Editing using Audacity
From Process | Spoken-Tutorial
| Time | Narration |
| 00:01 | Hello friends. Welcome to the tutorial on Editing using Audacity. |
| 00:08 | This tutorial will explain how to edit an audio file. We will learn how to |
| 00:14 | open an audio file in audacity |
| 00:16 | convert a stereo file to mono. Attach labels. Cut,delete,move and amplify the audio. Filter background noise.Save and export the audio file. |
| 00:27 | For this tutorial, I am using the Ubuntu Linux 10.04 version operating system and Audacity version 1.3. |
| 00:36 | Audacity supports many audio formats including: |
| 00:39 | WAV (Windows Wave format) |
| 00:41 | AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) |
| 00:43 | Sun Au / NeXT |
| 00:46 | RCAM (Institut de Recherce et Coordination Acoustique / Musique) |
| 00:49 | MP3 (MPEG I, layer 3) (export requires separate encoder. see Lame Installation) Ogg Vorbis |
| 00:53 | Lets access Audacity through the Main menu item Applications >> Sound and Video >> Audacity. |
| 01:04 | An audacity help box opens. Let’s click OK. |
| 01:09 | To edit an audio file, we need to first import it into Audacity. To do this, go to File >> Import >> Audio. |
| 01:21 | When the browser window opens, browse for the audio file to be edited and click on Open. |
| 01:31 | The file opens in the Audacity window. |
| 01:36 | Save this file as an a u p file (i.e. Audacity project file) by clicking on File >> Save Project As. |
| 01:47 | Click OK in the box that opens. |
| 01:51 | Give your file a name. Here we will type 'Editing in Audacity'.. |
| 01:55 | Check the folder, and Click on Save. |
| 02:00 | Select 'Copy All Audio into Project (safer)' option. |
| 02:05 | This creates a folder that will contain all the audacity project data files. |
| 02:11 | Look at the tracks. If there is only one track, then the audio is in MONO. |
| 02:16 | This will also be mentioned in the Label on the left panel. |
| 02:21 | Now, lets open another audio file. |
| 02:35 | If there are 2 tracks, then the audio is in STEREO. Again, this will be mentioned in the Label on the left panel. |
| 02:45 | To remove a track completely, select the track, click on Tracks tab and select Remove Tracks. |
| 02:59 | Alternately, delete tracks by clicking on the X at the extreme left. |
| 03:04 | If the audio file is in stereo mode and stereo output is not required, then one can convert the mode to mono. |
| 03:12 | To do so, go to the Tracks tab and select Mix and Render. |
| 03:20 | Now click on the drop-down arrow on the panel to the left of the audio file and select Split stereo to mono. |
| 03:30 | Delete one track. |
| 03:35 | To zoom into or out of a file click the cursor where you need to zoom on the file and click the zoom in or zoom out button on the Edit panel. |
| 03:52 | Alternately, place the cursor over the part of the file that you need to zoom into or out of. |
| 04:03 | Now press the Ctrl key down and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. |
| 04:19 | An audio file can be cut to remove unwanted parts, copied, pasted, deleted and treated with some special effects. |
| 04:29 | The volume of the file can also be increased or decreased. |
| 04:35 | Before editing, always listen to the whole audio file. You may want to label parts as you listen, for easy reference. |
| 04:44 | To do so, add a label track by clicking on Tracks >> add New and Label Track. |
| 04:56 | To add a label at a point, select the point with the cursor, go to the tracks tab, |
| 04:54 | and select Add label at selection. |
| 05:08 | You can type into the label. |
| 05:16 | Alternately, click at the point, |
| 05:24 | press Ctrl +B. |
| 05:28 | This opens a new Label track the first time. |
| 05:32 | Consecutive Ctrl+B will open new labels on the same track. |
| 05:47 | A label will open with the cursor at the point on the time line where the cursor is placed. |
| 05:53 | Place the cursor wherever required and press Ctrl+B for each new label. |
| 06:07 | Labels can also be moved. |
| 06:15 | To delete the labels, click inside the text box and press backspace till the label is deleted. |
| 06:27 | Another way to do this is to go to Tracks >> Edit Labels. |
| 06:34 | A window with all the labels listed will appear and the labels that need to be deleted can be selected and deleted by clicking on Remove button. |
| 06:46 | Click Ok. |
| 06:55 | After listening to the entire audio file once or more than once, the structure of the edit can be decided; parts of the file can be deleted or moved, as required. |
| 07:07 | Structure the edit based on what is appropriate for introduction, body and conclusion. |
| 07:15 | Remove repeats and bad sound. Effects can be used to enhance the impact of a message. |
| 07:21 | Unwanted sounds such as stammering and coughs that don't overlap the speech, repeats, and long silences can be removed. |
| 07:32 | To delete, select the Selection tool and select the part of the audio that needs to be deleted by left-click, drag and then release, press delete to delete that part of the audio. |
| 07:50 | To move one segment of audio to another part, select the part of the audio that needs to be moved by left-click, drag and then release, then cut that part by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+X. |
| 08:07 | We can also click on the Cut button in the Edit tools panel OR click on Edit >> Cut option. |
| 08:22 | Move the cursor to the place where the audio segment needs to be moved, |
| 08:31 | click there and paste the audio segment. |
| 08:33 | This can be done with either the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V or the Paste button |
| 08:40 | In the Edit tools panel or Edit >> |
| 08:47 | Paste option. |
| 08:52 | To reduce loud breaths, select the breath portion in the audio stream by |
| 09:14 | left-clicking, dragging and releasing. |
| 09:17 | Go to Effect >> Amplify. Enter -5 or -7 |
| 09:26 | or more in the Amplification box, depending on how much you want to reduce the sound, and click Ok |
| 09:43 | To increase the volume of the parts that have recorded softly, select the audio go to Effect >> Amplify. |
| 09:56 | You will see a value already there. This value is optimal amplification for this file. You can also enter the amount you want. |
| 10:12 | Click Ok. |
| 10:15 | If the Ok button is not active, check the Allow Clipping option. |
| 10:34 | To filter out disturbing background noises, select a portion on the track with the sample noise. |
| 10:47 | Remember to select a portion without voice. Now click on Effect >> |
| 10:55 | Noise Removal. |
| 10:59 | Click on Get Noise Profile. |
| 11:02 | This will identify the noise sample to be filtered. |
| 11:06 | Now select the whole audio track by clicking anywhere on it. |
| 11:11 | Again, click on Effect >> |
| 11:16 | Noise Removal. Choose the Noise Reduction Level. |
| 11:26 | Use the lowest value that reduces the noise to an acceptable level. |
| 11:31 | Higher values will remove the noise completely but will result in distortion of the audio that remains. |
| 11:37 | Lets click OK. |
| 11:44 | It is advisable not to amplify the audio too much above the recommended value in the box because amplification also enhances background sounds. |
| 11:54 | Hisses and hums will become more prominent as well. |
| 11:57 | Save the project file regularly. |
| 12:00: | Finally, export the final project to the required audio format i.e. wav, mp3 and others. |
| 12:09 | We have already covered this part in the earlier tutorial. Kindly refer to it for details. |
| 12:17 | That's all we have in this tutorial. lets just summarize. In this we learned the basics of editing,using audacity |
| 12;26 | how to open an audio file ,convert stereo to mono, zoom in and out ,attach lables |
| 12:35 | structure and edit. Cut, delete, move audio. Amplify audio. Filter background noise |
| 12:50 | Edit the audio that you recorded in the first tutorial using the tips given above. |
| 12:55 | Use fade out and fade in where necessary. |
| 13:01 | Watch the video available at the following link (http://spoken-tutorial.org/What_is_a_Spoken_Tutorial) |
| 13:06 | It summarises the Spoken Tutorial project |
| 13:10 | If you do not have good bandwidth, you can download and watch it |
| 13:15 | The Spoken Tutorial Team conducts workshops using spoken tutorials |
| 13:20 | Gives certificates to those who pass an online test |
| 13:25 | For more details contact, contact@spoken-tutorial.org |
| 13:30 | Spoken Tutorial Project is a part of the Talk to a Teacher project. |
| 13:35 | supported by the National Mission on Education through ICT, MHRD, Government of India. |
| 13:42 | More information on this Mission is available at http://spoken-tutorial.org/NMEICT-intro |
| 13:55 | This brings us to the end of this tutorial. |
| 13:58 | Thank you. |
| 14:01 | This is Krupa Thimmaiah from ITforChange |
