Audacity Editing Practice Raw

This transcription provides a step-by-step guide on editing raw audio with Audacity. It starts with opening Audacity and selecting a practice file. The user is instructed to remove gaps and extraneous sounds, silence breath sounds, and delete long pauses. The transcription also mentions a distinctive sound made when an error occurs, which signals a section of audio to be deleted. The user is advised to listen to the entire track again after editing and amplify the entire track. Finally, the user is reminded to save and export the project. The transcription emphasizes that with practice, editing voiceover becomes easier and more comfortable. Let's walk through the basics of editing raw audio with Audacity. Open Audacity on your computer. From the top toolbar, select File, then Open. Choose the practice file that you downloaded. You'll see your audio track as a series of waveforms. Zoom in until you can clearly see the waveforms and spaces in between. One of the first things you'll want to do is to remove any large gaps or extraneous sounds at the beginning of the clip. Place the cursor here, then click and hold to drag across the section you'd like to delete, and then press Backspace. Next, you're going to listen for breath sounds and long pauses. Did you hear that breath? Notice that the waveform looks like it sort of trails off. Of course, you'll want to listen carefully to all of the audio, but after some practice, noticing the shape of the waveforms will help you learn to edit more quickly. But always make sure to give it a listen. You'll want to silence any audible breath sounds to keep your voiceover clear and crisp. But you don't want to simply delete it, because you want to keep the natural pause between phrases. To silence the breath, click and drag the selected audio segment, then press Ctrl L. Be sure to listen again to this segment of audio. To check that the breath sound is silent, but that you haven't cut off any speech, and to check that the pause sounds natural, use Ctrl Z to undo if you've made any mistake. Continue moving throughout the entire clip, silencing any breath sounds that you hear. You're also listening for long or unusual breaks between phrases. If a pause is too long, click and drag to select the audio segment, then backspace to delete it. Now, as you listen to this practice file, you might notice this little sound I make. And the waveform for that sound has a sort of distinctive look as well. I make this sound when I make an error in recording. If I make a mistake, I make that sound, and then I read the line again and keep going. This allows me to produce content more quickly and efficiently. I don't have to stop the recording or get flustered and try to find my place again. I am able to continue the recording and keep the same tone and volume throughout the clip. Just make sure that when you restart, you restart at the beginning of the sentence that you messed up for easier editing. So, later when I'm editing, this sound and this waveform signals a section of audio that I'll need to delete. I'm also going to listen to the section after my error sound to find out how much of the previous clip I need to delete. Then I'll select the error sound and drag back to the beginning of that section to delete. I'll play it back to make sure I've deleted the right portions and everything sounds smooth. Once you've gone through the entire clip, silencing breaths, removing long pauses, and deleting errors, you'll want to amplify the entire track. You press Control-A to select the entire audio track. Go to Effects on the top toolbar, scroll down, and select Amplify. You'll probably choose Audacity Suggested Amplification. Finally, you want to listen to the entire track again to be sure you haven't missed anything and it sounds meh. Finally, you'll want to listen to the entire track again to be sure you haven't missed anything and it sounds darn near perfect. When your voiceover is clean, go to File on the top toolbar, go to File on the top toolbar, When your voiceover is clean, go to File on the top toolbar to save and export your project. Congratulations, you now know how to edit voiceover. It really is that easy, and you'll get more comfortable recording and more confident editing the more you do it.