Creating and Importing Audio Using Audacity

Before you can edit audio in Audacity you have to have some audio to edit. Once Audacity has been properly installed you can use a microphone to record your own voice or you can import an audio file that already exists.

Importing an Existing Audio File
1. Open Audacity.
2. Click on the Project Menu

3. Choose Import Audio
4. This will open a browse window. Navigate to where your audio file is stored and choose it
5. That's it. You should now see your audio file imported as the next unused track, if you didn't have any other audio open your imported audio will appear in Track 1.

Creating an Audio File Using a Microphone
1. Plug your mic/headset into the color-coded jacks on the back of your computer if you have not done this already
2. Open Audacity (Please note the test.wav file shown below is for illustration purposes only. It will not be there when you open Audacity)

3. Begin recording by clicking on the "Record" icon.
4. Pause your recording by clicking the Pause icon. This pause button is very useful because it allows you to collect your thoughts before continuing to dictate. As you will see, the Stop button opens a new audio track. This is not a disaster but information in the second track will need to be selected and pasted from the second track into the first track to create a single recording of your voice.
5. You may want to write out your thoughts in a word processor before beginning your recording. Shrink the window of the word processor so it only occupies half of your screen. Then with Audacity open in the other half of your screen, click on Record and read your text from your word processing file.
6. In order to edit your recording, or export it as an .mp3 file, you first need to save it. Click on the Stop icon.
7. Under File, click on "Export as MP3" to save your file in .mp3 format.
8. If the file as you have created is exactly what you wanted, you're done! You can now upload this .mp3 file as you would any file to Blackboard or to your personal web site. But if, like the rest of humanity, you don't quite get it right on the first try, you can edit out parts you don't like or even reorder the audio you have. We'll demostrate this in the next tutorial.

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