8/3/2019 Editing Interviews With Audacity

1/1

Editing Your Interview with Audacity

1. Open Audacity and import your main interview audio file. From the File menu: Import -> Audio (or ctrl-shift-I) and select the .wav file to import.

2. Converting the recording from a mono track to a stereo track. Click the triangle near the file name (i.e. ZOOM003) and select Split Stereo Track. Click the X on the lower (empty) right track to delete it. From the Tracks menu:Add New -> Audio Track(or ctrl-shift-N). Click the triangle next to the name

Audio Track and choose Right Channel.

Double-click anywhere on the left channel track to select the whole track. Copy it. Then set theplayhead at the beginning of the Right Channel track, and Paste. Then click the triangle next to theupper track name and select Make Stereo Track.

3. Choosing and isolating the best sound bytes From the Tracks menu:Add New -> Stereo Track(or ctrl-shift-N). This is where you will paste all the

sound bytes that you will use for the story.

Press PLAY (or the space bar) to listen to the audio. Using the Selection Tool, you can highlight thewaveform of the sound byte. Press the space bar to hear only the highlighted area.

Another option: while the track is playing, you can press the [ to set your IN point, and ] forthe OUT point.

You can adjust the IN (start) and OUT (end) points after, by holding the cursor over the start or endand nudging the highlighted area further.

Another option: hold the cursor over the area youd like to extend the IN or OUT point to,press the SHIFT button and click the mouse.

IMPORTANT : always give yourself an extra second of audio or handle before and after thequote itself.

When youre satisfied with the clip, choose COPY. Then click on the new Stereo Track and PASTE.4. Fading the IN and OUT points of each sound byte.

Use the Selection Tool to highlight each handle(audio before the IN or after the OUT of each quote). From the Effect menu: select Fade In for the start of the quote, Fade Outfor the end.

Another option: select the ENVELOPE tool, click on the waveform where the quotebegins/ends this creates a control point. Then go to the start/end of the handle, click tocreate another control point, hold the mouse button, then drag down until the audio createsa cone shape.

5. Adjusting audio levels If an entire track is too loud or too quiet, adjust the gain (+ / -) on the left hand side of the track. If a region of the track is too quiet, highlight the region using the Selection Tool. Go to the Effect

menu, selectAmplify.

o You may need to try this several times (using the UNDO option if necessary) to get it to theright level you want.

If you want to adjust the audio level in a specific way or in a specific spot , you can use theENVELOPE tool to amplify or lower the audio level.