Live and in class! |
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| 1. Open the program Audacity. (Be sure you have the latest version.) 2a. SOURCE - In the white drop down menu in the middle of the window, you may see "Microphone". If so, choose "Stereo Mix". (NOTE - depending on your computer, you may have another option instead of "Stereo Mix".) 2b. OPTIONAL - Even though you have chosen "Stereo Mix" the
recording will still be mono unless you change one more setting. Note,
however, that some computers may not record correctly with this new
setting. 3. TURN ON YOUR WEB RADIO! 3. METER - Click on the Input Meter button (blue arrow in the image above - in some versions of Audacity these meters are just below the top buttons rather than to the right), and select Monitor Input. 5. If the red level bar does not hover between -21 and 0 (for the linear
setting) or just below -.5 (for the db setting), adjust the Input Volume
level (green arrow, next to the microphone icon) accordingly. If this is not sufficient, you may need
to increase the main volume control on your computer (double click on
the Speaker icon in the bottom right corner of your screen.)
7. When you have finished, click the yellow Stop button (yellow arrow). (Your recording should be no more than 15 seconds long. When you record longer clips note that you can use the Zoom buttons (the small magnifying glass icons) to increase or decrease the amount of the audio track you see.) 8. PLAY - Now click anywhere inside the audio track and press Play (the button with a green triangle to the left of Record). Notice the straight line that moves as you hear the audio. Click Stop. 9. DELETE - To delete a section, simply highlight with your mouse and hit the Delete key on your keyboard. For example, to delete the beginning of a clip, click where you would like to the audio clip to start and drag to your left, then hit the Delete key. To delete an entire recording, click on the small x in the top LEFT corner of the audio window, next to the words "Audio Track" 10. EFFECTS - Two useful "Effects" are Fade In and Fade Out. Both are done by highlighting the desired section, usually the beginning or end of the clip, then selecting from the Effect menu. (Adding a second or more of silence can also be useful for some activities. To do so, click where you would like to add the silence, go to the Generate menu, choose Silence, add a number (in seconds) and click "Generate Silence".) 11. To save your audio clip, go to File and choose "Export as Wave". (If there is time, we will also cover saving in mp3 format, which creates a smaller file and compatible with many media players such as I-Pods. 12. Give the clip a file name and click Save. 13. Be sure to pay attention to where you save your file. When in doubt, choose the "My Documents" folder. (Ideally, you should create a new folder called "Radio" or "Audio" where you will always save your recordings. 14. Click OK. *Click here for information on Exporting (saving) in MP3 format. NOTE: When you have finished all recording an attempt to exit Audacity, you will be asked if you want to "Save changes before closing". If you have already saved your work as a .wav or .mp3 file, click No. Clicking Yes will save your project, but in a special ".aup" format that can only be used with Audacity. This is fine if you plan to continue editing your audio at a later date, but if you have finished and want to save it for students, click Cancel, go to File, and Export the recording (in .wav or, preferably, .mp3 format). Then exit Audacity (and click No if asked again to save changes).
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