Quick Guide
From Audacity Manual
Audacity Project Window
Here is an updated Audacity-for-the-impatient image with clickable sections.
No alt text yet.
Two versions to choose from: thick blue borders or thin grey borders.
- Bill
JC: Mild preference for thick-blue. Makes it clearer that this is a 'deconstruction' of the screen. Thin-grey does look more professional, but it's more likely that a speed-reading reader won't absorb that the boxes are clickable.
Ed +1 thick blue
Gale: Yes I think it has to be the thick blue for functional reasons. Would it look better though without the white space between the blue? Would it make it insufficiently obvious each is its own section?
Note there is a problem with waveform not starting at zero. Can we adjust the timeline image?
Can Ed redo Device Toolbar image without the black border? That would also fix the Toolbars Overview page where the image has empty menus.
Bill: The white space between the blue seems to be an artefact of the wiki table. I like it, actually - it emphasizes the 'deconstruction' nature of the graphic. Yes, I'll tweak the timeline image in photoshop. I can also edit the device toolbar image in photoshop. While I'm at it I might as well get the right edges to line up.
Timeline and Device Toolbar fixed. Right edges line up.
The only issue remaining, I think, is whether we should make it 50 pixels narrower (which I can do easily) to accommodate a 1-step larger font on 1024x768 screens without activating the horizontal scrollbar.
Centering the image almost works for 1024x768. The horizontal scrollbar in the browser is activated but the image is not off the screen (for me, at least)
Scroll down for 75% size version.
JC: 75% version looks great in firefox, disaster in IE (lots of extra whitespace). I tried using style="width:580px" in the table header to fix it to no avail.
Bill: James, try tweaking the individual column widths. IE may want them to be exact. Camino and Safari seem to be more forgiving.
100% table now 50 pixels narrower.
Click on an outlined window element to get details on the functions of that element.
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Audacity is an open-source multi-track audio editor/recorder. It can be used for something as simple as importing an audio file and decreasing the volume, to something as complicated as creating an extensive piece of music using many different tracks and overdubs.
Skip to Getting Started.
Audacity projects contain a file (MyProject.aup) plus an associated data folder (MyProject_data) full of hundreds or thousands of audio files. The AUP file is a roadmap of your project - it is not an audio file and cannot be played in a media player such as iTunes. The files in the _data folder are private to Audacity. Although they contain audio, they are not compatible with media players.
- Never rename the .aup file or the _data folder.
- If you want to rename your project (for example, to save a snapshot at a particular point), use the command.
- Always keep the .aup file and the _data folder together in the same directory (folder).
- If you import an audio file with the "Read uncompressed file directly from the original (faster)" option checked in Import / Export Preferences, never move, rename or delete that file, unless you first copy it into the Audacity project. See File > Check Dependencies for more information.
Audacity supports many common audio formats including MP3, MP2, OGG Vorbis, FLAC and WAV/AIFF. WMA is not supported. Unencrypted QuickTime-based audio such as M4A and AAC can be imported (but not exported) on Mac computers only. MIDI files can be imported, but only for display.
To create audio files that you can use in another program or burn an audio CD, you will want to Export as WAV or AIFF, not Save an Audacity project.
An Audacity project is made up of multiple tracks. Each track may be mono or stereo (stereo tracks can be split into two mono tracks for individual editing) and has a sample rate, sample format, gain, and panning controls. Each track can contain more than one audio clip. Audio clips can be moved between tracks using the Time Shift Tool. Audacity always mixes all tracks together during playback or export; there's usually never a need to explicitly mix since it happens automatically.
Most types of editing (including using plug-in effects) require some or all of the audio in a project to be selected. The Audacity selection is simultaneously a set of selected tracks and a time range. Both can be modified independently by shift-clicking to modify the time range, or shift-clicking on a track label to toggle it. The selection can also be modified by the keyboard, using control, shift, and arrow keys, plus the enter key to toggle the selection of the focused track, or using the selection toolbar at the bottom of the screen.
For a quick guide to the basic functions of Audacity, see the Getting Started page.
For a detailed guide to all the Audacity menus and controls, see the Reference section of the Audacity manual.
