OCR Nationals: Unit 22 – Creating Sound using ICT A03 – Create an audio clip Sound Editing & Effects

Introduction to sound editing Professional sound editors: Clean up dialogue tracks Add layers of special effects Place sounds at certain times Cut out unwanted sections Mix in interesting sounds Cut pieces of vocals away or move them elsewhere

Sound Editing includes: Cutting Placing Fading Moving Duplicating Adjusting volume of audio material Mixing is also a form of editing often combining two or more sounds files together

Introduction to effects: Effects are applied using the Effect menu To apply an effect, you must select part or all of a track first To select the entire track click in the grey area of the Track Control Panel below the sliders Some effects have a preview button in the Effect dialogue box

Introduction to effects: Audacity has over 25 effects Always listen to the audio selection before you apply the effect and again after applying the effect Use the undo button or edit – undo to undo any effects that don’t sound right

Create an audio clip Trimming a track Splitting a trim Silencing Cut, Copy & Paste FadingChanging Tempo Amplifying Other Effects Sound Editing Applying Effects

Fading Fade in gradually increases the sound – the sound increases progressively Fade out gradually decreases the sound – the sound decreases progressively To fade in or out: Highlight a selection of a track Effect Menu – Fade Out or Fade In Notice the change in the waveform

The ‘change tempo’ effect will change the length of the selected audio The speed of the audio can be increased or decreased without changing the pitch This effect can be used to ‘slow down’ speech that is spoken too quickly Changing Tempo

Amplifying Amplify changes the volume of the selected audio This effect can be used to increase or decrease the volume of the selection To reduce the volume: drag the slider so the amplification is a minus figure (below 0.00) To increase the volume: drag the slider so the amplification figure is above zero

Other Effects Try other effects such as: Bass Boost Change Pitch Change Speed Noise Removal Normalise Repeat

Trimming a track When a track is trimmed, everything to the left and right of the selection is removed To trim a track: Use the selection tool to select the part of the track to be kept The area outside the selection will be removed Play the selection to make sure that the selection is the part you want to keep Edit –Trim

When a track is spilt, the selected part of the track is moved to its own track, replacing the original selection with silence To split a track: Use the selection tool to select the part of the track to be spilt Play the selection Edit - Split Splitting a trim

Silencing Silencing can be created in 2 ways: 1.Select part of a track and silence it 2.Insert a period of silence into an existing track Silencing is represented as a straight line in the waveform To silence part of a track: Highlight a selection Edit – Silence To insert silence into a track: Generate – Silence – the Generate Silence dialogue box displays Enter a number in seconds Click the button for Generate Silence

Cut, Copy & Paste To cut or copy part of a track: Highlight a selection Edit – Cut or Edit – Copy To paste a copied selection into an existing track: Edit – Paste To paste into a new track: Project – New Audio Track – Edit - Paste