- •Introducing Ubuntu
- •About Open Source
- •Free Software Movement, Open Source and Linux
- •The Free Software Movement
- •The Open Source Movement and Linux
- •About Ubuntu
- •The Ubuntu Promise
- •Ubuntu Versions
- •Ubuntu Derivatives
- •Ubuntu Development and the Community
- •Ubuntu and Microsoft Windows: Key Differences
- •Installation
- •Applications
- •Lesson Summary
- •Review Exercise
- •Exploring the Ubuntu Desktop
- •Ubuntu Desktop Components
- •Changing the Default Language
- •Creating a User Account and Fast User Switching
- •Adding/Removing Applications
- •Desktop Effects - Compiz Fusion
- •Lesson Summary
- •Review Exercise
- •Lab Exercise
- •Using the Internet
- •Connecting to and Using the Internet
- •Network Manager
- •Using a Cable Connection
- •Using a Wireless Card
- •Browsing the Web
- •Using an RSS feed reader
- •Liferea Newsreader
- •Using Evolution Mail
- •Instant Messaging
- •Making Phone Calls Using Softphones
- •Using Ekiga
- •Skype
- •Lesson Summary
- •Review Exercise
- •Lab Exercise
- •Performing Basic Spreadsheet Tasks
- •Performing Basic Drawing Operations
- •Creating and Editing Formulae
- •Additional Applications
- •GnuCash Accounting
- •Lesson Summary
- •Review Exercise
- •Lab Exercise
- •Ubuntu and Games
- •Installing Games on Ubuntu
- •Installing a Game from a Repository
- •Playing Ubuntu Games
- •Playing PlanetPenguin Racer
- •Playing Other Popular Games
- •Installing Wine
- •Playing a Microsoft Windows Game on Ubuntu
- •Lesson Summary
- •Review Exercise
- •Lab Exercise
- •Customising the Desktop and Applications
- •Introduction
- •Customising the Desktop
- •Changing the Background
- •Customising the Theme (Buttons & icons etc)
- •Customising a Screensaver
- •Customising the Screen Resolution
- •Working with Files Using Nautilus
- •Features of Nautilus
- •Nautilus
- •Package Managers
- •Types of Package Managers
- •Using Add/Remove Applications
- •Using Synaptic Package Manager
- •Installing a Single Package File
- •Installing/Uninstalling Debian Packages
- •Software Repositories
- •Software Repository Categories
- •Adding New Language Settings
- •Lesson Summary
- •Review Exercise
- •Lab Exercise
- •Making The Most of Images and Photos
- •Introducing Graphics Applications
- •Viewing and Managing Photos with F-Spot
- •Viewing Photos
- •Organising Photos
- •Removing Red Eye
- •The GIMP
- •Drawing with Inkscape
- •Installing Inkscape
- •Creating Vector Graphic Images Using InkScape
- •Using a Scanner
- •Checking Scanner Compatibility
- •Scanning an Image
- •Lesson Summary
- •Review Exercise
- •Lab Exercise
- •Playing Music and Videos
- •Legal Restrictions
- •Playing Music Files
- •Playing Music using Rhythmbox
- •Playing and Extracting Audio CDs
- •Playing Audio CDs
- •Extracting Audio CDs
- •Burning Audio CDs
- •Playing Proprietary Multimedia Formats
- •Using an iPod
- •Playing Music Using an iPod
- •Creating and Editing Audio Files
- •Creating Audio Files
- •Editing Audio Files
- •Playing DVDs
- •Playing DVDs in Totem Movie Player
- •Backing up DVDs
- •Playing Online Media
- •Watching Videos in a Web Browser
- •Editing Videos
- •Editing videos using Pitivi video editor
- •Lesson Summary
- •Review Exercise
- •Lab Exercise
- •Ubuntu Help and Support
- •Introduction
- •System Documentation
- •Online Documentation
- •Community Support
- •Mailing Lists
- •Web Forums
- •IRC Channels
- •LoCo Teams
- •The Ubuntu Team Wiki
- •Launchpad
- •Launchpad Technical Answers
- •Launchpad Bug Tracker: Malone
- •Shipit
- •The Fridge
- •Paid For Commercial Services
- •Professional Support Services from Canonical
- •The Canonical Marketplace
- •Lesson Summary
- •Review Exercise
- •Partitioning and Booting
- •What is Partitioning
- •Creating a Partition
- •Installing GParted by Using Synaptic Package Manager
- •Partitioning Using Gparted
- •Boot-up Options
- •Changing the Default Operating System at Boot
- •Lesson Summary
- •Review Exercise
- •Lab Exercise
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Figure 8.63: Playing Recorded Sound File
8.7.2Editing Audio Files
You can use Audacity for editing audio files. Audacity is not included in the default installation of Ubuntu but it is a free and open source software application, which can be installed easily from the Universe repository of Ubuntu. You can install Audacity using either the Add/Remove Applications or the Synaptic Package Manger.
1. On the Applications menu, point to Sound & Video and then click Audacity Sound Editor.
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Figure 8.64: Launching Audacity
2.When you access Audacity for the first time, it will ask you to select a language to use with the application. Apart from English, Audacity provides language support for more than 30 languages, including Arabic, Bulgarian, catalan, Czech, Danish, Finnish and many more. Select your language preference from the Choose Language for Audacity to use dropdown list and click OK.
Figure 8.65: Selecting Language for Audacity
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3.The Audacity main interface window is displayed. You can use the various controls and tools to play, create and edit audio files.
Figure 8.66: The Audacity Window
4.You can now start editing an existing audio file in Audacity. To do so, you need to first import the audio file into Audacity. To import an audio file, on the File menu, point to Import and then select Audio. The Select one or more audio files dialogue box opens.
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Figure 8.67: Importing Audio Files into Audacity
5. Select the audio file that you want to edit and click Open to open the file in Audacity.
Figure 8.68: Selecting the Files to Import
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6.The selected audio file opens in the Audacity interface. The audio file is represented as the blue waves in the lower part of the Audacity window. Now you can perform a whole range of tasks on this file.You can cut off some unwanted portion of the imported audio file, insert silence at some point, can add various audio effects on different sections of the file and may even export the file into an altogether different file format.
Audacity also allows you to play an audio file. Click the Play button to start playing the audio file.
Figure 8.69: Playing the Imported File
7.The audio file starts playing in the Audacity audio editor. You can use the various tools available with Audacity to start editing the current audio file:
•Magnifying tool: If you find that due to the length of the current file, you are unable to view the portions that you want to edit, you can use the Magnifying tool. This will let you zoom in on a specific area.
•Envelop tool: This enables you to change the volume of specific selections of the sound file.
•Time Shift tool: Allows you to move the entire sound file in relation to time; helpful when you are working with multiple tracks.
•Selection tool: Enables you to highlight portions of the sound file on which you want to work.
To start editing a specific portion of the sound file, activate the Selection tool by clicking it.
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Figure 8.70: Picking the Selection Tool
8.Select the area you wish to edit by dragging across the area while pressing the left mouse button. The selected area appears in a shade of darker gray.
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Figure 8.71: Selecting Audio Portion to Edit
9.You can now cut the area if you wish to remove this part of the audio file otherwise, edit this portion by applying various sound effects to it. The Effect menu contains all the digital audio effects that you can apply on an audio file. Some of these are:
•Amplify - Increases or decreases volume without altering sound quality
•BassBoost - Increases the volume of a specific frequency.
•Echo - Allows you to add an echo specify the delay time.
•Fade in - Fades from silence to the present volume
•Fade out - Fades from present volume to silence
•Invert - Flips the audio samples upside down
•Noise Removal-Allows you to remove background noise
•Reverse - Allows you to play the selection backward
To increase the volume of the selected portion, on the Effect menu, select Amplify. The Amplify window opens.
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Figure 8.72: Applying Sound Effects
10.In the Amplify window, you can use the slide bar to increase or decrease the amplification. Click OK to apply the effect to the selected portion of the audio.
Figure 8.73: Amplifying the Audio Clip
11. Notice that the blue waves in the selected area have changed. You can now listen to the changed audio by clicking the Play
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button.
Figure 8.74: Verifying the Edit Effects
12.After you are satisfied with all the edit effects, you can save the edited audio file. Because the default audio format of Audacity is not readily supported by many applications you should save the file in a more popular audio format, such as Ogg Vorbis or MP3.
To save the file in a different file format, click Export.
Figure 8.75: Exporting Audio File
13.In the Export File dialogue box, select the folder where you want to save the file. Then, select the desired file format from the drop-down list and then click Save to export the file in the specified file format.
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Figure 8.76: Exporting as MP3 File
14.Audacity starts exporting the file in the specified file format. This process may take up some time depending on the length of the audio file.