Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Audacity is a highly-recommended open source audio editing tool that I've been using for years and have found both helpful and frustrating. Since I don't really know what I'm doing, I waste a lot of time doing it.

For example, try editing out a section of a stereo track. You can't do it. You can only select both tracks...until you figure out that you first have to split the two tracks by clicking on the "audio track" pull down to the left of the tracks. Then you can select a part of just one track. But then comes the next challenge: When you delete from one track, it's now out of sync with the first one. You can get around this by generating silence of an equal amount to what you cut. Or you can do what I think is the right thing: Edit > Split Cut deletes the selected stretch and replaces it with blankness. You can then paste into the hole it leaves.

So, eventually I get it to work. Usually. And it's free and open source, so how can I complain? Oh, I can whine a little because it's of my nature. But not outright complain.

I did run into one weirdness today that puzzles me more than makes me whiny: When I try to copy and paste music from one recording into the track of another, it gets compressed to half its size, and thus goes up an octave. Instant chipmunks. I think this is because the music is saved at 48K and the track I'm pasting it into is 96K. But I'm just guessing based on noticing the multiple of 2. Yes, I am that type of mathematical prodigy.

In the end, though, I was able to record an interview over the telephone, with me recording into a mic, through a combination of an M-Audio Fast Track Pro, a JK Audio Inline Patch, a lot of trial and a heck of a lot more error, and a lifeline thrown by Colin Rhinesmith of the Berkman Center.