BAIN MUSC 336
Introduction to Computer Music

Learning Audacity

1. What is Audacity?
   Audacity is FOSS software for multi-track audio editing/recording that is developed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It runs on the Mac OS, Windows, and Linux.
   
• Wikipedia Articles:
• Audacity (audio editor) {WP}
• Audio editing software {WP}
  
• Website:
• AudacityTeam.org
• About Audacity; Program Features; Screenshots
• YouTube Channel:
• https://www.youtube.com/@audacity
  
• Developer: Audacity Team
• Martin Keary (aka Tantacrul), The Story Behind Audacity {YouTube}
• Original developer: Dominic Mazzoni
  
  
2. Download Audacity
   
• Current Version: 3.7
• AudacityTeam, Audacity 3.6 / 3.7 - New Effects & New Master Channel! {YouTube}
• AudacityTeam, Tempo Detection & Pitch Adjustment {YouTube}
• Download Audacity at: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/
  
  
3. Documentation
• Audacity Manual
• Guide to the Audacity Project Window (Interactive)
• Audacity Reference Guide
• Index, Glossary, and More
• Help Features
• Glossary
• Subject Index
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• Audacity Wiki
  
  
  
4. Getting Started
   
• Getting Started
• Audacity Tour Guide
• Importing Audio (File > Import > Audio)
• Two main views (see also: Izotope 2020)
• Waveform - amplitude vs. time
• Spectrogram - frequency vs. time, where amplitude intensity is encoded using color
  
  
  
5. File Formats
   
• Managing Audacity Projects (.aup3)
• Audio file formats:
• Uncompressed:
• WAV (.wav) {WP}
• AIFF (.aif) {WP}
• etc.
  
• Compressed:
• MP3 (.mp3)
• AAC {WP}
• etc.
• Import/Export MP4s
• FFmpeg Import/Export Library
• Audacity Support > Installing FFMpeg
• Export Formats Supported by Audacity
  
  
6. Effects, Generators, Analyzers and Tools {Index}
   
• Effects
• Delay, Echo, Fade In/Out, Normalize, Reverb, Repeat, etc.
• Pitch Shifting & Time Stretching
• Change Pitch –  Change the pitch of a selection without changing its duration
• Change Speed and Pitch – Change the pitch and speed of a selection
• Change Tempo – Change the duration of a selection without changing its pitch
• Paulstretch – Extreme time stretch
• Sliding Stretch – Continuous change to the pitch and/or tempo
• Generators:
• Chirp, Pluck, Silence, etc.
• Analyzers:
• Beat Finder, Find Clipping, Plot Spectrum, etc.
  
  
7. Plugins
• Audacity Plugins
  
• Real-Time Effects
• VST, Audio Units, LV2, and LADSPA {YouTube}
  
• Muse FX Suite
  Chorus, Compressor, De-esser, Delay, Master, Noise Gate, Pitch Fix, Reverb, Rotary, and two EQ effects
  
• Google Magenta's Tone Transfer {Magenta}
• Turning everyday sounds into music with Tone Transfer MI {YouTube}
• DDSP-VST: Real-Time Neural Synthesis {Magenta}
• Other AI Tools: Make Music and Art Using Machine Learning {Magenta}
• Intel's OpenVINO AI Plugins {WP}
  
• Noise Suppression {GitHub}
  
• Transcription (Whisper) {GitHub}
  
• Music [Stem] Separation {GitHub}
  
• Music Generation and Continuation {GitHub}
  
• See also
  
• Peter Kirn, Audacity now has free AI-powered sound tools from Intel {CDM} (Kirn 2024)
• Now available on MacOS: Audacity Blog
• VAMP Analysis plugins, Queen Mary University (London) {vamp-plugins.org}
  
  
  
8. Tutorials
   
• See: Audacity Tutorials
  
  
9. Audio Project Models
   See also: Music Copyright Laws {EBSCO} (Biscontini 2024)
   
• Acousmatic music {WP}
• Composers Edition, Acousmatic works by Anne LeBaron, John Palmer & Jack Van Zandt {Composers Edition}
• Algorithmic Remix (Boone 2023)
  
• Databending {WP} (Boone 2019)
  
• MacMostVideo, Glitch an Image On Your Mac Using Audacity (2019) {YouTube}
• Mashup {WP}
• EBSCO Knowledge Advantage, Mashup (music)
  
• Music concrète {WP}
• Remix {WP} (Boone 2023)
• Sound art {WP}
  
• Sound design {WP}
  
• Sound effects {WP}
• Sound collage {WP}
• Soundscape {WP} (Schafer 1977; Krause 2012}
  
• Tape music {WP}
  
  
10. "Free" Sounds Effects
    
• BBC, Sound Effects Library – https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk
• Free SFX – https://freesfx.co.uk
• Freesound – https://freesound.org
• Pixabay – https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/search/sound-design/
• YouTube Audio Library
  
• Audio Library - Free Sound Effects {YouTube Channel}
• Audio Library - Free Music {YouTube Channel}
  
  
11. Nyquist Programming Language
    
• The Nyquist Programming Language (Dannenberg and Simoni 2013) {WP}
  A LISP-based programming language for creating Audacity plugins
• Download Nyquist Plug-ins
  
  

Unless otherwise specified, all hyperlinks point to the AudacityTeam.org website.

EBSCO - EBSCO Advantage: Music
WP - Wikipedia

References

Biscontini, Tyler. 2024. "Music Copyright laws." EBSCO Knowledge Advantage. {EBSCO}

Boone, Christine. 2023. "Algorithmic Remixes." SMT-V 9.2. {SMT; YouTube}

Burk, Phil, Larry Polansky, Douglas Repetto, Mary Roberts and Dan Rockmore. 2011. Music and Computers: A Theoretical and Historical Approach, Archival Version. Available online at: <https://musicandcomputersbook.com>.

Burt, Forrest. 2019. "A Guide to Databending Images with Audacity." Forrest Burt Blog (July 23, 2019). Available online at: <https://forrestburt.com/a-guide-to-databending-images-with-audacity/>.

Dannenberg, Roger B. and Mary Simoni. 2013. Algorithmic Composition: A Guide to Composing Music with Nyquist. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. {GB; Full text: E-book Central}

Garden, Angel. 2022. "Audacity 3.2: The world's best known free audio editor just got better." TechRadar Pro (October 25, 2022). Available online at: <https://www.techradar.com/reviews/audacity-32>.

iZotope. 2020. "Understanding Spectrograms." iZotope Tips and Tutorials (April 3, 2020). Available online at: <https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/understanding-spectrograms.html>.

Kirn, Peter. 2024. "Audacity now has free AI-powered sound tools from Intel." Create Digital Music (February 5, 2024). {CDM} Available online at: <https://cdm.link/audacity-free-ai-tools-from-intel/>.

Krause, Bernie. 2012. The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places. New York: Little, Brown. {GB}

Rogerson, Ben. 2024. "This is just a first step”: Audacity gets free AI plugins for music separation, generation and remixing (oh, and automatic text transcription, too)." MusicRadar (February 6, 2024). Available online at: <https://www.musicradar.com/news/audacity-free-ai-plugins>.

Rothman, Philip. "Muse Group formed to support MuseScore, Ultimate Guitar; acquires Audacity." Scoring Notes (April 30, 2021). Available online at: <https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/muse-group-formed-to-support-musescore-ultimate-guitar-acquires-audacity/>.

Schafer, R. Murray. 1977. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. New York: Simon and Schuster. {GB}

Updated: September 7, 2025