Recording a mix question

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hey guys

I’m just recording a mix on the fly with my CDj’s using Audacity. I am basically just cutting most tracks in (not necessarily beat matching).

My question is:

  1. How can I add some sort of effect like a boom sound or bomb sound during each transition so the cutting of the tracks don’t sound too intense or imperfect? I heard a mix the other day and every track was not blended or beat matched in but rather cut in, and because they all had different tempos an effect sound like a boom crash kinda thing was placed to make the transition sound good. Is this something you do in Audacity?

Thanks in advance,

Tim

2

While you have everything on your timeline, Import your sound effect and it will appear on a second timeline underneath everything else and play at the same time. Then use the Time Shift Tool (sideways black arrows) to slide the effect where you need it. Copy and Paste for more.

Koz

3

Thanks Koz

So do i go to File-Import_audio and grab the sample audio I want to use? i.e boom sound? or is there an effect like this within audacity. Also which is the Time shift tool? Is it the scroll bar at the bottom?

4

Time Shift tool: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tools_toolbar.html#timeshift

You can probably download a suitable “boom” sound from here: http://www.freesound.org/

5

It’s the button with two sideways arrows.
Audacity doesn’t have a lot of effects sounds. I think there’s, what, two?

Koz

6

Nowhere is it written that you have to have a chop between the two tracks, You can crossfade and do tricks to integrate the effects into the show.

This is what a crossfade looks like using the envelope tool.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/CrossFade.jpg

The music on the top track will fade out and whatever’s on the bottom track will fade in at the same time. You can make that fade very short and you can tune the fade effect to match the content. In the case of a boom, the lead edge will be abrupt, but the tail might fade out slowly.

Koz