Crack open Audacity and familiarize yourself with the Device Toolbar, located beneath the playback buttons. Here, you can change the Audio Host, as well as the Recording and Playback Devices —essential requirements for recording in Audacity. To get started, create a new track by clicking on Tracks Add New Stereo Track or Mono Track. Here is the downloads folder on a Mac: The installer is hidden in with all your other downloads: Step 6: Moving Audacity into Your Application Folder. Drag the Audacity icon into the Applications folder. Close this window. Step 7: Opening Audacity. Open your Applications folder. Click on the Audacity icon. Step 8: Opening Audacity. After clicking the Record button in Audacity, go back to the media player that you opened the file with, and then click 'Play'. As the video plays, Audacity will be recording the audio information from it. Wait until the MP4 video file finishes playing, and then close the media player. After that, go back to Audacity and then click 'Stop'.

• Audacity Audio Editor For Mac
• How To Use Audacity On Mac To Record Streaming Audio
• How To Use Audacity To Find Wavelength On Mac

Audacity is a free and easy-to-use audio editor and recorder application. Roger Dannenberg and Dominic Mazzoni started Audacity in 1999 and introduced it to public in 2000.

Audacity can be used in recording live audio; converting tapes and records to digital records; recording computer playback; editing WAV, MP2, MP3, FLAC, AIFF or Ogg Vorbis sound files; importing, exporting, merging, cutting, mixing or copying sounds together; giving and changing effects such as speed and noise reduction; and a lot more.

Part 1: How to Download and Install Audacity on Mac or Windows

Step1. Since Audacity is a freeware, there are several sites where you can download the installer file. For this one, you can find it on http://audacityteam.org/download/. Choose the corresponding link if you are using Windows or Mac.

Step2. Save the file of the installer. When the download is done, run the installer. Choose your preferred language. On the next step, click the Next button. On the Information window, click the Next button again. Then, choose where you want to install Audacity, the default is in your Program Files folder, and choose Next.

Step3. The wizard will ask you if you want to install additional tasks, creating a desktop icon and resetting preferences. Click Next button when done and the next window will tell you that it is now ready to install, showing a summary of the settings you have set. If there is nothing that you wish to change, proceed by clicking the Install button, or if you want to change something, click the Back button. Change whatever needs to corrected and just click on the Next button again.

Step4. When you click on the Install button, installation will proceed and may take a while. Before the window telling you that the installation is already done, an information window will appear. When you are done reading, click the Next button. The next and last window is the window stating that Setup has finished. You may opt to launch Audacity by checking the box. Click Finish button to exit setup.

With Audacity, you can record audio files, edit those audio, apply effects like fading in or fading out, scrubbing, and a lot more features.

Part 2: How to Use Audacity for Recording

Launch Audacity. Make sure your microphone is working properly. Click the Record button to start recording. Make your voice clear on the microphone and check the waves on the interface. Click the Pause button if you will only stop for a while and wants to continue on that same track. But, if you will need to stop for a long period or when you are done with the track, press the Stop button.

Pausing for a long period is not advisable. Especially if you will go somewhere else and leave your computer. Aside from possible application crash down, there might be power interruptions, leaving your work unsaved and unrecoverable.

Part 3: How to Use Audacity for Editing

Load the file or files you want to edit or if you have just recorded, click on the Play button to listen to the audio.

a. Deleting At the bottom of the window, use the bar to highlight the part you want to remove. From the Edit menu, choose Delete.

Load the file or files you want to edit or if you have just recorded, click on the Play button to listen to the audio.

b. Cutting and Inserting Highlight the part of the track you want to insert. On the Edit menu, choose Copy or Cut. Then, go to the track where you want to insert and point the cursor to the part where you will insert. From the Edit menu, choose Paste.

Part 4: How to Use Audacity for Playback (how to guide with screenshots)

To do a Playback, highlight the part of the audio you want to hear, edit or make adjustments. When you press the Play button, only the highlighted part will play and a green down arrow head will indicate the part that is playing.

You can also change or adjust the speed of the playback in the playback control.

Part 5: 4 Reasons on Why You Should Not Use Audacity

There are some disadvantages using Audacity behind the fact that it is free. Here are some of the disadvantages:

• Audacity is not stable. After constant use, there is a tendency the program will crash. The worse thing of all is that there is no recovery of the unsaved lost track.
• LAME MP3, the codec that you need in order to export your recording as MP3, is not yet included when you download Audacity. You will have to download LAME MP3 and locate the LAME library file when you export to MP3 in Audacity for the first time since the program's installation. It would have been better if LAME MP3 is automatically installed when you install Audacity.
• Audacity usually crashes when the track is longer than an hour. So, when your track is getting longer, save it frequently.
• Audacity, being free, has its downsides. What you could do quicker in a paid software takes longer to make with a free software, therefore, taking much of your precious time.

The best thing about Audacity perhaps is being a free audio editor and recorder software. However, it often crashes when used for a long period or when your audio is already longer than what it could handle. If you are into reliability no matter how long your audio is, there are other alternatives. iMusic is highly recommended.

iMusic is a paid up audio recorder. But, there is a free version although it has limited features, as all free software have. It can record any audio played on your Mac exactly the same quality as it is heard as the audio. It can give you the output in MP3 without having to install additional codec or plug-ins. And, it supports audio from more than 3000 online music and video websites and online radio stations. Plus, you can add the recorded audio to your iTunes Library in just one click.

Steps on How to Record Audio with the Application

Step 1: Download the software from the link below and install it in your computer. Follow the given instructions to set the recorder. Launch the program on your computer and get to the recording interface. Set the program ready for working by clicking the record red button.

Step 2: Go to the music sites you would like to record your music from and start playing the audio. The application will detect the music and begin recording automatically. When the music stops, iMusic will automatically stop recording. Or you can press the red button to make it stop.

Step 3: After recording, you can go to LIBRARY tab to listen the recorded music. And you can export them to your computer or phone. You can also export them to your iTunes Library. It records with exactly the same quality as the original audio.

Key Features of iMusic:

Recording audio from a lot of streaming websites

You can now record from YouTube, Spotify, Yahoo Music, iTunes Radio, Pandora, Rhapsody, AOL Music and a lot more streaming websites. And, it is easy to record, just a click and record you go. And, you can even burn the music you have recorded into a CD.

Recording audio from video websites

It lets you record the audio of a video you are watching like from a YouTube music video. Only press the Record button to start recording and save it to a high quality MP3 or M4A file.

Transferring recorded audio to iTunes Library

One good thing with it is having an 'Add to iTunes' button which lets you add your recorded audio to your iTunes Library with a single click.

Identifying songs through ID3 tags

It is capable of identifying recorded music files and can automatically get music information such as Title, Artist, Genre and Album. If you notice any mistakes with the information, you can edit the tag.

Recording audio in original quality

It records exactly what it heard from your Mac. You will enjoy exactly the same music.

What’s more, the application has its own media player. You can play the audio you have recorded and check the quality of the said audio. You can also organize your audio files and delete unwanted music file.

Basically, Audacity is a type of open-sourced and free digitalised audio editing software which can also act as a recording application. Talking about the platforms where it is available, Audacity is, perhaps, the best recording software which is available on all major operating systems, for example Apple OS, Windows and different other operating systems. Developed way back during the spring-fall of the year 1999, Audacity was the brainchild of two University graduates, named Dominic Mazzoni and Rodger Dannenberg. Once the outlook and structure of the software were developed, the developers decided to launch the software on a Public platform in the year of 2008. However, many people do not know the reason why sometimes Audacity doesn’t recognize the microphone. Let’s find it in this article.

And as per the recent reports, it has been established that Audacity has become the most popular and most downloaded digital audio from Fosshub, with records indicating that the downloads have exceeded 75 million counts since the first financial quarter of 2015. These statistics are from a single webpage and if the total count is to be considered, Audacity has been downloaded by the customers for more than 200 million times since its release. Courtesy to these achievements and its premium qualities, the Audacity team won the award for the best software for multimedia in the Community Choice Awards of 2009.

Audacity doesn’t recognize a microphone

Now, one thing which has been bothering the users of Audacity for a long time now is that Audacity doesn’t recognize a microphone and how to solve it. Well, you do not need to worry as we will help you with a step by step guide to help you to get your Audacity to recognize the microphone.

Let us start with Apple’s macOS:

• You will have to click the tab showing “System Preferences” which you can find from the Apple icon at the topmost left corner of your desktop homepage.
• Then, you will have to click the tab “Sound”.

• Now, you will have to click on “Input” and choose the particular microphone which you want to connect.
• After all these steps are completed, adjust all the volume controls as per your requirement.
• Now, boot up the Audacity app on your MacBook
• Now, once Audacity has launched, place the cursor on Audacity and click on “Preferences” from the drop-down menu.

• Now, click on the tab of “Devices” and ensure that the mic which you have selected is the one you want to use as your primary mic.

• However, one thing which is to be noted is that if you boot up the Audacity app before connecting your mic, it will not be able to recognize your mic. So, it is preferable that you connect your mic before launching the app. Now, you can easily try out and test by recording a short audio clip.

Let us now take a look for the Windows devices.

• Here, the first job is to make your Windows to recognize your external mic.
• To do so, you will need to open the “Control Panel” and select “Sound Settings”.
• Once this is done, you will now need to select the tab showing “change system sounds or manage audio devices”.
• Find your mic in the list of Audio input devices and Select it.
• Now, you need to check all the sound controls and adjust their levels as per your requirements.
• Once all these steps are completed, you will need to launch the Audacity app on your Windows device.
• Click on the Preferences tab and click on the Settings in order to access the Audio Input and output settings.
• Check whether the mic of your choice is set as the default mic for Audacity.

Now, similar to the Mac OS, it is advised that you should always plug in your external microphone before launching the Audacity app. If this is not done, there are chances that the Audacity app might not show your mic in the audio input list. Once all these steps are tied with, you can now record a small snippet of an audio clip and use your external microphone to record it.

So, to conclude it, it can be easily said that even though there are numerous applications for recording and editing audio clips, Audacity is the best of them. Whether it’s an audio recording, editing, mixing or any other addition of effects, Audacity stands apart from its competitors and has always provided the best facilities and results to users. So, if you are a continuous user of Audacity and have faced the problem of Audacity not recognising your external microphone, you can follow the above-mentioned step to step guide and solve your problem within no time at all.

Apart from a good microphone, you can also use some pop filters which can help you to record an amazing piece of audio with Audacity. It is advised to keep the pop filter over the mic and talk from a certain distance to get the best results out of the app. And along with a good mic and pop filter, a good audio recording setup is also important to cancel out any kinds of ambient noises and take the quality of your audio clip up by a notch.

Audacity Audio Editor For Mac

Let us discuss some of the unique features of Audacity

How To Use Audacity On Mac To Record Streaming Audio

Although most of the musicians and record producers tend to use Audacity as a tool for recording various audio clips, yet, it has been seen that Audacity can also be used for various post-production purposes, which include adding various effects, mixer tracks, cropping, fading as well as normalizing some or all parts of the audio clip. Apart from this, Audacity has also found extensive use to mix and record multiple tracks and has been recently used in the national level course of the United Kingdom for their Sound Engineering unit.

How To Use Audacity To Find Wavelength On Mac

Other important features of Audacity includes multi-user interface themes which help the user to select a customised look and overall experience of the application. Apart from this, there are numerous recording options which help the music producer to navigate through various options to achieve the perfect sound. But, frankly speaking, the best feature of Audacity is its editing option.