Audacity is a digital sound editor. You might think of it as a paint program for audio -- just as a paint program enables you to create images with colors, brush strokes, and a variety of special effects, Audacity enables you to "paint" with sound: tones, pieces of songs and voices and miscellaneous noises, or just pure silence.
Materials
Procedure
We will use Audacity to record our own voice greeting message
Before we begin recording, write down what you would like to say. Your greeting should include your full name and introduce yourself briefly. The complete greeting should be between 20-40 seconds long.
Click Start / Programs, select Audacity
Plug in your headset. If you have a headset with a microphone, plug the cables into the appropriate connectors on the PC. If you have a headset without a microphone, plug the cable into the connector for the microphone and use the LEFT ear pieces to record your voice (the left ear piece will work as a microphone).
Set the operating system audio control to record from your microphone
For Windows 7: Find the image of a loudspeaker towards the right-side of the taskbar, right-click on the loudspeaker and select Recording devices to bring up the control window for recording devices. If you can't find it there, you can also select Start/Control Panel/Sound/Recording
Select your microphone (either external or internal), and click on the Properties button. Click the Levels tab in the window and adjust the volume to be in the range 75-100%.
Click Ok twice to close that window.
In Audacity, open a new sound window using File/New.
Slide the slider for the input volume (directly below the control buttons) towards the right to be in the 75-100% range.
Click on the record button from row of buttons (red button).
Start recoding your voice (your greeting).
when finished, click on the Stop button (square button).
Check your recording, and re-record your greeting if needed (for example, if it is difficult to hear, adjust settings in audacity and record greeting again). The greeting must include your full name.
Use the File / Export as WAV option to save your file as voice.wav to your USB stick or hard drive.
Repeat your soundfile - copy the contents of your greeting to the end of the greeting, so that the greeting will repeat.
To do so, select Edit/Select All from the file menu, then select Edit/Copy
Move to the end of your sound file, leave a small space at the end of your greeting and select Edit/Paste
Repeat one more time. You should now have three identical greetings playing one after the other.
Select the second greeting by using the mouse to highlight the second wave, the timeline on top of the third wave should now be darkened.
Select Effect / Change Speed, and set the percent change to anything around 50 (you can either type it or use the slider). This will speed up the greeting.
Select the third greeting by using the mouse to highlight the third wave. The timeline on top of the third wave should now be darkened. Experiment with different effects from the File menu under Effects (such as making the speed slower or using an echo). Select an effect of your choice for your third greeting and apply it to the third greeting.
Use the File / Export as WAV option to save your file as voice.wav to your USB stick or hard drive and select File/Close to close the greeting file.