When you are writing of software for audio free and open source, I believe that the first thought in the vast majority of cases, falls on Audacity, a powerful tool very appreciated by professionals and amateurs; as well as the best free software for processing digital audio.
In fact Audacity is an audio editor, which allows you to work on your sound samples making changes and working with many kinds of audio processing. Audacity is also a multi-track recording software, capable of transforming your PC into a complete recording studio, offering the professional features that make this software highly competitive if compared with its competitors not free.
A screenshot of the Windows version Audacity.
Grazie alle numerose funzionalità di cui dispone, Audacity trova applicazione in numerosi ambiti, ed è capace di intercettare le esigenze di utenti assai differenti tra di loro. Non è semplice svolgere una selezione delle caratteristiche più importanti di questo software, ma voglio comunque tentare di evidenziarne qualcuna, le più rilevanti:
– A very intuitive GUI;
– Graphical representation of the audio signal;
– 24-bit recording, with sampling frequencies up to 192 kHz and 384 kHz with Mac OSx and Linux;
– Record computer playback on any Windows Vista or later machine;
– Import file Wav, Aiff, Av, Flac and Ogg Vorbis;
– Export file in Mp3 and Wma format;
– A considerable number of classic effects such as Phaser, Echo, Reverb, Audio Stretching;
– Possibility to vary the pitch of the sounds without varying the speed of the track;
– View of the spectrogram of the sound;
– Analysis functions of the audio signal;
– Compatibility with plug-in Ladspa, VST, Audio Unit and Nyquist;
and many more.
Another image of Audacity. On the right the window of the analyzer frequency, one of the many features that the software offers.
Audacity is multi-track, as I mentioned before, and it is also multi-platform. Indeed, it is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. I recommend you take a look at the page Download for other special needs.
The Noise Removal window.
Audacity is “multi” for another reason. In fact, the platform has been translated into many national languages, so Audacity is also multi language, which testifies further fame. Another strong point of this software is its community of reference, which is actively working to improve the software and provides support materials.
Among these it is worth mentioning the reference manual, tutorials and the forum, widely used by users of this free audio editor.
Let’s not forget the resources offered by YouTube. Lots of tutorials available, in addition to those already on the official site. For a look at those published on the YT please click here.
The latest version of Audacity, released at September 2014, is the 2.0.6; who has little news in respect to the previous version, released one year ago.
And you, what use do you do? It would be interesting and useful to read some comments describing your experience with Audacity.