Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:
- Record live audio.
- Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
- Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files.
- Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.
- Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
- 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 MP3 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.
It supports all common editing operations, plus it will mix tracks and let you apply plug-in effects to any part of a sound. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customizable spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications.
What's New in version 1.3.9 Beta:
Bug fixes for:
- Crash, slow launch or excessive CPU/memory use arising from automatic VST support:
- VST instrument plug-ins should now be correctly ignored
- VST effects now scanned only at start of first session that detects them, then cached
- Effects are now not loaded or opened until needed
- New "Effects" tab in Preferences to enable/disable VST effects and enable VST rescan on next launch
- Default View Mode now works
- Chains now always apply their stored parameters rather than those last used in Effect menu
- Non-MP3 files imported via drag or Recent Files caused crash if filter in file open window set to MP3
- AAC exports (using the optional FFmpeg library) silenced
- Generating audio always fitted the project in the window; fit now done only if generating in new track
- View menu items/shortcuts incorrectly disabled when playing or recording
- DTMF generator defaulted to zero duration on open
- Unwanted interactions between linked audio and label tracks
- (Windows XP) Failure to launch on some machines due to "incorrect configuration" issue
- (Windows) Crash importing a stereo file while a screen reader such as JAWS is running
- (Mac OS X) :
- Audio Units effects applied to all tracks in project even if not selected
- QuickTime importer now handles files greater than 16-bit or 64000 Hz
- Various other interface bugs
Improvements:
- Compressor: new option to compress based on peaks, improved attack and decay time support
- Mixer Board: improved design, more responsive meters and now interacts fully with Track Panel in main window