# Echo

### From Audacity Manual

  Accessed by Effect Menu > Echo...

This effect repeats the audio you have selected again and again, normally softer each time. The delay time between each repeat is fixed, with no pause in between each repeat.

It is usually necessary to add silence to the end of your track(s) first so that the echo has time to die away. Otherwise, the echo won't be heard beyond the end of the current audio selection.

  To add silence:

1. Click in the selection and hit END on your keyboard, or click Edit > Move Cursor > To Track End.
2. Click Generate > Silence...
3. Choose the duration of the silence you want to add to the selected audio, and click OK.

This leaves the generated silence selected. Before running the Echo effect itself, click in the Track Panel to select both the original audio and the inserted silence.

Echo has two controls.

- Delay time (seconds): The amount of delay between the echoes, in other words the length of each echo.
- Decay factor: Usually a number between 0 and 1. A value of 0 means no echo, and a value of 1 means that each echo is exactly as loud as the original, so this merely extends the current selection unchanged. A value of 0.5 reduces the amplitude or loudness of each echo by half each time, so the audio dies out quite slowly. Smaller values make it die out more quickly. Values above 1 increase the amplitude of the echo each time, which you could use as a special effect. Use Effect > Amplify... to reduce the peak amplitude of the original sound first if you want to do this, to avoid clipping the audio too soon.

Echo can therefore be used to create a simple loop with volume changes without any problem about gaps between each segment of the loop. If you want a loop with no volume changes, Effect > Repeat... is easier.

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