Putting it Together
Exercise Four
For this exercise, you will be recording the text you read for exercise one again and editing it. The editing process will involve selecting the best takes of your reading, assembling them, and cleaning up the track from unwanted sounds like pops and clicks. Audacity's manual is thorough and fairly easy to understand. I recommend looking it over and referencing it when you have technical questions.Step One:
Listen to the recording you did in exercise one and consider how you might improve its quality. Should you record in a different space? Can you use a different mic or put your mic in a more strategic place?
Step Two:
Rerecord your reading of the text while making more conscientious choices about your space and microphone. Read it at least twice. Don’t worry about saying it perfectly as this is just an exercise. When recording make sure to capture about fifteen seconds of room tone at the beginning (or at some point).
I recommend you record each take on a different track. Depending on your Audacity preference settings, it may or may not generate a new track when you begin a new recording. To create a track, go to Tracks in the menu bar and select Add New and Mono Track.
Step Three: Exporting Your File
Because Audacity is a destructive editing platform, it is a good practice to export a copy of your files in case you make a mistake that you can't undo. Export each track individually (otherwise, it will mix them down into one audio file). To do this, highlight a track and go to File, Export, Export Selected Audio. Export them as WAV files, which is the highest quality.