Boldly Edit Digital Audio with Audacity!

Audacity is a powerful digital audio editor available for Mac OS X, Windows, and GNU/Linux. The Audacity user interface has been designed for ease of use, making it simple to record, enhance, and mix audio tracks.

Best of all, Audacity is freely licensed through the GNU General Public License (GPL)!

Recording

I’ve used Audacity for voice over work, and it makes an excellent recording tool. The Audacity GUI includes real-time monitor level feedback before, during, and after the recording process. I can tell immediately if the gain is too high and I’m clipping the audio input, or if my audio levels are too low while I’m recording. This single feature can make-or-break a live recording session!

Importing and Exporting Audio

Audacity supports many file formats, including WAV, AIFF, AU, MPEG, and Ogg Vorbis formats! The open-source software contributions of many people have provided Audacity with a very flexible and open audio editing environment. Unfortunately, proprietary formats such Microsoft Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Apple Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) are not supported in Audacity (although there are other free utilities that can convert Audacity-saved audio into these formats.).

Editing

The editing in Audacity is very user-friendly. Sections of audio can be selected and cut, pasted, moved, or faded in or out. The editing process includes undo and redo features, and I’ve found the speed of the editing (especially when cutting large areas) to be faster than some commercial products!

One of my favorite editing features is the drawing function. When the audio file is tightly zoomed, each audio sample can be individually displayed and moved!

This capability provides complete control over each sample point in your recording! I’ve used this feature to manually remove unwanted sounds where filters can’t help.

Effects

Audacity includes many effects, including fades, high/low pass filters, pitch/speed modifiers, and noise removal. I use the fading effects to add music to the introduction and closing of my voice over work.

These filters can also be used for post-production work on other audio types. If you have an old tape recording that needs to be de-hissed, Audacity comes with everything you’ll need!

Plug-In Support

Steinberg is well known in the audio industry for their proprietary Virtual Studio Technology (VST) standard. Although the software required for VST support isn’t included with the Audacity download, an optional VST module can be downloaded separately. Once this option is installed, Audacity can take advantage of hundreds of VST-compatible plug-ins!

Summary

Audacity is a powerful audio editing tool that’s very similar to commercial audio tools costing hundreds of dollars. If you need to edit music, voice, or any audio format, consider taking advantage of Audacity’s free digital editing capabilities!