How to Download and Use Audacity on Windows and Mac

Are you looking for a audio editing app that allows you to "clean up" some recordings you've made with your smartphone or quickly mix two music tracks? If you don't want to spend money and are not yet ready to resort to a complex professional software, I highly recommend you read this blog that will teach you how to How to download and use Audacity.

Audacity is one of the best free audio editing software. Is support Windows, MacOS and Linux and is distributed under an open source license.

The interface is extremely intuitive and can therefore be easily used even by people who are not yet familiar with this type of software; it is important that you give this article enough attention, as it will explain in detail how to download and use Audacity.

You can also read: Top 7 Programs to Convert Videos to MP3.

How to Download and Use Audacity

Launch and download Audacity on your computer following the instructions I am going to give you. You will be amazed by the incredible potential of this software and the many filters it includes: you can enjoy using them to modify any audio file in just a few clicks.

How to download Audacity

The first step you need to take to download Audacity to your PC is:

1. «Connect to the web page from the program» y «click Download Audacity xx» then in Audacity for Windows and in the Audacity xx installer. If you are not using a Windows PC but a Mac, to download the program to your computer, «click Audacity for Mac OS X»/macOS and then in Audacity xx .dmg file.
2. When the download is complete, if you are using a Windows PC, «open the Audacity installation package» (audacity-win-xx.exe) and complete the setup by clicking the Yes button first, then OK, Next four times in a row, Install, Next again, and Finish.
3. If you are using a Mac, to install Audacity on your computer you need «open dmg package» that you downloaded from the program's website and copy the Audacity folder into the MacOS Applications folder.
4. When complete, to start Audacity for the first time, «Go to the Audacity folder» that contains the application, right-click on its icon, «select Open» in the menu that appears and «press the Open button» in the window that opens.

This will start Audacity, bypassing the MacOS block for applications from non-certified developers. This operation is only necessary the first time the software is launched, then it can be launched simply by clicking on its icon.

Go to Audacity

How to use Audacity

At the end of the installation process, you can start familiarize yourself with the Audacity interfaceAt the top of the software window are the menus for controlling the files, the list of effects that can be applied to the audio tracks, and the functions for generating silences, noises, etc.

In MacOS the same menus are at the top of the screen (in the menu bar) and not at the top of the application window.

Immediately below the menus (or at the top of the Audacity window, if you're using a Mac) You will find buttons to control the multimedia playback of the imported songs in the program (play, stop, pause, etc.) and to perform basic editing operations such as selecting or moving audio tracks.

Later There are the audio input and output graphs (i.e. the tracks that are playing and the microphone that is recording), while Below are the volume adjustment bars, the cut/paste buttons portions of audio tracks and set the zoom level of the graphics.

On the bottom line of the toolbar there are menus to select the incoming and outgoing audio source and then to choose the number of audio channels to use (for example, mono or stereo).

At the bottom of the Audacity window there are other drop-down menus the ones that are used to set the project frequency in Hz and to set the start and end points of a selection. I know, they probably don't seem very useful or easy to use at first glance, but after a little practice the situation will change dramatically, I assure you..

How to edit a file in Audacity

To import an audio file into Audacity, simply «calls the Open element» from the application's File menu and «select the song you want to edit»If you want to create a new recording with the microphone you have connected to your PC (or the one included in your webcam), «Click the Rec button». Easier than that?

As I mentioned before, since Audacity is graphically very intuitive, it doesn't take much to understand how it works. However, let me suggest some tutorials in which I have illustrated in detail some of its main "features".

How to create MP3s with Audacity

In conclusion, I want to underline one important thing: Audacity supports all major audio file formats (WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP2, MP3 and OGG) but to save the songs in MP3 format after editing you need to install a free plugin called LAME MP3 on your PC. If you are using a Windows PC, to download the Lame MP3 plugin to your computer:

1. «Connect to this web page« y «click Lame_vxx_for_Windows.exe» When the download is complete, «starts the Lame_vxx_for_Windows.exe executable» and complete the installation of Lame MP3 by first clicking Yes then Next three times in a row, Install and Finish.
2. If you are using a Mac, to download the Lame MP3 plugin to your computer, «go to this web page« y «click Lame_Library_vxx_for_Audacity_on_OSX.dmg», When the download is complete, «open dmg package» that you just downloaded to your Mac, «start the Lame Library vxx for Audacity.pkg executable» that contains and click the Open button first and then Continue and then Install.
3. Then “enter your MacOS user account password” (the one you use to access the system) and click Install Software first, then Close and Move to complete the setup.

Mission accomplished! You can now export any song you've processed in Audacity as an MP3 file by going to File > Export Audio and selecting MP3 Files from the menu to select the output format (e.g. Save As on Windows).