Audacity is an open source freeware for audio recording and editing. It is one of the best sound editing and recording software among the free ones. With this audio editor, you can record live audio and change the pitch of recording. Cutting, copying and mixing sounds together has become very easy with this application. You can even convert tapes and records into digital recordings and CDs. It supports Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files. It is easy to use and supports multiple languages. It works on various operating systems. However, the review is for Windows 7. It is embedded with features and a help file is included to guide you through the program.
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- OS: Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit, Windows Vista, Windows XP
What is new in this Version?
- Various bugs have been fixed in this version.
- Bugs have been fixed at Selection Toolbar, Mixer Board, Finding Zero Crossings and Clip Dragging to another track if mouse was over a selection.
- Then exporting to WAV or AIFF led to an error which has been fixed.
- Issues with normalization and sliding time scale have also been corrected.
- Another issue of preventing zooming with mouse wheel is fixed.
- Further more changes and improvements are done like creating shortcuts or adding new preferences etc.
1. Recording
Audacity can do live recording from a mixer or a microphone. It can also capture streaming audio with some sound cards. It can dub over existing tracks where as device toolbar manages multiple input and output devices. Audacity can record multiple channels at once. It can even digitize recordings from cassette tapes, mini disc or any external device which outputs an audio signal. A screen shot explains how it records from a microphone. You can record this way and then save the file. Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during and after recording, clipping can be displayed in the waveform or in a label track.
2. Sound Quality And Effects
Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality re-sampling and tracks with different formats or sample rates are converted automatically in real time. Audacity supports 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit samples. Effects can be added as per user’s requirement like you can change the pitch; remove vocals, hiss, static etc.; alter frequencies; adjust volume and much more as the picture below states.
3. Import And Export
With audacity editor, you can import an audio file, edit it and combine it with other files or recordings. After that, you can export your recordings in different formats. Multiple files can be imported and exported at a time. For example, you can import and export WAV, AIFF, AU, FLAC and OGG Vorbis files. You can import MPEG audio including MP2 and MP3 files using libmad and raw headerless audio files using the “Import Raw” command. You can also create WAV or AIFF files suitable for burning to audio CD.
4. Editing And Accessibility
Large number of tracks can be edited and mixed with audacity. Editing is quite easy with this program. Simple tools like cut, copy, paste and delete are to be used. Tracks and labels are synchronized with label tracks. Tracks and selections can be manipulated with keyboard and a good range of keyboard shortcuts is available. There is a draw tool to alter individual sample points and envelope tool to fade the volume up or down smoothly. Automatic Crash Recovery is there in case of abnormal program termination.
5. Analysis And Plug-ins
You can add new effects with inbuilt plug-ins like LADSPA, VST etc. or one can even add new plug-in as it is an open source program. You can easily visualize and analyze frequencies with analyzer options like spectrogram view modes and plot spectrum etc.
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