I’m new to audacity and just want to do some really basic editing. I wanted to know what is the best/most simple way to reduce the volume on a selected area of a clip. According to a youtube video tutorial I just watched, it said I could set the ‘new peak amplitude’ (under amplify) to a negative number. So should I just select the area that I want to be quieter and set it to a negative number like that? Or is there a different way I should be doing this?
You can set the top number to a negative number, say -2 and Audacity will reduce the sound sample volume by 2dB. Try different numbers and see how it sounds. You can always Edit > Undo to go back to the original work. Never edit original work. Always make a copy, and remember Audacity projects do not save Undo.
The other way to do this is with the envelope tool, white arrows and bent blue line.
The guide lines are rubber bands and you can push them around to get gains and losses on a note by note basis.
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/CrossFade.jpg
The illustration is a crossfade. Fade out the top track and fade in the bottom.
Koz