Preferences

• Playback Device - Use this control to select the device that will be used for playback / audio output. This is usually only applicable if your computer has more than one sound card.

• Recording Device - Select the devce that will be used for recording / audio input. Note that many devices have multiple sources such as Microphone and Line in - to select the input source you will need to use the Mixer Toolbar.
  

  For finer control over audio I/O, open your system's Sound control panel or the control panel that came with your sound card.

• Recording Channels - Use this to select the number of channels to record simultaneously. Select 1 for mono and 2 for stereo. Audacity will support recording more simultaneous channels, but note that most sound cards only support stereo, and even if your sound card supports more than 2 inputs, you need a fast computer and a large, fast hard disk to record many channels for a long time.

  Mono recording is not the same on all computers or sound cards. Sometimes recording mono only records the left channel, and sometimes it mixes the left and right channels.

• Play other tracks while recording new one - When this box is checked, Audacity will play existing tracks when you press record - otherwise it simply records the new track without letting you hear what you've already recorded. You can use this option to record harmonies with yourself or add a voiceover.

  You may notice that when you play the two tracks you recorded together, they aren't synchronized. This is unavoidable to a certain extent, though future versions of Audacity may try to minimize it even more. To fix it, you will need to grab the Time Shift tool and slide one of the tracks around until it sounds right.

• Hardware Playthrough (Mac Only) - plays the audio you are recording straight back out to your headphones or speakers so you can hear it. This option is done in harware, so it is fast and doesn't consume resources. However, it is only possibly if input and output are on the same sound device.
  PC users can do the same thing in their volume control settings, turning up the relevant audio input.

• Software Playthrough - Does the same thing as hardware playthrough, but in software. This means that the audio you hear may be slightly delayed relative to the input, and activating this option will use some more system resources. However, it works on all systems, even if you are recording from one device and playing back through another.

• Default Sample Rate - This controls the sample rate of new projects. To change the sample rate of an existing project, use the control in the lower-left corner of the main project window.

• Default Sample Format - This controls the default format used to store audio samples. 16-bit takes up the least space and is equivalent to audio CD quality. 32-bit float takes up twice as much space but is much more flexible.

  If you have a fast computer and enough disk space, you should always use 32-bit float samples while editing, and then export your final mix as a 16-bit WAV file (the default).

• Real-time sample rate converter - Audacity has more than one sample rate converter that's used when you have a track that's not the same sample rate as the project. This option lets you set the converter used during real-time playback, which can be different than the one you use during Export or mixing.

• High-quality sample rate converter - Audacity has more than one sample rate converter that's used when you have a track that's not the same sample rate as the project. This option lets you set the converter used during Export and mixing, which can be different than the one you use for real-time playback.

• Real-time dither - Dithering is used when converting high-quality samples with a lot of dynamic range, to CD-quality samples, with less dynamic range. A small amount of dithering can make the audio sound a little bit better, but it can also slow down processing a little bit. This option lets you set the dithering used for real-time playback.

• High-quality dither - Dithering is used when converting high-quality samples with a lot of dynamic range, to CD-quality samples, with less dynamic range. A small amount of dithering can make the audio sound a little bit better, but it can also slow down processing a little bit. This option lets you set the dithering used during Export and mixing.

• When importing uncompressed audio files into Audacity
  • Make a copy of the file before editing (safer) - Selecting this means that Audacity will take longer to import files, but it will always have its own copy of any audio you are using in a project. You can move, change, or throw away your files immediately after you open or import them into Audacity.

  • Read directly from the original file (faster) - Selecting this means that Audacity depends on your original audio files being there, and only stores changes you make to these files. If you move, change, or throw away one of the files you imported into Audacity, your project may become unusable. However, because Audacity doesn't need to make copies of everything first, it can import files in much less time.

• Uncompressed Export Format - This lets you select the format that Audacity will use when you export uncompressed files. 11 common options are displayed in the list, but you can also select "Other" and choose a nonstandard file format for Audacity to export.

• Ogg Export Setup - Use this control to set the quality of Ogg Vorbis exporting. Ogg Vorbis is a compressed audio format similar to MP3, but free of patents and licensing fees. A normal quality Ogg Vorbis file is encoded with a quality setting of "5". Note that unlike MP3 encoding, Ogg Vorbis does not let you set a bitrate, because some audio clips are easier to compress than others. Increasing the quality will always increase the file size, however.

• MP3 Export Setup - Use these controls to locate your MP3 encoder and set the quality of MP3 encoding. Higher quality files take up more space, so you will need to find the level of quality you feel is the best compromise. For more information, see Exporting MP3 Files.

• FFT Size - The size of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) affects how much vertical (frequency) detail you see. Larger FFT sizes give you more bass resolution and less temporal (timing) resolution, and they are slower.
• Grayscale - Select this for gray spectrograms instead of colored ones.
• Maximum Frequency - Set this value anywhere from a couple of hundred hertz to half the sample rate (i.e. 22050 Hz if the sample rate is 44100 Hz). For some applications, such as speech recognition or pitch extraction, very high frequencies are not important (visually), so this allows you to hide these and only focus on the ones you care about.

• Autoscroll while playing - Scrolls the window for you while playing, so that the playback cursor is always in the window. This can hurt playback performance on slower computers.

• Always allow pausing - Normally the Pause button is only enabled while you are playing or recording. Checking this box allows you to set the pause button anytime, which allows you to press Record and not have the recording start until you unpause it. Sometimes starting a paused recording can be faster than starting to record in the first place.

• Update spectrogram while playing - Because spectrograms are slower to draw, normally they are not drawn during playback, but this option lets you draw the spectrograms anyway.

• Enable Edit Toolbar - Sets whether or not you want to display the Edit Toolbar, which has some common shortcuts for editing commands.
• Enable Mixer Toolbar - Sets whether or not you want to display the Mixer Toolbar, which lets you set the volume levels and input source.
• Enable Meter Toolbar - Sets whether or not you want to display the Meter Toolbar, which lets you monitor the input and output audio levels.
• Quit Audacity upon closing last window - By default on Windows and X-Windows (but not Mac OS), Audacity quits when you close the last project window. If you uncheck this box, Audacity will open a new blank document instead of quitting. To quit Audacity in this case, you must specifically select Exit (or Quit) from the File menu.

• Enable dragging of left and right selection edges - Normally, when you move the mouse over the left and right edge of a selection, the cursor changes to a left or right pointer, and you can adjust that edge of the selection independently. If you don't like this feature, uncheck this box, and then clicking will always create a new selection (unless you hold down Shift to extend an existing selection).

• Language - sets the language used by Audacity. Language files are named "audacity.mo" and are found in the "Languages" folder on Windows and Mac OS X, or in /usr/share/locale or /usr/local/share/locale on most Unix systems. Audacity will detect new languages the next time you start it.

To reset to Audacity's defaults, press the Defaults button. This will get rid of any changes you have made.

If you have customized your keyboard layout and want to share it with someone else, you can press Save... and save your complete keyboard layout as an XML file that you can share. To load an existing layout, press the Load... button and locate the XML file.

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