Importing Audio

Contents

 * 1) Audio File Formats Supported by Audacity
 * 2) Four Ways to Import Audio
 * 3) Using the file type drop-down menu in the Open and Import Audio Dialogs
 * 4) Importing Uncompressed Audio Files
 * 5) Importing Compressed Audio Files

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). FFmpeg will also import audio from most video files or DVDs that are not DRM-protected. On Mac OS X 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 normally supported provided they contain correctly formatted header information.
 * If files do not have header information (such as RAW or VOX ADPCM) or have non-standard header information, you can normally import them using File > Import > Raw Data....
 * WAV files from portable recorders may contain proprietary compressed audio. These should not be imported as Raw Data, but by installing the FFmpeg library.
 * LOF files (lists of files) are also supported if the list is correctly formatted and contains supported files.

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 appears in a new track in that project.

1.  If you select the command, 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.  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 and  are not empty), Open imports each file you select into its own new project window. For example, 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 compare the results of each.
 * If the project is empty and has never contained any tracks (for example, you used to create a new, empty project or used  to close an existing project), Open imports the first file into the empty project window, then imports each subsequent file into its own new project window.

3.  (Open Recent on Mac OS X) This command imports a single file from a list of the 12 most recently imported files or recently saved projects. The file opens in a new window exactly as.

4. Drag and drop
 * On Windows and Mac OS X
 * Drag and drop one or more audio files into an open Audacity project window: this is equivalent to.
 * Drag and drop one or more audio files onto the Audacity icon: this is equivalent to.


 * On Linux:
 * Drag and drop files into an open Audacity Project window: this is equivalent to.
 * 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 command for the first file, but the other files will generate an error message saying that Audacity is already running.

Using the file type drop-down menu in the Open and Import Audio Dialogs
This menu (called "Format" on Mac OS X) contains a list of different file types.
 * File type drop-down menu W7 Basic.png

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 Import 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 importers 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.

Importing Uncompressed Audio Files
The two most common uncompressed file types you will encounter are WAV and AIFF.

Warning Dialog when Importing Uncompressed Audio Files
The first time you import an uncompressed audio file into Audacity, you will see this dialog.
 * [[Image:PreferencesWarningsUncompressed Win7Basic.png‎|Warning Importing Uncompressed Audio dialog]]

For each imported file, you can choose:
 * 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 Audacity project is to be moved, opened on another 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 don't want to lose the original content of the file when exporting to the same file name and location, please change the file name when exporting.
 * 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 uncompressed 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 location 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 working on the project.

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. 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 Preferences page for details.

Importing Compressed Audio Files
When you import a compressed audio file into your project such as MP2, MP3, Ogg Vorbis or FLAC, there is usually no choice between "safer" and "faster" - the file's data is always copied into the project.