Audacity: Free Audio Editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Audacity is a free and open source audio editor and recorder that works for Windows, Mac, and Linux. This is completely suitable for casual use, as well as advanced purposes, and gives a tough competition to expensive paid counterparts. Audacity has been able to gain a wide popularity because of the nice set of features, and rock solid performance. It has been designed well, and is constantly updated with new set of features. This ensures that this free audio editor and recorder remains a preferred choice of a very large set of users. If you just need casual mixing of tracks, you can try Myna – browser based audio editor.

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Here are some of the features of Audacity:

Import and Export

Audacity lets you start your working by importing sound files in multiple format. Following file formats are supported:

• WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files.
• MPEG audio (including MP2 and MP3 files) with libmad.
• All file formats supported by libsndfile.
• Raw (headerless) audio files.

You can edit the imported files, and even combine with other files. You can even combine the imported sound files with your new recordings.

Once you are done with your editing, Audacity lets you export your files in following formats:

• Export WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files.
• Export MP3s with the optional LAME encoder library.
• All file formats supported by libsndfile.

Recording Capabilities

• Audacity has pretty good recording capabilities.
• It can record live audio through a microphone or mixer.
• Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording.
• Can digitize recordings from cassette tapes, vinyl records, or minidiscs.
• Can capture streaming audio.
• Dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings.
• Record up to 16 channels at once.

Editing

Audacity provides easy to use editing features. Editing features range from simple cut/copy/paste, to more advanced one like fading the volume. Here is a quick summary of editing features provided by Audacity:

• Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete.
• Use unlimited Undo (and Redo) to go back any number of steps.
• Edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks.
• Fast editing of large files.
• Fade the volume up or down smoothly with the Envelope tool.
• Use the Drawing tool to alter individual sample points.

If you are looking for more editing features, you can try LMMS – the free replacement for Fruity Loops.

Effects

Audacity provides following effects:

• Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises.
• Change the pitch without altering the tempo, or vice-versa.
• Adjust volumes with Compressor, Amplify, and Normalize effects.
• Alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass Boost effects.
• You can also use built-in effects, such as: Echo, Phaser, Wahwah, and Reverse.

Sound Quality

• Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and dithering.
• Record and edit 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit (floating point) samples.
• Mix tracks with different sample rates or formats, and Audacity will convert them automatically in realtime.
• Record at up to 96 kHz.

Audacity is completely free and cross-platform. Love it!

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