I can’t believe that Audacity is already over 20 years old. Audacity has been one of those programs that has been on my computer for ages. As someone who loves free things, I appreciate having Audacity around. Although it often lays dormant in the background, alongside other apps I no longer use, I must admit that I am impressed by its latest update. While I am not familiar with most technical jargon, Audacity’s ability to allow me to spend hours creating new sounds for free has certainly caught my attention. This is an excellent update for all audiophiles who enjoy tinkering with sounds, and it is hard to imagine anything better for free. I highly recommend you get the latest version of Audacity 3.3.
Audacity is a digital audio editor and recording software that’s free and open-source. It was created by Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg at Carnegie Mellon University in the summer of 1999 and was released on May 28, 2000, as version 0.8. Audacity is a fantastic resource for recording and editing audio, and it’s both user-friendly and free of charge.
By and large, this is a quiet update, with most of the work being done under the hood. Some noteworthy changes:
- Some built-in effects are real-time capable now
- A new Shelf Filter effect has been added, it’s in the EQ & Filters category
- An initial (beta) version of the beats and measures feature has been added, you can enable it via View → Toolbars → Time Signature Toolbar (beta), then right-clicking the timeline to change to beats and measures, and then changing the snapping and time and selection toolbar clocks to a beats format.
- A new vertical ruler (Linear (dB)) has been added, you can enable it by right-clicking on the vertical ruler.
- Project Rate has been moved to the Audio Setup button → Audio Settings and renamed Project Sample Rate
What people use Audacity for:
- Audacity can be used to record live audio.
- Audacity can be used to convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
- Audacity can be used to edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files.
- Audacity can be used to cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.
- Audacity can be used to change the speed or pitch of a recording.
- Audacity can be used to remove background noise from a recording.
- Audacity can be used to create audio effects.
- Audacity can be used to record computer playback on any Windows platform
- Audacity can be used to create ringtones for cell phones.
- Audacity can be used to create podcasts.