Audacity Bootcamp: Beginner to Advanced
- 6 hours on-demand video
- Full lifetime access
- Access on mobile and TV
- Certificate of Completion
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Try Udemy for Business- Skilled audio editing techniques using Audacity audio recording and editing software
- LUFS loudness standards for podcasts and how to achieve proper LUFS levels for your podcast
- The proper use and function of Audacity plugins
- Applying compression, normalization, and the noise gate in Audacity
- Bass and treble effects and the graphic EQ in Audacity
- Reducing breath and mouth sounds in your Audacity recording
- Eliminating uhms, repeats, and false starts using tools in Audacity
- Using sync-lock tracks in Audacity
- The principles of volume, distortion, and clipped audio in Audacity
- There are no prerequisites for this course.
- Audacity Bootcamp takes you from beginner to advanced in your Audacity podcast editing skills
Audacity Bootcamp: Beginner to Advanced explores many of the features and tools within Audacity and how to use them in podcast recording, editing, and production. This course goes way beyond the basics and will help build your confidence and increase your abilities and skills in using Audacity as your podcast editing and production tool. As the name implies this course is for anyone, beginner to advanced, who wants to learn skilled methods of audio editing and production using Audacity. Because of that, there are no prerequisites for this course. Beginning students are encouraged to complete each lesson in the order presented to get the most benefit from the course. But more advanced students may want to complete the lessons most relevant to them. The choice is yours. The course consists of 53 lectures distributed across three sections:
1. Beginning Audacity Bootcamp
2. Intermediate Audacity Bootcamp
3. Advanced Audacity Bootcamp
Along the way, we explore topics like graphic EQ, the filter curve, noise reduction, manipulating audio waveforms, compression, normalization, sample rates, voiceovers, voice frequency, the draw tool, the zero-crossing tool, the limiter, metadata, LUFS and loudness normalization, the noise gate, stereo vs mono, templates, filters, multi track editing, amplify and silence, and Audacity plugins.
If you're looking for a course in Audacity that teaches both the basics of Audacity and takes you beyond the basics to advanced levels of instruction, this course is for you. Plus, you can't beat Udemy's 30 day money back guarantee. Thank you for your interest in Audacity Bootcamp: Beginner to Advanced and I hope to see you inside.
- Podcasters, podcast editors and producers, audio editors
- Anyone wanting to learn basic to advanced Audacity podcast editing techniques
Welcome to the Audacity Bootcamp! Let's talk briefly about what you're going to learn in this first section of the course.
In this lesson, let's get Audacity downloaded and installed on your computer. The links to the Audacity Team website and the Fosshub website are in the resources folder for you.
Every time Audacity starts, it scans your audio hardware. If you've added new hardware since starting Audacity, Audacity won't see it unless you re-scan the hardware.
Naming your tracks helps you keep track of them. This is helpful when your project has grown to a large number of tracks and makes identifying individual tracks easier.
Audio needs to be converted to digital signals before Audacity can do anything with it. For example, Audacity takes the analog audio of our voices and converts it to digital audio as it enters Audacity. To do this, Audacity samples the audio. Sample rates refer to how fast and how often the audio is sampled during the conversion from analog to digital. As a general rule, the higher the sample rate, the more the digital audio sounds like the original analog audio.
Let me show you how to fit all of your tracks on the screen, both horizontally and vertically.
As we start Section Two, let's take a minute and talk about what you're going to learn.
We want our audio to sound good in our podcast or video. I can have an average video but if the audio is superior, the quality of the video can be overlooked. But if the audio is bad, most people are going to shut it off. The same is true of podcasts. Good audio attracts listeners. Volume, distortion, and clipped audio are the subjects of this lesson.
Noise comes in all shapes and sizes. We don't want noise in our audio because it's a distraction and depredates the audio quality. Let's talk about the noise reduction tool.
When deleting a section of audio, it's best to ensure our end selection points are at the zero-volume point prior to deletion. This helps keep popping or other unwanted noises from being introduced.
Let me introduce you to the topics we're going to cover in this advanced section.
What are high-pass and low-pass filters?
LUFS is the measurement of the overall perceived loudness level (in dB) of your podcast. It's a reference to the overall loudness of your project or podcast from start to finish. There are LUFS standards for podcasts. Stereo podcasts should be mastered to a LUFS level of -16 LUFS. Mono podcasts should be mastered to a LUFS level of -19 LUFS.
In this first of three lessons on LUFS, or loudness units, I illustrate LUFS using the Waves Loudness Meter plugin. This plugin helped me understand LUFS and what LUFS looks like when applied to a waveform. There is a link to the WAVES Loudness Meter plugin in the resources folder in case you want to get a copy. There are also some excellent tutorial videos there.
The Auphonic Desktop Leveler is a stand-alone software program that I use to level the audio of my podcasts and videos to the appropriate level. I never publish a podcast episode or a video without first leveling the audio using the Auphonic Desktop Leveler. I recommend this product if your budget allows. There is also an option on the Auphonic website to upload your audio for leveling, using that method. The link is in the Resources tab.
Let me show you how to mix down your stereo tracks to mono tracks and how to convert your mono tracks to stereo.
Let's talk about mix and render. There are a couple of ways to do this in Audacity. This was a required step, back in my pro audio music days to see the composite final product. It's not required before exporting your project for your podcast, but it can be a helpful way to see your composite project before you export it.
Congratulations on finishing the Audacity Bootcamp! I hope this course met your expectations and that you benefitted from it. Don't forget to grab your Certificate of Completion. You've worked hard for it. Would you consider leaving me a rating and review of the course? It would help me to know where it needs improvement and it will help future students to make an informed decision in their search for an Audacity course. Also, feel free to reach out to me any time with questions or suggestions. You own this course and are free to return to it at any time. Please feel free to recommend this course to others if you're so inclined.