Podcaster's Portal: the audio track

Planning your podcast Podcaster's Portal: the audio track

The audio track

IN THIS ARTICLE

The audio track
Using buttons in Audacity
Windows audio control
Pause button

By Jonathan Halls

Should these tips start further back with how to open the program and show the blank screen? The first thing you need to get used to is seeing your audio in audacity. Audio appears as a track.

If it is stereo, it appears as two tracks and these are attached to the other as you can see in the screen shot above.

The track appears in a horizontal box and is like a visual or virtual strip of quarter-inch tape.

The track also displays a visual representation of your audio in the form of the sound wave. This makes it easy to cut and splice your audio in the right place as you get used to recognizing how the shape you see relates to the sound you hear.

Every time you import a sound file into Audacity, it will create a new track and display it in that track. You can have more than one track, which is what gives you the ability to do multi-track mixes.

Using the Buttons on Audacity

You can listen to and find your way around the audio very easily using the buttons at the top left of your screen. They are very similar to a CD player or mini-disc recorder.

You have the functionality of play, record, stop, pause, rewind and fast forward. And the symbols used are very similar to standard devices.

Audacity Buttons

	Audacity Buttons
	Skip to beginning of track
	Play track or tracks not muted (Space bar also plays a track.)
	Record a new track
	Pause the play
	Stop the play or record function (Space bar also acts as a stop key.)
	Skip to the end of track

To get a good understanding of how Audacity works, we are going to assume that you have a microphone and set of headphones plugged in.

Recording a voice piece and playing it back in Audacity is not that much different from doing it on a traditional analogue cassette recorder.

When you record a voice piece, all you need to do is click on the record button at the top of your screen.

When you have finished reading your script, click on stop to finish the recording.

To listen back to your track, click on the Rewind track and it will re-position your play position to the very beginning. Then click on the play button.

If you want to pause during the playback, simply click on pause before resuming playback.

Once you have recorded your voice track, you are ready to edit it using Audacity’s cut and splice facility.

Watch out for Windows Audio Control

When you are listening to your audio as you play it back, there are a number of ways to control the volume. Some are in Audacity. However, one control that often trips people up is the windows volume control.

You can access the windows volume control by double clicking on the speaker icon at the bottom right of your screen. It will open up a control box where you can adjust the levels. You also have the option to mute the sound.

Be careful with this. Often when you can’t hear Audacity, it is because the Windows volume control is either on mute or turned down.

Watch out for the Pause Button

Another little thing that trips people up is the pause button. When pause in Audacity is activated, you are not able to use other controls. If you cannot fast forward or move your track, check that you are not mistakenly in pause mode.