The Book of Audacity

Dedication; Acknowledgments; Introduction; What Can Audacity Do?; What This Book Covers; Audacity vs. Ardour; Chapter 1: Audacity from Start to Finish; 1.1 Audacity Quick-Start; 1.2 Audacity in Detail; 1.3 Managing Audacity Projects; 1.4 Selecting Tracks and Segments of Tracks; 1.5 Track Panel; 1.6 Cutting Out Unwanted Chunks; 1.7 Fade In and Out; 1.8 Making Quiet Recordings Louder; 1.9 Timer Record and Sound Activated Recording; 1.10 Mixer Board; 1.11 Track Metadata; 1.12 Final Mixdown; 1.13 Audio File Formats and Quality Settings; 1.14 Now What?; Chapter 2: Building a Good Digital Sound Studio on the Cheap; 2.1 Getting Sound In and Out of the Computer; 2.2 Multichannel Recording, PCI, USB, FireWire; 2.3 USB or FireWire?; 2.4 Microphones; 2.5 Microphone Preamp; 2.6 Speakers and Headphones; 2.7 Your Computer Must Have Muscle and Vast Drawers; 2.8 Operating Systems; 2.9 Portable Recording; 2.10 The Secret of Recording Your Own Great Audio; 2.11 Visit Appendix A; Chapter 3: Transferring Vinyl LPs (and Other Legacy Media) to CD; 3.1 Preparing Vinyl LPs for Copying; 3.2 Eight Steps to Converting Records to CDs; 3.3 Audacity Settings; 3.4 Recording; 3.5 Fixing Defects; 3.6 Customizing Dynamic Range Compression; 3.7 Normalization; 3.8 Dividing a Long Track into Individual Songs; 3.9 Exporting to CD-Ready Files, One Long Audacity Track; 3.10 Exporting to CD-Ready Files, Multiple Audacity Tracks; 3.11 Writing Songs to a CD; 3.12 Copying Vintage 78s; 3.13 Connecting Legacy Devices to Your Computer; 3.14 Which Is Better: Vinyl, Tape, or CDs?; Chapter 4: Creating and Editing Live Tracks for CD; 4.1 Making Good Live Recordings; 4.2 Audacity Settings for Recording; 4.3 Editing Live Recordings; 4.4 Optional Track Metadata; 4.5 Final Export; 4.6 Writing Your Songs to CD; 4.7 Combining Songs from Different Recording Sessions, Fix-its, and Special Effects; Chapter 5: Authoring a Compilation CD; 5.1 Audio CDs; 5.2 CD Writers and Software; 5.3 Three Ways to Author a CD Compilation in Audacity; 5.4 Fixes and Cleanups; 5.5 Configuring Audacity for Orange Book CDs; 5.6 Computer Media Players; 5.7 Ripping CDs; 5.8 Ripping DVDs; Chapter 6: Authoring Super High-Fidelity Audio DVDs; 6.1 What Are WAV, AIFF, and FLAC?; 6.2 DVD-Audio Overview; 6.3 Creating High-Quality Recordings in Audacity; 6.4 Transferring Legacy Media; 6.5 Learn More; Chapter 7: Creating Podcasts; 7.1 The Short Story; 7.2 Making a Simple Voicecast; 7.3 Export to MP3 or Ogg?; 7.4 Two-Person Podcasts; 7.5 Adding a Background Music Track; Chapter 8: Becoming an Online Star; 8.1 File Formats and Audio Quality; 8.2 The Business of a Recording Artist; 8.3 Establishing an Online Presence; 8.4 Online Music Distributors; 8.5 Self-Hosting; 8.6 To DRM or Not to DRM?; 8.7 Copyrights and Legal Issues; 8.8 Learn More; Chapter 9: Multitrack Recording; 9.1 Tracks, Channels, and Clips; 9.2 How to Make Multitrack Recordings; 9.3 Playback Tips and Tricks; 9.4 Label Tracks; 9.5 Aligning and Moving Tracks; 9.6 Metronome Track; 9.7 Overdubbing; 9.8 NTSC, PAL, and CDDA Frames; 9.9 Creating Loops; 9.10 Mixdown to Stereo; 9.11 Control Your Channel Mapping; Chapter 10: Making Your Own Ringtones; 10.1 Customizing Audio for a Mobile Phone; 10.2 Applying Dynamic Range Compression; 10.3 Phone Audio File Formats; 10.4 Proprietary Audio File Formats; 10.5 How to Transfer Files to Your Phone; Chapter 11: Audacity Plug-ins for Special Effects; 11.1 Cross-Fades; 11.2 Generate Menu; 11.3 Effect Menu; 11.4 Linux Plug-ins; 11.5 Windows Plug-ins; 11.6 Audio Effects Glossary; Chapter 12: Fix-its and Cleanups; 12.1 Split Stereo Tracks; 12.2 Repeat Last Effect; 12.3 Noise Removal; 12.4 Normalization; 12.5 Remove Clicks and Scratches; 12.6 Truncate Silence; 12.7 Change Tempo; 12.8 Change Pitch; 12.9 Change Speed; 12.10 Compress Dynamic Range; 12.11 Equalization; 12.12 Fix Timing and Latency Errors; 12.13 Analyze Menu; Chapter 13: Configuring Linux for Best Audio Quality; 13.1 Using Distributions with Real-Time Kernels; 13.2 Building a Real-Time Kernel; 13.3 Latency Is Not That Scary; 13.4 Sorting Out Linux Audio; 13.5 Using ALSA; 13.6 Hardware Testing with alsa-utils; 13.7 Querying Your Sound Card; 13.8 Using JACK with Audacity; 13.9 Turning PulseAudio and Phonon Off; 13.10 Linux System Tweaks; 13.11 The Tangled History of Linux Audio; 13.12 Sound Cards; Chapter 14: Configuring Windows for Best Audio Quality; 14.1 Enabling MP3 Support; 14.2 Enabling WMA, M4A/M4P Support; 14.3 Low-Latency Recording and Audio Driver Fun; 14.4 Tuning Windows for Best Performance; 14.5 Configuring Windows Audio Devices; Chapter 15: Customizing Audacity; 15.1 Customizing Audacity's Default Options; 15.2 Devices; 15.3 Playback; 15.4 Recording; 15.5 Quality; 15.6 Interfffffface; 15.7 Tracks; 15.8 Import/Export; 15.9 Projects; 15.10 Libraries; 15.11 Spectrograms; 15.12 Directories; 15.13 Warnings; 15.14 Effects; 15.15 Keyboard and Mouse; Audio Hardware; PCI, PCI-e, PCMCIA Sound Cards; USB Recording Interfaces; FireWire Recording Interfaces; Stand Alone ADC/DACs; Glossary; A--E; F--J; K--O; P--T; U--Z; Seven Myths of Digital Audio; The Myth of the Golden Ear; The Myth of Burn-In; The Myth of Tube Superiority; The Myth of Uber Cables; The Myth of Analog Superiority; The Myth That You Don't Need Tone Controls; The Myth That Someone Else Knows Better Than You; References and Resources; Books; Online Resources; Image Credits; GNU Free Documentation License; Updates; Colophon;