Adding background music to a voice recording

Hi
I’m new to this and need to add background music to a voice recording. I’ve copied the music to my pc but don’t know how to add it to the voice recording. Please help as I can’t work out how to do it and there doesn’t seem to be instructions.

joanione,

Hmm… You could probably use this tutorial, but I see that it is lacking.

OK, suppose you have just recorded your voice onto a mono track. Make sure you save a backup, perhaps as a WAV file. If it is in an external file, drag it in to Audacity, or select File, Open.

Now, import your background music into Audacity simply by dragging into Audacity, or select File, Import.

For immediate gratification, click on Play, or select File, Export to export your mix. :smiley:

I suggest that you spend a little time with the manual. I suspect you will want to do a little editing. You will probably want to use the mixer volume control on the music track, the Selection Tool to select Music to clip out, and either the Envelope Tool or the Effects Fade In and Out.

Click here for editing tips. Also, check out Audacity Tracks and Clips, Audacity Selection, Editing: Cut, Paste, and More.

I hope this helps.

Hello, sorry to highjack the thread but I can get a music track imported at all.

I get:

Audacity attempted to use FFmeg to import audio file but the libraries were not found, go download the FFmpeg libraries (yes, im paraphrasing lol)

I did that and still nothing.
Any advice for a not very tech person?

Did you go here:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=FAQ:Installation_and_Plug-Ins#installffmpeg
and follow the instruction for your OS?

If you did this and successfully installed the libraries on your system, then you need to go to Preferences > Libraries and tell Audacity where the libraries are.

What format are you trying to export to that requires FFmpeg?

BTW, what OS are you using (XP, Vista, OSX, linux)?

– Bill

Hi Bill,

After they were downloaded I neglected to point Audacity to the files, I assumed it would set itself up.
Thanks for that, as I said im not very tech.
Works perfectly now. Im running it on Vista Premium.

Glad you got it working.

BTW, the manual page for mixing a narration with background music is now somewhat more complete:

http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Tutorial_-_Mixing_a_Narration_With_Background_Music

– Bill