Recording your voice with a microphone

Audacity can use many types of microphones and other audio devices to record audio.

1. Connect your Microphone

You can connect your mic by plugging it into the appropriate port. In general, this means:

• If you have a USB mic, plug it into a USB port.

• If you have a mic with a 3.5mm jack, plug it into a mic-in port.

• If you have an XLR mic, plug it into an XLR-USB audio interface and the interface into the USB port.

How you will connect your microphone will depend on your computer model and your microphone. Use your manuals or support pages for further information. You may need adapters if your computer does not have the correct ports for your microphone.

Note: Many laptops and notebooks feature built-in microphones. While they may be good enough to record your voice properly, other recordings that they produce will often be somewhat unpleasant.

2. Select your Microphone

Once you have plugged in your microphone into your computer, select the microphone to record from the list of available recording devices in the Audio Setup toolbar.

Use the Audio Setup toolbar to select the microphone you want to record

This toolbar may display some unexpected devices here (for example, webcams), as well as virtual devices (software pretending to be a microphone). Select the entry that matches the microphone you actually want to use. The Audio Setup toolbar will also allow you to select whether you'll be recording in Mono or Stereo.

The Audio Setup toolbar also displays the number of recording channels available from your microphone

Note: Most microphones are in Mono, and Mono is generally the best choice for recordings. Only use Stereo if you do need directionality.

3. Test your Settings

Select the microphone icon and choose Start Monitoring (shown below) and tap your mic with your finger. If you see the green bar move when you tap the mic, you have selected the correct device in the previous step.

Click on the microphone to start monitoring

Audacity will display the microphone level in the recording meter

Then try to speak in a normal volume. In general, the volume should remain in the green zone throughout (in general, between -18 and -12 dB is best).

Caution: If your input volume is too low (below -42 dB) or too high (frequently in the red area), your audio quality will likely suffer. See this page for how to fix this:Setting recording and playback levels

Next, make a test recording. To start recording your voice in Audacity, simply press the red record button.

Transport toolbar: the record button is the second from the right

When you have ended the recording, listen back to it. If everything went well, you should now hear your voice clearly. Once you hear your voice clearly, you should now be able to continue with the next steps.

Common problems

If you run into trouble with any of these steps, you may find the solution here:

Solving recording problems

Next Steps

• Once you've made your recording, make sure to save your work. This applies regardless of whether you intend on editing it later or not. Saving and exporting projects

• If you want to edit your recording afterwards: Editing audio