The Book of Audacity by Schroder, Carla -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

The Book of Audacity

Acknowledgments Introduction

What Can Audacity Do? What This Book Covers Audacity vs. Ardour

1. Audacity from Start to Finish

Audacity Quick-Start Audacity in Detail Managing Audacity Projects

Adding Audio Files: Import vs. Open Saving Your Work

Selecting Tracks and Segments of Tracks Track Panel Cutting Out Unwanted Chunks Fade In and Out Making Quiet Recordings Louder Timer Record and Sound Activated Recording Mixer Board Track Metadata Final Mixdown Audio File Formats and Quality Settings

Understanding File Formats Understanding Bit Depth and Sampling Rate 16/44.1, 24/96, 32-Bit Float Bitrate, Bit Depth, and File Size

Now What?

2. Building a Good Digital Sound Studio on the Cheap

Getting Sound In and Out of the Computer

An Example Studio Sorting Out Connectors

Multichannel Recording, PCI, USB, FireWire USB or FireWire? Microphones

Polar Patterns Which Microphones for Which Occasions? Microphone Cables Smart Miking

Microphone Preamp Speakers and Headphones Your Computer Must Have Muscle and Vast Drawers Operating Systems Portable Recording The Secret of Recording Your Own Great Audio Visit Appendix A

3. Transferring Vinyl LPs (and Other Legacy Media) to CD

Preparing Vinyl LPs for Copying Eight Steps to Converting Records to CDs Audacity Settings Recording Fixing Defects

Fade In, Fade Out Fixing Warps Fixing Skips and Pops Finding and Repairing Clipping Noise Removal

Customizing Dynamic Range Compression Normalization Dividing a Long Track into Individual Songs Exporting to CD-Ready Files, One Long Audacity Track Exporting to CD-Ready Files, Multiple Audacity Tracks Writing Songs to a CD Copying Vintage 78s Connecting Legacy Devices to Your Computer

Connecting a Turntable to Your Computer Connecting a Tape Deck

Which Is Better: Vinyl, Tape, or CDs?

The Digital Advantage Longevity

4. Creating and Editing Live Tracks for CD

Making Good Live Recordings

Portable Digital Recorder Laptop with Audacity Multitrack Recording of a Live Performance Be Nice to the Sound Crews

Audacity Settings for Recording

Setting Recording Volume Levels Starting, Stopping, and Pausing Recording Monitoring Your Live Recording

Editing Live Recordings

Editing and Downmixing Multitrack Recordings Special CD Settings in Audacity Trimming Splitting Stereo Tracks for Surgical Repairs Fixing Clipping and Too-Loud Passages Noise Removal Compressing Dynamic Range Cutting a Single Long Track into Individual Song Tracks Creating Graceful Breaks Between Songs Normalization

Optional Track Metadata Final Export Writing Your Songs to CD

Labeling Your CD Mass CD Duplication

Combining Songs from Different Recording Sessions, Fix-its, and Special Effects

5. Authoring a Compilation CD

Audio CDs

There Is Not a Special Audio CD Convert MP3s to Red Book CD

CD Writers and Software Three Ways to Author a CD Compilation in Audacity

One Track per Song Project Single Audacity Track Compilation Project Single Audacity Track + CD-Mastering Program CD Cue Sheets and BIN Files

Fixes and Cleanups

Splitting Stereo Tracks for Surgical Repairs Normalization Making Graceful Fades and Song Breaks

Configuring Audacity for Orange Book CDs

Putting an Orange Book CD Collection Together File Formats and Quality Settings

Computer Media Players Ripping CDs Ripping DVDs

6. Authoring Super High-Fidelity Audio DVDs

What Are WAV, AIFF, and FLAC? DVD-Audio Overview Creating High-Quality Recordings in Audacity

More Power What Bit Depth Is Best? What Sampling Rate Is Best? Saving Your Masters Creating 5.1 Surround Exporting to 16-Bit DVD-Audio Authoring Software

Transferring Legacy Media Learn More

7. Creating Podcasts

The Short Story Making a Simple Voicecast

Audacity Settings Cleaning Up Your Recording Reducing Too-Tall Peaks Fades Normalization

Export to MP3 or Ogg?

Ogg Vorbis Quality Settings MP3 Quality Settings Other Lossy Formats Exporting Your Podcast

Two-Person Podcasts

Editing a Two-Track Recording as a Single Stereo Track Editing a Two-Track Recording as Two Mono Tracks

Adding a Background Music Track

8. Becoming an Online Star

File Formats and Audio Quality The Business of a Recording Artist Establishing an Online Presence Online Music Distributors Self-Hosting

Selling Stuff Online

To DRM or Not to DRM? Copyrights and Legal Issues Learn More

9. Multitrack Recording

Tracks, Channels, and Clips How to Make Multitrack Recordings Playback Tips and Tricks Label Tracks

Creating and Managing Labels Using Labels to Edit Multiple Tracks

Aligning and Moving Tracks

Link Tracks and Track Groups Time-Shifting Multiple Tracks at the Same Time Splitting Tracks Working with Clips Time-Shifting Inside Tracks

Metronome Track Overdubbing

Measuring and Fixing Latency Changing Tempo

NTSC, PAL, and CDDA Frames Creating Loops Mixdown to Stereo

Customizing the Mixer Board Too Loud! Clipping!

Control Your Channel Mapping

Multichannel Surround

10. Making Your Own Ringtones

Customizing Audio for a Mobile Phone Applying Dynamic Range Compression Phone Audio File Formats

RTTTL

Proprietary Audio File Formats How to Transfer Files to Your Phone

11. Audacity Plug-ins for Special Effects

Cross-Fades Generate Menu

Sine Wave Example Frequency Range of Generated Tones DTMF Tones Chirps Generating Noise Test Tones Click Track Pluck Risset Drum

Effect Menu

Reverberation Amplify Auto Duck Change Pitch Phaser Reverse Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift WahWah

Linux Plug-ins

Linux LADSPA Plug-ins Linux Nyquist Plug-ins

Windows Plug-ins Audio Effects Glossary

12. Fix-its and Cleanups

Split Stereo Tracks Repeat Last Effect Noise Removal Normalization Remove Clicks and Scratches

Click Removal Repair Draw Tool

Truncate Silence Change Tempo Change Pitch Change Speed Compress Dynamic Range

How Much Dynamic Range? Compressor Settings Chris's Dynamic Compressor Leveller

Equalization Fix Timing and Latency Errors Analyze Menu

13. Configuring Linux for Best Audio Quality

Using Distributions with Real-Time Kernels

Specialized Multimedia Linux Distributions

64 Studio Ubuntu Studio dyne:bolic pure:dyne Musix

Building a Real-Time Kernel Latency Is Not That Scary Sorting Out Linux Audio Using ALSA

Setting Recording and Playback Levels in alsamixer Master vs. PCM Multiple Sound Cards Adjusting Volume Levels

Hardware Testing with alsa-utils

Testing Speakers Testing Recording ALSA Applications

Querying Your Sound Card Using JACK with Audacity

Connecting a FireWire Recording Interface Creating Persistent Configurations JACK Settings

Turning PulseAudio and Phonon Off Linux System Tweaks The Tangled History of Linux Audio Sound Cards

14. Configuring Windows for Best Audio Quality

Enabling MP3 Support Enabling WMA, M4A/M4P Support Low-Latency Recording and Audio Driver Fun Tuning Windows for Best Performance

Tuning Windows XP Tuning Windows Vista and 7

Configuring Windows Audio Devices

15. Customizing Audacity

Customizing Audacity's Default Options Devices Playback Recording Quality Interface Tracks Import/Export Projects Libraries Spectrograms Directories Warnings Effects Keyboard and Mouse

A. Audio Hardware

PCI, PCI-e, PCMCIA Sound Cards

PCI PCI-e PCMCIA

USB Recording Interfaces FireWire Recording Interfaces Stand Alone ADC/DACs

B. Glossary

A–E F–J K–O P–T U–Z

C. Seven Myths of Digital Audio

The Myth of the Golden Ear The Myth of Burn-In The Myth of Tube Superiority The Myth of Uber Cables The Myth of Analog Superiority The Myth That You Don’t Need Tone Controls The Myth That Someone Else Knows Better Than You

D. References and Resources

Books Online Resources Image Credits GNU Free Documentation License

0. PREAMBLE 1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS 2. VERBATIM COPYING 3. COPYING IN QUANTITY 4. MODIFICATIONS 5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS 6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS 7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS 8. TRANSLATION 9. TERMINATION 10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE 11. RELICENSING

E. Updates Index About the Author Colophon

← Prev
Back
Next →

← Prev
Back
Next →