Though most people assume Entertainment Engineering and Design students just want to build theatrical sets, that isn’t quite the right assumption. Some EED majors would definitely like to build theatrical sets, but most of us have a more diverse set of interests. I, for one, want desperately to work in the music industry. I’ve been in some sort of musical group for most of my life, and high school lead me to become well versed in recording techniques, setting of microphones and speakers, and leveling out audio, among many other things. This had lead me to a wonderful little software called Audacity.

Audacity is this great, free, open-source sound editing and recording software that both professionals and hobbyists use. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux and has been translated into several languages. You can record and edit your own audio, or you can take prerecorded audio and edit it to your liking with the may available effects. Audacity also supports various plugins, including self written ones!
I’ve used Audacity several times, from making soundtracks for music videos to making audio bits for haunted houses, but my favorite time that Audacity was involved was the first time I recorded a song. It wasn’t even a real song; it was for a school project my senior year. We were required to organize our entire class to write and produce a music video about “The Tale of Two Cities,” and though I’m sure everyone looks back on this memory with disdain, I really enjoyed the process. By my senior year, I was fairly familiar with Audacity, having used it for several theatre productions and playing around with it, but I had not ever done a song before.
At the very start of the process, I was appointed the technical director. We did a goofy short film a semester before, and, probably out of laziness, the rest of the class felt that I would put in the work. As soon as we got the lyrics done, one of our “rappers” brought his little Walmart microphone to school, and I brought my guitar. I made a little prerecording of the guitar chords for the vocalists to get the rhythm, and we would spend the entire class period in a band practice room recording with Audacity. We would average about a verse a week, so it took around a month to finish, mainly because of everyone’s schedules. Once I finally got all the audio recordings, I got to sit and just edit. The editing process was the most tedious, but it required me to apply the effects that I had only been messing around with before that point.
The finished product might not be something I am super proud of, but it does make me smile. I would never show the song to anybody, mainly because I do all the singing, and I won’t be able to. The video is no longer up on YouTube. I promise I looked for it. Music recording and production isn’t precisely what I want to do, for I’d rather focus more on concert and music video effects. Yet, this first, real use of Audacity gave me a launch pad to find my real passion, and for that, I’m thankful.
