Easy music remix with Audacity
by Reto Vogel on Sep.29, 2009, under Computer, HSLU, Multimediatechnik, Tutorial
Also the audio-part is covered by the multimedia module at HSLU. This time we had to use the free audio editor and recording application Audacity. Audacity is cross-platform and is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and BSD.
Some of its features are:
- Importing and exporting sound files to several format (WAV, MP3, FLAC, etc.)
- Recording and playing sounds
- Multitrack mixing
- Noise removal
- Filtering etc.
We got the task to create a podcast (or simpified a remix). This production should take 30 to 120 seconds. We could remix existing audio files or record a new commercial. We desided to mix the vocals with the instrumentals of two different songs. This is quite easy and can be done as follows:
Import both songs in Audacity. Then you should have two tracks:
Audacity with 2 stereo tracks
Then the time consuming part begins – cutting, copying and deleting with the selection and time-shift tool…
Audacity Toolbar
For some parts I had to change the tempo of the voice track. It can be realized with the effect “Change Tempo…” or “Change Speed…”. They do the same but have differences in pitch handling. The “Change Tempo…” effect doesn’t change the pitch so your song doesn’t sound like Mikey Mouse.
At last you can export the mix through the export function and save the file in the desired format (mp3, wav, etc.)
And here’s the result – feel free to click on the play arrow:
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