Introduction

Audacity is an open source, free-of-cost, cross-platform audio recorder, editor, and mixer for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. It comes packaged in easy-to-use installers for Mac OS X and all versions of Windows, and Linux users will find it in the software repositories of their favorite Linux distributions. Visit http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ for downloads, documentation, and mailing lists.

In this book, we’ll be using Audacity 1.3.12 (and newer) on Ubuntu Studio and Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. The stable 2.0 release will appear soon and should look very much like what you see in this book because the 1.3.xx series is the run-up to 2.x. This book is based on the very latest releases as they came out, so it is as current as any book can be. The 1.3.xx Audacity releases are considerably advanced from the old 1.2.x series. Every new release is full of wonderful improvements and bug fixes, so if you’re still using those old 1.2.x versions, you should consider upgrading.

Ubuntu Studio is Ubuntu with a huge set of multimedia applications. It is 100 percent Ubuntu-compatible, and it uses the standard Ubuntu software repositories. You can download Ubuntu Studio or simply add the Ubuntu Studio packages and artwork to any Ubuntu installation. There are several excellent multimedia Linux distributions, which you can read about in Chapter 13. You can use any Linux version you like; a few important system modifications you may need to make are covered in Chapter 13.

Windows requires some modifications too, which you’ll find in Chapter 14. Since Windows XP continues to hang on and refuses to enter retirement, you’ll find information for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

P2.1. What Can Audacity Do?

Audacity is fast and easy to use. What can you do with it? A whole lot:

• Work with a wide number of different audio file formats and encodings, including WAV, AIFF, MP3, FLAC, AU, OKI, MAT4/5, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, M4A, and AC3.

• Record live audio.

• Convert legacy analog media to digital.

• Make movie soundtracks.

• Perform unlimited multichannel recording.

• Edit and mix multiple tracks.

• Overdub.

• Use special effects of all kinds: wah-wah, change pitch and tempo, bass boost, echo, reverse, phaser, and more.

• Add graceful fades, both in and out.

• Normalize volume levels.

• Fix defects such as hiss, static, pops, and hum.

• Perform frequency analysis.

• Write your own plug-ins for special effects.

• Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.

Audacity can open and edit audio files faster than most other audio applications and has nearly unlimited undo and redo.

So, what can’t you do with Audacity? Audacity does not support the RealAudio format, and it does not support MIDI. While it is wonderful for making mono and stereo recordings, it is not quite as good at making multichannel surround sound recordings.

P2.2. What This Book Covers

In this book, we’ll use Audacity in a number of (I hope) fun and useful audio projects. In Chapter 1, we’ll plug a microphone into a computer and learn the basics of recording, editing, playback, and Audacity controls. We’ll also learn some important digital audio terminology and concepts. If you are new to digital audio production or new to Audacity, you should go through this chapter first.

In Chapter 2, we’ll go into detail on audio gear, how to select it, how to connect it, and how not to spend too much money. The world of audio gear is vast and confusing, but this chapter sorts it all out for you.

If you’re like me and have a hoard of treasured vinyl LPs, 45s, or vintage 78s that you want both to enjoy and preserve, read Chapter 3 to learn how to copy them to your computer. From there, you can transfer them to CDs or export to MP3 or any other digital audio format you want. You can do the same with any kind of legacy media.

Audacity is a great program for recording live shows or for editing recordings of live shows made with portable recorders. Chapter 4 shows you how to clean up and optimize your recordings for compact disc or DVD-Audio.

Chapter 5 goes into more detail on making audio CDs and compilation CDs. You’ll learn how to normalize different volume levels, break long files into separate tracks, transition smoothly between tracks, and edit track metadata.

In Chapter 6, we learn how to author super high-fidelity DVD-Audio discs. DVD-Audio is a special audio standard for DVDs; it is not the same as the audio formats used on movie DVDs. With DVD-Audio, you can author very high-fidelity DVDs or load several CDs’ worth of music onto a single DVD.

Podcasts are all the rage, and Chapter 7 tells you how to make podcasts that sound good and are bandwidth-efficient, and it covers the basics of Internet streaming audio.

Chapter 8 goes into detail on making the highest-quality audio recordings for distribution and tailoring your releases for different types of distribution, such as Internet radio, downloadable formats, and CD. It also offers some guidance on finding distributors and other business basics.

Audacity handles multitrack recording capably, so Chapter 9 shows you how to record multiple tracks, mix, dub, edit, and mixdown to your final mono, stereo, or multichannel surround release. You can play or sing along to an existing track, record as many tracks at once as your recording interface supports and your computer can handle, and mix separate recording sessions together.

Don’t pay for ringtones—study Chapter 10 to learn how to make your own easily. Ringtones need to be not too big and not too small, and they can be any snippet of music or sounds or even your own voice. Learn some tips for tailoring your ringtones to sound better on the tiny lo-fi speakers of your phone.

You can go nuts playing with special effects in Audacity—strange noises, sound effects, echo, wah-wah, bass boost, tremolo, and so on. Chapter 11 introduces you to a number of them, tells you where to get more, and shows how to learn to write your own.

In movies and television, ace crime techs take shredded audio remnants and create detailed, high-quality, beautiful recordings as they natter about their magic algorithms. It’s all hooey. But you can do a lot to clean up recordings afflicted with pops, hiss, and other defects, and Chapter 12 tells how.

Chapter 13 details how to select a Linux distribution for audio production, how to configure it for best performance, and how to troubleshoot and fix common problems.

Chapter 14 covers the important tweaks Windows users need to make for quality audio recording.

Audacity is easy to use, but it has a number of options that may not make sense to anyone who isn’t already an audio engineer, so Chapter 15 goes in-depth into customization and configuration.

Appendix A is your hardware reference; you’ll find examples of audio hardware in several price ranges that work on both Linux and Windows.

Appendix B is a glossary of audio terminology written for real people; that is, people who are not physicists or audio engineers and who appreciate clear explanations in plain English.

Appendix C debunks popular but silly audio myths and saves you from some common—and expensive—mistakes.

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Note:

Audacity is also available as a source tarball. What do you do with a source tarball? It contains Audacity’s source code in a compressed archive. You can install Audacity from source code if you want and customize the compile-time options, examine the code, modify it, or even modify and redistribute it. If you’re feeling adventurous and want to help debug daily builds, you can grab the newest Audacity version from Concurrent Versions System (CVS) and give it a test-drive.

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P2.3. Audacity vs. Ardour

Another popular audio recording application for Linux (and Mac OS X) is Ardour, which calls itself a digital audio workstation. Ardour aims to meet the needs of professionals and competes with the likes of ProTools, Nuendo, Pyramix, and other expensive commercial audio applications. It has a more sophisticated mixer than Audacity and some nice audio-for-video tools. It has advanced dubbing abilities, synchronizes with MIDI sequencers, and supports control surfaces, which are hardware devices for controlling your software mixers. It has more automation, as well as a number of useful real-time features such as changing plug-ins on the fly and moving samples to different tracks or timelines while they are playing.

Which one is better? That depends on what you want to do. Both are 100 percent free software because they are licensed under the GPL, both are excellent, and both are getting better all the time. For complex multitrack mixing or precise video soundtrack synchronization, go with Ardour. For recording long tracks such as live shows, converting LPs and tapes to digital formats, cleaning up files marred by hiss or hum or other defects, making podcasts, making simple video soundtracks, and recording in the field, Audacity is an excellent, quality application with a short learning curve and a lot of useful and advanced features.