Should I install audacity will it mix songs?

[gcrad]

Hi, I have been searching for a program that will mix music, just curious about a few things.
First I need to say I know nothing. I am a bit computer savy, but still need to improve.

This is what I need to do- For my daughters school project, I need to take two songs and mix them together. The songs would come from a disc or itunes. I want the first song to play for about a 1 and a half minute, then I would like the next song to slowly mix in (probably for a period of 15-20 seconds) and then have that song play for 1 minute or so. I then need to save it as one file on a cd.

Is this possible for a layman like myself to do with this program? I am unsure if I should download it, it I will not be able to do this project.

Thank you for any help you can give!

[kozikowski]

Audacity will certainly do that.....but.

iTunes will not allow you to just pull songs out unless you personally put the songs in there. If you bought them on-line -- effectively Apple put them in there, they have FairPlay copy protection and it's more complicated. What sort of computer do you have?

That effect is pretty simple in Audacity.

Koz

[gcrad]

The two songs that I want to use are from Itunes. I guess I can purchase them off another program? (any suggestions?). (I see the songs on Rhaposdy )This is project is kind of important, and I really have to get it done asap! Thanks for your help.


I also have 4 songs that I want to not really mix, I just want to make them into one continuous song. These songs are .wav files. Will I be able to do this with Audacity?

[waxcylinder]

You should be able to record these in Audacity while playing them in iTunes. Either plug the headphone output of your iPod to the Line-in socket on your computer - or play it in iTunes on your computer - and set Audacity to record.

WC

[steve]

Audacity is an excellent program for this kind of thing, but the problem that you may have is with copy protection on the iTunes songs. If you can get the songs in MP3 or WAV format then you can "Import" them into Audacity, edit them, then "Export" them in WAV format (16 bit 44100Hz) and burn them to CD.

I would recommend Audacity 1.3.6 for this.
See the Tips and Tutorial (link at top of page) to get you started with Audacity.

[gcrad]

Hi, so I have .wav files. I have imported them in audacity. They are sitting there, all stacked. I can not figure out how to start the second song in the last few minutes of the first song and so on. I have fooling around with this over an hour. Have looked a tuturioals and tips and I am still stumped. Can someone help before I see if my computer can fly? Thanks!

[steve]

Select the "Time Shift" tool (the double headed horizontal arrow)
http://audacityteam.org/manual/index.ph ... ls_Toolbar

With that tool you can drag audio clips left/right.

Use the "zoom" buttons (magnifying glass) or Ctrl+Mouse wheel to zoom in/out.

[gcrad]

Thank you so much! That totally helped me with my one project. I am now working on my next where I am playing just a minute of a song, blending in another song. Hopefully I can get that to work. Would I mute the first song once I get the second song in?

[steve]

I am now working on my next where I am playing just a minute of a song, blending in another song.

The way I would do it:

Use Audacity 1.3.6

1) Import the songs
2) Trim them to a bit longer than the required lengths (allow for cross fades)
3) Align tracks along time line
4) Trim songs to correct length
5) Select the area for the fade out part of the cross fade and use the "cross fade out" effect.
6) Select the area for the fade in part of the cross fade and use the "cross fade in" effect.

If you don't like the "cross fade" effect, you can try the regular "fade in" / "fade out" effects, or use the "Envelope tool" to create your own custom fade.

Remember you can "Undo" any mistakes with Ctrl+Z (or "Undo" from the Edit menu).

[benshope]

on my laptop I tried to record part of a cd and it recorded through the speakers to the computers built in mic. how horrible! lots of fizzing and the music sounded like it was a microphone recording off of speakers on low 100 yards away! how do i record at a normal level? i use fruityloops to make my beats, but sadly to record samples off of a cd you have to pay fruityloops almost a thousand bucks extra! how do i record at a normal volume?


thanks
ben