Using Audacity with Camtasia

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

Hi,

This is just slightly related - I’m also making my first audio book and the articles on here have been a huge help.

I’m not very techie - but have been editing the content and reducing noise in the files in Camtasia, then bringing them across to audacity to finish them off as there’s no decibel meter in Camtasia.

Does anyone know if there’s a drawback to doing it that way - or if I should try edit the whole file in audacity?

Thanks!!

2

As you say, it’s not really the same topic, so better that it is a topic of it’s own.
Your profile says that you are using Catalina, so I assume that is correct and have moved this topic to the Mac board.


I don’t know what format Camtasia uses by default, but it is best to avoid “lossy” formats (such as MP3 and most other “compressed” formats) as intermediate steps during the production process. “Lossy” formats reduce the sound quality.

If you need to transfer audio between apps, it’s best to use a lossless format, such as WAV.

I would have expected that all audio editing and processing could be done in Audacity.

3

Hi
For those interested I posted a solution without typing anything in terminal which allows Audacity to record under Catalina:
https://youtu.be/n8AEoB95niI

4

Thanks Steve, I will keep it as a .wav file when I move it.

I forgot to ask - do you think it’s better to keep it as stereo when I move it to audacity, or better to convert to mono first and then edit it in audacity?

Thanks a lot for your help!

5

Most audiobook publishers prefer mono.

If you are hoping to publish through ACX, see their requirements here: https://www.acx.com/help/acx-audio-submission-requirements/201456300

6

Thanks Steve, I am hoping to upload it to ACX, and also Findaway Voices and Listen up, they all seem to have the same requirements.

I was actually wondering if you thought I should export in mono from Camtasia when moving it to audacity to work on it, or if there’s no difference at what point in the process I convert it to mono.

Thanks again for your help!

7

It probably doesn’t make any difference, but I’d suggest that you test both ways to see if there is any audible difference.
If the sound is the same, I would opt for using mono as early as possible (mono uses less disk space and is sometimes easier to work with).