Review: Getting started with Audacity 1.3
Listening to podcasts is a daily activity for me, replacing the old ways to receive information such as watching TVs and reading magazines. I always wished that I could create a podcast on my own, more specifically screencasts, where I record my screen and my voice that explains what I do on the screen. Learning both audio and video may be too much for a start, so I wanted to learn just audio first. I luckily received a review copy of “Getting started with Audacity 1.3” from Packt Publishing. So I’m writing a review on the book here. Audacity is a free open source audio editing program, which works on Mac, Windows and Linux.
What’s the most intimidating about audio editing software is its interface. You can find a lot of audio editing software, but none of them looks intuitive. One reason you think so is that you don’t know about digital audio itself. I could understand some of the interfaces such as the playback button and the record button, but everything else is incomprehensible. Audacity is not the exception in that regard. What is worse, Audacity is cross-platform open source software. What’s wrong with “open source” and “cross-platform”? The user interface of most of such software are terrible. A platform-specific program may have a guideline to follow. For example, Apple has a human interface guideline. But it is impossibly difficult to do the same for open source cross-platform software for a few reasons. Some are purely technical and others are more of cultural and political. It is difficult to find an interface designer that contributes to the open source community. As a result, programmers create everything.
The book introduces Audacity of this complexity and confusion in a very easy-to-follow manner. Throughout the book each platform (Mac, Windows and Linux) is well taken care of. For example, a) installation of Audacity, Skype (used to record the audio), Audacity plug-ins and b) keyboard shortcuts are explained well enough for each OS. I didn’t need to spend a time on Google at all. After explaining installation and basic usage, the author introduces a sample project. That is making a podcast with the audio you record with a Skype interview. From recording to publishing. The final outcome is really a podcast. The author introduces how to add background music, export the entire audio and publish to the iTunes. So remember that this book doesn’t end with very basic cutting and pasting. You will learn different techniques to make your audio more professional including how to remove the noise, adjusting the audio level strategically and softening annoying sounds like “sh” and “ch”.
There is no required knowledge to read the book. The author avoids jargons where possible, and, when a term is introduced, she explains it in details. Additionally, the glossary of terms is placed at the end of the book. The language used in the book is simple. No dictionary is necessary. Many screenshots visually help understanding. All the screenshots are taken using Mac, but the author reminds the reader of potential differences across the platforms. I’m sure users without access to Mac can go through the book without a hassle.
Even if you are already an Audacity user, you’ll find explanation of effects quite useful. However, unfortunately this book is not meant to be a comprehensive guide for every single feature in Audacity. When I browse through all the menu items, some items aren’t mentioned in the book. For example, generators and sound activation are not refered to.
In summary, the book explains the basics of Audacity very well for beginners and intermediate users. After finishing the book, you will have a good understanding of its interface and usage, which is complicated by nature. The interface ugliness won’t change, but the interface doesn’t intimidate any more after you finish this book.
