Maine Motif Issue 1, Vol. II (Fall, 2017) | Page 14

The “Audacity”
A FREE AUDIO TOOL FOR YOUR CLASSROOM
By Jonathan Simonoff
If you teach a class on technology in music, audio editing, audio engineering, or music
appreciation (or anything broad like that) you may
be interested in incorporating Audacity into your
class.
With a user-friendly interface, a huge amount of
options and applications, and a price you can’t beat
(did I mention it’s free?) Audacity may be the perfect
new addition to your non-ensemble classes.
Audacity is a free, open source audio software that
runs will run on most any computer. For a free
program, it is quite powerful and will allow you to
expand your lessons in many different directions at
minimal cost.
The program can be used in
many different ways. Not only
does it edit audio but it can
also be used to record audio
directly from a student.
Students can record just their
voice or instrument with the
built-in microphone on their
computers but also can use
things like USB mixers to
record instruments like guitar,
bass guitar and electronic
keyboard.