber of labels to be created or the interval between them.
Each label produced can contain specified label text and
the labels can be given sequential numbers before or af-
ter the text.Accessed by:Analyze > Regular Interval La-
bels...

After running "Regular Interval Labels", you can choose

File > Save Other > Export Multiple... to export all the
files in one process based on the label points.
15.4. REGULAR INTERVAL LABELS
15.4.1 Use "Number of labels" OR "Label
interval"
This enables you to choose the label placement method:
To create a chosen number of labels within the selection,
select Number of Labels from the dropdown (this is
the default setting). To place labels within the selection
a chosen distance apart, select Label Interval from
the dropdown then enter that distance in Label interval
(seconds).
Number of labels
If you selected Number of Labels (the default) then
your specified number of labels (default is 10) will be cre-
ated. The number can be changed by typing in the input
box, the allowed range is between 2 and 1000 labels.
Label interval
If you selected Label Interval then the labels will be
placed at your specified interval within the selected au-
dio. The default interval is 60.0 seconds. The allowed
range is between 0.001 and 3600 seconds.
15.4.2 Adjust label interval to fit length
This only operates if you have chosen the Label interval
placement method. Number of Labels If you select
Yes from the dropdown for this control, it adjusts
your chosen label interval if necessary to make all the
audio segments of equal length, including the final seg-
ment between the last label and the end of the selection.
When set to No , the interval between labels will be
exactly the length specified in the Label interval control,
but the final segment from the last label to the end of the
selection may be different (depending on whether the se-
lection length is exactly divisible by the specified interval
duration.
When Number of Labels is selected, the label in-
terval will always be the length of the selection divided
by the number of labels, irrespective of this setting. The
default setting for this control is No . •
15.4.3 Label text
The text that will be included in each label. The default
setting is Label but this can be replaced by any text (or
no text) by using the input box. The label text may include
spaces and/or punctuation characters, but note that if you
435
intend to use the labels with Export Multiple , some char-
acters may not be valid for file names .
15.4.4 Minimum number of digits in label
Choose the minimum number of number of digits in the
label numbers and whether the number is placed before
or after the label text. The default setting is 2(before la-
bel) . With that setting, if you had 10 labels with "La-
bel" as the label text, the first label would be "01Label",
the next "02Label" and the last would be "10Label". If
you select None - text only then no numbering will
be applied to the labels. If you choose this and set no
label text then you will produce a set of empty labels.
15.4.5 Begin numbering from
If a minimum number of digits has been chosen in the
control above, enter the number from which the sequen-
tial numbering will start. The default value of 1 can be
changed by typing in the input box. You can enter any
whole number equal or greater than 0. The number of
digits actually produced in the label is determined by your
choice in Minimum number of digits in label above. For
example, if you type "10" in Begin numbering from and
your minimum number of digits is 3, then the first label
will be numbered from "010".
15.4.6 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
15.4.7 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Analyze Menu
436 CHAPTER 15. ANALYSIS MENU

15.5 Silence Finder and Sound Finder

Silence Finder and Sound Finder are two related tools
which can useful to label the different songs or sections
in a long recording, such as the tracks from an LP or cas-
sette.This page provides examples comparing and con-
trasting the use of the two tools.The main difference is
that Silence Finder divides up a selection by placing point
labels inside areas of silence, wherwas Sound Finder di-
vides up a selection by placing region labels for areas
of sound that are separated by silence.Here is a stereo
track with six songs. The entire project is selected prior
to using the Analyze functions.
Example with Sound Finder
If instead we run Analyze > Sound Finder... on the same
selected audio we can see that Audacity has again iden-
tified the six songs giving them numerical labels. The
labels exclude a small amount of the gaps between the
songs (seen most clearly between labels 5 and 6) so the
lead-in and lead-out for each song would be shorter.

Example with Silence Finder 15.5.1 Links

After running Analyze > Silence Finder... we can see that > Silence Finder
Audacity has identified the six songs, placing an "S" la-
bel just before the beginning of each song plus a seventh > Sound Finder
label at the end (as the final track ends in silence).

15.6 Silence Finder

Silence Finder and the related Sound Finder are tools 15.7 Silence Finder...
which can useful to label the different songs or sections
in a long recording, such as the tracks from an LP or cas-
sette. Silence Finder - Setting Parameters has more help
on adjusting the Silence Finder slider settings.After typ-
ing the name of the track or section in each label, File
> Save Other > Export Multiple... will export audio files
in one process corresponding to each label’s audio. See
Splitting a recording into separate tracks .

Accessed by:Analyze > Silence Finder...

15.8. SILENCE FINDER - SETTING PARAMETERS 437

• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to

manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .

• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the

current effect settings.

• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-

changed.
Silence Finder divides up a selection by placing point la-
bels inside areas of silence. Use this if you just want to
split the recording into tracks at a specific point without • brings you to the appropriate page in the
removing the silences between them. If labels are pro- Manual, this page.
duced in the middle of album tracks, increase the silence
level and duration. If some album tracks do not have a la-
bel between them, reduce the silence level and duration.
See Setting Parameters for more help choosing values to 15.7.2 Examples
place the labels correctly.
See Silence Finder and Sound Finder for examples com-
paring and contrasting the usage of Silence Finder and
If the selection ends with silence, the final label is
Sound Finder.
not placed according to the "Label placement [seconds
before silence ends]" setting but is placed after the start
of the final silence according to the "Minimum duration of
silence [seconds]" setting. 15.7.3 Links

15.7.1 Buttons |< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers

|< Analyze Menu

Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults: > Sound Finder

15.8 Silence Finder - Setting Parameters

One way to quickly identify each song on the LP or cas-

sette is to use the Analyse > Silence Finder... command.
The trick is to find the combination of settings that will
find all the gaps between songs without finding too many
"false positives". Note that in the images of examples
on this page Scrub Ruler has been turned off. Here are
some of examples. Running Silence Finder:

• Click on Edit > Select > All

• Click on Analyze > Silence Finder...

• Enter the following parameters into the Silence

Finder dialog:
– Treat audio below this level as silence [- dB]:
30
– Minimum duration of silence [seconds]: 1.5
– Label placement [seconds before silence
ends]: 0.1
Note that the command has correctly found the starts of
songs 2 and 4 although it has generated a "false posi-
tive" before the start of these songs due to a tick or pop
in the between-song "silence". It has completely missed
the start of song 3 due to a loud tick at the end of song 2.
This shows the advantage of doing tick and pop removal
if you intend to use this command.Perhaps we can do
better by setting "Treat audio below this level as silence
[- dB]" to 20.
438
This has now found the start of song 3, but has generated
many false positives within song 3.As a final example,
here is the result of running the Effect > Click Removal
command on the entire album, then running the Analyze
> Silence Finder... command with the parameters:
• Treat audio below this level as silence [- dB]: 30
• Minimum duration of silence [seconds]: 2
• Label placement [seconds before silence ends]:
0.1
15.9 Sound Finder
Sound Finder and the related Silence Finder are tools
which can useful to label the different songs or sections
in a long recording, such as the tracks from an LP or cas-
sette.After typing the name of the track or section in each
label, File > Save Other > Export Multiple... will export
audio files in one process corresponding to each label’s
audio. See Splitting a recording into separate tracks .
15.10 Sound Finder...
Accessed by:Analyze > Sound Finder...
Sound Finder divides up a selection by placing region
labels for areas of sound that are separated by silence.
Use this to make the labels show the exact region of each
track to be exported. This lets you remove some or all of
CHAPTER 15. ANALYSIS MENU
There are no false positives, and Silence Finder has suc-
cessfully found the start of every song except number 3.
At this point it is a simple matter to manually add a la-
bel at the start of song three. The lesson here is that
the Silence Finder command will probably work well on a
recording that has no ticks and pops, and where no song
has a gradual fade-in. In many cases you will still need
to remove some false positives, and adjust the position
of some of the generated labels. Once you have the la-
bels positioned properly you can then edit each label to
correspond to the title of the song.
You may want to manually place a label to mark the first
song.
the silence between the tracks. If any album tracks have
more than one label, increase the silence level and dura-
tion. If any labels extend into other album tracks, reduce
the silence level and duration.
15.10.1 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
15.10. SOUND FINDER... 439

15.10.2 Examples 15.10.3 Links

|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers

See Silence Finder and Sound Finder for examples com-
|< Analyze Menu
paring and contrasting the usage of Silence Finder and
Sound Finder. > Silence Finder
Chapter 16

Help Menu

16.1 Help Menu

The Help Menu lets you find out more about the Audac- 16.1.3 Tools
ity application and how to use it. It also includes some
more advanced tools such as for taking Audacity screen- The Tools submenu provides tools for screen image cap-
shots, or viewing log messages generated by the appli- ture and benchmarking for diagnostic purposes.
cation.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to
read about that command. Skip the image
16.1.4 Diagnostics

The Diagnostics submenu has a set of tools to aid diag-

nosing problems in Audacity.

16.1.5 Check for Updates...

This takes you to the Download page of the Audacity

16.1.1 Quick Help website where you can see what the latest release ver-
sion of Audacity is. You can compare the latest release
with the version you have now, which will be shown at
The "Getting Started" section of our Manual - quick infor-
"?from_ver" in the browser’s address bar and which you
mation, which will be displayed in your browser, on how
can also see at About Audacity... .
to play, record and edit audio, and export to an audio file
like MP3 or WAV .

16.1.6 About Audacity...

16.1.2 Manual
Displays the "About Audacity" dialog, containing tabs for:
Takes you to the main sections of our Manual, displayed • Audacity version information, credits and list of li-
in your browser: braries used in Audacity
• Tutorials
• Build information for the current build, including file
• Using Audacity - fundamental concepts of working format support, enabled libraries and features and
with digital audio the source code commit number that the build was
made from
• Reference - all the menus, buttons and controls
• GPL v2 License .
• Miscellaneous - including Glossary and Frequently
Asked Questions Note: on Macs this item is under the Audacity menu.

440
16.2. HELP MENU: DIAGNOSTICS 441

16.2 Help Menu: Diagnostics

Audacity’s diagnostic tool-box. Click, or hover, on any
menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
• If Audacity crashes and the Automatic Crash Re-
covery dialog appears on restarting Audacity, or if
Audacity encounters a problem when opening an
AUP project file , the log may contain additional
useful error details.

Buttons
16.2.1 Audio Device Info...

Shows technical information about your detected audio

device(s), including their supported sample rates . This • Save... : Opens a standard file save dialog where
item is grayed out if you are playing, recording or paused. you can save the current contents of the log to a
Press OK to save the information as a text file, or Cancel text file.
to return to the main project window.

• Clear Clears the current contents of the log, then

16.2.2 MIDI Device Info...
Shows technical information about your detected MIDI
device(s). This item is grayed out if you are playing,
recording or paused. Press OK to save the information
as a text file, or Cancel to return to the main project win-
dow.
inserts the Audacity version number at the top fol-
lowed by a "Log Cleared." message underneath,
both with current timestamps.
• Close Closes the log, preserving its current content
for the remainder of the Audacity session.

16.2.3 Show Log...

On quitting Audacity the log content is discarded.
If you need to save the log contents, do so using the
Launches the "Audacity Log" window, which can be kept Save... button (or generate a Debug Report as below)
open while Audacity is used normally. The log is largely before quitting.
a debugging aid, having timestamps for each entry. The
Audacity version number is always the first entry at the
top. Other log entries are added underneath the version
number as needed.
• If you use the optional FFmpeg library , the log
shows entries for the steps to load the individual
FFmpeg components and whether FFmpeg load
succeeded.
16.2.4 Generate Support Data...
• If you export an MP3 audio file, the log shows
entries for the steps to load the additional LAME li-
brary required for MP3 export, and whether LAME
load succeeded.
Selecting this will generate a Debug report which could
• If you import an audio file, the log shows the im- be useful in aiding the developers to identify bugs in Au-
ported file’s name and extension , which import dacity or in third-party plug-ins. A ZIP file will be created
libraries attempted to import the file and whether for easy emailing but the files included in the ZIP are also
the file import succeeded. saved separately.
442
By default, all items are selected for inclusion in the re-
port. If you wish to exclude any item, select and uncheck
it. You can also view or open the selected item before cre-
ating the report. The View... button opens the selected
item in an Audacity window. The Open... button opens
the selected item in your default application for that doc-
ument type. When you click OK, Audacity will confirm
generation of the report and the exact name and folder
location of the Debug report ZIP file. You can copy this
name and location to the system clipboard. The folder
location will be:
• Windows:C:
Users
<your user name>
AppData
Local
Temp
16.3 Help Menu: Tools
A toolkit for image capture and benchmarking for diag-
nostic purposes. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
image to read about that command. Skip the image
CHAPTER 16. HELP MENU
• Mac: A subfolder in /var/folders/ - an ex-
ample subfolder might look something like
/var/folders/c0/8p18hd453p3_433cf9_595b40000gn/T/.
• GNU/Linux:/tmp/.
The name of the folder where the separate files are saved
specifies the date and time of the report (on Mac and
Linux the ZIP’s file name also specifies the report’s date
and time). Below is an example image of the confirma-
tion of generation dialog on Windows:
You can then attach the ZIP file to any bug report or is-
sue that you report. Please submit your report to our
feedback address or to the Audacity Forum.
If the dialog appears of its own accord this will al-
most certainly be because Audacity has crashed. Au-
dacity will exit after you select OK or Cancel in the dialog
and will attempt to recover your project after you restart
Audacity.
16.2.5 Check Dependencies...
Lists any WAV or AIFF audio files that your project de-
pends on, and allows you to copy these files into the
project. Such dependencies are created when you im-
port audio files using the "faster" method whereby the
audio files are not actually copied into the project but just
referenced in their original location. See this page for
more details.
< Back to: Help Menu
16.3. HELP MENU: TOOLS
16.3.1 Screenshot Tools...
Displays the "Screen Capture Frame" dialog. This tool
lets you capture all or part of your project window to an
image file in PNG format. Click the Choose... button
to pick the location where you want to save the screen-
shot. Then click the button corresponding to the part of
the project window you want to capture. Most of these
buttons are self-explanatory. Screenshot Tools can be
handy for capturing:
• Tracks with their waveform or spectrogram (use any
of the three ... Tracks buttons)
• Plots of amplitude against frequency for a selected
region (use any of the Capture Window buttons
to capture the Frequency Analysis window on its
own).
Capture entire window or screen
The buttons in this section enable you to take screen-
shots of particular parts of the screen. Pressing any of
these buttons will take the screenshot of that entity and
place it in the location specified in Save images to.
• Capture Window Only captures the window without
its title bar.
• Capture Full Window captures the window includ-
ing its title bar.
• Capture Window Plus captures the window includ-
ing its title bar, plus a small border region outside
the window for context.
• Capture Full Screen captures the entire computer
screen as you see it.
Capture part of a project window
The buttons in this section enable you to take screen-
shots of particular parts of the Audacity window such as
toolbars and selected tracks. Pressing any of these but-
tons will take the screenshot of that entity and place it in
the location specified in Save images to.
Scale
The buttons in this section can be used to change the
scale of the image prior to using one of the screenshot
443
capture buttons above:
• The Sec, Min and One Hour buttons zoom the
project window horizontally so that a little more than
the length indicated on the button is shown on the
Timeline .
• The three ... Tracks buttons zoom all the tracks in
the project to a preset height. For example, Short
Tracks displays the tracks at minimal height so they
only show the Audio Track Dropdown Menu and
Collapse/Expand button
.
Limitations:
• Screenshot Tools resets all the Toolbars to default
positions and settings.
• Some individual parts of the interface cannot be
captured, such as menus, and dialogs that do not
allow you to click anywhere else while the dialog is
open.
• As alternatives, you can use File > Print... to
print an image of the current tracks with the Time-
line above, excluding the Track Control Panel and
vertical scale. Or you can use the operating sys-
tem commands to capture the entire screen or the
active window, then open your favorite image editor
and paste then save the image.
16.3.2 Run Benchmark...
Performs a mock editing routine to test how fast Au-
dacity runs on your machine, expressed in terms of the
estimated number of simultaneous tracks that could be
played at once in a 44100 Hz , 16 bits per sample
project. If the sample rate of the tracks differs from the
Project Rate , causing real-time sample rate conversion
, the number of tracks you can play may be lower than
the Benchmark result. Using stereo or mono tracks, or
using the default 32-bit sample format instead of 16-bit
should not significantly change the number of tracks you
can play.
< Back to: Help Menu
444 CHAPTER 16. HELP MENU

16.4 Help Button

16.4.2 Effects, Generators and Analyzers -

The help button is the icon at the foot of some and Preferences
dialogs. When clicked, it takes you to relevant help infor-
mation about that dialog in the Manual.
Audacity currently has help buttons on pages for Ef-
fects, Generators and Analyzers and Preferences .Click-
16.4.1 Error messages ing this button will take you to the page for the ef-
fect/generator/analyzer or preference section in the Man-
ual.Example:The Amplify effect. Try clicking on the
For error messages the help button takes you to brief in-
formation about the specific problem. Often there are
links from that page. From the links you can find out a at the bottom right of this image.
lot more.Example:Error opening sound device message.

Try clicking on the at the bottom right of this image.

16.5 Audacity Menu

The Audacity menu only appears on macOS / OS X. It on what applications the user has installed and what ser-
includes some commands which are in other menus on vices they provide.
non-Mac systems, plus some menu items which are gen-
erated by the operating system.
16.5.4 Hide and Show
16.5.1 About Audacity...
• Hide Audacity:
Has the same version, credits, build and license informa- Hides Audacity and all its windows without minimizing
tion as at Help > About Audacity... on other operating into the Dock.
systems.
• Hide Others:
Hides all applications other than Audacity.
16.5.2 Preferences...
• Show All:
Has the same choices as at Edit > Preferences... on Shows all applications and their windows.
other operating systems.

16.5.3 Services 16.5.5 Quit Audacity

This is a system-generated menu, including system tools Closes all project windows and exits Audacity, as at File
like Finder and Disk Utility. Its exact contents will depend > Exit on other operating systems.
16.6. WINDOW MENU
16.6 Window Menu
The Window menu appears only on macOS and Mac
OS X. It contains commands for displaying and zooming
project windows.
16.6.1 Minimize
Minimizes the front project window into the Dock. Same
as clicking the yellow minimize button at the upper left of
the window.
16.6.2 Zoom
• If the front window does not fill the entire screen
between the Dock and the Audacity Menu Bar, ex-
pands the window to fill that space.
16.7 Unzipping the Manual
The Audacity Manual is included with the current release
of the software if you obtain the Windows .exe or Mac OS
X .dmg installers. The following instructions are for users
who obtained a zip download of Audacity or are on Linux
and who want a Manual relating to the current release.
1. Download the zipped Manual by left-clicking this
link http://www.fosshub.com/Audacity.html/audacity-
manual-2.1.3.zip.
2. Extract the zip file to a folder called "help" with
the "manual" folder inside that. Some extraction
tools will do this by default, especially on Linux. On
Windows, many tools will extract by default to an
"audacity-manual" folder that has the "help" folder
inside. If that happens, you must open the ex-
tracted "audacity-manual" folder and use that "help"
folder inside.
• Tips for Windows: To produce the correct
"help" folder, use 7-Zip then right-click over the
zipped Manual and choose "Extract Here", or
in any extraction utility, choose a root folder to
445
• If the window was previously expanded with this
command, clicking the Zoom item again will return
the window to its previous size and position.
This menu item is the same as Option-clicking the green
zoom button at upper left of the project window (or
unmodified-clicking the zoom button on OS X Snow
Leopard). On OS X Lion and later, unmodified-clicking
the green zoom button does the same as View > Enter /
Exit Full Screen .
16.6.3 Bring All to Front
If any Audacity windows are minimized or covered by
other windows, this command will make those windows
visible.
extract to (for example, C:
or D:
).
3. Place the "help" folder in the correct location.
• On Windows or Mac OS X, it should go inside
the folder containing the Audacity application.
In an Audacity installation, this would usually
be under "Program Files" on Windows, or un-
der "Applications" on Mac OS X.
• On Linux, the "help" folder should usu-
ally go in /usr/share/audacity if Audacity
was installed from a repository package, or
/usr/local/share/audacity if you compiled Au-
dacity from our source code.
– Note: Root permission will normally be
required to modify the /usr directory. Try
running a sudo unzip command from
a terminal ( for example, sudo unzip
~/Desktop/audacity-manual-2.1.3.zip -d
/usr/share/audacity/ ).
Chapter 17

Extended Menus

17.1 Ext-Bar Menu

The Ext-Bar menu provides access to Toolbar opera- 17.1.3 Edit SubMenu
tions that are not available in the default Audacity menus.
These will be of most interest to visually-impaired users Extended commands related to editing. Find out more
or those who have difficulty using the mouse. Short- about the ’Edit’ submenu here .
cuts can be assigned to these commands if required.This
menu can be turned on (or off) at View > Extra Menus
(on/off) or the Interface pane of Preferences .Click, or 17.1.4 Device SubMenu
hover, on any menu item in the image to read about that
command. Skip the image Extended commands related to selecting a device. Find
out more about the ’Device’ submenu here .

17.1.5 Mixer SubMenu

Extended commands related to volume. Find out more

about the ’Mixer’ submenu here .

17.1.6 Transcription SubMenu

Extended commands related to play at speed. Find out

17.1.1 Transport SubMenu more about the ’Transcription’ submenu here .

Extended commands related to play and record. Find out

17.1.7 Scrub SubMenu
more about the ’Transport’ submenu here .
Extended commands related to scrubbing. Find out more
about the ’Scrub’ submenu here .
17.1.2 Tools SubMenu
17.1.8 Selection SubMenu
Extended commands to select the tool, for example Time
Shift Tool, Envelope Tool or Multi Tool. Find out more Extended commands related to selecting. Find out more
about the ’Tools’ submenu here . about the ’Selection’ submenu here .

446
17.2. EXT-BAR MENU: DEVICE
17.2 Ext-Bar Menu: Device
The Ext-Bar > Device Menu provides commands for
changing the playback and recording devices and set-
tings, instead of using the dropdown menus on the De-
vice Toolbar . Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
image to read about that command. Skip the image
17.2.1 Change recording device Shift+I
Displays the Select recording Device dialog for choos-
ing the recording device, but only if the "Recording De-
vice" dropdown menu in Device Toolbar has entries for
devices. Otherwise, an recording error message will be
displayed.
17.3 Ext-Bar Menu: Edit
The Ext-Bar > Edit Menu provides menu access to the
backspace and delete keys. Click, or hover, on any menu
item in the image to read about that command. Skip the
image
447
17.2.2 Change playback device Shift+O
Displays the Select Playback Device dialog for choos-
ing the playback device, but only if the "Playback De-
vice" dropdown menu in Device Toolbar has entries for
devices. Otherwise, an error message will be displayed.
17.2.3 Change audio host Shift+H
Displays the Select Audio Host dialog for choosing the
particular interface with which Audacity communicates
with your chosen playback and recording devices.
17.2.4 Change recording channels Shift+N
Displays the Select Recording Channels dialog for
choosing the number of channels to be recorded by the
chosen recording device.
17.3.1 DeleteKey Backspace
Removes the audio data and/or labels that are currently
selected without copying them to the Audacity clipboard.
17.3.2 DeleteKey2 Delete
Removes the audio data and/or labels that are currently
selected without copying them to the Audacity clipboard.
448 CHAPTER 17. EXTENDED MENUS

17.4 Ext-Bar Menu: Mixer

The Ext-Bar > Mixer Menu provides commands for ad- 17.4.2 Increase playback volume
justing the playback and recording volumes. You can use
these commands instead of manipulating the recording Each key press will increase the playback volume by 0.1.
and playback sliders on the Mixer Toolbar . Click, or
hover, on any menu item in the image to read about that
command. Skip the image 17.4.3 Decrease playback volume

Each key press will decrease the playback volume by 0.1.

17.4.4 Adjust recording volume

Displays the Recording Volume dialog. You can type a

new value for the recording volume (between 0 and 1), or
press Tab, then use the left and right arrow keys to adjust
the slider.

17.4.5 Increase recording volume

17.4.1 Adjust playback volume Each key press will increase the recording volume by 0.1.

Displays the Playback Volume dialog. You can type a 17.4.6 Decrease recording volume
new value for the playback volume (between 0 and 1), or
press Tab, then use the left and right arrow keys to adjust Each key press will decrease the recording volume by
the slider. 0.1.

17.5 Ext-Bar Menu: Scrub

The Ext-Bar > Scrub Menu provides menu equivalents

for the short and long seek commands. Click, or hover, You cannot seek backwards to left of the current po-
on any menu item in the image to read about that com- sition of the playback cursor.
mand. Skip the image

17.5.1 Short seek left during playback Left

Moves play head left by 1 second.

17.5.2 Short seek right during playback

Right

Moves play head right by 1 second.

These commands skip the playback cursor backwards

(left) or forwards (right) by a short or long period of time. 17.5.3 Long seek left during playback
You can change the length of the default short or long Shift+Left
period to be skipped at "Seek Time when playing" in the
Playback Preferences . Moves play head left by 15 seconds.
17.6. EXT-BAR MENU: SELECTION 449

17.5.4 Long Seek right during playback

Shift+Right

Moves play head right by 15 seconds.

17.6 Ext-Bar Menu: Selection

The Ext-Bar > Selection Menu provides commands for
changing the Snap-To settings, and for extending and
contracting the selection. Click, or hover, on any menu
item in the image to read about that command. Skip the
image
17.6.6 Selection Extend Left Shift+Left
Increases the size of the selection by extending it to the
left. The amount of increase is dependent on the zoom
level. If there is no selection one is created starting at the
cursor position.

17.6.7 Selection Extend Right Shift+Right

Increases the size of the selection by extending it to the

right. The amount of increase is dependent on the zoom
level. If there is no selection one is created starting at the
cursor position.

17.6.1 Snap To Off 17.6.8 Set (or Extend) Left Selection

Equivalent to setting the Snap To control in Selection

When playing or recording, sets the left boundary of a
Toolbar to "Off".
potential selection by moving the cursor to the current
position of the green playback cursor (or red recording
cursor). The selection can then be drawn by using "Set
17.6.2 Snap To Nearest (or Extend) Right Selection"(below).When stopped, in-
creases the size of the selection by extending it to the
Equivalent to setting the Snap To control in Selection left. The amount of increase is dependent on the zoom
Toolbar to "Nearest". level. If there is no selection one is created starting at the
cursor position.

17.6.3 Snap To Prior

Equivalent to setting the Snap To control in Selection

17.6.9 Set (or Extend) Right Selection
Toolbar to "Prior".
When playing or recording, sets the right boundary of the
selection, thus drawing the selection from the cursor po-
17.6.4 Selection to Start Shift+Home sition to the current position of the green playback cursor
(or red recording cursor). This is a quick way to mark a
selection for future editing while playing or recording. Se-
Select from cursor to start of track
lections can be labeled while playing or recording using
Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection or shortcut Ctrl
+ B.When stopped, increases the size of the selection by
17.6.5 Selection to End Shift+End extending it to the right. The amount of increase is de-
pendent on the zoom level. If there is no selection one is
Select from cursor to end of track created starting at the cursor position.
450
17.6.10 Selection Contract Left Ctrl+Shift+Right17.6.11
Decreases the size of the selection by contracting it from
the right. The amount of decrease is dependent on the
zoom level. If there is no selection no action is taken.
17.7 Ext-Bar Menu: Tools
The Ext-Bar > Tools Menu provides commands for se-
lecting tools from the Tools Toolbar . Click, or hover, on
any menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
This menu duplicates the functionality of the Tools Tool-
bar , in menu form
17.7.1 Tools Toolbar
17.7.2 Previous / Next Shortcuts A D
There are two keyboard shortcuts that enable you to nav-
igate through the various available tools:
• A This shortcut cycles backwards selecting each
tool in turn, returning to the Multi tool after the Se-
lection tool
• D This shortcut cycles forwards also selecting
each tool in turn.
Note carefully that these two shortcuts will only be
available if you select the Full set of shortcuts in Key-
board Preferences . They are not available in the default
Standard set of shortcuts.
CHAPTER 17. EXTENDED MENUS
Selection Contract Right Ctrl+Shift+Left
Decreases the size of the selection by contracting it from
the left. The amount of decrease is dependent on the
zoom level. If there is no selection no action is taken.
17.7.3 Selection F1
Click to select a start point for audio playback, or click
and drag to select a range of audio to play or edit. You
can also create a selection region between two points by
clicking at one point, then holding down Shift while left-
clicking at the other point.
17.7.4 Envelope F2
Allows smooth volume changes to be made over the
length of a track by means of embedded volume "control
points". Click in the track to create a control point, then
set the volume of that point by dragging one of its four
vertically arranged "handles". When you create other
control points at different levels, a smooth curve is inter-
polated between them. Dragging either the top or bottom
handle ensures you can never distort the track by drag-
ging outside its original volume envelope. Dragging an
inner handle allows you to amplify a quiet piece of audio
beyond the original volume envelope of the track.
17.7.5 Draw Samples F3
Draw Tool enables you to manually redraw the waveform;
it can thus be used to make volume changes to individual
samples or to effect repairs to clicks/noise.
17.7.6 Zoom F4
• Left-click zooms in one step at the position of the
mouse pointer.
• Click and drag zooms in to the dragged region. The
drag draws a dotted region in the waveform which
is fitted to the entire track width when you release
the drag. No Audacity selection region is created.
17.8. EXT-BAR MENU: TRANSCRIPTION
• Shift and left-click or right-click zooms out one step
at the position of the mouse pointer.
• Shift and drag zooms out based on the dragged re-
gion. The drag draws a dotted region in the wave-
form and when you release the drag, the audio at
the left edge of the dotted region is repositioned
at the start of the visible waveform. The smaller
the dragged region, the farther the audio will be
zoomed out. No Audacity selection region is cre-
ated.
• Middle button zooms in or out to Audacity’s default
zoom level of about one inch per second.
• If you commence a drag to zoom by mistake, you
can press Esc before releasing the mouse to can-
cel the zoom operation.
• You can also zoom without using Zoom Tool by us-
ing keyboard shortcuts , or the zoom buttons on
Edit Toolbar .
17.7.7 Time Shift F5
Selecting this tool lets you synchronize audio in a project
by dragging individual or multiple audio tracks , note
tracks or audio clips left or right along the Timeline .
Also use this tool to drag individual tracks or clips up or
down into another track. To use Time Shift Tool, click in
the track or clip you want to move, then drag in the re-
17.8 Ext-Bar Menu: Transcription
The Ext-Bar > Transcription Menu provides commands
for manipulating the Transcription Toolbar and for
moving between labels. Click, or hover, on any menu
item in the image to read about that command. Skip the
image
17.8.1 Play-at-Speed
Play audio at a faster or slower speed
451
quired direction. Dragged audio cannot paste into other
audio, so the area being dragged into must have suffi-
cient space to accommodate the drag.See this page for
more details.
17.7.8 Multi-Tool F6
Combines all five tools in one. One tool is available at
a time, according to the mouse position and modifier key
chosen. The shape of the pointer changes to show which
tool is active. If you exit Audacity with Multi-Tool Mode
selected, it will be also be enabled next time you launch
Audacity. More details on Multi-Tool Mode here .
17.7.9 Previous Tool A
Cycles backwards through the tools, starting from the
currently selected tool: starting from Selection, it would
navigate to Multi-tool to Time Shift to Zoom to Draw to
Envelope to Selection.
17.7.10 Next Tool D
Cycles forwards through the tools, starting from the cur-
rently selected tool: starting from Selection, it would nav-
igate to Envelope to Draw to Zoom to Time Shift to Multi-
tool to Selection.
17.8.2 Loop Play-at-Speed
Combines looped play and play at speed
17.8.3 Play Cut Preview-at-Speed
Combines cut preview and play at speed
17.8.4 Adjust playback speed
Displays the Playback Speed dialog. You can type a
new value for the playback volume (between 0 and 1),
or press Tab, then use the left and right arrow keys to
adjust the slider.
452 CHAPTER 17. EXTENDED MENUS

17.8.5 Increase playback speed 17.8.7 Move to Previous Label Alt+Left

Each key press will increase the playback speed by 0.1. Moves selection to the previous label.

17.8.6 Decrease playback speed 17.8.8 Move to Next Label Alt+Right

Each key press will decrease the playback speed by 0.1. Moves selection to the next label.

17.9 Ext-Bar Menu: Transport

The Ext-Bar > Transport Menu provides playback com- 17.9.5 Play Before Selection Start Shift+F5
mands that are not available in the default Audacity
menus.Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image Plays a short period before the start of the selected au-
to read about that command. Skip the image dio.

17.9.6 Play After Selection Start Shift+F6

Plays a short period after the end of the selected audio.

17.9.7 Play Before Selection End Shift+F7

Plays a short period before the end of the selected audio.

17.9.8 Play After Selection End Shift+F8

17.9.1 Play Plays a short period after the end of the selected audio

Play (or stop) audio

17.9.9 Play Before and After Selection
Start Ctrl+Shift+F5
17.9.2 Stop
Plays a short period before and after the start of the se-
Stop audio lected audio.

17.9.10 Play Before and After Selection

17.9.3 Play One Second 1
End Ctrl+Shift+F7
Plays 1 second of audio at the current mouse position Plays a short period before and after the end of the se-
lected audio.

17.9.4 Play To Selection B

Plays from current mouse position to selection For the fol-
lowing six commands, the amount of audio that is played
before, after, or surrounding the selection edge, is set by
the Cut Preview setting in Playback Preferences .
17.9.11 Play Cut Preview C
Plays audio excluding the selection. The amount of au-
dio that is played before and after the section is set by
the Cut Preview setting in Playback Preferences .
17.10. EXT-COMMAND MENU
17.10 Ext-Command Menu
The Ext-Command Menu(Extended Command Menu)
provides access to extra commands for track focus and
movement of the editing or playback cursor that are not
available in the default Audacity menus. These will be
of most interest to visually-impaired users or those who
have difficulty using the mouse. Shortcuts can be as-
signed to these commands if required. This menu can
be turned on (or off) at View > Extra Menus (on/off) or
the Interface pane of Preferences .Click, or hover, on any
menu item in the image to read about that command.
Skip the image
17.10.1 Focus SubMenu
Extra commands to set focus, usually focus on one track.
Find out more about the ’Focus’ submenu here .
17.11 Ext-Command Menu: Cursor
The Ext-Command > Cursor Menu provides commands
for moving either the editing cursor, playback cursor or an
audio track or clip . Click, or hover, on any menu item in
the image to read about that command. Skip the image
17.11.1 Cursor Left Left
When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor one
screen pixel to left. When a Snap To option is chosen,
moves the cursor to the preceding unit of time as de-
termined by the current selection format . If the key is
held down, the cursor speed depends on the length of the
453
17.10.2 Cursor SubMenu
Extra commands to move the cursor. Find out more
about the ’Cursor’ submenu here .
17.10.3 Track SubMenu
Extra commands to operate on a track that has focus.
Find out more about the ’Track’ submenu here .
17.10.4 Full screen (on/off) F11 (on Mac
CloverLeaf + /)
Toggle full screen mode with no title bar.
17.10.5 Minimize all Projects Option +
CloverLeaf + M - Mac only
On Mac only there is an extra command in this menu
"Minimize all projects", shortcut Option + CloverLeaf +
M, which minimizes all Audacity projects that you have
open.
tracks.When there is a selection, moves the cursor to the
beginning of the selection, removes the selection, and
scrolls the track to display the cursor (if needed).When
playing audio, moves the playback cursor as described
at "Cursor Short Jump Left" (below).
17.11.2 Cursor Right Right
When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor one
screen pixel to right. When a Snap To option is cho-
sen, moves the cursor to the following unit of time as
determined by the current selection format . If the key
is held down, the cursor speed depends on the length of
the tracks.When there is a selection, moves the cursor
to the end of the selection, removes the selection, and
scrolls the track to display the cursor (if needed).When
playing audio, moves the playback cursor as described
at "Cursor Short Jump Right" (below).
454 CHAPTER 17. EXTENDED MENUS

17.11.3 Cursor Short Jump Left , 17.11.6 Cursor Long Jump Right Shift+.

When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor one
second left by default. When playing audio, moves the
playback cursor one second left by default. The default
value can be changed by adjusting the "Short Period" un-
der "Seek Time when playing" in Playback Preferences .
17.11.4 Cursor Short Jump Right .
When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor one
second right by default. When playing audio, moves the
playback cursor one second right by default. The default
value can be changed by adjusting the "Short Period" un-
der "Seek Time when playing" in Playback Preferences .
17.11.5 Cursor Long Jump Left Shift+,
When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor 15 sec-
onds right by default. When playing audio, moves the
playback cursor 15 seconds right by default. The default
value can be changed by adjusting the "Long Period" un-
der "Seek Time when playing" in Playback Preferences .
When not playing audio and there is a selection region,
all the above "Cursor" commands remove the region and
place the editing cursor at the left or right boundary re-
spectively of the former selection.
17.11.7 Clip Left
Moves the currently focused audio track (or a separate
clip in that track which contains the editing cursor or se-
lection region ) one screen pixel to left.

When not playing audio, moves the editing cursor 15 sec-
onds left by default. When playing audio, moves the play-
back cursor 15 seconds left by default. The default value
can be changed by adjusting the "Long Period" under
"Seek Time when playing" in Playback Preferences .
17.11.8 Clip Right
Moves the currently focused audio track (or a separate
clip in that track which contains the editing cursor or se-
lection region ) one screen pixel to right.

17.12 Ext-Command Menu: Focus

The Ext-Command > Focus Menu provides provides 17.12.2 Move forward from toolbars to
access to extra commands for track focus that are not tracks Ctrl+F6
available in the default Audacity menus.Click, or hover,
on any menu item in the image to read about that com-
Move forward through currently focused toolbar in Up-
mand. Skip the image
per Toolbar dock area , Track View and currently focused
toolbar in Lower Toolbar dock area . Each use moves the
keyboard focus as indicated.

17.12.3 Move Focus to Previous Track Up

Focus one track up

17.12.4 Move Focus to Next Track Down

17.12.1 Move backward from toolbars to Focus one track down

tracks Ctrl+Shift+F6

17.12.5 Move Focus to First Track

Move backward through currently focused toolbar in Up-
per Toolbar dock area , Track View and currently focused Ctrl+Home
toolbar in Lower Toolbar dock area . Each use moves the
keyboard focus as indicated. Focus on first track
17.13. EXT-COMMAND MENU: TRACK 455

17.12.6 Move Focus to Last Track 17.12.8 Move Focus to Next and Select
Ctrl+End Shift+Down

Focus one track down and select it

Focus on last track

17.12.9 Toggle Focused Track Return

Toggle focus on current track

17.12.7 Move Focus to Previous and Select
Shift+Up
17.12.10 Toggle Focused Track NUMPAD_ENTER

Focus one track up and select it Toggle focus on current track

17.13 Ext-Command Menu: Track

The Ext-Command > Track Menu provides access to 17.13.2 Pan left on focused track
extra commands for manipulating the controls in the Alt+Shift+Left
Track Control Panel and for moving tracks up and
down, that are not available in the default Audacity
Controls the pan slider on the focused track. Each key-
menus. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to
press changes the pan value by 10% left.
read about that command. Skip the image

17.13.3 Pan right on focused track

Alt+Shift+Right

Controls the pan slider on the focused track. Each key-

press changes the pan value by 10% right.

17.13.4 Change gain on focused track

Shift+G

Brings up the Gain dialog for the focused track where you
can enter a gain value, or use the slider for finer control
of gain than is available when using the track pan slider.

The extended menu commands can be added using View

> Show Extra Menus . 17.13.5 Increase gain on focused track
Alt+Shift+Up

Controls the gain slider on the focused track. Each key-

17.13.1 Change pan on focused track
Shift+P
Brings up the Pan dialog for the focused track where you
can enter a pan value, or use the slider for finer control of
panning than is available when using the track pan slider.
press increases the gain value by 1 dB.
17.13.6 Decrease gain on focused track
Alt+Shift+Down
Controls the gain slider on the focused track. Each key-
press decreases the gain value by 1 dB.
456 CHAPTER 17. EXTENDED MENUS

17.13.7 Open menu on focused track 17.13.11 Move focused track up

Shift+M
Moves the focused track up by one track and moves the
Opens the Audio Track Dropdown Menu on the focused focus there.
audio track or other track type . In the audio track drop-
down, use Up, and Down, arrow keys to navigate the
menu and Enter, to select a menu item. Use Right, arrow
to open the "Set Sample Format" and "Set Rate" choices 17.13.12 Move focused track down
or Left, arrow to leave those choices.
Moves the focused track down by one track and moves
the focus there.
17.13.8 Mute/Unmute focused track
Shift+U

Toggles the Mute button on the focused track. 17.13.13 Move focused track to top

Moves the focused track up to the top of the track table

17.13.9 Solo/Unsolo focused track Shift+S and moves the focus there.

Toggles the Solo button on the focused track.

17.13.14 Move focused track to bottom

17.13.10 Close focused track Shift+C
Moves the focused track down to the bottom of the track
Close (delete) the focused track table and moves the focus there.
Chapter 18
Import and Export
18.1 Export
To hear your work in other media applications, export it to
an audio file. Audacity as shipped can export to a num-
ber of common audio formats including WAV , AIFF ,
Ogg Vorbis , FLAC and MP2 . To export as MP3,
the optional Lame MP3 encoder must be installed. You
can install the optional FFmpeg library to export to many
more audio formats including AC3, AMR(NB), M4A, MP4
and WMA.
• To export, choose File > Save Other > Export Au-
dio... then choose the file format you want to export
to in the "Save as type" dropdown. To burn a CD
for standalone CD players, choose WAV or AIFF.
• Use File > Save Other > Export Selected Audio...
to export only a selected area of audio.
• Use File > Save Other > Export Multiple... to export
multiple files at the same time, either one for each
audio track, or one for each labeled area in a single
track.
– Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection lets you
split the tracks from an album for multiple ex-
port as separate files.
For either Export Audio, Export Selected Audio
457
or Export Multiple, tracks on which the Mute button is
pressed are not exported. There will be a warning if you
export with all audio tracks muted. See Export Audio Di-
alog for more help with exporting.
18.1.1 Export Formats
There are a number of audio formats that Audacity, as
shipped, can export to; others can be added with addi-
tional software.
• As shipped available exports include WAV , AIFF
, Ogg Vorbis , FLAC and MP2 .
• To export as MP3 , the optional Lame MP3 encoder
must be installed.
• You may install the optional FFmpeg library to ex-
port to many more audio formats including AC3,
AMR(NB), M4A(AAC), MP4 and WMA .
Alternatively, saving an Audacity project creates a project
file (and linked _data folder) containing all your track con-
tents, including labels and envelope points , so you can
return to your work later exactly as you left it. However,
other applications cannot read Audacity projects. |< Back
to: Getting Started
458
18.2 Exporting Audio
You must use one of the Export commands to make an
audio file for playing on your music player, burning CDs or
for use in other applications. Saving an Audacity project
only makes a text file that tells Audacity how to work with
the audio you see in Audacity itself.
18.2.1 Export Commands
There are two Export commands for exporting a single
audio file. These let you export either the whole project
or a selected part of it.
• File > Save Other > Export Audio... exports all
the audio tracks in the project. By default, mul-
tiple mono tracks are mixed down to a mono file,
but if you pan any mono tracks to left or right or if
there are any stereo tracks, the tracks are mixed to
a stereo file. See Mixing for details.
• File > Save Other > Export Selected Audio... ex-
ports only the selected audio, mixing it down as
above.
Alternatively, you may export multiple audio files in a
single process. This is useful when making a long record-
ing or group of recordings that you want to export as sep-
arate songs. Selected tracks or regions are ignored when
exporting multiple.
• File > Save Other > Export Multiple... exports mul-
tiple files in one process, one file for each audio
track, or one file for each labeled area in a track.
• Use Edit > Labels > Add Label at Playback Position
prior to export to add labels so as to split a long
Audacity track into separate song tracks .
– If there are multiple audio tracks, exporting
multiple files split on labels will export a mix
of the tracks for each labeled area.
For either Export Audio, Export Selected Audio
or Export Multiple, tracks on which the Mute button is
pressed are not exported. There will be a warning if you
export with all audio tracks muted.
18.2.2 Export Audio and Export Selected
Audio Dialogs
The identical Export File or Export Selection dialogs en-
able you to select the file name, folder location, audio
format (such as WAV or MP3 ) and any options for that
format (such as file size compression or bit depth ).
1. Choose your folder location.
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
2. Type the name of your audio file in the File name
box.
Help with choosing the file name :
• Avoid periods (dots) in the file name, or you
will have to add the extension such as .wav
or .mp3 at the end of the name.
• Some characters cannot be used on all oper-
ating systems or for email or internet use. Use
A to Z or a to z characters, whole numbers
(0 to 9) and underscores ( _ ) for maximum
compatibility.
3. Choose your file type (export format) from the Save
as type dropdown.
4. Press the Options... button.to check if the format
has additional settings that control its quality.
5. Press Save to export the audio.
See Export Audio Dialog for more detailed information on
this dialog.
18.2.3 Export Multiple Dialog
The Export Multiple dialog has extra choices for whether
exported files are split based on labels or audio tracks
and whether numerical prefixes or suffixes are added to
the name.
1. Choose your export format from the dropdown
(press the Options... button.to check if the format
has additional settings that control its quality).
2. Choose the export location - either over-type in
the text box (use Create... to create the directory
named in the box if needed) or browse for the folder
to export to using Choose....
3. Select whether splits are based on labels or tracks
using the radio buttons in the Split files based on:
box.
• If exporting based on labels, put a check
mark in Include audio before first label and
choose a file name if you require an exported
file for any audio to left of the first label.
4. Select a numbering scheme for file names (none,
numbering before or numbering after) using the ra-
dio buttons in the Name files: box.
18.3. IMPORTING AUDIO
Some characters cannot be used on all oper-
ating systems or for email or internet use. When
typing a folder name or file name (including Audac-
ity track names, names in labels or the Export Mul-
tiple "file name" boxes) use A to Z or a to z char-
acters, whole numbers (0 to 9) and underscores
( _ ) for maximum compatibility.
5. Use Overwrite existing files to enable overwriting
of existing files with the same name if desired.
6. Click on Export to export the audio.
See Export Multiple for more information on this dialog.
18.3 Importing Audio
This page is about importing audio files into Audacity (like
WAV or MP3) that other applications on the computer can
play.
If you have already saved your audio as an Audac-
ity Project, use File > Open or File > Recent Files to open
the <my_project_name>.aup. Do not attempt to open,
import or manipulate any individual AU files. See Audac-
ity Projects for more information.
18.3.1 Audio File Formats Supported by
Audacity
The audio formats importable by Audacity as shipped
are:
• Uncompressed audio formats: most WAV and
AIFF files including all PCM variants.
• Compressed audio formats: Ogg Vorbis ,
FLAC , MP2 and MP3 .
You can install the optional FFmpeg library to import
a much larger range of audio formats including AC3,
AMR(NB), M4A, MP4 and WMA (if the files are not
DRM-protected to work only in particular software). FFm-
peg will also import audio from most video files or DVDs
that are not DRM-protected. On Mac only, Audacity can
import M4A, MP4 and MOV files without FFmpeg.
• Older uncompressed file types such as WAV with
U-Law or IMA ADPCM encoding are generally sup-
ported provided they contain correctly formatted
header information.
• If files do not have header information (such
as RAW or VOX ADPCM) or have non-standard
459
18.2.4 Export Formats
There are a number of audio formats that Audacity, as
shipped, can export to. Other formats can be added by
installing extra software libraries.
• As shipped formats include WAV , AIFF , Ogg
Vorbis , FLAC and MP2 .
• To export as MP3 , the optional Lame MP3 encoder
must be installed.
• You may install the optional FFmpeg library to ex-
port to many more audio formats including AC3,
AMR(NB), M4A(AAC) including MP4 and WMA
.
header information, you can normally import them
using File > Import > Raw Data... .
• WAV files from portable recorders may contain pro-
prietary compressed audio. These should not be
imported as Raw Data, but by installing the FFm-
peg library .
• LOF files (lists of files) are also supported if the list
is correctly formatted and contains supported files.
18.3.2 Sample Rate and Sample Format of
imported files
Audacity always imports files at their original sample
rate , as displayed in the Track Information Area of the
Track Control Panel . When importing a file into an empty
project window (as always happens when using File >
Open... as described below), the Project Rate control
in Selection Toolbar changes if necessary to reflect the
rate of the file. The Project Rate determines the sample
rate a file will be exported at, so no further adjustment
is needed to export that file at its original rate. How-
ever, once there is already an audio track of any origin
in the project (either an imported file, a recording or gen-
erated audio ), importing an audio file will never change
the project rate. Generally, Audacity imports files at the
sample format (bit depth) specified at Default Sample
Format in Quality Preferences . This setting defaults to
32-bit float. Therefore by default an imported file will
show in the Track Control Panel as 32-bit float, even if
its original bit depth is lower. This is best for high-quality
editing. Even if you choose a lower Default Sample For-
mat than 32-bit float, Audacity will never downconvert a
file that has a higher bit depth, as shown in the following
table for WAV and AIFF imports using the standard un-
compressed files importer. Resolution of imported WAV
460
and AIFF files using standard importer
Default Sample Format File bit depthResolution im-
ported at
16 16 16
16 24 32
16 32 32
24 16 24
24 24 32
24 32 32
32 (default) 16 32
32 (default) 24 32
32 (default) 32 32
OGG is unusual in that it will always import at 16-bit reso-
lution using the standard OGG Vorbis importer, irrespec-
tive of Default Sample Format. This is due to the design
of the OGG codec. However OGG can be imported at
32-bit resolution using FFmpeg , as described at Using
the file type dropdown menu .
18.3.3 Four Ways to Import Audio
No matter which method you use to bring an audio file
into Audacity, the file is always imported into a saved or
unsaved Audacity project . The imported file always ap-
pears in a new track in that project. 1. File > Import >
Audio... If you select the File > Import > Audio... com-
mand, then choose one or more audio files, Audacity will
import the selected file(s) into the existing project. This
is useful to bring the content of one or more audio files
into a project that already contains audio (for example, to
mix several audio files together).2. File > Open... This
command behaves differently according to whether the
project window in which you use the Open command has
ever contained tracks of any type.
• If the project contains or has ever contained tracks
at some point in its history (so that Edit > Undo and
Edit > Redo are not empty), Open imports each file
you select into its own new project window. For ex-
ample, selecting three files would create three new
project windows, each containing one of the files
and each a separate project with its own history.
This is handy if you want to apply different actions
to different (or even the same) files and easily com-
pare the results of each.
• If the project is empty and has never contained any
tracks (for example, you used File > New to create
a new, empty project or used File > Close to close
an existing project), Open imports the first file into
the empty project window, then imports each sub-
sequent file into its own new project window.
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
As with the other three import methods, Open does not
directly open your selected file(s). The imported audio
data is converted into a large number of small files in AU
audio format, preserving the current quality of the data.
Conversion occurs even if you never explicitly save your
work as an Audacity project .So to save your edits to an
audio file for the computer you always have to choose an
Export command from the File Menu , even if you want
to overwrite the exact same file that you imported.3. File
> Recent Files (Open Recent on Mac) This command
imports a single file from a list of the 12 most recently im-
ported files or recently saved projects. The file opens in
a new window exactly as File > Open.4. Drag and drop
• On Windows and Mac
– Drag and drop one or more audio files into an
open Audacity project window: this is equiva-
lent to File > Import > Audio.
– Drag and drop one or more audio files onto
the Audacity icon: this is equivalent to File >
Open.
• On Linux:
– Drag and drop files into an open Audacity
Project window: this is equivalent to File > Im-
port > Audio.
– Drag and drop one or more audio files onto
the Audacity icon: only the first file will open.
More than one file dragged and dropped onto
the icon will do the same as the File > Open
command for the first file, but the other files will
generate an error message saying that Audac-
ity is already running.
Metadata: Each time an audio file is imported into
the same project window, the metadata tags for that file
replace the previously stored metadata for the project. So
if the last imported file has no metadata, the project will
no longer have any stored metadata. Using one of the
above methods that imports each file into its own project
window will ensure each file’s metadata is stored.
18.3.4 Using the file type dropdown menu
in the Open and Import Audio Di-
alogs
This menu (called "Format" on Mac) contains a list of dif-
ferent file types.
18.3. IMPORTING AUDIO
Choosing a particular file type in the menu performs two
functions.
• The file type choice filters the list of files in the
window by restricting it to files of that type.
• The file type choice determines which importer
attempts the file first when using the Open or Im-
port Audio dialogs. For example, a WAV file could
be imported by Audacity’s native WAV importer or
by the optional FFmpeg library if this was installed.
Additionally, rules for the order in which different im-
porters attempt files of particular types can be created at
Extended Import Preferences with an option to over-ride
the Open and Import Audio file type choice. See Import
Filtering and Importer Order for more details.
18.3.5 Importing Uncompressed Audio
Files
The two most common uncompressed file types you will
encounter are WAV and AIFF.
Warning Dialog when Importing Uncompressed Au-
dio Files
The first time you import an uncompressed audio file into
Audacity, you will see this dialog.
For each imported file, you can choose:
461
• Whether to copy the imported file’s data into the
project or to read its data directly from the file, as
described below.
• Whether to make your copy or read directly choice
permanent and never show this warning again.
Import Methods
• Make a copy before editing (safer)
– This is the default setting. When this option
is chosen, Audacity copies the imported file(s)
into the project’s audio data. It is essential
that files are copied into the project if the Au-
dacity project is to be moved, opened on an-
other computer or sent to someone else, or
if you need to to move, rename or delete the
original files.
– This option does not make a backup copy of
the original file in its original location. If you do
not want to lose the original content of the file
when exporting to the same file name and lo-
cation, please change the file name when ex-
porting.
• Read directly from the original (faster)
– When this option is chosen Audacity always
reads imported files from the folder you first
imported them from, without copying them into
the project. Therefore with this option set, you
must not move, rename or delete imported un-
compressed files, or the folder they are in. The
advantage of this option is that you can begin
editing a long file almost immediately, since
On-Demand Loading will be used to import the
file.
– If you export to the same file name and loca-
tion as the original file, Audacity will make a
copy of the original file’s content (renamed to
include "-old" and a number) and will then read
the project from this "-old" file. Therefore you
must not move, rename or delete any "-old"
files until you have completely finished work-
ing on the project.
You can change your import preference at any time in Im-
port / Export Preferences , and you can turn the warning
dialog on and off in Warnings Preferences .
Dependencies
If you import any uncompressed audio files into your
project using the "read directly" option, then your project
depends on those files remaining available. At any time
you can check which files your project depends on by
clicking on Help > Diagnostics > Check Dependencies...
462
. See the Dependencies Dialog page for details. When
you save a project you can choose whether or not to copy
dependent files into the project. See the Projects Prefer-
ences page for details.
18.3.6 Importing Compressed Audio Files
When you import a compressed audio file into your
project on Windows or Mac, either a lossy format like
MP3, MP2, M4A or Ogg Vorbis or the lossless com-
pressed FLAC format, there is no choice between "safer"
and "faster" - the file’s data is always copied into the
project. However by default on Linux, FLAC is imported
by the Audacity importer for uncompressed files, so the
warning for "Importing uncompressed audio files" will ap-
pear with the choice to copy in the audio or read it directly.
Reading directly permits faster On-Demand Loading .
Re-encoding lossy compressed audio filesIf you
18.4 Import Filtering and Importer Order
18.4.1 Using the Files of type: ... or Format
dropdown menu in the Open and Im-
port Audio Dialogs
The choice made in the "Files of type:" (Windows) or
"Format" (Mac OS/X) dropdown menu in these dialogs
does two things.
1. It restricts the file list to files of that type (or those
supported by that importer), according to the file
extension.
2. It chooses which importer to use.
The choices in the "Files of type:" or "Format" dropdown
menu are:
• All files
– All files in the list are selectable, even those
not supported by Audacity or FFmpeg
– The built-in Audacity importers will be tried
first, then FFmpeg (if installed)
• All supported files
– Only those files supported by Audacity or
FFmpeg (if installed) are selectable
– The built-in Audacity importers will be tried
first, then FFmpeg
• Audacity Projects - This option is available only
when you use the File > Open command
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
import a lossy compressed audio file into Audacity, edit
it then export it as a lossy compressed audio file, you
will lose quality twice, once in the original encoding of
the imported audio, then again when you export it from
Audacity as a compressed file. So never do production
work in lossy compressed audio formats, instead work
with a lossless format such as WAV, AIFF or FLAC and
for final use then export to compressed formats. See this
page in the Audacity Wiki for other applications that can
be used to directly edit MP3 audio files, thereby avoiding
lossy re-encoding.
18.3.7 Importing audio from CDs
Audacity does not contain any function for importing (rip-
ping) audio from CDs. This can, however, be achieved
by using other applications to extract the data into a file
format Audacity does support. See the tutorial How to
import CDs .
– Only Audacity project files (.aup) are se-
lectable
– No importer is involved, since you are opening
an Audacity project, not importing an audio file
• WAV, AIF and other uncompressed types
– Only uncompressed files are selectable
– The built-in Audacity importers will be tried
first, then FFmpeg (if installed)
* If the built-in Audacity importers are used
and "read directly" is chosen in Import
/ Export Preferences then On-Demand
Loading will be used. If the FFmpeg im-
porter is used, On-Demand Loading will
not be used.
• Ogg vorbis files, FLAC files, MP3 files
– Only files of the specified type are selectable
– The built-in Audacity importers will be tried
first, then FFmpeg (if installed)
• List of files in basic text format
– Only files ending in .lof are selectable. See
LOF Files for how to create and use LOF files.
– The importer used will depend on the files
pointed to by the LOF file.
18.5. SAMPLE DATA EXPORT
• FFmpeg compatible files - this option is only avail-
able if you have installed the optional FFmpeg ex-
tension.
– Any file types supported by FFmpeg are se-
lectable
– The FFmpeg importer will always be tried first
if "Attempt to use filter in OpenFile dialog first"
in Extended Import Preferences is checked,
otherwise the native importer will be tried first.
18.5 Sample Data Export
Sample Data Export reads the values of successive
samples from the selected audio and prints this data
to a plain text, CSV or HTML file. Further information
may be added as a "header" at the top of the file.See
also the companion tool Sample Data Import .Accessed
by:Analyze > Sample Data Export...
18.5.1 Limit output to first <n> samples
• The number of samples processed will be the num-
ber of samples in the selection, up to a maximum
of the number entered here. The default number of
samples is 100.
– Sample Data Export is limited internally to an
absolute maximum of 1 million samples.
– Processing a large number of samples can
create extremely large output files that may be
difficult to open. Very large TXT files can usu-
ally be opened succesfully in a word process-
ing application such as WordPad. For HTML
463
* Note that if this option is chosen and an
uncompressed file type is selected from
the list, On-Demand Loading will not be
used.
• QuickTime files - Mac only
– Any file type supported by QuickTime is se-
lectable
– QuickTime will be used to decode the file and
send it to Audacity
output it may be advisable to limit the number
of samples to a maximum of a few hundred.
– The track sample rate as indicated on the
Track Control Panel indicates the number of
samples per second. If the track and project
rates are the same, the number of samples in
a selection may be viewed in Selection Tool-
bar if you choose one of the selection formats
that includes samples.
18.5.2 Measurement scale
• dB: Sample values are displayed on a dB scale rel-
ative to full scale (as in the Waveform (dB) view )
• Linear: Values are displayed on a linear scale +/-
1 (as in the Audacity audio track Waveform view ).
18.5.3 File data format
Data in your chosen format as listed below appears af-
ter any header information which you included. Text files
where the output produces columns may not have per-
fectly lined-up columns due to formatting limitations of
text files.
• Sample List (txt): produces a plain text file with a
list of sample values.
• Indexed List (txt): produces a plain text file with
an indexed list of sample values: sample number
followed by sample value.
• Time Indexed (txt): produces a plain text file with
the time (relative to the start of the selection) fol-
lowed by sample value
• Data (csv): produces a CSV formatted file. This
may be suitable for importing into spreadsheet ap-
plications for further analysis.
464
• Web Page (html): produces an HTML 5 document
that contains all of the header information and a ta-
ble of sample data with sample number, time, linear
and dB values. Web browsers that are not HTML 5
compliant may not display the page correctly.
18.5.4 Include header information
• None: Prints only the sample data, preceded by
any text you entered in the optional header text box
(leave blank for none).
• Minimal: Prints a minimal header that contains:
– Sample rate
– Units (linear or dB)
– Optional header text (leave blank for none)
• Standard: In addition to the Minimal header infor-
mation, the following is also included:
– File name
– Number of samples
– Duration (seconds)
– Mono or stereo
• All: In addition to the Standard header information,
the following is also included:
– Peak amplitude (linear and dB)
– Unweighted RMS level (dB)
– DC offset
Irrespective of the header information chosen for the file,
by default the Standard information above plus the file
name and folder is displayed in a confirmation message
on successful completion of the export.
18.5.5 Optional header text
This is provided for adding notes to the output file. In text
files, use ~~% to start a new line, or in HTML files use
<br>.
18.5.6 Channel layout for stereo
The following examples are shown in "Indexed List" for-
mat (with index numbers preceding the sample values),
not the default "Sample List" format.For TXT and CSV
files, provides a layout choice for stereo tracks.
• L-R on Same Line: Prints a list of alternate left
channel sample followed by right channel sample.
For .CSV files this will produce a column of sam-
ple values for each channel:1 0.59528 1 0.59528 2
0.56063 2 0.56063 3 0.52377 3 0.52377 ...
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
• Alternate Lines: Prints a sample value from the
left channel followed by a sample value from the
right channel on the same line:1 0.59528 1 0.59528
2 0.56063 2 0.56063 3 0.52377 3 0.52377 ...
• L Channel First: All the left channel samples are
listed, followed by all of the right channel samples.
For .CSV files this will produce a row of values for
each channel:Left Channel. 1 0.59528 2 0.56063 3
0.52377 ... Right Channel. 1 0.59528 2 0.56063 3
0.52377 ...
18.5.7 Show messages
• Yes: (default) Confirmation, error and warning
messages will be shown after processing.
• Errors Only: Only error messages will be shown
after processing.
• None: No messages will be shown after process-
ing.
If you press the Debug button, you can view Standard in-
formation in a separate text window even if confirmation
messages are disabled.It may be useful to disable confir-
mation messages if Sample Data Export is to be used in
a Chain for batch processing .
18.5.8 File name
The desired name of the output file. A file name exten-
sion is not required as it will be added automatically.
18.5.9 Output folder
The default output folder is the Home directory. This is
normally:
• Windows: <root>
Users
<username>
• Mac: /Users/<username>
• Linux: /home/<username>
To select a different output folder, enter the full path
name, for example D:
Samples Text Files. The output folder must exist. On
Linux, the abbreviation ~/ may be used for the home di-
rectory.
18.6. SAMPLE DATA IMPORT
18.5.10 Allow files to be overwritten
• No: This is the default choice. If the selected file al-
ready exists the chosen file name will be appended
with a number. For example, if output.txt is the
chosen name and that file already exists, the cho-
sen name will be changed to output1.txt. If that
file also exists the name will be changed to out-
put2.txt, and so on until a unique name is found.
• Yes: If the file name already exists, it will be over-
written without prompting.
If you select multiple tracks and Allow files to be
overwritten is set to No, they will be saved to separate
files with a number appended to the name. If you set Al-
low files to be overwritten to Yes, only the last file for
multiple tracks will be retained.
18.5.11 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
18.6 Sample Data Import
Sample Data Import reads numeric values from a plain
ASCII text file and creates a PCM sample for each nu-
meric value read. The values are read as 32-bit floating
point numbers, where a range of +/- 1.0 represents 0 dB
(full scale).
• The file MUST be plain ASCII text, and values
should be separated by spaces, tabs or line-breaks.
• The file name must have a ’.txt’ file extension.
See also the companion tool Sample Data Export
.Accessed by:Generate > Sample Data Import...
465
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
Batch processing with Sample Data ExportNyquist ef-
fect plug-ins are supported in Chains, but Analyze (and
Generate) plug-ins are not supported. So to use Sample
Data Export in a Chain it is necessary to convert it into an
Effect plug-in. To do this, the file sample-data-export.ny
must be edited. The file sample-data-export.ny can be
found in the "Plug-Ins" folder inside the Audacity installa-
tion folder. On Windows computers, this is usually under
"Program Files". On Mac, it is usually under "Applica-
tions". On Linux, you can use various plug-in locations .
To convert Sample Data Export into an Effect type plug-
in, open the file in a plain text editor (such as Notepad on
Windows) and change the third line:
;type analyzeto:
;type process Save the file in the same location and
restart Audacity. Sample Data Export... will now appear
underneath the divider in the "Effect" menu rather than
the "Analyze" menu, and will be available for use in a
Chain.
18.5.12 Links
|< Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers
|< Analyze Menu
18.6.1 File name
The name of the file to import the data from. A file name
extension of .txt is required.
The file to be imported must contain only plain
ASCII text. Files other than plain ASCII text are NOT
SUPPORTED.
18.6.2 File location (path to file)
This is the directory (folder) where Sample Data Import
will look for the named text file. If the file cannot be found,
the plug-in will abort and an error will be shown. The de-
fault directory is the Home directory. This is normally:
466
• Windows: <root>
Users
<username>
• Mac: /Users/<username>
• Linux: /home/<username>
If the "File location" is not defined (empty), the plug-in will
look in the "home" folder for the named file.To select a dif-
ferent output folder, enter the full path name, for example
D:
Samples Text Files. On Linux and Mac, the abbreviation
~/ may be used for the home directory.
18.6.3 Invalid data handling
The specified text file should normally contain numbers
only (see: Data Format below). If invalid data is present
in the file (non-numeric text), there are two ways in which
this invalid data may be handled:
1. Throw error (default): Any text that cannot be read
as a numeric value will abort the effect and display
an error message. The error message will attempt
to display the invalid text.
2. Read as zero: Any text that cannot be read as a
numeric value will produce a zero (silent) sample
value. This may be useful when attempting to read
data that has been generated by a third party ap-
plication that could, for example, produce "infinite"
values.
18.6.4 Data format
Sample data must be plain ASCII text only and should
be numeric values only. The decimal separator must be
a period. The values are read as 32-bit float numbers,
where a range of +/- 1.0 represents 0 dB (full scale). Val-
ues must be separated by one of:
1. One or more spaces.
2. One or more tabs.
3. One or more line breaks.
4. Any combination of the above.
Assuming that no errors are encountered, data import
terminates at the end of the file.
Number of channels
If a stereo track is selected before opening the effect,
then the data is assumed to be stereo, otherwise the data
will be treated as mono. Stereo data must be interleaved
(alternate left/right sample values).
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
Data comments
Comments may be included in the file by preceding the
comment with a semicolon. All text between a semicolon
and the end of the line is ignored. Files already exported
from "Sample Data Export" that are compatible with Sam-
ple Data Import except for their text headers can thus be
imported perfectly with the default "Throw error" handling
by preceding each header line with a semicolon.
18.6.5 Obtaining suitable data
One of the simplest ways to produce data in a suitable
format is to use the Sample Data Export effect. Alter-
natively, data may be generated from third party applica-
tions, from spreadsheet data, or even manually typed in
a text editor.
Obtain data from ’Sample Data Export’
To obtain suitable data from Sample Data Export , ensure
the following settings:
• Measurement scale: "Linear"
• File data format: "Sample List (txt)"
• Include header information: "None"
• Optional header text: none (empty)
• Channel layout for stereo: "L-R on Same Line" or
"Alternate Lines"
• File name: must end with ".txt" or leave empty for
".txt" to be added automatically
18.6.6 Buttons
Clicking on the command buttons give the following re-
sults:
• Manage gives a dropdown menu enabling you to
manage presets for the tool and to see some detail
about the tool. For details see Manage presets .
• OK applies the effect to the selected audio with the
current effect settings.
• Cancel aborts the effect and leaves the audio un-
changed.
• brings you to the appropriate page in the
Manual, this page.
18.7. EXPORTING TO AN EXTERNAL PROGRAM
18.6.7 Examples
The data below represents two cycles of a 1000 Hz mono
sine wave, amplitude 0.5: ;This is a comment and will
be ignored. 0.07100 0.14056 0.20727 0.26978 0.32682
0.37724 0.42001 0.45428 0.47933 0.49468 0.50000
0.49518 0.48034 0.45575 0.42193 0.37957 0.32951
0.27277 0.21050 0.14397 0.07452 0.00356 -0.06747 -
0.13713 -0.20402 -0.26677 -0.32411 -0.37489 -0.41807
-0.45278 -0.47831 -0.49415 -0.49997 -0.49566 -0.48131
-0.45721 -0.42384 -0.38188 -0.33218 -0.27575 -0.21373
-0.14738 -0.07804 -0.00712 0.06394 0.13370 0.20076
0.26375 0.32139 0.37252 0.41611 0.45125 0.47726
18.7 Exporting to an External Program
Exporting to an External Program sends audio via a
command-line to an external application, either for pro-
cessing or for encoding as a file. This is a way to export
to the installed LAME MP3 encoder or FFmpeg en-
coder with additional parameters not supported in the op-
tions dialogs in the Export Audio Dialog . Command-line
export could also be used to export to the very latest ver-
sions of LAME or FFmpeg, to an alternative MP3 encoder
or to a specialised encoder in a format not otherwise sup-
ported by Audacity.Accessed by: File > Save Other > Ex-
port Audio... , then choose (external program) from the
Save as type dropdown menu.
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multi-
ple... then choosing (external program) from the Save
as type dropdown menu.
467
0.49359 0.49992 0.49612 0.48226 0.45864 0.42571
0.38416 0.33483 0.27871 0.21694 0.15078 0.08156
0.01068 -0.06040 -0.13027 -0.19749 -0.26072 -0.31866
-0.37014 -0.41412 -0.44971 -0.47618 -0.49301 -0.49984
-0.49655 -0.48319 -0.46004 -0.42757 -0.38643 -0.33747
-0.28166 -0.22015 -0.15417 -0.08507 -0.01425
The data below represents a stereo track with a ramp
from 0 to 1 in the left channel, and a ramp from 0 to -1 in
the right channel: 0.00000 -0.00000 0.10000 -0.10000
0.20000 -0.20000 0.30000 -0.30000 0.40000 -0.40000
0.50000 -0.50000 0.60000 -0.60000 0.70000 -0.70000
0.80000 -0.80000 0.90000 -0.90000 1.00000 -1.00000
18.7.1 Specify Export location
From the Export Audio dialog, choose the file name and
suitable extension .
18.7.2 Format Options
In the Command: box type:
1. The path to the program
2. If the program syntax requires it, space then the
infile command
3. Space, hyphen
4. If required, space then valid output options for the
file
5. If the program syntax requires it, space then the
outfile command
6. Finally (assuming file output), space then "%f".
The "%f" command passes the file name and extension
entered in the Export Audio dialog as the output file of the
external program. Two default commands are provided:
lame - "%f" and
ffmpeg -i - "%f" The "Command" box holds up to the
last 12 items entered. When a thirteenth command is
entered, the first one (at the bottom of the list) is re-
moved. Note: Metadata Editor does not appear before
command-line exports, nor are any tags it already con-
tains passed to the external program. Use the appropri-
ate command for your program to write metadata to the
output file as described below.
468
18.7.3 Setting the path to the encoder
Accessing the LAME or FFmpeg command-line program
with just the "lame" or "ffmpeg" command only works on
Windows and Linux, assuming LAME or FFmpeg are in-
stalled on the system in the standard location. On Win-
dows, this requires that you used the LAME or FFmpeg
EXE installer and did not change the installation direc-
tory. For using a zip version of LAME or FFmpeg and on
Mac, the full path to the command-line program must be
given. The path must be enclosed inside quotes if there
are any spaces in the path. You can use the Browse but-
ton Browse... to find and open the executable application
which will add the correct path to the command.
18.7.4 LAME examples
If you are exporting to MP3 with LAME, there is a com-
plete list of commands including metadata tags on the
usage page. For example, the default LAME command
creates a 64 kbps (mono) or 128 kbps (stereo) constant
bit rate MP3 at quality level "3".
lame - "%f" To produce a variable bit rate MP3 of min-
imum 112 kbps bit rate , with a copyright marker and
CRC error checking enabled:
lame - -v -b 112 -c -p "%f" By default, both ID3v1 and
ID3v2 tags are exported. The following command writes
a title tag "my song title" and year tag "2001" in ID3v1 (at
the bottom of the file) and ID3v2 (at the top of the file):
lame - –tt "my song title" –ty 2001 "%f" To export only
ID3v1 or ID3v2 tags use –id3v1-only or –id3v2-only, for
example:
lame - –id3v1-only –tt "my song title" –ty 2001 "%f"
18.7.5 FFmpeg examples
If exporting using FFmpeg, you can view the FFm-
peg command-line usage in the FFmpeg documen-
tation. Guidance on valid metadata tags for vari-
ous formats supported by FFmpeg can be found at
http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=FFmpeg_Metadata.
For example this command exports to 256 kbps MP2 us-
ing FFmpeg:
ffmpeg -i - -acodec mp2 -ab 256000 "%f" Next, here are
two example commands that use "-strict experimental" to
specify the native FFmpeg AAC encoder. The native en-
coder is required to export more than stereo, up to a max-
imum of 6 channels. To export up to 8 channels you must
point the same command to latest FFmpeg-git. Change
the value before "k" in the following command to set a
different bit rate in kbps. Note: "-strict experimental" is
not required in this command if using latest FFmpeg-git:
ffmpeg -i - -strict experimental -c:a aac -b:a 240k "%f"
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
The following command specifies a VBR quality range in-
stead of bit rate:
ffmpeg -i - -strict experimental -c:a aac -q:a 10 "%f"
Here is an example of a command to FFmpeg in an ar-
bitrary location on Windows, forcing the exported codec
to Apple lossless. When specifying the file name above
the command, add the extension ".m4a" (without quotes),
not .alac:
"E:
FFmpeg for Audacity
ffmpeg.exe" -i - -acodec alac "%f"
Finally, here is an example command to FFmpeg in an
arbitrary location on Mac, setting metadata for genre and
artist/composer in an exported M4A file with the standard
AAC ( lossy ) codec:
/Applications/FFmpeg_for_Audacity_on_OSX/ffmpeg -i -
-metadata genre="pop" -metadata author="Jo S" "%f"
18.7.6 FLAC examples
See https://xiph.org/flac/documentation_tools_flac.html
for FLAC command-line syntax and options. This com-
mand exports a FLAC file without any options:
"C:
Program Files (x86)
FLAC
flac.exe" - -o "%f"
This command exports a FLAC file, specifying TITLE and
ARTIST tags:
"C:
Program Files (x86)
FLAC
flac.exe" - -T "TITLE=Bohemian Rhapsody" -T
"ARTIST=Queen" -o "%f"
18.7.7 Other controls
• Browse... Opens a "Find path to command" win-
dow where you can select the command-line pro-
gram you want to use. Clicking "Open" will then
enter the path to that program in the "Command:"
box, ready for you to add the commands and "%f"
after the path.
• Show output If checked, a Command Output win-
dow in Audacity will display a success or failure
message from the external program. If unchecked,
the window will only appear in the case of an error
message.
18.8. EXPORT FORMATS SUPPORTED BY AUDACITY
18.7.8 Limitation
Audacity will not be able to export more than 16-bit depth
for uncompressed formats because the STDIN it sends
18.8 Export Formats supported by Audacity
This page describes audio file formats which can be ex-
ported to using the Export Audio / Export Selected Au-
dio and Export Multiple dialogs. To export to MP3 you
must install the optional LAME encoder and to export to
formats listed as "FFmpeg" you must install the optional
FFmpeg library .
Many format types have size, quality or encoding
options. Select the format type then click the Options...
button in the Export Audio / Selected Audio or Export
Multiple dialog to view the options for that selected for-
mat.You can click the first link in each format listed below
to view the Options page for that format.
18.8.1 Uncompressed format types
The following are all uncompressed audio formats in
which every sample of sound is represented by a bi-
nary number. The most common uncompressed formats
are WAV and AIFF . There is no loss of quality com-
pared to the original audio when playing uncompressed
formats, except for some possible loss of low frequen-
cies in the 4-bit (A)DPCM formats. Those 4-bit formats
and the lossless 8-bit U-Law/A-Law formats save file size
by reducing their bit depth , in a similar way that any
of the uncompressed formats can be made proportion-
ately smaller by reducing their sample rate (and thus
reducing the high frequencies they can contain). GSM
6.10 WAV (mobile) will also exhibit considerable loss of
quality as it was a format designed for mobile telephony.
• Other uncompressed files : includes all the un-
compressed audio formats that Audacity can ex-
port, including 4-bit (A)DPCM, 8-bit U-Law/A-Law,
24-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit options. Also GSM 6.10
WAV (mobile) which produces a mono WAV file
encoded with the compressed, lossy GSM 6.10
codec as used in mobile telephones. This menu
item defaults to WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM
on Windows and Linux and to AIFF (Apple/SGI)
signed 16-bit PCM on Mac.
• AIFF (Apple/SGI) signed 16-bit PCM No options
for this format: AIFF is a lossless format that can
both be played on Mac and Windows computers,
though it is far more likely to be selected by Mac
469
to the executable application is limited to 16-bit integer.
users. AIFF 16-bit PCM is suitable whenever you
want to burn your exported file to an audio CD .
• WAV (Microsoft) signed 16-bit PCM No options
for this format: WAV is a lossless format that can
both be played on Windows or Mac computers.
WAV 16-bit PCM is eminently suitable whenever
you want to burn your exported file to an audio CD
.
• WAV (Microsoft) 32-bit float No options for this
format: 32-bit float WAV is a lossless format, a
maximum quality "raw capture" file. 32-bit float res-
olution gives the highest quality of the three uncom-
pressed choices, but takes twice the storage space
on disk compared to 16-bit resolution. It will not
play on many players or player apps. It is mostly
useful as a backup archive of raw captured record-
ings or finished projects.
16-bit WAV and AIFF formats produce large files and are
best-suited for use on computers rather than portable
players or devices.
18.8.2 Compressed format types
Size-compressed formats produce files that are usu-
ally significantly smaller than uncompressed formats, as
seen in the table below. The file formats that are signifi-
cantly smaller are always of lower quality than the origi-
nal audio, but are well suited for use on portable devices
where storage space is limited.
• MP3 Files : MP3 is a popular compressed ,
lossy format producing much smaller files than
WAV or AIFF, at the expense of some loss of qual-
ity. You must download the optional LAME encoder
to export to MP3.
• OGG Vorbis Files : Ogg Vorbis is the com-
pressed, lossy Vorbis codec in an OGG container.
Vorbis offers higher quality than MP3 for the same
file size, and is useful for good quality small-sized
mono files, but fewer applications can play the OGG
format.
• FLAC Files : FLAC is a compressed but lossless
format, giving much larger file sizes than MP3 and
OGG but only about half the size of WAV.
470
• MP2 Files : MP2 is a compressed, lossy format
similar to MP3, producing slightly larger files than
MP3 for the same quality.
18.8.3 External program
• (external program) : sends audio via the
command-line to any executable binary application
either for processing or for encoding as a file. This
is a method to export using an alternative com-
pressed or uncompressed encoder or to a format
not otherwise supported by Audacity.
18.8.4 FFmpeg format types (mostly com-
pressed)
The following export types are listed in released builds
of Audacity on Windows and Mac, and in other builds
where FFmpeg is enabled. They will only function if you
install the optional FFmpeg library . The following four
formats are small-sized compressed formats giving file
sizes comparable to or smaller than MP3.
• M4A (AAC) Files (FFmpeg) : Advanced Audio
Coding is a compressed, lossy format used in Ap-
ple applications, generally achieving slightly better
quality than MP3 for the same file size. By default,
the exported file will be given an "m4a" extension.
Optional permitted extensions: .mp4, .m4r (ring-
tone) and .3gp (mobile).
• AC3 Files (FFmpeg) : the common name used for
the compressed, lossy format used in Dolby Digital.
• AMR (narrow band) Files (FFmpeg) : the Adap-
tive Multi-Rate codec is a patented compression
scheme optimized for speech, but also used for mo-
bile telephone ringtones. The wide band variant
uses higher bandwidth for higher quality.
• WMA (version 2) Files (FFmpeg) : Windows Me-
dia Audio v2 is a compressed, lossy format devel-
oped by Microsoft. Optional permitted extensions:
.asf or .wmv.
Custom FFmpeg Export
• Custom FFmpeg Export : Allows interface-based
export of some additional compressed or uncom-
pressed formats not listed above, and options for
exporting formats containing alternative codecs (for
example, WAV format containing MP3 or OGG for-
mat containing FLAC). Note: not all formats and
codecs are compatible, and some exports might re-
sult in zero-byte or invalid files if FFmpeg does not
support the combination chosen. The most flexible
method to export to more formats using FFmpeg
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
(or using any alternative encoder of your choice)
is therefore to select (external program) as above
and use the command-line encoder. See How can
I export to formats not listed in the Export Audio
Dialog? for more information.
18.8.5 File size and channel comparisons
by export format
The following table gives typical achieved mono and
stereo file sizes with different formats at default Audac-
ity settings (that is, 44100 Hz sample rate and default
bit rate or quality settings in the case of compressed
formats). Where VBR compression is employed, the
achieved size will vary depending on the content. Some
formats can be exported as multi-channel files containing
more than two channels, if you enable this at "Use cus-
tom mix" in the Import / Export Preferences . The final
column in the table shows the maximum number of chan-
nels Audacity can export for each format. Some formats
may theoretically support more channels than Audacity
can export.
FormatLossyCompressionFile size (MB per
minute):File size limit:Channels
mono stereo
WAV 16-bit PCM No None 5.0 10.0 4 GB(1)32
AIFF 16-bit PCM No None 5.0 10.0 4 GB(1)32
FLAC 16-bit No VBR 2.5 5.0 8
M4A (AAC) Yes VBR - 1.1 32(2)
WMA v2 Yes CBR 1.3 1.3 8(3)
AC3 Yes CBR 1.1 1.1 7
MP2 Yes CBR 1.1 1.1 2
MP3 Yes CBR (optional VBR) 1.0 (CBR) 1.0 (CBR) 2
Ogg Vorbis Yes VBR 0.5 1.0 32
GSM 6.10 WAV Yes CBR 0.5 - 1
AMR (NB) Yes CBR 0.1 - 1
(1)The practical file size limit is 2 GB in many player appli-
cations due to their interpretation of the file size header.
This also applies to 24-bit and 32-bit files where those bit
depths are valid.
(2)More than 2 channels output is not supported with the
recommended FFmpeg 2.2.2 library, unless you export
using (external program) with a command that tells Au-
dacity to explicitly use the native FFmpeg encoder. This
produces maximum 6 channels. For up to 8 channels,
point the same command to the latest FFmpeg-git.
(3)A maximum of 2 channels can be written using the
"WMA (version 2) Files (FFmpeg)" export choice or FFm-
peg at the command-line using (external program) . To
18.9. EXPORT MULTIPLE
encode other WMA formats, export using (external pro-
gram) and point to a command-line WMA encoder. lvqcl’s
command-line WMA encoder can export as WMA V9,
WMA Lossless and WMA 10 Professional (but limited to
maximum 6 channels, despite WMA 10 Professional sup-
ports 8 channels).
18.8.6 Exporting to formats not listed in
the Export Audio Dialog
If you install the optional FFmpeg library you can use the
(FFmpeg) choices in the Export Audio Dialog to export
M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA . If
18.9 Export Multiple
The Export Multiple dialog appears in response to the
File > Save Other > Export Multiple... command. This
command exports multiple files at once, either one file
for each Audacity audio track , or one file for each label
placed below audio tracks. Exporting Multiple by labels
is a convenient way to export separate files for each track
in a long recording .For Export Multiple, selections in the
waveform play no part in determining the audio that is ex-
ported.See the Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs
to CD for an example of how this is used.
18.9.1 Export Location and Format
• Folder: Shows the location to which the audio files
will be exported.
• Choose: Clicking the Choose button opens a stan-
dard File Export Dialog in which you select the lo-
cation to which the files will be exported.
• Create: Type a file path in the "Folder:" box then
click the Create button and that directory will be
created. If a partial file path is specified that direc-
471
you do not see a choice for one of those specific FFm-
peg formats, then the build of FFmpeg you are linking
to was not compiled to support encoding in that format.
The most flexible method to export to more formats is
to choose (external program) in the Export Audio Dialog
which opens the dialog for Audacity’s command-line en-
coder . Point your command to an encoder that supports
the format you want to write to, which could be FFmpeg
or some other encoder (for example, an alternative AAC
or MP3 encoder). On Windows, the recommended EXE
installer of FFmpeg includes an ffmpeg.exe which you
can use for this purpose. On Mac, you can download a
standalone "ffmpeg" binary if you search online. Please
see formats supported by FFmpeg on the Audacity Wiki.
tory will be created in the same folder in which the
Audacity application resides. For example, typing
"myLP/myTracks" in the Export Location box and
then clicking the Create button will create the folder
"myLP" in the same directory as the Audacity appli-
cation, and the folder "myTracks" inside the "myLP"
folder.
Use the Create function with caution and only if you
know what you are doing - it is possible to create fold-
ers in non-standard locations for your operating system.
Note that you will receive a "success" message even
when you specify an existing file path or directory.
• Format: Choose one of the available export for-
mats from this menu. See Export Formats sup-
ported by Audacity for advice on which format to
choose.
18.9.2 Options
Use the Options pane to choose the options for the ex-
port format you have selected. It enables you to make
settings like quality or encoding for formats with options.
As an example, here is the Export Multiple dialog with
the MP3 format selected showing the options available
for that format:
472
Custom FFmpeg and (external program) export op-
tions
When you select Custom FFmpeg Export in the Format
dropdown, the Options pane will contain the Open cus-
tom FFmpeg format options button. See Custom FFm-
peg Export Options for more details. When you choose
(external program) in the dropdown, a text box will be
provided to enter the export command.
When exporting using Custom FFmpeg Export or
(external program), Audacity will not add an extension
to the file name. As workarounds:
• add the appropriate file extension to the labels or
the track names
• add the extension to the files after export.
18.9.3 Split files based on:
• Examples for numbering before: If you had a label
• Tracks: Export each audio track in your project to
a separate file. File names are based on the track
names. Any labels in the project are ignored.
• Labels: Choose this option if your project contains
labels as well as one or more audio tracks. Only
labels in the uppermost label track are used for ex-
port. If more than one audio track is above the up-
permost label track, the audio of all those tracks will
be mixed into the exported files, unless you press
the Mute button on some of the tracks to exclude
them from the mix.
• The label track must contain at least one point or
region label, thus: • Point labels mark the start of
each section of audio you want to make into a sep-
arate file• Region labels span each section of audio
you want to make into a separate file.
– Include audio before first label: Check this
option only if you do not have a point label
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
marking the start of the first file or do not have
a region label spanning the first file.
– First file name: If you have checked "Include
audio before first label", this option will be en-
abled. Type in the name you want to be used
for the first exported audio file. If you have im-
ported audio files, this text box contains the
name of the first imported file, but you can still
change the text.
For both splitting files based on tracks or labels, the meta-
data exported for each file will be the same (except for
Track Title and Track Number) unless your Import / Ex-
port Preferences are set to show Metadata Editor and
you enter the metadata for each file manually. If you
want to import and export multiple audio files and pre-
serve each file’s tag values automatically, use Chains in-
stead.
18.9.4 Name files:
• Using Label/Track name: Each file will be named
exactly as the text of each label if "Split files based
on Labels" was selected, or exactly as the name of
each track if "Split files based on Tracks" was se-
lected. If any labels are empty (track names cannot
be empty), Audacity will name each associated file
as "untitled" and add a number as necessary to dis-
tinguish multiple "untitled" files.
• Numbering before Label/Track Name: Label or
track names are used but a consecutive two-digit
number and hyphen are prefixed to each file name.
The numbering starts from "00-" if you chose "In-
clude audio before first label", or from "01-" if you
did not. This is a good choice if you are burning
tracks to an Audio CD .
named "Reflection" marking the start of the first file, fol-
lowed by a label marked "Rejoicing", then the exported
files would be "01-Reflection" and "02-Rejoicing"; If the
labels were empty in the above case, the exported files
would be "01-untitled" and "02-untitled".
• Numbering after File Name Prefix: Label or track
names are ignored. Instead, each file is named us-
ing a standard prefix specified in "File Name Prefix"
below followed by a hyphen and a consecutive two-
digit number. The numbering starts from "-00" if
you chose "Include audio before first label", or from
"-01" if you did not.
• File Name Prefix: Specifies a file name prefix to
be used which will be followed by consecutive num-
bering. This name will default to the name of the
project that you see in the Audacity title bar. If your
first action in a project was to import audio files, this
text box contains the name of the first imported file.
You may change the text to whatever you like.
18.9. EXPORT MULTIPLE 473

Example for numbering after: If you had labels that

marked the start of the second and third files, chose "In-
clude audio before first label" and entered "Remaster" as
the prefix, then the exported files would be "Remaster-
00", "Remaster-01" and "Remaster-02".

18.9.5 Overwrite existing files

This item is off (unchecked) by default; if unchecked, any

files to be exported which have the same name as pre-
existing files in the export location will be renamed with
a hyphen and numerical suffix. The pre-existing files are
left "as is". The first file which is exported with an iden-
tical name is renamed with suffix "-2" and subsequent
files exported with that same name are renamed with suf-
fix "-3", "-4" and so on. When checked, any pre-existing
files in the chosen export location which have the same
name as the file to be exported will be replaced (without
prompt) by the new file. However, there is an exception
to this; if the Export Multiple process would create identi-
cally named files based on label text or track name these
files will not be overwritten but given an ascending nu-
merical suffixes.
The green bar is a visual progress indicator. The Elapsed
Time and Remaining Time are based on an estimate
of the total time needed to export the file (the estimate
may change as the export progresses). Clicking the Stop
button immediately stops the current export, leaving the
partly exported file in place. It then it moves on to start
processing the next labeled section. Clicking the Can-
cel button immediately stops the current export, leaving
the part exported file then cancels the rest of the exports,
returning to the Export Multiple dialog.
18.9.8 Export results

Once multiple exporting has completed, a status window

18.9.6 Export and Cancel is displayed showing the resulting files:

Clicking the Export button will export the audio to the

folder location, with the file name(s) and type you have
selected. Clicking the Cancel button will abort the export
dialog without exporting any files. {{note|

• After pressing "Export", Metadata Editor (for em-

bedded file information such as artist or genre) will
appear for each file to be exported, unless you dis-
able it for the export step in the Import / Export Pref-
erences .

• If splitting files based on Tracks, any audio behind

0.0 on the Timeline (indicated by two left-pointing
arrows at left of the waveform ) is included in the ex-
port. With single exports , audio behind 0.0 is only
exported if explicitly selected and then exported us-
ing the File > Save Other > Export Selected Audio...
command.

Click the OK button to close this results dialog.

18.9.7 Export progress dialog
Once you have clicked the Export button, or the final
metadata OK button, Audacity will display a dialog en-
abling you to monitor the progress of the export:
18.9.9 Examples of use of labels with Ex-
port Multiple
In the following examples the choices in the dialog would
be: "Split files based on: Labels" and "Name files: Using
474
Label/Track name".
Case 1: A point label marking each song
• In this case the first file will be named "First song"
and will contain the audio between the "First song"
label and the "Second song" label.
• Similarly the second file will be named "Second
song" and will contain the audio between the "Sec-
ond song" label and the "Third song" label, and so
on for the rest of the labels.
• The last file will contain the audio from the last la-
bel to the end of the audio track and will be named
according to the last label in the label track.
Case 2: A region label marking each song
• In this case the first file will be named "First song"
and will contain the audio spanned by the "First
song" label.
• Similarly the second file will be named "Second
song" and will contain the audio spanned by the
"Second song" label, and so on for the rest of the
labels.
• Any audio beyond the last region label will not be
exported
Case 3: A point label marking each song except the
first
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
This is a case where you would want to check "Include
audio before first label" and supply a file name in the
"First file name" text box.
• The first file will be named whatever is typed into
the "First file name" text box and will contain the
audio between the start of the track and the "Sec-
ond song" label.
• Similarly the second file will be named "Second
song" and will contain the audio between the "Sec-
ond song" label and the "Third song" label, and so
on for the rest of the labels.
• The last file will contain the audio from the last label
to the end of the audio track.
Case 4: Region labels marking two chosen songs
In this case we want to export only two songs - perhaps
songs by the same artist from a compilation album. Each
song is marked with a region label.
• Only two files will be exported - "Second Song"
and "Fourth Song" - corresponding to the audio
spanned by those labels. No other audio will be
exported.
Case 5: A mix of point and region labels
In the case above we have an interview with a series of
questions (upper track) and answers (lower track), and
a concluding statement by the interviewer. We want to
export the question-answer pairs and the interviewer’s
conclusion as separate files. In most cases the question-
answer pairs follow one after another, so point labels are
a quick and convenient way to mark them. However after
the third answer, the interviewer is told by the studio man-
ager that time is running out, and the two parties discuss
this. We want to omit this exchange.
• We mark the start of the first two question-answer
pairs with point labels "QA1" and QA2".
18.10. EXPORT OPTIONS
• We mark the third pair with a region label "QA3"
since we want to omit the discussion about running
out of time.
• We mark the start of the fourth pair with point label
"QA4" and the start of the interviewer’s conclusion
with point label "Outro".
So this is what will be exported:
• The first file will be named "QA1" and will include
the audio between the "QA1" and "QA2" point la-
bels.
• The second file will be named "QA2" and will in-
clude the audio between the "QA2" point label and
the start of the "QA3" region label.
• The third file will be named "QA3" and will include
the audio spanned by the "QA3" region label.
• The fourth file will be named "QA4" and will include
18.10 Export Options
This screenshot shows the Export Audio dialog with op-
tions for MP3 format export:
Options for the various formats are:
• MP3 Export Options
• AAC Export Options
• AC3 Export Options
• AMR Export Options
• Custom FFmpeg Export Options
475
the audio between the "QA4" and "QA5" point la-
bels. Note that the audio between the end of the
"QA3" region label and the "QA4" point label is not
exported.
• The final file will be named "Outro" and will include
the audio between the "Outro" label and the end.
Had we decided to cut off the conclusion half way
through, we would have selected what we wanted
to keep and labeled that, producing a region label
"Outro" instead. Then the audio beyond the "Outro"
label would not have been exported.
Note that in order to export the pairs and the conclusion
excluding the interruption, we could equally have drawn
region labels for each, similarly to Case 4 above. Had
we needed to edit each of these regions individually be-
fore export, it might have made sense to label them as
regions in any case.
• FLAC Export Options
• MP2 Export Options
• Ogg Vorbis Export Options
• Other uncompressed files Export Options
• WMA Export Options
• Advanced Mixing Options
By default, all exports are mixed down to mono (one
channel) or stereo (two channels). If you want to ex-
port to more channels, enable "Use custom mix" in Im-
port / Export Preferences . After pressing "Save" in the
export dialog, the Advanced Mixing Options dialog ap-
pears where you can map the Audacity tracks to chan-
nels. Metadata Editor (if enabled) appears after OK’ing
the Advanced Mixing Options.
Custom FFmpeg export options
In the Export dialog when you select Custom FFmpeg
Export in the Save as type dropdown, then the Options
pane will contain the Open custom FFmpeg format op-
tions button. Clicking on the button will bring up the cus-
tom options dialog. See Custom FFmpeg Export Options
for more details.
Note that when using custom FFmpeg export it is
necessary to supply the full file name and the extension
in the File name: field as Audacity does not automati-
cally add the extension in this case. Otherwise you will
476
need to manually add the extension to the file name after
18.11 AAC Export Options
AAC is a lossy , compressed audio format. It is
the default audio format for Apple iTunes®, iPod® and
iPhone®. Accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Au-
dio... then choosing M4A(AAC) Files FFmpeg from the
Save as type dropdown menu
18.12 AC3 Export Options
AC3 is a compressed audio format developed by Dolby
Laboratories, often used in DVD production. Accessed
by: File > Save Other > Export Audio... then choosing
AC3 Files (FFmpeg) from the Save as type dropdown
menu.
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
export.
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
then choosing M4A(AAC) Files FFmpeg from the Save
as type dropdown menu. In this case the options dialog
will appear in the center of the Export Multiple dialog.
FFmpeg is not shipped with Audacity but you can
download it and then export as AAC by following these
instructions .
18.11.1 AAC Export Setup
• Quality: Currently this slider has no effect with the
version of FFmpeg recommended for Windows and
Mac . The exported file is always a constant bit rate
( CBR ) 196 kbps (stereo) or 98 kbps (mono) file.
Exporting more than two channels using Advanced
Mixing Options is not currently supported.To spec-
ify a different constant bit rate for a mono or stereo
AAC file, choose Custom FFmpeg Export in the
Export Audio Dialog . Then use the Open custom
FFmpeg format options button to open the Custom
FFmpeg Export Options dialog. See the example
on that page for details.
18.13. ADVANCED MIXING OPTIONS
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
} then choosing AC3 Files (FFmpeg) from the Save as
type dropdown menu. In this case the options dialog will
appear in the center of the Export Multiple dialog.
FFmpeg is not shipped with Audacity but you can
download it and then export as AC3 by following these
18.13 Advanced Mixing Options
The Advanced Mixing Options dialog appears if you
have chosen "Use custom mix" in the Import / Export
section of Preferences . Use this dialog to export multi-
channel (surround sound) files or to make customised as-
signments between Audacity tracks and the channels in
the exported file.
• When you click File > Save Other > Export Audio...
and have chosen the name and format of your ex-
ported file, this dialog appears which presents you
with the number of tracks you have in your project
and allows you to map these as desired to each of
up to 32 output channels ( WAV , AIFF or OGG )
or 8 output channels ( FLAC ). AAC multi-channel
export is subject to the FFmpeg encoder used, as
described in our file formats comparison table .
• To include only specific tracks in the exported file,
select those tracks then use File > Save Other >
Export Selected Audio... , or mute the tracks you
do not want to export.
• Currently there is no support for exporting multi-
477
instructions .
18.12.1 AC3 Export Setup
• Bit Rate: Choose a bit rate from 32 kbps to 640
kbps (defaults to 160 kbps). Larger bit rates give
higher quality but produce larger files.
channel files when using File > Save Other > Ex-
port Multiple... .
The tracks from your project shown on the left will be
mixed down into the output channels shown on the right:
• The tracks in your project are shown in blue boxes.
• The output channels are shown in gray boxes.
• Adjust the Output Channels slider as desired to
change the number of output channels.
• Click to select or deselect any box. A selected box
is outlined in red.
• Clicking to select a box when another is already se-
lected will link the boxes if they are not linked, or
remove the link if they are linked.
Connect the tracks to the channels in the way that you
want, then click "OK" to export to the multi-channel file.
• There is no support at the moment for multi-channel
playback of audio in Audacity - playback of a multi-
channel file in Audacity will always be mixed down
to stereo. Similarly, the Tracks > Mix > Mix and
Render and Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render to New
Track commands only mix down to mono or stereo.
• Audacity does not perform mapping of the channels
in exported files to specific playback channels. Use
the Audio Track Dropdown Menu or mouse drag on
the Track Control Panel of tracks to move tracks up
and down so they match the channel layout of the
format you are exporting to. In addition, 5.1 files in
OGG and AC3 formats are often FL, FC, FR, SL,
SR, LFE.
There is no guarantee that a sound device or any
particular file will follow recommended channel mapping
for the format.
478
18.14 AMR Export Options
AMR the Adaptive Multi-Rate codec is a patented com-
pression scheme optimized for speech, but also used for
mobile telephone ringtones. The wide band variant uses
higher bandwidth for higher quality. Accessed by: File >
Save Other > Export Audio... then choosing AMR (nar-
row band) Files (FFmpeg) from the Save as type drop-
down menu.
18.15 FLAC Export Options
FLAC is a size-compressed but lossless open
source audio format. The files it produces are about half
as large as the uncompressed WAV or AIFF formats,
but larger than compressed, lossy formats. Accessed
by: File > Save Other > Export Audio... then choosing
FLAC Files from the Save as type dropdown menu.
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
then choosing AMR (narrow band) Files (FFmpeg) from
the Save as type dropdown menu. In this case the op-
tions dialog will appear in the center of the Export Multi-
ple dialog.
FFmpeg is not shipped with Audacity but you can
download it and then export as AMR (NB) by following
these instructions .
18.14.1 AMR-NB Export Setup
• Bit Rate: Choose a bit rate from 4.75 kbps to
12.2 kbps (defaults to 12.2 kbps). Higher bit rates
give higher quality but produce larger files.
Due to the format specification, AMR-NB files are
always exported at 8000 Hz sample rate irrespective
of the Audacity Project Rate .
18.16. WMA EXPORT OPTIONS
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
then choosing FLAC Files from the Save as type drop-
down menu. In this case the options dialog will appear in
the center of the Export Multiple dialog.
18.15.1 FLAC Export Setup
• Level: The amount of file size compression used
to losslessly pack the audio data, similar to com-
pression levels in ZIP files. The level settings range
18.16 WMA Export Options
WMA is a compressed , lossy audio format developed
by Microsoft. It is the default audio format for Windows
Media Player. Accessed by: File > Save Other > Export
Audio... then choosing WMA (version2) Files (FFmpeg)
from the Save as type dropdown menu.
18.17 MP2 Export Options
MP2 is a compressed , lossy audio format. It is mainly
used in broadcasting and sometimes as the format for
DVD soundtracks. Accessed by: File > Save Other > Ex-
port Audio... then choosing MP2 Files from the Save as
type dropdown menu.
479
from 0 to 8. Level 0 is optimized to encode as fast
as possible. Level 8 is optimized to pack as ef-
ficiently as possible, so produces slightly smaller
files than level 0 at the expense of taking longer to
encode. Files encoded at level 8 are rarely more
than a few percent smaller than those encoded at
level 0, but can take three or four times longer to
encode.
• Bit depth : Choose from 16-bit (default) or 24-bit
(approximately 50% larger file size).
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
then choosing WMA (version2) Files (FFmpeg) from the
Save as type dropdown menu. In this case the options
dialog will appear in the center of the Export Multiple di-
alog.
FFmpeg is not shipped with Audacity but you can
download it and then export as WMA (version 2) by fol-
lowing these instructions .
18.16.1 WMA Export Setup
• Bit Rate: Choose a bit rate from 24 kbps to 576
kbps. The default is 180 kbps. This produces a
larger file of higher quality than default 128 kbps
MP3 encoding, the general consensus being that
WMA v2 and MP3 produce comparable quality for
the same file size. Increasing the WMA bit rate will
increase the quality further but produce larger files.
WMA version 2 only supports CBR (constant bit rate)
encoding. This means that increasing the sample rate
in Selection Toolbar will not produce larger files.
480 CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT

Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
then choosing MP2 Files from the Save as type drop-
down menu. In this case the options dialog will appear in
the center of the Export Multiple dialog.

18.17.1 MP2 Export Setup

• Bit Rate: Choose a bit rate from 16 kbps to 384

kbps. The default of 160 kbps gives about the same
quality as the default 128 kbps MP3 encoding,
but a larger file. Increasing the bit rate will further
increase the quality and the file size. At its high-
est bit rates, MP2 is usually considered to have
slightly higher quality and greater error resilience
than MP3, but again at the cost of a larger file size.

18.18 MP3 Export Options

MP3 Export Options let you choose the quality of files

exported to the popular MP3 format. You can choose
between variable, average or constant bit rate , or from
one of four common presets. Encoding speed can be
specified, and Joint Stereo encoding chosen as an op-
tion. As with all lossy , compressed formats , there is
a trade-off between the size of the file and the quality of
the encoded file, higher quality requiring larger files.Note
that MP3 files have a short silence at the beginning. This
is not a bug in Audacity but is a limitation of the MP3 for-
mat that makes applications writing or playing MP3’s add
a delay. If you need to synchronize files or are making
Audio Loops , use a format that does not have this limita-
tion, such as WAV, FLAC or Ogg Vorbis.

Before you can export to MP3 you need to install

the optional LAME MP3 encoder .

• Audacity uses LAME for encoding MP3s, which is Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
generally considered to be the best MP3 encoding then choosing MP3 Files from the Save as type drop-
library, and is the only MP3 encoding library that is down menu. In this case the options dialog will appear in
still being actively developed the center of the Export Multiple dialog.

Accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Audio... then
choosing MP3 Files from the Save as type dropdown
menu. Re-encoding to MP3If you import an MP3 into Audac-
18.18. MP3 EXPORT OPTIONS
ity, edit it then export it as an MP3, you will lose quality
twice, once in the original MP3 encoding of the imported
audio, then again when you export it from Audacity as
MP3. So never do production work in MP3, instead work
with a lossless format such as WAV, AIFF or FLAC and
for final use then export to MP3. See this page in the
Audacity Wiki for other applications that can be used to
directly edit MP3 audio files, thereby avoiding lossy re-
encoding.
18.18.1 MP3 Export Setup
Bit Rate Mode
These offer four different ways to control the trade-off be-
tween the size and quality of the exported files.
• Preset: These are the settings recommended by
the LAME developers for encoding music. De-
tailed descriptions of these settings are given in this
article on hydrogenaudio.io.
– Insane: The best possible encoding qual-
ity. This preset has a constant bit-rate of
320 kbps, which is equivalent to 2.4 MB per
minute. This setting is generally considered to
be overkill as there is little if any difference in
sound quality from the "Extreme" preset, but
with much greater file size.
– Extreme: Extremely high quality. This setting
will normally produce transparent results, but
with considerably smaller file size than the "In-
sane" preset.
– Standard: Very good quality encoding.
– Medium: Good sound quality suitable for ca-
sual listening or portable devices.
• Variable: This mode continuously varies the bit
rate used according to the complexity of the sound,
in an attempt to maintain the quality of the record-
ing at a consistent level. The settings range from
0 (highest quality) to 9 (smallest file size). Each
setting defines a range of bit rates within which it
will generally operate, assuming a stereo track. For
a mono track, the achieved bit rate for each set-
ting will usually be below the range indicated above.
Level 0 is comparable to the Extreme preset men-
tioned above, level 2 is comparable to Standard and
level 4 to Medium presets. Variable bit rate offers
the best quality compared to the Average and Con-
stant bit rate options in most circumstances (ex-
tremely quiet music is one exception). It will tend
to give you somewhat smaller file sizes for a given
degree of quality, but the actual file sizes cannot be
accurately predicted in advance.
• Average: This sets a known, average bit rate for
the file, but within this average permits some fluc-
481
tuations in bit rate to reflect the relative difficulty of
encoding the file. This does not provide as con-
sistently high a quality as variable bit rate, but is
generally preferable to constant bit rate if you need
to know more or less how large your files will be; it
offers bit rates from 8 kbps to 320 kbps.
• Constant: This sets a constant bit rate for the en-
coding, regardless of its complexity. Of the four bit
rate modes, this usually gives the worst, least con-
sistent quality for a given file size, but that size itself
is completely predictable (note that if you choose
a high bit rate, the LAME encoder may use a
lower constant bit rate if you choose 11025 Hz or
lower project rate). Use constant bit rate if you are
streaming the file over the internet, as it ensures the
audio cannot stutter due to sudden peaks in the bit
rate. The available bit rates are the same as for av-
erage bit rate - the default rate (128 kbps) gives you
a known file size of about 1 MB per minute of mono
or stereo audio.
If you are exporting a constant bit rate spoken word MP3
such as an audiobook and have a stereo track in Audac-
ity where both channels are identical, it’s preferable to
use Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo down to Mono to convert
to a single mono track before export. This will still sound
the same on stereo equipment, but have higher quality
because the fixed number of bits have less audio to pro-
cess.
Quality
This list lets you select the bit rate in kbps (kilobits per
second) for encoding your file. A higher bit rate always
gives better quality but at the expense of a larger file size
and vice versa. The bit rates are absolute for average
and constant bit rate modes, but expressed as a range
for the variable and preset modes (except for the Insane
preset).
Variable Speed
Choice of speed is available when using variable bit rate
encoding. It determines the speed and bit allocation rou-
tines of the encoding algorithm . The default "Fast"
option is equivalent to –vbr-new and is generally rec-
ommended for both speed and quality. The "Standard"
slower option is equivalent to –vbr-old. It is possible that
this may give more consistent encoding quality in some
material or if you need to use an earlier 3.9x version of
LAME.
Channel Mode
These controls determine how the two channels of a
stereo MP3 are encoded or if the exported MP3 should
482
always be mono.
• Joint Stereo: Enabled by default, this button lets
the encoder switch from frame to frame between
"Stereo" (which just encodes the left and right chan-
nels independently) and Mid/Side stereo. Mid/Side
stereo converts the Left and Right channels into
two different signals: a "Mid" or "Sum" channel
(Left plus Right, mono) and a "Side" or "Difference"
channel (the difference between the two channels,
Left minus Right). This allows recordings with rel-
atively little stereo separation to be encoded more
efficiently - more bits can be allocated to the Sum
channel because there is relatively little difference
information to encode. As a result, files encoded as
Joint Stereo with variable or average bit rate will be
slightly smaller than comparable files encoded as
Stereo, but the file size difference will be less no-
ticeable at higher bit rates. For all bit rate modes
(variable, average or constant) there will also be
less audible difference between Joint Stereo and
Stereo at higher bit rates.
• Stereo: If this button is enabled, the left and right
signals are encoded independently of each other.
• Force export to mono: Enabling this checkbox al-
ways produces a mono (single channel) MP3 file,
mixing down to mono if the Audacity content is
stereo or would otherwise produce a stereo file.
– If you are only exporting one mono Audacity
track and providing that track is panned to cen-
ter, Audacity will automatically export as mono
without enabling this checkbox. In that case
the Joint Stereo and Stereo buttons have no
effect.
– If you do enable this checkbox, the Joint
Stereo and Stereo radio buttons are disabled.
• When forcing export to mono and you choose vari-
able or average bit rate or a Preset other than "In-
sane", the bit rate and the exported file size will be
reduced compared to a stereo export. This can be
done without affecting the quality of the export be-
cause less bits are needed for mono encoding than
stereo.
18.18.2 ID3 Metadata Tags
MP3 files contain "metadata" at the start of the file as
ID3 tags. These tags typically contain information such
as Track Title, Artist Name, Year and Genre. Some of
this information may be visible in the playing window of
software and hardware players. The tags can be edited
with Audacity’s tag editor. By default, the Metadata Tags
Editor will always appear at export time. Enter any meta-
data you require in the editor, then click the OK button
(notSave). To prevent Metadata Editor appearing at ex-
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
port time, click Edit > Preferences, then the Import / Ex-
port tab, and in the "When exporting tracks..." section,
uncheck "Show Metadata Editor prior to export step".
The tags can still be viewed or edited at any time prior
to export at Edit > Edit Metadata... , and the tags in the
editor at export time will still be exported.
Metadata tags with Export Multiple
When using Export Multiple , Metadata Editor pops up
as many times as there are files to export. This gives
flexibility to adjust the tags separately for tracks which
form compilations with different artists or genres. If all
the tracks to be exported have common information ex-
cept for Track Title and Track Number, you may prefer to
set Preferences as above so that Metadata Editor does
not appear prior to export. Then make any necessary
edits to the common tags at Edit > Metadata... prior to
export, and the multiple export will proceed silently with
the Track Title and Track Number tags added automat-
ically. The Track Title tag will be the same as the file
name chosen in the label or track name , and the Track
Number tag will be generated according to the order of
the labels or tracks.
18.18.3 Recommended settings
The default MP3 encoding options in Audacity are 170 -
210 kbps VBR (preset "Standard"). While this is a good
choice for stereo music, it is not generally recommended
for Podcasts.
Podcast settings
For podcasts, "CBR" (constant bit-rate) is recommended,
and not "VBR" (variable bit-rate). The choice of
mono/stereo depends on the type of podcast. For voice
only podcasts, mono is usually preferred as you can
achieve better sound quality with less data. If the pod-
cast contains a lot of music you may prefer to use stereo,
but higher bit-rates will probably be required (bigger file
size).
• 64 kbps CBR mono can give reasonable quality
for voice if you are wanting to minimise the file size.
• 96 kbps CBR mono can give excellent quality for
voice.
• 128 kbps CBR stereo can give reasonable quality
where stereo is required.
• 192 kbps CBR stereo can give very good quality
where stereo is required.
• 256 kbps VBR stereo can give excellent quality
stereo music, though not recommended for stream-
ing.
18.19. CUSTOM FFMPEG EXPORT OPTIONS
18.19 Custom FFmpeg Export Options
The custom FFmpeg exporter is available if you have in-
stalled the optional FFmpeg library . The dialog lets you
export a specific codec in a specific format container.The
Custom FFmpeg format options dialog appears in re-
sponse to the Open custom FFmpeg format options but-
ton in the Export Audio or Export Multiple dialog’s Op-
tions pane when you have chosen Custom FFmpeg Ex-
port in the Save as type dropdown.
18.19.1 Presets
You can save and load presets for custom FFmpeg ex-
port choices. You can also export already saved presets
to an external XML file and import presets from this file,
thus allowing you to share presets with other users. Se-
lect both a format and a codec from the respective lists.
Then click on the black triangle at the right of the text
box to open the Preset: dropdown menu and select the
saved preset required. You will also then need to use
the Load Preset button for the selected preset to become
active.
• Load Preset: Loads the selected preset into Audac-
ity for use in the subsequent audio export.
• Save Preset: Saves a single preset to Audacity’s
internal storage. Type a name for the preset in the
box next to Preset:. If you save a preset with a
name that already exists, Audacity will ask if you
want to overwrite it. Saved presets are stored in
a file called "ffmpeg_presets.xml" in the Audacity
data directory:
483
See Export Audio for how to set the MP3 export op-
tions.
– Windows: Users
<username>
AppData
Roaming
Audacity
– Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/
– Linux: ~/.audacity-data/.
• Delete Preset: Removes the selected preset in the
Preset: dropdown from Audacity’s internal storage.
• Import Presets: Imports an existing set of one or
more presets from an external XML file. Imported
presets will be added to your existing list of pre-
sets. If an imported preset has the same name as
an existing preset, Audacity will ask if you want to
overwrite that existing preset with the settings of the
imported preset.
• Export Presets: Exports all the currently saved pre-
sets as an external XML file to a file name and
folder of your choice. To export a new or modified
preset you must first use Save Preset to save it.
18.19.2 Format and Codec pair selected for
export
The line below the Presets controls always shows the
"Format:" and "Codec:" that will be used for the export,
exactly as selected in the Formats and Codecs lists un-
derneath. If you load a preset, this line will change to
the format and codec that were saved by that preset. In
the image at the top of this page, the format/codec line
is empty because no format or codec selection has yet
been made. The actual formats and codecs available in
the lists depend entirely on the options with which your
copy of FFmpeg has been compiled.
18.19.3 List of Formats
In the Formats list box on the left of the dialog, click to se-
lect the format you want to use. Note that selecting any
particular format may reduce the adjacent list of codecs,
because not all codecs work with all formats. If you can-
not find the desired Format, press the Show All Formats
button, but note that the dialog will not allow selection of
incompatible format/codec pairs. When returning to the
484
Export Audio dialog to perform your custom FFmpeg ex-
port, you must add the extension relevant to the format
at the end of your chosen file name. For example, add
.wav extension for WAV format, irrespective of the codec
chosen for the WAV file.
18.19.4 List of Codecs
In the adjacent Codecs list box, click to select the codec
you want to use with the selected format. You can click
to select a codec first but clicking on any particular codec
may reduce the list of formats because not all formats
work with all codecs. If you cannot find the desired
Codec, press the Show All Codecs button, but note that
the dialog will not allow selection of incompatible for-
mat/codec pairs.
18.19.5 General Options
This pane has options that are configurable for all for-
mat and codec combinations. For any particular com-
bination of format and codec some options may not be
available and they will be grayed out. Hover over the
options (the input box not the text label) to see an ex-
planation of what they do, and recommended settings. If
an option is grayed out, it does not apply to the selected
format/codec.
18.19.6 FLAC Options
This pane has options that are only available when you
select FLAC as your codec. For all other codecs this
pane’s options will be grayed out.
18.19.7 MPEG container Options
This pane has options that are only available when you
select mpeg as your format. For all other formats this
18.20 Ogg Vorbis Export Options
The Ogg Vorbis export option uses the open-source
compressed , lossy Vorbis codec inside an Ogg
format container. Ogg format can be played in Windows
Media Player and iTunes, but requires additional codecs
to be downloaded. Ogg is a popular format for stream-
ing applications. Audacity does not yet support use of the
Speex low bit rate voice codec within Ogg.Accessed by:
File > Save Other > Export Audio... then choosing Ogg
Vorbis Files from the Save as type dropdown menu.
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
pane’s options will be grayed out.
18.19.8 Example
Custom FFmpeg Export provides a way to specify the bit
rate of exported M4A (AAC files) which is not currently
possible by choosing "M4A (AAC) Files" in the Export Au-
dio dialog.
1. Select mp4 in the Formats list.
2. Select libvo_aacenc in the Codecs List.
3. In Bit Rate: in the General Options pane, enter
a bit rate up to 320 kbps expressed in bits per
second. For example, to export at 280 kbps, enter
"280000" (without quotes).
4. Click the OK button.
5. Back in the Export Audio dialog, enter your desired
file name then add "m4a" (without quotes) at the
end of the name.
18.19.9 Limitations and Disclaimer
Audacity aims to provide the same export-
ing/importing features as FFmpeg. That is, you should
be able to use Audacity to transcode audio with the same
results as using FFmpeg directly. This also means that
if FFmpeg cannot perform a particular conversion, Au-
dacity cannot do it either. The limitations apply to both
specific formats and codecs and to their metadata. In
particular, FFmpeg can only export about two-thirds
of the formats that it can import. Possibly incomplete
information about known limitations can be seen at
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/FFmpeg_integration#Functionalit
One way to test if there is a problem in the Audacity im-
plementation of FFmpeg is to use a command-line ver-
sion of FFmpeg separately to perform the same task. If
it fails in FFmpeg, then Audacity has the same limitation.
18.21. OTHER UNCOMPRESSED FILES EXPORT OPTIONS
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
then choosing Ogg Vorbis Files from the Save as type
dropdown menu. In this case the options dialog will ap-
18.21 Other uncompressed files Export Options
Accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Audio... then
choosing Other uncompressed files from the Save as
type dropdown menu.
Also accessed by: File > Save Other > Export Multiple...
then choosing Other uncompressed files from the Save
485
pear in the center of the Export Multiple dialog.
18.20.1 Ogg Vorbis Export Setup
• Quality: Choose a quality setting from 0 (lowest)
to 10 (best). The current quality setting is displayed
in the center of the slider. The default level of 5
typically produces a file of about the same size as
Audacity’s default 128 kbps MP3 encoding, but of
higher quality. Higher OGG quality settings mean a
larger file size, because a higher overall bit rate will
be used.
OGG encoding is technically a form of VBR or vari-
able bit rate encoding, as opposed to the CBR or con-
stant bit rate encoding used by default when exporting
MP3 files. This means that in order to maintain con-
sistent quality throughout a track, a higher bit rate will be
used when encoding a complex piece of audio (such as a
full orchestral passage) than when encoding a solo voice
or instrument. A recording which has more complex au-
dio will produce a larger file. Increasing the sample rate
in Selection Toolbar will increase the bit rate and so the
file size (and vice versa).
as type dropdown menu. In this case the options dialog
will appear in the center of the Export Multiple dialog.
18.21.1 Uncompressed Export Setup
Header
Specifies the "type" or extension of the exported file.
"Raw (header-less)" or "RF64 (RIFF 64)" headers (with
PCM encoding in either case) may be used if extremely
large files similar to WAV are required. The RF64 size
limit is about 16 exabytes, making it suitable for very long
multi-channel files.
Encoding
Determines the codec and where appropriate, the
sample format (for example, 16- bit ) of the audio. The
fewer the number of bits, the less accurately the audio
waveform will be represented, but the smaller file size
that will be required. Only the most commonly used en-
coding types are shown below. Those that use less than
16-bit format (or are lossy codecs like GSM) are usually
optimized for specific purposes such as speech telecom-
munication. With the possible exception of (A)DPCM,
486
higher quality audio for the same reduced file size can
generally be obtained by using other lossy codecs like
MP3 , OGG or AAC . These use psychoacoustic mod-
elling to try and make the retained audio sound similar to
the original.
• Signed/unsigned PCM: These formats represent
the audio data by integer numbers. There are 8-bit,
16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit choices.
• Float: These formats represent the audio data by
floating-point numbers. This allows a much wider
range of sample values to be represented, further
increasing its accuracy. There are "32-bit" and "64-
bit" choices.
• U-Law, A-Law: 8-bit formats using different types
of companding algorithms. These reduce the dy-
CHAPTER 18. IMPORT AND EXPORT
namic range of the audio when written to the file,
but restore it when played back.
• ADPCM, DPCM: ADPCM are 4-bit formats that
sound near-identical to PCM except where there is
a lot of low frequency content. There are various
ADPCM choices according to the header chosen,
such as IMA, Microsoft, G721, G723 and VOX. AD-
PCM and DPCM both save storage space by pre-
dicting the next sample, and encoding the PCM val-
ues only as differences between the predicted and
actual value. ADPCM saves further space by vary-
ing the size of the quantization step.
• GSM 6.10: A lossy voice codec producing small
file sizes, used on GSM mobile digital telephone
networks.
Chapter 19
Additional Features
19.1 Timer Record
Timer Record operates in a manner similar to setting
your digital video recorder or cassette recorder to make a
scheduled recording.The Timer Record setup dialog en-
ables you to schedule when a recording begins and ends
and optionally:
• effect an Automatic Save Project or an automatic
Export to any supported audio format,
• specify that Audacity closes or the computer shuts
down on completion of the Timer Record.
Accessed by: Transport Menu > Timer Record...
Before you start a Timer Record session it is very
important that you make all necessary settings in Au-
dacity as while a Timer Record session is in progress,
including in the period while Audacity is waiting to
start the recording, the Audacity controls and menus
will be inoperable until the recording finishes, or is
Stopped/Cancelled. In particular you need to pay close
attention to setting the input signal level as Audacity’s
sliders cannot be used during a Timer Record session
(you may though have a hardware gain control on your
487
input device which would allow you to adjust the signal
level during a Timer record session). Note that you can-
not initiate a Timer Record of you have any unsaved data
in your project , nor if you have more that one Audacity
project open.
19.1.1 Setting the timer controls
Recording start time
"Start Date and Time" shows the current live time
on opening the dialog, meaning that the recording you
schedule will start immediately unless you change this
control to a time and date in the future.
Recording end time or duration
You can set the end of the scheduled recording either by
specifying this at "End Date and Time", or by choos-
ing the length of the recording at "Duration". The dig-
its in the time spinboxes are interlinked, so that typing
on a digit or incrementing it forwards or backwards with
keyboard up arrow or down arrow updates the preceding
digits. The time controls themselves are also interlinked,
so that "Start Date and Time" updates the "End Date and
Time", and changing the "End Date and Time" modifies
the "Duration" (and vice versa). There is no default "Du-
ration". When you open Timer Record next time, Audac-
ity remembers the duration that was used for the previous
scheduled recording.
• If you need to change a date forwards, increment-
ing either hour digit in the time spinboxes with key-
board up arrow will always increment the date au-
tomatically.
• If you want to start an immediate recording, chang-
ing only the Duration is often the simplest method
488 CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES

because this changes the End Date if necessary as "Start Date and Time". Alternatively you can abort the
well as the End Time. Timer Record by pressing the Cancel button.

19.1.2 Completion actions

There are a number of things you can request Audacity
to do on succesful completion of a Timer Recording.
Automatic Save
It is not currently possible to undertake any other
activities in Audacity while recordings are running or wait-
ing to start. To work in other applications while Timer
Record is running, use the Task Switcher utility on your
system, usually Alt + Tab.

Checking the checkbox Enable Automatic Save en-

ables you to then use the Select button to select a loca-
tion and file name for an automatic save of the project
when the recording finishes. If you have already Saved
the project then that field will be populated with "Current
19.1.4 Waiting for Start dialog
Project".

If you had set the recording’s Start Date and Time in ad-
Automatic Export
vance of the current time, pressing OK in the setup dialog
will cause the Waiting for Start dialog to appear:
Checking the checkbox Enable Automatic Export en-
ables you to then use the Select button to select an audio
file format for the export and a location and file name for
the automatic export of the project when the recording
finishes. You can select both an Automatic Save and an
Automatic Export if required.

Options - After recording completes

If you have selected either an Automatic Save or Ex-

port the you can choose an action for Audacity to per-
form once the recording has completed and the auto-
matic save or export has been made. The "Options"
dropdown menu will activate and you can choose:
• Do Nothing
• Exit Audacity
This shows the timing details of your requested Timer
• Restart System - only available on Windows
Record along with a summary of the requested comple-
• Shutdown - only available on Windows tion options. If you want to abort this recording before
it starts, press the Cancel button. You will then be pre-
The latter three options will give you a one minute pe-
sented with a confirmation dialog asking you to confirm
riod of grace to abort the exit, shutdown or restart if you
the cancellation (similar to the Stop cancellation dialog
change your mind later. A dialog will be shown for that
shown below in the progress section).
minute enabling you to abort the previously selected ac-
tion by using the Cancel button, see below . Audacity will
remember your completion action settings and restore
them the next time you use Timer Record.

19.1.3 Starting the Timer Record 19.1.5 Timer Record Progress dialog
When you have made all your required settings simply
press the OK button to start the Timer Record which will
then either wait to start to record later or start immedi- When the recording starts, the Timer Record Progress
ately depending on your settings in the timer contols, the dialog appears:
19.1. TIMER RECORD 489

19.1.7 Completion Action abort

If you have requested Exit Audacity, Shutdown system

or Restart system, then after any Automatic Save and/or
Export that you also requested has been effected, the
following confirmation dialog will appear. In this exam-
While the recording is in progress you can stop the ple Shutdown system was selected along with both an
recording at any time by pressing the Stop button, or (on Automatic Save and an Automatic Export.
Windows and Mac) use the Esc key on the keyboard.
This stops the recording, leaving the recorded track in
place and performs any Automatic Save and/or Export
you requested when setting up the Timer Record:. Any
other completion actions (such as Exit Audacity, Shut-
down system or Restart) will be aborted by using the
Stop button.

This gives you a one minute period of grace to change

your mind and abort the pre-selected action by clicking
the Cancel button.

19.1.8 Timer Record needs a clean project

You are not allowed to start a Timer record if you have

any unsaved changes in the project. You must either
save or close the project and then try again. The fol-
If you wish to stop the recording without performing any lowing error message will appear if you try to do so.
pre-requested Automatic Save and/or Export, then click
the window Close button X (usually colored red when you
hover the cursor over it). This will just stop the recording
but leave the recorded track in place

19.1.6 Timer Recording completed dialog

When the recording finishes, any automatic Save or Ex-

port actions that you specified are peformed and the This is done to protect against the potential loss of any
Timer Record Completion dialog appears showing what currently unsaved changes if you select Exit, Shutdown
has been done: or Restart and have not also selected an Automatic Save.
490 CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES

19.1.9 Insufficient disk space
If you attempt to create a Timer Recording which for
which there is insufficient disk space currently available
based on your current setings then the following error
message will appear:
You may still choose to go ahead by clicking the Yes but-
ton, you will either need to free up some disk space be-
fore the Timed Recording starts. If you do not Timer
Record will proceed with the recording and then stop
when your computer is about to run out of disk space,
the remainder of the scheduled recording will not be
recorded. Pressing the No will abort the Timed Record-
ing setup.

19.2 Themes

Audacity now comes supplied with four pre-configured,

user-selectable themes. This enables you to choose the
look and feel you prefer for Audacity’s interface.

• In addition to the four pre-configured themes there

is also a Custom theme . By default it looks the
same as Classic theme - but, if you have the right
programming skills and tools, you can use this tem-
plate to create your own theme. Instuctions for how
to do this may be found in the Audacity Wiki.
19.2. THEMES
Light theme Dark theme High Contrast theme Classic
theme The theme to use can be selected at Edit > Pref-
erences > Interface and includes the option of a Custom
theme .
19.2.1 Light
This is a light theme loosely based on the look and feel of
earlier Audacity versions. But given a contemporary twist
with more modern-looking buttons and icons.
19.2.2 Dark
This is similar to the Light theme, with the same buttons
and icons, but given a dark twist. Dark themes are quite
fashionable currently.
491
19.2.3 High Contrast
Some users with poor eyesight benefit from a high con-
trast that is ’eye-popping’ for most people. Subtle shades
don’t work for them. The idea is this new theme would be
used with a system theme that is high contrast black. It is
intended to work well with Windows 10 High Contrast #2,
as that seems to give the largest contrast of all the black
variants.
19.2.4 Classic
The one you know and loved. This theme is a re-creation
of the look and feel of earlier Audacity versions. It is for
those who want to stick with Audacity as it always used
to be.
492 CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES

19.2.5 Custom theme

The Custom theme to use can be chosen at Edit > Pref-

erences > Interface . By default the custom theme looks
the same as Classic theme - but, if you have the right
programming skills and tools, you can use this template
to create your own theme. Instructions for how to do this
may be found in the Audacity Wiki.

19.3 Track Control Panel and Vertical Scale

This page documents the Track Control Panels and Ver- Track Control Panel
ical Scale rulers that are present with each type of Au-
dacity track.

19.3.1 Audio (stereo) Track

The Track Control Panel at the left of the audio track
has controls and status indicators for this track. Left-
clicking other than on a control performs track selection.
Left-clicking other than on a control and dragging up and
down rearranges the order of the tracks. The controls are
as follows:
• An X button to delete the track.
• A dropdown menu , accessed by clicking on the
track name or the little black triangle at the top right
of the Track Control Panel, enabling you to edit or
move the audio track.
• Mute and Solo buttons to enable you to mute or
solo the track
• Gain slider for adjusting the volume of the track
• Pan slider to position the audio of this track in the
stereo sound stage.
• Status indicators to show the sample rate in Hz
19.3. TRACK CONTROL PANEL AND VERTICAL SCALE 493

and the sample format or bit depth.

• A button to collapse or restore the height of the

track.

For details please see this section of the Audio Tracks

page.

Vertical Scale

19.3.3 Label Track

A label track has an empty Vertical Scale Ruler. It does

The Vertical Scale displays amplitude when showing
the waveform , or frequency when showing the spec-
trum or pitch .
have a dropdown menu, accessed by clicking on the track
name or the little black triangle at the top right of the
Track Control Panel, enabling you to edit or move the la-
bel track. Please see this section of the Audio Tracks
page for details.

• The amplitude scale shown to left is the default lin-

ear scale, with 1.0 being the maximum value of
positive signals and -1.0 the maximum of negative
signals.

• If the display is changed to Waveform dB in the Au- 19.3.4 Time Track

dio Track Dropdown Menu , the scale shows dB
values for positive signals only, ranging from maxi-
mum 0 dB to the minimum dB level set in Interface
Preferences , or as varied using the mouse wheel
(see below).

When the mouse pointer is over the scale it changes to a

magnify icon enabling you to zoom vertically using the
mouse controls. For details please see this section of the
Audio Tracks page.

The vertical Scale in Time Tracks can be set to either Lin-

ear Scale (default setting, as shown here) or Logarithmic
19.3.2 Mono Track Scale. This along with other settings for your Time track
can be controlled from the dropdown menu accessed by
clicking on the track name or the little black triangle at the
A mono track has the same set of controls as a stereo top right of the Track Control Panel. See this section of
track the Time Tracks page for more details.
494
19.3.5 Note Track
19.4 Mixer Board
Mixer Board is an alternative view to the audio tracks
in the main tracks window, and is analogous to a hard-
ware mixer board. Each audio track is displayed in
a Track Strip. Each Track Strip has its own pair of
meters, gain slider, pan slider, and mute/solo buttons,
echoing that track’s controls in its Track Control Panel
.The Mixer Board... command is enabled whenever
there’s an audio track - it can even be brought up during
playback.Accessed by:View > Mixer Board...The Mixer
Board... command is enabled whenever there is an au-
dio track - it can even be brought up during playback.
When there are no audio tracks it is grayed-out and un-
available.
19.4.1 Mixer Board controls
All Mixer Board controls update the controls in their re-
spective Track Control Panel and vice versa. For exam-
ple, muting a track in the Mixer Board also mutes that
track in the main tracks window. As in the Track Control
CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Note Tracks display (and play) data from MIDI files. The
Track Control Panel and Vertical Scale are rather different
to all other tracks in Audacity:
• The Vertical Scale shows the pitch position of the
displayed notes shown on a piano keyboard. As
with the audio tracks you can zoom the scale of the
Vertical Scale piano keyboard using your mouse.
• The Track Control panel shows the channels, color
coded to tie in with the channels displayed, that
are to be played and allows you to toggle individual
channels by left-clicking or toggle all other channels
off by right-clicking.
For more details please see Note Tracks .
Panels, double-click in either Mixer Board slider to enter
an exact gain or pan value in a text box. The meters
are post-fade, like the Meter Toolbars , such that they
show the levels as modified by the track’s gain/pan slid-
ers and mute/solo buttons. Mono tracks show in both
track meters, as in the Meter Toolbar. You can select a
Mixer Board track by clicking its Track Strip on the image
near the top. Selection of a track in Mixer Board is indi-
cated by the gray half-border that sits right and bottom of
an unselected track moves to left and top of a selected
track; in the example above it is the "Horns" track that is
selected. Deselect all tracks by clicking in the dark gray
between track strips or the dark gray at the bottom of the
Mixer Board, note that the shortcut Ctrl + Shift +A to de-
select all tracks does not work in Mixer Board. Similar to
Audacity Selection you can also add specific tracks to the
selection and remove specific tracks from the selection:
• Holding Ctrl and clicking in a track’s Track
Striptoggles the selectedness of that track only.
So if a track is not selected, Ctrl-clicking its Track
Strip selects it, or deselects it if it is already se-
lected.
• If you select a track by clicking on its Track Strip
and then use Shift and click in another track’s Track
Strip, all tracks between and including those two
tracks will be selected.
19.4.2 Track identification
By default, the image at the top of each Track Strip is
the Audacity logo, but if you name the track in the Track
Control Panel with an instrument name or abbreviation
thereof, Mixer Board automatically shows an appropriate
image as listed below. A track name that contains any of
the keywords (in bold) will display the image that is as-
19.5. KARAOKE
sociated with those keywords. If the track name contains
keywords for more than one instrument, the Mixer Board
will display the best match.
• acoustic, guitar, gtr = acoustic guitar
• acoustic, piano, pno = acoustic piano
• back, vocal, bg, vox = backing vocal
• clap = handclaps
• drums, dr = drum kit
• electric, bass, guitar, bs, gtr = electric bass guitar
• electric, guitar, gtr = (standard) electric guitar
• electric, piano, pno, key = electronic keyboard
• kick = kick drum
• loop = loop track
• organ, org = organ
• perc = percussion
• sax = saxophone
• snare = snare drum
19.5 Karaoke
The karaoke feature shows a bouncing ball that fol-
lows along text as audio plays.Accessed by:View >
Karaoke...The Karaoke... command is enabled when-
ever you have at least one label track . If you have multi-
ple label tracks, it uses only the first one. The command
brings up the Karaoke window, which displays the labels
in a "bouncing ball" scrolling display. You can select a
playback start point in the main tracks window and the
Karaoke window will start from there.
495
• string, violin, cello = generic stringed instrument
• synth = synthesizer
• tambo = tambourine
• trumpet, horn = generic brass instrument
• turntable = record player
• vibraphone, vibes = vibraphone
• vocal, vox = lead vocal
Examples:
• "electric b" displays an standard electric guitar ("b"
is not a keyword), but "electric bs" displays an elec-
tric bass guitar ("bs" is a keyword).
• "electric gtr" will display an electric guitar. Although
these keywords are also in the bass guitar list, in
the absence of the keywords bass or bs, the Mixer
Board sees the (standard) electric guitar as a better
match.
• "drums" will display a drum kit as it is a keyword.
"drum" will also display a drum kit as it contains dr
which is a keyword.
Audacity automatically puts a space between words, so
you do not need to put them in your labels. You may want
to split up lyrics such that the ball bounces per syllable
rather than just for the whole word. To do this, create a
label for each syllable, and end each with a hyphen ("-"),
except the last syllable. For example, "Aud-" "a-" "ci-" "ty".
The hyphen tells Audacity to not put a space between the
syllables, as it does between words. Note there may still
be space between the syllables, depending on how far
apart they are in the timeline and the size of the Karaoke
window.
496
19.6 Chains - for batch processing and effects automation
A Chain is a sequence of preconfigured commands in a
set order (mainly effects) that can be applied automati-
cally to projects or audio files. Any built-in , LADSPA ,
LV2 , Nyquist , VST or Audio Unit (Mac) effect shown in
the Effect Menu can be added to a Chain. You can also
add plug-ins in any format that are shown in the Gener-
ate or Analyze Menus (including VAMP analysis effects),
the built-in Find Clipping analyzer and a number of ex-
port commands. Click, or hover, on any menu item in the
image to read about that command. Skip the image
There are two related Chain commands accessible from
the File Menu called Edit Chains and Apply Chain :
19.6.1 How to use Chains
The two uses of Chains are for:
• Batch processing (where many audio files are
processed unattended with one or more effects
then exported to a new file)
• Effects automation (where the selected audio in
the track or tracks in the current project is subjected
to the same prescribed sequence of effects, and
optionally, a file exported from the entire audio.)
Look first at Edit Chains to determine if an existing Chain
will suit your needs (Audacity only ships with one) or to
create a new chain. Next, use Apply Chain to perform the
action on your selected audio. See the examples below.
19.6.2 Edit Chains
Use File > Chains > Edit Chains... if you need to create
a new Chain or to edit an existing Chain.
• The Chain can include a number of common Au-
dacity functions and effects to be executed in any
order you specify.
CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
• To create an audio file as part of the Chain process
you must include an "Export" command (such as
ExportWAV).
• In many cases the parameters for each command
in the Chain can be specified within the Edit Chains
dialog.
The left hand box in the dialog (labeled Chains) con-
tains a list of already defined Chains. Until you add a
new Chain, it only has a single built-in "MP3 Conversion"
Chain. You can:
• Use the Add button to create a new Chain
• Use left-click (or use the Up or Down arrow on the
keyboard) to select the Chain you want to work on
• Delete any user-added Chain with the Remove but-
ton
• Rename any user-added Chain with the Rename
button
The Remove and Rename buttons are grayed out when
the MP3 Conversion Chain is selected.The right-hand
box (labeled Chain) lists the ordered sequence of com-
mands for the Chain selected in the "Chains" box on the
left. You can:
• Add or remove commands for the selected Chain
• Change the order in which the commands execute
in the Chain
• Edit the parameters for some effects in the Chain
For further details on creating, editing and sharing
Chains, see the Edit Chains page.
19.6.3 Apply Chain
Use File > Chains > Apply Chain... to show the existing
chains. Select the chain you require by using left-click (or
using the Up or Down arrow on the keyboard) to select
the Chain you want to work on, then either:
• choose Apply to Current Project to run the Chain
on the entire project in the current window or
• choose Apply to Files... to run the Chain on se-
lected external audio files in a single directory
19.6. CHAINS - FOR BATCH PROCESSING AND EFFECTS AUTOMATION
If you already have audio in the current project win-
dow, you must save and close that project using File >
Close before applying a Chain to files. For more details
see the Apply Chain page.
19.6.4 Chain Examples
In this section we look at a couple of examples of how
a Chain might be used. In the image below we have
added two additional Chains. It is important to note that
the only Chain that Audacity ships with is MP3 Conver-
sion (shown as selected in blue). All other Chains must
be added by the user.
Example 1: Loud MP3
A batch processing Chain to compress and normalize
WAV files then convert them to MP3:
1. Insert Compressor to reduce the dynamic range
of each WAV, also normalizing them to maximum
amplitude of 0 dB
2. Insert ExportMP3 to convert them to MP3 format
3. Click OK to close the "Edit Chains" window
4. Finally, choose File > Chains > Apply Chain... ,
select the "Loud MP3" Chain then click Apply to
Files... where you can select the files on which to
run the Chain.
497
Example 2: NR&EQ
An effects automation Chain for the current project that
applies noise reduction and equalization:
1. Insert Normalize with settings of:
(a) Remove any DC offset
(b) -10 dB (to allow for boosting frequencies
later in the Chain without clipping )
2. Insert Noise Reduction
3. Insert Equalization (to perform the frequency ad-
justment)
4. Insert another Normalize at different settings (with-
out offset removal, setting a final amplitude of -1
dB)
5. Click OK to close the "Edit Chains" window
6. Finally, choose File > Chains > Apply Chain... , se-
lect the "NR&EQ" Chain then click Apply to Current
Project to apply the Chain to the selected track(s)
in the current project window.
• If a Noise Profile exists, that Noise Profile will be
used. It is often best to capture a suitable Noise
Profile before running a Chain.
• If a Noise Profile does not exist:
– If the Chain is applied to the current project (as
above), the current selection is used to create
the Noise Profile. Therefore, other effect com-
mands in the Chain will also only apply to that
selection. If an export command is added, the
entire file will be exported.
– If the Chain is applied to files, the first file (all
of it) is used to create the Noise Profile. It may
be useful to prepare a file containing a suitable
Noise Profile and name it so that it is alpha-
betically the first file of those to be run in the
Chain.
< Back to: File Menu
498
19.7 Edit Chains
Edit Chains allows you to edit, remove or rename exist-
ing Chains or add a new Chain. Any built-in , LADSPA ,
LV2 , Nyquist , VST or Audio Unit (Mac) effect shown in
the Effect Menu can be added to a Chain. You can also
add plug-ins in any format that are shown in the Gener-
ate or Analyze Menus (including VAMP analysis effects),
the built-in Find Clipping analyzer and a number of ex-
port commands.Chains may be applied to either the en-
tirety of the current project or to a selection of files using
the File > Chains > Apply Chain command.It is possible
to use Noise Reduction in Chains but see Noise Reduc-
tion Tips for how the Noise Profile is captured.Accessed
by:File > Chains > Edit Chains...
For help with what the Chain effects do and how to set
their parameters, see Effect Menu
19.7.1 Chains
Chains contains a list of already defined Chains. You
can define the name of a new Chain and select which
Chain is active.
• Add: Add a new Chain to the list.
• Remove: Remove the selected Chain from the list.
• Rename: Rename the selected Chain.
19.7.2 Chain
Chain lists the sequence of commands in order of first
to last (End) for the Chain selected in the "Chains" box to
left. Here you can add or remove commands for the se-
lected Chain, change the order in which the commands
execute in the Chain, or edit the parameters for some
effects in the Chain.
• Delete: Delete the currently selected command
from the list.
• Move Up: Move the currently selected command
up in the list.
• Move Down: Move the currently selected com-
mand down in the list.
CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
• Defaults: This button is only active when the "MP3
Conversion" Chain is selected in the "Chain" list on
the left, and will reset this Chain to its default val-
ues.</ul>
Editing an existing command
To edit an existing command double-click it, or use the Up
or Down keyboard arrow to select it then press Space.
The "Select Command" dialog appears as below, but
with the command name and any current parameters dis-
played and editable (using the Edit Parameters button - or
you can specify any previously created user preset with
the Use Preset for use with the effect). If you want to
replace the current command in its current order in the
sequence with another command, double-click the new
command (or select it then use Space) then choose OK.
Inserting a new command
To insert a new command in a Chain, left-click or use
the Up or Down keyboard arrow to select an exist-
ing command; the new command to be inserted will
be placed above this selected command. Then press
Insert.
• The "Select Command" dialog appears, listing all
the available commands. Double-click a command
from the list to insert it in the "Command" box, as
shown in the image below after inserting "Normal-
ize". Alternatively, use the Up or Down keyboard
arrow to select the command, then press Space.
Note that the Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift effect
is listed as TimeScale.
– If the command has editable parameters, the
Edit Parameters button will be active. Clicking
this button will bring up the dialog box for the
effect where you can set the parameters as if
you were applying the standalone effect.
– If you have previously created user presets for
an effect you can use the Use Preset to select
one for use with that effect in the chain.
19.8. APPLY CHAIN
– Choose OK in the effect dialog to accept the
parameters you entered, or Cancel to revert
to the default parameters.
– Choose OK in the "Select Command" dialog
to add the command to the Chain.
Export commands
– There are four basic export commands avail-
able: ExportWAV, ExportMP3, ExportFLAC
and ExportOgg.
* The file name created by any of the four
export commands consists of the date
and time.
– The ExportMP3_56k_before and Ex-
portMP3_56k_after commands can be used
respectively to export "before" and "after"
MP3 files at 56 kbps bit rate at any point
in the chain of processing. This allows you
to compare the result of one or more effects,
or provide files for different purposes with and
without a particular effect.
* The name of the MP3 exported by
the "ExportMP3_56k_before" command is
prefixed by "MasterBefore_" followed by
the date and time. The name of the MP3
exported by the "ExportMP3_56k_after"
command is prefixed by "MasterAfter_"
followed by the date and time.
Parameters for export formats cannot be
set in "Edit Chains". To configure export parame-
ters for the Chain, click File > Save Other > Export
Audio... to access the Export Audio Dialog , click
Options, set the parameters, press OK then Can-
19.8 Apply Chain
Apply Chain automatically applies a series of preconfig-
ured commands in a set order. The dialog allows you
to select a Chain (which is a sequence of effect and/or
export commands created using File > Chains > Edit
Chains then apply that Chain to either the entirety of the
current project or to selected audio files in a single direc-
tory.Accessed by:File > Chains > Apply Chain...
499
cel the export. An audio track must be on screen in
order to open the Export Audio Dialog.
Sharing a Chain
Each Chain is automatically saved as a separate
text file with TXT extension in the "Chains" folder
in Audacity’s folder for application data . This al-
lows you in principle to copy a Chain and send it to
another user, or to copy another user’s Chain into
this folder so as to add to your own list of Chains.
An updated list of Chains will be available next time
you open "Edit Chains" in Audacity.
Batch command not recognized error
This error may sometimes occur for one or more
commands in a Chain when updating from a pre-
vious Audacity version. The error may also occur
if users sharing Chains have different Audacity ver-
sions or different versions of the plug-ins used in
the Chain. The error will occur if:
–
– any command in the Chain uses a different
text format than that recognised by the version
of Audacity in use
– any plug-ins listed in the Chain are missing, in
an incorrect location or are incompatible with
the version of Audacity in use.
To resolve these errors, ensure you have compat-
ible versions of all required plug-ins and that the
plug-ins are installed correctly . If necessary, use
the "Edit Chains" dialog to delete the command that
fails then insert a replacement command for the
same effect from the "Select Command" dialog.
500
Apply Chain non-default image showing two user-added
Chains as well as the as-shipped "MP3 Conversion"
Chain
19.8.1 Select Chain
In the "Chain" list, left-click (or use Up or Down arrow on
the keyboard) to select the Chain you want to apply.
19.8.2 Apply to Current Project
Apply the selected Chain to the current project window .
The typical purpose of this option is effect automation
- apply a sequence of effects to the project, using effect
parameters and an order of applying the effects that you
have found to work well for the type of audio you are pro-
cessing. This saves time and provides consistency in
your workflow. The effects in the Chain are applied to the
selected region of waveform in the selected audio tracks
. Usually the selected Chain would not include an export
command so as to use the greater flexibility of the Export
Audio Dialog . If an export command is included in the
Chain, the entire project audio is exported irrespective
of track or region selection. Therefore if the project con-
tains multiple audio tracks, they will be mixed together,
unless any of the tracks are muted on the Track Control
Panel . The exported files will be saved in a folder named
"cleaned".
• If the audio in the project came from an imported
file or files, the "cleaned" folder will be inside the di-
rectory from which the first file was imported. The
original files are not altered.
• Otherwise, a message prompt will indicate the lo-
cation of the "cleaned" folder that will contain the
exported file. The "cleaned" folder will be in the last
location that the Chain process exported to. If the
Chain process has never been used for export be-
fore, the "cleaned" folder will be in the location at
which the File Export Dialog currently opens.
19.8.3 Apply to Files...
Apply the selected Chain to selected external audio files
that are in a single directory. If you already have audio
CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
in the current project window, you must save and close
that project using File > Close before applying a Chain
to files. The typical purpose of this option is batch pro-
cessing - apply the Chain to multiple audio files so as to
apply one or more effects to them, and/or convert them
to another file format. You can convert from any file for-
mat supported by Audacity to WAV, MP3, OGG or FLAC.
The selected Chain must include an "export" step, or the
processed audio will not be saved.
It is recommended not to process more than 500
files at a time.
• A standard File Open dialog box will appear.
Choose a directory then you can select one or any
number of supported audio files in that directory,
but not Audacity AUP project files. You cannot se-
lect files outside that directory, and files in folders
inside that directory will not be processed. It is con-
venient therefore to first put all the audio files you
want to process into one folder before applying the
Chain.
• After selecting the audio files you want to process,
choose "Open".
• Each file will be imported into Audacity and pro-
cessed, exported to the format you chose in the
Chain, then the processed audio will be removed
so as to clear the temporary disk space that had
been used.
• The exported files will be saved in a folder named
"cleaned" in the same folder that the original files
came from. The original files are not altered.
When a Chain is applied to files, the only option is to im-
port and process the entire file. Thus the entire file will be
exported unless an effect in the Chain (such as Truncate
Silence or Repeat ) performs audio removal or insertion.
Some optional Nyquist plug-ins have parameters to trim
or extend audio by a specific length and so could be used
for this purpose in a Chain.
You cannot process multi-channel audio files (for
example, 5.1 surround sound files) using Chains, even
if Import / Export Preferences has been set to "Use cus-
tom mix". Any multi-channel files you import will be mixed
down on export.
19.9. METADATA TAGS EDITOR
19.9 Metadata Tags editor
Metadata Tags editor is used to enter or confirm text de-
scription ("tag" information, such as artist, year or genre)
that will be embedded in the Audacity project and passed
through into exported audio files. Metadata that is em-
bedded in audio files displays in software applications
like iTunes® or Windows Media Player, or portable play-
ers like iPod®. Most export formats support at least
the seven default tags in Metadata Editor, but support
in player applications varies from almost universal for the
ID3 tags used by MP3 and MP2 to very limited for
WAV . See this Frequently Asked Question for details.
For both MP3 and MP2, only ID3v2.3 tags are exported.
ID3v1 can be exported using Cmd-line export .Accessed
by:’Edit > Metadata...
• By default, Metadata Tags editor appears for
each exported file after choosing the file format
in the Export Audio or Export Multiple dialogs.
• When using Export Multiple, it’s often easier to
uncheck "Show Metadata Tags editor prior to ex-
port step" in Import / Export Preferences , then en-
ter any tags common to all tracks at Edit > Meta-
data... before exporting. Audacity will then add the
automatically generated Track Title and Track Num-
ber tags for each exported file without the editor ap-
pearing.
• Metadata Editor shows data for the most re-
cently imported track in the project, not the se-
lected track. If you need the editor to show sepa-
rate data for each track, import the files into sepa-
rate projects.
• Use the OK button in Metadata Tags editor to
complete the Export. The Save... button only
saves an optional template of tag names and val-
ues.
501
19.9.1 Tag and Value fields
• Tag Name: The first seven Tag names are perma-
nent and cannot be edited. You can add more tag
rows and give them a customised name and value
using the "Add" button (see below).
– WAV files: Some applications such as iTunes
will not see tags in WAV files. Some appli-
cations such as those made by Microsoft can
only read INFO tags in WAV files, in which
case the only customised tags they will see
will be "Copyright" and "Software".
• Tag Value: Type in the data you want for each
tag, or accept the data already present from an im-
ported file. You do not have to fill in every value.
When exporting multiple files, the "Track Title" and
"Track Number" tags are pre-filled automatically
from the names and ordering of the tracks or la-
bels. Single-clicking on a value field (or navigating
into it with the keyboard Arrow keys) selects that
field - typing will replace the contents. Tab can be
used too, and also permits navigation into the but-
tons below the Tag and Value fields. Holding Ctrl
and pressing Tab moves directly out of the grid and
cycles forward through the buttons , and holding
Ctrl and Shift and pressing Tab moves out of the
grid and cycles backward through the buttons (use
Ctrl not CloverLeaf for these key presses, even on
Mac).
•
• Double-clicking a field (or selecting it, then using
keyboard F2) highlights the text in the field. This
allows the text to be edited rather than merely re-
placed, and permits cut, copy or paste using stan-
dard system shortcuts or a right-click context menu.
Use keyboard Home, End or Arrow keys to navi-
gate to individual characters. Once a value field
has been replaced or edited, press the Return key
to select the next value field, or click in any other
one to select it.
The Genre field behaves slightly differently because it
contains a dropdown list of genre names. To use this
field, double-click it, or use F2 after selecting it. You may
then type a custom genre name. To select from the list,
click the downward-pointing arrow to right of the drop-
down, or use keyboard Up Arrow or Down Arrow keys.
A custom genre typed into the dropdown is not added to
the list permanently - use the Edit button (see below) to
edit the list directly.
• Add: Adds a new, empty row to the list for your
own custom Tag (by default there is already one
empty row at the bottom of the list). You can select
502
and edit both the name and value fields exactly as
above.
• Remove: Removes the currently selected custom
row from the list, or the value data only from the
currently selected permanent row.
• Clear: Returns the Editor to default state (seven
permanent tag names with empty values, plus one
empty row).
19.9.2 Genres
• Edit: Edits the dropdown list displayed in the Value
field of the Genre tag. The entire list is selected on
open. To navigate it for editing, click the required
item or use the keyboard Arrow keys. To add an
entry, press keyboard End then type the name you
want. The list will be automatically sorted when
saved.
19.10 Sync-Locked Track Groups
The Sync-Locked Track Groups feature is enabled by
the "Sync-Lock Tracks" menu item. It ensures that length
and position changes occurring anywhere in a defined
group of tracks also take place in all audio or label tracks
in that Sync-Locked track group even if those tracks were
not selected. This lets you keep existing audio or labels
synchronized with each other even when carrying out ac-
tions like inserting, deleting or changing speed or tempo.
This command does NOT let you select particu-
lar individual tracks then interlock those selected tracks,
rather Sync-Locking is based on Track Groups .
19.10.1 Sync-Lock Tracks
Sync-Lock Tracks can be turned on or off at Tracks >
Sync-Lock Tracks. Sync-Lock Tracks is off by default.
Turning on Sync-Lock Tracks does not immediately re-
align tracks or labels. It forces tracks and labels to remain
synchronized if they move after Sync-Lock Tracks is en-
abled. You need to look for the Sync-Lock icons in the
Track Control Panels to know if tracks are Sync-Locked.
The Sync-Lock Tracks setting that you choose is a global
one that applies to all Audacity projects, not just the cur-
rent one, unless and until you subsequently change the
setting.
CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
• Reset: Resets the genre list to the default.
19.9.3 Template
• Load: Loads a previously saved list of tag names
and values into Metadata Editor.
• Save: Saves the current list of tag names and val-
ues to a file on your drive.
• Set Default: Makes the current list of tag names
and non-empty values the default state whenever
opening a new, empty project. To clear the default,
press Clear then Set Default. Even if you set a De-
fault, if you import a file containing metadata, that
metadata will appear in Metadata Editor. If you al-
ways want a fixed set of metadata to show after
importing a file, you need to save that set as a tem-
plate then load the template after importing the file.
19.10.2 Sync-Locked Track Groups
Any audio track in Audacity can be in a group of one or
more adjacent tracks that can be Sync-Locked with other
tracks in that group.
• To form a single Sync-Locked Track Group, the
tracks must be adjacent to each other. Optionally,
the group can be terminated with a Label Track .
• If you require multiple Sync-Locked Track Groups,
the terminating label track is optional only for the
last Group. All the preceding Sync-Locked Track
Groups must be terminated with a label track to
delimit them from adjacent Groups.
• A Sync-Locked Track Group may have multiple la-
bel tracks as long as the label tracks are together
at the bottom of the group.
When Sync-Lock is on, an icon shows bottom right in
the Track Control Panel of each track in a Sync-Locked
Track Group, provided at least one of those tracks is se-
lected. The icon denotes all tracks that will be affected
when a menu operation in a selected track inserts or
deletes audio (or otherwise changes the audio’s position
on the Timeline ). The unselected tracks in the Group that
will be affected are denoted by a patterned "Sync-Lock"
selection in the waveform (a wallpaper with clockfaces)
instead of the dark gray of a normally selected track.
19.11. SYNC-LOCKED TRACK GROUPS - EDITING 503

Selecting Groups for Sync-Locking

Selecting at least one track from within a Group will mark

that particular group as Sync-Locked, the icon will ap-
pear in the Track Control Panel of all the tracks in that
Group. If you have multiple Groups then clicking on a
track in a different Group will cause the Sync-Lock selec-
tion to move to the new Group. You can select multiple
Groups to be Sync-Locked. Following your initial group
selection, hold Shift while clicking on the Track Control
Panel in one of the tracks in the additional Group(s) that
you require. See the example below. Note that the top group and the bottom group are both
selected, see the clock icons in the Track Control Panels
• In the common scenario of audio tracks only, or one for each of the tracks, including the label track, in those
or more audio tracks with only label tracks under- selected Groups. Also observe that although a selec-
neath them, the project only has a single Group. tion has been made only in the second track of the first
group and the first track of the bottom group all the other
• However if separate Groups are defined (typically tracks in both Groups, including the label track, have
by inserting a label track between audio tracks) the clock-wallpaper background to indicate that they are
each Group is independent and will not interact Sync-Locked. The middle group is not Sync-Locked and
with another Group unless at least one track in would remain unaffected by any editing changes applied
each Group is selected. to the selected Groups.

• All tracks in a Sync-Locked Track Group are inter-

locked with each other even if unselected. 19.10.4 Using Sync-Locked Tracks

The following links demonstrate in more detail the use

of Sync-Locked Tracks in Audacity for common editing
tasks:
19.10.3 Example • Using Sync-Locked Track Groups for Editing audio
• Using Sync-Locked Track Groups for Time Shifting
audio
This shows a Project with three Sync-Locked Track
Groups. The top two are both delimited by label tracks, • Using Sync-Locked Track Groups for Time Stretch-
the bottom one just has audio tracks and no label track. ing audio

19.11 Sync-Locked Track Groups - Editing

19.11.1 Editing operations on Sync- Examples of editing operations on Sync-Locked

Locked Track Groups Track Groups

• Cut

• Silence Audio
The Edit menu commands Cut, Delete and Paste will af-
fect all tracks in the currently selected Sync-Locked Track • Trim Audio
Group because these commands change the length of
the tracks(s). All other commands in the Edit menu will • Paste
not affect Sync-Locked tracks because these commands • Label track defined Sync-Locked Track Groups
do not change the length of the selected track(s). These
commands are: Split Cut, Copy, Trim Audio, Split • Selecting in label tracks
Delete, Silence Audio, Split, Split New, Detach at
Silences and Duplicate. • Reversing Audio
504
19.11.2 Cut
Before Edit > Cut
After Edit > Cut
Result: Audio has been cut from the lower track as well
as the upper track. The same thing happens for Edit >
Delete because those commands remove audio from a
track and the following audio on all sync-locked tracks
must move to remain synchronized.
19.11.3 Silence Audio
Before Edit > Remove Special > Silence Audio
After Edit > Remove Special > Silence Audio
Result: There has been no change in the lower
track.This is because "Silence Audio" does not move
(change the time position of) any audio in the selected
track.
19.11.4 Trim Audio
Before Edit > Remove Special > Trim Audio
After Edit > Remove Special > Trim Audio
CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Result: There is no change in the lower track.Although
the length of the upper track has changed, it remains syn-
chronized with the lower track.
19.11.5 Paste
Here is the same project but now there is no selection.
The cursor is in the top track, and that track is selected
as can be seen by darker gray color of the Track Con-
trol Panel. You need to look for the Sync-Lock icons
in the Track Control Panels to know that these tracks are
Sync-Locked.Before Edit > Paste
After Edit > Paste
Result: Audio is pasted into the top track moving the fol-
lowing audio to the right.Silence is inserted in the lower
track to keep it synchronized with the top track.
19.11.6 Label track defined Sync-Locked
Track Groups
Here is a project with two mono audio tracks above a
label track all of which are above a stereo music track.
There is a selection in the upper mono audio track. The
sync-locked selection extends into the second mono au-
dio track and into the label track but not into the stereo
music track. The label track defines a Sync-Locked Track
Group comprised of itself and the two mono audio tracks
above it; this can be verified by examining the Track Con-
trol Panels and observing the sync-lock icons at the lower
right-hand corners. Before Edit > Cut
19.11. SYNC-LOCKED TRACK GROUPS - EDITING 505

Result: The selected portion of the label track is re-

moved, including the label spanned by the selection. Au-
dio is removed from the Sync-Locked audio tracks as
well.

19.11.8 Reversing audio

When using the Reverse effect on audio or labels within

a Sync-Locked Track Group then all audio within the se-
After Edit > Cut
lected time range in all tracks of that Sync-Locked Track
Group will be reversed, as will labels within any associ-
ated Label track. Here is a project with two mono audio
tracks above a label track all of which are above a stereo
music track. There is a selection in the upper mono audio
track. The sync-locked selection extends into the second
mono audio track and into the label track. Before Effect
> Reverse

Result: Audio is removed from the two mono audio

tracks along with the first label and other label in the label
track is moved so that the three tracks remain synchro-
nized. No audio is removed from the stereo music track.
After Effect > Reverse

19.11.7 Selecting in label tracks

Selections can be made in a label track and the Sync-

Locked selection will extend into any audio and label
tracks in the group.Before Edit > Cut

Result: Audio has been reversed in the lower track as

well as the upper track, also the labels in the Label track
have been reversed this keeping everthing in synchro-
nization.Note that in the audio tracks Audacity has turned
both reversed audio sections into Clips , observe the
black clip lines.
After Edit > Cut

19.11.9 Links

> Forward to: Sync-Locked Track Groups - Time Shifting

|< Sync-Locked Track Groups

506 CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES

19.12 Sync-Locked Track Groups - Time Shifting

19.12.1 Time shifting operations on Sync-

Locked Track Groups

• Tracks > Align Tracks : All of the "Align Tracks"

commands (with the exception of the "Align To-
gether" command) will move all tracks in a group by
the same amount, even if this means pushing the
Result: The selected track is moved so the start of
start(s) of some track(s) before zero on the timeline.
the track aligns with the cursor. The Sync-Locked track
By its nature the Align Tracks Together command
moves by the same amount.
cannot respect sync-lock since its job is to align the
selected tracks so they all start at the same point
on the timeline.
19.12.3 Example-2: Time Shifting
• Time Shift Tool : Using the Time Shift tool on any
audio track in a Sync-Locked Track Group will move Before time shifting the tracks with the Time Shift
all clips in all audio tracks, and will move any Label tool
Track defining the Group, even if none of the tracks
are selected. However a clip will not move unless it
overlaps with at least one other clip above or below.
If you want non-overlapping clips to move too, se-
lect over all clips you want to move then drag from
inside the selection.
After time shifting the tracks

19.12.2 Example-1: Start to Cur-

sor/Selection Start

Before Tracks > Align Tracks > Start to Cur-

sor/Selection Start
Result: All the tracks move together.

19.12.4 Links

> Forward to: Sync-Locked Track Groups - Time Stretch-

ing
< Back to: Sync-Locked Track Groups - Editing
After Tracks > Align Tracks > Start to Cur-
sor/Selection Start |< Sync-Locked Track Groups

19.13 Sync-Locked Track Groups - Time Stretching

19.13.1 Time stretching operations on
Sync-Locked Track Groups
The following effects, when applied to a region in a se-
lected track (or tracks) in a Sync-Locked group, will cause
the length of non-selected tracks in the group to be ad-
justed to match the change in length of the selected track,
either by truncating the non-selected tracks from the right
or by adding silence. Audio before and after the selection
will remain synchronized. Audio within the selection may
or may not remain synchronized, as the time stretching
effect is not applied to the Sync-Locked tracks. Any La-
bel track that forms part of the Sync-Locked Track Group
will be stretched positively or negatively, the same as the
selected track(s) - or in the case of Repeat will have that
section of the Label track repeated.
19.13. SYNC-LOCKED TRACK GROUPS - TIME STRETCHING 507

• Change Speed : Sync-Locked tracks will be ad- After Effect > Change Speedwith a setting of 50%,
justed by having the selected region(s) shortened which makes the selection faster and shorter
from the right (if the change in speed is positive),
or have silence inserted after the selected region (if
the change in speed is negative).
• Change Tempo : Sync-Locked tracks will be ad-
justed by having the selected region(s) shortened
from the right (if the change in tempo is positive -
faster), or have silence inserted after the selected
region (if the change in tempo is negative - slower).
Result: Audio has been removed from the lower au-
• Repeat : If applied to a selection that does not end dio track. Note that in this case audio within the se-
on the end of a track, silence is inserted in the lection does not remain in synchronization since the
Sync-Locked tracks where the repeats are placed Change Speed effect is not applied to the Sync-Locked
in the selected track(s) track. Audio before and after the selection remains syn-
chronized.But note too that the Label track has been
• Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift : If the time-scale
stretched, shrunk, appropriately (and not truncated) to
changes shorten the selection then the Sync-
maintain synchronicity the the select track, the top track.
Locked tracks will be shortened from the right to
maintain time synchronization among the tracks; if
the time-scale changes lengthen the selection then
the Sync-Locked tracks will have silence inserted to 19.13.3 Example-2: Repeat
maintain time synchronization among the tracks.
• Truncate Silence : Removes audio from Sync- Before Effect > Repeat
Locked tracks to maintain time synchronization with
remaining sections of the selected track.
• Delay : If applied to a selection that does not end on
the end of a track, silence is inserted in the Sync-
Locked tracks where the delays are placed in the
selected track(s) to maintain time synchronization
among the tracks.
After Effect > Repeatwith 3 repeats
Paulstretch also changes the selection length
of any selected tracks in the Sync-Locked Track Group,
but currently does not observe the sync-locking and
does not cause changes to any un-selected Sync-Locked
tracks. Label tracks are not affected by Paulstretch
whether selected or not.

19.13.2 Example-1: Change Speed Result: Silence has been inserted into the lower audio
track and the Label track has had its synced "selection"
Before >Effect > Change Speed repeated three times.

19.13.4 Links

< Back to: Sync-Locked Track Groups - Time Shifting

|< Sync-Locked Track Groups
508 CHAPTER 19. ADDITIONAL FEATURES

19.14 Boundary Snap Guides

Boundary Snap Guides (or "Snap Guides" for short)

make it easy to draw a selection that starts or ends at
a physical boundary like a point or region label or a clip
inside the track. Snap Guides also let you exactly place
the cursor at such a boundary.When the selection or cur-
sor exactly aligns with the boundary, the Snap Guide ap-
pears as a yellow vertical line at the point of alignment.

19.14.1 How Snap Guides work

When you take any of the following actions: Snap Guides let you easily select from one physical
boundary to another. In the image below we changed
• Create a selection with the mouse

• Modify the selection boundaries with the mouse
• Time Shift a track or clip by dragging
then the selection boundary (or the boundary of the Time
Shifted track or clip) will snap to the closest of the follow-
ing physical boundaries:
• The start or end of a track or clip
to Selection Tool . We can now hover the mouse
anywhere close to the boundary of any clip, so that click-
ing at that point snaps the cursor to exactly the boundary
of that clip. In the image, we clicked to snap the cursor
to the left edge of the third clip in the "Host" track, then
dragged the selection until it snapped to exactly the right
edge of the third clip in the "Guest" track. We now see
two yellow vertical lines corresponding to the boundaries
we are snapping to, again extending through all tracks in
the project.

• The start or end of a region label

• The time position represented by a point label

• Time zero (0 on the Timeline ).

Additionally, clicking close to one of the above bound-

aries will automatically snap the click to the exact point of
that boundary, moving the cursor position to the bound-
ary.

19.14.2 Examples

The example below shows using Snap Guide to align the

In the image below, a clip in the "Guest" track is being
dragged leftwards with the mouse, as shown by the
Time Shift Tool mouse pointer. When the clip reaches
the right-hand boundary of the second clip in the track
above, a vertical yellow Snap Guide line appears through
all the tracks, showing the position of the snap bound-
ary. Once this Snap Guide is visible we can release the
mouse and the dragged clip will be perfectly aligned with
the one above:
cursor with a point label. Using Selection Tool , we
hovered then clicked at a point approximately close to the
"02" label. Although we were zoomed a long way out, the
click snapped to the label position, moving the cursor to
exactly that point as indicated by the yellow Snap Guide
line in the audio track above. Similarly, you can click to
snap to either boundary of a region label.
19.14. BOUNDARY SNAP GUIDES 509

Snap Guides are distinct from the " Snap To "

checkbox in Selection Toolbar which snaps selection
edges (or the cursor) to a chosen unit of time .

• If "Snap To" in Selection Toolbar is enabled, mouse-

If there are two boundaries very close to one an-
other and Audacity cannot tell which is appropriate, Au-
dacity will not snap to either. To snap to one of them,
zoom in so you can clearly position the mouse closer to
one boundary than the other.
dragged selections and mouse clicks will only snap
to the chosen unit of time and not to physical
boundaries (unless a boundary is already aligned
with the chosen unit of time).
• A track or clip can still be time-shifted to any loca-
tion even if Snap To is enabled, so Snap Guides will
always appear when time-shifting towards a physi-
cal boundary.
Chapter 20

More Tutorials

20.1 Play

20.1.1 Importing audio files: • To stop, press the Stop button .

Either drag the files into the current project window, or
choose File > Import > Audio... . Files can be imported
into a new project window with File > Open... . The main
formats Audacity plays as shipped are AIFF, AU, FLAC,
MP2, MP3, OGG Vorbis and WAV. On Mac, Audacity as
shipped can also import Apple formats like M4A (AAC)
and MOV. For most other cases (including audio from
video files), you can install the optional FFmpeg library to
import your file, as long as the file is not protected by Dig-
ital Rights Management (DRM). For details of how to ob-
tain FFmpeg and workarounds to import DRM-protected
files, click here .
To import a CD:
Extract it to WAV or AIFF using iTunes, Windows Media
Player or similar. See importing CDs .
Playing audio:
• Space can be used to either play or stop.
• After stopping, playback resumes from its last start-
ing point.
– Alternatively, use X or Transport > Play >
Play/Stop and Set Cursor to stop playback and
set the cursor there. Playback will resume
from the stop point on pressing Play.
• To change the starting point to anywhere you like,
click in the track at your desired starting point, then
use Space to play from there.
– Alternatively, click and drag a selection region
in the waveform, then use Space to play from
the start to the end of that selection.
• To Loop-Play a selection repeatedly until stopped
(or if no selection, to play the entire track repeatedly
until stopped) hold Shift and click the Play button,
or use the keyboard shortcut Shift + Space.
• The Skip to Start and Skip to End buttons can
be used to skip to the start or end of the track re-
spectively.

• Press the Play button to start playback. There are other ways to to play specific regions or drag
the playback cursor and special playback commands that
• Press the Pause button once to pause playback, can make it easier to find and play the exact audio you
and again to resume. need. |< Back to: Getting Started

510
20.2. PLAYBACK
20.2 Playback
This page provides a detailed description of various
ways of controlling playback in Audacity, including key-
board shortcut commands and how to play short periods
around selections.
20.2.1 Play button
The easiest way to control Audacity playback is with
Transport Toolbar :
Clicking Play plays from the cursor point to the end
of the project, or from the start of the selection region to
the end of that region. The alternative Loop Play ac-
tion for the Play button is activated by holding Shift while
clicking Play. The button changes to display two circular
green arrows to indicate Loop Play. Play Cut Pre-
view will play audio either side of a selection to preview
what deleting the selection will sound like. Hold down
Ctrl(CloverLeaf on Mac) while clicking Play. Alternatively
you can use the C shortcut to preview the cut. This also
causes the Play button image to change to Play Cut Pre-
view.Clicking Play when the track is already playing or
paused is a quick way to restart playback without first
pressing Stop. Click Pause, or its shortcut P, to tem-
porarily pause playing or recording without losing your
place. Click Pause a second time to resume. Click-
ing Stop stops playing or recording immediately, and re-
leases Pause if depressed. You must stop playback or
recording before you can use the Skip buttons in the
Transport Toolbar. The shortcut Space can be used to ei-
ther play or stop. After stopping, playback resumes from
its last starting point. Alternatively, use X or Transport
> Play > Play/Stop and Set Cursor to stop playback and
set the cursor there. Playback will resume from the stop
point on pressing Play. To change the starting point to
anywhere you like, click in the track at your desired start-
ing point, then use Space to play from there.
20.2.2 Playback Regions, Quick-Play Re-
gions and Play Regions
The standard playback region associated with a shaded
selection region in the waveform is indicated in the Time-
line by a thin horizontal gray bar with arrowheads on each
end. For example in the image below, a region from 9 to
31 seconds.has been drawn in the waveform, and the
matching arrowed region in the Timeline also extends
511
from 9 to 31 seconds. This region will always play once
when you press Space or a Play button.
If there is only an editing cursor in the waveform, play-
back always starts from that cursor position and contin-
ues until the end of the project (unless you stop play-
back). Whenever audio is played, a green downward-
pointing triangle shows the current audio playback posi-
tion. In the image below, playback starts at 9 seconds
at the position of the editing cursor (represented in the
Timeline by a black vertical line with left-pointing arrow-
head). Playback had reached 14 seconds when the im-
age was taken.
There may be times when you want to move around to
hear arbitrary parts of the audio while still retaining the
position of the editing cursor or region in the waveform.
Quick-Play lets you drag in the Timeline to play that re-
gion immediately (or lets you click to start playback at that
point immediately), without moving the waveform re-
gion or cursor and without having to stop and restart
playback. Quick-Play does not operate when Audacity
is recording. In the image below we dragged a Quick-
Play region to play from 13 to 37 seconds. That region
is indicated in the Timeline by a thick horizontal gray bar
with arrowheads on each end, and playback was at 19
seconds when the image was taken.
If you hear some important audio during Quick-Play you
can move the waveform region or cursor to that point
without affecting Quick-Play playback, but this still allows
you to restart standard playback from the important spot.
On occasion you may always want to play the exact same
region, even if the region or cursor in the waveform is
elsewhere. You can use Transport > Play Region > Lock
to lock playback to the current playback region (or to the
current position of the Quick-Play region). The locked re-
gion is indicated in the Timeline by a thick horizontal red
bar with arrowheads on each end. In the image below,
playback will always occur from 13 to 28 seconds until
Transport > Play Region > Unlock is used to release the
Play Region.
512 CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS

20.2.3 Keyboard commands to skip play- Play To Selection (B)

back position by specified short and
long periods

These commands skip the playback cursor backwards

(left) or forwards (right) by a short or long period of time.
The default short period skipped is one second and the
default long period skipped is 15 seconds. You can
change the length of the default short or long period to
be skipped at "Seek Time when playing" in the Playback
Preferences .

Action Shortcut

Short seek backwards Left or ,
Short seek forwards Right or .
Long seek backwards Shift + Left or Shift + ,
Long seek forwards Shift + Right or Shift + .
You cannot seek backwards to left of the current po-
sition of the playback cursor.
Suppose you’ve selected a range of audio (above), and
you want to make sure it’s exactly what you want to cut
out. In order to determine whether you’ve selected ex-
actly the right range of audio, you can not only listen to
the selection, but you can position the mouse pointer so
as to listen to any desired length of audio before or after
the selection. If you press Space, you’ll hear the whole
selection (indicated by the playback region shown in the
Timeline) (below).

20.2.4 Play relative to mouse pointer or se-

lection

These are three keyboard commands that let you play

a few seconds of audio without changing the selection.
They can be really useful during editing, such as when
you’re trying to find the exact spot to cut and paste.
The "B" key lets you play the audio between the mouse
Action Shortcut
pointer and the selection - what you hear depends on
Play One Second 1 where the mouse pointer is. Move the mouse to a part of
the audio you’re interested in hearing, and press B, with-
Play To Selection B out clicking the mouse button (the first through the fourth
images below). If the mouse pointer is to the left of the
Play Cut Preview C selection and you press B, you’ll hear the audio up to the
selection.

Play One Second (1)

Press 1 while the mouse is pointing to a particular point

on the Timeline, and you will hear one second of audio If the mouse pointer is inside the left side of the selection
centered on that time. The mouse does not need to be and you press B, you’ll hear the first part of the selection
over the waveform itself, and the pointer can be inside a up to the mouse pointer.
selection, so giving you a way to play one second of that
selection, centered on the pointer. For example, position
the mouse at 1.0 seconds and press 1 , and you will hear
the time range from 0.5 to 1.5 seconds (below).

If the mouse pointer is inside the right side of the selec-

tion and you press B, you’ll hear from the mouse pointer
to the end of the selection.
20.3. PLAYING AND RECORDING
Finally if the mouse pointer is to the right of the selec-
tion and you press B, you’ll hear from the selection to the
mouse pointer.
B works in the same way to play to the cursor when there
is no selection. If you place the pointer before the cur-
sor, B plays from the pointer to the cursor. If you place
the cursor after the pointer, B plays from the cursor to the
pointer.
Play Cut Preview (C)
Press the C key to hear two seconds of audio before the
selection and then one second of audio after the selec-
tion - thus simulating what playback would sound like if
the selection was deleted. If you have multiple tracks se-
lected, only the uppermost of the selected tracks is pre-
viewed. You can change the length of the audio that is
played before and after the selection in Playback Pref-
erences . If preferred, Play Cut Preview of a selection
can also be performed by holding Ctrl(or CloverLeaf on
Mac) while clicking on the Play button in Transport Tool-
bar or on the Play-at-Speed button in Transcription Tool-
bar . Note that the normal solid Play button will show a
vertical split when the Ctrl(or CloverLeaf on Mac) but-
ton is held. In the image below, our selection started at
1.0 seconds. C played the two seconds of audio repre-
sented by the overlaid orange arrows. There was only
only one second of audio between the start of the track
and the selection, so only that was played rather than
two seconds, then this was followed immediately by the
specified one second after the selection.
20.3 Playing and Recording
Audacity offers many tools which allow the user to play
all or part of a sound. There are also many recording
options.
513
Similarly, you can hold Ctrl(CloverLeaf on a Mac) then
drag and release in the Timeline to Quick-Play before and
after the dragged selection, simulating what a cut would
sound like. To hear that Cut Preview repeatedly so as to
judge it more easily, click Ctrl + Shift(CloverLeaf + Shift
on Mac) then drag in the Timeline.
You may customize almost all keyboard shortcuts.
Change them using the Keyboard tab of Preferences .
20.2.5 Play short periods around selec-
tions
The following commands play short periods of audio.
They were primarily introduced for VI (Visually Impaired)
users but will be of benefit to sighted users too:
Action Shortcut
Play short period before selection start Shift + F5
Play short period after selection start Shift + F6
Play short period before selection end Shift + F7
Play short period after selection end Shift + F8
Play short period before and after selection start Ctrl +
Shift + F5
Play short period before and after selection end Ctrl +
Shift + F7The periods before and after use the setting of
the cut preview as set in Playback Preferences .
Note that you must enable the "Full" keyboard
shortcut set in Keyboard Preferences for the first four
commands in this table to be active.
20.3.1 Controlling Playback and Recording
Transport Toolbar
The easiest way to control Audacity playback and record-
ing is with Transport Toolbar :
514
Clicking Play plays from the cursor point to the end
of the project, or from the start of the selection region to
the end of that region. The alternative Loop Play ac-
tion for the Play button is activated by holding Shift while
clicking Play. The button changes to display two circular
green arrows to indicate Loop Play. Play Cut Pre-
view will play audio either side of a selection to preview
what deleting the selection will sound like. Hold down
Ctrl(CloverLeaf on Mac) while clicking Play. Alternatively
you can use the C shortcut to preview the cut. This also
causes the Play button image to change to Play Cut Pre-
view.Clicking Play when the track is already playing or
paused is a quick way to restart playback without first
pressing Stop. Clicking Record or using the R short-
cut always begins recording at the end of the currently
selected track(s). The alternative Record New Track
action for the Record button is activated by holding Shift
while clicking Record. The button changes to display the
Record New Track icon. This will start recording in a
new track at either the current cursor position or at the
beginning of the current selection. Click Pause, or
its shortcut P, to temporarily pause playing or recording
without losing your place. Click Pause a second time to
resume. Clicking Stop stops playing or recording im-
mediately, and releases Pause if depressed. You must
stop playback or recording before you can use the Skip
buttons in the Transport Toolbar.
Using keyboard shortcuts
When you get more used to Audacity, it’s often easier to
use keyboard shortcuts for repetitive actions like playing,
pausing and recording. Below is a list of the equivalent
keyboard shortcut for each of the Transport Toolbar but-
tons, with a description of what each button and its short-
cut does.
Button Shortcut What it does
PauseP Press once to pause playback or recording then
once to resume.
Play or Stop Space Press once to start playback then
once to stop. Starting playback again starts from its orig-
inal starting position at the cursor.
Loop-Play Shift + Space Play the entire selection repeat-
edly (or the entire track if no selection) until stopped.
Move to Next Label Alt + RightPlaces the editing cursor
or selection to correspond with the next label and restarts
playback from there, without opening the label for edit-
ing. After the final label is reached, using the shortcut
CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
again jumps playback to the first label. Not available
while recording.
Move to Previous Label Alt + Left Places the editing cur-
sor or selection to correspond with the previous label and
restarts playback from there, without opening the label for
editing. After the first label is reached, using the short-
cut again jumps playback to the final label. Not available
while recording.
Skip to Start Home Move the cursor to start of project.
Skip to End End Move the cursor to end of project.
Record R Record starting from the end of the selected
track(s).
Record New Track Shift + R Record in a new track
starting from the cursor position or start of the selec-
tion. There is an additional command Transport > Play >
Play/Stop and Set Cursor which has the shortcut X. This
acts exactly like Space when starting playback, but when
used to stop, the cursor or start of the selection is set to
the position where playback was stopped. Using either
Space or X will then start playback from that stop posi-
tion. All the above shortcuts can be changed if desired in
Keyboard Preferences .
Adjusting the Playback volume
You can adjust the playback volume using the output level
slider in the Mixer Toolbar . The Playback Meter will show
you the overall volume of all of your tracks when mixed
together.
Playing at slower or faster speeds than normal
Using the Play button in Transcription Toolbar plays at a
constant speed but slower or faster than normal. Enve-
lope Tool on the Tools Toolbar , when used in conjunction
with a Time Track , allows a speed envelope to be drawn
which can increase or decrease playback speed over the
length of the audio.
Pinned head playing and recording
You can change Audacity to play or record with a fixed
head pinned to the center of the Timeline . In this mode
the head remains static and the waveform scrolls con-
tinuously as the audio is played or recorded. This be-
havior is controlled by using the button at the left of the
Timeline. By default this shows as a green downward-
pointing triangle (like the play head). In this mode, the
play or record head will move horizontally and the wave-
form will scroll when necessary, except that if Update
display when Recording/Playback head is unpinned is
unchecked in Tracks Preferences then scrolling will not
occur.
20.3. PLAYING AND RECORDING
Clicking the green triangle causes the button icon to
change to a drawing-pin. This indicates that the play or
record head is now pinned to the center of the Timeline
and when playing or recording, the waveform will scroll
continuously.
When pinned playback or recording is chosen, the play-
head displays as a green drawing-pin (as shown in the
image below) and the recording head displays as a red
drawing-pin.
Clicking the drawing-pin reverts to default unpinned play-
back and recording, and the button will change back to
the green triangle. Unpinned or pinned head can also be
selected in Tracks Preferences .
20.3.2 Playback
For fuller details of how to use playback, including key-
board shortcut commands and how to preview short sec-
tions, please see the Playback page.
Quick-Play using the Timeline
Timeline Quick-Play provides a quick and convenient
means to either start playback from any point within the
current project or to playback a region of audio. For de-
tails see the Quick-Play section on the Timeline page.
Scrubbing and Seeking
Scrubbing or Seeking is the action of moving the mouse
pointer right or left so as to adjust the position, speed
or direction of playback - a convenient way to quickly
navigate the waveform to find a particular event of in-
terest. Scrubbing or Seeking in Audacity is initiated by
using the Scrub button or Seek button in Scrub
Toolbar . Alternatively you can use the
Transport > Scrubbing menu item and select Scrub or
Seek from the cascading menu. Audacity will remain
in scrubbing/seeking mode until you return it to normal
play mode. Clicking the Stop button (or its shortcut
515
Space) at any time will stop scrub/seek play and return
you to normal play mode moving the cursor to the current
scrub/seek play position. If you wish to stop scrubbing or
seeking without losing the position of the editing cursor
or selection, use the Escape Esc key. Please see Scrub-
bing and Seeking for details
MIDI (and Allegro) Playback
MIDI (and Allegro .gro) files can be imported into Audac-
ity with File > Import MIDI... to a Note Track . Audac-
ity can now play these MIDI (and Allegro) files, but note
that there will no use of the Playback meter while Note
tracks are played. Although Note track playback should
just work on Windows, on Mac and Linux additional soft-
ware may be required. Editing these Note tracks is pos-
sible, but very limited. For more details please see: Note
Tracks . In order to achieve Note track playback on Mac
and Linux you will need to install, and run, additional soft-
ware, a software synthesizerPlease see these pages in
the Audacity Wiki:
• Enabling Note Track playback on Mac
• Enabling Note Track playback on Linux
20.3.3 Recording
For fuller details of how to use recording, including how
to control where and which track you record in and key-
board shortcut commands, please see the Recording
page. When you click the Record button on Transport
Toolbar , or use the R, Audacity will record at the end
of the currently selected (or only) track, or create a new
track if you have an empty project.
When making recordings, particular critical recordings,
you should consider shutting down all other applications
giving Audacity sole use of the computer. This can help
to avoid skips, small dropouts, and ticks in your record-
ings. And on Mac that means fully Quitting them not just
closing them, as otherwise Mac will leave them open con-
suming computer resources.
Overdubbing
You can record a new track while listening to previously
recorded tracks. This is called overdubbing . To set up
for overdubbing, make sure that Transport > Transport
Options > Overdub (on/off) is enabled (on) which is its
default setting. See the tutorial set Recording Multi-track
Overdubs for more help with overdubbing. If you hold the
Shift button down the Record button in Transport Toolbar
516 CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS

will temporarily change to . Then clicking on this mod-

ified Record button, or using the shortcut Shift + R will
cause Audacity to create a new track and begin record-
ing on that track from the current cursor position (or from
the left edge of a region on the Timeline ). If there is a
region in the Timeline, that region will be recorded in a
new track. After stopping recording, Audacity will push
the recorded track backwards by 130 milliseconds by de-
fault to attempt to align it with the previous tracks(s). Left-
pointing arrows will appear at time zero when any of the
recorded track is pushed behind zero (standard Export
ignores audio before zero but Export Multiple based on
multiple audio tracks includes it). It is recommended to
perform a latency test to determine the optimum back-
wards correction then set that value at Latency correction
in Recording Preferences . Use it to start recording later, or to record for a certain
duration before stopping.

Sound Activated Recording

Timer Recording
Yet another way to record is using the Timer Record util-
ity, found in the Transport Menu .
If you turn on Transport > Transport Options > Sound Ac-
tivated Recording (on/off) you can make recording pause
until the input level exceeds the specified threshold level
at Transport > Transport Options > Sound Activation
Level .

20.4 Record

To record: in the following image:

• Set the Recording Device,
• monitor and then adjust the recording level,
• then press the Record button. Correct adjust-
ment of level before recording is essential to
avoid noise or distortion.
If you are having problems recording, have a look at the
FAQ on recording which answers some frequently asked
questions.
When making recordings, particular critical recordings,
you should consider shutting down all other applications
giving Audacity sole use of the computer. This can help
to avoid skips, small dropouts, and ticks in your record-
ings. And on Mac that means fully Quitting them not just
closing them, as otherwise Mac will leave them open con-
suming computer resources.
1. Set the Recording Device either in the Devices sec-
tion of Preferences or in Device Toolbar .
2. Click in the Recording Meter to start monitoring as
3. Singing or playing the loudest part of what you are
recording, adjust the recording level using the right-
hand slider on Mixer Toolbar :
so that the moving Meter Toolbar bars do not get
too close to the right-hand edge of the meter.
4. Optionally, turn on Transport > Transport Options
> Software Playthrough (on/off) (so it has a check
mark) to hear what the recording will sound like.
Do not enable Software Playthrough when
recording computer playback because it creates
echoes and feedback. To hear what a recording
of computer playback will sound like, make a test
recording to check the level before recording for
real.
5. Press the Record button to record for real.
6. Audacity will record until you stop the recording us-
20.5. RECORDING
ing the Stop button.
More help at:
• Basic Recording, Editing and Exporting - more
getting-started information
– Recording a detailed description of various
ways of controlling recording in Audacity
• Tutorial - Your First Recording for recording micro-
phones, guitar or keyboard
20.5 Recording
This page provides a detailed description of various ways
of controlling recording in Audacity, including how to con-
trol where and which track you record in and keyboard
shortcut commands.
• If you have not made any recordings in Audacity
before, you may want to try the the Audacity tutorial
" Your First Recording " which includes step by step
details of how to set up your equipment too.
When making recordings, particular critical recordings,
you should consider shutting down all other applications
giving Audacity sole use of the computer. This can help
to avoid skips, small dropouts, and ticks in your record-
ings. And on Mac that means fully Quitting them not just
closing them, as otherwise Mac will leave them open con-
suming computer resources.
20.5.1 Setting up
1. Connect your input source to your computer and
verify that you are getting sound into your computer
using your computer’s sound input control panel or
the custom mixer application that came with your
particular soundcard.
2. Tell Audacity which source you have selected to
record from.
3. Set the recording level using the input slider on the
Mixer Toolbar while watching the indications in the
Recording Meter . Try to aim for a maximum peak
of around –6.0 dB (or 0.5 if you have your meters
set to linear rather than dB). Tip: enlarging the Me-
ter Toolbars by clicking and dragging them helps
with this task.
To listen to what you are recording you have two options.
517
• Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
– Recording with USB turntables or USB cas-
sette decks
• Troubleshooting Recordings: Frequently Asked
Questions
• Recording Tips on the Wiki
|< Back to: Getting Started
1. If you computer’s sound control panel supports
sending the audio input to the computer’s audio
output then make this setting there.
2. If that is not possible, click on Transport > Transport
Options > Software Playthrough (on/off) so that it is
checked.
Alternatively, if you are using an external soundcard or
mixer you may be able to monitor the signal directly from
that device. For further information on setting up see: Au-
dacity Setup and Configuration . Detailed step-by-step
instructions for setting up for recording are provided in
the Your First Recording and the Copying tapes, LPs or
MiniDiscs tutorials.
As soon as you have made a recording it is strongly rec-
ommended to File > Save Other > Export Audio... it im-
mediately to WAV or AIFF (ideally to an external drive)
as a safety copy before you start editing the project.
20.5.2 Recording on the same track
This is the default recording behavior in Audacity. When
you click the Record button on Transport Toolbar (or
use the shortcut R ) Audacity will record at the end of the
currently selected, or only, track, or will create a new track
if you currently have no tracks. When recording like this,
at the end of an existing recording, Audacity will place
a clip line at the junction between the two recordings to
aid you in separating them later if required. You can re-
move the clip line, if not required, simply by clicking on
it joining the two clips. Alternatively, instead of stopping
the recording, you can click the Pause button to pause
recording, or use the P shortcut. To continue recording
click which releases the Pause button, or press P.
518
20.5.3 Recording a new track
If you hold the Shift button down the Record button in
Transport Toolbar will temporarily change to . Then
clicking on this modified Record button, or using the
shortcut Shift + R will cause Audacity to create a new
track and begin recording on that track from the current
cursor position (or from the left edge of a region on the
Timeline ). There is no need to create a new track before
starting to record. If you want recording to start from the
beginning of the project, click the "Skip to Start" button
on Transport Toolbar or press the Home shortcut. Press
the Stop button (or use its shortcut Space) to Stop the
recording.
Continuing recording in a new track
Instead of stopping the recording with the Stop button
or Space, you can stop the recording with the Play / Stop
and Set Cursor shortcut X. When you record again us-
ing the Shift key modifier, recording will start in a new
track at the end-position of the track above.
Recording a region in a new track
If there is no Timeline region, Audacity records until you
stop the recording. To record only the Timeline region
in a new track, use Tracks > Add New to create a new
track if there are no tracks yet, select the region required
in any track and ensure Transport > Overdub (on/off) is
enabled (on) which is its default setting. Overdub may
also be enabled in Recording Preferences . There is no
need for the track containing the region to be selected.
20.5.4 Recording for a specific length of
time
To record for a specific length of time
20.6 Recording 78 rpm records
This tutorial outlines the steps that are needed to process
the recording of 78 rpm records with Audacity:
• Ideally use a turntable with 78 rpm and adjustable
speed - though you can use lower speed dubbing.
• Use a proper 78 stylus - you may want a separate
headshell/cartridge.
• Clean your records thoroughly.
• Audacity setup - use the defaults: 32-bit float sam-
CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
1. Unless you wish to overdub from the previous
track(s) ensure Transport > Transport Options >
Overdub (on/off) is disabled, "off", which is not the
default setting.
• Use Tracks > Add New to create a new track if
there are no tracks yet.
2. Drag-select a region in an existing track - or choose
the time range to be recorded in Selection Toolbar
.
3. Then hold down Shift press the Record New Track
button (or use the shortcut Shift + R ) to record
in a new track for the duration of the selection you
made.
Alternatively, you can use Timer Record which operates
in a manner similar to setting your digital video recorder
or cassette recorder to make a scheduled recording.
20.5.5 Arming Audacity for recording
Arming Audacity simply means that you are preparing it
for recording, readying it without the recording actually
starting To arm Audacity:
1. Click the Pause button , or its shortcut P
2. Click the Record button or use the shortcut R
Audacity is now armed and ready to record. Note that
monitoring in the Recording Meter will have becom ac-
tive, monitoring your input signal:
Once you are ready to start recording simply click the
Pause button again, or its shortcut P(or the Record
button or its shortcut R) and recording will commence
immediately.
ple format and 44100 Hz Project Rate
• Processing to adjust equalization and reduce noise
- and review results.
• Export to WAV/MP3 in the normal way.
20.6.1 Workflow overview
1. Clean the records
20.6. RECORDING 78 RPM RECORDS
2. Recording capture with Audacity
3. Export a WAV as a raw master backup
4. Remove any DC offset that may be present
5. Apply the correct equalization (whatever that may
be)
6. Invert the RIAA equalization
7. Correct the speed via the Change Speed effect
8. Filtering to reduce high and low frequency noise
9. Clean up clicks and other random noise
10. Fade in/out the track beginning/end
11. Volume adjustments - normalization and compres-
sion
12. Review and Export as WAV, MP3 or whatever
13. Backup (you do not want to lose all this valuable
work)
20.6.2 Use a special stylus or cartridge
You should not use a normal stylus (needle) to play 78’s.
The grooves on a 78 are significantly wider and deeper
than the grooves on an LP, so a normal stylus will bottom
out in the grooves and also bounce from side to side in
louder passages. This will result in:
• noisier, more hissy transfers
• far less accurate reproduction of the music
• damage to the stylus which will then impair its fur-
ther use for LP’s
Check the website or manual for your turntable to see if
the manufacturer supplies a special 78 rpm stylus or car-
tridge. If not, search the web for "78 rpm stylus". A typical
good starter sapphire stylus size is 3 mil or 0.0762 mil-
limeters, but watch how many sides you play as the stylus
does not last as long as a diamond one. Typical groove
widths on 78’s prior to the 1940’s range from 2.5 mil to
4 mil. There is wider variation with recordings from the
1920’s and older. Use a separate cartridge If you can
afford it, use a separate cartridge from the one you use
for your LPs. You need one which will support tracking at
the heavier 4 or 5 gram weights that most 78 rpm record-
ings need. Ideally you should consider more than one
stylus width if you are playing really old shellac records,
because there was no standardization of groove dimen-
sions until late in the 78 rpm era. Again, search on the
internet for advice. Use a spare headshell The safest
way to swap between stylus types (if you are doing this
often) is to use a separate headshell and cartridge. This
way you will not be continually swapping the stylus on
your cartridge - a risky procedure.
519
20.6.3 Workflow
20.6.4 Cleaning the records
Try to clean the 78s as thoroughly as possible before
recording. This will save you time later as cleaning
clicks/pops is hard work if you do it manually. Do not
use alcohol-based solvents on the shellac, use only wa-
ter or water-based cleaners. You can use a bit of washing
up liquid on a piece of velvet and warm water. Give them
all a wash, in cool not hot water, and place them in the
dish rack - then change the water and rinse thoroughly -
finally rinse off with distilled (de-ionized) water, then drain
and dry off with a dry piece of velvet. Avoid wiping with
kitchen paper or similar, as these are both abrasive, and
can leave fibres stuck in the grooves. If you are in a hurry,
placing the record on a piece of kitchen towel can absorb
the majority of the distilled water, but avoid wiping the
record. Fairly obviously, do not play or record warped,
cracked or badly chipped records. With a certain amount
of patience, problems such as this can be repaired.
You should never attempt to play a shellac disc
when it is wet.
Capture
Work with Audacity set to a project rate of 44100 Hz and
32-bit sample format (these are the default quality set-
tings ). Working with 78s you are likely to be doing a lot
of processing and you will need the headroom that 32-bit
provides.Record both sides of the 78 into the project prior
to doing the processing. You can either Stop the record-
ing after the first side using the button or Transport >
Stop and then use Transport > Record (or use the short-
cut R) to restart recording when you are ready. Alterna-
tively you can pause by pressing the button (or use
Transport > Pause ) at the end of the first side and then
press the button again once you are ready to record
the second side. After recording you may find it helpful to
zoom out to display the entire recording in the Audacity
window. You may prefer to work with a single side at a
time as the noise levels may vary from side to side.
Export a WAV as a raw master backup
Export a single WAV for this recording at 32-bit float (not
16-bit). Retain this WAV file as a maximum quality "raw
capture" file that you can import back into Audacity later
to start over (if you damage the project while working on
it).
520
20.6.5 Remove DC offset
DC offset can occur at the recording stage so that the
recorded waveform is not centered on the horizontal line
at 0.0 amplitude . If this is the case with your record-
ings, see the Normalize page for how to use Normalize
to remove DC offset and how to check if your Windows
sound device can perform this correction automatically.
20.6.6 Equalization
When recording 78 rpm records, there is a problem
that the pre-amplification built into any consumer-level
pre-amplifier or USB turntable will be designed for vinyl
records made from the 1950s onwards. This is because
the pre-amplification not only provides the necessary am-
plification for the cartridge signal that is sent to Audacity,
but applies what is known as "RIAA playback equaliza-
tion" to it. This equalization is essential when playing
records made from the 1950s or later, as it cancels out
the high frequency biased "RIAA recording equalization"
that such records are cut with, making them sound nor-
mal again. The problem is that most 78 rpm records were
not cut with such a strong high frequency bias. They
therefore sound dull if played through modern equipment
that applies RIAA playback equalization. So, to make a
fully professional job of transferring your 78 rpm records,
you should open Effect > Equalization in Audacity imme-
diately after recording, and apply the inverse of the RIAA
playback curve (see the next section). This will cancel
out the unwanted RIAA equalization, after which you can
apply one of the 78 rpm playback curve presets supplied
with the effect. Note that the 78 rpm curves are generic.
In practice, many different equalizations were used ac-
cording to the record label or even the recording engi-
neer. See Playback equalization for 78 rpm shellacs and
early 331/3 LPs in the Audacity Wiki for a list of known
equalizations used by different manufacturers of 78 rpm
records.
Inverting the RIAA curve
You can select the "RIAA" curve, then use the Invert but-
ton to invert it. Then apply the appropriate equalization
to the recording. The Invert button provides other oppor-
tunities for correcting inappropriate equalization. For ex-
ample, if you were recording an acoustic record on equip-
ment that could only reproduce one of the listed "78" or
"RCA" curves meant for electrical 78’s, you could invert
that curve, then apply the very different "acoustic" curve.
The result would not be ideally accurate, but far better
than not changing the equalization at all.
CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
20.6.7 Lower speed dubbing - 33 1/3 or 45
rpm
If your turntable does not have the facility to play records
at 78 rpm, you can use Audacity’s ability to change the
speed of recordings to record your 78 rpm records at ei-
ther 33 1/3 rpm or 45 rpm. Since you are playing the
disc slower than normal, tracking should not be an issue.
The top frequency on a 78 will be around 8000 Hz, and
playing it slower will lower that to about 4600 Hz. If your
turntable does not have a strobe or speed adjustment,
you can measure the playback speed in revolutions per
minute (rpm) very accurately thus:
1. Record the leadout of the final groove and select
the distance between the recorded clicks in the Au-
dacity waveform
2. Measure the time taken for 10 consecutive revolu-
tions (you can measure to 1/1000 of a second by
zooming in on the waveform )
3. Divide that time by 10 (for example, if you measured
8 seconds, dividing that by 10 gives you a resultant
value of 0.8)
4. Divide the resultant value into 60 (in our example,
60/0.8 gives us the answer that the record was play-
ing at 75 rpm)
Record the track into Audacity at your chosen speed then
select all the track by clicking in the Track Control Panel
and click Effect > Change Speed... . In the From box
choose the speed you played the record at (for example,
"33 1/3" or "45") and in the To box choose 78 rpm if that
is the speed you want to convert the recording to (that is,
the speed it should be played at according to the label). If
some other speed is required, use the Speed Multiplier
box to set the speed to be converted to. Divide the actual
speed of the record by 33.3333 (or by whatever speed
you were playing it at) then enter the result in Speed Mul-
tiplier. For example, if you were playing an 80 rpm record
at 45 rpm, the calculation is (80/45) = 1.777778. En-
ter that result rounded to three decimal places (1.778) in
Speed Multiplier. Note that you should reverse the RIAA
equalization to make the transfer "flat" before changing
speed, and then set the appropriate EQ for the record.
So the workflow steps for this part of the process are:
1. Record the 78 at 45 or 33 1/3 rpm
2. Apply the Inverse RIAA EQ
3. Change Speed to the actual speed of the record
4. Apply appropriate EQ according to the make of the
record.
Note on actual speeds: With the early clockwork
turntable mechanisms the rotational speed was rather
approximate and manufacturers produced records in
the 70 to 90 rpm range with 78 being the most
commonly accepted “standard”. Many discs had
20.6. RECORDING 78 RPM RECORDS
the speed stamped on the label and they depended
on the early players which had a speed control.
With the introduction of the synchronous AC mo-
tor, for detailed technical reasons, the standard was
changed to 78.26 rpm. See this website for de-
tails: http://www.videointerchange.com/vintage_78s.htm.
Stanton T-series USB turntables still offer 78 rpm
working, and helpfully they have a wide speed ad-
justment range. If you know exactly what speed
your records should spin at you can find a strobe
disc on the Internet and print one out with ex-
actly the right spacing of bars. One example site
is: http://www.78rpm.com/rescat/strobe_info.htm.Note
on actual EQ used: See 78 rpm playback curves on our
Wiki for an extensive list of 78 rpm playback equaliza-
tion curves and a Nyquist plug-in that can generate XML
files from these curves for use in Audacity’s Equalization
effect.
20.6.8 Filtering and noise reduction
Noise on 78’s is complex, and relatively high in level. You
will need to try to reduce some of the different types of
noise in separate passes.
Noise reduction
Over the years your 78s will undoubtedly have received
scratches and wear, which will result in clicks, pops and
crackle. Audacity does have tools for click removal and
noise reduction - but there are better tools than Audacity
for dealing with these, although "Effect > Repair" works
extremely well for removing single clicks. Some of these
tools do cost some money but most have free-trial peri-
ods. Goldwave is often recommended by Audacity users,
as are Brian Davies’ ClickRepair and DeNoise packages.
Filtering
1. Make sure you have set the Audacity Default Sam-
ple Format in the Quality Preferences to 32-bit float
(the default) because you are probably going to do
a fair bit of processing, and some of the filters ap-
pear to work better with 32-bit input.
2. Then run Effect > Low Pass Filter to reduce high
frequency noise. Set the cutoff frequency to suit
the vintage of the record as follows:
•
• 9000 Hz or 10000 Hz for recordings from the
1940s or later
• 8000 Hz for electrical recordings (1926 to
1939)
• 7000 Hz for acoustic recordings (before 1926).
521
Use a rolloff of at least 12 dB per octave or even
24 dB per octave. Listen to the result to make sure
the sudden cutoff of high-frequency noise does not
sound too artificial.
3. Then deal with the low frequency noise - select a
"noise sample" from the current audio track (that
is, a section of the recording that is surface noise
only) and copy it to a new track. Use Analyze > Plot
Spectrum to see the frequency content of the noise.
Use the low pass effect on this noise sample to iso-
late the lower frequency noise, (for a very rough
and ready setting, try a rolloff of 12 dB per octave
at a cutoff frequency of 1000 Hz). Then open Effect
> Noise Reduction , select the low-passed noise
sample and choose "Get Noise Profile". Finally, se-
lect the original track, open Noise Reduction again,
choose the slider settings and run the effect.
An alternative, simpler, method for dealing with low fre-
quency noise is to use Effect > High Pass Filter to filter
out frequencies below 20 Hz. It’s amazing that the wave-
form can display these sub-sonic frequencies, usually de-
ficiencies in the cutting lathe during the original recording
session.
Click Removal
Remove any clicks and pops from the recording using Ef-
fect > Click Removal Alternatively you can use third party
software as discussed above.
Fade In/Out
You may wish to more cleanly Effect > Fade Out the track
end and Effect > Fade In the track beginning. Normally
the fade out should be longer (typically a few seconds),
and the fade in, if required, quite short (typically a frac-
tion of a second). Consider using Effect > Studio Fade
Out instead of the linear Fade Out. It applies a more mu-
sical fade out to the selected audio, giving a more pleas-
ing (more "professional studio") sounding result. You may
also get a more musical fade-in by applying Effect > Fade
In multiple times to the selcted audio; three times is a
good guideline. This will produce a shaped, curved, fade
rather than a linear one.
20.6.9 Normalization & Compression
As a final step you may wish to adjust the loudness of
you recording.
522
Normalize
You can use Effect > Normalize to bring the maximum
volume of your recording to a specified level - we would
suggest to around -3.0 dB. Audacity’s Effect > Amplify
can also be used for the same function. Normalize has
the advantage that it can be optionally set to adjust for
channel imbalance.
Compression
As a final step, to increase the perceived loudness and
density of the recording, more advanced users can per-
form compression on the recording. You can use Audac-
ity’s Effect > Compressor to do this. There are also some
alternative free compressors available as separate down-
loads which work well with Audacity.
20.6.10 Review & Export
Then review the track to decide if any further treatment
is required, or if you need to restart from scratch. If you
are happy with your work than your project is ready for
Export to WAV and/or MP3 and similar.
20.7 Recording length
Audacity lets you record for as long and as often as you
need, subject to the disk space you have available. The
disk space needed for recording depends on the quality
( sample rate and bit depth/sample format ) at which you
record.
20.7.1 Recording time/disk space remain-
ing
When recording, the audio data is written to your hard
disk. For example, if you just press the red Record but-
ton without having yet saved a Project, it’s written to Au-
dacity’s temporary folder. Therefore, the amount of time
you can record for is limited by the available disk space
on the drive you are writing to. Audacity lets you know
the amount of time you can record for based on that re-
maining space, giving a clear indication in the Status Bar
at the bottom of the screen as to how much time you can
record for:
CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
20.6.11 Backup
Don’t forget to backup your finished audio files as you
will not want to lose all that hard work; ideally at least
two separate copies on separate media. You may wish
to consider also backing up your original capture mas-
ters as WAV files, then you can always come back to the
raw recording later and re-process it if you need or want
to. Don’t expect miracles with badly worn records. The
process can be very frustrating and the results can be
disappointing. Avoid aggressive denoise. The artifacts
are usually worse than the noise. Some users like to
leave a little surface noise in their transfers (they are 78s
after all!). Declick and equalization are the most impor-
tant steps in the process. Learn to read the waveform .
Sometimes an equalization can increase the amplitude
of some frequencies to a clipping level, so consider re-
ducing the amplitude slightly before equalization.
20.6.12 Links
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
> See also tutorial on: Sample workflow for LP digitiza-
tion
• Brian Davies offers a free Equalizer application that
simultaneously applies the proper Inverse RIAA
curve, corrected for the different playback speed,
and a choice of 78 rpm EQ curve.
The time remaining depends on the current space on
the drive, and on the quality (sample rate and sample
format/bit depth) at which you are recording. Although
there are rarely problems if you record to Audacity’s tem-
porary folder and then save the recording as an Audacity
Project, it may be preferable if you’re intending to save a
Project to save an empty Project before you start record-
ing, with the File > Save Project As... command. That
way, the recorded data will be saved to a permanent lo-
cation in the Project’s _data folder. When the record-
ing is over, and now and again during editing, use File >
Save Project (notFile > Save Project As...) to update the
Project.
20.8. RECORDING WITH USB TURNTABLES OR USB CASSETTE DECKS
20.7.2 Increasing disk space for longer
recordings
To get more recording time:
1. Obviously, free up some more disk space. One
good way to do that is to ensure you delete your
old Audacity Projects (the .aup and any .aup.bak
files and the _data folders) as soon as you’ve fin-
ished the Project and are sure you will not need to
export any more files from it.
2. Save the Project you’re starting (or change the lo-
cation of Audacity’s temporary folder) to a disk with
more space on it. The location of Audacity’s tempo-
rary folder can be changed on the Directories tab of
Preferences.
3. Audacity only uses uncompressed (so lossless)
PCM audio data for recording and editing, but the
amount of disk space consumed can be reduced by
changing the following settings in Preferences:
(a) on the Devices tab, record in mono instead of
stereo. This halves the disk space used.
(b) on the Quality tab, reduce the Default Sample
Format (bit depth) from 32-bit float to 16-bit,
which again halves the disk space used. In
speech recordings you may also be able to re-
duce the Default Sample Rate without signif-
icantly affecting the quality. Generally for mu-
sic, leave the Sample Rate at 44100 Hz, but
if 22050 Hz gives acceptable quality, it takes
only half the disk space of 44100 Hz.
4. Note that because unlimited undo is available in an
Audacity session, editing a project itself uses disk
space. To reduce the space a project is taking, File
> Save Project , exit Audacity and relaunch it. This
will clear out the space being used by the Undo
mechanism. Alternatively, leave the project open,
click View > History and discard the Undo levels
you do not need.
Examples of disk space usage when recording and
editing at different quality settings:
• 44100 Hz, 32-bit, stereo = 20 MB of space per
20.8 Recording with USB turntables or USB cassette decks
Audacity is often included with USB turntables, USB
cassette decks or USB soundcards, and is suitable for
recording from any USB audio device using the instruc-
tions on this page.USB audio devices connect to the
computer’s USB port and are used to transfer records,
or tapes, to digital audio files (from which audio CDs can
523
minute. 44100 Hz and 32-bit are Audacity’s default
quality settings
• 44100 Hz, 16-bit, stereo = 10 MB per minute. CD
quality
• 22050 Hz, 8-bit, mono = 1.25 MB per minute. This
would be generally acceptable for speech record-
ings from lower quality sources
Note that reducing the sample rate will reduce the au-
dio frequency limit. 44100 Hz gives a theoretical max-
imum of less than 22050 Hz that can be captured. A
sample rate of 22050 Hz gives you less than 11025 Hz.
For speech, you can take out the high frequencies with-
out much loss of intelligibility. Likewise, reducing the bit
depth reduces the dynamic range of the audio. For ex-
ample, 16-bit gives a whopping 96dB of dynamic range.
8-bit recording reduces dynamic range to 48dB. A 22050
Hz, 8-bit recording would rival the sound of a good qual-
ity cassette tape. Note that disk space usage above re-
lates solely to the size of audio data held by Audacity, not
to the size of audio files exported from it. You need this
space to record and edit, but if you do not save an Audac-
ity Project, the temporary data is deleted and the space
released as soon as you exit Audacity. When making a
longer recording of a few hours or more, other computer
resource issues may be involved apart from disk space.
These include the need to have sufficient RAM and swap
file space available, and ensuring automated events such
as system or application updates or screen savers are
not able to disrupt a recording. For details, see Managing
Computer Resources and Drivers in the Audacity Wiki.
Having stable, up-to-date sound device drivers properly
matched to your hardware also becomes more important.
See this page in the Audacity Wiki for details.
20.7.3 Long recordings
Audacity stores samples as 64-bit values (even on 32-bit
machines); therefore there is no inherent 32-bit limitation
that recordings may not exceed 23̂1 samples in length
(which is for example just over 13.5 hours at 44100 Hz
sample rate). 44100 Hz now offers a theoretical maxi-
mum recording length of a mere 58 billion hours or more
than 6.6 years (if you have the disk space).
be burnt). This is very useful if your computer does not
have the necessary line-in port for digitizing LPs or cas-
settes with a conventional turntable or tape deck. USB
turntables often include a line input to which standard
tape decks or similar sources can be connected for trans-
fer to the computer.Much of the information on this page,
524
and the pages linked to below, also apply to recording
with USB tape cassette decks and audio devices con-
nected with external USB soundcards. Please see the
Audacity Wiki page on USB Turntables for a fuller discus-
sion of the operation of these devices. Some users with
extensive experience of digitizing LPs and tapes believe
that connecting a good quality conventional turntable or
tape deck to an external USB interface or soundcard is
an ideal solution. USB soundcards usually do not suffer
from the transmission problems of USB turntables or tape
decks, and are also free from the random clicky noise
that can afflict sound devices built into computer mother-
boards. Moreover their analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
may be superior to that provided with a USB turntable
20.8.1 Ensure the Audacity software is up
to date
Make sure you have the current version of Audacity as
the software provided on the device manufacturer’s CD
can be out-of-date. Note that neither the version number
of the CD nor that of any guides produced by the manu-
facturers necessarily relates to the Audacity version num-
ber. To check your current version of Audacity, choose
Help > About Audacity in the menu (or Audacity > About
Audacity on Mac). Then go to the Audacity download
site and, if needed, download the latest Audacity for your
operating system.
20.8.2 Manufacturer’s guides
The guides provided with the devices might be confusing,
they are written by the device manufacturer rather than
by Audacity. Sometimes the guides supplied with the de-
vices are out-of-date or have errors. Here are some er-
rors that you may come across:
• Many manuals state that you should "select stereo
mix for your input". This is not the case, rather you
should be setting the USB device as your input.
• Audacity Preferences are not under the File
menu, as many manuals state, except in the legacy
1.0.0 version of Audacity which is only appropriate
for Mac OS 9 and Windows 95. Preferences are
under the Edit menu, or under the Audacity menu
on Mac.
• You do not need to select Start Monitoring each
time you launch Audacity, as some manuals urge
you to. Monitoring the input is optional and allows
you to hear the device through the computer speak-
ers just like an ordinary turntable, or cassette deck,
whenever it’s playing, without having to record. If
you want to select Start Monitoring, you need to
have the Recording Meter enabled (note: NOT the
Mixer Toolbar that some guides state). Instructions
on this are below.
CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
20.8.3 Set up Audacity to record from the
USB audio device
Connect the USB device
Connect the USB cable of the device to the computer.
Connect to an empty USB port on the computer, not to
a USB hub (a device that allows multiple USB devices to
be connected to one of your computer’s USB ports). Sys-
tem settings needed for Windows and MacWindows:
1. By the system clock, right-click over the Speaker
icon > Recording Devices then right-click over USB
Audio Codec > "Properties".
2. On the Advanced tab, in the "Default Format" sec-
tion, make sure the dropdown menu is set to "2
channel 16-bit 44100 Hz".
Mac:
1. From Apple Menu > System Preferences select
"Sound" and click on the Input tab
2. Select "USB Audio CODEC" or similar as the input
device and verify the Recording Meter shows input.
3. If the recording meter in the Sound preferences
panel does not show input:
1. From the Finder, select Go > Utilities and open Au-
dio MIDI Setup.
2. If the Audio Devices window is not visible, select
Window > Show Audio Devices.
3. Select your USB input device in the list in the left
pane of the Audio Devices window.
4. Set the Format to "44100.0 Hz" and "2ch-16bit".
For a more detailed walk-through of the above steps for
Mac, see Mac and USB input devices on the Audacity
Wiki.
Launch Audacity
If Audacity was already running when you connected the
cable, restart Audacity or choose Transport > Rescan Au-
dio Devices .
Project Rate
Set the Audacity Project Rate in Selection Toolbar at the
bottom left of the Audacity screen to 44100 Hz :
20.8. RECORDING WITH USB TURNTABLES OR USB CASSETTE DECKS
Devices
Use Device Toolbar to set the recording and playback de-
vices and to set the recording channels to "2 (Stereo)
Recording Channels", as in the below example on Win-
dows 10:
• – The Recording Device is set to the USB device
(in this case the device name, but often called
or including the phrase "USB Audio CODEC").
– Recording Channels is set to stereo.
– The Playback Device is set to the named
speakers of the built-in computer sound de-
vice.
* These settings can also be changed in
Devices Preferences .
Windows calls most USB external devices "micro-
phones". Some higher-end USB recording inter-
faces may appear as their explicit manufacturer’s
name.
Software Playthrough
Use Transport > Transport Options > Software
Playthrough (on/off) and click "Software Playthrough"
to turn it "on" (the checkmark is shown when it is "on").
This setting can also be enabled or disabled in Record-
ing Preferences . Software Playthrough lets you hear the
turntable through the computer speakers when record-
ing. It also lets you hear the turntable without recording
if you turn on monitoring (see the next section below). If
Audacity’s Software Playthrough does not produce audio
on Mac, try the third-party LineIn application.
Monitoring
Enable monitoring to set the recording level
• Turn monitoring on by clicking once on the micro-
phone icon in the Recording Meter .
• In Mixer Toolbar , turn up the left-hand playback vol-
ume slider (by the speaker icon).
• The right-hand recording volume slider (by the mi-
crophone icon) can often be used to vary the loud-
ness of the recording, but it may not function with
all turntables. If it does not, try adjusting the output
level on the turntable (often, there is a gain con-
trol under the chassis). Alternatively, you may be
able to adjust the input level on Windows and Linux
525
only, usually by looking for the speaker icon by the
system clock. On Windows, right-click over the
speaker icon > "Recording Devices". Then right-
click over USB Audio Codec, choose "Properties"
and click the Levels tab.
• Try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6 dB,
which corresponds to around 0.5 on the waveform
. You can always boost the level later with Effect
> Amplify... or Effect > Normalize... after you have
completed editing.
Possible solutions for excessive output volume if
there is no gain control on the USB audio device:
• If the device has RCA leads for connecting to
speakers and your computer has a line-in port
(blue), plug the RCA leads into an RCA stereo >
1/8 inch stereo TRS adapter (obtainable from most
electronics retailers), then connect the adapter to
the line-in. Set Audacity to record from line-in then
you can use the Audacity recording slider to control
the level.
– If you have no line-in, do not use the micro-
phone (pink) input unless there is a way to
switch it to line-level stereo or unless it offers
line-level stereo compatibility.
• If the cartridge is replaceable, take it to a hi-fi
shop and see if you can get a lower output car-
tridge. If the cartridge is ceramic (cheap USB
turntables often use these) it will have a high out-
put. Replacing this with a magnetic cartridge will
give lower output and better quality.
Recording
Then, ignoring any instructions in the manufacturer’s
guide to select "stereo mix", simply press the Record
button in Transport Toolbar to start recording from the
turntable.
20.8.4 Recording, editing and exporting
Once your USB turntable or cassette deck is set up and
working properly, go to the Basic Recording, Editing and
Exporting section of our Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or
MiniDiscs to CD for instructions on how to:
• make and edit your recording
• export it to an audio file
• import it to iTunes or Windows Media Player
• burn it to CD
526
20.8.5 Troubleshooting
The following potential problems during recording are
discussed in detail in the Audacity Wiki - see: Trou-
bleshooting
• Turntable not recognised by operating system
• No sound in other Windows applications after con-
necting the turntable
• White Noise
20.9 USB Recording
This is a very basic guide to recording with USB devices.
More detailed information (and Mac instructions) can be
found at Recording with USB turntables or USB cassette
decks .
• Connect the USB cable of the turntable, or
tapedeck, to the computer, then launch Audacity. If
Audacity was already running when you connected
the cable, restart Audacity or choose Transport >
Rescan Audio Devices .
• Use the Device Toolbar to set the recording and
playback devices and set the channels to "2(stereo)
Recording Channels":
• In this example on Windows, the output is set to
the named speakers of the built-in computer sound
20.10 Mixing Audio Tracks
Mixing refers to the process of combining multiple Au-
dacity tracks which play simultaneously into a single
track. Audacity mixes automatically when playing or ex-
porting, but it can also physically mix selected multiple
tracks together into one within the project. All selected
tracks are mixed, regardless if the Mute or Solo buttons
on any tracks are set to silence their playback. The chan-
nel of a track being mixed affects whether it will be mixed
into the left channel of the resulting track(s), the right
channel, or both (mono). For example, if you have four
tracks:
• Track 1: left channel
• Track 2: left channel
• Track 3: right channel
• Track 4: mono channel
CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
• No signal in one stereo channel
• Recordings freeze up or have dropouts
• Speed too fast or slow or erratic
• Recordings too loud or soft
20.8.6 Links
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
device, the input is set to the USB turntable (usu-
ally called or including the phrase "USB Audio
CODEC") and recording channels are set to stereo.
Windows 10/8/7 calls most USB external devices
"microphones". Some higher-end USB recording
interfaces may appear as their explicit manufac-
turer’s name.
• From the Transport Menu check "Software
Playthrough" to be "on" to hear the turntable
through the computer speakers; this setting can be
toggled on/off easily from the Transport Menu.
• Then, ignoring any instructions in the manufac-
turer’s guide to select "stereo mix", simply press the
Record button on Transport Toolbar .
|< Back to: Getting Started
and you select them all and perform a Mix and Render,
you will end up with one stereo track: the left channel will
contain a mix of tracks 1, 2, and 4 and the right channel
will contain a mix of tracks 3 and 4.Mixing can be done
for a number of reasons, for example mixing speech with
background music to make a podcast, or adding different
instruments into the same song. Concatenating songs
(for example, playing three songs one after the other)
does not necessarily involve mixing, but if you wanted
the songs to fade into each other it would involve mix-
ing. Within an Audacity project, you can physically mix
selected multiple selected tracks into a single mono or
stereo track using either of two explicit mix commands :
• Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render - which replaces the
original track(s) with the mixed track, or,
• Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render to New Track -
20.10. MIXING AUDIO TRACKS
which adds the mixed track to the project, preserv-
ing the original tracks.
However in Audacity, mixing is automatic. You could
just put audio into two different tracks, play to listen to the
result then export it as an audio file like MP3 or WAV
or burn the WAV to Audio CD . However once audio has
been finally mixed (as in an audio file you might import
into Audacity) it is essentially impossible to separate out
all the original parts again; it’s like trying to take the ba-
nana out of a banana milkshake after you’ve already put
it through the blender. There are a few occasions when
it actually is possible to separate sounds a bit - you can
sometimes isolate the bass, or remove the lead vocals.
But these processes do not always work well and usually
cause some quality loss. So remember, as long as the
multiple tracks are inside an Audacity project, you can
manipulate them independently, but once you export as
a mixed down file you cannot expect to separate the dif-
ferent parts again. So keep your Audacity project around
if you plan to continue editing! Although Audacity by de-
fault exports files as either two channel stereo or single
channel mono (if exporting unpanned mono tracks), you
can also export multi-channel files having more than two
channels, such as a 5:1 file. To enable this, choose "Use
custom mix" in the Import / Export Preferences .The con-
trols used for mixing are the Mute and Solo buttons and
the Gain (-.....+) and Pan (L.....R) sliders.
In the above example, mixing the mono (upper) and
stereo (lower) track means that the audio of the mono
track will be heard equally in both left and right channels
of the resulting stereo mix.
20.10.1 Muting and Soloing
When working with multiple tracks, it’s often important to
be able to hear just one at a time. Each track has a Mute
and a Solo button, allowing you to temporarily hear just
some of your tracks.
• Mute causes a track to be silenced. More than one
track can be muted.
• Solo can behave in two different ways depending
on the setting made in Tracks Preferences .
– Default behavior, the "Simple" setting, is that
clicking Solo on any track mutes all the other
tracks. To solo more than one track, hold Shift
527
down while clicking the Solo button on the ad-
ditional tracks to be soloed. On the additional
tracks that are soloed, the Solo button over-
rides the Mute button.
– Selecting "Multi-track" setting will suit those
used to mixing desks and other professional
audio software. Any number of tracks can be
made solo so that they mix together. If any
Solo button is down this overrides the Mute
button. If on any occasion you want the Solo
button to play only one track at a time (so that
clicking it releases any other Solo buttons),
hold down Shift when clicking Solo.
A third option in Tracks Preferences, the "None" setting,
removes the Solo button from all tracks, leaving just a
Mute button which silences whichever track or tracks it is
applied to. If on any occasion you want the Mute button
to silence only one track at a time (so that clicking it re-
leases any other Mute buttons), hold down Shift while
clicking Mute. You can press the Mute and Solo but-
tons while tracks are playing. If you’re using the key-
board, Shift+U toggles muting on the currently focused
track which has the yellow border, and Shift + S toggles
soloing. The solo shortcut works even if you hide the
Solo button.
Sometimes it can be handy to export a preliminary mix
with one or more of the tracks left out. Exporting will au-
tomatically ignore any tracks on which the Mute button is
pressed.
20.10.2 Gain and panning
Above the Mute / Solo buttons, each track has a - / +
gain slider which adjusts the track’s volume, and an L / R
pan slider which adjusts the track’s stereo position in the
overall mix - whether it comes from the left speaker, right
speaker or in-between. To change the value, just click
on the slider and drag. For finer control when dragging,
hold Shift while dragging or double-click on the slider or
slider scale to enter a precise value as text. The normal
range of gain is from -36 dB to 36 dB. If you need more,
choose Effect > Amplify . If you’re using the keyboard,
use:
• Alt + Shift + Up to increase the gain on the focused
track or Alt + Shift + Down to reduce it
• Use Alt + Shift + Left to pan left on the focused track
or Alt + Shift + Right to pan right.
Or press Shift + G to adjust the gain in a dialog box or
Shift + P to adjust the pan. If you do not see the gain
or pan slider for a track, you may need to make it taller.
Position the mouse on the bottom edge of the waveform
528
and drag downwards. You can use the button with the
upward pointing arrow (below the pan slider) to collapse
the track upwards to a minimal height.
20.10.3 Explicit Mixing and Rendering
While mixing is automatic, there are times when you may
want to explicitly tell Audacity to mix several tracks. This
is useful in several ways:
• You can consolidate tracks which you have finished
working on, making it easier to see the other tracks
without scrolling up and down
• Playback may respond more quickly with fewer
tracks
• You can see what the final mix will look like as a
waveform so as to check the overall level of the fi-
nal mix before exporting it.
To mix explicitly, select all the tracks you want to mix to-
gether then choose either Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render
or Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render to New Track (shortcut
Ctrl + Shift + M).
For mouse users, a quick way to select multiple tracks
is to select the first track by clicking on its Track Control
Panel , then hold Shift while clicking on the Track Con-
trol Panels of the other tracks you want to select. Several
things happen when you choose either Mix and Render
command.
• All selected tracks are mixed down to a single track
called "Mix".
• If you choose "Mix and Render", the resulting "Mix"
track replaces the selected original tracks.
• If you choose "Mix and Render to New Track", the
original tracks are preserved so that the result-
ing "Mix" track becomes an additional track in the
project.
• The "Mix" track is always placed underneath any
non-selected or remaining tracks.
• The new mixed track will be stereo unless the tracks
you mixed were mono tracks panned to center.
• If any of the original tracks did not match the sam-
ple rate of the project (set at bottom left of the
CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
project window in Selection Toolbar ), they will be
resampled to match the project rate.
• Any envelope points defining amplitude modifi-
cations will be applied and the previous envelope
points removed.
• Gain and panning changes will be applied and the
sliders reset to normal in the mixed track.
• Mute and Solo button states will be released.
You can always Edit > Undo if you’re not happy with the
results of Mix and Render, then make changes and try it
again.
20.10.4 Mixing Levels
The act of mixing multiple tracks adds the waveforms to-
gether. In most cases this will cause the mixed track
to have a higher peak and RMS (average) level than
the individual pre-mixed tracks, though this is not always
true by definition. How much (or whether) the peak level
increases and how much louder it actually sounds de-
pends on how related the waveforms of the mixed tracks
are. When peaks or troughs in the waveform coincide,
the waveforms will reinforce each other, leading to an in-
creased signal level. In fact if you combined two identi-
cal tracks, the signal level would exactly double, leading
to an increase in peak level of 6 dB. But when a peak
in one track coincides with a trough in another track the
waveforms will tend to cancel each other out, leading to
a lower level in the mix at that point. Also the more tracks
that have audio at the same point on the Timeline , the
higher the mix level is likely to be. The overall mix level is
indicated on the Playback Meter when the project is play-
ing. You can see individual meters for each track (show-
ing the levels as modified by the track’s gain/pan sliders
and mute/solo buttons) if you enable View > Mixer Board
.
Because mixing tracks is additive, the combined
level may show clipping distortion in the Meter Tool-
bar. In that case, you should use the gain sliders on one
or more tracks to reduce the overall level.
• If you already have the balance of the mix (the lev-
els of the tracks relative to each other) exactly as
you want it, select all the tracks using Ctrl + A then
choose Effect > Amplify . Enter a negative value
in the "Amplification (dB)" box which will reduce the
level of all the tracks by the specified value.
20.11. SAVING
20.11 Saving
• To return later to your unfinished work in Audacity
with all tracks and edits as you left them, Save an
Audacity project.
• To play your current work in other media applica-
tions or send it to others, you need to Export an
audio file such as WAV or MP3 .
If you have a problem saving a file, have a look at the
FAQ on saving projects which answers some frequently
asked questions.
20.11.1 Save
There are two main commands for saving projects:
• File > Save Project saves an .aup project file and a
_data folder containing the actual audio.
• File > Save Project As... is for saving an empty
project. It also lets you save an existing Project with
a new name.
This saves or updates the .aup file and _data folder. Sav-
ing a project lets you save unfinished work and re-open it
later in Audacity exactly as it was and (with the exception
of the undo history), with all edits and recorded/imported
tracks preserved. As with saving any type of file, cer-
tain characters cannot be used in the name of the .aup
file if they are reserved for the operating system; see our
information on forbidden characters . When saving an
Audacity project it is normally easiest to use the File >
Save Project command, which has a default shortcut of
Ctrl + S(or CloverLeaf + S on Mac). If you save a project
again having made further changes to it, "Save Project"
then updates the .aup file and _data folder silently with-
out bothering you with prompts. If the project does not
20.12 Scrubbing and Seeking
Scrubbing or Seeking is the action of moving the mouse
pointer right or left so as to adjust the position, speed or
direction of playback, listening to the audio at the same
time - a convenient way to quickly navigate the waveform
to find a particular event of interest. The term "Scrub-
bing" comes from the early days of the recording industry
and refers to the process of physically rotating tape reels
to move the tape past the playhead to locate a specific
point in the audio track.In Audacity
• Scrubbing changes the audio position without
skipping.
• Seeking changes the audio position, skipping over
529
have any unsaved changes (for example, if the project is
empty or you just saved it), "Save Project" will be grayed
out. In that case, use File > Save Project As... instead.
"Save Project As" is the safe and recommended way to
make a copy of a project with a new name or in a different
location. This could serve either as a single backup copy
of the project, or as one of several incremental copies of
the project in the state it had at a particular date and time.
• The .aup file and _data folder must always be
kept together as created by Audacity. Never
move, rename nor change their contents manually.
Don’t delete them until your final exported file is ex-
actly as you want.
• If you are coming back to your project later, it’s
always a sensible precaution to export a lossless
backup WAV or AIFF file (or files) before you quit.
• A saved project can only be opened and used by
Audacity; if you want an audio file that will play on
your music player or to burn a CD then you will need
to Export one.
20.11.2 Open
To re-open a saved project:
• choose File > Open...
• or use File > Recent Files and open the .aup file.
Read more about Audacity Projects .
|< Back to: Getting Started
audio to move more quickly.
20.12.1 Scrubbing
The primary method for scrubbing is with the Scrub
Ruler, the gray strip immediately below the Timeline .
The Scrub Ruler is set on and displayed by default in Au-
dacity, if you have turned it off you can get it displayed
again by right-clicking in the Timeline and selecting En-
able Scrub Ruler from the dropdown menu . If you hover
the cusor over the Scrub Ruler you will see green left-
and right-pointing scrub widget appear (along with a
530
tooltip if you continue to hover). Clicking anywhere in the
Scrub Ruler and releasing the left mouse button will start
Scrubbing from there. Note that in this image the green
scrub widget is to the right of the green triangle playhead,
indicating that forwards scrubbing towards the pointer is
taking place.
On starting scrub by clicking in Scrub Ruler, the green
scrub widget will appear in the Scrub Ruler and the
green playhead cursor will appear in the Timeline.
Playback continues until the playhead in the Timeline
reaches the green Scrub widget , and restarts when
the pointer is moved again. If you keep moving the
pointer slowly, this plays the audio slowly. If you move
the pointer a long way from the playhead, this plays at
normal (1x) speed. When Scrubbing you can left-click
in Scrub Ruler and hold the button down to temporarily
change to Seeking . Once you release the mouse button
you can move it to resume Scrubbing from the point at
which you stopped Seeking. Right-clicking anywhere in
Scrub Ruler displays a menu identical to that in Transport
> Scrubbing where you can quickly start, stop (or change
between) Seeking or Scrubbing or turn Scrub Ruler off.
Using this menu to change between Seeking and Scrub-
bing saves you having to move the pointer to Scrub Tool-
bar and so change the playhead position un-necessarily.
Adding and using shortcuts for Scrub and Seek has the
same benefit.
• Once Audacity is in scrub play mode it will remain in
that mode until you explicitly stop playback (which
then allows you to restart in normal play mode).
– To stop scrub play and set the cursor at
the current playback position, click the Stop
button (or its shortcut Space). It may be
useful to label that position for future refer-
ence. Alternatively click the Play button to
restart normal playback immediately from the
current playback position. These methods re-
move any selection that was present before
stopping scrub play.
– To stop scrub play, leaving the selection or
editing cursor where it is, use the Escape
Esc key.
• The speed of scrub can be controlled by rotating
the mouse wheel (if your mouse is so equipped).
Each four steps upwards of the rotated wheel dou-
bles the speed, and each four steps downwards
halves the speed. This is equivalent to one oc-
tave of pitch change. The changed scrub speed
will be shown for a few seconds in ochre text su-
perimposed on the track. Changed speeds set by
CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
the mouse wheel are not remembered if you stop
playback and restart Scrubbing.
On MacOS Lion and later, the default scroll direction is
reversed, so that moving up with the mouse wheel or
Track Pad reduces scrub speed and moving down in-
creases speed. You can change the scroll direction in
the System Preferences.
• You can zoom at the mouse pointer position while
Scrubbing or Seeking by holding the Ctrl key
(CloverLeaf on Mac) down and rotating the mouse
wheel, or by using the zoom buttons in Edit Toolbar
or their shortcuts, or by using the View Menu zoom
commands.
• For safety reasons, you cannot start Scrubbing or
Seeking while recording (or paused in recording
mode).
20.12.2 Seeking
Seeking is similar to Scrubbing except that it is play-
back with skips, similar to using the seek button on a CD
player. Even if you move the mouse pointer a long way
from the current position of the playhead, the playhead
will immediately move very close to the mouse pointer,
letting you move across the audio rapidly. Seeking with
unpinned playhead is always at 1x speed. You can con-
trol the maximum seek speed with by mouse position and
mouse wheel when you are in pinned playhead mode. To
enter Seeking or change from Scrubbing to Seeking, click
the Seek button in Scrub Toolbar . Al-
ternatively you can use the Transport > Scrubbing menu
item and select Seek from the cascading menu, or set a
shortcut for Seek in Keyboard Preferences . When Seek-
ing, the Seek widget will appear in the Scrub Ruler (or
in the Timeline if the Scrub Ruler is not displayed). There
is no need to drag the widget when in Seek - moving the
pointer seeks in the same way as drag. While Scrubbing
or Seeking, you can still click in the track to set the edit-
ing cursor, or click and drag to make a selection . The
point or region could then be labelled . For example, let
the playhead reach the mouse pointer at the start of a
region of interest. Then drag a selection which will play,
stop dragging and release the mouse when you hear the
end of the region you want, then label the selection.
20.12.3 Pinned playhead Scrubbing and
Seeking
If you use Scrubbing or Seeking with the playhead pinned
in the center of the project window, so that playback
constantly scrolls the track, the speed of scrub or seek
playback behaves differently to when the playhead is un-
pinned. In pinned playhead mode the mouse pointer po-
sition always directly determines the speed of scrub or
20.12. SCRUBBING AND SEEKING
seek. The further away you move the mouse pointer
from the Timeline playhead (in either direction), the faster
the scrub or seek. The current scrub or seek speed is
shown permanently in lime green text, superimposed on
the track. The default maximum scrub speed is +1.00
(for forwards play) and -1.00 (for backwards play), that
is normal speed. The default maximum seek speed
is +10.00 (for forwards play) and -10.00 (for backwards
play). The speed of scrolling scrub or seek as deter-
mined by the mouse position can be varied by rotating
the mouse wheel (if your mouse is so equipped). Move
the wheel upwards to increase the speed or downwards
to reduce the speed. This works at the same time as
modifying the speed by moving the pointer left or right.
The maximum possible speed with the pointer at either
edge of the window and the wheel at maximum speed is
32.00x for Seeking and 320.00x for Scrubbing. Changed
speeds set by the mouse wheel are not remembered
if you stop playback and restart Seeking. A very use-
ful setting for using scrubbing with pinned playhead is
to move the pointer to the extreme right (100%) posi-
tion and increase the maximum speed to 2.00x. With
this setting, when you move the pointer back to the 75%
position on the waveform you will get normal speed for-
wards playback and at 25% position you will get normal
speed backwards playback. Moving the pointer towards
the center from there will give you gradually slower than
normal speed and moving towards the right or left edges
will give you gradually faster than normal speed up to
your chosen maximum of 2.00x.
Image of forwards scrubbing at 1.00x speed having
set a 2.00x maximum speed, waveform moving left-
wards.
20.12.4 Other ways to Scrub and Seek
Scrubbing and Seeking using the Transport menu
Alternatively you can use the Transport > Scrubbing >
Scrub or Transport> Scrubbing > Seek menu item, or set
a shortcut for either or both of these in Keyboard Pref-
erences . If you start scrub from this way, the green
playhead cursor will appear but otherwise nothing will
happen until you move the mouse pointer to right or left
to play forwards or backwards respectively.
531
Scrubbing and Seeking using the Scrub Toolbar
The Scrub Toolbar is not dispayed by de-
fault, you can turn it on from View> Toolbars and select-
ing Scrub Toolbar. Clicking the Scrub button in Scrub
Toolbar when stopped or using standard
playback will put you into scrub play mode. Alternatively
you can use the Transport > Scrubbing menu item and
select Scrub from the cascading menu, or set a shortcut
for Scrub in Keyboard Preferences . Similarly the Seek
button in Scrub Toolbar can be clicked
to start seeking. On starting scrub or seek, the green
playhead cursor will appear but otherwise nothing will
happen until you move the mouse pointer to right or left to
play forwards or backwards respectively. Playback con-
tinues until the playhead in the Timeline reaches the
pointer, and restarts when the pointer is moved again. If
you keep moving the pointer slowly, this plays the audio
slowly. If you move the pointer a long way from the play-
head, this plays at normal (1x) speed. Once you move
the pointer, the scrub widget , or seek widget , ap-
pears and a vertical white line through the waveform fol-
lows the movement of the scrub widget.
• You can switch between scrubbing and seeking by
clicking on the opposing button
• You can stop scrubbing by clicking on the Scrub
button again, and similarly for seeking by ckick-
ing on the Seek button again
Clicking the Scrub Ruler button in Scrub Toolbar
makes Scrub Ruler appear below the Time-
line (or hides Scrub Ruler when it is already enabled). Al-
ternatively you can use the Transport > Scrubbing menu
item and select Scrub Ruler from the cascading menu, or
set a shortcut for Scrub Ruler in Keyboard Preferences .
Scrubbing and Seeking without the Scrub Ruler
It is possible to Scrub or Seek without having the Scrub
Ruler displayed, in which case the scrub or seek widget is
displayed at the bottom of the Timeline instead. You can
turn the Scrub Ruler on or off from the right-click drop-
down menu of the Timeline. Alternatively you can use
the Transport > Scrubbing menu item and select Scrub
Ruler from the cascading menu, or set a shortcut for it in
Keyboard Preferences . The image below shows scrub-
bing taking place in default unpinned playhead mode.
Note that the Scrub Play button is shown as depressed
in Scrub Toolbar to indicate that scrubbing
is active. Also note that the green left- and right-pointing
scrub widget is to the right of the green triangle playhead,
indicating that forwards scrubbing towards the pointer is
taking place.
532
20.13 Sending your work to others
If you are working with other users, can you send your
multi-track Project to them so they can contribute to it?
Can you send an audio message with some music and
email it to a relative? Or what if you want to open your
Project on another of your own computers running a dif-
ferent operating system?
20.13.1 Sending Projects to others
It’s quite possible to send an Audacity Project to another
person or open it on another computer of your own, so
that the Project can be opened in another copy of Au-
dacity with all the tracks, label and envelope information
in situ. However when opening the AUP Project file you
need to have its associated _data folder with the same
name as the AUP file present in the same folder. For
example, to send a Project to someone else you could
send the AUP file and _data folder in a compressed .zip
archive. Free Windows tools to create .zip archives in-
clude 7-Zip or IZArc. Free Mac tools include Keka or Ap-
ple’s built-in compression utility. Zip compression is loss-
less, so does not reduce the space on disk very much.
Ask your recipient to extract both the AUP file and _data
folder to the same directory then open the AUP file from
inside that folder. In practice, the problem with sending
such a folder to someone else is the size of the _data
folder. At Audacity’s default 32-bit float sample format
/ 44100 Hz sample rate using lossless uncompressed
audio, stereo Projects take 20 MB of space per minute,
which rules out sending the project by email. To send
your project, first close it (saving changes) so that Au-
dacity can discard the surplus data files which allow undo
and redo of edits while projects are open. This way, only
the audio for the current state of the project is included.
If you forget to close the project before zipping, Audac-
ity will complain about these surplus files, calling them
"orphan block files". If this happens, the safest course
is to tell Audacity to "continue without deleting" the or-
phans, at least until you are sure the audio of the project
is correct. Then use a zip application like those above
to place the AUP file and _data folder inside a zip file.
Then find a suitable free internet file transfer service to
send your zip file. Recommendable services include the
following. Check the limitations for free accounts on size
and number of uploads, maximum permitted number of
CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
The image also shows the Scrub Ruler button in Scrub
Toolbar is up (off). If Scrub Ruler was enabled by de-
pressing the Scrub Ruler button, the scrub widget would
appear in Scrub Ruler immediately below the Timeline.
downloads, and length of time files are stored for.
• https://www.dropbox.com/
• http://www.dropsend.com/
• http://www.hightail.com (free trial)
• http://www.mailbigfile.com/
• http://www.sendspace.com
Don’t forget old-fashioned solutions too if you are still on
slow dial-up internet. You can always combine your AUP
Project file and _data folder in a .zip file, burn this to a
data CD with Windows Media Player or similar then send
it by postal mail. You can produce a small, compressed
project for distribution to others using File > Save Other
> Save Compressed Copy of Project .
• The audio in the _data folder is in the form of one
OGG file per track of the project.
• The OGG file is very slightly lossy, whereas when
saving a project by File > Save Project or File >
Save Project As... the .au files in the _data folder
are lossless.
Dependencies on other audio files
If you save a standard uncompressed project which
contains audio imported into Audacity from a WAV or
AIFF file, you must have previously set Audacity to make
a copy of that original audio when you imported it, so that
it’s included in the _data folder. Note that when import-
ing compressed audio like MP3 or OGG, Audacity always
copies the audio into the _data folder.
• When you import a WAV or AIFF there will by de-
fault be a warning where you can choose to copy in
the file or not.
• You can always check if you need to copy in files to
the current project, and copy them in if necessary
at Help > Diagnostics > Check Dependencies... .
• You can change your preference for future copying
in or not in Import/Export Preferences , and you can
turn the warning on or off in Warnings Preferences
.
20.13. SENDING YOUR WORK TO OTHERS
20.13.2 Sending an exported audio file
You can also send an exported audio file from your
Project to the other user. Only Project–specific informa-
tion such as label and envelope data will be lost by ex-
porting instead of saving a project. To export your Project
as an audio file, choose the File > Save Other... com-
mand. Choices:
• Exporting as a WAV or AIFF file creates a file with
no loss of audio quality, but this takes 10 MB of disk
space per minute for CD quality (44100 Hz, 16-bit
stereo).
• Exporting from Audacity as FLAC provides lossless
compression and reliably reduces file size by about
40% compared to WAV or AIFF.
• Exporting as an OGG or MP3 greatly reduces the
size of the exported file, at the expense of some
quality loss.
– OGG tends to have slightly higher quality than
MP3 for the same file size, but not all software
players can accept OGG, and most websites
hosting audio files expect MP3.
– Audacity’s default MP3 export bit rate of 128
kbps gives very reasonable sound quality for
about 1 MB of space per minute. To compress
the MP3 to a still smaller file (at the cost of
further quality loss), choose "MP3 Files" in the
Export File window, press the Options button
then reduce the bit rate in the "Quality" drop-
down. For example, a 64 kbps MP3 would
take up 0.5 MB (500 kb) per minute, because
64 kbps is half the default bit rate of 128 kbps.
To export MP3 files you must add the LAME encoder to
your computer. Instructions for doing this are at Lame
Installation in the FAQ.For all formats except MP3, you
can reduce the exported file size further by reducing its
sample rate . Do this by changing the project rate drop-
down bottom left of the screen. Reducing the project rate
below 44100 Hz is only recommended for speech.
Sending files by email
You should always attach your audio file to the email
message. Some email clients can embed the audio in-
side HTML email messages so that the recipient hears
the audio on opening the email without having to open
an attachment. However whether the recipient will hear
the audio depends on the recipient having an HTML
email client (or having HTML enabled without any se-
curity restrictions in place). Many email users disable
HTML email due to its perceived security risk. Send-
ing files greater than 5 MB by email is usually out of
the question due to server bandwidth and storage restric-
tions. Some webmail services do allow larger messages
to be sent. For example, Gmail allows sending messages
533
up to 25 MB, but this still depends on the recipient’s
email service accepting large attachments (Gmail now
accepts incoming attachments up to 50 MB). The best
solution is often to use a web-based transfer service like
http://www.yousendit.com, http://www.sendspace.com or
http://minus.com/, or burn the exported audio file to an
audio CD and send it by postal mail. If you want to burn to
an audio CD you need to export 44100 Hz, 16-bit stereo
WAV or AIFF files, and tell your burning software to burn
an "audio" or "music" CD. For instructions on how to do
this, see How to burn CDs . Audio CDs will retain the full
quality of the original track in Audacity, can contain 74 –
80 minutes of music and can be played in computers and
on any standalone CD player (and some standalone DVD
players).
Exporting from multi-track projects
If you have multiple tracks in your Project, Audacity by
default will mix these down to a single mono or stereo
track when exporting to an audio file. To export separate
tracks you can:
• Use File > Save Other > Export Multiple... and "split
files based on tracks"
• Select the first track, choose File > Save Other >
Export Selected Audio... then repeat in turn for the
other tracks.
The recipient can then shift-select and multiple import
each file into separate tracks of an empty Audacity
Project. Alternatively, current Audacity can export the in-
dividual tracks in a Project as one multi-channel audio
file. So if you had a Project with six mono or left/right
tracks, it could be exported as a one six-channel audio
file, and any user of Audacity 1.2 or later can open that
file and see the channels displayed as individual tracks.
To use multi-channel export, go to Import/Export Prefer-
ences and enable "Use custom mix".
Sending to someone using a different version of Au-
dacity
If you or the other party created the project with a legacy
version of Audacity, please note the following restrictions.
• If the person you are sending the Project to has
a legacy 1.2.x version of Audacity you will need
to save the Project in a 1.2.x version of Audac-
ity, because 1.2.x versions of Audacity cannot open
Projects created in 1.3 or later versions.
• If the person you are sending the Project to has Au-
dacity 1.3.2 or later, they should be able to open a
project created in 1.2.x, but ask them to back up the
AUP file and _data folder on receipt to be sure. To
make a backup, copy the AUP file and _data folder
and paste them into a different folder. Once they do
534
save that project in 1.3.x or later and send it back
to you, you will need 1.3.x or later yourself to open
it.
• If the person you are sending the Project to
uses Audacity 1.0.0 (users on Mac OS 9 are lim-
ited to this version of Audacity), you must create
the Project in 1.0.0, because 1.0.0 cannot open
Projects created in 1.1.0 or later. If that person
sends you a Project created in 1.0.0, you should
generally be able to open it in 1.1.0 to 1.2.6, but
Audacity’s conversion of a 1.0.0 Project to the new
format used by 1.1.0 or later does not always work.
You should not open Projects created in 1.0.0 in
current versions of Audacity.
CHAPTER 20. MORE TUTORIALS
Sending to someone using a different operating sys-
tem or platform
• Zip formats do not support reliable character en-
coding, so for the name of the project, labels, track
names or metadata, only use A to Z or a to z
characters, whole numbers (0 to 9), underscore or
hyphen-minus (or use the NUMPAD_SUBTRACT
key).Anything else could be incorrectly interpreted
by the unzip application on the other operating plat-
form.
• Also use only A to Z or a to z characters, whole
numbers (0 to 9), underscore or hyphen-minus (or
use the NUMPAD_SUBTRACT key) if either party
created the project on Windows 98 or ME which
are non-Unicode systems. This is the case even if
both parties are on Windows.
Chapter 21

Setup

21.1 Audacity Setup and Configuration

For many users, Audacity will just work "out of the box",
and you can immediately begin playing or recording us-
ing the system-default playback and recording devices.
However, because there are so many different types of
computers and ways to configure them, some users may
need to set up Audacity the first time they use it.

21.1.1 Setting Your Audacity Preferences Example of the Devices section of the Preferences
dialog, showing default settings for Host and Chan-
nels..Click on any other Preferences sections in the
above image to read about those Preferences.

The main place to set up Audacity and customize it to
work the way that you require is to use Audacity’s Prefer-
ences dialog screens. Preferences let you change most
of the default behaviors of Audacity. The Preferences di-
alog can be accessed using the Edit Menu (or by using
the shortcut Ctrl + P). On a Mac, Preferences can be
found under the Audacity Menu or its shortcut Clover-
Leaf + ,. The Preferences dialog is split into a number of
sections each with its own dialog page. There are many
settings that can be made in your Preferences , so do
take some time to explore and understand these. The
image below shows an example of the Devices section of
the Preferences dialog, showing default settings for Host
and Channels. Accessed by:Edit > Preferences > De-
vices (on a Mac Audacity > Preferences > Devices )
21.1.2 Changing settings with Audacity’s
toolbars and menus
Some of the more commonly used settings can be
changed and reset from the main Audacity Window:
• Device Toolbar can be used to change the record-
ing and playback devices, the recording host and
the number of channels
• Selection Toolbar can be used to change the
Project Rate and Selection Format units
• Transport Menu can be used to control Over-
dub, Software Playthrough and Sound Activated
Recording.

535
536 CHAPTER 21. SETUP

Using these can be quicker than accessing the prefer-
ences dialog to change these settings. You can also re-
set Audacity settings to their factory-shipped state . This
may occasionally fix unexpected or unwanted behavior.
21.1.3 Connecting your equipment
• Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD or your
computer for help connecting turntables, tape-
decks and MiniDisc players.
• Tutorial - Your First Recording for microphones,
keyboards and guitars.

For help with connecting your equipment to your com-

puter for recording please see the following tutorials:

21.2 Installing and updating Audacity on Linux

This page provides instructions for installing and updat-
ing Audacity on Linux computer platforms.
• In addition to basic Audacity you may wish to install
the optional LAME MP3 encoding software
• Also the optional FFmpeg library which allows Au-
dacity to import and export a much larger range of
audio formats including M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR
(narrow band) and WMA and also to import audio
from most video files.
Note carefully that simply re-installing Audacity will
not clear and reset your Audacity settings for prefer-
ences and plug-ins. For instructions on how to achieve
this please see Reset Audacity Settings .
21.2.1 Installation instructions
too. Simple recording is possible on a 700 MHz Rasp-
berry Pi, using a USB Microphone. However, Pi oper-
ating systems are not officially supported and Audacity
may be less stable on them than on desktop operating
systems.
Projects saved by old versions of Audacity
Current Audacity is compatible with project files saved by
versions of Audacity 1.3.x and later, including 2.x.x.
Chromebooks: Audacity does not run on Chrome
OS. Although not officially supported, it is possible in
principle to run Audacity on a Chromebook under a
Chrome version of Linux Ubuntu.

The recommended way to install software for most 21.2.2 Check for Updates
GNU/Linux and Unix-like Desktop distributions, is
to install from the official distribution repository us-
You can check to see if you have the latest version of Au-
ing a package manager. Most distributions pro-
dacity by using Help > Check for Updates.... This takes
vide Audacity packages. Alternatively you can
you to the Download page of the Audacity website where
build the latest Audacity tagged release from our
you can check what the latest release version of Audac-
source code. Some old versions of Audacity were
ity is. You can then compare the latest release with the
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Incorrect_wxWidgets_Version
version you have now as shown by using Help > About
incorrectly built]. The minimum recommended version of
Audacity....
Audacity for Linux is 2.1.2Note that this Manual only
relates to the current release of Audacity.

21.2.3 Installing LAME

System Requirements
We recommend using the latest version of GNU/Linux
from your distribution that is compatible with your hard-
ware specifications. Audacity will run best with at least
1GB RAM and a 2 GHz processor. Because it was orig-
inally written when computers were less powerful, you
may be able to run it on much less powerful hardware
You may download (or compile) then install a compatible
version of the LAME MP3 encoder then locate it in Li-
braries Preferences . Most Linux distributions have some
sort of package manager that fetches software packages
from the Internet and installs them for you. Open that
package manager, search for LAME, and install it if it is
not already installed.
21.2. INSTALLING AND UPDATING AUDACITY ON LINUX
If there is not a LAME package for your distribu-
tion, go to the LAME Project home page and down-
load the latest source code. Compile it as a shared
object. When Audacity prompts you for it, it will be at
/usr/local/lib/libmp3lame.so. This is for advanced users.
Inexperienced users are advised to look for a LAME
package for their distribution.
Removal of Libraries Preferences
Some distributions (for example, current Ubuntu) pack-
age Audacity with MP3 encoding and FFmpeg (or Libav)
already linked dynamically to the relevant system li-
braries. In these packaged Audacity builds there is
no need to locate LAME or FFmpeg, so Audacity will
have no "Libraries" Preferences. Users compiling Au-
dacity from source code can similarly remove the "Li-
braries" Preferences by configuring Audacity with –
disable-dynamic-loading. Then build Audacity linked to
the system LAME (and also to system or locally-compiled
FFmpeg or libav if required).
Installing LAME on Ubuntu 11.10 and later
In Ubuntu 11.10 and later the default package manager
is the "Ubuntu Software Center". It is often most con-
venient to install the "Ubuntu Restricted Extras" as this
includes LAME, FFmpeg and other useful media encod-
ing/decoding tools. If you wish to install only the LAME
package required for MP3 export, search for LAME in the
Ubuntu Software Center and install it.
Installing LAME on other Debian-based systems
The following are detailed instructions for installing LAME
using the Synaptic package manager on recent Debian-
based systems and in Ubuntu 11.04 and earlier.
1. Open Synaptic:
• In GNOME (the default desktop environment
for many Debian-based systems), access
Synaptic by clicking System > Administration
• In KDE there will be a similar menu accessible
from the bottom-left of the screen
2. Enter the root password when asked for it.
3. In the Synaptic window, choose "Settings", then
"Repositories"
4. In the "distribution Software" tab, check the box for
"non free" (on Ubuntu based systems this is called
"multiverse"), then hit the Close button.
5. Back in the main Synaptic Window, type "lame" in
the "Quick search" box.
537
6. The search results will show the packages "lame"
and "libmp3lame0" at the top of the list - mark both
for installation by double-clicking.
7. Click "Apply", and on "OK" for any warnings; the
LAME software will automatically download and in-
stall.
8. Right-click over the entry for "libmp3lame0" > Prop-
erties
9. On the "Installed Files" tab, note the lo-
cation of "libmp3lame.so.0", probably at
/usr/lib/libmp3lame.so.0
10. Close all the Synaptic windows.
Locating LAME
1. Open Audacity, click Edit > Preferences... then "Li-
braries" in the list on the left.
2. In MP3 Export Library, check if a LAME version
number displays to right of MP3 Library Version.
If so, LAME has already been detected and you
should now be able to export MP3 and skip the re-
mainder of these instructions. If the MP3 Library is
stated as "not found":
(a) Click the Locate... button to right of MP3 Li-
brary
(b) In the "Locate Lame" dialog that appears, click
"Browse"
(c) In the "Where is libmp3lame.so.0?" dia-
log, navigate to the location you noted in
step 9 in the installation instructions, select
libmp3lame.so.0, click Open, then OK and
OK to exit Preferences.
21.2.4 Installing the FFmpeg Im-
port/Export Library
The optional FFmpeg library allows Audacity to import
and export a much larger range of audio formats includ-
ing M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA
and also to import audio from most video files.
• Because of software patents, Audacity cannot in-
clude the FFmpeg software or distribute it from its
own websites. Instead, use the following instruc-
tions to download and install the free and recom-
mended FFmpeg third-party library.
• Advanced usage: If you already have Audacity-
compatible FFmpeg 2.2.x or 2.3.x shared libraries
in the system PATH, Audacity will use those as long
as you do not install FFmpeg from the links below
and as long as you do not specify the FFmpeg you
want Audacity to use in Libraries Preferences .
538
Obtaining FFmpeg
You may download (or compile) and install a compatible
version of the FFmpeg or libav library for your purposes
then locate it in Libraries Preferences. If you download a
pre-built library, this might be either a "shared" or "static"
build. A static build consists of a single libavformat li-
brary, whereas a shared build has at least three libraries
(libavformat, libavcodec and libavutil). It is recommended
to use a shared build, but Audacity will also work with
a static build. To build FFmpeg, obtain the source code
from the FFmpeg project. To build libav, obtain the source
code from the libav project. Configure the build with –
enable -shared so that it builds the necessary shared
object library (.so) files. If required, you can also con-
figure to enable or disable particular encoding/decoding
libraries. When you build Audacity from our source code,
it should link to the installed FFmpeg headers.
FFmpeg version support
• On GNU/Linux only, Audacity 2.1.3 and later
supports FFmpeg/libav up to avformat/avcodec
57.x.x, which is compatible with current FFmpeg
3.x.x/libav 12 releases.
• Audacity 2.0.6 to 2.1.2 (and 2.1.3 and later on
Windows and Mac) support only FFmpeg 1.2 to
2.3.x (libav 0.8 to 10).
• Compiling Audacity against supported FFm-
peg/libav: Dynamic loading (as in default Audacity
./configure) enables Libraries Preferences for man-
ual loading of LAME and FFmpeg/libav but requires
building against the FFmpeg project.
• No-longer-supported FFmpeg/libav: Audacity
2.0.6 and later may still build against unsup-
ported FFmpeg/libav (such as FFmpeg 0.8 which
is system-installed on Debian Wheezy), but config-
uring with –disable-dynamic-loading will usually be
necessary. This will cause mono WMA files to ex-
port with no audio data.
• See the "Compiling" section in the 2.0.6 or later Re-
lease Notes for more guidance.
Removal of Libraries Preferences
Some Linux distributions or versions thereof may pack-
age Audacity with MP3 encoding and FFmpeg support
already linked dynamically to the relevant system li-
braries. In these packaged builds there is no need to
locate LAME or FFmpeg, so Audacity will have no "Li-
braries" Preferences. Users compiling Audacity from
CHAPTER 21. SETUP
source code can similarly remove the "Libraries" Pref-
erences by configuring Audacity with –disable-dynamic-
loading. Then build Audacity linked to system LAME and
to a system (or locally compiled) version of FFmpeg 1.2
to 3.x.x (libav 0.8 to 12), according to the version of Au-
dacity as described above.
Locating the FFmpeg library manually
Ubuntu / Debian based packages are often built
with dynamic loading disabled. When dynamic loading
is disabled, LAME and FFmpeg will be loaded automat-
ically if compatible versions are installed and there will
not be a "Libraries" page in Preferences. If you installed
FFmpeg while Audacity was running, or if you installed
FFmpeg to a non-default location, Audacity will ask you
to configure Preferences to locate the FFmpeg library. To
do this, click Edit > Preferences... then "Libraries" in the
list on the left:
As in the image above, the FFmpeg Library Version will
say "not found". To correct this:
1. Click the Locate... button to right of FFmpeg Li-
brary:.
2. If a "Success" message indicates Audacity has now
automatically detected valid FFmpeg libraries and
asks if you want to detect them manually, click No,
then OK to close Preferences.
3. If the "Locate FFmpeg" dialog appears, click
Browse....
4. Navigate to the folder that contains FFmpeg and
select the file libavformat.so.55 or other appropri-
ate libavformat version.
5. Click Open then OK and OK again to close Prefer-
ences.
FFmpeg Library Version should now show a set of three
version numbers for the sub-libraries of FFmpeg ("F" for
libavformat version, "C" for libavcodec version and "U"
21.3. INSTALLING AND UPDATING ON MAC OS X
for libavutil version). If you still see "not found", you may
have installed the wrong libraries. Click the Download
button to obtain the correct library for your operating sys-
tem. You can also choose Help > Diagnostics > Show
Log... to see diagnostic information about FFmpeg de-
tection.
21.2.5 Reset Audacity Settings on Linux
As stated in the introduction on this page, simply re-
installing Audacity will not clear and reset your Audacity
settings for preferences and plug-ins. The data for these
are stored in a folder called audacity-data in ...
1. Open the "home" folder (opens "/home/user-name"
in the default file browser)
2. Use Ctrl + H to show hidden folders (works in most
common file browsers, or "View menu > Show hid-
den files")
3. There it is: "./audacity-data"
First you will need to quit Audacity.
21.3 Installing and updating on Mac OS X
This page provides instructions for installing and updat-
ing Audacity on Mac OS X and macOS computer plat-
forms.
• In addition to basic Audacity you may wish to install
the optional LAME MP3 encoding software
• Also the optional FFmpeg library which allows Au-
dacity to import and export a much larger range of
audio formats including AC3, AMR (narrow band)
and WMA and also to import audio from most
video files. But note that on Mac Audacity can im-
port, without FFmpeg, M4A (AAC) , MP4 (includ-
ing videos) and all other QuickTime-supported files.
Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include
LAME or FFmpeg encoding software or distribute such
software from its own websites. Instead, use the instruc-
tions below to download and install the free and recom-
mended third-party libraries for LAME and FFmpeg .
Note carefully that simply re-installing Audacity will
not clear and reset your Audacity settings for prefer-
ences and plug-ins. For instructions on how to achieve
this please see Reset Audacity Settings .
539
To completely reset your Audacity settings
Navigate to that audacity-data folder and delete the en-
tire contents. Then restart Audacity.
To reset just your Audacity preferences
Navigate to that audacity-data folder and delete the au-
dacity.cfg file. Then restart Audacity.
To reset just your plug-ins
Navigate to that audacity-data folder and delete the:
• pluginregistry.cfg file
• pluginsettings.cfg file
• Plug-Ins folder
Then restart Audacity
21.3.1 Installation instructions
Installation instructions using .dmg files:
1. On the download page, left-click the "installer" link,
the .dmg file, (do not right-click). This takes you to
the FossHub site where our downloads are hosted
and the download should commence.
2. Double-click the downloaded DMG to mount it.
3. Do not double-click the “Audacity” application in the
DMG window. Instead drag Audacity rightwards
onto the /Applications folder shortcut. You can also
drag Audacity out of the DMG to any other loca-
tion. You need the administrator password to copy
Audacity to /Applications.
4. Eject the DMG at bottom left of Finder, then launch
Audacity.app from /Applications or from your cho-
sen location.
If you see any error messages when launching Audacity,
please see our FAQ about Mac launch .
System Requirements
Audacity for Mac is for OS X 10.6 and later. Audacity
runs best with at least 1 GB RAM and a 1 GHz pro-
cessor (2 GB RAM/2 GHz on OS X 10.7 and later).For
540
lengthy multi-track projects, we recommend a minimum
of 2 GB RAM and 2 GHz processor (4 GB RAM on OS X
10.7 and later).
The 2.1.1 release was the final release for PPC
Macs.
Projects saved by old versions of Audacity
Current Audacity is compatible with project files saved by
versions of Audacity 1.3.x and later, including 2.x.x.
21.3.2 Check for Updates
You can check to see if you have the latest version of Au-
dacity by using Help > Check for Updates.... This takes
you to the Download page of the Audacity website where
you can check what the latest release version of Audacity
is. You can then compare the latest release with the ver-
sion you have now as shown by using Audacity > About
Audacity....
21.3.3 Plug-ins from previous Audacity in-
stallations
If you had a previous installation of Audacity 2.1.2 or
earlier, its shipped plug-ins were in the "plug-ins" folder
where Audacity was installed. Versions of Audacity be-
fore 2.1.3 were usually installed inside a folder named
"Audacity" which was in the "Applications" folder. Be-
cause Audacity’s shipped plug-ins are now bundled in-
side the application, any still extant Nyquist plug-ins that
came with previous Audacity will appear as a second
copy of the plug-in in the Generate, Effect or Analyze
Menu. Duplicates of other previously shipped plug-ins
might appear even if they no longer exist, in which case
they will fail to run.
• You can remove any duplicates that don’t run by us-
ing Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins... then click OK.
This does not remove the duplicates from the Plug-
in Manager’s list, but disables them so they do not
appears in the menus.
• Alternatively you can remove all unwanted dupli-
cates, whether you have deleted the old Audac-
ity installation folder or not, by deleting the file
pluginregistry.cfg in ~/Library/Application Sup-
port/audacity/.
– If you delete the Audacity folder from a pre-
vious installation, remember to move any op-
tional plug-ins you added to its plug-ins folder
to the new Audacity Plug-Ins folder at ~/Li-
brary/Application Support/audacity/Plug-
Ins.
CHAPTER 21. SETUP
21.3.4 Installing LAME on Mac
Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include
MP3 encoding software or distribute such software from
its own websites. Instead, use the following instruc-
tions to download and install the free and recommended
LAME third-party encoder to export MP3 files with Au-
dacity. See the LAME Legal Issues page for more details.
• Recommended Installer
1. Go to the external download pageLeft-click this
link, do not right-click.
2. Directly underneath "For FFmpeg and LAME
on Mac OSX click below:", left-click the link
"Lame_Library_v3.99.5_for_Audacity_on_macOS.dmg".
3. When you have finished downloading, double-click
the DMG to mount it, if it has not been mounted
automatically already.
4. In the DMG window, or using the menu item for the
mounted DMG in the Finder sidebar, double-click
"Lame Library v3.99.5 for Audacity.pkg" to launch
the standard Mac installer. If you receive a warn-
ing that the package cannot be opened, right-click
or Ctrl-click the package, choose "Open", then click
"Open".
5. Click through the steps in the installer. This
will remove any previous libmp3.dylib at
/usr/local/lib/audacity and install the 3.99.5
libmp3lame.dylib file in the system library at /Li-
brary/Application Support/audacity/libs/.
6. Audacity should detect LAME automatically when
you export as MP3. If Audacity cannot find LAME:
(a) Click Audacity > Preferences... then choose
"Libraries" on the left.
(b) Click Locate... to right of "MP3 Library:", then
in the "Locate Lame" dialog that appears, click
Browse....
(c) The "Where is libmp3lame.dylib?" win-
dow will open at /Library/Application
Support/audacity/libs/. Select the
"libmp3lame.dylib" file. If the file is grayed
out, change the File type: dropdown entry to
All Files or Dynamic Libraries.
(d) Click Open then OK and OK.
• Alternative zip download
1. Go to the external download pageLeft-click this
link, do not right-click.
2. Directly underneath "For FFmpeg/LAME on
Mac OSX click below:", left-click the link
"Lame_Library_v3.99.5_for_Audacity_on_macOS.zip".
21.3. INSTALLING AND UPDATING ON MAC OS X
3. Double-click the downloaded ZIP file. On
most Macs this should extract the con-
tents of the ZIP to a new sub-folder
"Lame_Library_v3.99.5_for_Audacity_on_macOS"
in the folder you downloaded to. Optionally,
open that new subfolder then copy the file
"libmp3lame.dylib" and paste it anywhere you have
full permissions (such as your Documents folder).
It is not recommended to extract the files to
/usr/local/lib because administrative or root permis-
sions may be needed to read the LAME library from
there.
4. Click Audacity > Preferences... then choose "Li-
braries" on the left.
5. Click Locate... to right of "MP3 Library:", then in the
"Locate Lame" dialog that appears, click Browse....
6. Navigate to and open the folder where
"libmp3lame.dylib" is, and select the
"libmp3lame.dylib" file. If the file is grayed out,
change the File type: dropdown entry to All Files
or Dynamic Libraries.
7. Click Open to return to the Locate Lame dialog.
8. Click OK in the Locate Lame dialog then OK to exit
Preferences.
• You should now be able to export MP3s without any
further configuration, choosing File > Save Other >
Export Audio... then selecting "MP3 Files" in the
Export Audio Dialog .
21.3.5 Installing the FFmpeg Im-
port/Export Library on Mac
The optional FFmpeg library allows Audacity to import
and export a much larger range of audio formats includ-
ing M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA
and also to import audio from most video files.
• Because of software patents, Audacity cannot in-
clude the FFmpeg software or distribute it from its
own websites. Instead, use the following instruc-
tions to download and install the free and recom-
mended FFmpeg third-party library.
• Advanced usage: If you already have Audacity-
compatible FFmpeg 2.2.x or 2.3.x shared libraries
in the system PATH, Audacity will use those as long
as you do not install FFmpeg from the links below
and as long as you do not specify the FFmpeg you
want Audacity to use in Libraries Preferences .
But note that on Mac Audacity does not need FFmpeg to
import M4A (AAC) , MP4 (including videos) and all other
QuickTime-supported files.
541
FFmpeg 2.2.2 Mac from the links below should
be used with the latest version of Audacity. The pre-
vious FFmpeg 0.6.2 for Audacity will not be recognized
by Audacity 2.0.6 and later, and FFmpeg 2.2.2 will not
be recognized by Audacity versions before 2.0.6.
• FFmpeg 2.3.x shared libraries should also be rec-
ognized by Audacity 2.0.6 and later. FFmpeg 2.4.x
and later is not supported, except for exports using
Audacity’s command-line encoder .
• Recommended Installer:
1. Go to the external download pageLeft-click this
link, do not right-click.
2. Directly underneath "For FFmpeg/LAME on Mac
click below:", left-click the link "ffmpeg-mac-
2.2.2.dmg" and save the file anywhere on your
computer.
3. When you have finished downloading, double-click
the DMG file to mount it (if you download with Sa-
fari, the FFmpeg virtual disk image will be extracted
and mounted automatically after downloading). If
the DMG window is not on top, go to Finder, then
under "Devices" on the left, click the "ffmpeg-mac-
2.2.2" DMG.
4. In the DMG window, double-click the "ffmpeg-mac-
2.2.2.pkg" to launch the standard OS X package
installer. If you receive a warning that the package
cannot be opened, right-click or Ctrl-click the pack-
age, choose "Open", then click "Open".
5. Click through the steps in the installer, accept-
ing the defaults in all cases. This will install
the FFmpeg libraries in /Library/Application Sup-
port/audacity/libs.
6. Restart Audacity if it was running when you in-
stalled FFmpeg then Audacity should detect FFm-
peg automatically.
7. If you have problems with Audacity detecting FFm-
peg, follow the steps to manually locate FFmpeg .
• Alternative Zip download:
1. Go to the external download pageLeft-click this
link, do not right-click.
2. Directly underneath "For FFmpeg/LAME on Mac
click below:", left-click the link "ffmpeg-mac-
2.2.2.zip" and save the file anywhere on your com-
puter.
3. Some Mac computers may extract the files from
the zip automatically to a new folder in the down-
load directory. Otherwise, extract the entire con-
tents of the downloaded ZIP file to a folder called
"ffmpeg-mac-2.2.2" anywhere you have full permis-
sions (such as your Desktop). Then follow the in-
542
structions below to locate libavformat.55.dylib using
the Libraries Preferences.
It is not recommended to extract the files to
/usr/local/lib because administrative or root permis-
sions may be needed to read the FFmpeg library
from there.
• Compiling Audacity against another build of
FFmpeg:
• You can also build and install your own copy of
FFmpeg 1.2 or later using source code from the
FFmpeg project. Then build Audacity from Git
sources according to mac/Build.txt, linking to your
self-installed copy of FFmpeg according to these
principles.
Locating the FFmpeg library manually
If you installed FFmpeg while Audacity was running, or if
you installed FFmpeg to a non-default location, Audacity
will ask you to configure Preferences to locate the FFm-
peg library. To do this, access Preferences then the "Li-
braries" tab on the left:
As in the image above, the "FFmpeg Library Version" will
say "not found". To correct this:
1. Click the Locate... button to right of FFmpeg Li-
brary:.
2. If a "Success" message indicates Audacity has now
automatically detected valid FFmpeg libraries and
asks if you want to detect them manually, click No,
then OK to close Preferences.
3. If the "Locate FFmpeg" dialog appears, click
Browse....
4. Navigate to the folder that contains FFmpeg and
select the file "libavformat.55.dylib".
5. Click Open then OK and OK again to close Prefer-
ences.
FFmpeg Library Version should now show a set of three
version numbers for the sub-libraries of FFmpeg ("F" for
CHAPTER 21. SETUP
libavformat version, "C" for libavcodec version and "U"
for libavutil version). If you still see "not found", you may
have installed the wrong libraries. Click the Download...
button to obtain the correct library for your operating sys-
tem. You can also choose Help > Diagnostics > Show
Log... to see diagnostic information about FFmpeg de-
tection.
21.3.6 Reset Audacity Settings on Mac
As stated in the introduction on this page, simply re-
installing Audacity will not clear and reset your Audac-
ity settings for preferences and plug-ins. The data for
these are stored in a folder called audacity in the Li-
brary>Application Support in your user directory. On ma-
cOS the full pathname is: your username > Library >
Application Support > audacityTo open the audacity
settings folder:
1. Open Finder and click on Go > Go to Folder...
2. In the dialog box type ~/Library/Application Sup-
port/audacity
3. click the Go button
Alternatively: on macOS the Library folder is usually
hidden by default. To reveal it for future use:
• In the sidebar of a Finder window, click on your
username (it will have a house icon beside it)
• Click on the View menu and select Show View Op-
tions
• check "on" "Show Library Folder"
• The Library folder will then show in your username
folder
First you will need to quit Audacity.
To completely reset your Audacity settings
Navigate to that audacity folder with Finder and delete
the entire contents. Then restart Audacity.
If you have added additional plug-ins to the Plug-Ins
folder and wish to keep them, do not delete that folder.
To reset just your Audacity preferences
Navigate to that audacity folder with Finder and delete
the audacity.cfg file. Then restart Audacity.
21.4. INSTALLING AND UPDATING AUDACITY ON WINDOWS
To reset just your plug-ins
Navigate to that audacity folder with Finder and delete
the:
• pluginregistry.cfg file
• pluginsettings.cfg file
21.4 Installing and updating Audacity on Windows
This page provides instructions for installing and updat-
ing Audacity on Windows computer platforms.
• In addition to basic Audacity you may wish to install
the optional LAME MP3 encoding software
• Also the optional FFmpeg library which allows Au-
dacity to import and export a much larger range of
audio formats including M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR
(narrow band) and WMA and also to import audio
from most video files.
Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include
LAME or FFmpeg encoding software or distribute such
software from its own websites. Instead, use the instruc-
tions below to download and install the free and recom-
mended third-party libraries for LAME and FFmpeg .
Note carefully that simply re-installing Audacity will
not clear and reset your Audacity settings for prefer-
ences and plug-ins. For instructions on how to achieve
this please see Reset Audacity Settings .
21.4.1 Installation instructions
Save: On the download page, left-click the "installer" link
(do not right-click). Left-clicking pops up the download
box for the Audacity installer or in Microsoft Edge starts
the download at once (at this point you will be on the Fos-
sHub site where our downloads are hosted). Save the
download to your computer if prompted to do so. Check
the browser preferences if necessary to find out where
your downloads are saved. Then double-click the down-
loaded .exe file to start the installer. You must be logged
in as an administrator on the computer to do this, or follow
the prompts to confirm your permission to install. Run:
Using Internet Explorer and a few other browsers, you
can left-click the "installer" link and select an option to
"Run" the file. This launches the Audacity setup as soon
as it has downloaded. Note: Some security applications
will query or block installers running from the computer’s
temporary space. If you prefer not to use the installer (or
security restrictions prevent installing applications), left-
click the link for the "zip" file instead. Then right-click the
543
• Plug-Ins folder
Then restart Audacity
If you want to reset your plug-in settings but do not
want to lose any additional plug-ins you have added to
the Plug-Ins folder, do not delete that folder.
downloaded file and choose the option to extract the con-
tents. You can also use 7-Zip or other extraction utilities.
System Requirements
For detailed system requirements for a Windows installa-
tion see this page on the Audacity Website
No need to uninstall a previous version before updat-
ing, unless updating from Audacity 1.3.x
If you install a new Audacity version after installing a pre-
vious one, the installer will offer to install to the same di-
rectory as the previous installation. If the previous instal-
lation was Audacity 1.2 or 2.x, the installation directory is
normally Program Files
Audacity (or Program Files(x86)
Audacity on 64-bit Windows). As long as you do not
change the installation directory, Audacity will install over
the previous 1.2 or 2.x version, and any extra plug-ins
you added to the "Plug-Ins" folder will still be available. If
the previous version was 1.3.x, please uninstall 1.3 be-
fore installing the current 2.x version. After uninstalling
1.3, any extra plug-ins you added to that version will re-
main, and you can move them to the "Plug-Ins" folder of
the new installation.
• If upgrading from Audacity 2.0.5 or earlier, you must
upgrade to the latest FFmpeg library if you require
import and export of M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (nar-
row band) and WMA .
• If upgrading from Audacity 1.3.6 or earlier, you must
update to the latest LAME library if you require
MP3 export.
Otherwise there is no need to upgrade LAME or FFmpeg
unless this is indicated in the Release Notes for the new
version of Audacity.
544 CHAPTER 21. SETUP

Projects saved by old versions of Audacity Troubleshooting

Current Audacity is compatible with project files saved by Occasionally, there may be a conflict where Audacity still
versions of Audacity 1.3.x and later, including 2.x.x. tries to detect the path to an older lame_enc.dll file. To
correct this:
1. Ensure there are no older versions of lame_enc.dll
in any locations where Audacity detects it, namely:
21.4.2 Check for Updates
• C:
Program Files
You can check to see if you have the latest version of Au- Lame for Audacity or C:
dacity by using Help > Check for Updates.... This takes Program Files (x86)
you to the Download page of the Audacity website where Lame for Audacity (this is where the installer
you can check what the latest release version of Audac- puts the new .dll)
ity is. You can then compare the latest release with the
version you have now as shown by using Help > About • the Audacity installation folder (usually C:
Audacity.... Program Files
Audacity or C:
Program Files (x86)
Audacity), or in the "Plug-Ins" folder inside
21.4.3 Installing LAME on Windows that.
2. Exit Audacity and navigate to the audacity.cfg
Because of software patents, Audacity cannot include preferences file at:
MP3 encoding software or distribute such software from
its own websites. Instead, use the following instruc- • Users
tions to download and install the free and recommended <username>
LAME third-party encoder to export MP3 files with Au- AppData
dacity. See the LAME Legal Issues page for more details. Roaming
Audacity
1. Go to the external LAME download pageLeft-click audacity.cfg
this link, do not right-click.

2. Directly underneath "TO DOWNLOAD Lame and

FFmpeg for Windows, click links BELOW:", left-
click the link Lame v3.99.3 for Windows.exe and
save the file anywhere on your computer.
3. Double-click "Lame v3.99.3 for Windows.exe" to
launch it (you can safely ignore any warnings that
the "publisher could not be verified").
4. Follow the Setup instructions to install LAME for Au-
dacity, making sure not to change the offered instal-
lation location of "C:
Program Files
Lame for Audacity" (or "C:
Program Files (x86)
Lame for Audacity" on a 64-bit version of Windows).
You should now be able to export MP3s without any fur-
ther configuration, choosing File > Save Other > Export
Audio... then selecting "MP3 Files" in the Export Audio
Dialog . ZIP file optionIf you cannot run the LAME in-
staller due to restrictions on your computer, or if you want
a later specially built LAME 3.99.5 version, download the
appropriate ZIP file from the LAME download page. Ex-
tract the contents of the ZIP file to a location of your
choosing, then use the Locate... button for LAME in Li-
braries Preferences to browse for and open the extracted
DLL file.
In order to see audacity.cfg, you may need to set
the operating system to show hidden files and fold-
ers. See instructions for Showing hidden files on
Windows.
3. Open audacity.cfg in a text editor such as Notepad,
and delete the two lines starting with:
• [MP3]MP3LibPath=
4. Save the changes to audacity.cfg and restart Au-
dacity.
As an alternative to editing the audacity.cfg file, you may
instead delete that file itself. However this will completely
reset your Audacity Preferences , which may not be what
you want.
21.4.4 Installing the FFmpeg Im-
port/Export Library on Windows
The optional FFmpeg library allows Audacity to import
and export a much larger range of audio formats includ-
ing M4A (AAC) , AC3, AMR (narrow band) and WMA
and also to import audio from most video files.
21.4. INSTALLING AND UPDATING AUDACITY ON WINDOWS 545

• Because of software patents, Audacity cannot in- Locating the FFmpeg library manually
clude the FFmpeg software or distribute it from its
own websites. Instead, use the following instruc- If you installed FFmpeg while Audacity was running, or if
tions to download and install the free and recom- you installed FFmpeg to a non-default location, Audacity
mended FFmpeg third-party library. will ask you to configure Preferences to locate the FFm-
peg library. To do this, access Preferences then the "Li-
• Advanced usage: If you already have Audacity- braries" tab on the left:
compatible FFmpeg 2.2.x or 2.3.x shared libraries
in the system PATH, Audacity will use those as long
as you do not install FFmpeg from the links below
and as long as you do not specify the FFmpeg you
want Audacity to use in Libraries Preferences .

1. Go to the external download pageLeft-click this

link, do not right-click.

2. Directly underneath "TO DOWNLOAD Lame and

FFmpeg for Windows, click links BELOW:", left-
click the link ffmpeg-win-2.2.2.exe and save the
file anywhere on your computer.

3. Double-click ffmpeg-win-2.2.2.exe to launch the

installer (you can safely ignore any warnings that
the "publisher could not be verified").

4. Read the License and click Next, Next and Install to

install the required files to C:
Program Files
FFmpeg for Audacity (or C:
Program Files (x86)
FFmpeg for Audacity on a 64-bit version of Win-
dows).
If you have the previous FFmpeg 0.6.2 installed
to the same location, the FFmpeg 2.2.2 installa-
tion will overwrite the 0.6.2 installation with the new
files. There is no need to uninstall FFmpeg 0.6.2
first.
As seen in the image above, the "FFmpeg Library Ver-
sion" will say "not found". To correct this:
1. Click the Locate... button to right of FFmpeg Li-
brary:.
2. If a "Success" message indicates Audacity has now
automatically detected valid FFmpeg libraries and
asks if you want to detect them manually, click No,
then OK to close Preferences.
3. If the "Locate FFmpeg" dialog appears, click
Browse....

5. If Audacity was running when you installed FFm-
peg, either restart Audacity or follow the steps to
manually locate FFmpeg .
Alternative zip download for FFmpeg 2.2.2
1. Go to the external download pageLeft-click this
link, do not right-click.
2. Under "TO DOWNLOAD Lame and FFmpeg for
Windows, click links BELOW:", left-click the link
ffmpeg-win-2.2.2.zip and save the file anywhere
on your computer.
4. Navigate to the folder that contains FFmpeg, and
select the file avformat-55.dll.
5. Click Open then OK and OK again to close Prefer-
ences.
FFmpeg Library Version should now show a set of three
version numbers for the sub-libraries of FFmpeg ("F" for
libavformat version, "C" for libavcodec version and "U"
for libavutil version). If you still see "not found", you may
have installed the wrong libraries. Click the Download...
button to obtain the correct library for your operating sys-
tem. You can also choose Help > Diagnostics > Show
Log... to see diagnostic information about FFmpeg de-
tection.

3. Extract the entire contents of the downloaded ZIP
file to a folder called "ffmpeg-win-2.2.2" anywhere
on your computer, then follow the instructions be-
low to locate the file "avformat-55.dll" using the Li-
braries Preferences.
21.4.5 Reset Audacity Settings on Win-
dows
As stated in the introduction on this page, simply re-
installing Audacity will not clear and reset your Audac-
546
ity settings for preferences and plug-ins. The data for
these are stored in a folder called audacity in the >App-
data>Roaming folder in your user directory. On Windows
the full pathname is: C:
Users > your username > Appdata > Roaming > au-
dacityFirst you will need to quit Audacity.
To completely reset your Audacity settings
Navigate to that audacity folder with Windows Explorer
and delete the entire contents. Then restart Audacity.
21.5 Languages
Audacity can display in many non-English languages. By
default, Audacity runs in the language the operating sys-
tem uses (the language chosen in the Windows installer
of Audacity only determines the interface language of the
installer). To change the language Audacity runs in, use
the Interface Preferences, or exit Audacity and modify
the audacity.cfg settings file. Reinstalling Audacity does
not change the language setting in audacity.cfg, unless
you run the Windows installer of Audacity and explicitly
choose Reset Preferences .
21.5.1 Changing language when installing
on Windows
When you install Audacity on Windows, during the instal-
lation you will get a dialog box which enables you to se-
lect the language to be used during the installation pro-
cess. This choice of language is also set to be the work-
ing language on subsequent use of Audacity.
This means that if you are on Windows and the lan-
guage in your Audacity installation is not to your liking
you can simply re-install Audacity and choose a different
CHAPTER 21. SETUP
To reset just your Audacity preferences
Navigate to that audacity folder with Windows Explorer
and delete the audacity.cfg file. Then restart Audacity.
To reset just your plug-ins
Navigate to that audacity folder with Windows Explorer
and delete the:
• pluginregistry.cfg file
• pluginsettings.cfg file
• Plug-Ins folder
Then restart Audacity
language.
21.5.2 Changing language in Interface
Preferences
Open the Interface Preferences , choose the specific lan-
guage required from the "Language" box, then click OK.
Most of the interface will change language at once, but
a very few interface elements will change next time you
restart Audacity.
Navigating the menus in an unfamiliar language
If you cannot read the menus because the text is in an
unfamiliar language or has ??? characters, you can nav-
igate the menus sequentially to change the language.
1. Choose the second menu from the left in the Au-
dacity menus at top left of the screen (on Mac,
choose the first menu from the left)
2. Choose the bottom item of that menu, (on Mac,
choose the second item in that menu) which opens
the Preferences
3. In the list on the left of Preferences, choose the fifth
item from the top
4. On the right, open the second dropdown box con-
taining a list of the language choices
5. Select the language you want and press Enter on
your keyboard.
6. Restart Audacity to fully complete the language
change and re-order the Effect menu alphabetically.
21.5. LANGUAGES 547

Missing language choices (or deleting audacity.cfg itself) is a quicker method if you
only want to revert Audacity to use the language the op-
If only "English" or "System" choices are in the Lan- erating system runs in.
guages box in Interface Preferences, ensure the "Lan-
guages" folder is in the correct location as follows:
21.5.4 Supported non-English languages
• Windows:C:
Program Files
As well as US English, the Audacity software supports a
<your Audacity version>
significant number of other languages. There are no lo-
Languages on 32-bit systems or C:
calized versions of Audacity. Instead, single versions of
Program Files (x86)
Audacity for the various operating platforms are shipped
<your Audacity version>
with gettext MO files. These files are then used to display
Languages on 64-bit systems
the different languages.
• Linux:/usr/share/locale if Audacity was in-
stalled from a repository package, or
/usr/local/share/locale if you compiled Audacity All translations are provided by volunteers and may
from source code. at times be incomplete. Any untranslated parts of the
software will appear in US English. We are always look-
On Mac open /Applications/Audacity/, right-click or ing for new volunteers to help translate not only Audacity
control-click over Audacity.app > Show Package Con- itself but also the main Audacity website and this Manual.
tents then ensure the "Resources" folder at Con-
tents/Resources contains the correct LPROJ folders for
each language. Missing language files or folders can be Unicode characters
corrected by reinstalling Audacity.
Audacity is Unicode and thus should display non-English
languages correctly on any localisation of the operating
21.5.3 Change language in the system set- system if the system supports that language.
tings

Alternatively, you can quit Audacity and edit the audac- Supported non-English languages in Audacity
ity.cfg settings file. The .cfg file can be edited with any
text editor. The .cfg file is located in the Audacity settings • af Afrikaans
folder as follows: • ar Arabic
• Windows:Users • hy Armenian
<username>
AppData • eu Basque
Roaming • eu_ES Basque (Spain)
Audacity
• be Belarusian
• Mac:~/Library/Application Support/audacity
• bn Bengali
• Linux:~/.audacity-data
• bs Bosnian
• bg Bulgarian
In order to see the Audacity settings folder on Win-
dows, Linux and OS X 10.7 or later, you may need • my Burmese
to show hidden files and folders. See instructions for
• ca Catalan
all versions of Windows and OS X 10.7 and later. To
change language, find the [Locale] line in the .cfg file • zh Chinese (Simplified)
and change the line underneath it to your preferred lan-
• zh_TW Chinese (Taiwan)
guage using the two-digit ISO 639-1 code. For example,
"Language=en" (without quotes) sets English or "Lan- • hr Croatian
guage=de" sets German. If the two lines for Locale do
• cy Cymraeg (Welsh)
not exist in audacity.cfg (which will be the case if Audac-
ity has only ever run in the system language) add the • cs Czech
lines as in this example:
• da Danish
[Locale]Language=de Now save audacity.cfg, restart Au-
• nl Dutch
dacity and it will launch in your chosen language. Delet-
ing the [Locale] line and the line under that in audacity.cfg • fa Farsi (Persian)
548 CHAPTER 21. SETUP

• fi Finnish • oc Occitan
• fr French • pl Polish
• ga Gaelige • pt Portuguese
• gl Galician • pt_BR Portuguese (Brazilian)
• ka Georgian • ro Romanian
• de German • ru Russian
• el Greek • sr_RS Serbian (Cyrillic)
• he Hebrew email protected Serbian (Latin)
• hi Hindi • sk Slovak
• hu Hungarian • sl Slovenian
• id Indonesian • es Spanish
• it Italian • sv Swedish
• ja Japanese • tg Tajik
• km Khmer • ta Tamil
• ko Korean • tr Turkish
• lt Lithuanian • uk Ukrainian
• mk Macedonian email protected Valencian
• nb Norwegian (Bokmal) • vi Vietnamese
Chapter 22
Unsorted
22.1 Managing Audacity Projects
All editing in Audacity is done as a project. It is impor-
tant to note that a project is not a single audio file but a
complex set of files managed by Audacity.
• Audacity projects have a top-level AUP file and a
related folder containing the sound files (the audio
data). The AUP is not a sound file, it is merely
a list of instructions that tell Audacity how to con-
struct the project from the sound files in the folder.
Audacity projects can only be used by Audacity.
• To make an audio file (such as WAV or MP3 ) for
playing on your music player, or for use in other ap-
plications, use one of the Export Audio commands,
available from the File > Save Other menu.
22.1.1 Structure of an Audacity project
The Audacity Project Format stores all Audacity tracks
and clips , labels , amplitude envelope points , gain and
pan data, together with other project data. The audio
can be a recording , imported files , generated audio or a
mixture of any of those. Projects are a convenient way to
save your extended multi-track piece and come back to
it later exactly as you left off. Audacity’s project format is
not compatible with and cannot be opened in any other
audio application. The structure of a saved Audacity
project is:
• An AUP project file - the name of the project fol-
lowed by ".aup", for example "my_song.aup"
• A _data folder with the same project name and
in the same folder as the .aup file, for example
"my_song_data"
• Within that _data folder, a sub-folder structure with
lots of little AU files which are individual segments
of the audio data.
549
Note that default behavior on Windows and Mac is to hide
certain file extensions ; if this applies, the .aup file will
only appear as "my_song" in the computer. On Win-
dows, the .aup extension will be hidden if Audacity was
installed from the .exe installer and "Hide file extensions
for known file types" remains checked in Windows Ex-
plorer. You can unhide extensions on Windows by follow-
ing these instructions. The project file describes how Au-
dacity links these AU files together to make up the clips
and tracks in the project; it also contains gain, pan and
envelope information, data to manage the waveform dis-
play and carries links to any dependent audio files being
read directly from their source location. The AUP file is in
XML format and can be opened in a text editor if required.
The AU files are stored in a lossless , uncompressed
format. Their default size is 1 MB or less. This Audacity
Project Format is designed to make editing audio faster
in Audacity. By updating individual AU files during edit-
ing, Audacity can change audio or move it around in the
project without copying large quantities of data from one
place to another. The four rules for keeping your Au-
dacity Project happy:
1. When importing an uncompressed audio file with
the "Read uncompressed file directly from the orig-
inal (faster)" option checked in Import / Export Pref-
erences never move, rename or delete that file
unless you first copy it into the Audacity project.
See Help > Diagnostics > Check Dependencies...
for more information.
2. Never move, delete or rename any of the files or
folders inside the _data folder.
3. Never rename the AUP file or the _data folder by
hand. If you want to rename your project (for exam-
ple, to save a snapshot at a particular point), use
the File > Save Project As... command.
4. Always keep the AUP file and the _data folder to-
gether in the same directory (folder).
550
22.1.2 Saving an Audacity Project
A saved Audacity Project can only be opened and used
by Audacity. If you want an audio file that will play on your
music player or to burn a CD, use an Export command.
The benefits of saving an Audacity Project are:
• Saving a project lets you save unfinished work and
re-open it later in Audacity exactly as it was, with
all edits and recorded/imported tracks preserved.
Note carefully that the Undo history is not saved
with the project and so the project history starts
afresh when you re-open the project later.
• Audio data is always preserved in lossless qual-
ity. This is useful if you have already exported to
a lossy audio format like MP3 but decide to edit the
project further. Editing and re-exporting the project
saves the additional quality loss of re-editing the
previously exported MP3.
• No need to re-import or re-record files
There is no need to Save a project, unless required, as it
is possible to work with temporary project files and then
just use File > Save Other > Export Audio... to export the
required audio files. If the project is not saved, the neces-
sary audio data is stored in the temporary folder specified
in the Directories section of Preferences until exiting the
application. At that point, Audacity offers the choice of
saving a project or not. There are two main commands
for saving projects:
• File > Save Project saves a standard project as an
AUP project file (a file with ".aup" after its name)
and a _data folder containing the actual audio. If
the project does not have any unsaved changes (for
example, if the project is empty or you just saved it),
"Save Project" will be grayed out.
• File > Save Project As... similarly saves a standard
project as an AUP file and _data folder. It is for sav-
ing an empty project or to save an existing Project
to a new name to make a copy of the project in its
current state then continue working on that copy.
As with saving any type of file, certain characters cannot
be used in the name of the AUP file if they are reserved
for the operating system. See our information on forbid-
den characters . When saving an Audacity project it is
normally easiest to use the File > Save Project command,
which has a default shortcut of Ctrl + S (or CloverLeaf +
S on Mac). If you save a project again having made fur-
ther changes to it, "Save Project" then updates the AUP
file and _data folder silently without bothering you with
prompts. Long projects contain a lot of data. Ensure
the project is fully saved before exiting Audacity or
shutting down the computer. If there is a progress dia-
logue for saving the project, wait for it to complete before
shutting down. The Status Bar at the bottom shows a
message when the project has been saved.
CHAPTER 22. UNSORTED
Saving copies of projects
"Save Project As" is the safe and recommended way to
make a copy of a project with a new name or location.
This could serve either as a single backup copy of the
project, or as one of several incremental copies of the
project in the state it had at a particular date and time.
If you "Save Project As" with a new name, the project
window then displays the project name you just "saved
as". The project window displaying the project as previ-
ously named is closed in its last saved state, but can be
reopened as required.
You should never use the operating system’s
copy and paste to make a copy of the project AUP file
and _data folder in the same folder as the original project.
If you must make a copy by hand, save and close the
project first then copy the AUP file and _data folder and
paste these into a different folder. This ensures the orig-
inal file and folder names are retained.
Saving a compressed copy of Project
If you need to save space (for example to send a project
over the internet) you can save a compressed version
of your project by using File > Save Other > Save Com-
pressed Copy of Project... . This will save a copy of your
project in the lossy , compressed Ogg Vorbis format,
each track being saved as a separate OGG file.
22.1.3 Opening an Audacity project
When opening an Audacity project always use File >
Open or File > Recent Files to open the "my_song.aup".
Do not attempt to open, import or manipulate any individ-
ual AU files. Audio which was not saved as an Audacity
Project will need to be imported using File > Import , File
> Open or by dragging the file in. The Import command
is used to import audio data into an already open project,
whereas the Open command used on an external au-
dio file either imports the file into the current project if
it never contained any other tracks, otherwise imports it
into a new project window. See Importing Audio for more
information. Older Projects
• Audacity can usually open AUP files created in
legacy Audacity 1.2.x, but saving the project will
prevent it opening again in 1.2.x. Before opening
the legacy AUP file, copy it and its _data folder and
paste them into a different folder to make a backup.
If necessary you can open the backup in Audac-
ity 1.2.x, export each track as WAV then import the
WAV files into current Audacity.
• Projects created in legacy Audacity 1.1.x or ear-
lier can only be opened by exporting each audio
track as WAV in the legacy version of Audacity, then
22.1. MANAGING AUDACITY PROJECTS
import the WAV files into the current version of Au-
dacity.
22.1.4 Project Dependencies
When importing uncompressed audio files, such as
WAV or AIFF , Audacity has an import preference that
lets you save disk space and edit the files almost imme-
diately by reading them directly from their original source
location, rather than copying them into the project. In that
case Audacity will reference the original file directly (but
not make any changes to that audio file unless you export
over it). If you import the files by reading them directly,
you must not at that point rename, move or delete those
original source files and must not modify them outside
Audacity. When you first import a file by any means, for
example by using File > Open... , File > Import > Audio...
or by dragging the file in, the preference is automatically
set to "copy in" and a Warning dialog is presented ex-
plaining the difference between copy-in and read-directly
and asking which method should be used for this import.
You can opt for Audacity to use your current choice in fu-
ture and not ask again, but you can change your choice at
any time in Import - Export Preferences . When a project
is saved and the "faster" option has been chosen, Audac-
ity will display a dialog box showing these dependencies
and give the option of copying all of the audio data into
the project. This makes the project independent of ex-
ternal audio files and makes it safe to delete, move, re-
name or modify the original audio files if necessary. The
Projects Preferences settings can be modified so that Au-
dacity will not ask when saving a project but will always
either "never copy" the dependent audio files, or "always
copy" them into the project. At any time it is possible to
click on Help > Diagnostics > Check Dependencies... to
see if the project depends on any external files .
Import settings: "faster" versus "safer"
There are two settings that determine how Audacity im-
ports a WAV or AIFF file.
• Make a copy of the files before editing (safer):
This is the default setting. Audacity copies in the
entire audio data of files when importing them.
Choose this "Safer" option if:
• Plenty of disk space is available and the time taken
to import is not crucial
• You want peace of mind that the project will never
depend on other files
• The Audacity project is to be opened on another
computer or sent to someone else (if you only want
to send an exported audio file to someone else,
you do not need to choose "Safer").
551
• Read the files directly from the original (faster):
Audacity uses On-Demand Loading . This imports
files much faster by only writing small AUF "sum-
mary" files that reference the imported file and so
depend on that imported file remaining available.
Audio data is only copied in for any parts of the file
that you subsequently edit. If you apply an edit to
the entire audio of the imported file, Audacity will
at that point copy the entire audio data in, so pro-
viding you do not undo that edit of the entire audio,
the project will henceforward no longer depend on
the imported file.Note that if you overwrite a read-
directly WAV or AIFF file by exporting to the same
file name and location, Audacity renames the im-
ported file with a suffix containing "-old" and a num-
ber, then this "-old" file becomes the dependent file
for the project. Do not delete "-old" file(s) until you
are happy with the exported file and no longer re-
quire the Audacity project.
Do not choose the "Faster" option unless you com-
pletely understand the implications. If you move, rename
or delete the imported file, the project data may be lost.
22.1.5 Moving, renaming or sending an Au-
dacity project
Moving or renaming Audacity projects can be tricky due
to their complex structure as described above. Any
project can be moved on the same computer, or re-
named, by making a copy of the project with the File >
Save Project As... command.
• Sending somebody just an AUP file does not send
them an Audacity project - to do that you would
need to send the _data folder containing the small
AU files too.
• For a simple single track project (that does not have
gain or pan settings, or use an envelope to adjust
the volume) one possible solution is to not move the
project. Instead, use the File > Save Other > Export
Audio... command to export a WAV file. This WAV
file can then be copied to another computer (such
as by using a USB flash drive), then the File > Im-
port command can be used to load the WAV file
into an Audacity project. Alternatively the WAV file
can be sent by email (if the WAV is not too large) or
via a file sharing website to someone else who can
import it into an Audacity project on their computer.
• For a project that has multiple tracks, or a single-
track project that has gain or pan settings or uses
an envelope to adjust the volume of the track, the
entire project will need to be moved. To move to
a different location on the same computer, use File
> Save Project As... . Save Project As can also
552
be used to transfer the project to another com-
puter on the same network, though this can be
slow. If it is necessary to move the project by hand,
save and close the project then move the AUP
file <my_project_name>.AUP and the _data folder
<my_project_name>_data to a different folder or
computer. Ensure that the .AUP file and _data
folder remain together in the new folder.
Never rename a project by hand in any folder. Do-
ing so will corrupt the project.
• If moving the project to a different computer, the
project must not depend on external audio files be-
cause the actual (absolute) path to these is stored
in the AUP file. Use the Help > Diagnostics > Check
Dependencies... command to check whether the
project depends on any external files. If it does, the
dialog box will give you the option to make a copy
of those files within the project.
• It can be difficult to email complex projects to oth-
ers because of the size of the project data and be-
cause you must send a ZIP file containing AUP
file and _data folder to ensure the project struc-
ture remains intact. If you do not mind sending
slightly lossy audio in the project, the file size can
be greatly reduced by zipping up a compressed
copy of the project . Note that ZIP formats do
not support reliable character encoding, so for the
name of the project, labels, track names or meta-
data, only use A to Z or a to z characters, whole
numbers (0 to 9), underscore or hyphen-minus (or
use the NUMPAD_SUBTRACT key).
See also Sending your work to others and this FAQ .
22.1.6 Backing up Audacity projects
Regular backups should if possible be made to one or
two devices other than the device the current project is
stored on, as computer hard drives can fail, destroying all
data. For example, backups could be made to another
internal drive on the computer, or ideally to an external
USB drive or uploaded to an online (cloud) storage ser-
vice. For advice on backing up Audacity projects please
see this FAQ .
22.1.7 Deleting an Audacity project
There is no File > Delete Project command in Audacity;
therefore to delete a project to free up disk space it is
necessary to make the deletion manually. You will need
to delete both the AUP file and its associated, identically
named _data folder. ’= Note that this will not remove the
listing of your project under File > Recent Files... . Af-
ter deleting the project you can choose the AUP entry for
CHAPTER 22. UNSORTED
that project in the Recent Files list in order to remove the
entry.
22.1.8 Autosave and Recovery
As soon as you open a project window and change
the window contents, whether this is a previously saved
project or you are creating a new project, Audacity writes
a temporary reference file for that project called an ".au-
tosave" file. This allows Audacity to automatically re-
cover unsaved changes in the event of a crash or power
loss. When you use File > Save Project or File > Save
Project As... there are no longer unsaved changes,
so the ".autosave" file is deleted until fresh unsaved
changes are made. The file is stored in the "AutoSave"
folder inside Audacity’s folder for application data . The
file is of identical internal structure to an AUP project
file, but is not readable by a text editor. Most changes
you make to the audio data, such as adding or removing
audio or applying an effect to it, trigger writing the ".au-
tosave" file. A change to the position of the selection or
editing cursor does not write to the ".autosave" file, and is
not captured when closing the project, unless the project
is already "dirty" (as shown by File > Save Project being
clickable).
22.1.9 Disk space usage
This can be particularly important if you are editing a
large project. Audacity references the original audio ma-
terial until you actually perform some kind of edit on it,
such as cutting a piece away or using any effect on it. So
if you Edit > Duplicate a selection, this doesn’t actually
increase the number of .au files in the _data folder, and
doesn’t increase disk space usage. Edit > Copy for ex-
ample does increase the number of .au files, but this is
so these files can be retained separately on the Audacity
clipboard for Edit > Paste . Once you perform an edit,
the original unchanged audio is retained, along with the
changed audio. This is so you can use Edit > Undo and
Edit > Redo to try out edits and undo them if they do not
sound as you wanted. If you edit just a small selection
in a track, only that small selection of changed data is
written to disk. Nonetheless, this still represents a dou-
bling of disk space usage for that selection, and a further
edit on that selection (unless you first undo the previous
edit) adds the same amount again, and so on. For ex-
ample, a five minute stereo recording at default quality
settings takes 100 MB of space. If you edit the whole
length of that recording, disk space usage will increase
to 200 MB. If disk space is a problem while working on
a project, you can use View > History... to discard Undo
levels and reclaim disk space. Note that once you close
the project by using File > Close or exiting Audacity, the
audio data needed for Undo/Redo is discarded, so as to
22.2. RECOVERING CRASHES MANUALLY
make project storage as economical as possible. Any au-
dio data placed on the Audacity clipboard by Cut or Copy
22.2 Recovering crashes manually
If Audacity crashes or the computer loses power, Au-
dacity should normally recover the projects automatically
when you restart. The steps on this page describe how
to recover audio from the project’s _data folder or Audac-
ity’s temporary folder if:
• Automatic Crash Recovery does not work correctly
• You saved a project without apparent crash, but Au-
dacity was shut down before the AUP project file
was written or you do not have a usable AUP file.
The steps on this page will only recover unedited
recordings (and may recover stereo recordings with
some sections of left and right channel in the wrong chan-
nel).
If the Automatic Crash Recovery dialog has ap-
peared but recovery is incorrect, do not close the
project or save any changes until manual recovery
using these instructions is complete.
• If you need to shut down the computer before man-
ually fixing an incorrect Automatic Crash Recov-
ery, force quit Audacity in the system task man-
ager. This will preserve the temporary data for next
launch of Audacity.
• If you had successfully saved the project just before
the crash, it may be simpler to discard the unsaved
project in the Automatic Crash Recovery dialogue
then open the saved AUP file.
22.2.1 Location of the project _data folder
If you saved an AUP project file, the _data folder you
need to recover from will be in the directory to which you
originally saved the AUP file.
22.2.2 Location of Temporary Folder
If you never saved an AUP project file, you need to re-
cover from Audacity’s temporary folder. You can see the
exact location in Directories Preferences , otherwise you
can see the location in the "TempDir" line in the audac-
ity.cfg settings file . By default the Audacity temporary
folder should be as follows.
• Windows:C:
Users
553
is however retained until you exit Audacity itself.
<your username>
AppData
Local
Audacity
SessionData
• Mac:/Users/<your username>/Library/Application
Support/audacity/SessionData
• GNU/Linux:/var/tmp/audacity-<your username>
If you are upgrading from previous Audacity, that ver-
sion’s temporary directory may be changed to the rel-
evant safe location above if the previous location was
known to be prone to deletion by cleanup applications
or system restart.
In order to see the default location of the Audacity temp
folder on Windows or Mac you need to show hidden files
and folders or type the folder location into your file man-
ager’s address bar.
• Windows: In the tree on the left of Explorer,
double-click "Users" then double-click your user-
name, then on the right, open the AppData or Appli-
cation Data folder, then the "Local" or "Locale Set-
tings" folder and finally the "Temp" folder. If you
cannot see those folders, you can type %localap-
pdata% into the Explorer address bar then look for
the "Temp" folder. Otherwise, see how to show hid-
den files and folders.
• Mac: Open Finder, use the "Go" menu, choose "Go
to Folder" and type the required path.
• If that does not work, try to make the Finder
show its hidden files and folders by entering the
following commands in the terminal:defaults write
com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE killall
Finder then relaunch Finder to show the hidden
files. Alternatively, try TinkerTool to do the same
thing, or you can type Shift-Command-Period(.) to
show or hide hidden files and folders in an Open or
Save dialog.
22.2.3 Manual recovery
If you only have a few AU files to recover, use the "Import
Audio" command to open all the .au files from the Audac-
554
ity temporary folder or project _data folder. Use shift-click
or control-click to select multiple files. The files will be in
approximately 6-second chunks and will be on separate
tracks in the Audacity screen. Files from stereo tracks
will alternate between left and right channels.
1. Click in the Track Control Panel (by the Mute/Solo
buttons) of the topmost track.
2. Shortcut Z or Select > Region > Ends to Zero
Crossings .
3. Edit > Remove Special > Trim .
4. Click in the Track Control Panel of the first track you
want to join to the topmost track.
5. Shortcut Z or Edit > Find Zero Crossings.
6. Shortcut Z or Select > Region > Ends to Zero
Crossings .
7. Click after the end of the topmost track.
8. Press End on the keyboard.
9. Click Edit > Paste and the cut track will attach to the
end of the topmost track.
10. Repeat as necessary to join all the tracks onto the
topmost track.
Play the result. Cut and paste as needed if any files are
found to be in the wrong order or the wrong channel.
22.2.4 Automatic recovery tools
Tools written for legacy Audacity 1.2 can automate data
recovery.
All these utilities require the .au files to be in-
put in consecutive alphanumerical order. Audacity
names files randomly so files will need to renamed.
Open Audacity’s temporary or project _data folder in
your system file manager. Sort the files by times-
tamp order (earliest first), then rename them using
a consecutive alphanumerical sequence, lowest num-
ber first. An arrangement looking something like this
should work: b001.au 15:56:02b002.au 15:56:02b003.au
15:56:10b004.au 15:56:10Utilities for renaming files to
consecutive alphanumerical order
• On Windows, Explorer cannot rename to a se-
quence acceptable to the recovery tools. You can
use instead the Mass Rename tool in the 21-day
trial Professional or Ultimate versions of xplorer2.
These versions will let you recover an unedited
stereo recording with exact allocation of left and
right channels, if Windows is running the NTFS file
system. The free version of xplorer2 cannot guar-
antee correct channel allocation.
CHAPTER 22. UNSORTED
1. (only in the Professional and Ultimate ver-
sions) Click View > Raw Contents to enable
maximum date resolution.
2. Open the required folder in xplorer2 and sort
the .au files by time modified as above.
3. Ctrl + A to select all the files.
4. File > Mass Rename.
5. In the "Mass Rename Wizard", click in "Target
name template" and type the letter e with a $
after the letter. For example, e$0001.au will
rename the files to e0001.au, e0002.au and
so on. Use enough zeros in the file name so
that all the .au files will have the same number
of digits.
6. Press "Preview", and if the preview looks cor-
rect, hit "Rename"
• On Mac, try Applications > Automator.
• On Linux, try the file manager Thunar included in
the xfce desktop See here for help running Thunar
on the Ubuntu desktop.
Linux command-line alternatives for timestamp sort-
ing
1. Open a terminal then "cd" into the directory that
contains the .AU files.
2. Type the following command in a terminal to sort
and rename the files into numerical timestamp or-
der:mkdir "renamed" | find -type f -name "*.au"
-printf "cp %h/%f renamed/%h/%TY%Tm%Td-
%TH%TM%TS_%f
n"|sh
3. The file names produced in the "renamed" folder
are not in a consecutive sequence suitable for the
Audacity recovery utilities. Instead, use the Nyquist
plug-in Append Import to import the files end-to-
end into Audacity automatically in file name order.
Limitations of automatic recovery utilities
• There is a 2 GB maximum size for any WAV file
created from the reconstructed temporary files.
This implies no more than 2000 .au files can be re-
covered. Sometimes (probably due to bugs in the
utilities) there can be errors when recovering only
1000 or so files. In that case you would need to
split the .au files in the temporary or_data folder
into two or more folders, each containing consecu-
tively numbered files, and recover a separate WAV
file from each folder.
• Recovery of unedited mono recordings should be
correct in most cases.
22.3. AUTOMATIC CRASH RECOVERY 555

• Recovery of unedited stereo recordings may re- by Audacity Team.

cover with transposed left/right channels in places.
Channel allocation will only be correct if you are us-
ing the NTFS (Windows) or ext 4 (Linux) file system File merge tools
and if your file manager supports sufficiently fine
date resolution (see the Windows example above). • It has been reported that AU files may be converted
This is because the files for each channel may have to WAV (for example in Audacity) then joined using
timestamps that are too close together to be cor- the disk output utility in Winamp.
rectly distinguished by other file systems.
• If any of the project data has been edited, it is un-
likely to recover correctly. Scripts for GNU/Linux and Mac

1.2 Audacity Recovery Utility
The 1.2 Audacity Recovery Utility assumes the project
rate was 44100 Hz. If your project was at other than
44100 Hz, the recovered WAV file will be the wrong
length and play at the wrong speed. To correct this af-
ter importing the recovery WAV file, click in the name
of the track (by the downward-pointing arrow) then use
"Set Rate" to choose the correct rate. Windows and
LinuxFollow the instructions on the Audacity Recovery
Utility page. On Linux, you may need to install additional
libraries before you can use the utility, following the in-
structions provided. MacDownload the following utilities
instead which are ready-compiled with the necessary li-
braries:
• for Power PCs
• for Intel Macs
Then follow the instructions on the Audacity Recovery
Utility page from "About the Audacity Recovery Utility"
onwards.
audacity_rescue.sh
This shell script can reassemble a few thousand .au files.
It may be simpler to apply (at a bash terminal) than some
of the solutions mentioned on this page, particularly for
mono recordings.
SoX
1. Using SoX, make a copy of the temp directory and
its files from a mono recording:
$ cp -r /tmp/audacity1.2-jbn ~/rescue
2. Convert the AU files into raw (headerless) files. The
files must already be time-sorted and numbered
with leading zeroes:
$ for f in *.au ; do sox ${f} -t raw ${f}.raw ; done
3. Concatenate the raw files together to make one
long raw file. Concatenating the AU files together
(each with its own header) would produce noise at
the joins between each AU file.

22.2.5 Other Tools / scripts $ cat *.raw > bigfile.raw

4. Finally, import the raw file into Audacity specify-
There is no implication that these tools will necessarily ing the appropriate encoding, endianness, chan-
do what you want, nor have they necessarily been tested nels and sample rate.

22.3 Automatic Crash Recovery

In the event of a crash while Audacity has unsaved data

(such as a recording that has not yet been saved as a
project , or an existing project with unsaved changes),
Audacity will attempt to recover that data on next launch
from an autosave recovery file.If there were no unsaved
changes at the time of the crash, there will be no recov-
ery dialog - all you need to do is re-open the saved AUP
file.
556
The project name in the list of recoverable projects in-
cludes the date and time of the autosave file, preceded
by either the name of the project or by "New Project" for
a project that was never saved as an .aup file.
22.3.1 Automatic Crash Recovery
• Quit Audacity Exits Audacity without any changes.
The Automatic Crash Recovery dialog will reappear
next time you launch Audacity.
• Discard Projects Discards the unsaved data for all
projects. You will receive a prompt asking if you are
sure this is what you want to do. If you confirm that
want to discard all projects, they will not be recov-
erable later.
• Recover Projects Attempts to recover the unsaved
data for all projects, and load the recovered wave-
forms . If there are multiple unsaved projects, each
will recover into their own project window. Note that
the project history is not recoverable, so you can
only recover to the project state at or just before
the crash. You also cannot recover the text con-
tents of a label whose text was being added at the
time of the crash or where there was no action that
triggered autosave after closing the new label.
Note that it is common if there are unsaved changes at
the time of the crash for Audacity to warn of "file inconsis-
tencies" when recovering the project. This usually means
merely that there are "orphan block files" in the data that
were there to enable undo or redo of a project action
but which are now superfluous to the recovered project.
If this was the case, you would see a note on opening
Help > Diagnostics > Show Log... that orphan files would
be deleted on saving the project, but no warnings about
other kinds of file error.
CHAPTER 22. UNSORTED
• After recovery, the data is still in unsaved state.
If the recovery appears correct, use File > Save
Project to save the recovered project immediately.
If the project is not saved when you exit, Audac-
ity will prompt if you want to save the changes. If
you choose not to save, all unsaved changes will
be deleted and not recoverable.
• If the recovered project appears incorrect, for
example with silenced audio, do not save the
project in incorrect state and do not close it and
discard changes.
1. Open Help > Diagnostics > Show Log... and
copy the errors shown - typically these would
list "missing data block files".
2. Force quit Audacity in the operating system’s
task manager to keep the autosave file and
audio data safe, and search your computer or
use a data recovery application to locate any
files that were noted as missing.
3. If you can restore these files to the location
shown for them in the log, then you should be
able to re-open Audacity and recover correctly.
22.3.2 Manual Recovery
If the Automatic Crash Recovery does not appear after
a crash with unsaved changes, or the recovered audio
cannot be corrected by searching for files, it may be pos-
sible to recover a single, unedited mono recording us-
ing crash recovery tools written for previous versions of
Audacity. Stereo or edited audio is unlikely to be re-
covered in the correct sequence.
• In order to use the crash recovery tools, it is essen-
tial to rename the unsaved .au files to a consec-
utive alphanumeric sequence. See " Recovering
crashes manually " for detailed help.
• If you had never saved a project before the crash,
the .au files will be in Audacity’s temporary folder,
whose location can be found by looking in Directo-
ries Preferences .
• If you had saved the project previously, the .au files
will be in the _data folder inside the directory con-
taining the .aup project file .
If manual recovery produces a poor result, check if you
have an earlier saved state of the project to go back to
whose audio would at least be correct. It is always a wise
precaution to backup a project periodically to separately
named AUP files as an insurance against crashes. See "
How can I backup my Audacity Projects? " for how to do
this.
22.4. DEPENDENCIES DIALOG
22.4 Dependencies Dialog
Uncompressed WAV and AIFF files that are imported into
a project with the "Read uncompressed audio files di-
rectly from the original (faster)" option in Import / Export
Preferences are not copied into the project. Instead, Au-
dacity keeps a reference to these files, and the project
is dependent on them. Dependencies Dialog lists these
dependencies and allows you to optionally remove them.
You may select some, none or all the files to be copied
in.Accessed by Help > Diagnostics > Check Depen-
dencies... or when saving a project that depends on
other audio files
If you select "Make a copy of uncompressed audio files
before editing (safer)" in Import / Export Preferences ,
your projects will never have dependencies, but more
disk space may be used to store the project, and import-
ing WAV or AIFF files will be slower.
22.4.1 Project Dependencies
This dialog appears when you click Help > Diagnostics
> Check Dependencies... and the project depends on
other files.
• File list: When the dialog opens, you can move
into the list using the keyboard by pressing <up ar-
row> (on Mac, focus is already in the list). You can
resize the list columns by hovering the mouse over
the boundary between them and then drag when
the pointer changes to arrows. On Windows, hov-
ering over a file name shows a tooltip containing
the complete path to the file.
• Audio File: Lists the uncompressed files that were
imported using the "Read uncompressed audio
files directly from the original (faster)" option in Im-
port / Export Preferences .
557
• Disk space: Shows the amount of additional disk
space that will be used by the project if the file(s)
are copied in. The disk space shown will depend
on the default sample format of the project as set
in Quality Preferences .
• Copy Selected Files: Copies the files selected in
the list into the project. The project no longer de-
pends on the selected files but still depends on the
unselected files.
• Do Not Copy: Dismisses the dialog (but contin-
ues to save the project if you were saving it) without
copying any of the listed files into the project. The
project will continue to depend on the listed files, so
you must not move, rename or delete those files, or
the folder they are in.
• Copy All Files (Safer): All the listed files will be
copied into the project, removing all the dependen-
cies. You can then safely move, rename or delete
those files if you wish.
22.4.2 When saving a project that depends
on other files
This similar dialog appears when you save a project that
has dependencies, and have chosen in Projects Prefer-
ences to be asked whether dependent files should be
copied in or not.
As with the above version, you may select some, none or
all the files for copying in. This dialog gives you the option
of directly setting your preference for copying in behavior
when saving a project.
558
• Copy Selected Files Saves the project while copy-
ing only the files selected in the list into the project.
The project no longer depends on the selected files
but still depends on the unselected files.
• Cancel Save: Allows you to cancel saving of the
project, without copying any of the listed files into
it. You will be asked to say "Yes" if this is your in-
tention. The project will continue to depend on the
listed files.
• Save without Copying: Save the project without
copying in the dependent files. The project will con-
tinue to depend on the listed files.
• Copy All Files (Safer): Saves the project while
copying all the listed files into the project, removing
all the dependencies. You can then safely move,
rename or delete those files if you wish.
• Whenever a project depends on other files:
22.5 Device
The device is the actual physical sound device you are
recording from (or playing back to). The recording and
playback devices are chosen either in the Devices sec-
tion of Preferences or in Device Toolbar .The recording
and playback volume of the selected devices is normally
adjusted in Mixer Toolbar .
• Windows: Recording and playback devices are
normally shown as the type of recording or play-
back it is (for example, "Microphone" or "Speakers")
followed by the device that input or output belongs
to. Examples could look like:
– Microphone (High Def Audio)
– Speakers (Realtek HD)
– Line In (USB Audio).
• In addition, there are "Sound Mapper" or "Primary
Driver" input and output devices that are always the
same as whatever device is currently set as default
in the Windows control panel for sound.
Many new Windows computers come with only
the microphone recording device enabled. Any other
playback devices the sound device has, such as "Stereo
CHAPTER 22. UNSORTED
– Ask me The default option; the Dependen-
cies Dialog will always appear when saving a
project that has dependencies.
– Always copy all audio (safest): On all future
occasions when saving a project that has de-
pendencies, Dependencies Dialog will not ap-
pear, and all dependent files will be copied into
the project.
– Never copy any audio: On all future occa-
sions when saving a project that has depen-
dencies, Dependencies Dialog will not appear,
and no files will be copied into the project. The
project will continue to depend on the listed
files.
You can change your decision in this menu at any time
by going to Projects Preferences .
Mix", "Wave Out" or "Sum" for recording computer play-
back , must be enabled in "Sound" in the Windows Con-
trol Panel. See Why can I not record in Windows for more
help.
• Mac: The built-in audio’s playback device normally
appears as "Built-in Output". Unless the Mac has a
second digital input, the recording device normally
appears as "Built-in Input". A USB audio sound-
card that has different inputs should give the device
name followed by the type of input.
• Linux: It is often best to choose the "default"
recording and playback device. Recording sources
can be chosen if necessary in either alsamixer
or pulseaudio volume control (on machines where
pulseaudio is the default audio system).
Many USB or Firewire recording devices (for example
USB turntables or most USB interfaces) do not present
a choice of recording devices to the operating system.
Such devices will just appear as the device name, for ex-
ample "USB Audio CODEC" (or on Windows, sometimes
"Microphone (USB Audio CODEC)" even though the de-
vice is not a "microphone"). Back to Recording Audio .
Back to Getting Started .
22.6. HIGHER SPEED TRANSFERS
22.6 Higher speed transfers
Higher speed transfers (high speed dubbing) is some-
times used to speed up the recording process by record-
ing records at higher speeds than they were created
at and then adjusting the recording back to the correct
speed. The best advice that we can give you is : do not
be tempted to do it. You will save a little time, but your
recordings will be compromized, you will lose high fre-
quencies - and you may damage both your records and
your equipment.
22.6.1 High Speed Dubbing
Because Audacity can change the speed of recordings,
it’s possible to record your 33 1/3 rpm records into Au-
dacity at 45 rpm (so transfer them more quickly). Once
the track is recorded into Audacity, simply select all the
track by clicking in the Track Control Panel (where the
mute/solo buttons are) and click Effect > Change Speed
. In the "From" box choose the speed you played the
record at (for example "33 1/3" or "45") and in the "To"
box choose the speed you want to convert the recording
to (that is, the speed it should be played at according to
the label). Where you are recording at a faster speed
than normal for example recording a 33 1/3 rpm record
at 45 rpm, it’s recommended to set the sample rate in
the Project Rate dropdown menu at the bottom left of the
Audacity window to a higher sample rate than 44.1kHz to
ensure you record the full audio spectrum. For record-
ing 33rpm records played at 45rpm, a sample rate of 60k
or more is needed to record the full 20kHz spectrum. If
44.1k sample rate is used when recording, the final au-
dio will be limited to 14.8kHz bandwidth. Also set the bit
depth to 32-bit as this will give better quality when the
Change Speed effect is applied.
22.6.2 Why you should not do this
Accelerated recording does not give the best sound qual-
ity, for two reasons:
• The playback equalization curve is being applied
incorrectly in the record deck preamp. While cor-
rect for normal speed play, all music content is fre-
quency shifted during accelerated play, and equal-
ization is therefore incorrect.
• Cartridges behave poorly beyond 20kHz, and an
accelerated deck is using the cartridge at up to
27kHz to play back audio content of up to 20kHz.
Consequently distortion will rise, high frequency re-
sponse will be more peaky, and generally the high-
est frequencies will be lost. How much of an issue
this quality loss is depends on the cartridge, but it
559
will always be present, with no cartridges giving as
good performance to 27kHz as they do to 20kHz.
22.6.3 More detail
Consider the case where you have a superbly-recorded
33 1/3 rpm vinyl LP that contains audio with frequencies
ranging from 20Hz to 20kHz (the nominal full range of hu-
man hearing). When you play it back at 78 it will sound
like chipmunks on helium. In effect you have translated
that original frequency range to the range of approxi-
mately 47Hz to 46.8kHz. Now the cartridge that is play-
ing back these frequencies was designed to reproduce
the 20-20kHz range, and if it’s really, really high end it
might be able to reproduce frequencies up to 25kHz. So
everything from 25kHz upwards is lost during high-speed
playback. You end up with recorded frequencies in the
range 47Hz to 25kHz. Now we use software to reduce
the speed back to normal. The chipmunks become hu-
man again. And the resulting frequency range we’re left
with is 20Hz to 10.7kHz. You basically lost all the high
frequencies. This is assuming the best possible record-
ing with the best possible cartridge and no losses during
the software speed-reduction step. The results will be
even worse if the cartridge is average - if it cannot repro-
duce frequencies above 20kHz your resulting recording
(after speed reduction) will have no frequencies above
8.5kHz. Now this is just the first part. The second part in-
volves the RIAA playback equalization (EQ). The LP was
recorded with this EQ curve at normal speed. When you
play it back at high speed all the frequencies are shifted
and the playback EQ curve is applied to the wrong fre-
quencies. This would also need to be corrected in soft-
ware. Third, even if your cartridge could reproduce fre-
quencies up to 50kHz (which is highly doubtful), there
is no guarantee that your pre-amp will pass these fre-
quencies, and even if it did it is highly unlikely that the
playback EQ curve would be well-defined at frequencies
above 20kHz. Not only will your recordings sound muf-
fled, you will damage your LPs by doing this. The stylus
that tracks the groove in the record is part of a mechan-
ical system. When it cannot move fast enough to fol-
low the grooves (which is what happens when you play
a 33 at 78), it just ploughs through the grooves, inflict-
ing permanent damage. Running a record fast to "get it
over with" has one problem above all else. The needle
is designed to vibrate and move very accurately only in
a narrow range. Exceed that range and the needle stops
picking up the music.
22.6.4 Links
|< Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD
560
22.7 LOF Files
A LOF file is a plain text file ending with the extension
".lof" that contains a list of audio files to import into an
Audacity project window. It can optionally contain com-
mands to create new project windows.
Syntax
There are only two commands "file" and "window", each
with associated options:
• file: (required) specifies the full path to the file
which then imports as a new track in the current
window (the path must always be in double quotes)
– offset: an optional parameter to the file com-
mand, specifying the start time of the audio file
in seconds
• window: (optional) creates a new Audacity project
window for a subsequent file in the list (the first file
always creates a new window unless the existing
project is empty)
– offset: an optional parameter to the window
command, specifying the left-most time dis-
played in the window
– duration: an optional parameter to the win-
dow command, specifying how much time
should be displayed in the window
• #: (optional) can be used anywhere on a line to pre-
cede a comment - everything after # on that line is
ignored by the importer.
Tips:
22.8 On-Demand Loading
On-Demand Loading is an optional faster method of im-
porting audio . Instead of a progress bar appearing while
Audacity waits to import the entire file, the normal Audac-
ity waveform starts to display almost immediately. You
can play or edit wherever the normal waveform is dis-
played while the remaining waveform is still being drawn
as a process running in the background. On-Demand
Loading is available as an option when importing most
uncompressed files like WAV and AIFF (and on
Linux, FLAC ).
CHAPTER 22. UNSORTED
• Each command must be placed on a separate line.
• Files are imported in the order shown in the LOF
file.
• If the file to be imported is in the same folder as the
LOF file, you need only give the file name inside
double quotes.
Example
Given an empty project window, the following LOF file lo-
cated at C:
Desktop imports the audio file "sample1.wav" from the
Desktop into that window, followed by "sample2.wav" and
"sample3.wav" from other locations underneath. Then a
new project window is created and the audio file "sam-
ple4.wav" from the Desktop is imported into it. # every-
thing following the hash character is ignored window # an
initial window command is implicit and optional file "sam-
ple1.wav" # sample1.wav is displayed file "C:
Ken
sample2.wav" offset 5 # sample2.wav is displayed with a
5s offset file "C:
Dave
sample3.wav" # sample3.wav is displayed with no offset
window offset 5 duration 10 # open a new window, then
zoom to display # 10 seconds of sample4.wav from 5
seconds to 15 seconds, offsetting it by 2.5 seconds file
"sample4.wav" offset 2.5 The file names shown are for a
Windows system, but the same syntax applies on Macin-
tosh and Linux with the obvious change to a suitable file
path.
22.8.1 Importing different file types using
On-Demand Loading
Uncompressed files
On-Demand Loading is used for most uncompressed
files when choosing to read these files "directly from the
original (faster)" instead of copying them in. The "read di-
rectly" option can be chosen when the warning appears
for importing uncompressed audio files:
22.8. ON-DEMAND LOADING
and also in the Import / Export Preferences :
The warning can be turned off in the Warnings Prefer-
ences , in which case the current import setting in Pref-
erences will be used automatically. On-Demand Load-
ing of uncompressed files is much faster than copying in
the audio, even if you wait for the waveform drawing to
complete before playing or editing. Uncompressed files
shorter than 30 seconds long will always import using the
normal progress bar even if you choose to "read directly".
However on most machines the import will still seem to
be immediate unless it is a slower machine or the pro-
cessor is very busy with other tasks.
If you choose "read directly" when importing
WAV, AIFF or FLAC files, do not rename, move or
delete those files, otherwise your project will be miss-
ing audio. You can still copy in the audio to the project at
any time at Help > Diagnostics > Check Dependencies...
. See Audacity Projects for more details.
22.8.2 Using On-Demand Loading
When you import an On-Demand file by any means (
File > Open... , File > Import > Audio... or dragging
in), a sequence of patterned blocks appears almost im-
mediately, representing the uncomputed waveform. The
561
blocks are then progressively replaced from left to right
by the normal Audacity waveform as soon as it has been
computed. You can play or edit the track at once wher-
ever that normal waveform is displaying, without waiting
for the remainder of the waveform to be drawn. You can
also change the focal point from which the waveform is
computed. To do this, either click in the track at the left-
most point from which you want the waveform drawn, or
drag a selection in either direction. In the image below,
we clicked to place the cursor in the waveform at a time
of 1 hour 15 minutes, two thirds of the way along. The
waveform then started being drawn rightwards from the
cursor point:
Using read-directly On-Demand, you can now edit or play
from the new focal point. You can also start playback from
a new position without changing the focal point of the
waveform by clicking or dragging a region in the Time-
line . Once the computation point has reached the end
of the track, any uncomputed waveform will be drawn
from right to left, unless interrupted by clicking else-
where at an uncomputed point. Multiple files may be
imported simultaneously, and the waveform computation
point moved from one to track to the other by clicking in
the required track.The percentage of the waveform that
has been computed is displayed on the Status Bar , as
shown at bottom left of the image above. When multiple
files are being imported, the Status Bar will display the
overall percentage of the multiple tracks that has been
computed. To make the Status Bar display the percent-
age completion of a particular track, move the mouse
over that track.
Slow seeking when moving the focal position
If the drive the file is being imported from is not able to
seek rapidly through the file, the On-Demand imported
track may be slow to respond when moving the focal po-
sition. This will be especially noticeable before the wave-
form has been fully computed. Slow seeking could occur
on Mac computers when importing CD tracks from the
Finder, or when using older external USB drives.
Chapter 23

End Matter

23.1 Accessibility

This page discusses accessibility issues in Audacity for
visually- and motion-impaired users.
• Technical support for visually impaired users is pro-
vided on the audacity4blind mailing list.
23.1.1 Keyboard shortcuts
A large number of keyboard shortcuts are available for
those who cannot use a mouse, and for those who find
it quicker to use the keyboard. These keyboard short-
cuts are described throughout the manual, and in the
Keyboard Shortcut Reference . They can be customized
on the Keyboard page of the Preferences dialog. Parts
of Audacity which are not fully accessible using the key-
board include:
• Time Tracks : These can control the speed of audio
tracks in a very flexible manner.
• Tools Toolbar : Only Selection Tool can be worked
with using the keyboard.
23.1.2 Mac keyboard navigation
ences, choose the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab, then
under "Full Keyboard Access", choose the radio
button "All controls".
23.1.3 Screen readers
Large parts of Audacity are accessible to users of screen
readers on Windows or Mac, but unfortunately this is not
the case on Linux. The accessibility on Windows and on
Mac is outlined in the next two sections.
On Windows
On Windows Audacity is known to work well with the
Jaws, Window-Eyes and NVDA screen readers. There
is a Jaws Guide to Audacity, most of which is also appli-
cable to users of Window-Eyes and NVDA. The following
parts of Audacity are not accessible to users of screen
readers on Windows:
• Amplitude envelope in audio tracks.
• Time Tracks

The following methods of keyboard navigation which are On Mac

standard on Windows and Linux work differently on Mac.
• Alt key navigation of menus and buttons is not sup-
Unfortunately, Audacity 2.2.0 is not accessible for
ported by Apple. To access menus, hold Ctrl and
users of VoiceOver, and this was also the case for the
press F2 then type the first few letters of the root
2.1.3, 2.1.2 and 2.1.1 releases. However, an accessible
menu item, then type the first few letters of the item
version of Audacity 2.1.1 is available to download on the
required in that menu.
Mac page of the Audacity website. The name of this ac-
• Tabbing in dialogs other than between text boxes cessible version is "2.1.1-screen-reader" (DMG and ZIP
and lists is off by default. Tabbing can be en- downloads are available). It is hoped that future versions
abled by opening the System Keyboard Prefer- of Audacity will be accessible for users of VoiceOver.

562
23.2. INFORMATION FOR DEVELOPERS
23.2 Information for Developers
If you are interested in joining our developer community
please subscribe to our audacity-devel mailing list.
• We have some information for developers in the Au-
23.3 Customization
Audacity can be customized in a number of ways includ-
ing adding to and changing the provided keyboard short-
cuts and loading additional plug-ins
23.3.1 Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts
You can use keyboard combinations to perform many ac-
tions in Audacity; for example pressing Ctrl + 1 on the
keyboard zooms in a step. The combinations associated
with different commands can be changed or added to on
the Keyboard Preferences tab. Mouse clicks and move-
ments can also be used to perform some actions. The
Mouse Preferences tab lists the mouse gestures which
are available but these cannot be changed at the mo-
ment.
23.3.2 Plug-ins
You can download and install plug-ins to add extra func-
tionality to Audacity. Plug-ins can give you extra effects,
or more audio generation and analysis capability.
• Nyquist: A number of Nyquist plug-ins are already
included with Audacity. Nyquist is a dialect of LISP
specially developed for audio processing. It can
generate or process sound effects, or analyze au-
dio content.
– List of additional Nyquist plug-ins available for
download
– Download and installation instructions for
Nyquist plug-ins
Nyquist plug-ins are text files, so it is relatively easy to
modify them or even create your own Nyquist plug-ins in
any text editor.
563
dacity Wiki.
• We also have an indexed list of developer-oriented
pages in the Wiki.
• Other plug-in formats: Other plug-in formats can
be added:
– LADSPA effects
– LV2 effects
– VAMP analysis plug-ins
– VST effects
– Audio Unit effects (for Mac OS X amd ma-
cOS).
– Module Plug-ins (advanced - usually requires
compiling Audacity).
Instructions for installing plug-ins can be found at:
• Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins
on Windows
• Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins
on Mac OS X/macOS
• Installing Effect, Generator and Analyzer plug-ins
on Linux
23.3.3 Ultimate Customization
Anyone can download our source code. Changing the
code and recompiling Audacity allows you to change any
aspect of its behavior or turn on experimental or optional
features. See our guides to compiling Audacity for Win-
dows, Mac and GNU/Linux on the Audacity Wiki. If you
need help compiling, please ask on the Compiling Audac-
ity board on our Audacity Forum. If you are interested
in working with the Audacity codebase please consider
joining our Developer Community . Your code changes
can then potentially be incorporated into Audacity for the
benefit of all users.
564
23.4 Simplifying Audacity
. • If you provide View > Simplified View and use
Simplified menus no longer work in Audacity
2.1.2. You can use the feature in Audacity 2.1.1 from
http://www.oldfoss.com/Audacity.html. This page is pri-
marily intended for teachers (and anyone working with
others) who want to create an easier version of Audacity
with fewer menu items.These are advanced instructions
that let you use freely available language tools to make
a customized language file for Audacity that shows fewer
menu items. The customized language file can be in En-
glish or any other supported language.
23.4.1 Instructions
Eventually we hope to provide a customized language
file with reduced menus ourself. Meantime, you can fol-
low the below instructions to create your own file. If you
need help following these instructions, please ask on the
Audacity Forum.
1. Obtain Poedit.
2. Obtain the current version of Audacity from
http://audacityteam.org/download/.
3. Obtain the translations file for your language from
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/tree/master/locale.
• For English language, right-click over "audac-
ity.pot" and save the link or target to your com-
puter.
• For languages other than English, right-click
over the ".po" file for your language and save
the link or target to your computer. You can
check the two digit code that corresponds to
your language here .
4. Load the .po or .pot file into Poedit.
5. Add a "!" (exclamation mark) to left of the transla-
tion of each menu item you want to hide. The .pot
file will not have translations, so just add a "!" in the
empty translation box. View > Simplified View:
• You can provide a View > Simplified View
checkbox menu item to turn your simplified
language on or off. To do this, ADD "Simplified
View" (without the "!") in the empty translation
box in the .pot file, or REMOVE the "!" from
the translation of "!Simplified View" in the .po
file.
CHAPTER 23. END MATTER
the .pot file you should translate the items you
want to remove and place "!" in front of them.
Otherwise when you uncheck Simplified View
there will be empty menu items.
6. Click File > Save as..., type "Audacity" (without
quotes) in the file name box and save. Poedit may
warn you that some strings are not translated, or
that some settings have not been specified, but that
is not a problem. Poedit will save "Audacity.po" and
"Audacity.mo" (or "audacity.po" and "audacity.mo"
with lower case "a" on Mac and Linux). All you need
is the "Audacity.mo" or "audacity.mo" file.
7. Open the location to install your new "Audacity.mo"
file.
• On Windows, open the "Languages" directory
inside the Audacity installation directory.
• On Mac, right-click or control-click over Au-
dacity.app > Show Package Contents then
open the "Contents" directory then the "Re-
sources" directory.
• On GNU/Linux, open the "locale" directory in
usr/share/ (for Audacity packaged builds) or in
usr/local/share (if you built Audacity yourself).
8. In the directory opened in Step 7 above
• For English language, on Windows and
Mac, create a folder called "en-simple" (with-
out quotes) and paste your saved "Audac-
ity.mo" or "audacity.mo" file inside that. On
Linux, create a folder "en-simple", cre-
ate a folder "LC_MESSAGES" inside that,
then paste your "audacity.mo" file inside the
"LC_MESSAGES" folder.
• For languages other than English, open the
directory for your language (for example, "fr"
for French) and paste in the "Audacity.mo" file
you saved so that it replaces the previous "Au-
dacity.mo".
9. Restart Audacity and select your modified non-
English language in Interface Preferences (if it is
not already displaying). To display the simplified
English language, choose "Simplified".
Not all menu and other items can be hidden yet.
For example, the Mute/Solo buttons, shipped Nyquist and
LADSPA plug-ins and Preferences items cannot be hid-
den.
23.5. SCRIPTING
23.5 Scripting
The scripting module is an experimental GUI plug-in that
allows Audacity to be driven from an external Perl script.
Commands are sent to Audacity over a named pipe. Any
scripting language that supports named pipes can be
used in place of Perl. External scripting is one of sev-
eral ways to extend the functionality of Audacity.
Scripting support is currently considered experi-
mental and is mainly intended for use by developers for
the time being. Feel free to try it out, but don’t be too
surprised if there are problems.
23.5.1 How to get started with scripting
Audacity can currently only be used with scripting if you
compile a separate plug-in module from our Git sources
called "mod-script-pipe", as well as compile Audacity it-
self. See the Wiki Developer Guide for help. You’ll also
need the scripting language Perl to try out the examples.
For actually writing scripts however, any language that
can write to and read from a named pipe should be able
to use the interface. We may provide a ready-compiled
mod-script-pipe at some future time. If you just want to
use scripting but don’t want to do the developer steps
then you will need to wait for that to be released. Feel
free to let us know if you would like ready-to-go scripting
in Audacity, and what you would use it for.
Building
Ensure you have the latest Git version of Audac-
ity built, installed and working. The scripting mod-
ule, "mod-script-pipe" is in Git (under lib-src), but is
not built automatically. In MSVC, open "mod-script-
pipe.vcproj" and build. If all goes to plan, the DLL
will be placed in the "modules" directory. Under GCC,
move into the lib-src/mod-script-pipe directory and type
"make". This will build the module then copy "mod-script-
pipe.so" to the "modules" directory in the source code
tree. To have Audacity see mod-script-pipe.so, copy
it to /usr/local/share/audacity/modules or ~/.audacity-
files/modules/. While mod-script-pipe allows a script to
communicate with Audacity, it is not concerned with the
actual interpretation and processing of received com-
mands. That is done by Audacity itself, so for full script-
ing capabilities it is important to have a recent build of the
main program as well as the scripting module.
565
Testing
A basic test script "scripts/pipe-test.pl" is included in the
development repository. Naturally, this requires Perl. It
contains a variety of tests and subroutines for sending
commands on the pipe. The test script exports audio files
to (and imports them from) a ~/pipetest/ directory which
you will need to create. Launch Audacity first, then exe-
cute the test script. If everything is fine, the commands
in the script will be sent to Audacity, executed, and the
results sent back to the script. You can experiment with
changing the commands in the script (see below). If the
script hangs, waiting for a response, it probably means
that Audacity did not load the scripting module. Exam-
ine the logging output to check if this is the case. If the
module was notloaded, it could be because it has not
been placed in the correct directory or because the mod-
ule version does not match the version of Audacity. The
surest way to avoid this problem is to build both Audacity
and mod-script-pipe from HEAD at the same time.
23.5.2 Commands
Some documentation for the parts of Audacity that can
currently be controlled via script command follows. Be
aware that this is likely to change significantly until script-
ing has matured. Note also that commands and pa-
rameters are case-sensitive. The command invocations
should take the following form:
Command: Param1=Value1 Param2=Value2This is fol-
lowed by a line break. Then the command is executed,
and any responses are written on the return pipe, on sep-
arate lines. The end of the responses is signalled by an
empty line. Further commands should not be sent until
all responses have been read.
• See also additional commands on the Audacity
Wiki.
BatchCommand
This can be invoked differently from the other commands
because, at the moment, all unrecognized commands
are treated as batch commands. To see what these com-
mands do and how they should be formed, please exam-
ine the Edit Chains dialog. As an example, the batch
system can be used to apply an effect to some selected
audio. It is also possible to explicitly call a batch com-
mand, but be aware that it is not currently possible for a
parameter value to contain spaces, so this way of doing
it is fairly restricted. If ChainName is provided, the com-
mand applies the saved batch chain of that name rather
than a single command. Parameters:
566 CHAPTER 23. END MATTER

ChainName:If provided, applies the batch chain of that GetAllMenuCommands

name

CommandName:Name of the batch command to exe- Returns a list of all available menu commands. These are
cute the commands that can be sent using MenuCommand.
No parameters.
ParamString:Parameters for the batch command Exam-
ples:

SendReceive GetTrackInfo

BatchCommand: CommandName=NoiseBatchCommand
finished: OK Allows information about a project’s tracks to be returned
to the script. Parameters:
ChangeTempo: Percentage=10.0BatchCommand fin-
ished: OK TrackIndex:An integer (default: 0) identifying the track

Type:Info to get. One of: Name, StartTime, EndTime

(default: Name) Examples:
CompareAudio
SendReceive

With two tracks selected, running this command com- GetTrackInfo: Type=Name TrackIndex=0Audio TrackGet-
pares the tracks sample by sample, and counts the num- TrackInfo finished: OK
ber of samples whose absolute difference exceeds the
GetTrackInfo: Type=EndTime TrackIndex=024.000000GetTrackInfo
given threshold. The total count is returned, as well as
finished: OK
the number of seconds of audio that these samples rep-
resent. Parameters:

Threshold:Floating point number 0.0 to 1.0 Example: Help

SendReceive
CompareAudio: Threshold=0.1Comparing tracks ’Au-
dio Track 1’ and ’Audio Track 2’.Finished comparison:
764480 samples (17.335 seconds) exceeded the error
threshold of 0.200000.CompareAudio finished: OK
Returns information about the parameters accepted by a
given command. Parameters:
CommandName:The command on which to get help Ex-
ample:

SendReceive

MenuCommand Help: CommandName=SelectSelectParameters:EndTime:

Executes a ’menu command’, using the system that con-
trols the Audacity menus. This is simple but powerful,
and many of the tasks that can be performed by clicking
menu items or pressing shortcuts can also be triggered
by a script using this command. Use GetAllMenuCom-
mands to see a full list of available commands. Parame-
ters:
a floating-point number (default: 0)FirstTrack: an integer
(default: 0) LastTrack: an integer (default: 0)Mode: one
of: None, All, Range, Name (default: All)StartTime: a
floating-point number (default: 0)TrackName: any value
(default: 0)Help finished: OK
Message

CommandName:Name of the menu command to exe-

cute Examples: Sends a message to the command’s status target. Since
command status messages are currently sent to the
SendReceive script (if the command was triggered by a script), this
means the message is sent back to the script. Parame-
MenuCommand: CommandName=SplitDeleteMenuCommand ters:
finished: OK
MessageString:The message to send Example:
MenuCommand: CommandName=PlayMenuCommand
finished: OK SendReceive

MenuCommand: CommandName=TrackMuteMenuCommand Message: MessageString=hellohelloMessage finished:

finished: OK OK
23.5. SCRIPTING 567

Screenshot PrefName:String containing the name of the preference

(as in audacity.cfg) Example:
The screenshot command is modelled closely on the
SendReceive
Screenshot Tools dialog and takes three parameters. Pa-
rameters: GetPreference: PrefName=/CsPresets/NoiseGen_Duration30GetP
FilePath:A string representing the directory path in which finished: OK
the captured images should be saved.
CaptureMode:A string specifying which area of the
screen should be captured. Possible values: window, SetPreference
fullwindow, windowplus, fullscreen, toolbars, selection-
bar, tools, control, mixer, meter, edit, device, transcrip-
tion, trackpanel, ruler, tracks, firsttrack, secondtrack. Sets the preference with the given name to the given
value. Parameters:
Background:Type of background to use in the shots
where one is possible. Possible values: White, Blue, PrefName:String containing the name of the preference
None.Example: (as in audacity.cfg)
SendReceive PrefValue:Value of the preference Example:
Screenshot: FilePath=/home/dan/Temp Cap- SendReceive
tureMode=fullwindow Background=NoneSaved
/home/dan/Temp/fullwindow001.pngScreenshot finished: SetPreference: PrefName=/CsPresets/NoiseGen_Duration
OK PrefValue=12.0SetPreference finished: OK

Select
SetTrackInfo
Provides some control over the project selection. Tracks
between FirstTrack and LastTrack inclusive are selected, For setting track information - currently track name only.
and the time interval selected is from StartTime to End- (Note mute/solo can be set with menu commands) Pa-
Time. Alternatively, if TrackName is specified, then the rameters:
track with that name is selected. Parameters:
TrackIndex:Specifies which track to modify
FirstTrack:An integer (default: 0)
LastTrack:An integer (default: 0) Type:Type of info to set - currently ’Name’ is the only op-
tion
TrackName:Name of a track (not required if using First-
Track and LastTrack) Name:String to which the track name is to be set Exam-
ple:
StartTime:A floating-point number (default: 0)
EndTime:A floating-point number (default: 0) SendReceive

Mode:One of: None, All, Range, Name (default: All) Ex- SetTrackInfo: TrackIndex=0 Type=Name Name=EricSetTrackInfo
ample: finished: OK

SendReceive
Select: Mode=Range FirstTrack=0 LastTrack=1 Start-
Time=3.2 EndTime=8.4Selected track ’Audio Track 1’Se- Import
lected track ’Audio Track 2’ Select finished: OK
Select: Mode=Range FirstTrack=0 LastTrack=0 Start- Load audio data from a file into a track. The file type is
Time=0.1 EndTime=9.9Selected track ’Audio Track 1’Se- detected from the extension, and any format understood
lect finished: OK by Audacity can be used. Parameters:

Filename:Name of the file to import Example:

GetPreference SendReceive

Prints the value of the requested preference as a re- Import: Filename=/home/dan/ArtTatum-Indiana.flacImport

sponse. Parameters: finished: OK
568
OpenProject
Opens an audacity project file, optionally from a supplied
file name. If the Filename parameter is omitted or empty
the user is prompted to choose a project to open. Note
that if the current project is not empty and unsaved, a new
project window is opened, which may break your script.
Parameters:
Filename:File name of the project to open. Default is to
prompt the user to choose a file. Must include .aup file
extension.default=ask user
AddToHistory:Include opened file in File -> Recent
Files? Has no effect on User prompted files; they always
appear in Recent Files.default=yes Example:
SendReceive
OpenProject: Filename=myproject.aupOpenProject fin-
ished: OK
SaveProject
Saves an Audacity project file, optionally to a supplied
file name. If the Filename parameter is omitted or empty
the user is prompted to choose a saved file. Note: trying
to overwrite another existing project will result in an error
message to the user. Parameters:
Filename:File name of the project to save to. Default is
to prompt the User to choose a file. Must include .aup file
extension.default=ask user
Compress:Save audio in compressed (OGG) for-
mat?default=no
AddToHistory:Include opened file in File -> Recent
Files? Has no effect on User prompted files; they always
appear in Recent Files.default=yes Example:
SendReceive
SaveProject: Filename=myproject.aupSaveProject fin-
ished: OK
Export
Save audio from the project into a file. The file type to
export to is detected from the extension, and any format
understood by Audacity can be used. Parameters:
Mode:Either ’All’ or ’Selection’ - sets which audio is to be
exported
Filename:File to export to
Channels:Number of channels to export Example:
SendReceive
Export: Mode=All Filename=/home/dan/ArtTatum-
Indiana.mp3 Channels=2Exported to MP3 format:
/home/dan/ArtTatum-Indiana.mp3Export finished: OK
CHAPTER 23. END MATTER
23.5.3 Adding Commands to Audacity (for
developers)
For a command to be callable from a script, a Command-
Type object for it must be added to the CommandDirec-
tory, which is a singleton class. A CommandType has the
job of creating specific Command objects, which actually
do the work. To implement a new command called Foo,
it is simplest to create new classes FooCommandType
and FooCommand which derive from CommandType and
CommandImplementation respectively, and then over-
ride the virtual methods as appropriate. Then add an in-
stance of FooCommandType to the CommandDirectory.
In the future, the repetitive nature of some of this code
may be reduced, for example by using macros (as in
wxwidgets). For more information on the workings of the
command system, see the source code - in particular the
files in the src/commands directory.
23.5.4 Known Issues & Missing Features
• Parameters to BatchCommand cannot currently
contain spaces.
• Scripting only works with one project at a time.
• For some menu commands, the project window
must have focus for the command to succeed.
• Scripts have no control over the type and ver-
bosity of responses they receive. (Related: it’s not
straightforward to get ’output’ responses from com-
mands like GetTrackInfo.)
• Current commands could have stricter parameter
validation.
• There’s no consistent way to abort or interrupt com-
mands.
• There are still many parts of Audacity that cannot
currently be controlled from a script because com-
mands for them have not yet been created.
• Due to a slight problem with module management,
the scripting module is not unloaded when Audacity
quits. This means the script pipes are not properly
deleted.
• There may or may not be security problems relating
to the use of pipes. You’re advised not to use mod-
script-pipe on a system with multiple simultaneous
users.
• The interface on the script side of the pipe is still
quite low-level. It may be possible to generate li-
braries for specific scripting languages from the in-
ternal descriptions of the commands.
23.6. LAME LEGAL ISSUES
23.6 LAME Legal Issues
23.6.1 LAME patent issues
Prior to April 2017, this is what we believed about LAME
and patents: While the LAME source code is free, the
encoding technology that ready-compiled LAME binaries
use is patented. The patents are held by Fraunhofer
and administered by Thomson. Patenting raises a the-
oretical possibility that in some countries a user might
need to pay a license fee to legally encode MP3s. This
might vary according to the purpose of the encoding and
whether the software being used is licensed. There is no
definitive list of countries where the patents unambigu-
ously hold sway. However they are generally assumed to
be enforceable in USA, Canada, the EEC and Japan.
This means that in these countries (in theory), software
that encodes MP3s must be licensed by the patent hold-
ers, and that anyone encoding MP3s with unlicensed en-
coders may also be infringing patents. The best advice
that can be given is that the user makes their own deci-
sion, based on their conscience, the country they are in,
and taking into account the following:
• The patent holders have tended to enforce license
fees against commercial rather than free MP3 en-
coders
• Thomson themselves have said that no license
is needed by individuals creating music libraries
23.7 Glossary
This page gives very brief explanations of technical terms
related to digital audio, with some links to Wikipedia for
much more comprehensive explanations.
23.7.1 General Terms
Term Description
ADC: Analog to digital converter. The part of a
soundcard which records an analog, real world sound like
a voice or guitar and converts it to a numerical represen-
tation of the audio that a computer can manipulate.
Algorithm: A set of steps or a procedure that will
produce a desired result.
Aliasing: Aliasing is an effect that causes different
569
of MP3 files for personal use (interpretations vary
whether that sanctions using unlicensed encoders,
free or otherwise)
• Existing MP3 patents will expire worldwide between
2010 and 2012 (but not until 2017 in the USA)
• The possibility remains at least in the USA that
patents could be extended.
Our current understanding is that:
• The Fraunhofer patents have expired as of April
2017
• Fraunhofer has said the licensing of their patents is
no longer needed:
“On April 23, 2017, Technicolor’s mp3 licensing program
for certain mp3 related patents and software of Techni-
color and Fraunhofer IIS has been terminated.”
• LAME has stated that MP3 is now free of all patents
“By April 23rd, 2017 all relevant software patents apply-
ing to MP3 compression technology had expired. MP3 is
now considered to be a patent-free format, and licenses
are not being collected anymore. Anyone is free to im-
plement the specification and distribute the implementa-
tion.” But we are not lawyers, and at the moment we are
still being cautious. We would like to provide LAME with
Audacity, but have not yet made the decision to do so.
audio signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of
one another) when sampled. It also refers to the distor-
tion or artifact that results when the signal reconstructed
from samples is different from the original continuous sig-
nal.
ALSA: A Linux kernel component for providing de-
vice drivers for soundcards. Known as an audio host in
Audacity.
Amplitude: The level or magnitude of a signal. Au-
dio signals with a higher amplitude will sound louder.
Artifact: Sonic material that is accidental or un-
wanted, resulting from the editing of another sound.
ASIO: Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) is a com-
puter soundcard driver protocol for digital audio on Win-
570
dows, created by Steinberg. It provides a low-latency,
multi-channel interface between a software application
and the soundcard.
Audacity Project Format (.aup) : The format in
which Audacity stores its projects. This consists of a ref-
erence file with the extension .aup and a large number
of small audio files with extension .AU . This structure
makes it quicker for Audacity to move audio around - ideal
for cutting and pasting audio in a project.
Audio CDs: CDs containing PCM audio data in
accordance with the Red Book standard. They can be
played on any standalone CD player as well as on com-
puters.
Band-pass filter: A band-pass filter is a filter that
passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects
(attenuates) frequencies outside that range. A band-
boost filter is similar to a band-pass filter except that it
amplifies frequencies within a certain range and passes
frequencies outside that range untouched.
Band-stop filter: A band-stop filter or band-
rejection filter is a filter that passes most frequen-
cies unaltered, but attenuates those in a specific range
to very low levels. It is the opposite of a band-pass fil-
ter. A band-cut filter is a band-stop filter that attenuates
the frequencies in a given frequency band by a specified
amount. A notch filter is a band-stop filter with a narrow
stopband (high Q factor).
Batch Processing: Automation of a series of
repetitive tasks on a computer so that the tasks run with-
out manual intervention. In the early days of computers
this was done by processing stacks of punch cards. In
Audacity, repetitive tasks are handled by creating a Chain
of actions. The Chain can apply a predetermined se-
quence of effects to the current project, or can be run
unattended to apply effects and/or format conversions to
a batch of external audio files.
Bit: A measure of quantity of data. A bit is one
binary digit, a 0 or a 1.
Bit Rate: The number of computer bits conveyed
or processed per unit of time. Normally expressed in kilo-
bits per second (kbps). For an uncompressed , PCM
file, kbps bit rate is sample rate multiplied by sam-
ple format multiplied by number of channels, divided by
1000, giving 1411 kbps for Red Book WAV or AIFF .
Rates are much lower for compressed or lossy for-
mats like MP3 . For MP3 at constant bit rate , reducing
sample rate does not reduce the bit rate and hence does
CHAPTER 23. END MATTER
not make the MP3 smaller, except for 11025 Hz and be-
low.
CBR: Constant Bit Rate - In this format, the rate
at which audio uses its data bits does not vary. Silence
uses as much disk space as audible sound.
Cepstrum: The cepstrum of an audio signal is re-
lated to the spectrum , but presents the rate of change
in the different spectrum bands. It’s particularly useful
for properties of vocal tracks and is used, for example, in
software to identify speakers by their voice characteris-
tics.
Clipping: Distortion to sound, usually due to the
audio being too loud. Unless the original audio is 32-
bit sample format , waveforms louder than 0 dB will
have their tops lopped off (flattened) at 0 dB, rather than
showing smooth curves. Clipping can also be an inten-
tional distortion effect that lops off part of the waveform,
reducing its amplitude and changing its frequency
content.
Codec: A computer program capable of encoding
and/or decoding a digital data stream. The term is a port-
manteau (a blending of two or more words) of coder and
decoder.
Companding: Refers to the process of compress-
ing the dynamic range of an audio signal before
storage or transmission, then expanding the signal on
retrieval or reception. The term is a portmanteau (a
blending of two or more words) of compressing and
expanding.
Compressed Audio Format: Any format that will
reduce the space required in storing or representing an
audio signal. Space savings can be made for example by
discarding certain frequency components which may
be inaudible. MP3 takes this approach. Other formats
such as FLAC compress without audio loss, but achieve
lower compression rates.
Compression : A process that tends to even out
the overall volume level by increasing the level of softer
passages and decreasing the level of louder passages.
See also Compressed Audio Format .
Cycle: An audio tone consists of an oscillating
sound pressure on the ear. One cycle is one full tran-
sition of positive pressure through to negative pressure,
back to positive pressure again.
DAC: Digital to analog converter. The part of a
23.7. GLOSSARY
soundcard which plays back a numerical representation
of audio as an analog, real world sound like a voice or
guitar.
Data CDs: Data CDs contain data intended to be
read directly by a computer. The data may include audio
and any other types of file such as images and docu-
ments. Most standalone CD players will not play data
CDs, but some DVD players will. Including compressed
audio files on a data CD can greatly increase the play-
ing time compared to audio CDs .
dB: Decibels. A logarithmic unit (typically of
sound pressure) describing the ratio of that unit to a ref-
erence level.
DC Offset : An offsetting of a signal from zero. A
signal with DC Offset would appear in the Audacity De-
fault Waveform view to be not centered on the 0.0 hor-
izontal line. DC Offset results in reduced headroom
and can cause clicks at the start and end or distortion
after running effects. It can be corrected in Audacity by
running Normalize .
Dynamic Range: The difference between the loud-
est and softest part in an audio recording, the maximum
possible being determined by its sample format . For
a device, the difference between its maximum possible
undistorted signal and its Noise Floor .
Exponential: A non-linear relationship where a
change in value is proportional to the current level. If
you double the value in a time period, it doubles again
in the next period; if you halve the level in a time period,
it halves again in the next period. For an exponential
fade in , the curve becomes "steeper" with time; an ex-
ponential fade out becomes "flatter" with time. See also
Logarithmic .
FFT: Fast Fourier Transform. A method for perform-
ing Fourier transforms quickly.
File name extension: A suffix of three or four char-
acters added to a file name which defines the format of
its contents. The suffix is separated from the file name
by a dot (period), as in "song.mp3". The extension of
common formats is often hidden on Windows, but can be
turned on in the system’s Folder Options.
Filter: A sound effect that lets some frequencies
through and suppresses others.
Fourier Transform: A method for converting a
571
waveform to a spectrum , and back.
Frequency: Audio frequency determines the pitch
of a sound. Measured in Hz , higher frequencies have
higher pitch. See this Wikipedia article.
Gain: A measure of how much a signal is ampli-
fied. Usually expressed in dB , positive gain increases
the amplitude of a signal, while negative gain reduces
it.
Harmonics: Most sounds are made up of a mix of
different frequencies . In musical sounds, the compo-
nent frequencies are simple multiples of each other, for
example 100 Hz , 200 Hz, 300 Hz. These are called
harmonics of the lowest frequency sound.
Headroom: The difference between the peak level
of an audio track and the maximum level that can be
achieved without clipping . Recording at -6 dB below
maximum level is a good compromise between getting
far enough above the noise floor while having suffi-
cient headroom to make edits that increase loudness.
High Pass Filter: A filter that lets high frequen-
cies through
Hz: Hertz. Measures a frequency event in num-
ber of cycles per second. See Frequency and Sample
Rate , both of which are measured in Hz.
Interpolation: Completing waveform data by es-
timating missing values. The values are estimated as
being between other known values. To convert a wave-
form recorded at 22000 Hz or samples per second to
one at a higher rate such as 44000 samples per second
requires interpolation.
IVR:Interactive Voice Response is a technology
that allows a computer to interact with humans through
the use of voice and DTMF tones input via keypad.
kHz: One kilohertz (kHz) is 1000 Hz . For exam-
ple, the common audio sample rate of 44100 Hz can
also be expressed as 44.1 kHz.
LAME : A software library that converts audio to
MP3 format.
Latency: A short delay between an audio signal
being sent and received. In computer audio this is due to
analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion. Most
572
commonly refers to the delay between recording a sound
and a) hearing its playthrough or b) laying it down on disk.
Linear: A simple, directly proportional, one-to-one,
"straight-line" relationship. This term is used to contrast
with exponential , logarithmic , or other complex rela-
tionships.
Logarithmic: A non-linear relationship where one
item is proportional to the logarithm of the other item. So
for a logarithmic fade in , the curve becomes "flatter" with
time; a logarithmic fade-out becomes "steeper" with time.
Some measures, such as dB , are logarithmic by defini-
tion. See also Exponential .
Lossless: A format that does not lose any informa-
tion. It may be either a size-compressing format like
FLAC where the quality is exactly as good as before
compression, or an uncompressed format like WAV .
Lossy: A format for size-compressing audio that
may sacrifice a small amount of quality in order to reduce
the file size more than lossless compression. Exam-
ples are MP3 and OGG .
Low Pass Filter: A filter that lets low (bass) fre-
quencies through.
MME: Multimedia Extensions to Windows 3 ap-
peared in Autumn 1991 as the first standardized Win-
dows interface to support soundcards. It is one of the
"audio hosts" selectable in Device Toolbar . MME was
superseded in 1995 by Windows DirectSound .
MP3 CDs: A specific type of data CD containing
only MP3 audio files. All computers can play them as
can some DVD and portable MP3 players.
Noise Floor: A level or amplitude representing
the amount of near-continuous background noise present
in the signal. A background hiss would raise the noise
floor, and could prevent a faint signal (one below the
noise floor) being heard at all. Unwanted sporadic noise
such as a member of the audience coughing is noise, but
it does not contribute to the noise floor.
Notch filter: A notch filter is a band-stop filter
with a narrow stopband (high Q factor).
Oversampling: Oversampling is the process of
sampling a signal with a sampling frequency significantly
higher than the Nyquist rate. Oversampling improves
resolution, reduces noise and helps avoid aliasing and
CHAPTER 23. END MATTER
phase distortion by relaxing anti-aliasing filter perfor-
mance requirements.
Pan: Panning is the spread of a sound signal (ei-
ther monaural or stereophonic pairs) into a new stereo or
multi-channel sound field.
PCM: Pulse code modulation. A method of con-
verting audio into binary numbers to represent it digitally,
then back to audio. The waveform is measured at
evenly spaced intervals and the amplitude of the wave-
form noted for each measurement.
Pitch: Generally synonymous with the fundamen-
tal frequency of a note, but in music, often also taken
to imply a perceived measurement that can be affected
by overtones above the fundamental.
Red Book: The most widely used standard for rep-
resenting audio on CD, requiring stereo, 16- bit , 44100
Hz .
Resampling: Converting a sampled signal from
one sample rate to another without changing the length
of the audio (hence without changing the playback speed
or pitch ). This necessarily changes the number of
samples that the audio contains. Resampling can also
mean converting from one sample format to another
which changes the precision of each sample but not the
number of samples.
RMS: Root Mean Square, sometimes also abbrevi-
ated in technical literature as "rms". A method of calcu-
lating a numerical value for the average sound level of a
waveform . The RMS level (colored lighter blue in Au-
dacity) equates very approximately to how loud the audio
sounds.
Sample: A discrete value at a point in a wave-
form representing the audio at that point. Also the act of
taking a sequence of such values. All digital audio must
be sampled at discrete points. By contrast, analog au-
dio (such as the sound from a loudspeaker) is always a
continuous signal.
Sample Rate : Measured in Hz like frequency ,
this represents the number of digital samples captured
per second in order to represent the waveform . See
this page in the Audacity Wiki for more details.
Sample Format : Also known as Bit Depth or
Word Size. The number of computer bits present in
each audio sample . Determines the dynamic range
23.7. GLOSSARY
of the audio. See this page in the Audacity Wiki for more
details.
Spectrum: Presentation of a sound in terms of its
component frequencies .
Uncompressed Audio Format: An audio format in
which every sample of sound is represented by a bi-
nary number. Examples are WAV or AIFF .
VBR: Variable Bit Rate. A method for compressing
audio which does not always use the same number of
bits to record the same duration of sound.
Waveform : A visual representation of an audio
signal.
Windows DirectSound: A Windows interface be-
tween applications (such as Audacity) and the soundcard
driver. It is one of the "audio hosts" selectable in Device
Toolbar . DirectSound was released in 1995 as a replace-
ment for the older MME and has an option to bypass the
kernel mixer and so reduce latency .
Windows WASAPI: The most recent Windows in-
terface between applications (such as Audacity) and the
soundcard driver. It is one of the "audio hosts" selectable
in Device Toolbar . WASAPI was first officially released
in 2007 in Windows Vista.
Zero Crossing : The point where a line joining the
audio samples crosses the zero horizontal line.
23.7.2 Audio File Formats
There are numerous audio file formats for storing audio
on a computer.
• WAV format is widely used on Windows and is
needed for creating an audio CD.
• AIFF is widely used on Apple’s operating systems.
• Compressed formats are used on portable music
players.
Term Description
AAC: A lossy , size-compressed audio codec
and its reference audio codec implementation. AAC files
usually have M4A extension , with variants such as M4P
(protected) and M4R (ringtones). Usually gives better
quality for the same bit rate than the older MP3 format.
Is default audio format for iTunes®, iPod® and iPhone®,
and Sony PlayStation 3.
573
AIFF: A container format, almost always used for
lossless , uncompressed , PCM audio with similar
file size to WAV . Although the classic AIFF format is in
Apple’s earlier Big-endian byte order, Mac OS X /macOS
has always written "AIFF-C/sowt" files. These have the
same AIFF extension as classic AIFF and are identical to
it except for being Little-endian like WAV format. Rarely,
files with AIFC extension can contain compressed for-
mats.
Allegro: A text-based language for music repre-
sentation. In common with MIDI it represents notes,
tempo, and other commands that may instruct a synthe-
sizer or sampler what to play. In Audacity, Allegro (.gro)
files may be imported as Note tracks or exported from
Note tracks
Apple Lossless:Also known as Apple Lossless
Audio Codec (ALAC) or Apple Lossless Encoder (ALE),
this is a lossless , size-compressed codec usually
stored within an MP4 container format with M4A exten-
sion . ALAC is Apple’s equivalent of FLAC (which is not
officially supported by Apple).
AU: A container format, used by Audacity for stor-
age of lossless , uncompressed , PCM audio data.
Not be confused with Sun/NeXT AU files, which are usu-
ally U-Law encoded PCM files but may be headerless.
FLAC: An Open Source lossless , size-
compressed audio format
GSM 6.10: Global System for Mobile communica-
tions is a standard developed by the European Telecom-
munications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe proto-
cols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks
used by mobile phones. As of 2014 it has become the
default global standard for mobile communications - with
over 90% market share, operating in over 219 countries
and territories.
MIDI: MIDI is a small-sized file format which stores
how to play notes, widely used for keyboard instruments.
It is not an audio file format like WAV that uses thou-
sands of samples to record the full sound of the notes
actually being played.
MP2: A lossy , size-compressed audio format
mainly used by the broadcast media
MP3: A lossy , size-compressed audio format
which is the main format for transmitting audio over the
internet
574 CHAPTER 23. END MATTER

Ogg Vorbis: An Open Source lossy , size-
compressed audio format, strictly speaking the Vorbis
format in a container having OGG extension .
WAV: A container format, almost always used for
lossless , uncompressed , PCM audio. The format is
in Microsoft’s Little-Endian byte order.
WMA: A container format. Windows Media Audio
is a lossy , size-compressed audio format developed
by Microsoft. It is a proprietary technology that forms part
of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four
distinct codecs. The original WMA codec, known simply
as WMA, was conceived as a competitor to the popular
MP3 and RealAudio codecs.

23.8 Subject Index

This is an incomplete, experimental list. It may some- • to external program

times be better to text-search the front page using Ctrl +
• FAQ
F or use the Navigation Bar on the left.
• File Export Audio Dialog
• File Menu
23.8.1 Audacity User Manual index of sub-
jects • FLAC Export Options
• Generate Menu
• Accessibility
• Getting Started
• Advanced Mixing Options
• Glossary
• Analyze Menu
• Help Menu
• Audio Tracks
• Information for Developers
• Auto Duck
• Keyboard Shortcut Reference
• Bass and Treble
• Label Tracks
• Burning music files to a CD
• LAME MP3
• Chains - for batch processing and effects automa-
tion • Latency Test
• Clips and Tracks • License
• Compressor • LPs
• Configuration and Setup • Copying to computer or CD
• Crash Recovery • Menu Reference
• Credits • Metadata Editor
• Customization • Meter Toolbars
• Digital Audio • Mixer Toolbar
• Edit Menu • Mixing
• Edit Toolbar • MP2 Export Options
• Editing • MP3 Export Options
• Tutorial • Multi-Tool
• Effect Menu • Noise Reduction
• Envelope Tool • Ogg Vorbis Export Options
• Equalization • Playing and Recording
• Exporting • Preferences
23.9. LICENSE 575

– Preferences - Devices • Sample Data Import

– Preferences - Directories • Selection
– Preferences - Effects • Selection Toolbar
– Preferences - Extended Import • Setup and Configuration
– Preferences - Import/Export • Simplifying Audacity
– Preferences - Interface • Speech, mixing with background music
– Preferences - Keyboard • Tapes
– Preferences - Libraries • Copying to computer or CD
– Preferences - Mouse • Time Tracks
• Other uncompressed files Export Options • Timeline
– Preferences - Playback • Toolbars
– Preferences - Projects • Tools Toolbar
– Preferences - Quality • Audio Track Dropdown Menu
– Preferences - Recording • Track Control Panel
– Preferences - Spectrograms • Tracks Menu
– Preferences - Tracks • Tracks
– Preferences - Warnings • Tracks and Clips
• Projects • Transcription Toolbar
• Recording • Transport Toolbar
• Tutorial • Undo, Redo and History
• Reverb • View Menu
• Sample Data Export • Zooming

23.9 License

23.9.1 Audacity License
Audacity is distributed under the terms of the GNU Gen-
eral Public License (GPL), version 2. The full text of this
license is below, unmodified. Source code to Audacity is
always available; for more information visit our download
page.
Third-party libraries
Audacity is built upon other free libraries. When compil-
ing Audacity from source code, you must first download
and compile wxWidgets. The minimal source code tarball
of Audacity supplies some third-party libraries in the lib-
src directory, but other libraries can be installed for extra
capabilities. If you obtain the full source code tarball of
Audacity, all essential and optional libraries are supplied
in lib-src except wxWidgets. For more details, see the
Wiki article Developing on Linux. In Audacity releases for
Windows and Mac, all libraries are built-in except LAME
(for MP3 encoding) and FFmpeg (for import and ex-
port of additional audio formats like AAC and WMA ).
Third-party libraries used by Audacity are under the GPL
or a free, GPL-compatible license. In making this source
code available, it can be used under the terms of the GPL
in other GPL programs. Like nearly all organisations re-
leasing GPL-licensed software, we retain in our Git code
repository the more permissive licenses where available
to us. So for example, if we make a change to our copy
of expat, that change is available for use under the BSD-
like license, as well as being available under GPL. Most
third-party libraries used by Audacity are not distributed
under the terms of the GPL, but rather under some other
free, GPL-compatible license as follows.
• expat:BSD-like license. Provides XML parsing.
• FFmpeg: GPL or LGPL (according to how you ob-
tain/configure it). Provides decoding/encoding of
576 CHAPTER 23. END MATTER

additional formats. • lv2: a merging of the lilv (ISC license), lv2 (LGPL),
msinttypes, serd (ISC), sord, sratom and suil li-
• iAVC: LGPL. Part of the code to the AVC Compres-
braries to support LV2 plug-ins.
sor effect.
• libid3tag: GPL. Reads/writes ID3 tags in MP3 files • portaudio:MIT license. Cross-platform audio I/O
(part of libmad, see below). library, version 19 in use.

• libflac: Xiph.Org BSD-like licence (the parts we • portmidi:MIT license. Cross-platform MIDI I/O li-
use). Decodes and Encodes FLAC (Free Loss- brary.
less Audio Codec) files.
• portsmf: BSD-like license. Library for reading and
• libmad: GPL. Decodes MP3 files.
writing MIDI files.
• libnyquist: BSD-like license. Functional language
for manipulating audio, used within Audacity for ef- • sbsms: GPL v2. Library for pitch and tempo
fects processing. changing.

• libogg and libvorbis: BSD-like licenses. Decodes
and encodes Ogg Vorbis files.
• libsndfile: LGPL. Reads and writes uncom-
pressed PCM audio files.
• libsoxr: LGPL. The SoX Resampler library per-
forms one-dimensional sample rate conversion.
• libvamp: new-style BSD. Plug-in interface and
support library for audio analysis plug-ins.
• SoundTouch: LGPL. An older library that changes
tempo without changing pitch and vice versa.
• Twolame: LGPL. Encodes MP2 audio files (used
in DVD discs and radio broadcasting).
• wxWidgets:wxWindows License. Cross-platform
GUI library.
The full text of the GNU GPL follows.

23.9.2 GNU General Public License

Version 2, June 1991Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
02110-1301, USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it
is not allowed.

Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU
General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software–to make sure the
software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation’s software
and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered
by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too. When we speak of free
software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have
the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code
or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you
know you can do these things. To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these
rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute
copies of the software, or if you modify it. For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a
fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights. We protect your rights with two steps: (1)
copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify
the software. Also, for each author’s protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there
is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients
to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
authors’ reputations. Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger
that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To
prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone’s free use or not licensed at all. The
precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.
23.9. LICENSE 577

Terms and Conditions for Copying, Distribution and Modification

0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it
may be distributed under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below, refers to any such program or
work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to
say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed
as "you". Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its
scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents
constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is
true depends on what the Program does. 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program’s source code
as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any
warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program. You may charge a
fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program,
and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all
of these conditions: a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files
and the date of any change. b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains
or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the
terms of this License. c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it,
when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including
an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and
that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License.
(Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
the Program is not required to print an announcement.) These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and
separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them
as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program,
the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it. Thus, it is not the intent of this section to
claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the
distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program. In addition, mere aggregation of another work not
based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution
medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License. 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a
work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided
that you also do one of the following: a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code,
which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software
interchange; or, b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no
more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding
source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software
interchange; or, c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code.
(This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or
executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.) The source code for a work means the preferred
form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code
for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and
installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that
is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable. If distribution
of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access
to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are
not compelled to copy the source along with the object code. 4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the
Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute
the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received
copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full
compliance. 5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants
you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do
not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you
indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
578 CHAPTER 23. END MATTER

the Program or works based on it. 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the
recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients’ exercise of the rights granted
herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License. 7. If, as a consequence of a
court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are
imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do
not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations
under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at
all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive
copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain
entirely from distribution of the Program. If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular
circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
circumstances. It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims
or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software
distribution system, which is implemented by public license practices. Many people have made generous contributions
to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is
up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee
cannot impose that choice. This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence
of the rest of this License. 8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by
patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add
an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to
time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems
or concerns. Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this
License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of
that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version
number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation. 10. If you wish to
incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software
Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free
status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.

NO WARRANTY

11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PRO-
GRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING
THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY
OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY
AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU AS-
SUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. 12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS RE-
QUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER
PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU
FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR
DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF
THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS
BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs

If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this
is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms. To do so, attach the following
notices to the program. It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion
of warranty; and each file should have at least the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found. <one
line to give the program’s name and a brief idea of what it does.> Copyright (C) 19yy <name of author> This program is
23.10. CREDITS 579

free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program
is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to
the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. Also add information
on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail. If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like
this when it starts in an interactive mode: Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author Gnomovision
comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type ‘show w’. This is free software, and you are welcome to
redistribute it under certain conditions; type ‘show c’ for details. The hypothetical commands ‘show w’ and ‘show c’ should
show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may be called something
other than ‘show w’ and ‘show c’; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items–whatever suits your program. You
should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for
the program, if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names: Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest
in the program ‘Gnomovision’ (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker. <signature of Ty Coon>,
1 April 1989 Ty Coon, President of Vice This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary
applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead of this
License.

23.10 Credits

23.10.1 Brief History • Steve Daulton

• Scott Granneman
Audacity was started in 1999 by Dominic Mazzoni while
he was a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University • Greg Kozikowski
in Pittsburgh, PA (USA). He was working on a research • Leland Lucius
project with his advisor, Professor Roger Dannenberg,
and they needed a tool that would let them visualize au- • Dominic Mazzoni
dio analysis algorithms . Over time, this application
• Edgar Musgrove
developed into a general audio editor, and other people
started helping out. Today, Audacity is developed using • Tony Oetzmann
the Git version control system hosted at GitHub. Dozens
• Alexandre Prokoudine
of people have contributed to Audacity, and progress is
continually accelerating. • Peter Sampson
• Martyn Shaw
23.10.2 The Manual • Vidyashankar Vella
• Bill Wharrie
The previous Manual for Audacity 1.2 was written by Tony
Oetzmann, with major contributions by Dominic Mazzoni. Translators:
The current Manual builds on that work and has signifi- • Carmelo Battaglia (Italian)
cant contributions by the following:
• Leo Clijsen (Dutch)
• Gale Andrews
• Olivier Humbert (French)
• Richard Ash
• André Leu (French)
• David Bailes
• Thomas De Rocker (Dutch)
• Christian Brochec
• Daniel Winzen (German)
• Matt Brubeck
For a list of all past and present contributors to the Audac-
• John Colket
ity project and for personal contact information, please
• James Crook visit the Credits page on our main website.