Audacity Basics (NEW in 2023): Recording, Editing, Mixing

In 2015, I recorded a popular intro to the free audio editing program Audacity, but a few things have changed in the program, so I made a new one! It's for brand new Audacity users who have never used this software before.
This video shows some of the most common and simple tools in Audacity, especially if you're recording your voice and layering it with music. I cover the basics of recording, adjusting the hotness of the mic, audio compression, splitting clips, importing music, adjusting the volume of multiple tracks, saving, and exporting.
00:00: Intro
00:20: Mic selection & levels
01:49: First recording & zooming
03:06: Selecting audio & compressing
05:26: Importing music & deleting
08:42: Sync-lock, splitting clips
10:30: Mixing volume with the envelope tool
13:48: Saving project, exporting, metadata
Recorded in July 2023 with Audacity 3.3.3 on Windows 10.

[@totallyfrozen]

Yup. Clearly you’re a college professor. Your delivery was very efficient, clear, highly informative. Obviously, you’re an experienced teacher. This was extremely helpful to me. Thanks a bunch for posting this. 👍🏻👍🏻

[@edin86]

Hello, Kyle Stedman! I was afraid of the Audacity screen full of tools. Now I know it is very easy to go with it. I am in love with your presentation. That really gets my job done. Thank you very much.

[@Badikay]

Can you tell me, please, why does my voice recording only on left chanell? And when I want to listen it, the sound is going only from a left chanell in my headphones (((

[@user-zs3ow2rt1f]

Why I am getting an echo when I use microphone on audacity

[@Todayis2day]

What can I do I only see 5 seconds of a hour audio? I want to see full recording waves

[@chustard]

whenever I right click the mic level, it says "enable silent monitoring" rather than "start monitoring" how do i fix this?

[@vikrehab]

How do I open the equalizer consul? I opened it once and I don't remember how to do it again. Thank you

[@TopShrop]

You are a great teacher, because you tell us what you are about to do, e.g. mouse clicks, before you do it. Makes your teaching very easy to understand. Is there a way to quickly locate a label in a long track? I had 15 labels in a 3 hour recording; scrolling to find the next or the prior label was not very efficient. Thanks

[@srajbalan]

I have a basic problem. ambience sound is getting recorded along with vocals. How to solve. I will appreciate the support

[@BerenBragg]

Thank you for this video. I downloaded audacity recently but haven’t gotten around to using it yet. Watched several beginner tutorials before finding yours, yours is by far the easiest to understand.

[@robertmarum2114]

Thank you for a real tutorial. I have used audacity for quite a few years as an amateur cutting music for my wife’s choir program. The latest update left me stumped when I opened up the program tonight. You answered what I was looking for.

[@LisaLeitl]

Thanks for the clarity and getting us started! Greatly appreciate your time.

[@laurentjullien3027]

Extremely clear (and useful), thank you.

[@kenchance9088]

Just started using Audacity and glad to watch your basics first. Thanks, Kenny

[@epiphonium]

I've used Audacity for way over 10 years and I learned a lot from this video. The newest version has got me interested in learning more ! Thanks !

[@vanderavortdebije]

Compact yet comprehensively explained. Thanks for your work.

[@janetownley]

Perfect getting-started tutorials! I watched all of them, practicing each thing on my other device. Just what I needed. Thank you so much!

[@Smokdeel]

Great tutorial Kyle.Thank you very much for that.I'm new to the audio world and it will help me tremendously. Very much appreciated.

[@leskijin4988]

I'm thinking of making a short film, and I found this program, but I had no idea how to use it to edit the sound. But, you showed me where to start. Thanks, great tutorial!

[@NollaigHealey]

Excellent tutorial well done, you have a great way of imparting your knowledge ❤