Audacity Forum

Okay so this is the first time I've used this but once I record something it doesn't let me edit it. All the things turned a grey color and I can't really do anything to the audio. I know there's something basic that I'm most likely forgetting to do but I don't know what it is. I highlight the piece of audio with the tool but everything else is still grey and I can't click on them. I want to add effects and cut some pieces out but once I've selected the piece the words turn grey and mostly everything is un-clickable.

Make sure it's not paused, that'll cause the problem you're describing.

Exactly. Pressing Stop should give you all your tools back.

Since you can't Pause, how do you select audio?

That's done with a combination of Labels, drag-select and Zoom.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/label_tracks.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/zooming.html

You zoom in and out of the show's blue waves and place labels where you want the edit to take place. Then the labels become sticky and allow you to drag-select a portion. Once you have a selection, then all the Export, Effect and Filter options are available.

Koz