This is different from the other flat, green play button visible in the program's toolbar. Notice you may click anywhere along the waveform's length and hit the raised, green play button (pictured below) to start listening from that point through the end of the track. This precision will prove useful when editing your tracks. The program that you write will allow you to time your lights precisely. There are a few things you'll need to do in order to set your lights to music. Mono tracks will have one waveform display. Fear not, you are editing one track-shown are the waveform displays of the left and right channels, or what comes out of your left vs. You will likely have two identical graphs, as above. When it is finished importing, you should see something like the image below. Not all audio encodings are supported (e.g. If at all possible, use mp3 files to ensure compatibility with the software. Go to File > Import > Audio… and navigate to and select your track. To get started editing, you must first import the audio file.

When presented with any windows or options, go with the default selection until you reach the main window (pictured below). Click Run Program…, type audacity into the search box, and press Enter. To open it, go to the Applications Menu in the top left-hand corner of your screen.

The Audacity software has already been installed on the machines you will be using. For the curious and motivated, the manual is here.

Note that this tutorial is far from comprehensive and is geared toward getting your projects ready. Groups that are setting their lights to music may use any editing software to which they have access that they wish, but we recommend this as a powerful, free tool. Audacity is a free, open-source audio editing software.

Audacity software manual