User:Billw58/Audacity Setup and Configuration

Bill 03May11: Expanded and restructured version of Audacity Setup and Configuration per discussions on this wiki page. The goal is to pull into one place the most common issues about getting sound into Audacity. If successful, Tutorial - Your First Recording will link to this page.
 * Gale 05 May11: Thanks, Bill.
 * On the linked-to pages I think it might still be good to refer to "mini-plug (1/8 inch)" on first mention. The "mini-plug" term is more common in some countries than others.
 * "Next steps" link to "Turntable" should probably be "Turntable or cassette deck (including USB)"
 * We still have the thorny issue of recording computer playback. If we have "Audacity Setup and Configuration" (as I hope we do) then I don't think we can avoid the issue. In that case the section on this page about ports isn't very relevant except for the "loopback cable" solution.
 * Can we go with indenting the tables as I tried in "Keyboard or Guitar" instead of all the non-breaking spaces?

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

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 OS X) 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!



Project Sample Rate

 * [[Image:Selbar003.png|The Project Rate Selection Bar]]

The sampling rate, sample rate, or sampling frequency defines the number of samples per second (or per other unit) taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. For time-domain signals, it can be measured in samples per second.

A setting of 44100 is standard for creating files that can be burned to CD, or for high-quality MP3 files.

Setting up for playback
Start Audacity. The Device toolbar is displayed by default in a new installation of Audacity. If the Device toolbar is not visible, click on View > Toolbars > Device Toolbar.


 * [[image:DeviceToolbarWin7Basic.png|Image of device toolbar with annotations]]

You may want to expand the size of the Device toolbar by dragging right on the drag handle.

Choose your preferred audio host and output device from the drop-down menus. 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 slider on the Mixer Toolbar to control the volume at which you listen to your Audacity project.


 * [[Image:MixerToolbarWithoutInputSelect.png‎|Picture of the mixer toolbar]]

Note that the playback meters in the Meter Toolbar do not change as you adjust the output slider: these meters always indicate the volume of the mix of your Audacity project.

Now that you know that you can hear what Audacity is playing you can continue setting up for recording.

Identifying the sound ports on your computer
First of all you need to know the sound input capabilities of your computer. Most desktop PCs (Windows and Linux) will have sound ports on the back of the computer similar to these illustrations.




 * [[Image:ComputerBack.jpg|The rear of a typical PC]]
 * [[Image:SoundCardColors.jpg|Color-coded inputs on a sound card]]
 * align="center"|The rear of a typical PC
 * align="center"|The color-coded jacks on the sound card
 * }
 * }

The red port is normally the microphone input, and is usually mono but might be stereo. The 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 input and output ports they provide, where they are on the laptop, and how they are labelled. Again, check your computer manual to be sure of the capabilities of your laptop, where the ports are and how they are labelled.

Macs do not generally have a microphone input port.




 * [[Image:MacAudioPorts.jpg|Audio connections on a Mac PowerBook]]
 * [[Image:imacSoundPorts.jpg|Audio connections on an iMac]]
 * align="center"|Audio connections on a PowerBook
 * align="center"|Audio connections on an iMac
 * }
 * }

In these illustrations of sound ports on Macs, the round port with the headphone symbol is the Line Output port. The round port beside the headphone port is the line input port.

Other Macs (Mini, Mac Pro, MacBook and MacBook Pro) are similarly equipped. Check your manual for the locations and labelling of these ports.

Identifying various cables and plugs
The terms "jack", "socket" and "port" are often used interchangeably. These all refer to something that a plug plugs into. Plugs plug into jacks, plugs plug into sockets, and plugs plug into ports.

In this tutorial we will refer to sockets on a computer as ports, and sockets on audio equipment as jacks. This is consistent with common usage. A guitarist will plug into the jack on their amplifier, a computer user will plug their USB device into the USB port on their computer.

On virtually all computers the audio ports will be of a type referred to as 1/8", 3.5mm or mini-plug. Here's what these plugs look like.




 * [[Image:Audio_Mono_1_8_small.jpg|A picture of a 1/8" (3.5mm) mono plug]]
 * [[Image:Audio_Stereo_1_8_small.jpg|A picture of a 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo plug]]
 * align="center"|A mono mini-plug
 * align="center"|A stereo mini-plug
 * }
 * }

Audio equipment may also use mini-jacks. Quite often the headphone output on portable equipment such as an iPod or Walkman will be a stereo mini-jack.

Audio equipment may also use the larger 1/4" jacks and plugs.




 * [[Image:Audio_Mono_1_4_small.jpg|A picture of a 1/4" mono plug]]
 * [[Image:TRSidentified.jpg|A picture of a 1/4" stereo plug, identifying the tip, ring and sleeve]]
 * align="center"|A mono 1/4" plug
 * align="center"|A stereo 1/4" plug
 * }
 * }

Stereo 1/4" jacks are often found on the front panels of non-portable (home) audio equipment such as home theatre receivers and cassette decks. They may also be found on DJ mixers and professional keyboards.

Electric guitars and amplifiers are equipped with 1/4" mono jacks.

Tip, Ring and Sleeve
The parts of a stereo or mono plug, either 1/8" or 1/4", are identified by the terms "tip", "ring" and "sleeve" as shown in the illustration above. A mono plug has no ring. Thus you may encounter the terms "TRS plug" or "TRS jack". In stereo operation the tip connects to the left channel signal, the ring to the right channel signal, and the sleeve to ground.

Next Steps
Click one of the links below depending on what type of equipment you want to connect to your computer.


 * Turntable or Cassette Deck (including USB types)
 * Microphone
 * Keyboard or Guitar
 * Mixer

If instead you want to record what is playing on the computer (for example, streaming audio), click on the link below for your operating system.
 * Record Computer Playback on Mac
 * Record Computer Playback on Windows
 * Record Computer Playback on Linux