The document provides instructions for students on how to edit audio files using the Audacity software. It guides them through adding sound bites, recording a narration, editing out unwanted parts, adjusting levels, adding background music, and exporting a final 60-second audio file. Students are reminded to follow directions carefully, ask questions during lab time, and submit their finished files on time for grading.

1. POST-PRODUCTION:
AUDACITY 101 –
AUDIO EDITING EXERCISE PART #2
multimedia journalism

2. AUDACITY-GETTING STARTED
 PLEASE FOLLOW ALONG CAREFULLY AND STAY WITH THE
GROUP UNTIL WE’RE ALL ON THE SAME PAGE (you will
be moving at your own paces soon enough)
 THERE IS ONLY ONE OF ME AND I CAN ONLY DO SO
MUCH ON AN INDIVIDUAL LEVEL – I SIMPLY CAN’T
REPEAT MYSELF 20+ TIMES SO PAY ATTENTION THE
FIRST TIME
 THERE WILL BE ENOUGH ROADBLOCKS AND HICCUPS
WITHOUT ONE OF THEM BEING THAT YOU SIMPLY
WEREN’T PAYING ATTENTION

3.  ALWAYS PLUG YOUR HEADPHONES IN BEFORE STARTING AUDACITY!
 Start AUDACITY
 Open the “YOUR LAST NAME-AUDACITY EXERCISE #1” project file from your USB by
double clicking it – DO NOT CLICK ON ANY OTHER FILE!
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

4.  This is where we left off – you’ve copied, pasted, and
edited the soundbites you want to keep into a new
track and your raw track is MUTED
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

5.  When delivering your narration DO:
IMAGINE YOU ARE TALKING TO SOMEONE SPECIFIC
GIVE YOUR DELIVERY VARIETY AND INFLECTION
FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH THE MATERIAL
 When delivering your narration DON’T:
BE FLAT AND MONOTONE
SOUND LIKE YOU’RE JUST READING – YOU’RE TALKING
TO SOMEONE, NOT READING TO THEM
MUMBLE OR SLUR YOUR WORDS – PROPER
ENUNCIATION IS VITAL!
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

6.  Now you are going to record your narration using the supplied script – first mute
the track with the saved bites – if you don’t, you will hear them play as you record
your narration
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

7.  GO TO TRANSPORT ON THE MAIN MENU AND CHOOSE RECORD NEW
TRACK
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

8.  SPEAK INTO THE MICROPHONE AND YOU SHOULD SEE THE AUDIO
APPEAR IN THE NEW TRACK
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

9.  IF YOU DON’T SEE AUDIO BEING RECORDED – CHECK THE RECORDING
INPUT AT THE TOP TO THE RIGHT – SELECT THE MICROPHONE OPTION
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

10.  ONCE YOU’RE RECORDING – READ THE NARRATION SCRIPT
STRAIGHT THROUGH WITHOUT STOPPING THE RECORDING BUT
AUDIBLY PAUSE BETWEEN EACH PART – MAKE SURE THE LEVELS
ARE NOT IN THE RED OR TOO LOW!
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

11. YOU ARE GOING TO EDIT THIS DOWN SO FEEL FREE
TO REDO WHATEVER PART YOU WOULD LIKE BUT
DON’T HIT STOP UNTIL YOU ARE COMPLETELY
DONE!
ALL YOUR NARRATION SHOULD BE ON ONE TRACK
WE WILL HOLD UNTIL EVERYONE HAS RECORDED
THEIR NARRATION
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

12.  NOW THAT YOU ARE DONE WITH YOUR NARRATION YOUR
LAYOUT SHOULD LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS:
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

13. You are now going to remove the parts of the
narration you DON’T want but you are NOT going
to edit it the way you trimmed the Trump bites
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

14. HIGHLIGHT THE AREAS FROM THE NARRATION
YOU WANT TO EDIT OUT:
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

15.  MAKE CERTAIN THAT’S THE PART YOU WANT GONE
 YOU DON’T WANT IT TO CLOSE UP, THOUGH, YOU WANT TO LEAVE
AN EMPTY GAP
 GO TO EDIT – REMOVE SPECIAL – SPLIT DELETE
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

16.  GO TO EDIT – REMOVE SPECIAL – SPLIT DELETE
 THIS WILL REMOVE THE HIGHLIGHTED PART AND LEAVE AN
EMPTY SPACE
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

17. NOW DO THIS FOR ALL THE PARTS
OF THE NARRATION YOU WANT
REMOVED – LEAVING ONLY THE
TRACK AS ASSIGNED
WE WILL NOT MOVE ON UNTIL
EVERYONE HAS DONE THESE BASIC
EDITS
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

18. Once you’re done, your layout should look
something like this:
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

19. Now you’re going to use the TIME SHIFT TOOL to
move the bites around into the correct sequence
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

20. Once you select the TIME SHIFT TOOL you can
move the bites around in their tracks so you want
to sequence them so they sound natural when
played:
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

21. Each track has its own VOLUME SLIDER that you will
use to make sure the levels of each track are
relative and sound good; the narration and the
sound bites should be heard at basically the same
level
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

22.  WHEN YOU’RE DONE YOUR LAYOUT SHOULD LOOK SOMETHING LIKE
THIS AND IT SHOULD SOUND PROFESSIONAL WHEN PLAYED WITH
YOUR SOUNDBITES AND NARRATION WORKING WELL TOGETHER:
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

23. You are now going to add the music bed, make final
adjustments, and export and submit the file
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

24.  Go to the appropriate week and download/save the file
“NEWSCAST MUSIC” to your USB drive in the “MMJ
AUDIO” folder
 AS WITH ALL YOUR AUDIO FILES AND MATERIAL, THIS
SHOULD PLACED IN YOUR DESKTOP MMJ AUDIO FOLDER
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

25.  Within AUDACITY select FILE – IMPORT – AUDIO and
select the “NEWSCAST MUSIC” file which you just saved
to your AUDIO folder
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

26.  After the import is complete, your layout should look
something like this with 3 active tracks and one muted
track:
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

27. Use each track’s VOLUME
SLIDER to make sure the
levels of each track are
relative and sound good;
the narration and the
sound bites should be
heard at basically the
same level with the
music underneath it all –
the music should NOT be
the focus – it’s there to
provide a unifying quality
and mask the edits
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

28. You also want to
make sure the music
matches the rest of
your audio in length
– use the edit tools
we’ve already
covered to adjust
music length
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

29. Lastly – how long is it? If
it’s NOT 60 seconds, you
need to find a way to
lengthen or shorten it so it
is…
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

30. LISTEN CLOSELY TO YOUR FILE! IS IT…
Consistent in sound levels - does it simply
sound good?
Edited smoothly with no errors such as clipping
of words or unnecessary gaps?
Narrated in an engaged and well-delivered
manner as per the provided script?
Exactly 60 seconds/one minutes long?
THE GRADE FOR THIS EXERCISE DEPENDS ON
THESE FOUR FACTORS!
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

31.  Once you’re satisfied with how it sounds, close the
RAW AUDIO track so all that remains are the 3 active
tracks (Sound Bites, Narration, and Music):
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

32.  Go FILE – EXPORT AUDIO and save it as an MP3 file into
your AUDIO folder (if you get an error message and can’t
save it as an MP3, save it as a WAV file)
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

33. ONCE EXPORTING IS FINISHED – LOCATE THE
EXPORTED FILE IN YOUR DESKTOP FOLDER AND
PLAY IT AGAIN! Never just trust that it exported
correctly – ALWAYS CHECK IT!
If you’re satisfied with it, go to the appropriate
folder and use the ATTACH FILE option to
submit your finished exercise file
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

34. AUDACITY-EXERCISE

35. NO LATE WORK ACCEPTED FOR FULL CREDIT
USE CLASS LAB TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS AND GET
HELP – IF YOU DON’T COME TO CLASS I CAN’T HELP
YOU!
I’VE GIVEN YOU THE TOOLS AND AM HERE TO
PROVIDE FULL SUPPORT BUT YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE
FOR THE FINAL PRODUCT
I EVALUATE THESE AS IF I WERE A TYPICAL LISTENER,
NOT JUST YOUR TEACHER
AUDACITY-EXERCISE

36. THIS FORMAT IS WHAT I EXPECT IF
YOU USE AUDIO IN YOUR
SEMESTER PROJECT:
SOUNDBITES FROM INTERVIEW
SUBJECT(S)
NARRATION FROM YOU
MUSIC BED
AUDACITY-EXERCISE