Mixing a Voiceover

[StevenPDX]

I'm really new to Audacity...and loving everything I'm learning!

I'm trying to create a simple voiceover for our new phone system. I have one track (the music) and a voice over vignettes as the second track. I'd like to place these vignettes every thirty seconds or so as the three-minute song plays. I would like to have a the music section fade evenly to a lower volume just before the voiceover begins, then fade back up to normal volume just after the voiceover ends. All I can find is a Fade In and Fade Out command, then manually decrease the amplification of the music as the voiceover plays. This creates awkward transition points pre- and post-voiceover.

Is there a command that lets you select a portion of a track and say, "Fade down evenly (but not all the way out), stay at a low volume, then fade back up evenly to where you were before?"

Many thanks,
Steven

[kozikowski]

You can use the envelope tool to customize fade points. It's in the six tools at the extreme upper left of the edit window--after the "I" symbol. It's a rubber band. Click and drag up and down to get various volumes at various points in the tune.

I think you can go into Audacity Preferences, I/O and select one of the Playthrough modes. That will let you hear your original music track playback while you're recording your microphone on a separate track.

Does your microphone record properly without all that craziness? Just open up a plain Audacity and try to record a simple straight voice track? If you start having trouble with the mic later in the process, it will be too complicated to troubleshoot.

Koz