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In this Audacity audio recorder and editor tutorial, we discuss some of the wide array of effects that come with Audacity

So, open Audacity, and a new project opens. Let’s work with ‘Water’ in this example. So, go to Project > Import Audio>Desktop>Water, which will open up the ‘Water’ file. Now to play effects on something, highlight it. In this example, we highlight between 1second to 2seconds here. Now, click on Effect > Amplify, which suggests amplification to be 25.9. So, let’s try that. Click OK and you can see the amplification highlighted. It’s going to be considerably louder near the water. Let’s listen it now. Now we hear the highlighted portion of the water amplified.

Now let’s try some of the effects on the guitar. Go to File > Recent Files > Acoustic Guitar Loop, which opens up the Guitar loop file. Let’s start, by saving the project as ‘Acoustic Guitar Loop Effects’ in the music folder. Now we see we are working in a new file. So, it won’t affect the original guitar loop file. Zoom in to see a little better, Skip to beginning, Play natural for one second and let’s do effects on the following second. Go to Effect > Bass Boost and move Boost (dB) to the maximum and click OK. Now we could see how the wave form had reached its peak. So, obviously this is all going to be distorted, and it’s not even worth playing, but you get the idea of how to do effects.

Now, if you want to undo, you can undo it by clicking the Undo button, and it will go back to original acoustic guitar. And to play effects to the entire track, click Edit -> Select -> All (Ctrl –A) or you could do it with Ctrl+A or through drop down menu, and there you see, the entire track has been selected. So, now, any effects that you do, will affect the entire track.

Let’s discuss here quickly about changing the Pitch.

Go to Effects > Change Pitch, which changes the pitch of the frequency without changing the tempo.

Effects > Change Speed, increases the pitch and also increases the sampling rate.

Effects -> Change Tempo, will obviously adjust the tempo.

If you are using Click tracks, you can remove it by going to Effects > Click and Pop Removal.

Effects > Compressor, adjusts the differences or compresses the differences between the loudest and softest sections of the audio. So, it’s particularly useful for broadcast.

Effects > Echo, will affect the Echo.

Effects > Equalization, helps to adjust the equalization, simply by clicking on it or by moving it up and down. This is a very handy tool to have.

And moving on, Go to Effects > Fade In, to do fade in and
Go to Effects > Fade out, to do fade out.

The FFT Filter (Go to Effects -> FFT Filter) is a computer algorithm that can tell the difference between various instruments.

Effects > Invert, turns your waveform upside down.

Effects > Noise Removal, is a particularly handy tool, when you are importing from micro set or record albums, wine and the fuel.

Effects > Normalize, is a great way for bouncing the recording. For instance, if one track is considerably louder than the other, you can normalize them, and it will bounce them out.

Effects > Nyquist prompt, is a way to synthesize or manipulate your sounds.

Effects > Phaser, is used if you have works that have been phase shifted, you can control the movement of the Phase, with the Phaser.

Effects > Repeat, is just as that. For instance, you can get the whole section highlighted, and you can repeat them 10 times. So, basically, create another loop, 10 more times of acoustic guitar for the total of 9 minutes and 32 seconds.

Effects > Reverse, to play something backwards and it gives the reverse effect.

Effects > WahWah, is distinct.

Effects > Cross Fade In, to cross fade between tracks,

Effects > Delays and G-verb are also there in the Effects menu.

Effects > Hard Limiter, is also like a compressor. It limits and compresses the differences between loud and soft parts of the track.

Effects >High Pass filter, can cut off like high end signals that are annoying and low pass (Go to Effects -> Low Pass filter) like the truck idling at the background.

Effects > SC4, is another dynamic compressing tool.

Effects > Tremolo gives that vibrating effect.

So, again, you are recommended to Save Projects As and try different effects to see how you like them. Again, you can also take little sections. You don’t have to go over your entire tracks. You can take a little section, see how it sounds on that, apply the effect there, take a listen to see if you like it. Once you have something that you like, go ahead and utilize it on the entire track.

And again, especially, if you are compressing for delivery on a project that’s going to be broadcast, go ahead and try a little sampler, make sure it works for your application.

And that’s how you deal with Effects.