Audacity Review: The Best Free Sound Recording and Editing Program

People try Audacity, the sound editing and sound recording software program, because a friend recommends it. They keep Audacity because it's so good.

Audacity can perform simple to advanced sound editing functions.

Video: How to Download, Install and Configure Audacity
(Length – 8:47)

Download Audacity

Here's a question for ya…

Is Audacity perfect? No.

If you are a hard-core sound engineer Audacity won't meet your needs. It won't have enough horsepower to do everything you need it to do. You'll need to spend at least a thousand dollars to get a program to do that.

Let me ask that question again…

Is Audacity perfect? Yes. It's perfect for the average computer user looking for a sound recording program to create simple audio files. Like me.

I use Audacity to create my "Audio Minutes". Audacity perfectly fits my needs to record audio, edit out mistakes, improve sound quality, add an underlying music track and output as an mp3 file. It does all that for free, what more do I need?

There are so many sound recorders on the market that it can be confusing choosing the best one. Audacity is my choice for those looking to build a simple sound recording studio. It'll help you become a master sound editor in no time!

What Audacity can do…

• Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer.
• Digitize recordings from cassette tapes, vinyl records, or minidiscs.
• With some sound cards, it can also capture streaming audio.
• Record from microphone, line input, or other sources.
• Dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings.
• Record up to 16 channels at once (requires multi-channel hardware).
• Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording.

Import and Export

• Import sound files, edit them, and combine them with other files or new recordings. Export your recordings in several common file formats.
• Import and export WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files.
• Import MPEG audio (including MP2 and MP3 files) with libmad.
• Export MP3s with the optional LAME encoder library.
• Create WAV or AIFF files suitable for burning to CD.
• Import and export all file formats supported by libsndfile.
• Open raw (headerless) audio files using the “Import Raw” command.

Note: Audacity does not currently support WMA, AAC, or most other proprietary or restricted file formats.

Editing

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

Effects

• Change the pitch without altering the tempo, or vice-versa.
• Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises.
• Alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass Boost effects.
• Adjust volumes with Compressor, Amplify, and Normalize effects.

Sound Quality

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

What others are saying about Audacity

Love it!

"This one is up there with the very best commercial software…"

"Works fast, saves easily, turns some terrible sounding music to great or bearable, assuming you know how to use it of course…."

Hate it!

"It looks good, has lots of functions but if you want to do any editing, look elsewhere."

"Graphic user interface (GUI) is very basic, could be more user-friendly…"

My recommendation about Audacity Sound Recording and Sound Editing software program.

Audacity does everything the average person needs it to. Pay for a better sound editing program if you need to, but I recommend giving Audacity a good workout first. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

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