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Audacity Support

How-Tos and Tutorials for Audacity

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Audacity Basics

Downloading & installing Audacity

Audacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. This page will guide you through the download & installation process.

Downloading through the Microsoft Store

Audacity is available from the Microsoft Store.

Go to the Microsoft Store website.
Click Get in Store App.
The Microsoft Store app will open. Click Install to install Audacity.
When Windows asks you if the installer may make changes to the system, click Yes.

Audacity is now installed. You can start Audacity from the start menu.

Downloading from the Internet

Head to the download page: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows/ It will automatically download the latest version of Audacity after 5 seconds.
If prompted, click Run or Save.
If you clicked Save, head to your downloads, locate the Audacity installer and double-click it.
- In Windows 11 it is possible that you get a warning about Audacity being a non Microsoft-verified app. Click Install anyway.

Select the language to use during the installation and click OK.

In the Welcome page click Next.

In the Information page you will links to learn more about Audacity and its license. Click Next to proceed.

In the Select Destination Location page you can select a different folder to install Audacity using the Browse... button or simply use the recommended destination. Click Next to continue.

In the Select Additional Tasks page you can choose that the installer adds a shortcut to Audacity in your Desktop.
- If you have installed Audacity previously you will have the option to Reset Preferences.

Verify your choices and click Install

Wait a few seconds until the setup process completes.

Please take some time to know how to get community support through the Audacity Forum and how to make suggestions or report bugs.

Click Finish to close the installer and Launch Audacity

Head to the download page: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/mac/
It will automatically download the latest version of Audacity after 5 seconds.
If prompted, click Save.
Once the download has completed to your Downloads folder, double-click the DMG file to mount it.
Drag the Audacity.app icon rightwards onto the "Applications" folder shortcut.
- You can also drag Audacity out of the DMG to any other location. You need the administrator password to copy Audacity to "Applications".
Launch Audacity.app from /Applications or from your chosen location. Note: Do not double-click the "Audacity" icon in the DMG to launch Audacity from there.
Once the program has opened press "OK" to start editing!
- Additionally, you may check the "Don't show this again at start up" prompt.

Head to the download page: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/linux/ It will automatically download the AppImage after 5 seconds.
Make the downloaded AppImage runnable. To do this, you can right-click the file -> Properties -> Permissions or run the following command in the terminal:
```
chmod +x <path to your Audacity.AppImage>
```
Double-click the AppImage to run Audacity.

Additionally, your Linux distribution (for example Ubuntu, Fedora or Debian) may have a version of Audacity as part of the repository. This version is typically older than the latest AppImage, but may be better integrated into your distribution.

Note: If you have trouble opening the AppImage, try installing libfuse2. Exact steps for various distributions can be found at

https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/FUSE

Installing FFmpeg

FFmpeg allows you import/export additional audio file formats into/from Audacity

Due to patent restrictions, FFmpeg cannot be distributed with Audacity itself. However, FFmpeg is required to import and export a variety of audio formats, including M4A and WMA.

Note: In previous versions of Audacity, LAME was required to export MP3 files. It is now included with Audacity by default on Windows and macOS. Make sure you are using the latest version of Audacity if you're getting any LAME errors.

You can download and install FFmpeg as follows:

Recommended installer

Download the FFmpeg installer from For most computers, the 64-bit Windows version is correct.
Run the installer. You can ignore the "unknown publisher" warning.
Read and accept the license
Select the location to install FFmpeg. By default FFmpeg will be installed into C:\Program Files\FFmpeg for Audacity
Finish the installation
Restart Audacity

Audacity should now automatically detect FFmpeg and allow you to use it.

Other FFMPEG builds

If you prefer a manual installation of FFmpeg you can download a ZIP file from a different source:

Or by compiling it from source as described here:

Note:

Audacity 3.1 and later supports avformat-55.dll, avformat-57.dll and avformat-58.dll. Audacity 3.2 and later also supports avformat-59.dll. Audacity 3.3 and later also supports avformat-60.dll. You can check which dll is in which FFmpeg release .
Make sure you download full FFmpeg copies, not just the avformat-*.dll's individually. Further, make sure to download or build the shared versions as only those contain .dll's.
Different versions of FFmpeg may have different codecs enabled in them. In particular, AMR (narrowband) is not featured in the recommended installer.

Manual installation

If you have installed FFmpeg from a different source, or installed it in a different location, you'll need to tell Audacity where to find it. To do this:

Go to Edit > Preferences > Libraries
Click on the Locate... button.
If the following message appears, Audacity has automatically identified FFmpeg:
You can click No as Audacity already knows where to find FFmpeg.
If this message does not appear, proceed with the next steps.
In this dialog window, click Browse... to locate the avformat-*.dll from the FFmpeg folder you downloaded/installed elsewhere
Once you've found it, click Open, then OK, then OK again to close the preferences.

Recommended installer

This is a universal binary installer. It automatically matches your system architecture.

When you have finished downloading, open the .pkg. You will be guided through the installation
Click through the steps in the installer.
- On some Macs the process may look as though it has stalled on "Validating packages" - just be patient and wait for it to complete.
Restart Audacity if it was running when you installed FFmpeg then Audacity should detect FFmpeg automatically.

If you have problems with Audacity detecting FFmpeg, follow the steps below to manually locate FFmpeg.

Homebrew

And once you have Homebrew, the following command installs FFmpeg:

Audacity should now automatically detect the installation after a restart. If not, follow the steps of a manual installation.

Compiling other versions

Note:

Audacity 3.1 and later supports avformat 55, 57 and 58. Audacity 3.2 and later also supports avformat 59. Audacity 3.3 and later also supports avformat 60.
Make sure to download or build the shared versions (with .dylib's) as only those can be used by Audacity.
Different versions of FFmpeg may have different codecs enabled in them. In particular, AMR (narrowband) is not featured in the recommended installer.

Manual installation

If you have installed FFmpeg from a different source, or installed it in a different location, you'll need to tell Audacity where to find it. To do this:

Go to Audacity > Preferences > Libraries
Click on the Locate... button.
If a "Success" message appears, Audacity has successfully found FFmpeg. You can click No as Audacity already knows where to find FFmpeg.
If this message does not appear, proceed with the next steps.
In the "Locate FFMPEG" dialog, click Browse... to locate the avformat-*.dylib from the FFmpeg folder you downloaded/installed elsewhere.
Once you've found it, click Open, then OK and OK again to close the preferences.

Troubleshooting

If you're using an Apple Silicon ("M1", "M2") system, make sure that your FFmpeg and Audacity architectures match:

arm64 (Apple Silicon) Audacity needs arm64 FFmpeg,
x86_64 (intel, also known as x64 and amd64) Audacity needs x86_64 FFmpeg.

Additionally, make sure you're using the latest version of Audacity.

On Linux, you generally can install FFmpeg as well as LAME through the package manager. You can use the following command in your Terminal/Console to install it:

Once you have installed FFMPEG and LAME, restart Audacity. It will automatically try to detect them.

Manual installation

If your FFmpeg or LAME installation didn't get detected, you'll need to tell Audacity where to find it. To do this:

Go to Edit > Preferences > Libraries
Click on the Locate... button of the relevant library.
If a "Success" message appears, Audacity has successfully found the library. You can click No as Audacity already knows where to find the library.
If this message does not appear, proceed with the next steps.
In case of FFMPEG: In the "Locate FFmpeg" dialog, click Browse... to locate the libavformat.so.* from the FFMPEG folder you downloaded/installed elsewhere. In case of LAME: In the "Locate LAME" dialog, click Browse... to locate the libmp3lame.so that you downloaded/installed elsewhere.
Once you've found it, click Open, then OK and OK again to close the preferences.

Recording your voice & microphone

Audacity can record various types of microphones and other audio devices.

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.

The exact details depend on both your exact computer model and your microphone model. Please see their respective manuals or support pages for further information. You may need adapters if your computer is missing appropriate ports.

Note: Many Laptops and Notebooks feature built-in microphones. While they may be good enough to record your voice to an intelligible standard, the recordings they produce tend to be somewhat unpleasant to listen to.

2. Select your Microphone

Select the microphone to record from the list of available recording devices in the Audio Setup toolbar

You may see some unexpected devices here (for example, webcams), as well as virtual devices (software pretending to be a microphone). Choose the entry that matches the microphone you actually want to use.

You can also use the Audio Setup toolbar to select whether you'll be recording in Mono or Stereo.

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

Turn on the monitoring (shown below) and tap onto your mic. If you see the green bar move when tapping the mic, you have selected the correct device in the previous step.

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.

When you have made the recording, listen back to it. If everything went well, you should now hear your voice clearly and 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:

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

Setting recording and playback levels

The recording and playback levels can be set using the sliders in the Recording and Playback meter toolbars:

The slider with the microphone icon sets the recording volume on a system level. If the operating system is prohibiting this action, this slider will be inactive.

The slider with the speaker icon sets the playback volume relative to the system volume. It does not affect the volume of exported files, use the gain sliders on each track to edit those.

Best practice: Before starting to record, click on the microphone icon and select Start Monitoring to activate the recording level meter. If it enters the yellow or red area (-9 dB to 0 dB) when testing with a normal volume, lower the recording level to prevent clipping and distortions in the real recording.

If you selected 1 (Mono) Recording Channel on the Audio Setup > Recording Channels the meter will only display the level on the Left channel

Recording desktop audio

Audacity can record computer audio (including sound from YouTube, Spotify and more).

1. Select the loopback device

Click on Audio Setup and select Windows WASAPI as the Host

Select the output you want to use (the device you're using to listen) as the input. It will be marked with a (loopback) after it's name.

When using the (default) MME device, you may find a virtual microphone called Stereo Mix, What you hear or similar in it. This also will record your desktop audio.

Note: MacOS does not have built-in desktop audio recording capabilities. You'll need to download Soundflower to record desktop audio.

Soundflower

Caution: Soundflower is not compatible with Apple Silicon-based machines ("M1", "M2", ...)

Open the Audio MIDI Setup app (found in /Applications/Utilities).
Press the + button in the bottom left corner and select "Create Multi-Output Device".
In the panel that appears to the right, select Built-in Output and Soundflower (2ch).
Press the gear button in the bottom left and select "use this device for sound output". Note: If you don't set an option, you won't hear anything after completing the following steps.
Start Audacity
Click the Audio Setup button and set Soundflower (2ch) as the recording device.

When using PulseAudio (default for Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and others):

Install PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol). This should be in your repository already.
Use the Audio Setup toolbar to select ALSA as the audio host and select pulse as the recording device.
If your system uses Pulse by default, the pulse device may be called default.
Enable the recording meter by selecting Start Monitoring.
Open PulseAudio Volume Control and choose the Recording tab.
In the Capture from dropdown, select the "Monitor" option of the playback device used by the application you want to record from
Launch the application that you wish to record and begin playback.
In the "Recording" tab of PulseAudio Volume Control, drag the volume sliders so that the recording level in Audacity's Recording Meter is to left of 0 dB (-6 dB is a good level to aim for).

2. Check if everything is set up correctly

Recording the desktop audio will record all desktop audio, including notification-pings, games, and Audacity itself (for example, other tracks in the timeline if you're using overdub). So unless you specifically want these noises, make sure to turn them off.

3. Record

Hit the record button to record your desktop audio.

Editing audio

This page is an introduction tutorial to editing in Audacity. It covers how to import files, making cuts, rearranging clips, and applying effects!

Importing a file

To start editing, you need some sort of sound to edit. You can either record some sound, or import an existing sound file (for example, an MP3 or WAV) by dragging & dropping it into the project window. You can also import files via the File > Import menus.

Note: To import proprietary file formats such as M4A or WMA, you need to install FFMPEG first.

Once you have that, you will see a waveform of your sound:

This waveform is a visual representation of the song. The larger the blue "blob" is, the louder the section. Lines standing alone ("spikes") indicate sudden and short loud sections such as clicks, snaps, claps and drum hits. With a bit of practice, you can use the waveform to quickly find your way around an audio file.

Removing sections of a song

To remove a section of an audio file, first select the section by clicking and dragging in the waveform.

Once you have a selection, press Delete or Backspace to delete it.

Moving sections of audio (clips)

Audacity supports clips, which are pieces of audio inside the project which can be moved independently. Technically, any audio you record or import already exists as a clip, denoted by the rounded clip handle bars above the waveform.

You can click + drag on the clip handle bar to move a clip around.

Splitting up clips

To split a clip into two independent clips,

Click into the waveform where you want to split the clip.
Tip: To make precise adjustments, zoom in first.
Right-click > Split Clip (Ctrl+I / Cmd+I)

Note: If you select some audio instead, it will create a clip out of the selection.

Resizing and trimming clips

To trim a clip, hover with your cursor around the upper third of the left or right edge of a clip:

Then click and drag the edge to trim the clip to it's desired length.

Note: Trimming is a non-destructive operation. You can un-trim a clip at any time. If you have created your clip by splitting up a larger clip, you can even un-trim the current clip until it's at the length of the old clip. If you want to permanently remove the trimmed data, you can copy the clip to another project, choose Selected audio only when pasting, and move it back.

Applying Effects

Audacity supports a wide range of effects and effect plugins. These effects can be used for Noise reduction & removal and more, and while each effect does different things, they all generally can be applied in the following way:

Select the audio you want to apply the effect to.
Go to the Effect menu.
Select the effect you want to use. Typically, a window like this will open:
Tweak the effect to your liking. You can click the Preview button to hear a short sample before applying it to the whole selection.
Press OK to apply the effect.

Best practice: If you want to apply an effect to an entire track, use realtime effects instead. By doing so, you can change the effect at any point later on.

Saving and exporting projects

There are two ways to get your work out of Audacity: Saving the project, and exporting audio.

Saving projects

You can save projects using the File > Save Project menu. A saved project (.aup3) has the most information about your project available, but can only be opened in Audacity. There are three options available, each useful for a different use case:

Save Project (Ctrl+S/Cmd+S) will save your current project. If you save for the first time, you may need to specify where to save it to.
Save Project As... will save your project in a new place and continue editing on it, should you want the original project to remain untouched.
Backup Project... will save the current state of the project in a new file, but won't switch to it.

Warning: Avoid saving active projects on external drives, USB sticks, or network storage. Audacity requires fast, uninterrupted access to your storage when recording and editing.

Exporting audio

You can export your project into an audio file using the File > Export menu. Exported audio (.mp3, .wav, .ogg, and more) can be opened with a wide variety of programs, and uploaded to some social media, but may have worse quality and lose some Audacity-specific information.

In the File > Export menu, you'll see a few different options:

Note: You may need to install FFMPEG to access some of these options.

Export as MP3, Export as WAV and Export as OGG will export your project into the selected format.
Export Audio... (Ctrl+Shift+E/Cmd+Shift+E) will provide you options to export to more uncommon formats, such as FLAC, M4A, AC3, WMA, AMR, MP2 and custom FFMPEG exports.
Export Selected Audio... will export only the current selection time range, instead of the entire project.
Export Multiple... (Ctrl+Shift+L/Cmd+Shift+L) will let you export different parts of the audio based on either tracks or labels.

Caution: Muted tracks are not exported. What you hear when playing in Audacity is what will be exported.

There are also two additional options which export non-audio data:

Export Labels... will export labels if you have any.
Export MIDI... will export the currently selected note track as a MIDI or Allegro file. You can only export one note track at a time.

Sharing audio online

With Audacity 3.2 and onwards, you can easily share audio online.

You can now upload your audio by pressing Continue. If you'd like to link an existing audio.com first, you can do that by clicking Link Account.

Audacity will now prepare the track for upload and upload your audio.

Note: This may take a few minutes depending on how fast your computer is, how fast your internet connection is, and how long your audio is.

After your audio has been uploaded, press Continue. You will be taken to the audio.com website.

On audio.com you now can either create an account to use this with, or copy the anonymous link. To share the link,

Close the sign up panel,
click the share button (shown below) and
select Copy Link

You now can share your audio by sending this link to people.

All uploaded audio is private by default. Only people with access to the link can listen to it.

Linking audio.com to Audacity

Linking your audio.com account to Audacity lets you get the sharable link from Audacity itself. To link your account,

Press the Share Audio button. Note: You need to have some sort of audio present in your project for this button to work
Your browser will open audio.com
Login or sign up if you aren't yet logged in
Click on "Link audacity".

Customizing Audacity

Using themes

Audacity comes with 4 themes preinstalled: Light, Dark, Classic and High Contrast. You can switch between themes by going to Edit -> Preferences -> Interface (macOS: Audacity -> Preferences -> Interface)

Once you have chosen a theme, click OK to close the preferences dialog and load the new theme.

Installing custom themes

Custom themes commonly are distributed as files called ImageCache.png. You can find some custom themes here:

To install a custom theme, place the ImageCache.png in the following folders. You may create the folders if they aren't present.

Windows: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\Theme\custom\
MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/Theme/custom/
Linux: ~/.local/share/audacity/Theme/custom/

Then,

restart Audacity,
open the Preferences -> Interface page,
select Custom as the theme and
press OK.

Be aware that custom themes may break from one Audacity version to the next.

Installing plugins

You can download various plugins here:

Most plugins get automatically activated once you install them on your system.

Caution:

64-bit Audacity can only run 64-bit plugins, and 32-bit Audacity can only run 32-bit plugins.
Additionally, Apple Silicon (arm64) Audacity cannot run Intel (x86-64) plugins and vice versa.
"Instrument" versions of plugins (VSTi, LV2i) are not supported.

Manually installing plugins

If a plugin doesn't get found by Audacity, or doesn't come with an installer, move the plugin files to one of the following locations:

You can access the Common Files folder quickly by hitting 🪟 WINDOWS key + R to launch Run and typing %ProgramFiles%\Common Files

VST2: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2 or C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins
VST3: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
LV2: C:\Program Files\Common Files\LV2 Note: Always copy the complete .lv2 folder
LADSPA: C:\Users\<username>\Appdata\Roaming\audacity\Plug-ins\ Note: You can quickly access this folder by hitting 🪟 WINDOWS key + R to launch Run and typing %AppData%\audacity\Plug-ins
Vamp: C:\Program Files\Vamp Plugins\
Nyquist: See below

All Plugins can be installed per-user (~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/...) or system-wide (/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/...). In following, only the system-wide path is named

Audio Unit: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
VST2: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
VST3: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
LV2: ~/.lv2 or /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/LV2, Note: always copy the entire .lv2 folder
Vamp: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Vamp
Nyquist: See below

LV2: ~/.lv2, /usr/local/lib/lv2 (for 32-bit) or /usr/local/lib64/lv2 (for 64-bit) Note: Always copy the entire .lv2 folder
VST2: ~/.vst or /usr/local/lib/vst Note: Many VST effects are Windows-only
VST3: ~/.vst3 or /usr/local/lib/vst3
LADSPA: ~/.ladspa or /usr/local/lib/ladspa
Vamp: ~/.vamp or /usr/local/lib/vamp
Nyquist: See below

Installing Nyquist plugins

To install a Nyquist Plugin, follow these steps:

Download the plugin(s) in question.
Open Audacity, and go to Tools > Nyquist Plugin Installer
Click Browse and locate your downloaded plugin(s)
Click Open, then Apply and finally OK.
Restart Audacity.
The plugin should now be available in the corresponding Generate, Effect or Analyze menu.

Deactivating and re-activating plugins

Go to Tools > Plugin Manager
Select the plugins or effects you want to deactivate
Click Disable.
To re-enable a plugin, select them and click Enable.
Click OK to close the Plugin Manager and save your settings.

Effect Presets

Each effect in Audacity comes with a predefined set of values that you can change and save according to suit your needs and workflow.

When you select an effect to apply to your audio (for example Effect > Noise Removal & Repair > Noise Gate...) Audacity will show you the effect settings window where you can change the different values according to your needs.

After you find the settings that best suit your needs you can use the Presets & settings button to save your settings for future use:

Click the Presets & settings button and select Save preset...

After saving your presets you can recall them the next time you need to apply the same effect. Click the Presets & settings button, select User Presets... and select the name of the previously save presets:

To restore the factory default settings select Presets & settings > Factory Presets > Defaults

Keyboard shortcuts

This page lists all commands in the Audacity menus and all pre-defined keyboard shortcuts.

The default Standard set of shortcuts is a reduced set, compared to earlier versions of Audacity, to simplify the set of shortcuts somewhat and to provide greater flexibility for users who wish to create their own shortcuts. There is also an extended Full set of keyboard shortcuts that can be selected from the Defaults button on the Keyboard Preferences dialog. This Full set is the set that was available in Audacity 2.1.3 and earlier. You can use Keyboard Preferences to change or remove existing shortcuts or to assign a shortcut to commands that lack a default shortcut.

Standard shortcuts are shown like so: Ctrl + A.
Shortcuts that are only in the Full set are shown like so: Ctrl + # Extra.
Shortcuts that have not been assigned, that you can assign using keyboard preferences, are shown like so (unassigned).

Some less commonly used commands are not in the default menus but they can be accessed by menu by enabling Show extra menus in Interface Preferences

Note: You can change all shortcuts via Preferences > Keyboard. This includes adding new shortcuts, or removing shortcuts existing by default.

Other Tips and hints:

Mac users: Ctrl = ⌘ and Alt = Option. So, for example, Ctrl + Alt + K = ⌘ + Option + K.
See Audacity Selection for examples of changing track focus and selection.
PAGE UP scrolls the project rightwards and PAGE DOWN scrolls the project leftwards, equivalent to a single click in the white area either side of the horizontal scrollbar. These shortcuts cannot be configured in Keyboard Preferences.
There are a number of key combinations that can be used in combination with mouse clicks. These cannot be configured. They are listed on Mouse Preferences

The File Menu provides commands for creating, opening and saving Audacity projects and importing and exporting audio files

Action

Shortcut

Description

File: Recent Files

Lists the full path to the twelve most recently saved or opened projects or most recently imported audio files

File: Save Project

Various ways to save a project.

File: Export

For exporting audio files

File: Import

For importing audio files or label files into your project

The Edit Menu provides standard edit commands (Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete) plus many other commands specific to editing audio or labels

Edit: Remove Special

For more "advanced" removal of audio

Edit: Clip Boundaries

Create or remove separate clips in the audio track. A clip inside an audio track is a separate section of that track which has been split so that it can be manipulated somewhat independently of the other clips in the track.

Edit: Labels

These commands are to add and edit labels.

Edit: Labeled Audio

Labeled Audio commands apply standard Edit Menu commands to the audio of one or more regions that are labeled. The labels themselves are not affected.

Select Menu has commands that enable you make selections of tracks or parts of the tracks in your project.

Select: Tracks

Tracks

Select: Region

For modifying, saving and restoring a selection.

Select: Spectral

For making a selection of a frequency range.

Select: Clip Boundaries

For modifying a selection, taking account of clips.

View Menu has commands that determine the amount of detail you see in all the tracks in the project window. It also lets you show or hide Toolbars and some additional windows such as Undo History.

View: Zoom

Zoom in/out on the horizontal axis. Show more detail or show a longer length of time.

View: Track Size

Controls the sizes of tracks.

Move forward/backwards through the audio

View: Toolbars

Toolbars can be used to determine which of the Audacity toolbars are displayed. By default all toolbars are shown except Spectral Selection and Scrub

Transport Menu commands let you play or stop, loop play, scrub play or record (including timed and sound activated recordings).

Transport: Playing

These commands control playback in Audacity. You can Start, Stop or Pause playback of the audio in your project.

Transport: Recording

These commands control recording in Audacity. You can Start, Stop or Pause recording in your project. You can either start a recording on your existing track or an a new track.

Transport: Scrubbing

Scrubbing is the action of moving the mouse pointer right or left so as to adjust the position, speed or direction of playback, listening to the audio at the same time - a convenient way to quickly navigate the waveform to find a particular event of interest. Speed changes are made by rotating the mouse wheel while scrubbing.

Transport: Cursor to

These commands let you move the cursor to the start or end of the selection, track or any adjacent Clip that you may have

Transport: Looping

Transport: Transport Options

This submenu lets you manage and set various options for transport (playing and recording) in Audacity

Tracks Menu provides commands for creating and removing tracks, applying operations to selected tracks such as mixing, resampling or converting from stereo to mono, and lets you add or edit labels.

Tracks: Add New

Adds a new track

Tracks: Mix

Mixes down selected tracks to mono or stereo tracks

Tracks: Mute/Unmute

Mutes or unmutes audio tracks in the project

Tracks: Pan

Pans left right or center audio tracks in the project

Tracks: Align Tracks

Commands that provide an automatic way of aligning selected tracks with the cursor, the selection, or with the start of the project.

Tracks: Sort Tracks

Sorts all tracks in the project from top to bottom in the project window, by Start Time or by Name.

Generate Menu lets you create audio containing tones, noise or silence.

Generate: Built-in

Generate: Nyquist

Audacity includes many built-in effects and also lets you use a wide range of plugin effects.

Effect: Built-in

Effect: Nyquist

The Analyze Menu contains tools for finding out about the characteristics of your audio, or labeling key feature.

Analyze: Nyquist

The Tools Menu contains customisable tools.

Tools: Apply Macro

Displays a menu with list of all your Macros. Selecting any of these Macros by clicking on it will cause that Macro to be applied to the current project.

The Extra menu provides access to additional Commands that are not available in the normal default Audacity menus.

Extra Transport

Extra commands related to play and record

Extra: Tools

Extra commands to select the tool, for example time-shift, envelopes, multi-tool.

Extra: Mixer

Extra commands related to volume

Extra: Edit

Extra commands related to editing

Extra: Play at speed

Extra commands related to play at speed

Extra: Seek

Extra commands related to seeking

Extra: Device

Extra commands related to selecting a device

Extra: Selection

Extra commands related to selecting.

Extra: Focus

Extra commands to set focus, usually focus on one track

Extra: Cursor

Extra commands to move the cursor

Extra: Track

Extra commands to operate on a track that has focus

Extra: Scriptables I

These commands were originally written for scripting Audacity, e.g via a Python script that uses mod-script-pipe. The commands though are also present in the menu, available from macros, and available from within Nyquist using (AUD-DO "command")

Extra: Scriptables II

Like Scriptables I, but these ones are less commonly used from the menu.

The Help Menu lets you find out more about the Audacity application and how to use it. It also includes some diagnostic tools.

Help: Diagnostics

A set of diagnostic tools

These are commands which do not appear in any menu.

Repairing Audio Recordings

Noise reduction & removal

Removing background noise is core to most audio cleanup operations. Audacity has several tools to aid in this.

Best Practice: While it's possible to rescue an otherwise unusable file with noise reduction techniques, your recording will sound best if you take steps to ensure a noise-free environment before recording.

Noise Reduction

The Noise Reduction effect works best to remove a constant source of noise, like the hiss of fans, the hum of fridges, or whines, whistles and buzzes.

To use it, use the following steps:

Locate a section of your recording that's just your background noise, preferably a few seconds long, and select it.
Go to Effects > Noise Reduction and press the "Get noise profile" button.
Select all the audio for which you want to reduce the noise.
Go to Effects > Noise Reduction again. You now can tweak the settings of the reduction to your liking. Tip: While tuning the settings, use the "Residue" toggle to hear what sound will be removed.
Once you're satisfied with the result, click OK to apply it to the selected audio. Note: If you used the Residue toggle before, make sure to switch it back to Reduce before pressing OK.

Tips:

If you set the sensitivity too low, or use a noise profile that doesn't properly represent the noise throughout your track, you may experience artifacts (random bursts of very short tones).
If you don't need to tweak the settings after setting the noise profile, you can press Ctrl+R/Cmd+R to immediately apply the effect to your selection.

Noise Gate

The Noise Gate effect attenuates any sound quieter than a certain threshold while leaving sounds louder completely unaffected. To use it

Select a part of the audio that's just background noise.
Go to Effects > Noise Gate... to open the effect.
Click Select Function: Analyse Noise Level and press OK. Audacity will now tell you where your noise level lies and recommending a threshold.
Select the audio you want to apply the effect to.
Go back into Effects > Noise Gate..., set it back to Select Function: Gate, and enter the threshold level from earlier.
Tweak the other parameters as sound best to you.
Press OK to apply the noise gate.

Best practice: Use the noise gate after applying noise reduction. This way, you can use less aggressive noise reduction settings, which may grant you a cleaner end result.

Notch Filter

The notch filter removes a hum or whistle at a specific frequency. To use it:

Select the audio you want to apply the effect on
Go to Effects > Notch Filter to open the effect.
Enter the frequency you want to reduce, together with the Q-value (how many frequencies around the main one you want it to affect - the higher the number, the less frequencies).
Press OK to apply the effect.

Tips:

The "Mains hum" of the electricity grid is 60Hz in north and middle America, and 50Hz in most other countries.
Use Analyze > Plot Spectrum... to find the offending frequency if you're not sure where it is.
Sounds often have harmonics or overtones. They are at a multiple of the main frequency, so for a 50Hz sound, you may need to apply the notch filter as well at 100Hz, 150Hz, and so on to remove it fully.

Re-recording a section

Punch-in repair of recordings is an easy and fast way to fix short sections of a recording by re-recording it.

Fixing bad sections as they occur (Punch-and-roll recording)

Best Practice:

Make sure that Overdubbing is turned on in Transport > Transport Options.
Make sure that your latency settings are correct.

If your audio recording broke and you immediately noticed it (for example because you misspoke your script or had to cough), it is possible to stop the recording and immediately fix the mistake by using Punch-and-roll recording. To use it:

Record as normal until you make the mistake.
Stop the recording.
Choose a splicing point by clicking into the audio before the mistake happens. For spoken content, this should be between words so you can drop in easier. Note: All audio on the track after the splicing point will be deleted.
Start a Punch-and-roll recording with Transport > Recording > Punch and roll record (Shift+D). This will playback a couple of seconds of your recording so you can find the right rhythm and tone as before, and at the splicing point you set in step 3, it will switch to recording mode and make a crossfade.
From here on out you can continue recording as usual. If you make the same mistake again, you can stop the recording and undo (Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z) and try again. If you make another mistake later on, you can do another Punch and Roll recording by repeating the steps above.

Tip: You can change the amount of pre-roll audio and crossfade in the Preferences > Recording in the Punch and Roll recording section.

Fixing a bad section afterwards

If your audio recording broke at one specific point in time (for example because an ambulance drove by), but you only notice it after having recorded everything, it is possible to re-record this section using punch-in repair.

Best Practice:

Make sure that Overdubbing is turned on and Software Playthrough is turned off. Both settings can be found in Transport > Transport Options
Always create a backup of your project before editing it. For a continuous recording, this typically is best done by #exporting-audio.

To use it:

Select a couple of seconds of audio before and after the bad part. With overdubbing turned on, recording will playback the recording back to you and help you match the timing.
Do the re-recording on a new track. To do this, Shift-click the record button or press Shift+R. It will automatically start recording from the beginning of your selection.

To hide the cut a bit better, a crossfade may help: Making crossfades
If your new take is slightly longer or shorter than the gap left in the original recording, you can split the clip: #splitting-up-clips
You can use a similar technique to continuously fix mistakes as they occur during a recording session using Latency Compensation

Audio Editing

Using realtime effects

Audacity 3.2 and onwards supports realtime effects

Downloading & installing realtime effects

While Audacity doesn't yet ship with realtime effects, you can download plugins for it. Currently supported plugin formats are Audio Units (macOS only), VST3, VST, LV2, and LADSPA. We have collected some plugins which we know to work on but you can find many more across the web. Once you install the plugins, they should be detected by Audacity once you restart it, if not, see the .

Adding effects to a track

You can add realtime effects using the following steps:

Note: Realtime effects always apply to an entire track. Since they're calculated realtime, they won't change the source waveform.

Changing effect settings

You can change the effect settings by clicking on the effect's name. This will open a settings window, often with a graphical interface which looks nothing like Audacity itself. You still can interact with the main Audacity window while the effect settings are open.

Bypassing an effect

You can press the blue power button next to an effect (or the entire effects stack) to bypass it, causing it to be not applied to your audio.

Tip: If you want to completely remove an effect from the stack, press the triangle next to the effect name and select "No Effect".

Applying an effect stack to the waveform

That said, you can apply the effect stack to the waveform by first selecting the track and then going to Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render.

Caution: When selecting several tracks at once, the Mix and Render option will mix all tracks together.

Music

Audio Analysis

Troubleshooting

Community

Using looping Playback

Additional resources

Manage Macros

Manage Macros allows you to edit, remove or rename existing Macros or add a new Macro. It also allows you to apply Macros to you project or a set of files.

Any , , , , or (Mac) effect shown in the can be added to a Macro. You can also add plugins in any format that are shown in the or Menus (including analysis effects), the built-in analyzer and a number of export commands.

Macros may be applied to either the entirety of the current project or to a selection of files using the Tools > command.

It is possible to use in Macros but see for how the Noise Profile is captured.

The full list of all Macro commands, with descriptions, is available at Scripting Reference.

Accessing Macros

You can access the Manage Macros dialog by using either:

The menu > Manage Macros, or
The Expand button in the dialog.

Select Macro

Select Macro contains a list of already defined Macros. You can define the name of a new Macro and select which Macro is active.

The left hand box in the dialog (labeled Select Macro) contains a list of already defined Macros. Until you add a new Macro, it only has built-in MP3 Conversion and Fade Ends Macros.

Use left-click (or use the Up or Down keyboard arrows) to select the Macro you want to work on

New: Adds a new Macro to the list.
Remove: Remove the selected Macro from the list - grayed out when the Macros that ship as part of Audacity are selected.
Rename...: Rename the selected Macro - grayed out when the Macros that ship as part of Audacity are selected.
Restore: Resets any Audacity provided Macro to its default settings - grayed out when user-provided Macros are selected.
Import...: Enables you to import a Macro from a TXT file.
Export: Exports the selected Macro to a TXT file.

Edit Steps in the Macro

The Macro can include a number of common Audacity functions and effects to be executed in any order you specify.
- The Export command will use the settings you used the last time you used the same command from the File > Export > Export... menu command, or default settings if you have never used that command from the menu.
In many cases the parameters for each command in the Macro can be specified within the Manage Macros dialog.

You can:

Add or remove commands for the selected Macro
Change the order in which the commands execute in the Macro
Edit the parameters for some effects in the Macro

Command

Insert: Insert a new command into the list
Edit...: Edit the parameters of the currently selected command
Delete: Delete the currently selected command in the list
Move Up: Move the currently selected command up in the list
Move Down: Move the currently selected command down in the list
Save: This button is only active when you have made edits to a Macro. It enables you to save those changes.

You can also edit an existing command by double-clicking it, or using the Up or Down keyboard arrow to select it and then pressing Space. The parameter settings dialog for that command will be displayed.

Inserting a new command

A few commands are intentionally omitted from the Macro Manager (such as Close:) because they are unsuitable for use in Macros.

To insert a new command in a Macro, left-click or use the Up or Down keyboard arrow to select an existing command and then press Insert. The new command will be placed above this selected command.

The Select Command dialog appears, listing all the available commands. Double-click a command from the list to insert it in the "Command" box, as shown in the image below after inserting "Normalize".

Alternatively, use the Up or Down keyboard arrow to select the command, then press Space.

Some scriptable commands are particularly useful for Macros. See these pages for details:
If the command has editable parameters, the Edit Parameters button will be active. Clicking this button will bring up the dialog box for the effect where you can set the parameters as if you were applying the standalone effect.
Choose OK in the effect dialog to accept the parameters you entered, or Cancel to revert to the default parameters.
Choose OK in the Select Command dialog to add the command to the Macro.

Macro Command Parameters

It is strongly recommended that you set parameters for the commands that you use in a Macro. Otherwise Audacity will use the last-used parameter setting(s) when you ran the effect(s) manually.

Also note carefully that settings used in Macros will not affect or change the last-used parameter settings for any effect when next run manually.

This example shows the Set Track Status command.

The tick boxes on the left determines whether a feature should be used. When not selected, that feature does nothing.

The second tick box determines whether the feature is set to "on" or "off".

This shows:

The track name will not be changed
Track selectedness will be set to Not Selected
Track focus will be set to Focused

Commands that call Effects, Generators, Analyzers or Tools, use the same familiar graphical interface (GUI) as appears when they are used from the normal top level menus.

Selections in Macros applied to Project

Macros will work on pre-existing selections you make in your project prior to running the Macro. But the selection can be over-ridden by your Macro itself as there are Macro commands available to effect selections in the audio.

In particular All(Select All) will select the entire project
Select which is parameterizable (see the provided Fade Ends Macro for an example where the first and last one seconds of the audio are selected for the fades).

If you want to select all tracks, maintaining your current time selection, use "Select: First=0 Last=100". It will not waste time twiddling its thumbs on the tracks that are not there.

Selections in Macros applied to Files

When applying a Macro to files there is no pre-existing selection so you will need to create a selection in the Macro if your Macro requires audio to be selected to act on (and most Macros do).

Commands for Exporting audio files

There are four basic export commands available: Export as WAV, Export as MP3, Export as FLAC and Export as Ogg.

Parameters for export formats cannot be set in Manage Macros. To configure export parameters for the Macro, click File > Export > Export Audio... to access the Export Audio Dialog, click Options, set the parameters, press OK then Cancel the export. An audio track must be on screen in order to open the Export Audio Dialog.

Special Export command

Note carefully that the filename is not dynamically changeable when running the Macro, once set in the Export2 parameters, so you may wish to create several Macros the Export2 each targeting different file locations, names and filetype.

Example:

"C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\my file.flac" (this works)

Not: C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\my file.flac (the file name is not quoted)

Not: "my file.flac" (no path given)

Not: "C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\myfile" (no file extension)

The quote marks around the file pathing are supplied by Audacity once the Export2 command has been edited in setting up or editing the Macro

When entering the pathing data in the edit parameters dialog for the command you do not put the quote marks for example: C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\my file.flac

Deprecated Export commands

The following two commands are now deprecated and may well be removed in future versions of Audacity. They were part of "CleanSpeech" (which has long been removed from Audacity).

The name of the MP3 exported by the "Export as MP3 56k before" command is prefixed by "MasterBefore_" followed by the date and time. The name of the MP3 exported by the "Export as MP3 56k after" command is prefixed by "MasterAfter_" followed by the date and time.

Comments in Macros

Comments be added to Macros to enable you to document what is happening in the Macro.

Add a comment to your macro using the Comment command and edit its parameters to type the text of your comment.

The buttons

Shrink - reduced Macros Palette dialog

Use the Shrink button to show a reduced Macros Palette dialog with a simple list of the existing Macros, enabling you to apply the Macros but not edit them.

This smaller version is useful for presets. It stays open after applying a macro, so it is a palette of custom functions, and you can pick another and apply that.

Apply Macro to

Apply Macro to enables you to make a Macro operate on either your current open Project or a set of selected external Files.

It is recommended not to process more than 500 files at a time

Close to exit the dialog

To dismiss the dialog simply click on the Close button.

If there any unsaved changes you will be asked if you want to save them or not.

Error: Batch command not recognized

This error may sometimes occur for one or more commands in a Macro when updating from a previous Audacity version. The error may also occur if users sharing Macro have different Audacity versions or different versions of the plugins used in the Macro. The error will occur if:

any command in the Macro uses a different text format than that recognized by the version of Audacity in use
any plugins listed in the Macro are missing, in an incorrect location or are incompatible with the version of Audacity in use.

Style Guide

These are the rules designed to give the entire user guide a somewhat unified style. You may apply them with some freedom.

General

The goal of the user guide is to provide explanations on how to perform various tasks in Audacity.

Features vs tasks

Documenting features seems like the obvious thing to do: Audacity has various menus, so better have a list of what every option in that menu does. However, this leads to the situation where some pages are completely unfindable as a reader already needs to know where certain options are in the menu in order to find out what the page would be called. For example, the feature containing the slider for the recording and playback volumes is called Mixer Toolbar. But nobody except the people most intimately familiar with Audacity know it's called that!

To combat this, try to write your guides as a way towards a goal, or a task. The above example, instead of naming the page after the feature, name it after the task it does, so: Setting recording and playback levels

Tasks aren't necessarily tied to individual features. For example, Noise reduction & removal can talk about several tools as once as they all are means towards a common goal.

If a feature has many different modes or options that are unrelated to the task you're describing, avoid making long lists of what all the feature can do. Focus on the task-related ones instead.

If a feature has several ways to access it, use the most accessible option. For example, for an "how to play audio" article, simply mention the big green play button and the shortcut Space. Don't also mention Transport > Playing > Play/Stop.

There are some exceptions to this, especially when documenting more "advanced" features like Macros which need extensive guiding about how to operate it. Instead of a linear "go here, then here and there, and then you're done", split them up into sub-tasks (for macros: creating macros, editing macros, etc.) and keep these unrelated tasks on one page. Avoid breaking it down to the point where you are explaining individual buttons (don't say "the cancel button cancels the effect without applying it")

Rule of thumb: If a feature is easy to use, but hard to find, document it like a task, ie answering the question "how do I do x". If a feature is hard to use, document how to use the feature as a series of sub-tasks if possible.

Target audience

Audacity's user base consists largely of casual users. As such, you can't expect the readers of your guide to understand even fairly common audio terms (for example: compressor or loudness vs volume), unless it's directly connected to the topic you're writing about.

For example, if you write a guide about compressing and expanding audio, you don't need to hold yourself up on explaining what a compressor is, since the only people who'll ever end up reading that guide are people who already know about that. However, if you were to mention a compressor on a page about general audio editing, you would need to explain what a compressor is good for.

That said: If it's possible to describe a feature without needing to resort to lingo, use it even if it's slightly less accurate. For example, "punch-in repair" would be the accurate term for Re-recording a section, but also is way harder to understand and thus to find.

Scope

While there's a lot of things you can write about in relation to Audacity, keep in mind that this site is focused on user guides (or how-to guides, or tutorials - they all have the same idea). We want to minimize work on contributors while maximizing impact, so guides should be kept as general as possible. Only use qualifiers such as "for podcasters" or "for musicians" if their use case shares almost no resemblance to what everyone else would be doing anyway.

Caution: The following topics are out of scope:

Audio-related content beyond Audacity, like: "how to build a quiet recording booth"
Reviews and recommendations of software/plugins/...
Technical documentation about the internals of Audacity.

Writing style

You can address the reader directly ("you"). You should remain impartial in the process though, so no "I" or "my".

The overall tone should be friendly but not patronizing, and the language should have a healthy middleground between casual and technical.

Page titles

Titles should reflect the task you're trying to teach. For example, if you're teaching how to add reverb, the title should be "Adding reverb"

The title should be concise (try keeping it below 60 characters).

Page titles should be written in sentence case. So generally, the first is capitalized while everything else is not, except proper nouns and acronyms ("Audacity", "FFMPEG").

Note: When the title explicitly refers to an option within Audacity itself, use the spelling found inside Audacity. So for example, "Using the Noise Reduction effect" would have "noise reduction" capitalized, but "Reducing noise in Audacity" would not.

Introductions

Underneath the title is a field for page descriptions. These descriptions are the first thing users see of the article when looking at Google, or seeing an embed to it somewhere.

As such, they should give a good summary of what the page is going to be: In a few words, how will a goal be achieved? What features will be used?

Instructions

Instructions should be written in a step-by-step list where useful. For example:

Do This
then that
then a third thing

If you need to interrupt the steps for explanations, you can either do

Do this
then that (shift+enter) Note: This is an explanation on a new line
then a third thing

Instructions for different Operating Systems

If instructions are different depending on the operating system or other factors, you can use tabs, like this:

Windows Instructions

MacOS instructions

Linux instructions

Tabs aren't part of standard Markdown, so they probably won't show up properly if you're using github or a local editor. They'll show up just fine on Gitbook though.

Note: Tabs are quite big blocks, visually speaking. When using them, make sure that what you're showcasing is worth this space. For example, if you're just saying that undo is Ctrl+z on Windows and Linux, you can just put brackets behind it for the mac instructions - "press Ctrl+z (Cmd+z)"

Technical explanations, asides, and manual backups

If a task has a main way of working, but may benefit from additional context, you can use the Expandable block:

Further information

You can use various other things in here.

Note that you cannot embed other blocks inside Expandables. You are limited to Paragraphs, Headings (h1, h2, h3), lists (bullet points, numbers, checkboxes) and code blocks. Images are possible, but only as inline (ie inside a paragraph).

Images

You can take screenshots using the clipping tool or tools like ShareX. ShareX has the advantage that it has built-in tools like arrows, step-by-step bubbles and labels which can help you visualize several steps at once.

With images, there always is a tradeoff between easy maintainability, clarity and context. So crop them as much as possible without losing important context, and use them in a way that makes updating them as painless as possible.

Info boxes

Gitbook offers 4 types of info boxes.

Info: Use these for information which is useful to know, but not necessary to fulfill the task. These boxes should be started with

Info:, Note: or Tip: for general additional information
Shortcut:Key + Combinationfor shortcuts

Warning: Use these for information where things might go wrong and the user might get undesired results. These boxes should be started with

Caution: or Warning: depending on which feels more appropriate in terms of urgency

Danger: Use these for super important information only, where ignoring the danger box would lead the user to irreparable damages (lost data, broken audio, ...). These boxes should be started with

Danger: for super important info
NEVER or DON'T if you need to go straight into the warning, where "danger" would look silly.

Success: Use these for things the reader should do. These should be started with

Best practice: or Do: for best practices
Checklist: if you want to provide a checklist

These info boxes aren't part of standard markdown, so if you're not using gitbook itself, but edit through Github or a local editor, they will look a bit silly in your preview (but show up correctly here).

Video Tutorials

If an image is worth a thousand words, a video tutorial can be worth a million: At it's best, it can tell the entire story the written guide would make in a way that always has all necessary context and requires no lengthy description of where to find things.

However, video tutorials can go out-of-date incredibly quickly and then cause a lot of confusion among viewers.

Because of this, a video tutorial must follow these rules to be added to an Audacity Support page:

The video must clearly state what version of Audacity it's referring to in the beginning.
The video must be in the language of the Audacity Support page it's meant to be embedded in. Right now, that's English only.
The video must be a dedicated Audacity tutorial or how-to guide.
The video must refer to Audacity Support as the place to get up-to-date help from.
The video must not contain a sponsorship read, and it is preferred to have the video completely ad-free.
The video should be licensed Creative Commons-Attribution (see YouTube help). This way, if your video goes out of date, other people can update only the part of your video that goes out of date.
The video and the Audacity Support page it's supposed to be embedded in should match the steps they take. If the video tutorials goes on a tangent unrelated to the initial task, the written guide may omit the tangent and instead place the contents of the tangent in a "See also" section.

Best Practices for Videos

The following points are considered best practice for video tutorials:

Start with the purpose and version number and then go straight into the content: "To do XYZ in Audacity 4.2.0, first go to..."
Use a script which you follow when making your video. This will automatically eliminate the following two points, and also get you a long way towards making subtitles.
Avoid going off-topic, eg "hey guys, and welcome back to another video! my sister's aunt's nephew requested I make a tutorial so he can cook his eggs using Audacity to which I said..."
Go through your tutorial linearly step-by-step, and avoid jumping back to earlier sections much later in the video. For example, if you are in Step 9 already, jumping back with a "oh yeah, I forgot to add that in Step 3, you need to also do..." is majorly confusing.
Add subtitles to your videos. Not only do they make your tutorial more accessible to deaf people, they also are useful to people who have trouble understanding your dialect or accent, or who want to auto-translate the subtitles into their own language.
Use chapters on YouTube to mark major steps in your video. They work by putting the following in your video description:

0:00 Intro 
0:30 Step 1. Clicking here 
0:45 Step 2. Sliding there 
1:00 Step 3. Cha-cha-cha

(note: the first timestamp must be 0:00)

About this document

This is a living document. It contains the best practices, as determined by the community. Feel free to discuss additions and changes on the discussions page, or in the discord.