Childrens story Tails from France

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Greetings all, I hope you are all keeping well, safe and creatively busy! I am 70 yrs old and a beginner and getting my head around this amazing sytem. My contribution to this pandemic is for young families, who have kids climbing up the wall during the Lock-downs. I am recording a childrens tale, Tails from France, all about French mice.Many Mums & Dads are keen to hear the next chapters. Chapter 1 is finished, sounds good and all on one file. For the 2nd chapter, I have recorded my voice and nice watery background and converted files to WAF format. And the recordings are on 3-4 separate files, all now in WAV. So, I need help to:

  1. Add Part 1 clip to the front of Part 2 clip.
  2. Insert Part 3 clip in middle of Part 2.
  3. Insert a waterfall sound, which I have, in to middle of Part 3 clip.

I guess it is understanding the Selection tool, and then I shall need to make sure the joints are smooth sounding or does the system automatically blend the 2 clips.

Thanks for helping!

All best Chaloner Author, sailor, adventurer, teacher

2

The easiest way to do this is on three separate tracks.

  1. Launch Audacity
  2. “File menu > Import > Audio” and select the four WAV files.
    The files will be imported as 3 tracks.
  3. If necessary, reorder the tracks so that the “Part 1” is in the first track, the “Part 2” in the second track, the “Part 3” in the third, and the “waterfall sound” in the fourth. Tracks may be dragged up/down by clicking and dragging the track’s control panel, or using the commands in the track’s dropdown menu (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audio_track_dropdown_menu.html)
  4. Use the “Time Shift Tool” to drag the clips left/right into approximately the right places (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/time_shift_tool.html). This does not need to be exact, you can adjust more accurately later. You will need to zoom in and out at times so that you can see what you are doing without having to do lots of scrolling: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/zooming.html
  5. Click on track 2 at the place where you want the third clip to play. Zoom in as necessary to find the exact position. Then “Split” the track at that position (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/edit_menu_clip_boundaries.html)
  6. You can now drag (with the Time Shift Tool") the second half of track 2 to the right, so allowing space for “Part 3”. You will probably want to leave a bit of an overlap between the track 2 clips and the track 3 clip for “crossfading” (See https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/creating_a_crossfade.html and https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/crossfade_tracks.html). Don’t crossfade yet - get all of the pieces in approximately the right places first.
  7. Split track 3 to make space for the waterfall effect, and adjust all the clips as necessary with the Time Shift Tool.
  8. Now that all the pieces are in roughly the right places, adjust the track levels as necessary using the track’s “Gain” sliders (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audio_tracks.html#gain), then apply any fades / crossfades.
  9. When you are happy with how it sounds, “Export” the finished masterpiece.
3

My goodness Steve, thank you very much, I think I can follow that process. Great to be part of a such a popular editing community, support and advice, even tho I came late to the party! As it happens, I produced a documentary film with my son about Prostate Cancer recently. He filmed and edited as a professional, I presented and acted in it, interviewing some of the worlds best medics, consultants, Hospitals and cancer support centres here in the UK. The BBC hope to show it once he has finished the last edits.

I will keep in touch, thanks again.