10-RES-Editing audio material

Resources > Editing Audio Material with Audacity

Download Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
Downloading of the LAME encoder: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3

A lot of editing is similar to editing text in MS Word: highlight, copy and paste, delete… The aim of the task is to create separate *.mp3 clips from an audio file. You can also find videos on YouTube showing you how to do this.

Step 1: Open Audacity by using the icon on the desktop

Step 2: Open sound file and familiarise yourself with the file and Audacity
- File>Open
- Put on headphones and start listening to the clip by clicking on the green triangle.
- Click on the yellow square to stop listening.

Step 3: Delete/Cut
- Listen again and click on the sonogram where you want to cut, to create a bookmark. Stop listening.
- Highlight the stretch between the bookmark (starting at the bookmark) and the beginning of the audio file. Highlighting is the same process as in MS Word: drag the mouse along by keeping the left mouse button down.
- Click Edit>Delete (or Cut)

Step 4: Copy and Paste, Undo
- Highlight some ‘silence’ between words (where the sonogram is flat) and click Edit>Copy
- Click in a different place in the file and select Edit>Paste. You have prolonged the silence.
- You don’t want the silence longer…then Click Edit>Undo…

Step 5: Export selection as MP3 in a new file
- Listen to the file again from the beginning. At some point, set the bookmark (left mouseclick) and stop listening (yellow square)
- Highlight the part you want, and click Edit>Copy
- Click File>New
- In the new file click Edit>Paste. Listen to the clip. Is it correct?
- Now export the sequence. Click File>Export as MP3.
- The file browser opens. Find the ‘Desktop’, name the file and Save.
- A small window will pop open. Here you can insert information shown in a playlist, the socalled ‘metadata’. You can leave the fields empty or insert something according to the screenshot below. IMPORTANT!! Even if you leave the fields empty you have to click OK or your file will be corrupted.

Step 6: Export a sequence of clips
- Do not close the second Audacity window, but delete the track by clicking on the top-left cross. Now it is ready to accept your next sequence. The advantage of re-using this window is that you don’t have to fill in the metadata for the playlist any more.
- Go back to the first Audacity window and listen to the file again. Set another bookmark, stop listening and highlight the desired fragment. You have to identify the sounds from the sonogram this time. If you click on the Play-button now, the program will only play the selected bit. This way you can check if you have selected the correct bit.
- Click Edit>Copy.
- Go back to the second Audacity window and click Edit>Paste.
- Still in the second window click File>Export as MP3, name the file and save it. The window for the metadata doesn’t pop up any more.
Step 7: Open your clips in Windows Media Player - Open Windows Media Player (or any other player).
- Right-click in the upper dark-blue menu. Select File>Open [Find your file in the file browser]>Open.
- Close Audacity and don’t save anything.

Comments:
- How do you recognise an audio file? A file type or file format can be recognised by its extension, which are the letters after the dot in a file name. A filename.doc is a MS Word document, a filename.jpg is a picture file and filename.mp3 or filename.wav are audio files. These are just a few examples. There are many file extensions and many audio file extensions.
- What are common audio formats? *.mp3, *.wav, *.wma, *.cda, *.mid, *.aiff, *.acc, *.ra …
- Why is the MP3 format so popular? It compresses audio data into much smaller files without losing much quality.