Audacity makes fading in and out as easy as tipping over. Select the part that you want to fade and the duration- note the time meter above your tracks- then do Effect--Fade In or Fade Out.

The Envelope tool gives you more control over fades and volume variations. You can gracefully amp up quiet sections or reduce overly-loud bits. Look to the right of the playback controls to find the tool buttons. Click the Envelope tool, then mark several locations on the track you're working on by clicking the mouse at different spots. Each location has two pairs of adjustment points. Use the outer pair to draw smooth curves, and the inner pair for fine-tuning. Click and hold, then move the cursor up to increase the sound level, down to decrease, and side to side to change duration. This is a tool that takes some getting used to, but it gives you a lot of control.

Figure 4 shows the result of several minutes of random fiddling around.

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