This web tutorial was created with the purpose of sharing with you the basics of editing audio with Audacity. Here you will find links to webpages where to download Audacity and the LAME encoder, and a twelve step tutorial that will take you through the process of opening an audio file, editing it, adding a second audio file to the project for background sound, and finally saving the project as an MP3 file that you can use for sharing with others.

The content of this website was used at the 2018 Allied Media Conference as a knowledge sharing tool. Its aim was and is still is to prime the participants of the Audacity Awesome! workshop to utilize Audacity for any sort of audio editing projects specially those that echo the principles of the conference, of Media Based Organizing.

Audacity is an open-source cross-platform application for recording and editing audio. It is free and has a large support community. The Audacity's main website is full of information about the background of the application, its installation and use.

https://www.audacityteam.org/

The first step is to install audacity and below is the link to the download page. Once you download the version of Audacity for the operating in your computer, check out the links below for the rundown on how to do the install.

There are several plug-ins available for Audacity as well as other pieces of script that make Audacity even more robust. LAME is one of those. It is an important encoder that works in conjunction with Audacity. Due to copyright restrictions, Audacity cannot encode your edited audio files as MP3s by itself and that is where LAME comes into play! That encoder is a 3rd party piece of code that will allow you to save your files as MP3s right from Audacity. Look on the list below for the link to the page that explains how to install the encoder.

Audacity download page

https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

Installing Audacity on Linux

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_and_updating_audacity_on_linux.html

Installing Audacity on Windows

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_and_updating_audacity_on_windows.html

Installing Audacity on Mac OS X

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_and_updating_audacity_on_mac_os_x.html

Installing the LAME MP3 encoder - you will need this encoder installed in conjunction with Audacity to be able to save audio files as MP3s.

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#lame

One of the best and most up to date sources of information about Audacity is the Audacity team's manual page. It includes a whole set of tutorials to learn how to record with Audacity, edit audio, copy the audio of tapes and records and much more.

I have also included the link to several sites where you can find free music and audio files to use in your projects.

The online Audacity manual

https://manual.audacityteam.org/

Online tutorials by the Audacity team

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorials.html

Opsound - a pool of free audio files "using a copyleft license developed by Creative Commons. Listeners are invited to download, share, remix, and reimagine." This is where I found the music track that we use in the tutorial, BASS IS MY BFF by SoUnD WaVeS. Thank you!

http://www.opsound.org/

Free Music Archive - section curated by Creative Commons

http://freemusicarchive.org/curator/Creative_Commons/

Icons by 2redpartyhats - they created the Audacity icon that I used for this web tutorial... thank you!

https://rocketdock.com/user/55521/addons/popular

Fresh-stuff4u - they shared the sound wave icon that I used for this web tutorial on their website/blog... thank you!

http://https://fresh-stuff4u.com/cropped-iconmonstr-sound-wave-4-icon-png/

© 2018  Krusheska M. Quirós