When we listen to a National Public Radio show while driving down the highway, watch a movie, enjoy a song from a wide range of sources, play a Podcast from the Net, or click on a sound player on a Web page, we listen to a mix of sound. These mixes will often include some simultaneous combination of human voice, multiple musical instruments and special effect sounds from nature or human-made sources. The layers of sounds in the mix are called tracks. The software applications for making and combining a set of tracks are called audio editors. There are other free applications with a greater range of features, such as GarageBand and Myna, but only one that provides such a complete set of options for changing and fixing an individual sound track in the mix.
Audacity is a fine multi-track audio editor for microphone work, but if needed, it does not include a music library of loops for music creation or a virtual keyboard for entering music directly. Its only forms of input are a microphone and import for files that are recorded elsewhere. However, though it takes more work than GarageBand or Myna, there are other applications and music libraries that can be brought to bear if a work-around is needed using Audacity. Below are a series of screencasts (screen movies) about how to get Audacity installed and functional on your computer and then some YouTube clips on how to use it. An additional resources section at the end of this page lists some other useful sites and instructional screencasts.
Remember to use the pause and rewind features of these clips so that you do not miss steps of procedures.
Get Audacity Running
1. Use this Web site for the Audacity Download This is a direct link to the page for Windows users, but a little clicking will provide the version for Mac and Linux computers. However, Mac users will prefer to use GarageBand for such activity.
3. Use this Web site to download and install the LAME Encoder that enables saving in mp3 format. This creates a much smaller file size that loads and transmits much faster over the Internet.
This a short overview, useful as a quick introduction to what Audacity does and a couple of pointers on how to do it. The videoclips that follow are more thorough.
Audacity Tutorial: Part I
Shows where to go for the download, then on to the first step of recording and playing back of a voice.
Audacity Tutorial: Part II
Shows how to: increase volume (change amplitude); trim unwanted part; remove background noise such as crackling and hissing; download and install of LAME code; export (burn) file as mp3 file.
Audacity - Audio Editing with Multiple Tracks
In short, every time you click the red recording button, a new track will automatically be created and the recording of a voice or sound begun. Click the Stop (yellow square) button to end the recording. To import an mp3 or other type of audio file, click the Project choice in the menu bar and select Import Audio... This should also automatically create a new track.
This screencast shows how to:
record voice and delete an element such as a cough from a single track
use the envelope tool to change the volume of one track, in this case to bring the music volume down during a speaking section of the other track
split stereo tracks to determine which one is best, then delete the other
move the audio clip on a track using the time shift tool, useful when an audio clip needs to be shifted to match something happening in another track
Sharing a Finished Audio Composition with Audacity
Once an audio composition is completed, select the File command in the menu bar, and choose Export as MP3... This requires that the LAME Encoder is installed as per instructions toward the top of this page. Though it is also possible to save as a WAV file, the WAV file will be much larger in file size and will not be as universally playable across different computer platforms.
Such a musical composition might be played by itself to a class, inserted in a Powerpoint slide, or might be put on a Web page for more global sharing, only a slightly more involved process than inserting into a slideshow.
Put this audio composition
on a Google Sites Web page. It might be helpful to click and scroll to an
example of an mp3 player gadget on this type of Web page. The size of the gadgets is made up of changeable width and
height numbers.
Putting an Audio File on a Web Page
There are many kinds of Web hosts that will serve up Web pages with whatever someone wants to put on them, including an audio file. One of these Web hosts is Google Sites. For working with this host, follow these directios:
Move to your Google Sites Web site and log in. If you
don't already have one, create a
new Web page as File Cabinet and
use its Add button to upload
the mp3 file to the File
Cabinet. This File Cabinet can be used for all your file uploads or different types of File Cabinet titles can be created for different types of files depending on what kind of organization is needed.
Create a new blank page and title it. For example, Music Composition Samples or
Poetry Readings or something obvious and similar.
On this newly created page, click Insert in the menu bar and search More
Gadgets for "mp3 player" and insert one. More gadgets is found at the very
bottom of the Insert column of commands. Pick a gadget and add it. Save
the Web page and depending on the mp3 player that was chosen, it will
begin to play some song when clicked. The next step is get the Web
address of your mp3 file that is in the File Cabinet and paste it into
the mp3 player so that it plays the poetry reading you created.
On the File Cabinet page right click on the link to the mp3 file
and copy the Web address of
the audio file.
Move to the Web page on which the mp3 player was placed and tap
the Edit button for the page. Click the mp3 player gadget to select it.
Select the Properties link underneath and copy the URL of the needed
mp3 file into the field or space that it provides for the Web address.
This will probably mean deleting an old Web address already in that
space. Finally, save the page and then click the player to hear the
audio file.
Creative Podcasting, ideas for podcasts created by audio editors, such as Audacity, that work just as well for classroom activities, a direct relationship between the working world and classroom activities.
When we listen to a National Public Radio show while driving down the highway, watch a movie, enjoy a song from a wide range of sources, play a Podcast from the Net, or click on a sound player on a Web page, we listen to a mix of sound. These mixes will often include some simultaneous combination of human voice, multiple musical instruments and special effect sounds from nature or human-made sources. The layers of sounds in the mix are called tracks. The software applications for making and combining a set of tracks are called audio editors. There are other free applications with a greater range of features, such as GarageBand and Myna, but only one that provides such a complete set of options for changing and fixing an individual sound track in the mix. 
Sharing a Finished Audio Composition with Audacity