Repository

https://github.com/audacity/audacity

Introduction

Audacity stands as one of the biggest audio editing tools out there. One of the reasons for its success is the wide array of possible use cases for it. I will uncover here how different professionals might use it.

I can think from the top of my head 3 completely different use cases the software have for me, personally:

• Video editing: Not really on the video part, but when editing a video, I delegate the audio editing part for Audacity, and leave the video part for the video editor.
• Music editing: Audacity is not a very good MIDI recorder, so I use GarageBand to record instruments and MIDIs. Audacity takes care of the mixing, correcting the pitch and normalizing the many tracks.
• Podcast editing: I have had podcasts in the past, and this use case allows us to use pure Audacity. You can edit a whole podcast on it without any extra plugins.

In this post, I will show a few use cases that might benefit from audacity. In each use case/category I will give some suggestions of tools that might be helpful for that kind of work. Keep in mind the tool suggestion is not a rule. Your creativity is the limit of what and how you can do.

What is Audacity

Audacity is a free and open source audio editing software. Though free, it is one of the best on the market right now. This program is used by many professionals in many areas. If you search for Audacity tutorials you will find guides on how to edit mostly anything audio related. From video (the audio side) to podcasts and even music.

The biggest advantages of the software, and probably the reasons why it has got so big, probably are:

• It is multi-platform, any modern desktop operating system runs it without a problem.
• It has mostly any tool you would ever want. Its "general usability" is a huge perk
• Lightweight on your pocket (free) and your computer. The software does not use much space and has great performance.

With all those benefits, it is hard for other companies to try to get into the audio editing field. There are paid competitors, but they are not as successful as Audacity. Most YouTubers and podcasters use Audacity as their work tool.

Audacity-only uses

Let's start with what uses professionals can have, that require only Audacity, and nothing else.

Podcast and radio producers can, and probably already do use Audacity to edit their audio. On the program, you can add multiple layers and effects.

Though, Audacity is not suitable for live podcasts and radio programs. If your use doesn't require live editing, the software will probably fit you. Does not matter if there is only one host on the program, or multiple people are talking. You can add multiple audio tracks and synchronize them.

Audacity features that are useful for podcast/radio programs:

• Background noise reduction.
• Multiple tracks.
• Audio normalization.
• Track volume control.
• Synchronization.

Audiobook creators can use, and do a great job, using only Audacity. There are single track features that will make the readers the final product much better.

I can't think of any downside of using Audacity for editing an audiobook. Though I have zero experience with making this kind of product. I imagine it would be similar to a podcast, but with only one track. Probably in a book with multiple voices or effects you would need multiple tracks. The few audiobooks I have listened to had only one narrator and not many audio effects. The more simple the project is, the more you benefit from the simplicity of the program.

The features an audiobook producer would probably use are:

• Background noise reduction.
• Track volume control.
• Pitch adjustment.
• Add silence.
• Remove silence.

Those two use cases above are more professional, but I have used "Audacity only" for a few other things. Such as:

• Learning a new language: I speak 3 languages and I am learning 2 more, I love languages. An important part of learning a new language is practicing. The pronunciation in some languages is hard. At the moment I am having difficulties with French pronunciation. In this case, I am recording to myself, so I don't need to edit. Audacity is a great editor, but it can be used just as a recorder. So, I record myself to listen and check if I am pronouncing things correctly. Your phone also probably has a similar feature, but when studying on my computer, this comes handy. I don't think most computers have a native audio recorder, so Audacity does the job pretty well.

• Practicing for a speech: I do presentations quite often. I have shown on another series a slide editor I like to use. But the speech is as important as the slides are. Similarly to the use case above, I record for myself, so I don't need to edit. In this case, I record a whole speech, then listen carefully, pointing where I did right and wrong, to improve. I can record myself as much as 5 or 6 times, to then listen and fix the mistakes, until it is "good enough".

Audacity aided audio only editing

These are some use cases that are still audio-only. With audio only projects, Audacity can be the software that exports the final project. For example, you do the basic recording and editing on another specialized editor, and Audacity does the final touches.

Music producers can use Audacity to work on the final touches of a song. I am not a great music producer, but I like playing with GarageBand.

I record the instruments on Garageband, do the arrangements, everything there. But I honestly don't know how to do audio normalization, equalization and pitch correction there. After the GarageBand side is ready, I export each instrument track separately and import to Audacity. Once each track is imported to Audacity, in a separate timeline, I work on them so they sound better together. The tools I use are:

• Pitch correction.
• Normalization.
• Equalization.
• Crop and drag.

I won't deny, my workflow is probably inefficient compared to a high-end producer, but GarageBand is free and limited. Audacity is free and has lots of tools. I think this is a great duo for anyone that wants to get into a music career without spending a ton of money.

Audacity aided video editing

Audacity, though maybe not intuitively, can help you improve your video quality. It is not intuitive because most video editors allow you to edit audio. The catch is that video editors have very simple and basic audio editing capabilities.

For 80 to 90% of the videos I edit I probably have to cut or reduce background noise, so I do the edit and synchronizing on the video editor. When I am finished, I export the audio only, do the Audacity side and send the audio back to the video editor to export the final project.

Here are the tools that I use and might aid you on this task:

• Pitch correction.
• Background noise reduction.
• Equalization.

Of course, high-end video editors probably have Audacity capabilities embedded. But I try to use mostly open source and free software. Most open source video editors lack good audio editor, so Audacity fixes that issue perfectly to me.

Voice over-editing can also be aided by Audacity. It falls somewhat in the above category. Youtubers, advertisers, and others might find this useful. In this case, you might want to record the audio inside Audacity. Voice over generally works by the narrator recording his voice over some video. Then you just need to edit inside Audacity, where you have recorded, and export to mix it to the final product.

Tools that might be useful in this category:

• Audio normalization.
• Pitch correction.
• Audio equalization.
• Silence reduction.
• Add silence.

Final thoughts

Of course, the use cases mentioned here are not all that Audacity can be used for. Far from that, actually, Audacity offers so much flexibility that I'd say your creativity is the limit. But I believe most of other uses people seem to give to Audacity fall into the above-mentioned categories.

I have suggested a few tools that might be useful if those are your uses, but feel free to watch tutorials and see how is the workflow from other people. The recommended tools are I have put are just a "kickstart" so you know what to look for.

Series backlinks

• Audacity Series - The Competitor And Delegating The Audio Editing(Part 2)
• Audacity Series - Download, Walkthrough And My Usage (Part 1)

Resources

Udacity main website:
https://www.audacityteam.org/

Download page:
https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

Tutorials:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/#tutorials

Beneficiaries

This post has as beneficiaries

• @utopian.pay with 5%
• @steempeak with 1%

using the SteemPeak beneficiary tool