Category: Podcasting with Audacity

 

Assignment:

For today you are going to create a five minute podcast where you interview each other about a topic.

First develop a set of questions (3-5 questions).

Record your conversation around the questions.

Edit your conversation down to five minutes.

Time permitting, add music, an intro, any non-distracting sound effects, and an outtro.

Export as an .mp3.

Please upload to our WordPress site with the category “Podcasting with Audacity”.

Audacity Resources:

Workshop Outline – tinyurl.com/VCMakers-Audacity

Audacity Overview / Zooms / Headsets/ Spaces to Record Sound

• Zoom H1s can be signed out at Media Resources
• USB headsets with mics at circ deck and Media Resources
• 1-2 Rhode Lav mics
• Basement of Chicago Hall has a space to record high quality audio, email babailey@vassar.edu or acs@vassar.edu to arrange a recording session (9-5, M-F)
• Film has a whisper booth / Foley Booth (may be Film students only)

Downloading Audacity – http://www.audacityteam.org/ (Don’t use SourceForge).

Workshop Outline

Microphone setup – apple menu->Input/Output BEFORE launching Audacity

Launching Audacity

Security Settings

Tools Overview

Selection Tool  – you’ll use this a lot

Envelope Tool  – use this to adjust the volume, fade in, fade out

Zoom Tool  – use this to view the wave form close up, control click to zoom back out

Draw Tool  – for editing wave forms

Timeshift Tool  – for sliding tracks left or right

Make a quick recording

Checking your input source

Tracks

Stereo/mono

 

Basic Edits

Selecting  – use the selection tool to select pieces of the wave form

Deleting – edit menu, cut, or backspace key

Pasting – edit menu and paste, or apple – V

Shortcuts for repeating an insert – use the arrow key, then paste

Saving Files

.wav, .aiff – lossless, high quality

  .mp3 , .aac – compressed file, “low” quality, export format, not good for editing

.aup – Audacity project Files

 

Effects  

Amplification

Fade in/ fade out

Manual fade (Envelope Tool)

Noise Removal

Compressor

 

Importing Sound Files and Music

Practice Files

https://drive.google.com/driv e/folders/0BwJsmGvMifkLa0gwck5kM0F0NkE?usp=sharing

 

 

Exporting

Saving Files

Reopening Files

Exporting mp3s

Bonus Stuff – Trust your ears!

 

 

Resources:

Audacity Video Tutorials by Baynard

Audacity Tutorials in Lynda

Audacity Team Help http://www.audacityteam.org/help/

Audacity Tutorials http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Category:Tutorial

Download the LAME mp3 encoder from within that site

Google for help, lots of stuff on YouTube.

 

Open Source Sound – https://www.freesound.org/

Blog Post  on 20 top free sources

Getting two USB headsets to work:

This is built-in functionality for Mac OSX. Plug in both headphones, then open Audio Midi setup from /Applications/Utilities.

Click the plus in the lower left corner and choose “Create Multi-Output Device.”

Check the checkboxes beside both headphones in the new panel on the right.

If you want to rename it, you can double click the new entry in the list on the left and give it a name like “Both headphones.”

Now you can choose the Multi-Output Device as the audio output in System Preferences → Sound. (You can also easily change the output by holding the Option key and clicking the volume menu.)

Setting up Two USB Headphones mics

A similar arrangement will work to create two usb inputs. Create an aggregate device for the usb headsets.

Check the appropriate boxes.

To record in Audacity onto two separate channels, choose stereo recording channel as your input: