making music with audactiy

[johnelder]

hey everyone i want to make music with audactiy but im not sure, but here what i need help with and what i want to do.

i want to import a sample and then somehow make the sample 1 second long so i can duplicate that sample 8 times and that would be my hi hats for the song
but im not sure how to make that sample exactly 1 second long and i dont know how to make it fit in time with audacity i then also want to add a badd drum and snare but i dont know how to fit them into the music i need help pls im new to audacity if u guys could help that would be awsome thanks cya!

[steve]

One of the shortcomings of Audacity is that you can not set the time line to bars and beats (which is an extremely useful feature for what you are wanting to do as it enabled you to easily make regular rhythms that keep "in time"). However Audacity can still be useful, either using it on its own, or along side another program that offers that feature (perhaps some version of (not free, but inexpensive) e-jay, or similar).

Upgrade to Audacity 1.3 - it offers many more features that will help you.

There are 3 tools that you can use for stretching / shrinking sounds, all found in the effects menu of Audacity 1.3. "Change Speed", "Change Pitch" and "Change Tempo". These will allow you to tune your samples to the correct pitch, and approximately the correct length. You can then trim the ends of the sounds manually to get the length exactly right.

There is also a "Repeat" effect that literally repeats the selected audio as many times as you choose.

For general help and tips about using Audacity, see the "Tips" and "Tutorials" links at the top of this page.