Setting up Audacity
At this point we are assuming you have downloaded the software. If not, click on this link to download it now:
To begin setting up Audacity, open the program by clicking on the link in your computer’s start menu or double-clicking the shortcut on your computer desktop. We usually delete the desktop shortcut and opt instead to place the software icon on the taskbar at the bottom of the computer screen. To do this, click on the start menu, then click and hold on the Audacity icon, and drag it down to wherever you want it on the taskbar. [We do this with all the programs (Word, Excel, Movavi, etc.) we use regularly just because it’s an easy way to have immediate one-click access to our most used programs.]
With the program open, click on Edit and scroll down to the bottom of the drop-down menu to Preferences and click on that. This will open a new window as shown here:
Under “Display,” click on the box next to “Auto-fit track height.”
Go down to “Default view mode” and select “Spectrogram” from the drop-down menu.
Next, click on the little “+” sign next to Tracks and a submenu of Spectrograms appears. Click on Spectrograms.
Set your Preferences for Spectrograms as follows:
Scale: (should be set to) Linear
Minimum Frequency (Hz): (should be set at) 500 or lower – the default is 0 and that is fine.
Maximum Frequency (Hz): (should be set at a minimum of) 7,000 – default is 8,000 and that, too, is fine.
Gain (dB): (should be set at) 20
Range (dB): (should be set at) 80
Frequency gain (dB/dec): (should be set at) 0
Click in the box that says “Grayscale” if you want the spectrograms in black-and-white (like the Eastern Phoebe spectrogram on our How To “See” Songs page). If you want them in color (like you’ll find on any of the spectrograms in the Birdsong 101 Courses), un-check the “Grayscale” box.
Go to the bottom of the window and either click on Apply, then OK, or just click on OK.
That’s it! You are now ready to use Audacity to help you “See” birdsongs. Click on “Birdsong 101 Courses” in the menu above or the Birdsong 101 Courses button below to get started learning birdsong today.