Submitted by Fiona Beal

If you are using a Windows PC Audacity is a tool you cannot do without to make audio podcasts in the classroom. Do you have it installed? Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, and other operating systems. The interface is translated into many languages. You can use Audacity to record live audio. I love this application.

This post centres around downloading and installing Audacity

Step 1: Ask Google for an Audacity download

Step 2: Watch a tutorial on how to do it all.

This useful 4 minute video came up in my search so I watched it. (Audacity: How to download and install (free software)

http://tjfree.com/how-to-download-and-install-audacity-on-windows/

Step 3: Download Audacity and Lame

There are two things to download for best resuslts. One is the latest version of audacity from the Sourgeforce page. The ssecond is LAME MP3 encoder – since it allows Audacity to export MP3 files

The two downloads will sit in the task bar waiting for further instructions

First install Audacity by clicking on it and following the prompts.

Then install Lame in the same way.

Step 4: Launch Audacity

Once you have installed Audacity, you can open it by clicking on the start menu (button in the bottom left corner) and it should be under ‘All Programs’. If you have selected Çreate a desktop icon it should be there as well.

You are ready to go!