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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

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...

This error indicates a problem with the hardware used for playback, whether it is permissions, drivers, connections, or if you ask the device to do something it cannot do. You can attempt the following steps to resolve it.

Causes

This error indicates a problem with the hardware used for recording, whether it is permissions, drivers, connections, or if you ask the device to do something it cannot do.

Causes

This error occurs if you try to record an unsupported number of channels.

Fixes

• Synchronizing with claps

• https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Rhythm_Track

Uninstalling OpenVINO models can be done in the following manner:

Windows

Go to the Windows Settings -> Apps -> Installed Apps and uninstall OpenVINO AI Plugins for Audacity.

Alternatively, you can go to C:\Program Files\Audacity and remove the openvino-models folder, along with modules\mod-openvino.dll.

macOS

Go to /Library/Application Support/audacity/ and remove the openvino-models folder, along with modules/mod-openvino.dylib.

Crossfading Clips

If you have two clips in one track you'd like to crossfade, you can use Crossfade Clips effect. To use it:

1. Have two clips in one track.

2. Select the region you'd like to apply the crossfade to. Try to select roughly the same amount of time in both clips.

   Note: Any empty space between the clips will be automatically removed and ignored in the crossfade.

3. Use Effects > Fading > Crossfade Clips to crossfade the clips.

Crossfading between Tracks

To crossfade between tracks, use the following steps:

1. Position the clips on the tracks so that they overlap in the range you want to crossfade, and select the audio in the overlapping region in both clips:

2. Use Effects > Fading > Crossfade Tracks to crossfade the tracks.

Changing pitch per clip

You can change the pitch of a clip by selecting the clip, and then pressing Alt+↓↑ to change the pitch by a semitone. Alternatively, you also can click on the overflow menu (...) in the top right of the clip, and then Pitch and Speed... to change it via a dialog. You can also use the dialog to change the pitch by cents instead of just semitones.

Once you have changed the pitch, the clip will have an indication of how much it's been changed:

You can change pitch at any time by clicking on the indicator, or reset it by Ctrl+clicking it (macOS: Cmd+clicking) .

Pitch correction of an entire track (Auto-Tune)

While Audacity does not have any pitch correction natively, you can use plugins such as for this task. See and on how to use these plugins.

Changing pitch for an arbitrary audio selection

To change the pitch of an arbitrary selection of audio, go to Effects -> Pitch and Tempo -> Change Pitch.

Causes

This is caused by an unexpected system state. Specifically, macOS typically allows allocation of 32 instances of shared memory, out of which Audacity requires one to start. However, other apps on your computer may have filled up these allocations, in which case Audacity cannot start.

Fixes

• Rebooting the computer generally resolves it as it clears the shared memory.

• You also can edit the macOS kernel to allow for more shared memory, but this is a very technical process. Essentially, various shared memory limits need to be increased. (Catalina) or (Sonoma) may have further instructions.

Causes

This error indicates that FFmpeg isn't loaded correctly.

Fixes

Restarting Audacity fixes this. If the problem persists, try reinstalling FFmpeg and Audacity.

Causes

This is a visual indication that your recording has clipping. See Crackles, pops and distortion in the recording for more information.

Fixes

The vertical red lines show where the clipping has occurred; these clipping indicators can be turned on and off (Audacity default setting is "off") by selecting View -> Show Clipping in Waveform.

Other names

• Error code 11

• Error code 13

• Error code 101

Causes

These errors may occur when the project you're trying to open is in a read-only location.

These errors may also occur when attempting to load a damaged .aup3 project file.

Fixes

• Make sure Audacity has write access to the folder the file is located in, or move the project file to a different location.

• If your project is damaged, you can also try .

Causes

Most microphones are mono microphones, so they by default record on the left channel only.

Fixes

To hear your audio on both speakers, make sure you record in mono, and that the track is center-panned.

Causes

If you are on a low-end machine, this may be caused by insufficient resources, specifically memory.

This also can happen if you assign yourself a static IP in the hosts file.

Fixes

• Try closing other programs or restarting your computer to clear up memory.

• If you're using static IP assignments in the hosts file, simply commenting out the assignment may solve this.

Getting loops

You can find loops all around the internet, including Muse Hub.

You also can manually convert a section of a song to a loop.

Adjusting loops to the project

When importing a loop to the project, Audacity will automatically attempt to match the tempo. If it's unable to, you can instead adjust the tempo yourself by holding Alt (macOS: Option)and dragging the edge of a clip to stretch it to fit.

Additionally, if the loop is in a different key to your project, you can also select a clip, and press Alt+↓↑ to adjust the pitch by semitones.

Repeating loops

Audacity does not feature a looping feature as known from traditional DAWs at this point. Instead, you can repeat via copy-pasting the loop, or using the Effects -> Special -> Repeat effect.

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.

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

Using AI to separate vocals

Causes

This error can indicate an unsupported sample rate.

This error can also occur when using Audacity on Windows to record a track while listening another existing track (also known as overdubbing) with Windows WASAPI as the Host if the sample rate of the recording device is different than the sample rate of the playback device.

This error can also occur when you are trying to record a number of channels that is not supported in the current configuration.

Using the Click Removal effect

The click removal effect can automatically remove clicks across an entire track.

To use it:

Causes

Recording gaps are typically caused by an overloaded computer, or by broken cables and connectors.

Setting up for music workflows

You can enable a more musical view in Audacity as follows:

1. Right-click the Timeline Ruler and select Beats and Measures.

Causes

The recording slider is purposely disabled if it cannot directly manipulate the operating system's slider for the sound device, or if that device has no system slider. Turning down the Audacity slider to prevent distortion would be inadequate unless it also turned down the system slider. It would only make existing distortion quieter instead of removing it.

A high can lead to quiet parts of a track being too quiet compared to its loud parts, causing the listener to constantly adjust the volume to keep things at an acceptable level. Audacity has several tools to help reduce the dynamic range and increase the loudness of a track.

Compressor

This effect can be found in Effect -> Volume and Compression -> Compressor.

The compressor can be used to reduce the dynamic range by a certain ratio for all sounds that exceed the threshold. Doing so will make the resulting audio quieter, so you need to add make-up gain to make up for that - or, alternatively, normalize your track in a second step. The knee width and smoothing parameters are there to reduce distortion.

Causes

This error means "something is wrong", most commonly

• A lost connection to a USB audio device

Causes

This error indicates that the device that's being attempted to use is not valid, for example:

• The device got unplugged

Pages under this section are just stubs. Feel free to work on them. Check out the and for more info

Causes

• Your microphone gain may be reduced. To fix this, see:

Causes

Audible input monitoring usually causes a delay (latency) of the live recording input due to the time it takes to reach your headphones.

Audacity is an audio editor with limited DAW functionality. As such, we expect and test for the following uses:

• Recording audio, including digitizing analog media

• Applying effects to alter or enhance audio

Causes

By default, Audacity doesn't play back the input.

Fixes

Causes

This is caused by missing .

Causes

The default project sample rate in Audacity (and, indeed, most other devices) is 44100 Hz, whereas most Bluetooth headsets utilize different sample rates: 8000 Hz, 16000 Hz and, rarely, 24000 Hz.

We maintain a list of free VSTs and similar plugins on plugins.audacityteam.org. You can find, test and add plugins to the list.

To do this, you can get access to the plugins space via and then edit the relevant sections.

Exact details can be found here:

TODO

If you know Audacity well, but don't want to , you can help users out directly. The most active communities in this regard are:

• The ,

• the , and

(this probably is a category on its own, but let's write it on this page for now)

• Making new tracks

• Use case: spoken word with music in the background

From

Audacity provides you with two different built-in normalization effects available through the Effect -> Volume and Compression menu:

• Loudness Normalization

• Normalize

Normalize

Normalize is a peak normalization effect which apply gain or reduction to the selected audio so the level of the peak is changed to the desired level. You set the desired level of the peak (in dBFS) before applying the effect. This effect does not take into account the perceived loudness of the selected audio only the desired peak level.

Loudness Normalization

By comparison Loudness Normalization will calculate the perceived loudness of the selected audio and then apply gain or reduction to the audio so a desired loudness level is reached. You set the desired loudness (in LUFS, Loudness Units relative to Full Scale).

To apply Loudness Normalization:

• Select the region containing the audio that you want to normalize. It could be an audio clip or the entire track.

• Click Effect -> Volume and compression -> Loudness Normalization... to open the Loudness Normalization window

• Set the target loudness in LUFS units using the Normalize perceived loudness to field.

• Keep Normalize stereo channels independently disabled If you are normalizing a stereo track (Left and Right channels) with the audio levels already balanced as this mode will preserve its original stereo balance.

• Disable Treat mono as dual-mono (recommended) if you are normalizing a mono track.

Detecting tempo (BPM)

To align music to the beats and bars grid, you first need to know the tempo of the song, usually measured in beats per minute (BPM).

• If you're recording music on your own, try playing to a metronome to ensure you stay in tempo.

• If you're using music downloaded from the web, try figuring out its tempo. In some cases, a web search for song title tempo is sufficient.

Preparing clips for snapping

Audacity will snap the beginning of the clip to the beats and bars grid, depending on your tempo and snapping setting. If your first beat doesn't start exactly at the start of the clip, you can trim the beginning of the clip. To trim a clip, simply drag the upper edge of it inwards.

Aligning to beats and bars

Once you have everything set up and snapping enabled, simply dragging your clips will align them to the beat and bars grid.

Once you have aligned your music, you can get started with adding loops and other content to the project

This error occurs when the file you're trying to open has no decoder available.

Causes

This may be caused by several things:

• The FFmpeg library may be missing.

• Modules which handle importing of the file may be missing or disabled.

• The file themselves may misreport their contents (for example: Say they're .mp3 despite being actually .m4a), or be corrupted.

• You may have set custom import rules.

Fixes

You can attempt the following things to fix it:

• Install FFMPEG. FFMPEG allows you to open most kinds of media files. Read more:

• Check Preferences -> Modules. You should see several modules called something like "mod-mp3" or "mod-pcm", all of which should be set to "enabled", or, in the case of "mod-script-pipe", to "no choice made". If you are missing modules, reinstall Audacity, and reset the preferences.

• Check if the file you're trying to open actually is what it says on the tin. For example, some lower-quality programs name any audio file *.mp3

Changing speed while preserving pitch

In Audacity 3.4 and onwards, holding Alt (macOS: Option) while hovering over the edge of a clip shows a clock cursor (shown below). Once it appears, dragging the edge inwards or outwards lets you change the speed of a clip. This action is repeatable as many times as you like.

To change the speed to precise values, right-click the clip header and select "Change Speed". This will open a dialog in which you can type in a number.

Additionally, if you want to render the stretching, that option is in the same right-click menu.

Dynamically changing speed and pitch over time

You can change the speed of an entire project over time using Time Tracks. To add one, go to Tracks > Add New > Time Track.

Then click on the blue line and drag it upwards or downwards to change the speed at that time. Every time you click, a new control point is added, allowing you to change the speed over time

Changing speed and pitch of a clip

To change speed and pitch at the same time, use Effect > Pitch and Tempo > Change Speed and Pitch.

Unlike , the Change Speed and Pitch effect keeps the waveform intact, so you can use this method repeatedly without any major loss in quality.

Using the Change Tempo and Paulstretch effects

To change the speed while preserving the pitch, select the audio you want to apply the effect on and go to Effect -> Pitch and Tempo -> Change Tempo

Drag the slider or enter some numbers to change how much you want to speed up or slow down your audio. The controls are linked, so you just need to change the value you care about, the rest will update accordingly.

For extreme slowdowns (10x slower to thousands of times slower), you may want to use Effect -> Pitch and Tempo -> Paulstretch instead.

Changing playback speed

If you want to preview your audio at a faster or slower rate than normal, but without affecting the final product, you can use the Play-at-Speed toolbar

To use it, drag the slider to the desired speed (between 0.01x and 3x) and then click the small play button next to it to playback your audio at that speed. You can use the normal stop and pause controls to stop/pause playback.

Can't open an MP3 file

If you see an error when importing an MP3 file, it can have the following causes:

• Your file isn't using the MP3 codec, but instead is using a codec associated with another file extension (for example, the Advanced Audio Codec (aac) usually is found in .m4a files, and PCM Wave is usually found in .wav files). A true MP3 file will show MPEG Audio, Version 1, Layer 3. To solve this error, you can use to find out what the actual codec used in the file, and change the file extension accordingly (for example rename the audio.mp3 file to audio.m4a).

• Your file is partially broken (Huffman Data Overrun). This is a bug with Audacity versions 3.1.3 and earlier, and you can fix it by of Audacity.

• Your file is fully broken. If it can't be opened in Audacity, or anywhere else, your file might just be broken. This itself may have several reasons:

  • If you just recently downloaded it from the internet, you may want to try downloading it again - in case there was a transmission error.

  • If you just created it yourself, it might be that there was a write error. If possible try saving the file again, re-installing the app that was used to create it, or using a different app to create it.

No audio is coming through headphones

There can be several reasons for this. Some things to try:

• If using a wired headphone, make sure that the wire is plugged in and that the plug is clean.

• Make sure that the headphones are selected in the Audio Settings output. Note: On some devices, the internal card - usually called something among the lines of "HD Audio" are handling both internal speakers and headphones, depending on which is plugged in. You may need to select this option anyway even if it says "Speaker" instead of "Headphones"

• If you connected the headphones after starting Audacity, you may need to go to Transport -> Rescan Audio Devices

LAME is missing

In previous versions of Audacity, LAME (lame_enc.dll) needed to be installed separately. This no longer is the case for the latest version.

To fix this issue, uninstall Audacity and install the latest version. See for more info.

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.

Resetting from within Audacity

You can reset Audacity by going to the following menus:

• To reset the toolbars only: View -> Toolbars -> Reset Toolbars

• To reset everything: Tools -> Reset Configuration

Purging the settings folder

If you cannot open Audacity or want a more thorough cleanup, you can also delete the configuration files manually. They can be found in the following locations:

• Windows: C:\Users\<yourname>\AppData\Roaming\audacity\

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/

• Linux: ~/.config/audacity/

You can delete all contents of the folder to get Audacity back to "factory settings". Alternatively, you can also only delete certain elements of it:

• audacity.cfg is responsible for all preferences

• pluginregistry.cfg contains a registry of all plugins and whether they can be used.

• pluginsettings.cfg contains last used settings of effects as well as user presets.

Additionally, you may find some other files and folders there, eg. for macros, custom themes or plugins. These can also be deleted though, typically deleting the audacity.cfg and pluginregistry.cfg is enough in most troubleshooting scenarios.

☁️ Saving projects to cloud

To save a project to the cloud, first go to File -> Save to Cloud. In the dialog that follows, click Link Account.

You will be guided through the signup process, and finally given an option to link your account to Audacity.

Once you have linked your audio.com account to Audacity, simply enter the project name and hit Save. The project will now be uploaded in the background.

For the first time you save, you'll be asked how often you want to generate a mixdown. The mixdown is used to preview the file on . If you don't intend on collaborating with others, it may not be necessary to generate mixdowns. You can change your preference at any time in Edit -> Preferences -> Cloud.

Saving projects to the computer (.aup3)

You can save projects using the File -> Save Project -> Save Project menu.

A saved project has the most information about your project available. If you save a project, you can change later on, or untrim clips.

Exporting audio (.mp3, .wav, .ogg, ...)

You can export your project into an audio file using the File -> Export Audio... menu item. Exported audio files can be opened with a wide variety of programs.

The setup program may return one of the following exit codes:

Before returning an exit code of 1, 3 or 4 an error message explaining the problem will normally be displayed.

Future versions may return additional exit codes, so applications checking the exit code should be programmed to handle unexpected exit codes gracefully. Any non-zero exit code indicates that Setup was not run to completion.

Causes

If you connect an external audio device (such as a USB microphone or USB headset) to your computer while Audacity is already running, it won't be detected automatically by Audacity.

Fixes

To solve this, make sure the device is detected by the operating system, then go to Audio Setup -> Rescan Audio Devices . The new device should appear as an option on the Recording or Playback device selection dropdown in the Device toolbar.

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:

1. Locate a section of your recording that's just your background noise, preferably a few seconds long, and select it.

2. Go to Effects > Noise Reduction and press the "Get noise profile" button.

3. Select all the audio for which you want to reduce the noise.

Noise Gate

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

1. Select a part of the audio that's just background noise.

2. Go to Effects > Noise Gate... to open the effect.

3. Click Select Function: Analyse Noise Level and press OK. Audacity will now tell you where your noise level lies and recommending a threshold.

Notch Filter

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

1. Select the audio you want to apply the effect on

2. Go to Effects > Notch Filter to open the effect.

3. 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).

Causes

If you hear crackles, pops, or distortion when the recording is loud, or if the waveform is clearly touching the top and bottom edges of the track, you probably have clipping, which means that the signal has exceeded the maximum allowed level.

Fixes

Try lowering the recording level using the recording slider or the slider in the operating system.

You can also check to see if you can lower the volume on the input source itself (such as the tape deck, record player or microphone). Many sound cards and USB turntables or USB tape decks have an independent volume control for the playback signal level. See Recording with USB turntables or USB cassette decks for more help with USB turntables or tape decks.

When recording, try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6 dB in the Recording Meter so as to prevent the meter's red clipping warning coming on. If the meters are set to linear, the equivalent level to aim for is 0.5. Clicking and dragging on the meter's right edge lets you expand the meter to gauge levels more easily. After recording, you can boost the level safely using the Amplify or Normalize effects.

Testing Audacity is one of the best ways to find bugs.

Nightly builds

You can download the latest master build from https://audacityteam.org/nightly. These builds reflect the state the master branch. Anything in the master branch has passed at least a quick round of QA to validate that the features the change touched still work for the common use cases.

Before features go into the master branch, they live in pull requests. Each pull request comes with its own builds, available through the "Checks" tab inside the PR and then the "Artifacts" dropdown in the top right. Additionally, you can get builds which are still in development from . Both methods require a Github account.

When you do find something that breaks, make sure to (or comment on the pull request that introduces the bug if it's unmerged)!

Alpha, Beta and Release builds

Before each release, a branch is split off master named "release-x.x.x". This release branch contains all features which will be part of the next Audacity release. Bug fixes which go towards this release will be made inside this branch. You can get builds for it via ; the nightly link will continue to give you master branch builds.

During the release process we may designate certain builds as "alpha" or "beta" and release them on . This is to invite testing from a wider audience.

Tools

Audacity comes with some tools to aid you with testing.

Macros

See - these can make it easier for you to do repeated tasks.

Journaling

Journaling is a feature that records all your actions and lets you replay them. This feature is currently under development and not really ready.

1. start Audacity in journaling mode, <<TODO: HOW??>> do a certain task, and then close Audacity again. This will generate a journal file, which you can find in <<WHERE>>.

2. Copy the journal file to a new folder (eg: QA-tests) and name it so that you can easily find it again.

3. Launch Audacity from the command line, like this:

You can download various plugins here:

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

1. Select the loopback device

Adding effects to a track

You can add realtime effects using the following steps:

Using the Track Controls

You can adjust volume and panning per track on the left-hand side of any track:

With Audacity 3.2 you can quickly share audio online using the new service . To do this, simply click the Share Audio button.

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.

Audacity can record and playback audio on your Windows PC using one of the following three alternative interfaces:

These help articles have been created by the following people:

• Leo Wattenberg

• Gonzalo Guzmán

Example 1: Loud MP3

A batch processing Macro to compress and normalize WAV files then convert them to MP3:

1. Insert to reduce the of each WAV, also normalizing them to maximum of 0

2. Insert Export as MP3 to convert them to format

3. Click Apply Macro to: Files... to select the files on which to run the Macro.

4. Click OK to close the Manage Macros window

Example 2: NR&EQ

An effects automation Macro for the current project that applies noise reduction and equalization:

1. Insert with settings of:

   1. Remove any

   2. -10 dB (to allow for boosting later in the Macro without )

When later needed in your workflow, choose Tools > , select the NR&EQ Macro then click Apply Macro to: Project to apply the Macro to the selected track(s) in the current project window.

Useful Commands

The Select command with 'Relative To=Selection' can be used to extend and contract a selection.

Command: "Select: RelativeTo=Selection Start=-1 End=1" Description: This command expands a selection by two seconds

Command: "Select: RelativeTo=Selection Start=1 End=-1" Description: This command contracts a selection by two seconds

Command: "Select: RelativeTo=Selection Start=1 End=1" Description: This command moves a selection right by one second

Command: "SelTrackStartToEnd" Description: This command (from Select > Region > Track Start to End) Selects all audio in all selected tracks.

Command: "SelNextClip" and "SelPrevClip" Description: These commands are useful with Clips

Extra Macros

Spectral Magickes Wacky-Macro

This Macro takes a single mono track, and converts it to a stereo track, with one channel a spectrogram and the other a wave.

It is one example of how to creatively abuse the Macro system, since audacity is not set up to handle mixed views on wave tracks.

• Note the use of a TrackCount of 0.5 to select just one of two channels in a stereo track.

• The TrackCount of 0 is used to unselect all tracks.

Reparations Magicke Spell

With normal project rate of 44100Hz, this selects about 126 samples centered on the cursor, and applies the 'Repair' effect to it. 'Repair' can only handle up to 128 samples.

Audio loops are a type of music that plays a few bars on repeat over and over. They can be created by taking a sample out of pre-existing content and looping it seamlessly.

1. Enable playback looping

To enable playback looping, simply click onto the loop button (1). When you do this, you'll note the blue looping region appear in the timeline (2). You can move the region and it's in and out point individually by dragging it.

2. Finding the looping region

When making a loop out of music, you often will be able to see repetitions in the waveform as your source material will probably contain some loop already (for example a drummer playing the same beat throughout the song). You can use these to roughly find good looping regions and position your looping region above it.

Fine-tuning the loop and removing clicks

To make the loop seamless, you may need to zoom in some more, using Ctrl+Scroll (Cmd+Scroll) or the magnifying glass.

3. Turn your loop into a clip

Once your loop sounds right, you can select it's length in the waveform. A yellow line will appear when your cursor is lined up with the loop region properly. Once you have made the selection, you now can simply right-click > Split Clip (Ctrl+I, Cmd+I).

Once you have the clip, you can copy-paste it anywhere in your project.

4. Exporting the clip

If you want to use the clip in more projects, it's a good idea to save it in isolation. To do this, select the clip you made earlier, and go to File -> Export Audio.... In the dialog, choose a file name and location, and choose Export Range: Current Selection.

This article addresses the following error codes in Audacity:

• Error code 11

• Error code 13

• Error code 101

• "Audacity failed to read a file in C:" (or D:, E:, ...)

Make sure you use the latest version of Audacity. See for more information.

Sometimes, just opening the file in the latest version automatically recovers the project. If not, proceed with the following steps:

First, download the latest version of the Audacity Project Tools:

After downloading, follow the instructions relevant to your system. Note: macOS is not supported yet.

Deployment