5 sound effects you can easily create with Audacity

Audacity - open source audio editing software - is a great choice for podcasts, recording home workouts, even lesson notes. You can use Audacity to record on your computer and refine voiceover for video projects, even "reaction videos" on YouTube .

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Audacity is quite "good" in the field of sound effects, but not everyone knows how to create or make the most of this feature. The following article will provide tips and how to create unique audio effects with Audacity .

Create sound effects like phones

Want to create sound effects as if it came from a phone or need a foreign voice? To do this, select the audio you want to edit, then open Effects> Equalization . Here, go to the Select Curve box and select Telephone . Wait for a while for Audacity to apply the effect, then listen again.

The video below perfectly illustrates this process. Note that other effects are available in the drop down menu.

Play radio as environmental sounds

Are you planning to produce an audio play or short scene? You need a bit of ambient radio sound to delineate the relevant location (for example a kitchen or car) by broadcasting the radio.

To apply this effect, once again, select the desired audio track, then Effect> High Pass Filter . Here, set the Rolloff drop-down menu to 12 dB , then click OK . Wait a while to apply the effect, then go to Effect> Amplify> click OK for the default option.

Next, go to Effect> Low Pass Filter and set 6 dB for Rolloff . Now we need to go back to Effect> High Pass Filter> choose 6 dB for Rolloff> repeat Effect> Amplify setting with the default option. Finally, return to i Effect> Low Pass Filter and select 12 dB .

Throughout the process, keep checking the audio through each stage to make sure you like the effect or maybe want to tweak the final amplification. You can also add white noise noise to the radio sound by adding a new audio track ( Tracks> Add New> Audio track ), then selecting Generate> Noise ...> click White .

Handling white noise effects similar to the first audio file, including amplification and filter changes. Watch the video below to better understand:

Devil's voice

Need to put some kind of evil, evil sound in your product? You are making some voice for a video game mod project or radio (like what you can buy on Audible) ... In fact, you can use Audacity to create that effect.

This job is very simple. Start with three identical tracks (duplicate the first one by selecting and pressing Ctrl + D ) then rename them if desired. Next, adjust the gain on the second and third tracks, then change the pitch. Do this by selecting the track, opening Effects> Change Pitch and setting the pitch for track 2 to -5 and pitch for track 3 to -25 .

Do the same with the next effect, select track 2> open Effects> Echo and change the delay to 0.1 , then click OK . You should listen to the track again 2 times. Go to Effects> Gverb , leave the settings as they are and click OK .

After selecting track 3, open Effects> Bass Boost and set Frequency to 200 , Boost to 16 , then click OK .

Sounds like a robot

You can handle robot-like voice with Audacity. Similar to the devil effect, you can create it in just a few minutes.

Start with the phrase you want to robotize. Copy it with Ctrl + D . Select the second audio file, open Effects> Echo and set the Delay time to 0.04, Decay to 0.6, and then click OK to confirm the change. Next, select this audio file again, go to Effects> Change Pitch > set the Percent Change percentage change to –10.

Return to the original track, press Ctrl + D to repeat it again. Select track 3 and open Effects> Change Tempo , set Percent Change to -3. Click OK to confirm. It's done. However, you may want to tweak all three audio files to get the desired robot voice.

Remember robots don't talk like humans. Whether you are trying to impersonate Microsoft Sam or JARVIS in Avenger, you need to adjust the way of speaking to work.

Daleks voice effects

This is a video describing how to use Audacity with the Killeringer plugin to create Dalek voice effects from the Doctor Who movie of BBC America.

Basically, Audacity simulates the homogeneous bell modulation effect, developed in the 1960s. If you are a fan of this movie, this method is extremely useful.

Laser sound effects

This effect begins with a drum piece created by the Chirp effect. You will find it in Generate> Chirp . Set Waveform to Sawtooth, with the Start Frequency starting at 1200 and the End value at 50 ; set Amplitude to 0.7 in both fields.

Access Linear in the Interpolation drop-down menu , set the duration to 00,200 seconds, then click OK . As a result, you will get a laser-like sound effect in the 1980s. Watch the following video to better understand.

Above is a guide to creating special sound effects with Audacity . Hope the article is helpful to you.