Spoken-Tutorial-Technology/C2/Editing-using-Audacity/English-timed
From Script | Spoken-Tutorial
Time | Narration |
00:01 | Hello friends. Welcome to the tutorial on Editing using Audacity. |
00:08 | This tutorial will explain how to edit an audio file. We will learn how to: |
00:14 | open an audio file in audacity |
00:16 | convert a stereo file to mono, Attach labels , Cut, delete, move and amplify the audio
Filter background noise, Save and export the audio file. |
00:27 | For this tutorial, I am using the Ubuntu Linux 10.04 version operating system and Audacity version 1.3. |
00:36 | Audacity supports many audio formats including: |
00:39 | WAV (Windows Wave format) |
00:41 | AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) |
00:43 | Sun Au / NeXT |
00:46 | RCAM (Institut de Recherce et Coordination Acoustique / Musique) |
00:49 | MP3 (MPEG I, layer 3) (export requires separate encoder. see Lame Installation), Ogg Vorbis. |
00:53 | Let's access Audacity through the Main menu item Applications >> Sound & Video >> Audacity. |
01:04 | An Audacity Help box opens. Let’s click OK. |
01:09 | To edit an audio file, we need to first import it into Audacity. To do this, go to File >> Import >> Audio. |
01:21 | When the browser window opens, browse for the audio file to be edited and click on Open. |
01:31 | The file opens in the Audacity window. |
01:36 | Save this file as an 'a u p' file (i.e. Audacity project file) by clicking on File >> Save Project As. |
01:47 | Click OK in the box that opens. |
01:51 | Give your file a name. Here we will type 'Editing in Audacity'. |
01:55 | Check the folder and click on Save. |
02:00 | Select Copy All Audio into Project (safer) option. |
02:05 | This creates a folder that will contain all the audacity project data files. |
02:11 | Look at the tracks. If there is only one track then the audio is in MONO. |
02:16 | This will also be mentioned in the Label on the left panel. |
02:21 | Now, let's open another audio file. |
02:35 | If there are 2 tracks then the audio is in STEREO. Again, this will be mentioned in the Label on the left panel. |
02:45 | To remove a track completely- select the track, click on Tracks tab and select Remove Tracks. |
02:59 | Alternately, delete tracks by clicking on the 'X' at the extreme left. |
03:04 | If the audio file is in 'stereo' mode and stereo output is not required then one can convert the mode to 'mono'. |
03:12 | To do so, go to the Tracks tab and select Mix and Render. |
03:20 | Now, click on the drop-down arrow on the panel to the left of the audio file and select Split stereo to Mono. |
03:30 | Delete one track. |
03:35 | To zoom into or out of a file, click the cursor where you need to zoom on the file and click the zoom-in or zoom-out button on the Edit panel. |
03:52 | Alternately, place the cursor over the part of the file that you need to zoom into or out of. |
04:03 | Now, press the Ctrl key down and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. |
04:19 | An audio file can be cut to remove unwanted parts, copied, pasted, deleted and treated with some special effects. |
04:29 | The volume of the file can also be increased or decreased. |
04:35 | Before editing, always listen to the whole audio file. You may want to label parts as you listen for easy reference. |
04:44 | To do so, add a label track by clicking on Tracks >> Add New and Label Track. |
04:56 | To add a label at a point, select the point with the cursor, go to the Tracks tab |
05:05 | and select Add Label At Selection. |
05:08 | You can type into the label. |
05:16 | Alternately- click at the point, |
05:24 | press Ctrl +B. |
05:28 | This opens a new Label track, the first time. |
05:32 | Consecutive Ctrl+B will open new labels on the same track. |
05:47 | A label will open with the cursor at the point on the time line where the cursor is placed. |
05:53 | Place the cursor wherever required and press Ctrl+B for each new label. |
06:07 | Labels can also be moved. |
06:15 | To delete the labels, click inside the text box and press backspace till the label is deleted. |
06:27 | Another way to do this is to go to Tracks >> Edit Labels. |
06:34 | A window with all the labels listed will appear and the labels that need to be deleted can be selected and deleted by clicking on Remove button. |
06:46 | Click OK. |
06:55 | After listening to the entire audio file once or more than once, the structure of the edit can be decided; parts of the file can be deleted or moved, as required. |
07:07 | Structure the edit based on what is appropriate for introduction, body and conclusion. |
07:15 | Remove repeats and bad sound. Effects can be used to enhance the impact of a message. |
07:21 | Unwanted sounds such as stammering and coughs that don't overlap the speech, repeats and long silences can be removed. |
07:32 | To delete:
select the Selection Tool and select the part of the audio that needs to be deleted by left-click. Drag and then release, press Delete to delete that part of the audio. |
07:50 | To move one segment of audio to another part:
select the part of the audio that needs to be moved by left-click. Drag and then release. Then cut that part by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+X. |
08:07 | We can also click on the Cut button in the Edit tools panel OR click on Edit >> Cut option. |
08:22 | Move the cursor to the place where the audio segment needs to be moved, |
08:31 | click there and paste the audio segment. |
08:33 | This can be done with either the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V or the Paste button |
08:40 | in the Edit tools panel or Edit >> |
08:47 | Paste option. |
08:52 | To reduce loud breaths: select the breath portion in the audio stream by |
09:14 | left-clicking, dragging and releasing. |
09:17 | Go to Effect >> Amplify. Enter -5 or -7 |
09:26 | or more in the Amplification box, depending on how much you want to reduce the sound and click OK. |
09:43 | To increase the volume of the parts that have recorded softly, select the audio >> go to Effect >> Amplify. |
09:56 | You will see a value already there. This value is optimal amplification for this file. You can also enter the amount you want. |
10:12 | Click OK. |
10:15 | If the OK button is not active, check the Allow Clipping option. |
10:34 | To filter out disturbing background noises, select a portion on the track with the sample noise. |
10:47 | Remember to select a portion without voice. |
10:55 | Now click on Effect >> Noise Removal. |
10:59 | Click on Get Noise Profile. |
11:02 | This will identify the noise sample to be filtered. |
11:06 | Now, select the whole audio track by clicking anywhere on it. |
11:11 | Again, click on Effect >> Noise Removal. |
11:16 | Choose the Noise Reduction Level. |
11:26 | Use the lowest value that reduces the noise to an acceptable level. |
11:31 | Higher values will remove the noise completely but will result in distortion of the audio that remains. |
11:37 | Let's click OK. |
11:44 | It is advisable not to amplify the audio too much above the recommended value in the box because amplification also enhances background sounds. |
11:54 | Hisses and hums will become more prominent as well. |
11:57 | Save the project file regularly. |
12:00 | Finally, export the final project to the required audio format i.e. wav, mp3 and others. |
12:09 | We have already covered this part in the earlier tutorial. Kindly refer to it for details. |
12:17 | That's all we have in this tutorial. Let's just summarize. In this, we learned the basics of editing using audacity - |
12:26 | How to open an audio file, Convert stereo to mono
Zoom in and out, Attach labels |
12:35 | Structure and edit , Cut, delete, move audio
Amplify audio, Filter background noise. |
12:50 | Edit the audio that you have recorded in the first tutorial, using the tips given above. |
12:55 | Use fade-out and fade-in where necessary. |
13:01 | The video available at the following link. http://spoken-tutorial.org/What_is_a_Spoken_Tutorial |
13:06 | summarizes the Spoken Tutorial project. |
13:10 | If you do not have good bandwidth, you can download and watch it. |
13:15 | The Spoken Tutorial team conducts workshops using spoken tutorials. |
13:20 | Gives certificates to those who pass an online test. |
13:25 | For more details, contact: contact@spoken-tutorial.org |
13:30 | Spoken Tutorial project is a part of the Talk to a Teacher project, |
13:35 | supported by the National Mission on Education through ICT, MHRD, Government of India. |
13:42 | More information on this mission is available at: http://spoken-tutorial.org/NMEICT-intro |
13:55 | This brings us to the end of this tutorial. |
13:58 | Thank you. |
14:01 | This is Krupa Thimmaiah from 'ITforChange'. |
Contributors and Content Editors
Jyotisolanki, Nancyvarkey, PoojaMoolya, Pratik kamble, Sandhya.np14, Sneha