Audacity is a well known, simple, open source Sound Editor available on multiple platforms. However on the Mac it is a little bit tricky to install for the unintelligible, but it is quite simple.

1. Download it (I recommend the Beta)
2. Open it up and drag it to your /Applications folder

Of course it is installed right now, but to do anything with mp3s you’re going to need LAME (mp3 encoder), and we’re going to use MacPorts:

1. Run: sudo port install lame
2. Now Audacity has little trouble finding the library files so you need to run: sudo ln -s /opt/local/lib/libmp3lame.dylib /usr/lib/libmp3lame.dylib

And that’s it, now you open, edit and export into mp3s.

YouTube Guru “jimmyrcom” recently created a great tutorial on how to remove the vocals from an MP3 track to create instrumental versions of your favorite songs with Audacity. Although the tutorial video shows a Windows version of Audacity, the tip should work fine on Audacity for Mac as well. Thanks to Lifehacker, where I originally found out about this video.

Technorati Tags: jimmyrcom, Vocal Track, Remove Vocals, Audacity, YouTube

Last night I needed to (quickly) find a way to record sound on my Powerbook.

With Google by my side, I quickly found Audacity:

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Once it was downloaded and installed, it was as easy as hitting the big red record button to begin recording sound.

Check out some screenshots, features or go download Audacity.

Technorati Tags: audacity, recording sound