Audacity HowTo

Things you need, other than the computer, the sound card in the computer, a microphone-- and of course speakers. Generally there are 3 jacks either labeled, or with symbols for: Line in, Microphone, Speakers. Make sure your micophone is plugged into the right jack.

The microphone plugs into the soundcard in the back of the computer. Microphones: here are some that are very usable. The Labtec desktop microphones you will find at the link below, are just about the only inexpensive computer mics that are both unidirectional and have the frequency response for recording music. This is the easiest way to go because you can just plug them right in the back of your computer and you're ready to go.

If you want a standard microphone suitable for many purposes other than just computer use, a good reasonably priced microphone that is unidirectional with a good frequency response is the SHS OM-25 Microphone on the Folk Notes accessories page(link below). If you are going to use a regular microphone, you will want to make sure it is a Hi-Z impedance mic or a 'dual impedance' mic that can use a Hi-Z microphone cable.

If you have a pickup on your instrument, you can also plug the cable from your pickup straight into the Microphone jack. More about microphones at the bottom of the page.

This How-to page is for a open source software program called Audacity. It is a excellent program with a few limitations that will probably be of no consequence to anyone using this tutorial.

If you are a Mac user or an absolute computer neophyte, you can skip the next paragraph and just say yes to all the defaults in the install program.

First, create a folder on your C: drive by going to 'My Computer', double-click on 'Local Disk (C:)', then right click and chose 'New'--- a text box will appear. Chose folder and click on it, and a folder named "new folder" will appear. Just name it "Sound programs". This is where you can install Audacity and other related programs.. Before you leave this screen, check to see if you have a folder named 'My Music'. If not, create another folder and name it 'My Music'. This will be where you put initial copies of your music and store backup copies after you have completed work on them. Now that you have a backup location for your music, you may wish to create a folder for your music on your desktop, to copy your music files into so you can access them easily. To do that, right click on your desktop and a text box will open that will allow you to create a folder on your desktop. You can name it "My Music" and create copies of you music files there.

Find the program to download by clicking on the following link to download the program: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ then follow their links to the download file. The program is about 2.5megs, so on a high speed hookup it will only take a few seconds. On dialup it may take as much as 15 minutes or so.

Click on the download buttons for windows, until the download box comes up. Click on "save to disk". Make sure you know where your downloads are saved to so you can run the install program when it has finished downloading.

Click OK and the download will start. After the download is complete close the window and navigate back to the folder where your downloads are saved. Find the file titled 'audacity-win-1.2.3.exe' and double click on it to begin the install. If you created a folder to put your sound programs in, when you get to the 'Program Location' screen, select browse, then left click on 'Sound Programs' under 'Local Disc (C:)'. Use the rest of the default options are selected for the install. An Icon for the Audacity program will automatically be installed on your desktop.

Left click on 'File', at the dropdown menu click on New [File-New], go back to the menu bar, click on 'Project', and 'New Audio Track' on the dropdown.
Next, click on 'View' on the menu bar, and on the dropdown, scroll down to 'Set Selection Format'. You will get another dropdown box. Click on 'min:sec', the first line of the drop down menu. This sets the time line format to minutes and seconds.

On the lower tool bar you will see a magnifying glass with a "+" and another with a " - " which are the zoom in and zoom out buttons. This is where you will chose the length of the recording.

Click the zoom out(-) button until you get to the full minutes you want to use for the recording. I set it to 4 minutes if it is a 3 minute recording. It is important that you get it to whole numbers (x:00 - xx:00), as the numbers up to that point are seconds. If you go too far, use the zoom in (+) button to go back. Now lets say you want to record for 3 minutes. When you put the cursor in the wave form area at the time you want, left click and it will turn into a finger AND draw a line. You can look at the bottom of the screen and you will see a bar, in that bar it will tell you how much time you have selected. Next, holding down the left mouse button (the line will disappear) drag to the left or the beginning of the track you will see the time line turn dark. When you get to the 0 point it will not go any farther. Let up on the mouse button.

Now you can do 1 of 2 things, you can either just leave things like they are, or you can click on the zoom in button and the timeline will fill from left to right.

You are now ready: Place your microphone close to your instrument, usually near a soundhole is good. Make sure it isn't in your way while you're playing. To record, press the round red button at the top. These buttons are similiar on almost all recording programs for computers.

You will not see the wave form while recording, but you will be able to monitor the amplitude. If it is getting close to the top and bottom of the panel (1.0 and -1.0) lower the microphone volume some... the slider with a mic picture by it. If it is very thin, without getting near the "0.5 and -0.5" at the loudest points, you may need to raise the volume some. When done click on the square stop button. On playback the wave form will appear.

After recording your music just click Play (>) and it will play the music you just recorded. The next thing is to remove the blank space at the beginning and end of the recording, for now trimming to the approximate size (be careful not to trim too much, you can set the start and end points more precisely with the 'Cut' tool later). Just place the mouse cursor before the spot the music starts, and holding the left mouse button down drag to the right, the wave form background will darken where you are dragging because you are selecting this area, when you get to the end of the music let up on the mouse button, now go to Edit and click on it select 'trim' this will remove the sections before and after the selected area. Listen to it so you know that you didn't cut it too short, if you did, no problem, you can always undo what you did by clicking on 'Undo' under 'Edit' in the menu. Now to save the music file, click on file click on 'save project as', or if you want to save it as a WAV file, 'export as WAV'. It will then let you chose where to save it and name it, which of course will be 'My Music' or whatever you named it. Once you have saved it you can now load it back in the program and fool with it all you want without messing with the copy you saved. If you have pauses within the music that you want removed, listen carefully and watch as you play your file back, making note of just where you think you need to cut. Then, place the mouse cursor at the left side of the spot that you need to cut out and holding the left mouse button down drag to the right. The wave form background will darken where you are dragging because you are selecting this area. Let up on the mouse button when you think you have marked the right area. If you think you marked it wrong, just move the cursor anywhere outside the panel the waveform is in, and left click. That will erase what you marked so you can start over.

If you copy your music files into a 'MY Music' folder on your desktop, you can select a song file to work on it by simply putting your cursor over it, hold down the left mouse button, and then drag it over the Audacity icon on your desktop. When you release the button, Audacity will open your music file so you can work on it. You can save them to the folder on your desktop if you plan to work on them again soon, but when a song reaches the point where it is a finished product, you will want to make a copy of it and put it back in your 'MY MUSIC' folder that is at 'Local Disk (C:)', so you will have a copy of the finished song in a place safe from accidental deletion, should you decide to rearrange or delete icons from your desktop.

There is a Help file at the top that can help you over the humps. You can now go up to the effects menu at the top and do all kind of things with the music you just recorded. Try a little echo or a little reverb. Whatever you do, you can just undo it by going to 'Edit' on the menu and clicking on 'Undo'. There are many features that are available if you just take your time and learn to use them one at a time. It tells in the help file how to remove most of the extra sounds that are in the room while recording. I would not bother with it until you get the rest of the program down.

Most any microphone will work, but not necessarily well. The quality of your music depends on several things [other than your playing of course].

The quality of the microphone you use is important, a unidirectional mic is preferred but often more expensive. A quiet room [almost impossible] is the best, but to minimize extraneous noises, just make sure your mic is very close to your instrument and adjust the microphone level as described. You will have to experiment to find the best place to put it.
If you have a regular microphone, my suggestion is go to a thrift store and get one of those lamps that are on a pantograph or a gooseneck, and remove all the electrical parts. Fasten the mike to it with some rubber bands with a little foam rubber between the mike and the mike holder. Don't let it touch the instrument or put it where you will hit it while playing. You will also need an adapter (available at Radio Shack) that will reduce the plug size from the 1/4" plug on a Hi-Z mic cable to a 3.5 mm plug.

Before recording you can speak into the microphone while the program is recording and see if everything is working, if you say the word FIVE into the mic, it should make a (sideways) christmas tree looking wave form.

This program will not save the file as a MP3 unless you intall and use a plug in, LAME is the preferred encoder and plug in. Another option is a nice LAME GUI, which can be found at: http://www.download.com/LameFE/3000-2140-10227071.html . A really easy way to create MP3s is to use a little free program called Rightclick MP3. Just go to http://www.download.com/ and do a search for Rightclick MP3, download it, put a copy on your desktop, and run it. This is the best and easiest program to use I have ever found, you can convert either way with just a click of the mouse.