FAQ

Ideas for new FAQs

• How can I import WAV files from portable players?

The following are the FAQs copied in from the main SF site. They need re-reading and updating for 1.4 where appropriate

About Audacity

• About Audacity

Installation and Plug-Ins

• Installation and Plug-Ins

Recording

• Recording

Opening and Saving Files

How do I open an Audacity project (AUP file) in another program?

Audacity project files are saved in a special format that only Audacity can open. To open your project in another program or burn it to CD, firstly open the .aup file in Audacity if you have already saved one (if you saved it recently it will be in the File > Recent Files menu). Then use the Export commands further down the File menu to save the audio in a standard format like WAV or AIFF.

To learn more about working with Audacity projects, please see our File Management Tips on the Audacity Wiki.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Why does Audacity create a folder full of .au files when I save a project?

Audacity breaks long tracks into small pieces so it can edit them more efficiently. When you save an .aup project file, Audacity stores all the pieces in a _data folder that has the same name as the .aup file. For example, "song.aup" will open the pieces inside the "song_data" folder.

You should not touch the .au files yourself, or move or rename the _data folder. Simply open the .aup file, then Audacity will load the .au files in the correct sequence automatically.

To learn more about working with Audacity projects, please see our File Management Tips on the Audacity Wiki.

See also:

• How do I open an Audacity project (AUP file) in another program?

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Audacity crashed! Can I recover any unsaved data?

You may be able to recover your project automatically with the Audacity Recovery Utility. Please see the Crash Recovery page for more information.

Please note the .au files need to be numbered consecutively when input to the Crash Recovery Utility or errors will occur in the program. If this problem occurs you can open Audacity's temporary folder in your system File Manager (e.g., Windows Explorer) and try resorting the .au files by time modified and then batch renaming them using a numeric sequence whilst they are sorted by time modified. An arrangement looking something like this should work:

• b001.au 15:56:02
• b002.au 15:56:02
• b003.au 15:56:10
• b004.au 15:56:10

If your file manager does not have a suitable renaming tool, you should be able to obtain suitable free tools on the Internet.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Can Audacity import file formats like WMA, AAC, FLAC, etc.?

Audacity cannot import or export files in WMA, AAC, RealAudio, Shorten (SHN), or most other proprietary formats, or any kind of Digital Rights Management (DRM) protected file, including many purchased online such as on iTunes or Napster. Because of licensing and patent restrictions, we are not allowed to add these formats to Audacity. Future versions of Audacity might be able to support these formats using codecs installed in your operating system.

Some open formats are not yet supported by Audacity, including Ogg, Speex and FLAC. We hope to support these formats in future versions of Audacity.

Audacity can currently import WAV, AIFF, AU, MP2/MP3 and OGG Vorbis files. If you cannot import your file into Audacity, you can as a workround convert it to WAV or AIFF. As long as it is not a DRM-protected file, you could do this with iTunes® or with SUPER player. If it is a DRM-protected file, you can burn it to an audio CD in the application that is licensed to play it, then extract (rip) the CD track to WAV or AIFF. On Windows, you can use Windows Media Player 11, iTunes®, or CDex to extract to WAV. Or you can play the file on your computer and record it – see Can Audacity record RealAudio or other streaming audio?.

For more detail on supported formats, see the feature list.

See also:

• Why can't I play MIDI files?

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Why can’t I play MIDI files?

Sorry, Audacity cannot play, edit, or convert MIDI files. It can only display them visually (for comparison with recorded sounds). We might add MIDI editing to a future version of Audacity, but for now Audacity is focused on sampled audio (like WAV files).

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

How do I import a track from an audio CD?

Audacity cannot import a track directly from an audio CD. You must use a separate program like CDex or iTunes® to extract CD tracks into a format that Audacity can read, like WAV or AIFF.

On Mac OS X computers, CD tracks appear in Finder as AIFF files so can be imported directly into Audacity. For more help on importing audio from CD tracks on both Windows and OS X, see our Wiki help page on How_to_import_CDs.

See also:

• How do I save my recording on an audio CD?

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

How do I save my recording on an audio CD?

After making a recording or editing a file in Audacity, follow these steps to save your work on an audio CD:

1. Use the “Export as WAV” or “Export as AIFF” command to save your Audacity recording in a sound file.
2. Use any CD-recording software (iTunes or Nero, for example) to burn this file to a CD.

To make a disc you can play in normal CD players, make sure to create a “music” or “audio” CD (not a “data” CD). Use CD-R discs, because some players cannot read CD-RW. You can burn only 74 (or 80 depending on the CD-R) minutes or so onto an audio CD – this is a limitation of the audio CD format.

Some CD software will burn only 16-bit, 44.1KHz stereo sound files. If your CD recording software won't open your sound file, export the file again after choosing the following settings in Audacity:

1. At the bottom of the Audacity window, set the Project Rate to 44100 Hz.
2. In the File Formats preferences, choose WAV (16-bit...) or AIFF (16-bit...).
3. If your project does not already contain a stereo track, choose “New Stereo Track” from the Project menu. (This will make Audacity export your recording as a stereo file.)

For helpful tips on CD burning with Windows Media Player and iTunes, and help on burning longer “data” CDs, see How_to_burn_CDs on the Audacity Wiki.

See also:

• How can I split a long recording into multiple tracks?

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

How can I split a long recording into multiple files or CD tracks?

Follow these steps to create a separate file for each song or segment of a long recording. This is particularly useful if you are creating a CD, since each file will appear as a separate track on the CD.

1. Click to place the cursor at the start of the first song.
2. Choose “Add Label at Selection” from the Project menu. If you wish, you can type the name of the song.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each song.
4. When you are finished, choose “Export Multiple” from the File menu. When you click the “Export” button, Audacity will save each song as a separate file, using the format and location you choose.

A detailed, illustrated tutorial explaining this process is available on the Splitting recordings into separate tracks page on the Audacity Wiki.

See also: How do I save my recording on an audio CD?

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Editing

Why can’t I use the effects or other menu items?

Some menu items are grayed out or disabled until they are ready for use. Before choosing an effect, you must select the audio that you want to change. To select audio, click and drag with the Selection tool to highlight it, or choose the “Select All” command from the Edit menu.

Also, many menu items are disabled while playing, recording, or pausing a track. To enable them, press the yellow Stop button.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

How do I combine two files into one longer file?

Follow these steps to splice two files together:

1. Import both files into Audacity.
2. Select the second one by clicking on its label (the area around the mute/solo buttons).
3. Choose “Find Zero Crossings” from the Edit menu.
4. Choose “Cut” from the Edit menu.
5. Place the cursor by clicking in the first track, after the end of the audio.
6. Choose “Paste” from the Edit menu.

You can press the Play button to hear the result, and use the Export commands (in the File menu) to save it as a sound file.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

How do I mix two tracks together?

To mix two files, just import both of them into Audacity. They will appear in separate tracks, and will be mixed together when you press the Play button. You can use the Time Shift tool to move them around so that they start at different times, or use the other editing commands to alter either of the tracks.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Can I remove the vocals from a recording to make a Karaoke track?

This is possible only for certain stereo tracks. When the vocals are exactly the same on both stereo channels, you can remove them by “subtracting” one channel from the other. This works for many studio recordings, where the vocal track is mixed exactly in the center.

To do this in Audacity:

1. Import your stereo file into Audacity.
2. Open the track menu (click the arrow next to the track title), and choose “Split Stereo Track.”
3. Select the lower track (the right channel) by clicking it in the area around the mute/solo buttons.
4. Choose “Invert” from the Effects menu.
5. Using the track menus, change each track to “Mono.”

Press the Play button to hear the results. If you are lucky, the voice will be gone but most of the other instruments will be unaffected, just like a karaoke track. You can use the Export commands in the File menu to save the results.

If the vocals are not exactly the same on both stereo channels, there are some other techniques or optional plugins you can try. Please see our Vocal_Removal Wiki page for more details.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

The following are old FAQs from this Manual. They need merging into the above as appropriate, or confirming as a new FAQ additional to the current ones above.

Old - need merging or deleting

How can I help to improve Audacity?

There are many ways you can help.

• If you are a programmer and you know C++, we can always use more developers. We especially need more Windows and MacOS programmers, as many of the current developers prefer Linux.
• If you are bilingual, you can help us translate Audacity into another language.
• If you are good at writing, you can help us write documentation and tutorials.
• Finally, anyone can submit bug reports and suggestions. The more detailed, the better.

If you would like to help out in any one of these ways, please email the developers at [email protected]. You may also want to go to the Sourceforge web site and join the mailing list yourself.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

I found a bug! Now what?

The most important thing when reporting a bug is to be as specific as possible. Give us enough information that we can reproduce the bug ourselves, otherwise it's unlikely that we'll be able to fix it.

• Be sure to let us know what operating system you run (such as Windows 98, MacOS 9.1, Fedora Linux 3, etc.) and any other information about your computer that you think might be relevant.
• Then, can you reproduce the bug? If it happens consistently, tell us the exact sequence of events which causes the bug to occur. If you get an error message, make sure you send us

the exact text of the error message.

We want to squash all of the bugs! Thanks for taking the time to help us track them down.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Windows: What do I do with the .exe file?

From the browser, select the option to "Run from current location". This launches the Audacity setup program, which will install the Audacity program files and create an entry in the start menu.

• If you already downloaded the file, just double-click on it to start the installer.
• If you prefer not to use the Installer program, you can also download Audacity as a ZIP file, which you can decompress using WinZip or any other extraction program.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Windows: How do I uninstall Audacity?

Audacity can be uninstalled by opening Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. Select "Audacity" from the list and click the button "Add/Remove". This launches the Audacity uninstall program.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Mac: What do I do with the .sit file?

You need a recent version of StuffIt Expander. StuffIt Expander comes with all Macintoshes and is usually configured by default with all Mac web browsers. If Audacity does not decompress automatically, drag "audacity.sit" to StuffIt Expander to decompress it.

There is no need to install Audacity. Just drag the Audacity folder to your Applications folder, or wherever else you would like to put it. To uninstall, just drag the entire folder to the trash.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Unix: Why do I get failed dependencies when installing from the RPM?

First, ensure that the wxGTK is installed; a link can be found from our Linux page - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/linux. Be sure that you use the appropriate version of wxGTK - Audacity 1.2.x requires wxGTK 2.4.x, and it will not work with any other version.</p>

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Unix: Why do I get an error while loading the shared library libwx_gtk-2.4.so?

This could be one of two problems:

• If you installed the wxWidgets RPM, be sure to run "ldconfig" (as root) so your system knows about the new library.
• If you installed wxWidgets from source, it may have been installed in /usr/local, but /usr/local/lib may not be in your library path. Add /usr/local/lib to the file "/etc/ld.so.conf"

and then run "ldconfig". You may also want to add "/usr/local/bin" to your path, so that programs can find the "wx-config" utility.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

How do I mix two tracks together?

Audacity mixes automatically. All you have to do is import two tracks into the same project, which you can do using the "Import Audio" command in the Project menu, or simply by dragging the two audio files to Audacity. When you press the record button, Audacity generates a new track automatically, also.

In order to save your mix, you can either Export the project, which will automatically mix all of your tracks together, or you can select your tracks and use the "Quick Mix" command in the Project menu.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Can I remove the vocals from a recording?

With some stereo recordings, it is possible to remove the vocals because of the way in which the recording was mixed at the studio. Often, the vocals are placed in the exact center of the recording, while all other instruments are slightly off-center. If you subtract the right channel from the left channel, the vocals get completely cancelled out, leaving only the other instruments.

This only works on some recordings!

To attempt this in Audacity, import a stereo recording, then click on the track pop-up menu (the little down-arrow next to the name of the track) and select "Split Stereo Track". Now select the lower track (the right channel) and use the "Invert" effect (from the Effect menu). Finally, use the track pop-up menus to make both channels Mono channels, and then mix them together using Quick Mix. If you're lucky, the vocals will be gone.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

When I try to record harmonies with myself, why are the two tracks out of sync?

This is normal and it happens because there is a small delay between when Audacity starts playing sound and when it actually reaches your speaker. Audacity does not automatically try to correct for this delay, and you must do it manually.

To correct this delay, use the Time Shift Tool to slide one of the tracks over until they line up. Note that you can use the tool while you are listening to the recording.

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Why doesn't Audacity ship with an MP3 encoder?

Unfortunately, the algorithm to encode or create MP3 files is patented, and Audacity would not be able to include an MP3 exporting algorithm without either charging a fee or violating the law in many countries.

As a compromise, Audacity comes with the ability to use other MP3 encoders, which you must download separately. It is up to you to make sure you are in compliance with any licensing restrictions imposed by MP3 encoders.

See LAME MP3

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

How do I record streaming audio?

(This needs to be categorized.)

You can record streaming audio, Skype, or pretty much any program that outputs sound. If you use Mac OS X, you may want to check out [Audio Hijack], a shareware program designed specifically for this purpose. On Windows, you can sometimes record from the "Wave Out" channel of your sound card - choose it as the audio input device instead of "Line In" or "Mic".

If all else fails, use a loopback cable:

A stereo mini loopback cable

A loopback cable plugged into the back of a typical PC

Other Frequently Asked Questions...