--- tags: resources, [Audacity], [Podcast], [Music], [Audio], [Effects] author: Dézhawn Dumornay --- ![alt text](https://files.slack.com/files-pri/T0HTW3H0V-F03PLPZR3TN/screen_shot_2022-07-08_at_12.08.29_pm.png?pub_secret=d382e49c2b) # Audacity: Effects Audacity has a collection of effects available to enhance productions. ## ## Volume Effects - **Amplify**: Increases or decreases the volume of the audio you have selected. - **Auto Duck**: Reduces (ducks) the volume of tracks whenever the volume of a specified track reaches a particular level. Often used to duck music when speech is detected. - **Compressor**: Compresses the dynamic range by two alternative methods. The RMS method softens loud audio, leaving quieter audio unchanged. The peaks method makes the entire audio louder, but amplifies the louder parts less than the quieter parts. - **Limiter**: Dynamic range compression used to increase the perceived loudness of an audio recording while preventing clipping. Apply Limiter as the final process in the signal chain to raise the overall volume of the signal to 0 dB. - **Loudness Normalization**: Reduces the level of audio to recommended limits. - **Normalize**: Sets the maximum amplitude of a track. Amplifies the entire audio track equally. - **Crossfade Clips**: Applies a simple crossfade to a selected pair of clips in a single audio track. - **Crossfade Tracks**: Used for smooth transitions between two overlapping tracks one above the other. Place the track to be faded out above the track to be faded in then select the overlapping region in both tracks and apply the effect. - **Fade In**: Applies a linear fade-in dependent on the length of the selection. - **Fade Out**: Applies a linear fade-out dependent entirely on the length of the selection. - **Studio Fade Out**: Applies a more musical fade out to the selected audio, giving a more pleasing sounding result. - **Adjustable Fade**: enables you to control the shape of the fade. For example, creating curved fades or fades that don't go completely silent. - **Truncate Silence**: Locates and removes audible silences. ## ## Sound Quality Effects - **Bass and Treble**: Increases or decreases the lower frequencies and higher frequencies of your audio independently. - **Distortion**: Makes audio sound crunchy or abrasive, like a metal guitar. - **Filter Curve EQ**: Equalizer using drawn curves. - **Graphic EQ**: Equalizer using sliders. - **High-Pass Filter**: Used to remove low frequencies. - **Low Pass Filter**: Used to remove high frequencies. - **Noise Gate**: Dynamics processor that reduces the level of sound below a specified threshold level. Useful for removing background noise from recordings. - **Phaser**: Combines phase-shifted signals with the original signal. This creates an artistic sweeping effect and sense of movement. - **Spectral edit parametric EQ**: EQ used in spectrogram view, useful for repairing damaged audio by reducing or masking frequency spikes. - **Spectral Edit Shelves**: EQ used in spectrogram view, useful for repairing damaged audio by reducing or masking frequency spikes. - **Tremolo**: Volume modulator at an adjustable depth and rate. This would give you the same effect of continuously turning the volume knob up and down on a guitar or keyboard amp. - **Vocoder**: Audio synthesizer usually used with voice. The Vocoder takes two waveforms, for example a voice and Sawtooth wave. Vocoding a normal voice with white noise will produce a robot-like voice for special effects. - **Wahwah**: Sweeps a bell-type peak across the frequency spectrum to create controlled tone quality variations, like a 70's guitar sound. ## ## Audio Repair Effects - **Click Removal**: Removes clicks from audio. For example, de-clicking audio from vinyl records. - **Clip Fix**: Attempts to reconstruct clipped audio by recreating the lost signal. - **Noise Reduction**: Reduces constant background noise such as fans or road traffic. To use Noise Reduction, you need a region in the waveform that contains only the noise you want to reduce. When recording a podcast it is good practice to wait a few moments between hitting record and speaking, this way there is a section of the recording that has only captured the room noise that you wish to remove. - **Notch Filter**: Cuts a narrow frequency band. Useful for removing hums or whistles confined to a specific frequency. - **Repair**: Used to repair a single audio glitch. Zoom in until you see the individual dots (samples) in the waveform, then make a selection to be repaired. - **Spectral Delete**: Deletes the spectral selection from the audio. For example, you can delete only 5kHz to 7 kHz from the selection of audio. - **Spectral edit multi tool**: Filter used in spectrogram view, useful for altering audio quality similar to an EQ. ## ## Speed, Pitch, and Time Effects - **Change Pitch**: Changes the pitch of a selection without changing its tempo. - **Change Speed**: Changes the speed of a selection while also changing its pitch (faster = higher pitch, slower = lower pitch). - **Change Tempo**: Changes the tempo and duration of a selection without changing its pitch. - **Sliding Stretch**: Allows continuous changes to the tempo and/or pitch of a selection. - **Paulstretch**: An extreme time-stretch effect, useful for creating interesting aural textures. - **Reverse**: Reverses audio. - **Reverb**: Used to create an impression of a space in which the desired audio occurs. Always add a few seconds of silence to any track to which you intend to apply the Reverb effect otherwise the reverb will cut off unnaturally. Using stereo tracks create more spacious reverberation. - **Echo**: Decaying Echo with a fixed repetition rate. - **Delay**: Creates a multiple echo effect with ability to adjust times between successive echoes and the number, volume and pitch of the successive repeats. Delays are a great way to add ambience. There are three delay types and two pitch change types: ##### **Delay Types** - Regular: Each echo is delayed by the same amount. - Bouncing Ball: Echoes occur increasingly closer together. - Reverse Bouncing Ball: Echoes occur increasingly farther apart. ##### **Pitch Effects** - Pitch/Tempo: Changes the pitch similar to the Change Speed effect. Quality echos, but an increase in pitch speeds up the delayed audio and a decrease in pitch slows it down. - LQ Pitch Shift: Changes the pitch while maintaining the same tempo in a similar way to the Change Pitch effect. Creative effects can be produced with the trade off of sound quality.