Difficulty making or applying changes and adjustments (rookie)

Brand new user. Using windows 8. I’m having difficulty making changes and adjustments. Can’t get them to apply. It keeps saying Ctrl + A or ALL. No ALL to choose and pressing the keys does nothing. Can’t even adjust bass or treble.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Can’t get them to apply. It keeps saying Ctrl + A or ALL.

That means you haven’t selected any audio. Assuming you have the file open and you can see the waveform, Ctrl+A or (Select → All from the menu) will select the whole file/track. Or you can click and drag to select part of the waveform.

Or, you can configure Audacity to select all by default: Preferences → Tracks/Behaviors → Select All if selection required.

P.S.

Can’t even adjust bass or treble.

Be careful when you boost frequencies because you can push the levels into [u]clipping[/u] (distortion). Audacity itself won’t clip but if you go over 0dB your exported file might clip or you can clip your DAC during playback.

I believe [u]Show Clipping[/u] is enabled by default. But note that it’s actually showing potential clipping. It’s not looking at the wave shape.

You can run the Amplify or Normalize effect to bring the levels down (or up) before exporting.

Thanks, was able to find preferences and set to all.