1-First off, all of the considerations about recording music on the computer discussed here should be reviewed. Recording with Audacity is simple and straightforward, but if you want to use some other software for the recording process, that's fine too. Anyway, to record with Audacity, make sure your input source dropdown is set to line-in, and that your sound-card is selected in the dropdowns at the top of the screen; then, put on a record and push the red record button. You should then see the VU meter jumping up and down; this particular VU meter features a great deal of red, so you can't judge by the color-coding when your volume level is too high. Just make sure that the peak line never shoots up and hits the zero mark. You adjust the volume level with the slider with the microphone beside it. Incidentally, when you start to record, you will see the waveform display start to show the recording, but when it reaches the end of the display, it will not scroll along as it records, as do some other applications. If you want to see an up-to-the-second visual display of the recorded waveform, press the "fit project to screen" button in the upper right portion of the application. (Notice that you can drag the bottom edge of the visual display down with your mouse so that it fills the whole window.) However, if you're comfy with your recording volume settings, there is really no need to do this, and it just uses system resources that could result in little recording drop-outs, particularly if you are not recording with a powerful computer. When the record is over, press, duh, the stop button. Now it is safe to press the "fit project to screen" button to look at your total recording in its full glory. Press File/Export Selection As/Wav, and send your recording to a nice folder of your choice. IMPORTANT NOTE: Recording with Audacity uses up considerable computer resources. Check your first recordings closely for drop-outs (split-second skips). If you are getting any dropouts, use another application to record--it won't make any difference as far as the rest of these procedures are concerned.
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The Audacity GUI in all its freeware glory.
2. Now we are going to use Audacity to remove surface noise from the recording. I will break this procedure down into several steps: Note the following keyboard shortcuts. You will be using them a lot:
control + e = zoom to selection
control + f = fit entire waveform in window
control + 3 = zoom out
control + a = select view
spacebar-hit it once to play, again to stop
(a) Select an area where there is no music--either at the beginning after the stylus has dropped but before the music starts, or at the end after the music has stopped but before the stylus lifts; or, in between 2 tracks, after the fade-out and before the subsequent track begins. Select this area with a little overlap in the usual way, by dragging with your mouse with the left mouse button held down. Now zoom into the selection by pressing control + e. Further refine your selection by reselecting only that portion that contains surface noise only--no music at all:
Noise section between tracks selected
(b) In the menu bar, click "effect" and select "noise removal." When the noise removal control box appears, press the "get noise profile" button. The control box will flash and disappear. The program has just loaded our noise selection as a specific noise "fingerprint."
(c) Press control + f; this will take us back to full view. Press control + a; this will select the entire waveform. Now go back to effect/noise removal again. When the noise removal control box reappears, move the slider in "Step 2" about 3/4 of the way up. Now press "OK," and Audacity will remove the noise from the entire waveform.
Proceed to Procedure 2: Separating and trimming tracks with Audacity. Or,
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