What is Audacity?

Audacity is a free, open source application that you can use to record and edit audio for podcasting (not video).  It is very easy to use, and you can use it either on a mac or a PC, unlike Garageband, which must be used on a mac. 

Why you might want to use Audacity:

• You want to have the flexibility of beginning a project on the macbook at school and bringing it home to work on later.  (You can't do this with Garageband, even if you have a mac at home with Garageband installed.  It's one of many iLife irritations.  Note that you can check out your designated macbook after school or during your study hall, if you want to stick with Garageband and do your work at school.)
• You want to record some tracks at home with the Blue Snowball microphone and bring them in to work on them at school (you can add the tracks to a Garageband project).
• You like the idea of open source and want to support the open source movement by using as many open source tools as possible. 
• You don't feel the need to use Garageband's library of sound effects and jingles.
• You don't mind having to manually adjust volume of background music tracks.

So what do I do if I want to use Audacity?

Audacity is already installed on our Macbooks.  To install at home, go to this page.  Follow the installation instructions.  Be sure that you DO NOT INSTALL THE BETA VERSION.  Get permission from your home admin (Mom?  Dad?) if it's not your own computer.

Now that it's installed, here is a link to a good tutorial -- short and simple:

Audacity Tutorial for Podcasters

Other resources:

• The book "Kidcast:  Podcasting in the Classroom," which is on our shelf of resources in Ms. Hodge's room.  There is a section on using Audacity. 
• Audacity's documentation and support page.  This includes a link to a wiki with all kinds of Audacity tips.

If you become an Audacity user, please add tips and tricks to this page!

Tips and Tricks

1. Be careful with storage of files.  To open a file that has been saved in Audacity project format (.aup), Audacity needs to access the files that are stored in the same directory as the project file.  When you copy project files to a flash drive, copy the entire directory needed to  ensure your project file will open  on  another computer.
2. If you are just recording some tracks at home and want to bring them in and add them to a Garageband project, don't bring it to school as an Audacity project file.  Export the project as a WAV (.wav) file and save the file to a flash drive. 
3. If you do an entire project in Audacity, try to follow the instructions for using the lame mp3 encoder so that you can export your file as an mp3 when you are finished editing.  If you export in another format, someone will have to convert to mp3 for you before it's uploaded to a web site or as a podcast, which could turn into a major annoyance.