Have you ever needed a sound to start off very softly and ‘fade’ in to a higher volume level? How about the need to ‘fade’ out to complete silence? In today’s posting, we will take our readers through the steps of using our favorite free, open-source audio editing software aka Audacity to accomplish just that by applying a Fade In and Fade Out effect to the beginning and end of an audio file.
Looking for Setup instructions? We’ve got you covered! Our recent Audacity for Windows 7 Installation Tutorial includes setting up LAME as well!
For today’s walk-through, we’ll be applying Fade In and Fade Out effects using Audacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode) for Windows 7 (as run via Parallels on a MacBook Pro).
Step 1: MP3 Download
Before one can edit their AudioAcrobat recording in Audacity, the first step is to make sure that the file resides on the hard drive of the computer on which editing will be performed.
1. Login to your AudioAcrobat account
2. Click Audio (L)
3. Click the Title of the Audio you wish to Download
4. Click Download Audio
Looking for Expanded Steps? Try HERE.
Step 2: Open in Audacity
Now that the file our readers wish to edit is on their computer’s hard drive, they will want to open the file with Audacity. Right-click the file and choose Open With and select Audacity from the list. Don’t see it listed? Open Audacity from the Programs portion of the Start menu on the left side of the task bar. Open the software and click File >> Open, selecting the audio to be edited.
Once the file opens in Audacity, our readers will see something like this:
Step 3: Highlight, Fade In / Out + Export
It really is that simple. Click and drag with the mouse cursor or for those keyboard enthusiasts out there use Shift + Left / Right arrow keys to make a selection.
For a Fade In effect, our readers will want to make sure to place their cursor as far left of the beginning of the audio as possible and make their selection to the right for the intended fade duration.
After highlighting the desired section of the audio, our readers should see something similar to the following:
Here our readers will want to select Effect >> Fade In as seen below:
After selecting Fade In, our readers will see the selected area ‘fade’ in from (-) infinity to 0 dB throughout the entire duration of area selected:
Next we will select an area to fade out, also making sure to select as far right of the end of the audio as possible. After highlighting the desired section of the audio, our readers should see something similar to the following:
Here our readers will want to select Effect >> Fade Out as seen below:
After selecting Fade Out, our readers will see the selected area fade out from 0 dB to (-) infinity throughout the entire duration of area selected:
As seen above, the beginning of the audio fades in from (-) infinity to 0 dB, as does the audio fade out from 0 dB to (-) infinity.
When satisfied, select File >> Export to save the newly edited version and head over to AudioAcrobat in an internet browser to begin the upload process.
Here we’ve walked through the process of opening our file and applying a Fade In and Fade Out effect using Audacity for Windows 7. Did you get stopped somewhere in the process? Make sure you have LAME correctly setup then shampoo, rinse and repeat the steps listed above. Success will be yours!
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Coming up next … a new Audacity (Mac OS X) tutorial!
