Advice on mixing music tracks with a lecture

[pmisner]

I work with Audacity to mix audio lectures (like from http://www.teachco.com) with music tracks. I can do this with Audacity, but I think the way I'm doing this is very cumbersome. I'm hoping that there is a faster way to do this.

What I do now.
1. Import all the music tracks. I select them all, and they come in as different tracks

2. Cut the music from tracks 2, 3, ...n and paste the music at the end of track one so that track one now has tracks two, three and ...n at the end of the track.

3. Delete the blank tracks formerly known as 2, 3, ...n

4. Import the lesson track.

5. Adjust volume on music and lecture tracks.

6. Export.

What I would like to do.

1. select the music mp3's and have them import as one track.
2. Select the lecture mp3 as track two.
3. Adjust volumes.
4. Export

Or

1. Select the music mp3's
2. Select an option to line one track up at the end of another
3. Select an option to combine the tracks
4. Import lecture mp3
5. Adjust volume
6. Export.

What I'm doing now takes a good deal of time, and these two other options would greatly speed up the process. Any instructions would be greatly appreciated. You'll be helping me get educated and get fit.

Thanks in advance.
Paul Misner
[email protected]
1-410-740-3490
http://www.paulmisner.com

[steve]

This is how I would do it:

Upgrade to Audacity 1.3.5

Import the lesson track as track 1

Import the first mp3 as track 2 and adjust the volume slider as necessary.

(optional - adjust the zoom level so that you cans see all of track 2 and a bit more)

Import the second mp3 as track 3, then use the "Time Shift" tool (F5 key) to slide the track to the end of track 2. You can even have them overlapping a bit if you want them to cross fade. Then adjust the volume level slider as necessary.

Import the third mp3 as track 4 and do the same as for the previous track.

Optional: "Select All" (Ctrl+A) and then select "Mix and Render" from the Tracks menu to mix the whole thing down to a single stereo track. This will take a while to process and isn't really necessary as the tracks will be mixed automatically in the final step.

Export the finished audio as a WAV or MP3 file. Even if you just want an MP3 file, it is very useful to have a WAV file as a backup.

Note that there is no need to put all the mp3's on the same track. Just sliding them along their own separate track is quicker, and allows you to adjust each track individually to achieve a more polished result.