---
title: 'How to Extract Audio from Video with Audacity and FFmpeg'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=COVAGciy4Ng'
video_id: 'COVAGciy4Ng'
date: 2026-06-19
duration_sec: 0
---

# How to Extract Audio from Video with Audacity and FFmpeg

> Source: [How to Extract Audio from Video with Audacity and FFmpeg](https://youtube.com/watch?v=COVAGciy4Ng)

## Summary

This tutorial demonstrates how to extract audio from a video using Audacity, a free and open-source audio tool. The process involves installing the FFmpeg library and then simply dragging and dropping the video file into Audacity to extract the audio, which can then be exported as an MP3 file. The video also covers troubleshooting steps and explains common use cases for extracting audio, such as creating podcasts, generating transcripts, or dubbing videos.

### Key Points

- **Overview of extracting audio with Audacity** [0:00] — The video shows how to extract audio from video using Audacity, a free and open-source software. It explains that Audacity is primarily an audio tool but can separate audio from video.
- **Prerequisite: Install FFmpeg library** [1:01] — To extract audio from video in Audacity, the FFmpeg library must be installed. Without it, Audacity cannot open video files.
- **Installing FFmpeg via Audacity preferences** [2:10] — Go to Edit > Preferences > Libraries. Click 'Download' to get FFmpeg from the official Audacity website, then install it. Alternatively, use 'Locate' if already installed.
- **Drag and drop video to extract audio** [3:42] — After installing FFmpeg, simply drag and drop the video file into Audacity. The audio waveform appears immediately.
- **Exporting audio as MP3** [4:08] — Go to File > Export > Export as MP3. Name the file and save. The audio is extracted and saved as an MP3 file.
- **Troubleshooting: Locating FFmpeg manually** [4:50] — If FFmpeg is not detected, go to Preferences > Libraries and click 'Locate'. Browse to the FFmpeg folder (usually in Program Files) and select the appropriate file.
- **Reinstall Audacity if issues persist** [5:57] — If locating FFmpeg doesn't work, uninstall and reinstall Audacity. This often resolves detection issues.
- **Reasons to extract audio from video** [6:38] — Common reasons include creating podcasts, generating transcripts, adding subtitles, and dubbing videos into other languages to grow audience.

### Conclusion

Extracting audio from video with Audacity is straightforward once FFmpeg is installed. The process enables various content creation tasks like podcasting, transcription, and multilingual dubbing.

## Transcript

in this video I'm going to show you how
to extract audio from video and we are
going to use audacity which is a free
and open-source software and probably
the best for manipulating audio and
videos normally it is considered as an
audio tool but if you want to separate
only audio from a video you can also do
that in audacity why you want to do that
that I will explain at the end of this
video because you clicked on this video
because you want to know how to extract
audio from video so first I explain this
and then I will show you what could be
the reasons why you might want to do
that so without further Ado let's get
started after a short
[Music]
break hello and welcome to my channel my
name is Tahir and I make videos about
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I hope that you already know about
audacity and you have installed this on
your computer if not you can simply type
audacity in Google and you will reach on
this website and you can download
Audacity now I have opened this software
and this is my file explorer in which I
have one video as an example and
extracting audio from this video is very
simple in audacity you simply drag and
drop in this area if you have recently
installed audacity then you will see
this message and what this message is
saying is that you have to add a library
to audacity in order for you to extract
audio from a video and that library is
called FFM Peg and the message is saying
that without FFM Peg audacity is unable
to open this file and if you have
installed that library then you will
simply get the audio opened in this
audacity which you can export as an MP3
file and you are done so it's a very
simple process you simply have to drag
and drop your video and you will get the
audio now let's see how you can install
FFM Peg and we don't want to install
from a spammy website so let us ask Odes
from where should we install this
library now what I need to do is I click
on edit and at the very end we have this
preferences I click on that and on the
left hand side I have to click on this
libraries and I can see this message FFM
Peg Library not found and then there are
two buttons locate and download so we
should first click on this download so
that we only go to the authentic website
so I click on this download and it will
open this page on this page I click on
installing FFM Peg and now we are on
Audacity website on this website there
is a link lame. bueno. org and because
this link link is on Audacity website so
we can trust this link so I click on
that and I reach on this page and my
operating system is Windows so I am
using audacity on PC so I click on this
64bit windows and then you save this on
any convenient location so I'm saving
this on my desktop and it will just take
few seconds and now I get this file on
my desktop I click on that accept the
licensing terms click next and click
install and finally finish installation
and after the installation when I open
my Odes and I try to put my
video let us close this as you can see
that I directly got the audio extracted
from my video and if you don't see this
and you have some problem I'm going to
show you how you can solve that problem
because some users they will see that
FFM Peg is is still not found so I'm
going to show you in a minute but in my
case it automatically detected this and
now what I can do is I got this audio
from my video and I want to save this as
an MP3 file as an audio file to do that
I click on file and then I click on
export and on the right hand side I can
export as MP3 file web file WAV file or
I can also export audio or I can also
export audio so these are the three
three different options so I want to
export as an MP3 file so I click on that
and I can change the name if I want
otherwise it will be saved in the same
folder with MP3 file simply click save
and click okay and you will see this
progress bar and within few second the
audio file will be saved so let us see
if you don't get this audio straight
away and you see the same message that
we got in the beginning of this video so
let me open this again as you can see
that in my case the library is there and
there is a library version but if you
see any error here Library could not be
found then now you have to click on
locate previously we clicked on download
now we click on locate you will not see
this message because it says that you
want to locate again so I click yes and
you will only see this area where you
can browse so you click on browse the
file will be in your program files
directory which is normally in C
directory and in this program files
directory you will look for a folder FFM
Peg for audacity so this is the folder
you click on that and as you can see
here that by default that the software
is expecting this type of file and we
have this file in this folder you click
on that and you click on open and this
will solve your problem I'm going to
cancel this now what if this also does
not solve your problem then remember one
thing that whenever you are using any
open- Source software and you are facing
some errors which you should not face
the best solution is that you reinstall
the software so when the first time I Ed
this Library it did not work even after
I located properly I downloaded
installed everything but then I
uninstalled audacity and reinstalled and
it worked it automatically detected my
FFM Peg and and everything worked fine
so this is how you can install this
library and now you simply drag and drop
and get the audio from a video now we
come to the important question what are
some of the reasons why you would like
to extract audio from a video I have
listed this on this screen you can pause
the video and you can note but basically
sometimes you only want audio not the
video for example you want to create a
podcast from any video because nowadays
many YouTube they are making podcast
from their videos as well and putting on
various platforms to get some extra
income sometimes you want to get the
transcript of the video and sometimes
you want to translate that transcript so
you need to get the transcript first in
your original language then you
translate it into any other language so
you can translate the text obtained from
the audio and sometimes you want to get
the subtitles so there is a difference
between a simple transcript and the
subtitle and the difference is that in
subtitles you also get the time stamp
when you speak something so why we want
subtitles because in order to extend
your audience for example if you are a
YouTuber like myself I sometimes upload
subtitles in more than one languages on
my videos now the final and most
important reason that I am considering
right now about my videos is that I want
to dub my videos in other languages to
grow my audience and if you want to dub
then you first have to get the subtitles
in original language in my case it is
English then I will translate that to
any other language for example Hindi and
then I will use a text to speech
software to convert that subtitle to
audio and then I will put that audio
track in my video and that can be done
in any video editing software so I will
be making separate videos for these
steps if you are interested in how to
dub your videos or how to translate your
transcript and what are the issues
involved in that then you should
subscribe to my channel and wait for the
next videos we are expecting that soon
YouTube will allow us to add more than
one audio tracks to our videos and when
someone from some other language will
try to watch our video the audio of the
video will be played in that particular
language and that would be fantastic and
that will help us grow our audience and
we are looking forward to YouTube to
allow us to add more than one audio
tracks to our videos with this I end
this video thanks for watching and see
you next time
[Music]