Edits audio files by adding effects and distortions, cutting, trimming, or joining multiple sounds together, changing the pitch levels, tempo, or loudness, etc. Record the audio from the microphone and convert between FLAC, WAV, AIFF, etc.
Except for a few features available exclusively in some professional audio editors of the highest level, there is no need to spend ridiculous amounts of money in professional audio tools when you can download and enjoy Audacity. This open-source development comes with all the utilities and features you need to produce high-quality audio files and to edit and enhance them just like with any high-end professional tool, and it comes with a feature that (as far as I know) no other commercial audio editor has ever dared to include in their product – accessibility features for persons with visual disabilities.
The program’s interface displays the expected wide clean area where the waveform graphs of your audio files will appear. Every graph comes with useful information about the file itself and with a zoom feature that allows you to work on the tiniest section of the file more accurately and intuitively. On the top side of the interface, you’ll find – together with the expected menu options and a set of quick-access icons – all the recording and playback controls you require to create and listen to your audio files. One of the few interface improvements I’d dare to suggest to the Audacity team refers to the possibility of having different tabs for the different audio files, as the program tends to open each of them on a different window.
The list of features availab
le largely exceeds the scope of this review – suffice it to say that the program offers everything you need to record new audio; digitize audio for analog sources; export and import (i.e., convert) audio files among the formats supported; enhance the sound quality; incorporate LADSPA, LV2, Nyquist, VST, and Audio Unit plug-ins; edit your audio files in any way imaginable; add effects and filters to them, and analyze (and visualize) their frequencies. As briefly mentioned above, Audacity counts with accessibility features that you won’t find easily in any other amateur or professional commercial editor. These features, which include a long list of keyboard shortcuts and access to most functionality via the keyboard, allow persons with a visual disability to make use of a software tool that usually relies heavily on graphs and images. It supports Jaws, NVDA, and other commonly used screen readers.
Due to copyright restrictions – and given that this is open source and therefore a completely free software tool – some common file formats are not supported. WAV, AIFF, and MP3, together with WMA and other known formats are fully supported, though.
Audacity is a full-fledged audio creator and editor developed by knowledgeable audio and software specialists that is not only free for everyone, but also useable by everyone, thanks to its uncommon and amazing support for accessibility features.
v2.1 [Aug 11, 2012]
Bug fixes
Interface
Fixed playback speed and synchronization problems when dragging clips or tracks between tracks having different sample rates.
(Windows) Removed a crash risk where shortcuts could be used to record or import in one project while importing or exporting in another.
Imports and Exports
Fixed crashes when changing the sample format of read-directly WAV or AIFF files using the Track Drop-Down Menu.
Fixed a crash importing MP3 files that had duplicate metadata tags (this is a bug in current libsndfile which has been patched in Audacity; MP3 files mislabeled as WAV which have duplicate tags will still crash Audacity on Linux if Audacity has been compiled against an affected version of system libsndfile).
Fixed an issue where excessively high or corrupted sample values in the audio could corrupt exports from the start of the problem for the rest of the file, and could corrupt the rest of the project.
(Linux) Fixed Audacity could not be compiled against FFmpeg 0.7.x and 0.8.x.
Effects and Analysis
Fixed crash on launch when using "Ambisonic Decoders (PC)" VST plug-ins and other plug-ins that enable additional floating point exceptions.
Fixed Plot Spectrum background could be transparent on some machines.
Bug fixes for Click Track, High Pass, Low Pass and Vocal Remover.
Chirp, Tone and Silence generators now remember their settings.
Other miscellaneous bug fixes
Changes and Improvements
New Interface preference to show the track name in the display (this is off by default).
Longer default Playback preference for effects preview and preview before cut.
Restored use of Page Up and Page Down to scroll horizontally.
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