How to make background music quieter in Audacity

When we narrate over music, we don’t want to have the background blowing us out. So, we will use Audacity to lessen the volume!

1. Open Audacity, and import your music clip.

2. On the gray box to the left side, the titled song will have a drop down arrow. Click it, and the menu will pop up. You will hit “Split Stereo Track”.

3. Next you will notice two separate tracks.

4. On each track, hit that same drop down arrow. Click “Mono” for both tracks.

5. Now, make sure you click on one track’s gray box. Anywhere in the box is okay – but do not hit any function or button. If you did it correctly, the box should be highlighted in a darker gray color. Now go to Effect (top menu bar) and click “Amplify”.

6. A box will pop up – you can drag the cursor higher or lower. In our case, we want quieter music, so we will move in a negative direction.

7. For example, I moved mine down to -6.0. Click “Okay”.

8. Compare the two tracks – the top one is much quieter than the bottom.

9. Repeat the process, on the bottom track.

Export as an mp3 or WAV file and you are good to go!