http://www.techradar.com/pro/linux May 2019 LXF249 71
Audio editing TuTorials
transitionsbycreatingtwolines:oneontheedgeofthe
track and one on the edge of the waveform, which can
be dragged around to reshape the wave’s amplitude.
The outer line will bring down volume overall, but the
inner line can be dragged upwards to increase the
wave’s amplitude.
The really fun bit of Audacity is creating custom
stereo images. You can take a large selection of tracks,
and by sliding the Pan control on each, you can create
a large stereo image in your own virtual soundscape,
making your music or home movies really come alive.
If this is something you’ll do a lot of, a common
mixing technique is to actually record individual voices
or instruments separately in mono. This makes it much
easier to manage when you want to create a stereo mix,
because if the imported track is already in stereo, it
adds unnecessary complexity and filesize. If you’ve
recorded each voice in mono, you simply import all of
the tracks into the same session and assign their place
in the stereo mix with the Pan slider.
A common scenario is with digitally recorded drums,
where each drum mic will have recorded to a separate
channel, with each channel outputting to a separate
wave file. If you import all of these files at once you will
just hear a dull mono image, but if you use the Pan
slider, you can place each drum and cymbal virtually
based on where they would sit in real life.
For instance, overhead mics will usually be mixed far
left and far right, the hi-hat on the left, the ride cymbal
on the right, and the kick and snare will usually be
mixed around the centre. If you put the snare slightly
left and the kick slightly right, you will be able to hear
each drum more clearly in the mix and avoid
overlapping frequencies.
Trade-free exports
Simply saving your work isn’t going to be of much use,
because the only thing that will read Audacity files is
Audacity – you need to export your work. If you click
File and look at the Export sub-menu, you will see a
number of options. Firstly, we need to differentiate
between the ‘Export as...’ options and ‘Export Selected
Audio’. The ‘Export Selected Audio’ option is simple
enough: whatever you highlight with the Selection Tool
is saved to an external audio file. The ‘Export as...’ and
‘Export Audio’ options save an image of your work
exactly as it sits now – mixer settings, effects, and
everything. This is something you’ll want to do when
you’ve got everything just the way you want it.
WAV files are something of a de facto standard in
the mixing world because pretty much anything can
read them, although no one’s going to shout at you for
using FLAC files. Use WAV or FLAC wherever you can
while you’re mixing – most compressed formats like
MP3 or OGG are lossy and should only be used for
distribution after you’ve already made a proper master.
If you don’t like WAV, OGG or MP3, more encoding
options are available using the Export Audio function.
For Audacity veterans, there is some cool new time-
saving functionality for the Tracks menu, under the sub-
menu Mix. There are three options: Mix Stereo Down to
Mono, Mix and Render, and Mix and Render to New
Track. The first option is pretty self-explanatory,
converting any selected stereo tracks into mono. Mix
and Render converts all your current tracks into one
single track, including any volume or pan adjustments,
added effects and so on. Note that you will have to
‘Select All’ to make this work properly.
Lastly, Mix and Render to New Track does the same
Mix and Render, except it leaves the existing tracks as
they are and creates a new rendered track beneath
your current tracks.All mixed up
Audacity has undergone quite a few changes of late,
most of which push it toward being a more viable and
professional multi-track recording program. However,
these changes also add to its bulk and complexity; the
simple truth is that Audacity is no longer as simple as it
once was, which may scare off some new users and
even put off some veterans.
Nevertheless, Audacity is still the friendly and
intuitive program it has always been. As long as it
doesn’t gain much more in complexity, existing users
should be able to adjust and Audacity will maintain its
niche as the easiest way to get into multi-track
recording and editing.WAntMore sound ideAs? Subscribe now at http://bit.ly/LinuxFormat
to makea split
intheaudio,
choosethe
selectiontool,
clickwhereyou
wantthesplit,
andclickedit>
clipBoundaries
>split.now
youcanmove
sectionsof
thewave
independently.By simplifying and stripping back the underlying system, applying audio effects is much easier
than it is in big editing suites.Each track has a handy Collapse function, which is perfect for focusing
on one track when the number of tracks becomes overwhelming