Audacity Forum

A USB microphone is probably the cheapest option.
Users have reported very good results (for the price) with "Logitech USB Desktop Microphones".

I've not tried Sonicism Vintage Vocoder, but the release version appears to only available as a DXi plug-in. DX plug-ins are not currently supported by Audacity. I presume that as Sonicism Vintage Vocoder is a DXi plug-in, when it is released as a VST it will be a VSTi (VST instrument). VSTi are not...

Upgrade to Audacity 1.3 http://audacityteam.org/download/ "File menu > Export" In the Export dialogue screen, select "Other uncompressed files" as the file format. Click on the "Options" button and select "WAV" and "Unsigned 8 bit". These settings wi...

You need to set your sound card to record directly from the microphone and not from "Stereo Mix". It's like the oposite of what is described here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... trol_Panel

We may be able to offer more specific suggestions if you tell us a bit more about your set up, for example, which Windows and which Audacity version?

Drew wrote:in the 1.3 beta I get it suggesting importing it as a RAW file.

You can't drag and drop an Audacity Project file. Use "File menu > Open".

Sometimes I need to delete one or two seconds of a mp3 There's a free open source tool that's specifically designed to do this without causing additional damage: http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net/mp3splt_page/home.php Copying and playing do not damage the sound quality of audio files. It is the encodi...

You can split a track by clicking at the point on the track where you want the split then select from the Edit menu "Split" (Ctrl+I).
You can then drag sections left/right using the "Time Shift" tool. http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Tools_Toolbar

Are you using a USB microphone? If not, what?

The sE Electronics USB2200A Large Condenser Studio USB Microphone is pretty good for vocals.
It also has zero latency monitoring, which is ideal for overdubs.