Tues. 4/29/08: Volume

AIM: How do we regulate track gain volume in Audacity?

The goal today is to create a sound file that sounds like a radio host introducing a new track while the track plays in the background. Here's what to do:

1. Make sure you are on a computer with a working microphone.
2. Import a song you enjoy from the 'Mugic' file into Audacity.
3. Look up some interesting information about the song or artist online (you could use wikipedia if you'd like).
4. Pretend you're a radio DJ. Write out what you are going say about the artist and the track. For example, if my track is about the White Stripes song "7 Nation Army," I might say something like this:
Hey all of you garage-rock fans out there, here's a track from the rockin' duo the White Stripes called "7 Nation Army." This is off of their album entitled Elephant, and Jack White's screamin' vocals will blow your socks off.
5. Record yourself doing your song introduction.
6. Now it's time to move the audio file into position. Go to the top-left-hand corner of Audacity and click on the Time-Shift button. This is the one that looks like a sideways arrow pointing left and right.
7. Now you are time-shifting: Click on your song and drag it left or right. Get it so that the song starts right in the middle of when you are introducing it.
8. Click back on the Selection Tool in the top-left-hand corner (the one that looks like a capital "I") and highlight the very beginning of the song.
9. Use the "fade in" effects tool to fade it in.
10. Now we need to alter the volume. The song will probably be much louder than your recorded voice, so let's change it.
11. Go to the left side of the screen and click on the little sliding arrow with a minus (-) and plus (+) sign on the song track. Slide the arrow a few notches toward the minus sign. This decreases the gain, or volume, of only that track by itself.
12. Now go to your recorded voice track and slide the gain arrow up a few notches toward the plus sign. This will increase the gain, or volume, of your vocal track.
13. Test your sound file and see how it sounds. The music shouldn't overpower your speaking voice.
14. Once the audio levels are even and sound good, go to the "Project" menu and edit the ID3 tags so that you are the artist and the title is "Radio Volume Project."
15. Export your project as an MP3 into your computer's documents folder. Be sure to save as Your Name - Radio Volume Project.
16. Open it up in Windows Media Player and let Mr. Power listen to it.