Software like WaveEdit or SoundEdit Pro allow you to record an audio clip then manipulate and output it to a loudspeaker. Some of the manipulations that can be carried out on an audio clip are summarized below:

Volume Adjustments

Often recorded clips will be too quiet or too loud. Audio editing software will allow you to amplify or quieten the sound.

Splicing

Splicing allows you to cut and paste sections of the audio clip, just as you would in a word processor. For example, you wouldn’t record the chorus of a song several times; you would simply copy and paste it wherever needed.

Down Sampling

If you have recorded the audio clip at a frequency of 44 KHz and 16-bit resolution, then it will take up a large amount of storage. The audio editing software allows you to down sample this, for example, to 22 KHz and 8-bit. This can save a lot of storage space.

Fade Ins and Fade Outs

Sometimes you will wish an audio clip to last an exact amount of time e.g. 5 seconds. If the audio clip suddenly stops then it might sound amateurish. Instead, you can fade the sound out, which will give a more professional finish.

Adding Special Effects

Special effects like echo or reverb can be added to the digital audio track.

• To gain experience of editing digital audio you will use Audacity, a freeware program for working with audio files

• Go to the Start Menu and launch Audacity

• Click here to go to an online tutorial introducing the use of Audacity and follow the steps in this tutorial to download and manipulate audio files

• You may then experiment with additional features of this software

Answer the following questions in your jotter.

1. For each of the manipulations above, give an example of when you have heard the effect in an audio track.

2. Describe the effect of reverb.

3. Describe the effect of echo.

4. Find two other effects that can be applied to a sound.