Contributed by David Schmidt
Are you waiting for campus to re-open and you’re looking for something positive to do while isolating? Why not learn new software? There are lots of great creative digital tools that are absolutely free, that you can do amazing things with!
Do you want to practice a speech or presentation? Record multi-track music? Capture an interview? Practice a foreign language? Record audiobooks? Do sampling or mixing? Create a podcast or radio show? Produce a radio advertisement or voiceover? Audacity is a powerful but easy-to-use free software that can record and mix audio. Learning to use it is a great skill that can be incredibly useful in both your college and professional careers. And a fun way to explore your own creativity as well. It can help you hone your speaking skills, share your knowledge, explore fun creative ideas, and promote what you do.
Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize recordings from other media. It can be used to import, edit, and combine sound files. And it can export your recordings in many different file formats, including multiple files at once. Supports 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit. Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and dithering. Support for LADSPA, LV2, Nyquist, VST and Audio Unit effect plug-ins. Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete. Real-time preview of LADSPA, LV2, VST and Audio Unit (macOS) effects. The tracks and selections can be fully manipulated using the keyboard, and with a large range of keyboard shortcuts.
Audacity is available at: https://www.audacityteam.org/
We also recommend these tutorials as a great way to get started:
The Audacity team’s official tutorials.
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorials.html
Casual Savage’s quick overview to get you started.
Education at Loyola is all about supporting each other, sharing your knowledge,
and building community. What better way to reach out and communicate your ideas
than through your own audio recordings? It’s a great skill to have, that will
support your work in most any field. And really useful in your studies, both
online, and when you’re back on campus.
Please join us for future posts about other free creative software available to continue your education, both now and when we return to campus. Enjoy the learning!
