Audacity Manual Contents

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Audacity 2.0.6 Manual

Help Resources

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - most common questions are answered in the FAQ

• Search the Wiki for extra tips and tutorials
• Visit the Forum for technical help
• Using Help Resources

Using Audacity

Quick Help

• Getting Started - Recording, Importing, Editing, Exporting...

Understanding Audacity

• Foundations
  • Managing Audacity Projects - Audacity's internal workspace
  • Audacity Setup and Configuration
  • Digital Audio Fundamentals
  • Audio Tracks and The Waveform Display
  • Label Tracks
  • Playing and Recording
  • Importing audio and Exporting audio files - For use in other programs
  • Navigation Tips, Playback Tips and Audio Alignment Tips

• Editing
  • Selecting audio
  • Clips - individual sections within an audio track
  • Splitting and Joining Stereo Tracks
  • Sync-Locked Track Groups
  • Zooming
  • Effects, Generators and Analyzers
  • Mixing Audio Tracks
  • Undo, Redo and History

Tutorials

• Editing an Audio File - Import the file, edit and export it
• Your First Recording - Record microphone, guitar, keyboard
• Mixing Voice with Background Music - For podcasts
• Recording Multi-track Overdubs - Record over other tracks
• Copying tapes, LPs and other media to CD or computer
• Recording streaming audio playing on the computer
• Splitting a recording into separate tracks
• Vocal Removal and Isolation
• Looping - make an audio loop with Audacity
• Making Ringtones - For your cellphone
• Burning Audio CDs and How to import CDs
• Exporting to iTunes and Importing from iTunes
• Example Workflows

Help with Advanced Topics

• Accessibility - Audacity for the visually impaired
• Latency when recording overdubs
• Chains - for batch processing and effects automation
• Crash Recovery
• Customizing Audacity and Simplifying Menus
• Scripting

Reference

Guide to the Project Window

1 Menu Bar   2 Transport Toolbar   3 Tools Toolbar   4 Meter Toolbar   5 Mixer Toolbar   6 Edit Toolbar   7 Transcription Toolbar   8 Device Toolbar   9 Timeline   10 Track Control Panel   11 Audio Track   12 Selection Toolbar   13 Status Bar  

Hover over and click on the image to learn more. Skip the image

More Details for the Project Window

Toolbars Overview - including how to arrange Toolbars

Additional Menus on Mac:

Audacity

Window

Additional Track types:

Time Tracks

Note Tracks

More Details for Importing and Exporting :

LAME MP3 export and FFmpeg import/export libraries for more formats

On-Demand Loading of uncompressed files

Metadata Editor

Preferences - changing your settings

Devices

Playback

Recording

Quality

Interface

Tracks

Import/Export

Extended Import

Projects

Libraries

Spectrograms

Directories

Warnings

Effects

Keyboard

Mouse

Preferences are at the bottom of the Edit menu (or in the Audacity menu on Mac).

Many settings can be changed including keyboard shortcuts and the interface language.

Preferences settings can be reset to default at any time.

Index, Glossary and More

• Subject Index
• Glossary of Terms
• Credits

• Audacity License
• Information for Developers - join our developer community

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Links: Most links are to other pages in this Manual. Bold italicized  links are to a description in our Glossary. Other italicised  links are to pages external to this Manual, mostly to our main web site or Wiki. We are not responsible for the content of any other external sites.

Screenshots: Unless otherwise stated, screenshots in this Manual are of Audacity running under its default settings on the Microsoft Windows 7® operating system. Representative images of Audacity running on Mac OS X and Linux are also included.

Copyright: Unless otherwise noted, all pages in this Manual are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. In essence, you are free to (1) copy, distribute and transmit the work (2) to adapt the work, under condition you must attribute the work to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from us.