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COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
ICTP 215 Multimedia Systems
Worksheet 3
ID Number:

Editing an Existing Audio File

The easiest way to use Audacity is to import an existing audio file and make small changes. If you've never used Audacity
before, this is a great place to start
If you have just made a recording it is recommended to File > Export Audio... it immediately to WAV or AIFF (ideally to an external drive)
as a backup copy before you start editing the project.

Objective
The objective of this activity is to learn how to edit an audio file. To perform this activity, we are going to import an existing sound
file, remove all but 10 seconds of this file, apply a 1-second fade-out at the end, export the results, and play it in your favorite
audio player. These steps will introduce the basic steps commonly used when editing the contents of an audio file.

Step 1: Find a file to edit

Audacity can import many common audio file formats, including WAV, AIFF, and MP3. If the optional FFmpeg library is installed,
a larger range of formats, including WMA and the audio content of most video files, can be imported. Audacity cannot import
copy-protected music files.
If you want to edit music that you have on an audio CD, you need to "rip" the music into an audio file. See the Audio CDs page
for information on getting the audio off of CDs and into Audacity.
Don't have any audio files handy? There is lots of free music online! Here is one site where you can download free
music: Opsound
The recordings on this site are free, distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license, which gives you the
right to create a derivative work without paying royalties, as long as you give credit and make your derivative work free, too. This
is similar to the license for Audacity, which allows any programmer to modify it and redistribute it for free.

Step 2: Import the file into Audacity

First launch Audacity, then import an audio file by selecting File > Import > Audio....
A quicker method is to just drag and drop the file as in the following examples:

Windows: Drag the audio file icon

into the open Audacity window.

Mac: Drag the audio file icon

Linux: Drag the audio file icon

to the Audacity icon in the Dock

into the open Audacity window.

(does not work for all formats yet).

All three platforms support:

dragging the audio file into the Audacity window

dragging the audio file to the Audacity icon on the Desktop.

Specific dragging behavior according to platform:

On Windows and Mac you can also drag to Audacity's icon in a file manager program.

On Mac and Linux you can drag the file to the Audacity icon in the Dock or Taskbar respectively to import the file into
Audacity.

On Windows, dragging the file to the Audacity icon in the Taskbar will either switch the window to Audacity if it
is running (from where you can drag the file in), or if Audacity is closed, give the option to launch Audacity with the file
imported.

Command-line file importing: On all three platforms you can also import files by launching Audacity at the command-line and
passing the files you wish to import as arguments. For example, on Linux Ubuntu:

me@ubuntu:~$ audacity Desktop/song.mp3 Desktop/speech.wav

imports the "song.mp3" and "speech.wav" files located on the Desktop in separate Audacity windows.

Step 3: Look at the waveform

This image above shows a stereo waveform. The left channel is displayed in the top half of the track and the right channel in
the bottom half. The track name takes the name of the imported audio file ("No Town" in this example). Where
the waveform reaches closer to the top and bottom of the track, the audio is louder (and vice versa).
The ruler above the waveform shows you the length of the audio in minutes and seconds.

Removing any DC offset (if present)

DC offset can occur in audio files so that the recorded waveform is not centered on the horizontal line at 0.0 amplitude. It can
be caused by recording with a faulty soundcard. The example above is centered on 0 correctly and carries no DC offset. If
your waveform is not centered, see the Normalize page for how to use Normalize to remove DC offset and how to check if
your Windows sound device can perform this correction automatically.

Step 4: Listen to the imported audio

The image above shows Transport Toolbar.

Click the Play button

to listen to the audio. Click the Stop button

to stop playback. If you don't hear anything,

see Audacity Setup and Configuration.

You can use the SPACE key on the keyboard as a shortcut for Play or Stop.
Click on Selection Tool

then click on the waveform to choose a place to start, then click the Play button

drag to create a selection, and then when you click Play button

only the selection will play.

Keyboard use: You can select audio entirely using the left arrow, right arrow and other keys.

. Click and

Press LEFT or RIGHT to move the cursor left or right respectively in the waveform.

Hold down SHIFT while pressing LEFT or RIGHT to create then extend a selection leftwards or rightwards
respectively.

Hold down SHIFT and CTRL while pressing LEFT or RIGHT to contract an existing selection leftwards or
rightwards respectively.

Clicking the Skip to Start button

or pressing the HOME key will move the cursor to the beginning of the track. It's kind of

like rewind, but it's not for playback - it will only work when playback is stopped.
Similarly, clicking the Skip to End button

or pressing the END key will move the cursor to the end of the track.

To jump the playback position forwards or backwards from where it is now, click on the Timeline above the waveform at the
point you wish to hear.
Keyboard use: You can use the following keys to skip around the audio file while listening.

Press LEFT or , to move the playback cursor back one second.

Press RIGHT or . to move the playback cursor forward one second.

Press SHIFT + LEFT or SHIFT + , to move the playback cursor back 15 seconds.

Press SHIFT + RIGHT or SHIFT + . to move the playback cursor forward 15 seconds.

The amount the cursor moves in this situation is called the "seek time". The long and short seek times (one second
and 15 seconds in the examples above) can be set in the Seek Time When Playing section of Playback Preferences.

Step 5: Create a 10-second clip from your audio

You edit audio waveforms in Audacity in much the same way as you would edit text in a word-processing document. When
you are editing text you first select the text you want to change and then choose what you want to do with it. You might
want to cut or copy the text, delete it, paste new text in its place, or change it to bold. You do the same thing in Audacity:
first zoom and select the range of audio you want to change, and then choose what you want to do with it.

The image above shows Edit Toolbar with the Zoom buttons highlighted. This

is the Zoom In tool, and this

is

the Zoom Out tool.

To zoom in to get a closer look at the waveform, first choose the Selection Tool

, then click near the point you're

interested in, then click the Zoom In button. Keep clicking the Zoom In button until you see the detail you need. Note
that when you click the Zoom In button the cursor is centered on the screen.
There are also menu commands and keyboard shortcuts for zooming. View > Zoom In (or CTRL + 1) is the same as
clicking the Zoom In button. View > Zoom Out (or CTRL + 3) is the same as clicking the Zoom Out button. View > Fit
In Window (or CTRL + F) will zoom the waveform so it fits in the window.
Use the Zoom commands so that you can make maximal use of your Audacity window to see as much detail as you
need, or to make sure you see the entire file when necessary.

Walk through deleting all but approximately 10 seconds of selected audio

To cut this audio file down to exactly 10 seconds, use these following steps.
These steps require a mouse, except for using SPACE on the keyboard to play the selection and C to play either side of the
selection. See below for how to create and adjust selections using the keyboard.
1.

With playback stopped, click near the point where you want the 10-second piece to begin.

2.

Zoom in until the Timeline shows 10 seconds or more before and after the cursor.

3.

While holding down the SHIFT key, click 10 seconds to the right of the cursor.

Note that this is just like selecting a range of text in a word processor

4.

Press SPACE to listen to the entire selection. Playback will stop when the end of the selection is reached.

5.

Adjust the start and end of the selection with the mouse as follows.

6.

5.1. Move the pointer over the start of the selection - the cursor will change to a left-pointing hand.

5.2. Click and drag to adjust the beginning of the selection.

5.3. You can adjust the end of the selection in a similar manner.

Press SPACE to listen to the adjusted selection. You don't have to listen to all of it; press SPACE again at any
time to stop playback.

A convenient way to listen to only the adjusted start of the selection is to move the mouse pointer a little
after the start of the selection then press B. The selection plays from the start of the selection to the
pointer. To hear the adjusted end of the selection, move the pointer close to the selection end, then
press B to play from the pointer to the selection end.

You can also play a length of audio either side of the selection by pressing C. This lets you make sure
there is no audio you want to keep that will be removed. Playing either side of the selection would also be
useful if you later wanted to cut a small piece out of that selection - you would select the small piece to be
cut, then could preview how the audio would sound after the cut. To adjust the length of audio played
before and after the selection, go to Cut Preview in the Playback Preferences.

Keyboard use: Use the arrow keys to adjust the selection start and end.
1.

Pressing SHIFT + LEFT will expand the selection to the left.

2.

Pressing SHIFT + RIGHT will expand the selection to the right.

3.

Pressing SHIFT + CTRL + LEFT will contract the selection from the right.

4.

Pressing SHIFT + CTRL + RIGHT will contract the selection from the left.

Keyboard use: Use Selection Toolbar to create or adjust a selection.

1.

Without a mouse, use CTRL + F6 to navigate into Selection Toolbar, then TAB between the controls.

2.

In "Selection Start", type the starting point of your selection if there is not yet a selection.

3.

Select the

Length radio button above the second group of numbers in Selection Toolbar if it is not yet

selected.
4.

If there is no selection yet, select the digit after the "m" in the "Length" box and type 1 (one) on your
keyboard. This selects exactly 10.000 seconds from the starting point you chose.

5.

Once there is a selection, you can adjust its length in the same way. Let's suppose you dragged a little
less than 10 seconds in the waveform, but you need the selection to be exactly 10 seconds.
1.

Select the first digit to the right of the decimal point in the "Length" box.

2.

Type 0 (zero) - the digit changes to zero, the digit to the right is selected and the selection in
the waveform changes to match.

3.

Type 0 (zero) twice more - the selection length is now 10.000 seconds, accurate to one
thousandth of a second.

You've now selected the portion of the audio that you want to keep. Make sure you have pressed SPACE to stop if the
track is still playing, then to delete everything except the selected audio, click onEdit > Remove Special > Trim Audio.

If you make a mistake, you can always click on Edit > Undo. Audacity has unlimited Undo and Redo. You can undo
your editing actions all the way back to when you imported the file. You can also Redo actions that you have undone.
You now have a region of audio that starts several seconds (or perhaps minutes) from the beginning of the track. You
could move the audio to the beginning of the track, using Tracks > Align Tracks >Start to Zero, but this isn't a
necessary step because when exporting, Audacity will ignore the white space between time zero and the start of the
audio.

Step 6: Fade out the last second

Click the Skip to End button

Zoom In until you can see the last two or three seconds of the waveform.
Click in the waveform about 1 second before the end.
Click on Edit > Select > Cursor to Track End.
Click on Effect > Fade Out. The last second of the audio is smoothly faded out.

Note that we always select some audio first, then choose what action we want to perform on it.

Step 7: Export the resulting file

When you save an Audacity project with File > Save Project you are doing just that - saving an Audacity project.
Audacity projects can be opened only by Audacity. If you want other programs (such as iTunes or Windows Media
Player) to be able to open this file you need to export it.
Before we export this 10 second clip to a separate file we're going to simplify things a bit. Go to the Import / Export
Preferences, and under When exporting tracks to an audio file uncheck "Show Metadata Editor prior to export step".
Metadata Editor adds extra information about the speech or music into the file - see For More Information below to learn
more. You can go back to the Import / Export Preferences at any time to re-enable Metadata Editor.
Metadata

Tag

Value

Artists Name

Gloc-9 and Jay Durias

Track Title

Hindi Mo Nadinig

Album Title

MKNM: Mga Kwento Ng Makata

Track Number

Year

2012

Genre

Pinoy Hip-hop

Comments

Exporting a WAV file

Click on File > Export Audio... - the standard "Save" dialog for your operating system appears.

Give the file a different name. Audacity always suggests a name for the file that is the same as the name of your

Audacity project. It is always best to alter this so you don't confuse your exported file with your Audacity project.
Choose a location to save the file in the usual manner.
At the bottom of the Save dialog is a dropdown menu labeled "Format". From this menu choose "WAV (Microsoft)
signed 16-bit PCM".
There are no options for the WAV file format, so there is no need to click the Options button.
Click the Save button to complete the export of your project to a WAV file.

Exporting an MP3 file (Optional)

In order to export files from Audacity in MP3 format you will need to download and install the optional LAME MP3
encoder. Instructions are here . Once you have downloaded and installed the LAME encoder you will be able to create
MP3 files using Audacity.

The steps for exporting a file in MP3 format are the same as for a WAV file, except:

In the Save dialog, from the "Format" menu, choose "MP3 files"

Then click the Options button to set the bit rate and other options for the MP3 file.

Step 8 - Testing your new Audio Production

To demonstrate the difference between an Audacity project (the AUP) file, and a sound file you export from an
Audacity project:

Click on File > Close, saving changes if asked.

Find the AUP file on your computer and attempt to open it with the audio player of your choice (for example iTunes,

Windows Media Player). You can't.

Find the exported WAV file on your computer and attempt to open it with the audio player of your choice. Success!

You can't open an Audacity project in a media player. Only by exporting your project can you listen to it in a media
player.
Once you've exported your project you may want to keep the original project file (AUP) and its associated _data folder
around in case you want to make some changes to it in the future.
Question: What are the other effects that you can introduce to the audio file that you have created? Has the
activity opened up new possibilities in sound editing?

The other effects that I can introduce are Amplify, Fade In and Change Speed.
Yes, it opened up other possibilities because it enchances the sound of the
audio file.
Grading
: Worksheet will be graded according to the following weights:
Criteria
Sound Editing

Weight
s

Rating

20%
20%

Exporting File
20%
Metadata
40%
Answer to Question
100%

Grade:

Equivalent
Grade