You've probably already heard about Audacity. This is a free, cross-platform program for recording, mixing and processing audio. It has a lot of cool features, you can record vocals, instruments, other sounds, and combine them into something interesting. You can also trim music files. Many people use Audacity to create podcasts or mix music.

In this article we will look at how to use Audacity, look at all its main features, and also talk about what interesting things you can do with it.

You can install the program by downloading the installer from the official website for Windows, Mac or Linux. And also from the official repositories of most Linux distributions. For example, for Ubuntu, the installation command would look like this:

sudo apt install audacity

After installation, you can find the program in the main menu. Next we’ll look at how to work with the audacity program, but let’s start with its interface.

1. Program interface

The program has a fairly familiar interface; at the top of the window there are recording control buttons, various tools and input device settings. Below is a diagram of the sound file, with which you can perform various actions, and even lower is the status bar:

• Audio Control- standard controls, pause, play, stop, rewind, forward and record;
• Tools- selection, conversion, editing, zooming, time shift, multi-mode and cropping;
• Level meters- top for microphone input, bottom for output;
• Regulators- playback volume and microphone sensitivity controls;
• Quick Access Toolbar- shortcuts to various actions for quick access, such as cutting, pasting, copying, pasting silence, and so on;
• Device selection panel- allows you to select the devices from which recording will be made;
• Soundtrack- at the top there is a timeline, then audio tracks will appear here;
• Tools of Time- here you can choose from what time to start processing the record.

2. Sound recording

Very often Audacity is used to record audio. First, select your microphone in the device row and click on the input monitoring slider to make sure everything is ok:

To stop recording, press the yellow stop button.

3. Sound track

We need to take a closer look at the audio track. It consists of the following components:

• Timeline- here you can see the total length of the track and the current moment;
• Audio properties- here you can change various properties of the audio track, using the cross you can delete songs;
• Scrubber- this arrow marks the current position. It will appear when you start playback;
• Audio track- visualizes signal changes throughout the recording.

As you can see, there is a huge amount of information displayed here. Any additional audio tracks will be located below so you can see information from them simultaneously.

4. Trimming tracks

You can cut out only the desired section of the track to save it later. For convenience, you can change the scale using the zoom tool.

You now have the part of the recording you need. You can also go the other way and just mark and delete the ones you don't need. Then save what's left. Audacity is very easy to use.

5. Gluing tracks

You can combine several tracks into one. To do this, use the menu File ->Import upload some media files:

Then add them at the end of one, you can move the tracks using the time shift tool.

6. Mixing

You can set the tracks one below the other and then layer them so that they sound together. Then all that remains is to save the result:

7. Noise filtering

Often, extraneous noise gets into the recording. Therefore, you may need to use Audacity to combat noise. You need a section of the recording where there is only noise, mark it:

Then open the menu Effects and select Noise reduction:

From this menu select Define profile noise.

Then select the entire track and open the Noise Reduction window again, then click Ok to remove noise from the recording. You can also adjust the level of influence on noise using the dB slider and press Preview in order to evaluate how noise will be removed.

8. Saving the result

If you just save what you got, Audacity will save the project. To get a finished audio file, you need to export it. To do this, open the File menu and select Export:

operating system Interface languages

Russian and 33 other languages

First edition State

In active development

License Website Audacity Audacity K: Software developed in 2000

Runs operating systems: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and others.

Possibilities

The Audacity editor provides the following functions:

• import and export WAV, MP3 (using LAME MP3 encoder), Vorbis, FLAC and other formats;
• recording from a microphone, line input and other sources;
• recording while simultaneously listening to existing tracks;
• record up to 16 channels simultaneously (multi-channel sound card required);
• effects and extensions, both included and installed separately (LADSPA or in the Nyquist functional language);
• recording and playback level indicators;
• changing tempo while maintaining pitch;
• changing the pitch while maintaining the tempo;
• sample-based noise removal;
• spectral analysis using Fourier transform with different window shapes;
• playback of multiple tracks simultaneously (without support for multi-channel audio - during playback only two channels are used, into which all tracks are mixed);
• reduction of tracks with different quality characteristics with automatic conversion to the specified characteristics of the project in real time;
• results can be saved in a variety of formats provided by the libsndfile library.

Technical details

Audacity actively uses third-party libraries distributed under different licenses:

• The GUI is based on the wxWidgets library;
• the sound engine uses PortAudio (alternative support for RtAudio never became popular);
• optional MP3 support (reading and writing) is implemented using libmad and LAME encoders;
• using FFmpeg libraries, support for reading/writing AC3, AAC, WMA, AVI, MKV and others is implemented (only starting from version 1.3.6).

Audacity in popular culture

The authors of the Russian Podcasting project, which marked the beginning of the podcasting boom in Russia, recommend using Audacity for recording and mixing podcasts.

In February 2007, Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies released a new album, Barenaked Ladies Are Me, in an additional version with all tracks recorded as Audacity projects. This gave listeners the opportunity to mix the entire album in their own way.

Support for proprietary technologies

A significant portion of active Audacity developers live in the United States, so they try not to violate the laws in force in their country. This imposes some restrictions on the functionality of the program, namely:

• there is no support for ASIO on Windows due to the development tools license being incompatible with the GNU GPL license;
• due to development tools incompatible with the GPL license, VST support is not available by default, but can be enabled using a separately downloaded additional extension, the original VST extension interface is supported starting from version 1.3.8;
• Due to Thomson Multimedia's requirement to pay fees for MP3 encoding tools, saving files in this format only works if you have the separately downloaded LAME library.

Localization and documentation

The program has been translated into many languages ​​of the world, including Russian (since 2002). The program comes complete with electronic documentation, the Russian version of which has been available since 2004.

Russian speaking community

There is a thread on the official Audacity forum for Russian-speaking users.

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Notes

Links

• on Google Code.
• wiki site.
• (Russian)

Editors Sound stations

Excerpt describing Audacity

[“Then I pray to God that you, my friend, will be under his holy, strong protection. Your friend Elena"]
This letter was brought to Pierre's house while he was on the Borodino field.

The second time, already at the end of the Battle of Borodino, having escaped from Raevsky’s battery, Pierre with crowds of soldiers headed along the ravine to Knyazkov, reached the dressing station and, seeing blood and hearing screams and groans, hastily moved on, getting mixed up in the crowds of soldiers.
One thing that Pierre now wanted with all the strength of his soul was to quickly get out of those terrible impressions in which he lived that day, return to normal living conditions and fall asleep peacefully in his room on his bed. Only under ordinary conditions of life did he feel that he would be able to understand himself and all that he had seen and experienced. But these ordinary living conditions were nowhere to be found.
Although cannonballs and bullets did not whistle here along the road along which he walked, on all sides there was the same thing that was there on the battlefield. There were the same suffering, exhausted and sometimes strangely indifferent faces, the same blood, the same soldiers' greatcoats, the same sounds of shooting, although distant, but still terrifying; In addition, it was stuffy and dusty.
Having walked about three miles along the big Mozhaisk road, Pierre sat down on the edge of it.
Dusk fell on the ground, and the roar of the guns died down. Pierre, leaning on his arm, lay down and lay there for a long time, looking at the shadows moving past him in the darkness. It constantly seemed to him that a cannonball was flying at him with a terrible whistle; he shuddered and stood up. He didn't remember how long he had been here. In the middle of the night, three soldiers, having brought branches, placed themselves next to him and began to make a fire.
The soldiers, looking sideways at Pierre, lit a fire, put a pot on it, crumbled crackers into it and put lard in it. The pleasant smell of edible and fatty food merged with the smell of smoke. Pierre stood up and sighed. The soldiers (there were three of them) ate, not paying attention to Pierre, and talked among themselves.
- What kind of person will you be? - one of the soldiers suddenly turned to Pierre, obviously, by this question meaning what Pierre was thinking, namely: if you want something, we will give it to you, just tell me, are you an honest person?
- I? me?.. - said Pierre, feeling the need to belittle his social position as much as possible in order to be closer and more understandable to the soldiers. “I am truly a militia officer, only my squad is not here; I came to the battle and lost my own.
- Look! - said one of the soldiers.
The other soldier shook his head.
- Well, eat the mess if you want! - said the first and gave Pierre, licking it, a wooden spoon.
Pierre sat down by the fire and began to eat the mess, the food that was in the pot and which seemed to him the most delicious of all the foods that he had ever eaten. While he greedily bent over the pot, picking up large spoons, chewing one after another and his face was visible in the light of the fire, the soldiers silently looked at him.
-Where do you want it? You tell me! – one of them asked again.
– I’m going to Mozhaisk.
- Are you now a master?
- Yes.
- What’s your name?
- Pyotr Kirillovich.
- Well, Pyotr Kirillovich, let’s go, we’ll take you. In complete darkness, the soldiers, together with Pierre, went to Mozhaisk.
The roosters were already crowing when they reached Mozhaisk and began to climb the steep city mountain. Pierre walked along with the soldiers, completely forgetting that his inn was below the mountain and that he had already passed it. He would not have remembered this (he was in such a state of loss) if his guard, who went to look for him around the city and returned back to his inn, had not encountered him halfway up the mountain. The bereitor recognized Pierre by his hat, which was turning white in the darkness.
“Your Excellency,” he said, “we are already desperate.” Why are you walking? Where are you going, please?
“Oh yes,” said Pierre.
The soldiers paused.
- Well, have you found yours? - said one of them.
- Well, goodbye! Pyotr Kirillovich, I think? Farewell, Pyotr Kirillovich! - said other voices.
“Goodbye,” said Pierre and headed with his driver to the inn.
“We have to give it to them!” - Pierre thought, taking his pocket. “No, don’t,” a voice told him.
There was no room in the upper rooms of the inn: everyone was occupied. Pierre went into the yard and, covering his head, lay down in his carriage.

As soon as Pierre laid his head on the pillow, he felt that he was falling asleep; but suddenly, with the clarity of almost reality, a boom, boom, boom of shots was heard, groans, screams, the splashing of shells were heard, the smell of blood and gunpowder, and a feeling of horror, the fear of death, overwhelmed him. He opened his eyes in fear and raised his head from under his overcoat. Everything was quiet in the yard. Only at the gate, talking to the janitor and splashing through the mud, was some orderly walking. Above Pierre's head, under the dark underside of the plank canopy, doves fluttered from the movement he made while rising. Throughout the yard there was a peaceful, joyful for Pierre at that moment, strong smell of an inn, the smell of hay, manure and tar. Between two black canopies a clear starry sky was visible.
“Thank God this isn’t happening anymore,” thought Pierre, covering his head again. - Oh, how terrible fear is and how shamefully I surrendered to it! And they... they were firm and calm all the time, until the end... - he thought. In Pierre's concept, they were soldiers - those who were at the battery, and those who fed him, and those who prayed to the icon. They - these strange ones, hitherto unknown to him, were clearly and sharply separated in his thoughts from all other people.
“To be a soldier, just a soldier! - thought Pierre, falling asleep. – Enter into this common life with your whole being, imbued with what makes them so. But how can one throw off all this unnecessary, devilish, all the burden of this external man? At one time I could have been this. I could run away from my father as much as I wanted. Even after the duel with Dolokhov, I could have been sent as a soldier.” And in Pierre’s imagination flashed a dinner at a club, at which he called Dolokhov, and a benefactor in Torzhok. And now Pierre is presented with a ceremonial dining room. This lodge takes place in the English Club. And someone familiar, close, dear, sits at the end of the table. Yes it is! This is a benefactor. “But he died? - thought Pierre. - Yes, he died; but I didn't know he was alive. And how sorry I am that he died, and how glad I am that he is alive again!” On one side of the table sat Anatole, Dolokhov, Nesvitsky, Denisov and others like him (the category of these people was as clearly defined in Pierre’s soul in the dream as the category of those people whom he called them), and these people, Anatole, Dolokhov they shouted and sang loudly; but from behind their shout the voice of the benefactor could be heard, speaking incessantly, and the sound of his words was as significant and continuous as the roar of the battlefield, but it was pleasant and comforting. Pierre did not understand what the benefactor was saying, but he knew (the category of thoughts was just as clear in the dream) that the benefactor was talking about goodness, about the possibility of being what they were. And they surrounded the benefactor on all sides, with their simple, kind, firm faces. But although they were kind, they did not look at Pierre, did not know him. Pierre wanted to attract their attention and say. He stood up, but at the same moment his legs became cold and exposed.

“Audacity what is this program” - we are talking about a very functional editor for audio files, which is available on several operating systems at once. Among them are the following: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X.

Audacity is aimed at working with multiple audio tracks simultaneously. This is really convenient for mixing several songs, or editing the audio track for a video.

Even though Audacity has its own license General Public License, it actively uses third-party libraries under various licenses.

As you may have guessed, we are talking about podcasts. In fact, the release of Russian Podcasting is the beginning of the rapid development of this now very popular direction of content creation.

Of course, its functionality made it possible to use it for other, more serious purposes. In 2007, one Canadian rock band released an entire album in a format where all the tracks were recorded on Russian Podcasting. This gave fans the opportunity to mix the entire album to their liking, which is a very unusual experience.

Audacity does not come in its pure form, but with a whole set of software add-ons that ensure its full functionality. There is no point in listing absolutely everything, because there are a lot of them and they perform completely different functions. For those actively interested, their list is fully presented on the official website of the program.

The software is localized for many countries around the world and translated into many languages. An interesting fact is that the program entered the market in 2002, but its Russian version appeared only in 2004.

Now that you know what kind of program it is - Audacity, not only does the problem of where you could mix audio compositions or a music album disappear, but also where the fashion for podcasts began.

When working with sound, many users have a problem when choosing a sound editor. And all because there are a huge number of such programs and it is very difficult to choose something worthwhile among all this variety. But there is a program that performs all the necessary tasks in the best possible way; of course, it is not in first place among all programs of this type, but it is trustworthy.

Audacity is a free, open source program that runs on any operating system, and is also free. Works with sound and records it.

Features of Audacity

Audacity has some really cool and interesting features that will help you when editing audio recordings. The program itself looks professional, but also has a simple look. There is support for several languages. Here are the features Audacity provides:

• Noise removal;
• Greater support for audio formats;
• Audio playback option;
• Option to record sound from a PC microphone or other source;
• Supports up to 16 channels (requires a multi-channel sound card);
• Lots of effects;
• Change of pace;
• Play multiple audios simultaneously;
• WxWidgets interface;
• Save audio files in various formats.

And that’s not all, it would take a long time to list what this program has.

What formats does Audacity support?

There are a lot of formats in this tool. You can edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV, AIFF sound files and that's not the limit. Audacity is also capable of recording and editing audio in 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit. Can import MPEG Audio. This way, you don’t have to worry that the program won’t be able to work with some format.

Download Audacity

The program was developed by a group of enthusiasts and volunteers. The first release was in May 2000 and is now distributed under the GNU/GPL license. Supports Linux, Windows, Mac OS and many other systems. There is a Russian language, and the program has been translated into 33 languages.

This was just an overview of the program; in the next article I will show it a little in action. And Audacity itself can be downloaded from the official website.

That's all!