Audacity Glitch Lab

In this Lab tutorial you will learn how to glitch images using free, cross platform software called audacity. You can download the software here, or you have the option of accessing it via Splashtop.

Follow these steps to complete this Lab. Choose 3 images to glitch. Glitch each one 3 times. When you are done, post BOTH the original 3 images and 3 different glitched images on your blog. Make sure you title your blog "Audacity Glitch Lab"

STEP 1: Prepare your image in Photoshop

1. In Photoshop go to File >Open and select the image you wish to glitch.

2. Once the image is opened, go to File>Save As and change the file type to .tiff

3. Photoshop will prompt you to adjust the settings for the .tiff file, leave everything as is except change "Pixel Order" to "Per Channel."

4. Make sure you know the name of your file, where it will be saved, then click "ok" and your file is ready for the next step.

Step 2: Downloading Audacity

1. Click here to go to the Audacity download page

2. Select your platform (Mac or Windows)

3. On the next page select Audacity 2.4.2.dmg file for mac or Audacity 2.4.2 zip file for windows

4. On the next page select Audacity macOS DMG for mac users or Audacity Windows Zip for Windows users. Your file should begin to download.

5. Mac users follow the prompts to install the software, Windows users open your downloads, right click on the file and select extract all. Now you will be able to double click on the audacity icon to open up the software.

STEP 3: Edit your .tiff file in Audacity

1. In Audacity click File> Import> Raw Data then select your .tiff file.

2. Audacity will prompt you to adjust the settings to import the raw data.

   1. Set “encoding” to “U-Law”

   2. Set “Byte Order” to “Little-endian” then click import.

3. Now your image has been converted into a music file. You can click play to hear what it sounds like. It should sound like static. Select a portion of your "audio" by clicking and dragging your mouse over a portion to highlight it.

   1. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU LEAVE THE VERY FIRST PART OF THE "AUDIO WAVES" ALSO KNOW AS THE HEADER ALONE. ALTERING THE HEADER CAN DESTROY THE FILE MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO OPEN.

4. Next go to Effect> choose any effect you want, play with the settings, click apply, and you should see a change in your "audio waves."

5. Next go to File> Export> Export Multiple

   1. Select "Choose" under "Folder" to select where your file will export to

   2. Change "Format" to "Other uncompressed files"

   3. Change "Header" to "Raw (header-less)"

   4. Change "Encoding" to "U-Law"

6. Click Export. When the "Edit Metadata tags" and then "Export Multiple" boxes pop up, just click "ok" on both. Your file has been corrupted!

Step 4: View, and repeat.

1. Go find your new file that was just exported and double click on it to preview it.

2. Admire your new glitch.

3. Notice the file type is now .RAW. It must be converted to a JPG before posting it on your blog. You can open it in Photoshop and File> Save As to change it back to a JPG, but if you try to open it in Photoshop and it won't work, simply take a screenshot of the preview.

4. Now repeat these steps with the same .tiff image and try more effects.

5. Post the original image (as a JPG) and 3 glitch versions.

This is a sample of what your blog should look like, but do this with 3 separate images, for a total of 12 images total, 1 original and 3 different glitches in each row, 3 rows.

Good luck, and Happy Glitching!