Using Audacity to Record Your Voice

Here are some very simple steps for using Audacity to create digital voice recordings for use in instructional modules. You can do a lot more with the tool, but this is all you need to know to get started.

Note: I created this tutorial on a computer running Windows Vista. The process under other operating systems will be similar.

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(1) When you launch Audacity, the following screen will appear on your desktop:














(2) At the top of the screen, you will find a set of transport controls, which look very much like the physical controls on a cassette deck.














The transport controls are: Pause, Play, Stop, Skip to Start, Skip to End, Record. Since they are based on a familiar model, their use should be self-explanatory.


(3) To record your voice, left click on the "Play" button and begin speaking into your microphone. Any microphone that can be connected to your computer will work.













(4) A waveform (i.e., a visual representation of your voice that can be edited) will appear as you speak.












Because the input levels on my computer are very low, the waveform appears like a straight line. Steps 7 - 10 will show how to expand it into something more meaningful.



(5) Left click on the "Stop" button to stop recording.













(6) Left click on the "Skip to Start" button to position yourself at the beginning of the waveform. Optionally, you can use the scroll bar at the bottom of the panel to move to the beginning and then left click with the cursor at the start of the recording.













(7) To improve the quality of the sound and to make the waveform visible, the recording needs to be normalized and compressed. To to this:

(a) left click on "Edit" at the top of the panel,

(b) left click on "Select" in the menu that appears and

(c) left click on "All" in the next menu.

















(8) Next, left click on "Edit" at the top of the panel and left click on "Compressor . . ." in the menu that appears.













(9) When the "Dynamic Range Compressor" appears, just left click on "OK."













(10) The recording will be enhanced and a more meaningful waveform will appear:













The peaks and valleys in the waveform are visual representations of your voice. The straight lines between them are the silences between the words.

(11) If there are long pauses before and after you speak, you can easily edit them out.













(12) To remove a silence at the beginning:

(a) left click inside the waveform at the end of the pause,

(b) while holding down the left mouse button, drag to the left until you reach the beginning of the waveform,

(c) release the left mouse button and

(d) press the "Delete" key on your computer keyboard.













(13) To remove a pause at the end, repeat the process, but go in the opposite direction.












Coughs, stumbled words, long silences, etc. can be removed from anywhere in the waveform by highlighting the section you wish to delete in this manner and pressing the "Delete" key.

(14) To save the recording as an MP3 file on your computer:

(a) left click on "File" in the main toolbar and

(b) left click on "Export . . ." in the menu that appears.















(15) The next menu gives you the option of entering information that will be displayed when the file is played on a media player or a CD player. If you don't need this kind of information, just left click on "OK."













(16) In the next menu, navigate to where you want to save the file and give the file a name.













(17) Then select "MP3 Files" under "Save as type."














(18) Finally, left click on "Save" to save the file.













Notes:

(1) If the audio file is not something you want to keep, you can save it directly to an MP3 player or USB flash drive instead of the computer's hard drive.