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Introduction to Audacity
Experienced users should head down to this section in this document.

Introducing ...

Audacity, a free cross platform audio editor.

For new users to Audacity, see the Tutorial in four parts for some basics on digital audio, setting up Audacity, as well as information on playback and your first recording.

Audacity is currently in version 1.0.0. This is a stable release of Audacity; it has been tested and works well for most people. However, it comes with no guarantee, and we depend on your feedback in order to continue to improve on it. Please check our website for the latest version, including a beta-quality preview of the next version under development. Audacity is a collaborative project, so there are lots of opportunities for you to get involved if you're interested!

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

What can you do with Audacity?

Audacity is a program that manipulates digital audio waveforms. In addition to recording sounds directly from within the program, it imports many sound file formats, including WAV, AIFF, AU, IRCAM, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis.

It supports all common editing operations such as Cut, Copy, and Paste, plus it will mix tracks and apply plug-in effects to any part of a sound. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customizable spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications.

What can't Audacity do?

Although Audacity is a very powerful audio editor that works with an unlimited number tracks of virtually unlimited size, it cannot do everything. It cannot :

  • Record more than two channels at once. It does not support any special hardware, but just works with the system's default audio device.
  • Resample audio to different sample rates (this is available in version 1.1 and later).
  • Audacity opens MIDI files, but it is not a MIDI editor, and its MIDI features are extremely limited.
  • Audacity currently only works with 16-bit quality audio (version 1.1 supports 32-bit audio).

How does it work - a quick intro for experienced users

Audacity works with tracks, that contain one audio file. This file is editable and all actions are undoable. Undo's are instantaneous.

Almost anything is undoable, including importing and deleting tracks!

There are no inserts, auxes or buses yet.

The Windows and Mac versions can use VST plugins, but there is no preview function available yet.

There is one master gain control in the toolbar.

There is volume automation via the envelope tool.

Solo does not switch off Mute

Editing functions include Cut, Copy, Paste,Duplicate(to new track at same timecode), Split(to new track at same timecode), Silence and Insert Silence.

What makes Audacity unique?

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