Recording and Posting MP3 Audio Files for Courses
(Instructions for Windows-based computers)
Using Audacity Software: After installing Audacity, start up the program. You should see a window like the one shown below:
To start recording, first make sure your input source is set to "microphone" by using the pull-down menu shown below:
Then click on the "record" button:
You should now be able to speak into the microphone and you should see a timeline of your recording appear in the program window:
If your audiogram is spiking (there are no peaks and valleys, but mainly solid blue) or flatlining (you don't see any highs or lows at all) you may need to adjust the microphone or change the recording level by adjusting the microphone slider bar up or down:
Once you've finished recording, click on the "stop" button:
You should now be able to either tweak the recording or just go ahead and save it as an mp3 file. I suggest you do one little tweak before saving, however. Most audio recordings will be improved by "Normalizing" or bringing all the high and low values to a more natural midpoint. To do this, select the entire timeline by going to EDIT > SELECT > ALL in the menu list or by clicking CTRL+A. Your timeline should now be a dark grey, like this:
Once your timeline is selected, you can introduce lots of cool effects to the recording by selecting the effects from the EFFECT pulldown menu. The effect we're after here is NORMALIZE. See the image below:
The NORMALIZE window will open, asking for your preferences. I suggest keeping both boxes checked and selecting OK. See image below:
Your timeline should become more evenly balanced. Now you're ready to export the file to MP3. From the top menu, select FILE > EXPORT AS MP3 and then just go ahead and save it to your hard disk. I recommend creating a dedicated folder for each course. That's all there is to it. If your instructor has asked you to send your file to them via Blackboard's Digital Dropbox, click on the link below to continue. Otherwise, you can post the file to a shared network drive, burn it to a cd, etc.
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