Audacity

The best free audio editor and recorder

Among all the multitrack sound editors and recorders, there's an alternative that will definitely surprise you positively. We're talking about Audacity that, as well as being completely free, is one of the alternatives with the most muscle when it comes to working with sound and audio files. Download Audacity for PC if you want to get hold of one of the best options to edit audio on Windows.

A multipurpose tool for anyone that works with audio

This excellent tool will offer you from the most basic wave editing instruments to advanced sound recording, format conversion and effect audio processing functions. It's an application that can be used in almost any context, both by amateur users when it comes to editing sound files, and professional users with more experience.

Free, open source, multiplatform tool.

Main features

The main features and functions of this tool that have turned it into a program of reference when it comes to editing sound files are the following:

• Compatible with WAV, MPEG, MP2, MP3, AU, OGG and AIFF.
• Register sound from different sound inputs: microphone, in-line, etc.
• Allows you to transform cassettes and vinyls to digital format, guaranteeing their conservation and even improving their quality.
• Multitrack recording combining sources.
• Essential editing toolset: copy, crop, paste, replace, divide, duplicate, zoom vision tools, etc.
• Export your work in WAV, MP3 (using LAME), AIFF, AU and OGG.
• Wide range of processing effects: equalizer, amplifier, compressor, noise correction, delay, reverb, various filters, wah-wah, vocoder, limiter...
• Includes tone and silence generators.

And there's more! Once you download Audacity for PC, it will really surprise you with the metadata editor that will help you to organize your files, various audio analysis tools to detect rhythms and silences, a spectrum viewer to view all the contents in frequencies or the controllers to change the playback speed.

Hundreds of very well packed possibilities

It is rather intuitive because the main interface provides shortcuts to the most important controls, like the audio devices that will be used or the inbound and outbound lines, including volume. Large buttons to handle the playback, controls for the stereo image, windows system for advanced tools... Browse the menu bar in search of those controls that you don't find in the first section.

Although the tool has been translated to many different languages, you might need to get hold of a tutorial to explain the ins and outs of how it works. Due to its popularity, you won't be hard to find a guide on the Internet.

At the same time, you'll find versions available for other operating systems such as macOS for Apple computers or for Linux, bridging the incompatibility gap between users and simplifying the export of work from one platform to another. However, for the time being, there are no official versions for Android in APK format or for iOS devices. In these cases, we'll have to put up with other alternatives, some of which even have the same name as the original development although they have nothing to do with each other.

What's new in the latest version

• Fixes several bugs.
• Audacity's performance improves when there are many clips.