Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor that can be used by amateurs and professionals alike. This tool can be beneficial for basic sound editing of sound loops, editing voice over for Multimedia presentations and adding some basic effects to sound. In this article, we will tell you how to install this software; use it to open and edit audio files; and then export them to the desired format.
Installation
The required files for installation are given in this month's PCQ Extreme CD at /system/cdrom/Misc/audacity. You can install the software on any Linux
distro, we've used PCQLinux 2004.The two files that would be used for installation are
libmad-0.15.1b-1.i686.rpm and audacity-linux-i386-1.2.0.tar.bz2.
Follow the steps mentioned below to install
1. Install Libmad.
#> rpm -ivh libmad-0.15.1b-1.i686.rpm
2. Extract Audacity.
#> tar -jxvf audacity-linux-i386-1.2.0.tar.bz2
3. Open the /auaudacity-linux-i386-1.2.0 directory and run the following command.
#> ./audacity
Opening and editing audio
Audacity sports a simple and easy-to-use GUI, which consists of the menu bar, the main timeline, tools, player and volume controls.
Snapshot | |
Applies to | Personal use |
Usp | Good to learn sound editing |
Links | http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ http://mitiok.cjb.net |
We would use the software to open two MP3 files. Take the intro from one of the MP3s and add the rest of the audio from the other MP3 (called mixing). Concatenate them, add an effect to the mixed file and output it as an ogg Vorbis file.
STEP ONE
To mix, open the files you want to copy from. Go to Edit> copy or press ctrl +c to copy the file.
STEP TWO
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Open the file where you would like to add the part that you copied. Go to the desired position on the time line and insert the copied part. Use Edit>paste or press ctrl+v to paste it on that particular place.
STEP THREE
Now, we would use fade effect to start the music instead of starting it abruptly. Select the first five seconds of the music file as shown in the screen shot. Use effect>fade in. This would fade in the sound from zero. You can apply varied number of effects listed in the effects menu, such as bass boost, change speed, noise removal and more. At times the effects are automatic, but otherwise you have to be careful while applying the effect so as to not diminish the audio quality. For instance, you should be careful while applying the bass boost effect, or else the audio would jar, even at low volume.
STEP FOUR
Now, you can export the final file as the ogg Vorbis file or a WAV file. You would need to download and install the lame codec from
http://mitiok.cjb.net
You can also use the Windows version of the software, which is also available in this month's issue of PCQuest and is an open source. Windows version can provide a reasonable replacement for entry-level audio editors such as Gold wave. It's reasonable because it still lacks some features, a notable one being that there is no support for cue points. Cue points are markers that can be placed in the WAV file itself, and can be used by various coding environments to trigger events based on audio. As a developer, I feel that it's an absolute necessity.
Geetaj Channana