How To Install + Setup Audacity in Windows 7

As more and more members continue to sign up for AudioAcrobat, we see a rising need for an inexpensive audio editing software solution.  This ever-increasing interest in the removal of unwanted audio excerpts (coughing, intro/exit chimes, etc.) lends itself quite well to our #1 recommendation … Audacity.

In today’s posting we will take our readers through the steps of downloading, installing and setting up Audacity (yes, this includes Lame) for use on any machine running Windows 7.

For this tutorial, our readers will see snapshots of Windows 7 as run on Parallels; a virtual machine booted in ‘coherence mode’ on a MacBook Pro.

Where to get it … fast and cheap.

There are plenty of impostors out there on the web pushing their ‘free’ audio editing software.  Some may even tell you that it’s Audacity, but don’t be fooled.  There is one tried and true location to pick up your free download of Audacity, and that location has been, is and will continue to be in the foreseeable future http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.

Once the page has loaded, our readers will want to click the link for Windows 7, as shown here:

On the following page, go ahead and click the link: Audacity 1.3.13 installer (.exe file, 13.8 MB) under ‘Recommended Version‘ to begin the download.

Save the file to your computer’s hard drive and launch the .exe file you’ve just downloaded to begin setup.

Basic Setup

Begin by selecting your desired language.  We’ll be choosing English for today’s walk-through…

Make sure to select the next couple affirmative commands, including selecting the install location; we left ours at the default:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode)

After selecting ‘Install‘, our readers will see the setup utility begin to install Audacity to their computer’s hard drive.  Click ‘Next‘ then ‘Finish‘ to complete installation.

At this point, Audacity should launch and our readers would then see the following welcome message:

To recap, Audacity has now been installed and is setup to perform a variety of audio editing tasks.  However, a very common question will arise when new Audacity users are ready to output their 1st edited file in the MP3 format.

For training purposes, we’ll skip ahead to setting up Lame within Audacity, thus allowing for MP3 output from the software.  Here are some quick steps to follow along with:

Note: Make sure to have an audio file open before starting this walk-through; otherwise ‘Export’ will not be an available selection.

1. File >> Export

2. Export File >> Save as type: MP3 >> Save

3. Edit Metadata >> OK

4. Locate Lame >> Download

5. (Left) Click on LAME download page link

6. Download Lame (ZIP Option)

7. Unzip (Need a zip/unzip tool for Windows 7?)

8. Copy lame_enc.dll >> Paste in Audacity Program Folder

9. Click OK in Locate Lame window >> Pat yourself on the back >> Job well done!

Now, for each further export of an MP3 file, Lame is in place to make your request possible!

If our readers find this process to be a bit on the ‘daunting’ side of technology, and would really just prefer to have an editing software that can render MP3 files immediately, ‘out-of-the-box’ … then we recommend picking up a copy of Sony Sound Forge for their studio (you can thank us later).

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