In this tutorial we are going to deal with the installation of Audacity, so I would like all the song writers and DJs to pay a little attention to this useful tool for their everyday job, or everyone else for that matter.

First of all, you might ask what Audacity is.

Audacity is a free, cross-platform easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:
Record live audio.
Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
And more…

This can be installed through a console too, but I’m going to use the Synaptic Package Manager which is more usefriendly and similar to Windows Add/Remove Programs and programs & features on Vista, a good method for switching-from-Windows users.

Back on Ubuntu, starting the Synaptic

System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

Type in your password when asked. Once the window is up you can quick search for the Audacity. Right click on Audacity and select Mark for Installation, or select Audacity from the list and go to the menu Package > Mark for Installation. A window will pop up saying “Mark additional required changes?”. Click Mark and then Apply on the main window. Another window will pop up saying the following “Apply the following changes?”. On this window if you check the box where it says “Download package files only”, you can do this and install them manually.

This is your last opportunity to look through the list of marked changes before they are applied. For now hit Apply or press Alt+A

Once you apply the changes, a small window will popup where you can see the package downloading. They are around 17 files and is going to take around 5-6 minutes on a 28kB/s download, when downloading is finished you will see Installing Software Window and then changes applied window will show up. Close it and close the Synaptic Package Manager.

Audacity is now all installed and ready. To start the application go to Applications > Sound & Video > Audacity and start recording, editing your sound. Have fun with Audacity and don’t forget to share your experience working with this nice tool, or even sharing the experience installing it through GUI. And above all, we at Ubuntuts would like to hear about your experiences with Audacity or any other experience you would like to share with us, for that matter.

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