Tutorial - Mixing a Narration With Background Music

ToDo Very incomplete - needs more work!

This tutorial assumes that you have figured out how to connect your microphone to your computer and get the sound from the microphone into Audacity. If you haven't got that far yet, please read the Your First Recording tutorial first.

The outline below may be more detailed than people were thinking of. I don't want to overload with too much information but on the other hand I don't want the user to end up with a bad result because they had poor mic technique, poor mic placement, or poor enunciation. Similarly I think it's important to point out one of the advantages of digital audio editing - correcting mistakes. In order to be able to effectively correct mistakes you need to be aware of the process when you stop to correct a mistake. Then when it comes time to edit them out you need to do so with an awareness of the natural cadence of everyday speech and make your edit accordingly. You can cut the narration to the music, or you can cut the music to the narration, or you can ignore the music - these options should at least be touched on. Do we want to talk about compression and normalizaton? If we're going to talk about auto-duck (which is a more complex effect to set up), then I think we should.
My intent is to go through this process myself creating screenshots at various critical points to illustrate the text. The screenshots would be small - along the lines of those on the Edit Menu page, perhaps a bit smaller - and would be used only where they advance the explanation, not as window-dressing.
Comments?
- Bill

Introduction

• How long will it take to do this tutorial?
• On your first attempt:
  • Don't try to create a masterpiece
  • Don't work on something critical
• You are learning and experimenting, exploring the many tools Audacity offers you
  • Don't expect to get it perfect the first time
• It really doesn't matter what your narration is about, and whether you read it or ad lib
• It also doesn't matter what the music is, but an instrumental track is preferable
• SAVE OFTEN

Step 1: Record narration

• Set up for recording
  • Connect mic, mixer, USB adapter, etc.
  • Talk about mic technique, mic placement (relative to the room you're in)
  • Talk about speaking clearly, enunciating, remember that your audience can't see you
• Start Audacity
  • A new untitled project window opens
  • Click on File>Save and name your project
• Record the narration
  • Don't worry about mistakes, pauses, coughs etc. - we can edit those out later (fix it in post)
    • In fact you may want to make a few deliberate mistakes so you can practice editing them out
  • When you stop to make a correction, go back to the start of a natural break - sentence or phrase - and start again in a normal voice

Step 2: Edit the narration

• Now you can fix all those mistakes and sound like a pro
• Don't edit to tightly - the final result should sound natural
  • Listen back to each edit - undo and try again if it doesn't sound natural.
• Example of editing out a cough
• Example of editing out an overlong pause
• Example of editing a mistake where you started a sentence over again.

Step 3: Import background music file

• Talk about importing and automatic mixing
• Mute, solo

Step 4: Time-shift the tracks

• Cutting the narration into clips so you can move pieces independently
• Moving the clips to work with the music
• Moving the clips ignoring the music but to achieve effective narration
• Moving individual clips
• Moving all clips together
• Snapping and how it may help you
  • Using labels to mark the spots in the music where you want narration to start or stop

Step 5: Adjust relative volume levels

• Using the compressor on your narration track to even out the volume
• Using normalize to set your narration track to a known volume
  • Why to set normalize to -6 dB so you won't get clipping when you mix the tracks together
  • Watching the playback VU meters - how to tell if clipping has happened during playback
• Using the envelope tool to reduce the volume of the background music during the narration
• Using the Auto Duck effect to reduce the volume of the background music track automatically

Step 6: Smooth fade of the background music

• Decide how long you want the music to play after the narration is finished
  • How long at full volume?
  • How long for the fade out?
• Cut off end of background music
• Fade out background music using the Fade Out effect

Step 7: Save and Export

• "Save" just saves the Audacity project, you need to Export it to use it with other audio programs
  • Save as MP3 for podcast
  • Save as WAV or AIFF for burning to CD, import into movie (e.g. iMovie)
• Why you may want to 'Mix and Render' before export - to maximize the volume of the exported audio file
• Export command exports entire project
  • Make sure there are no extraneous bits far along the time line or your exported audio will be unexpectedly long!
• Congratulations, your narration over background music is now ready to share with the world.

Bonus: Listening while recording

Preferences: play existing tracks while recording new one (is this on by default? Yes)

What if you wanted to listen to the background audio while narrating? (Give examples, like narrating over a concert recording, etc.)

Talk about wearing headphones, so that your microphone doesn't pick up audio feedback.