If hardware playthrough is required it is best to use an external USB or FireWire audio device that has a headphones jack for no-latency monitoring (such as the Behringer UCA 202 or Zoom H2). Macs have not had proper hardware playthrough support for some years. You can easily downsample to 16-bit (the standard for creating WAV files that can be burned to audio CD) when exporting later. It is strongly recommended that you retain the default setting, however if you really need to change your sample format this can only be done in the Quality section of Preferences. This is good for editing and processing audio. It determines the dynamic range of the audio.Īudacity's default is set to 32-bit float. The Project Sample Format (also known as Bit Depth or Word Size) is the number of computer bits present in each audio sample. This is the default setting in Audacity and is best left at that setting for your recordings. The sample rate defines the number of digital audio samples per second taken from a continuous analog signal.Ĥ4100 Hz is standard for creating files that can be burned to Audio CD or for high-quality MP3 files. The Project Sample Rate in Hz can be seen, and changed if required, in the Selection Toolbar at the bottom of the Audacity window: On a Mac you are probably best off with a USB microphone, as a typical PC microphone will need a small amplifier between it and the computer. In the Quality section of Preferences make the following settings: In the Recording section of Preferences make the following settings: Play other tracks while recording (overdub).Go to Edit > Preferences (or Audacity > Preferences on Mac) then select the Recording section, and make the following settings in the Playthrough section To just use the sound from the microphone: Nothing goes 'wrong' if you attempt to record in stereo with a single microphone, though you may find that only one of the two stereo tracks has sound. Your first recording with a microphone is probably best done without playthrough of additional sounds, and unless you know you have a stereo microphone, using mono.

Audacity audio recording