How to Record a Song With Audacity

DirtyGerty

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posted on 16 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Audacity is a free recording program capable of a lot of things. You can do anything from recording a song to recording lines for a cartoon. If you've written a song, and need an easy way to record it, this article will tell you how to record your song with Audacity, and give it a professional finish.

Things you need to check

Preparing

Open Audacity.

Set up the preamp. In case you didn't already know, a preamp is a device that you can plug a guitar and/or microphone into. The preamp is then plugged into somewhere where you can record, or the sound is amplified (e.g., a guitar amp and speaker). You'll want to get an adapter with two jacks in it. You should be able to plug a wire like the one in the picture into the adapter. The wire should plug into the line-in port on your computer's sound card. Make sure the buttons that say 80Hz and +48v are on. Connect all wires.Record a Song With Audacity Step 2Bullet1.jpg

Set the audio source. In the top-right corner there should be a drop-down menu. Set it from microphone to line in unless you are using a normal computer microphone. In that case you leave it alone.

Optional Set up some headphones. Putting on headphones for recording can help the quality if you know what you sound like while singing. Since the line-in port on the sound card makes the sound go through the speakers in most cases (it's alright if it doesn't, this step is optional) you will be able to hear yourself after plugging in the headphones to the headphone/subwoofer jack on your speaker

Recording

Set up your microphone. You should be using a microphone that will plug into the microphone slot on the preamp. All you have to do is plug in the microphone and get ready to go. If you are not using one of those, plug the microphone into the microphone jack on the sound card.

Record the singing lines. Your mouth should be positioned as shown in the picture. If you are using a microphone that you usually see professional music artists using when performing live, or a recording studio mic, keep it in front of your mouth, but keep it still.

Record any acoustic instruments. Simply record these with wherever the sound comes out of facing the microphone.

Set up the instrument. Unplug the microphone and plug in the guitar, keyboard, bass or other electric instrument. These will go in the instrument slot. Recording an electric instrument without a preamp is tricky. Your best bet is probably to record next to the speaker or add MIDI

Record the guitar. Don't play too loudly. Do nice soft strums, even if it's a heavy metal or punk rock song. You may wish to adjust the drive on your preamp for the guitar track. If you are recording acoustic guitar, you should record it with the microphone close to the sound hole.