How do I fade out at the end of a song in Audacity?

Select the last few seconds of the clip, then choose Effect, Fading, Fade Out. The fade covers exactly what you selected, so select more for a longer fade.

Can I change a fade after applying it?

Not a Fade Out effect, except by undoing it. For a fade you can adjust later, draw it with the clip gain line, whose points you can drag at any time.

How do I fade music under a voice?

Put the music on its own track, turn on Clip gain, and draw the music’s volume line down where the voice starts and back up when it stops.

How to fade in and out in Audacity

To fade audio in or out in Audacity 4, select the start or end of the clip and choose Effect ▸ Fading ▸ Fade In or Fade Out. The fade applies straight away, across the length you selected. For a fade you can shape and change later, draw it with the clip gain line instead.

This guide covers both methods, the other fades in Audacity’s Fading menu, how long a fade should be, and how to crossfade.

Tested on Audacity 4.0.2 on macOS. Shortcuts are written for Mac; Windows uses Ctrl where Mac uses Cmd.

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Method 1: Fade In and Fade Out effects

The quickest fade, and the right one for most intros and endings.

Select the part to fade. For a fade-out, drag across the last few seconds of the clip. For a fade-in, drag across the first few.
Choose Effect ▸ Fading ▸ Fade Out (or Fade In). It applies at once, with no dialog.
Play it back. If the fade feels too short or too long, press Cmd+Z (Windows: Ctrl+Z), change the selection and apply it again.

The fade always runs across exactly what you selected, so the length of your selection is the length of the fade.

Audacity 4’s Effect menu open at Fading, listing Fade In, Fade Out, Adjustable fade, Crossfade clips, Crossfade tracks and Studio fade out — Effect ▸ Fading holds six fades.

The other fades in the Fading menu

The Fading menu has four more options beside Fade In and Fade Out:

Option	What happens	Use it for
Adjustable fade	Opens a window with settings	A fade with a curve, or one that stops partway
Studio fade out	Applies straight away	A smoother fade-out at the end of a song
Crossfade clips	Applies straight away	Blending two clips into each other
Crossfade tracks	Opens a window with settings	Blending one track into another

Adjustable fade is the one to reach for when a straight line sounds wrong. Its window sets the Fade Type (Fade Up or Fade Down), a Mid-fade Adjust (%) slider that bends the curve, and where the fade starts and ends as a percentage of the original level, so a fade can stop at half volume instead of silence. Handy Presets fill in the settings for common shapes.

The Adjustable fade window in Audacity 4 with Fade Type, Mid-fade Adjust, Start/End as, Start, End and Handy Presets — Adjustable fade bends the curve and sets where the fade starts and ends.

Method 2: Draw the fade with clip gain

The effect writes the fade into the audio. To keep a fade you can change later, or to make one that is not a straight line, draw it.

The Clip gain button in Audacity 4’s toolbar, an icon of a line between two points, with its tooltip — The Clip gain button sits just left of the zoom buttons.

Click Clip gain in the toolbar: the icon of a line between two points, just left of the zoom buttons. Every clip shows a volume line.
Click the line where the fade should start to add a point.
Add a second point where the fade ends, and drag it down to silence for a fade-out, or start low and rise for a fade-in.
Drag points at any time to change the fade.

This is also how you dip music under a voice and bring it back up, which a podcast intro often needs.

A clip in Audacity 4 with its clip gain line sloping from full volume down to silence, the waveform shrinking with it — The waveform shrinks as the line drops, so you can see the fade.

How long should a fade be?

Use	Typical length	Why
End of a song	5 to 15 seconds	Long enough to sound deliberate
Podcast intro music under speech	1 to 3 seconds	Gets out of the voice’s way quickly
Removing a click at a cut	A few milliseconds	Too short to hear as a fade
Sound effect or ambience	0.5 to 2 seconds	Hard starts on a background sound are obvious

These are starting points. Play the fade back in context and trust your ears.

How to crossfade two clips

A crossfade fades one clip out while the next fades in, so the change between them is smooth. Audacity 4 has two commands for it in Effect ▸ Fading:

Crossfade clips blends two clips into each other and applies straight away, with no window.
Crossfade tracks blends one track into another. It opens a window with a Fade type (Constant Gain by default), a Custom curve slider and a Fade direction (Automatic by default).

The Crossfade tracks window in Audacity 4 with Fade type set to Constant Gain, a Custom curve slider and Fade direction set to Automatic — Crossfade tracks opens with Constant Gain and Automatic direction.

You can also crossfade by hand: put the clips on separate tracks so they overlap, then fade the end of the first out and the start of the second in across the same stretch.

Common mistakes

A fade that ends before the clip does. A fade-out that stops early leaves a quiet tail and then a hard cut. Select right to the end of the clip.
Fading the voice with the music. Put music and voice on separate tracks first, so the fade only touches the music.
A fade-out that is too short at the end of a song. Under a few seconds it sounds like a mistake rather than an ending.

FAQ

Next steps

For the whole podcast chain, including fades on intro music, see how to edit a podcast in Audacity. For more basic edits, see how to trim and cut audio in Audacity. Audacity 4 with Tutorial adds a video course to Audacity 4.

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