Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

EDITED: Added notes regarding wave files.

This is not an exhaustive post, nor am I some sound engineer or expert. This is just a post to help with some basic features and functions using Audacity. Any corrections or additions are sincerely welcome, especially from those with more mixing experience. I don't mind learning a thing or two either.

If you wish to export your music as MP3s then you will need to download the "Lame" (no it's not a joke ) MP3 library. The links are available from the Audacity site. Remember where you downloaded it to, because you will need to find it later to use MP3s in Audacity. If you are new or unfamiliar with computers I would suggest you save it in "My Documents", because it's easy to find. Before you enable the MP3s, remember to unzip the file, Audacity will not recognize zipped files.

Install Audacity, if you need help setting up your hardware, the following post may be of help: http://forum.bandmix.com/viewtopic.php?p=24267#24267

Selecting the recording source:
Ok assuming Audacity installed good and you have your hardware setup ok. Start Audacity. At the top in the center you will see a speaker and a microphone. Next to the microphone you will see a pull down arrow. Here is where you select the recording source. Depending on the hardware and O/S you may not see anything to select and yet it may still work. I know that's the case on mine.

Basic setup:
The first thing you will want to do is click on the "Edit" menu and select "Preferences". It's here where you select your save directories, sound quality and MP3 library.

The "Audio I/O" tab:
Determines the "input"/record source and the "playback"/speakers to use. You can also select the number of channels. I use "2 speaker (stereo)", although up to 16 channels are available. For now I highly suggest you use only two channels, unless your sound card supports it and you fully intend somehow to export 16 separate channels at once. In most cases the defaults for recording and playback should work. If you have troubles recording or can't hear any playback. Check your volumes first. Make sure you Windows volume isn't muted and the correct recording and playback devices are set in Windows. If that does nothing then change these values to get the correct device.

The "Play other tracks while recording a new one" means exactly that. If you are using just Audacity to record you can import audio, play it and record a new original track along side the imported audio with this enabled. The "Software Playthrough" Means it will play as you record. I would suggest the first option "Play other tracks while recording a new one", since less then high end machines will have lag using this second option and messing with the original volume level while recording live and trying to match the two is just an extra unnecessary ordeal that can be avoided.

The "Quality" tab:
Default sample rate should be 44100 Hz and perfectly acceptable. If you go higher on this then your file sizes will be bigger and it comes down to who will be listening. If you want to post your music on the net, chances are real good their sound card will be set at 44100 Hz anyway. If you want to know how your music sounds to others, it's usually a good idea to listen to it as other people would normally hear it. Although setting this to a higher rate enables high sound resolution. In short the sound wave will be more detailed and bigger so you can edit finer details. For most cases 44100 Hz works fine. "Default Sample Rate" 32 bit float has good quality. If you want smaller files, you can export later at 24, or 16 bit. But of course the quality will suffer the lower you go.

"Real Time Sample Rate Convertor" It determines which convertor to use when the original sound you are importing is different then that of the sample rate of the project you are doing in Audacity. The default works fine which is "Fast Sinc Interpolation". I would imagine the the "High-Quality Sinc Interpolation" probably resamples at a higher quality (lol go figure ). The down side is how long it takes to import audio into Audacity. In most cases not too long, so if you feel ambitious and have a decent computer, sure go for High-Quality.

"High Quality Sample Rate Convertor" I would suggest leaving this at the default high quality setting. If your mixes and export time is way to long and I'm talking minutes, then you may want to use the high-speed instead.

"Real-Time Dither" Dithering smoothes out the audio. If you are familiar with paint programs or 3d video cards, think of this as anti-aliasing. Here you can select the sound wave shape to use for the dithering. For example if your track has a lot of pulses like a drum track, you may want to use a triangle shaped wave. If it's a flute which is like a sine wave, then use "shaped". If using a lot of straight out synth sounds, you would probably want to use rectangle. I use the default which is none. I don't use any because I want to know how it sounds to others and I take every opportunity to listen to it as they would hear it. It may be nice if the project has better sound using the dither, but the better the basic sound quality is the better the end mix will be. So dithering at real time may be deceiving, making it sound a bit better then what it actually is.

"High-Quality Dither"
If you are going to use dithering, here is were it counts. This is where you select the dithering sound shape for exporting and mixing. Remember the one above is just for playback during real-time. Here it is for keeps, what will eventually be written in the end mix.

"File Formats" tab:
"When importing uncompressed files into Audacity"
"Make a copy of the file before editing"
"Read directly from the original file"
I would suggest to make a copy before editing. Unless the source is something you can easily replace and prefer the convenience of having quicker audio importing. For me I use read directly since the original is already backed up on my recorder to begin with. In the worse case scenario I can always just re-record the original. If it was a once in the lifetime recording you wish to edit, then I highly suggest the first option as well as making a backup copy of the original wave file just in case.

"Uncompressed Export Format"
Ok a lot of options here, AIFF for apples, FLAC, CAF, AU, There is an "other" option as well, which also supports IFF (any amiga owners) W64, HTK, and RAW a lot of other formats as well. The one where it applies for most people using PCs will be .wav or Wave files. Since they are pretty big in size, I only export a wave file if I want a high quality version of an original. So I usually use "WAV (Microsoft 32 bit float)", since quality is my objective when exporting wave files in the first place. If you go 16 bit, of course the file will be half the size and the sound quality isn't bad. Just remember if it's some masterpiece you have spent hours/days on. I would use 32 bit, you can always delete it and re-export at 16. I don't know if it's my software I am using for ripping CDs but the other day I ran into a problem with writing 32 bit wave files to CD. It could just be my software ot the exported Audacity version isn't supported. In either case the 16 bit works fine and is still better quality then the MP3. The idea of uncompressed sound files is, well it's big, but is supposed to be lossless. That is there is no sound degradation when you save it to file. Every time you import and resave most compressed sound formats, you will lose a little sound quality. For example you open an MP3, which is compressed and resave it, decide it's not quite right. Open the saved file again then save it again. Eventually, I guarantee it will end up sounding like garbage.

"OGG Export" I am entirely unfamiliar with OGG file types. This slider controls the quality of the exported file, beyond that I haven't the foggiest idea.

"MP3 Export Setup"
Selecting the Lame MP3 library for enabling the export of MP3s, from the "Edit", "Preferences" menu:
You will see a tab on this page called "File Formats" click on that tab. There is a button called "Find Library". Click on that button and browse to where you have downloaded and saved and unzipped your "Lame" MP3 library earlier. Typically if you followed my earlier suggestion, then it should be in YourUsernname/MyDocuments/libmp3lame-x.xx The username is your username and the "x"s are the version number. If you are certain you are looking at the right place but don't see it, then make sure you unzipped the file first. Audacity will not recognize zipped files.

"Bit Rate"
This is pretty important when it comes to the final quality of the MP3 you're exporting. 256 bit is the usual quality you will get when you purchase a song online. You can select up to a 320 bit rate. A standard song is usually about 4 minutes long at 128 bits it will make a MP3 files about 4.5 megabytes in size. At 256 a little over 9 megabytes. At 320 probably a little over 10, most likely closer to 11.

Anyway when you upload music you typically have a size limitation on both the size of each individual file (For here and most better music sites it's 10 megabyte), for other sites less concerned about overall quality that limit can be as low as 4 megabytes. There is also the storage limit to consider as well, how much total space you are allowed. If you are tight on space, you may want to consider using a few lower quality MP3s like 128 bit for the stuff that's ok and save the 256 or 320 bit MP3s for the really good stuff. If someone is listening to song number 4, then songs 1-3 probably did a decent job of getting them interested. If short on space I would song 1 maybe 1 and 2 high rate, the rest lower.

"Spectrograms" tab
Select the size and highest frequency to display.

"Directories" tab
Here you select the temporary directory. The place it will use disk space for mixing.

For the "Interface", "Mouse" and "Keyboard" tabs I use the defaults. Although the "Autoscroll while playing" you may want to turn off. If you are zoomed all the way into a sound wave while editing, it's easy to lose your place if the autoscroll is on.

"Minimum display of db range"
I use the default of -36db. Most of my stuff is pre-amped anyway. If you want a larger display range select one here.

Ok well that's enough about the setup. Below I'll cover some basic mixing techniques using Audacity to the best of my knowledge. Which is very limited, but hopefully enough to get a start for anyone just starting mixing.♦

This is just some basic info for mixing and using Audacity. I am no expert and much more information can be found in the help me file, right here at the forums, or online at the Audacity site. Please feel free to add any corrections or additions.

Track selection:
The double left arrow will go to the very beginning of a track, you can also hit the "Home" key on your computer keyboard. The Double right arrow takes the cursor to the very end of the track, you can also hit the "End" key to do this. To select an entire track, go to the very beginning of the track, hold down the shift key and either click the double right arrow, or hit the "End" key. The whole track should now be selected. To select everything, all of each track, use control a.

Importing Audio Files:
Go to the "Project" menu at the top and select "Import Audio". A window will pop up allowing you to browse to the correct sound file.
If you are using just Audacity to record and wish to use multiple tracks. Go to the "Edit" menu at tope, select "Preferences". Click on the "Audio I/O" tab at the top and make sure the "Play other tracks while recording new one" is turned on. This way you can accompany and record a new track, while the existing tracks play.

Volume Levels:
When recording you want to eliminate as much noise as possible while having the loudest possible amplification of the sound. If you are using to much amplification you will get clipping. Clipping is when the sending device is sending more voltage or sound then the receiving device can handle. You can see it while recording on the monitor as a dark red line, (the two red strips above the microphone) also if you look at the wave form in the track window, it goes all of the way to the top of the window and flattens out. Unlike most noise clipping is one of the worse noise problems because it is actually part of the recorded sound.

So the objective is to get the recording as loud as possible, close to the top of the scale in the recording monitor without going over. To set the levels first check and make sure your mixer, amplifier etc is set to it's lowest possible volume. Click on the "Record" (big red circle) button. Start playing the recorder or strumming a few chords if amplifier. Slowly increase the volume on the mixer or amplifier until it's just about to the far right end of the scale of the recording monitor (I usually leave about 1/8th of an inch from max just in case). Make sure you don't have any dark red lines at all. If it goes past and you see a dark red line, start over. Because it will stay there until you start the recording again and you want to make sure you don't have any clipping. Once you have it set click stop (Yellow square). You will probably want to discard this, so just click the "x" on the upper left corner of the track. Just as a reminder, Audacity won't double check if you delete a track. When you click that little x, it's gone. So if you delete one by accident, just close Audacity WITHOUT SAVING, then start it again. Select the last project from the "File" menu, "Recent Files" Or... You can just click "Undo" in the edit menu (control z). ok so it just occurred to me recently.

Gain:
To adjust the "gain" on an individual track, click on the slider between the "-.....................+", in the tracks left window. The recording monitor relays real-time info, so if you crank the gain on one track, even if you can barely see the waveform in the window because it's so small. You will still get clipping, since it's reflecting how loud it actually is. Gain settings will also apply during mixes. If one track is lowered at -3, regardless of how big the wave form is, when you mix that track it will be -3 db softer in the final mix. Audacity can only set gain in 3 db increments up or down. If you are tweaking a sound and 0 is too soft and +3 too loud, then consider using "Amplify" to raise that track by 1 or 2 instead.

Normalizing:
Before you start mixing individual tracks together, you should "normalize" them first. It resets the DC position of the track to eliminate any offset and will lower the volumes to 3 decibels below max. Ok the DC offset is the base or zero line of the sound you recorded. Sometimes, actually most times the DC offset of the external device and your soundcard/Audacity program will differ. When it comes time to edit, fade etc, the program will need to know where zero is and it will sound like garbage if zero is at the right place on some tracks and the wrong place on others. When you paste a sound section for instance, it will be next to impossible to get it free of clicks if the DC offset doesn't match. To normalize, select the entire track or all the tracks. Go to the "Effects" menu at the top and select "Normalize".

Compressor:
This lowers the louder volumes of a track, while keeping the softer volumes at the same level. Like if you have a drum that's real loud, but there is a quite part of the song where you don't want them to get any louder, then use this option. If you want the whole thing louder or even softer use "Amplify" instead. Select the entire track, then click on the "Effect" menu at top. Select "Compressor" the compressor dialog will pop up. EDITED: Threshold is the level at which the compression takes place. The ratio is how many times louder the sound will have to be in order to increase by 1db. For example a 2:1 means anything passing the threshold will have to increase by 2db, in order to actually increase 1db after the compression. The attack time is how quickly the compression takes effect. Low attack times for fast quick pulses like drums, longer times for continous sounds like strings.

Amplify:
You can use amplify to lower the volumes as well as raise them. Just input a negative number when putting in a value. If you are unfamiliar with using a decibel scale, beware that 5db is a lot. Most times I usually increase or decrease something by maybe 2.5 or 3.0 To amplify, select the track and click on "Effect" menu at the top, select "Amplify". Leave the "Allow clipping" off, even if the value you selected would cause clipping, the software will not allow it to exceed that threshold with this off. A quick fix to amplify, is to simply adjust the gain levels on the left hand side of each track.

Panning:
Well I have been recording music for a few years, most of what I know is simply what I come across. So I was really surprised when I first learned about what panning is and more so embarrassed because it was so obvious and yet really important. When you listen to a band the typical setup would be maybe singer and drums center lead guitar left or right and bass guitar left or right. Picture how you see them set up on stage, this is how you want it to sound as well. When I started to first record I would just record straight in and not do anything with the panning. What happens is everything gets muddles. It's hard to distinguish the bass from the lead guitar. The vocalist and drummer are competing for volume against the rest of the band and it sounds messy.

For most purposes panning covers the area of space that you can hear from 90 degrees left to center or 0 degrees, to 90 degrees right. On my mixer it's represented L90 for full left, 0 for center and R90 for full right. On my recorder I can adjust up to 2 degrees at a time, in Audacity you can only adjust 10 degrees at a time. To adjust the panning on the left hand side of each track you should see a slider that says "L...............R" with a range between them.

Lets say you had 4 tracks you were working with open in your mixing program 1 track for drums, 1 for vocals, lead guitar and bass guitar. Now a lot is a matter of preference and experimenting will give the best results. But I would start out with drums and vocals at center (which is the default at 0 degrees). The lead guitar I would set at 20 degrees left, the bass guitar at 20 degrees right. Try to split similar sounds up across from each other so they can be more distinguishable. If the lead and bass guitar are too close together it's hard to hear their individual sounds. I don't usually change the vocals and the drummer since the sounds are so distinct they come through clear and the closer the drums and singer is to center the more natural it will sound. If the singer is hard to hear over the drums, you may want to split the singer 10 degrees off center left or right and do the same with the drums. Now when you listen it should be less muttled each instrument has it's own place in the band and can be clearly heard. For more definition you can spread them out more. Just remember they will become more dominant on that side and the volume will decrease since it's using less of both stereo channels.

A cool effect is to create a wide stereo track, for example strings that actually surround the listener. To do this left click the pull down menu on a track in Audacity and select "Split Stereo Track". Where the track was you now have two separate tracks. The top one is the "Left" channel, the bottom one is the "Right" channel. Now pan the left channel to 70 degrees left and the right channel to 70 degrees right. Click on the bottom track, hold the shift key and click on the top track. Click the pull down menu and select "Create Stereo Track". Now when you hear that track the strings will be heard from both sides but really far apart, giving an illusion of a string section in an auditorium.

Echo and reverb:
For most mixing I usually consider echo different then reverb. Whether it's right or wrong, there is a certain degree that I consider reverb a full blown echo. The "Echo" option under the "effect" menu usually gives a much deeper echo then I want. If you are looking to add just a touch of reverb do the following instead. Click on the pull down menu for that track on the left hand side. Select "Split Stereo Track", you now have two tracks, the upper one is the left channel the bottom one is the right. Click on the right channel and go to the very beginning. (Double left arrow, or the "Home" key on the computer keyboard). Click on the "Generate" menu at the top of Audacity, select "Silence" a window pops up asking you for the duration. A good reverb is typically about 30 milliseconds 0.025 for a little less, 0.030 a little more, put in the desired amount then click ok. If you are watching the right channel you will see it shift just a little bit. To recombine the tracks, select the bottom one first (right channel) and wile holding the shift key select the pull down menu from the top track (left channel), select "Make Stereo Track". You will now hear reverb in that track.

Mixing:
After normalizing, adjusting the volume levels and panning if the playback sounds acceptable you will probably want to do some mixes with what you have. Now when you mix tracks in Audacity those tracks will disappear and all you will have is the end or finished version. It's really rare that the first mix comes out great, so I usually duplicate all the tracks I'm going to mix first. This way if it sounds like garbage, it's easy enough to re-do. To duplicate the tracks, while holding down the shift key, select each track you want in the final mix. Click on the "Edit" menu at the top of Audacity and select "Duplicate". Go back and click on the originals to deselect them. You may want to mute those tracks as well, so you can hear the final mix when it's done, without confusion. Now click on those duplicated tracks while holding the shift key. Click on the "Project" menu at the top and select "Quick Mix". The duplicated tracks will now be replaced by the mixed version.

Exporting Audio:
If you select "export as" it will export EVERYTHING. In most cases you probably don't want to do that. To export individual tracks, select that entire track first. then go to the "File" menu at the top. Select "Export Selection As" You can select OGG, MP3 (if the Lame mp3 library is installed) and Wave file formats. If you select MP3, then an additional window will pop up asking about the file details, composer, performer, song title etc. I usually use ID3v1 which is more compatible. Fill that out info and hit ok. The export usually takes about 30 seconds.

EDITED: A word about "Dithering". Dithering is white noise added to the mix. Its purpose is to break up and disguise increments in changes of digital information, disguise noise and give a constant background sound rather than pure silence. Digital playback can be stark because values are in definined increments. Dithering creates random or shaped fluctuations, in order to make the sound more natural.

(bounce)
For the benefit of the technologically challenged.

This should be a sticky. Where the fck is the staff when you need em?

I'm so confused!

Where is my frikken escape button?

Damn it's tough bein' a luddite!

Wow! How in the heck did I miss that post? From the size of it you'd think the harp player wrote it.
We disagreed on everything. But I mis ol Irminsul.

I just copied and pasted that whole thing into a word document, just in case I need it someday. To find anything on this forum is tough. Especially looking thru old posts. At least in my word doc., I can file it under my music folder, label it "Audacity", when I need it....I can find it easily.

Lalong, thanks for posting that.

I know why I missed that post, was before my time.

Whoa, Wow Robin why didnt I think of that. Duhh!
Thanks for the good idea.

You're welcome Robin, hopefully it's helpful. I added some changes regarding ripping 32 bit files to CD and closing tracks can be undone by just selecting "edit" "undo. Should be control z.

If anyone runs into serious problems with their setup, contact me via yahoo messenger. ID jakesterl "JakesterL" I'm no expert, but am fairly computer savvy and don't mind helping folks out.

Whoa, Wow Robin why didnt I think of that. Duhh!
Thanks for the good idea.

You're welcome

<~super organized.....

Excellent post! It should be a sticky!

Just an addendum here... when you get tired of Audacity's basic interface, try Reaper! It is just a few bucks to register, but for basic multitrack recording, it is a wonderful program IMHO!

http://www.cockos.com/reaper/

Doug

(bounce)
For the benefit of the technologically challenged.

Bump for the new guys with no audio up yet.

bump for bundydude

Bump just for grins

Hey my first bump on here....