Audio Tracks: If you are a music lover person, then Audacity is definitely the right software for you. Audacity is an open-source software that helps to record and edit audio. However, it can also do much more, like recording, merging, and splitting audio tracks. In addition, it can also be used to make ringtones.
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A track is an instance of the audio files in a project. You can record various tracks and then perform multiple edits on them. You can also merge two different tracks into a third one. This may be for the purpose of adding the background music to the two merged tracks. You can split them too.
Waveforms
The Track Control Panel shows the tracks waveforms and different components of the same. It shows that right and left channel, that is the waveforms and a vertical scale at the left. The upper waveform depicts the left channel and the bottom one, the right channel.
Keep in mind, that there is a difference between the color shades of blue in the waveform. As, the dark blue color depicts the peaks of the waveform. And, the light blue depicts the RMS value.
Edits can be made to both the waveforms in similar trends. While some effects can be applied to both separately. Some of the commonly applied effects through the track control Panel are to normalize and amplify the tracks.
The control panel
Let us delve into the options available in the tracks control panel.
The first option we see in the panel is Cross. If you click on the Cross button, this will close the current track in use. And, will eventually remove it from the project. The mute button will silence the audio, and clicking it again will naturally unmute the audio track.
The Solo button plays only one track in the project, for the time being. Further, it takes precedence over the Mute button. Both the buttons are available side by side. The solo button will nullify the mute effect and will play the single track currently selected.
Then, there are two sliders available: Gain and Pan Slider. You can double-click on both to enlarge the slider and make finer adjustments. The Pan Slider will let you adjust the signal intensity in the left or right speakers. Clicking on the select button will select the whole track, as expected, and the dropdown will let you contract the size. You can restore the size too.
Keyboard shortcuts
CTRL+U will mute the currently selected track. The track currently in focus can be easily identified. As, it is present with a yellow border as its outline. The solo button might not be present on the audio tracks panel. So, you will have to go to the properties and then enable its display. Here, the keyboard shortcut will prove to be an easier approach. Press Ctrl+S to enable the Solo option.
The vertical scale
The scale at the left of the waveforms represents the amplitude scale if the waveform is at the right. If the right represents pitch or spectrum, then the scale is frequency scale. The scale varies between 1.0 to -1.0.
Colors in the waveforms
There are four different colors available for the waveforms. Remember! This can be applied to different audio tracks in a single project, but this is not for the waveforms of different projects. Click here to learn more..
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