Audacity is a shareware program that you can obtain free of charge over the internet (just search for the name).
Audacity is a sound editing program that will import, amongst other formats, MIDI, WAV and MP3 files and allow various edits and mixing of the tracks. You could use it to mix separate tracks that you may have recorded in a music composition program or sequencer or to mix music and vocal tracks into a single file suitable for use with MovieMaker. While some video editing programs provide more than one audio track MovieMaker provides only one so if you want to combine music and speech you will probably have to mix separate tracks down to one. Audacity will help do the mixing for you.
You can either Open an audio file or Import one, through the File and Project menus respectively. A separate copy of Audacity is run for each file opened. The Import command allows you to combine and mix audio files in the same window. Typical audio tracks might be from a CD, a music download site, a composition or a vocal recording.
Audio tracks are opened in the dark grey project area of the screen, under the toolbars.
This screen shows a single stereo track loaded into the work area. Notice that the track is just under 4 minutes long and consists of waveforms that represent the sounds on the track.
The controls on the left allow you to:
name a track
see the track in different views (waveform (dB), spectrum and pitch)
move the track up or down in the work area
split the stereo tracks
change the sample format and rate (16 bit/44,100 Hz is CD quality, lower sampling rates produce smaller files)
mute the track (Mute)
play the track and mute the others (Solo)
change the volume or gain of the track
change the left-right balance (panning)
Collections of tracks can be saved as a project for future editing. Projects can be mixed down by exporting them as MP3, WAV or Ogg Vorbis format. WAV files can be very large compared with mp3 files and it is a good idea to follow the instruction within Audacity, given when you first try to use Export as MP3, to download the LAME codec for mp3.
The View menu includes options to float or dock the Control, Edit and Mixer toolbars. Toolbars can be torn off the docking area by dragging the left bar.
The Control Toolbar includes a set of 6 editing tools and the Play/Record/Stop set of tools.
The rewind, play, record, pause, stop and fast forward symbols should be well known.
The 6 editing tools are:
Select - drag across the waveform to select a section prior to an operation such as Cut/Copy/Paste or Generate or add Effect
Envelope - add control points to allow manipulation of the volume; useful to move position of instruments in a mix or the balance between instrumental and vocal or speech tracks
Draw - edit a track (have to zoom in very close)
Zoom -
Time shift - move tracks to left or right to change their position in the mix
Multi-tool mode - access the above tools according to context and keys pressed
These are available on the Edit menu and also on the Edit toolbar. The only tools worth noting here are the fourth and fifth from the left, the Trim Outside Selection and the Silence Selection buttons.
This allows you to change the output volume, the input volume and the input source. Set the input source to Microphone at the start of a project when you know you will use this as a source.
This includes options to generate silence, a tone and white noise. There is also a 'Click' facility which generates tones based on MIDI values, and 'Pluck' which can also generate sounds suited to the torture chamber.
This includes a wide range of options, most of which are self-explanatory.