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Description
Audacity is your gateway to a world of sound possibilities, offering a robust and user-friendly platform for audio editing and recording. Renowned for its free and open-source nature, Audacity caters to musicians, podcasters, and sound engineers alike, providing a versatile toolset that spans across Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux. Whether you're capturing live performances or digitizing old tapes, Audacity's multi-track recording capabilities ensure you get the best out of your audio projects.
Dive into its intuitive interface, where editing is a breeze with features like cut, copy, and paste, supported by an unlimited undo history to ensure your creative flow remains uninterrupted. Audacity supports a plethora of file formats, allowing seamless import and export, including the likes of WAV, MP3, and FLAC. Expand your sonic palette with a variety of built-in effects and plugin support, covering LADSPA, VST, and more, or even create custom effects using the Nyquist programming language.
For those who demand precision, Audacity offers high-quality resampling, dithering, and the ability to handle sample rates up to 384,000 Hz on supported devices. With robust analysis tools like spectrogram view and contrast analysis, you can delve into the intricacies of your audio with confidence.
Key Features:
- Free, open-source, and cross-platform software
- Multi-track recording and editing
- Supports WAV, AIFF, MP3, FLAC, and more
- Real-time effects preview with plugin support
- High-quality audio resolution up to 384,000 Hz
- Intuitive editing tools, including cut, copy, paste, and unlimited undo
- Extensive plugin support: LADSPA, LV2, VST, and Audio Unit
- Comprehensive analysis tools and spectrogram view
- Runs on Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux
- Accessible interface with keyboard shortcuts and screen reader support
Product specs
| Operating Systems | Mac, Windows |
| Downloadable | free |
Videos
Kevin Stratvert
🔊 How to use Audacity to Record & Edit Audio | Beginners Tutorial
Reviews
PROS
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Free and open-source, making it accessible to everyone
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Supports a wide range of VST plugins and third-party tools
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Effective for basic recording, editing, and sample manipulation
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Lightweight, does not heavily tax system resources
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Simple interface suitable for beginners
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Offers spectral editing and mastering capabilities
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Great for quick audio sampling and conversions
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Allows monitoring of input levels before recording
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Extensive community support and plugin availability
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Perfect for analyzing and cleaning up recordings
CONS
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Prone to crashing, especially with certain plugins
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Limited for complex music production compared to professional DAWs
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Does not natively support MIDI; requires additional setup
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Interface can be perceived as outdated or counter-intuitive
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Risk of data loss if project files and data folders are mishandled
Owner Insights
We analyzed real musician discussions from forums and Reddit to find what players love, question, and tweak about Audacity.
Features and functionality
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Audacity allows importing corrupted audio files as raw data, which can be useful for recovering unusable files.
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Audacity's loopback recording feature is used to capture desktop audio, which some users find useful for grabbing samples.
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Audacity offers batch processing capabilities, making it efficient for handling multiple audio files at once.
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Audacity's Ctrl-M function allows users to mark specific sections during recording for later use, making it easier to create promotional snippets or plan future content.
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Audacity works internally in 32-bit floating-point, providing superior audio processing power compared to standard phone recording apps or basic Windows applications.
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Audacity does not support real-time plugin processing, requiring users to wait for rendering, which limits its efficiency for complex projects.
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User experience
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Some users appreciate Audacity's ability to quickly trim silences from the beginning and end of audio files and convert between formats.
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Use cases and applications
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Audacity is noted for being effective in editing podcasts, especially in environments with background noise, using tools like previewing in and out points with the B key.
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Audacity is favored for its ability to record and post-process audio in the same platform, eliminating the need to switch between different software for simple recording tasks.
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The software is particularly appreciated for its ability to handle both single and multiple track recordings quickly, making it ideal for simpler projects that don't require a full DAW.
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Audacity is commonly used for ripping vinyl, leveraging its robust editing and processing capabilities for converting analog recordings to digital formats.
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Audacity remains useful for simple edits and recordings, especially when ease of use is prioritized over extensive DAW features.
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Software and compatibility
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The data collection in Audacity is opt-in by default, focusing on telemetry for improving software performance, and can be manually checked to ensure it's off.
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Audacity's lack of virtual instruments out of the box can be a limitation, as users must find third-party solutions for synthetic sounds.
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Comparisons
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Audacity is compared to a notepad for quick drafts, lacking depth for professional music mixing compared to full DAWs like Reaper.
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Audacity's audio editing capabilities are likened to MS Paint's simplicity, contrasting with more complex software like Reaper that offers comprehensive tools with fewer steps.
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Critic Reviews
4.0 out of 5
Based on 70 Reviews and 289 Ratings
143
Audio Editing With Ease
I absolutely love this program. Audacity has allowed me to do so many things with audio, ranging from simple audio bit-rate conversion to complete audio manipulation on the fly. It is definitely a must-get!
Amazing Audio Editor
What do I have to say? It's Audacity. An audio editor that has power to do anything.
589
Free but extremely useful sound editing tool
I use audacity to isolate drum hits from vinyl loops and record. I also like to use the raw data from non-audio sources and place snippets of the interesting results into my compositions.
141
(?._.?)
I guess we all have this. It was just laying around on my computer before I discovered it. It looks like some lite version of a music software from the early 2000. Never really tried it.
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Straightforward, nothing fancy.
I record podcasts with this, and also to tweak sounds or loops. It's like the old sound recorder for Windows, on cough syrup.
Artist usage
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At 8:38 in the video "HOW WE MADE 'USED TO LOVE' | The Martin Garrix Show S4.E4" on YouTube, it is visible that Audacity is pinned on Martin Garrix's laptop taskbar, confirming his use of the software.
At 20:40 in this video, deadmau5 mentions how he prefers to resample in Audacity.
In their MusicRadar interview, Nik, when asked what software other than Cubase he uses says: "Most of it happens inside Cubase. Outside of that, there isn't that much, other than Audacity to grab some stuff or PaulStretch for time-stretching things."
Mat Zo includes Audacity in the list of software and hardware that he uses in the studio (source is an email exchange with Mat Zo from Feb 2017).
At 0:20 the icon for Audacity can be seen in the top left corner of his background.
In this article Will Toledo talks about going from Audacity to Garage band and then finally Logic.
Album Usage
The Audacity has been featured on the following albums:
Genre Usage
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Used With
Based on how musicians on Equipboard use Audacity, it is most commonly used with the following gear.
Community setups
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