Value, Ease of Use and Efficiency for Podcasts
We use Audacity to edit and record two podcasts. It is a major help in efficiency and affordability.
Overview
What is Audacity?
Audacity is a free and open source audio recording and editing software.
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AGPR/AlexanderG Public Relations, LLC (Public Relations & Communications, 1-10 employees)
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What is Audacity?
Audacity is a free and open source audio recording and editing software.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Alternatives Pricing
What is GarageBand?
Apple offers GarageBand, a digital audio workstation packaged with its operating system.
What is Audition?
Adobe offers Audition as part of the Creative Cloud suite, a sound and audio editing and creation application.
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Audacity?
Audacity Video
A basic tutorial on how to do simple audio editing in Audacity for your podcast, videos, or presentations.
Audacity Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Audacity is a free and open source audio recording and editing software.
Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 5.
The most common users of Audacity are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Audacity has been widely used by various individuals and organizations for a range of audio editing needs. Its robust features make it a preferred choice for editing audio in video recordings and podcast episodes, as users have found it helpful for cleaning up audio and making the editing process easy. With Audacity, users can accomplish advanced tasks such as compressing and normalizing audio for multiple platforms. It is also handy for syncing prerecorded audio segments to presentations, allowing attendees to view them at their own pace. Faculty and staff use Audacity to create media for students, including classroom use and public-facing content like podcasts. It is appreciated by film, TV, and commercial composers due to its speed and small footprint, making it ideal for recording audio for YouTube channels without the need to purchase expensive software. Additionally, Audacity is commonly utilized by instructors to support students in developing audio editing skills for podcasts. Its cost-effectiveness and cross-platform compatibility make it a popular choice in the podcast production industry for multi-track editing and post-processing. Audacity's simplicity, ease of use, and ability to trim, edit, and extract audio in various formats make it a favorite tool among users with varying audio needs. Whether it's editing meeting recordings, creating music samples or karaoke tracks for sale on websites, or simply applying quick tweaks and cuts in video production work, Audacity proves to be a reliable secondary audio editing software. Its versatility extends even further, as it is used by linguistics labs for recording and manipulating audio data for analysis and by eLearning video producers for seamless audio editing tasks such as adding music and ensuring smooth transitions. Overall, users rely on Audacity for its ability to efficiently handle a wide range of audio editing tasks with its user-friendly interface.
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Robust Audio Editing: Users have consistently praised Audacity for its robust capabilities and wide variety of controls, with many stating that it meets their audio editing needs. The program allows users to splice audio segments together seamlessly, ensuring a smooth editing experience. Additionally, the availability of basic editing features such as cuts and fades is appreciated by users who are looking to make simple edits.
Ease of Use: Many reviewers have highlighted how easy it is to navigate and use Audacity's user interface. They find it simple and intuitive, even for those with minimal experience in audio editing. The program's workflow is considered easy and straightforward, allowing users to quickly complete tasks without feeling overwhelmed. Furthermore, the learning curve for Audacity is small, making it accessible to new users who want to get started with audio editing right away.
Free and Cost-effective Solution: The fact that Audacity is free has been widely appreciated by users looking for a budget-friendly option. Its open-source nature makes it accessible to anyone without having to spend money on expensive software. Users also value the program's compatibility with both Mac and PC platforms, allowing a wide range of individuals to access its features at no cost.
Onboarding Tutorial Needed: Some users have suggested that Audacity could benefit from implementing an onboarding tutorial walkthrough within the software to help new users understand its full capabilities and features.
Issues with Exporting Files: Several reviewers have reported encountering difficulties when exporting files in specific formats. They mentioned having to download patches or additional plugins to enable the desired functionality.
Messy Dashboard and Navigation: A common complaint among users is that the dashboard of Audacity appears cluttered and lacks intuitive design, making it challenging to navigate through the various options efficiently. Improving the navigation system would greatly enhance the overall usability of the software.
Users commonly recommend using Audacity for simple audio works, home projects, or low budget editions. It is suggested as a support tool for audio editing, including audio on video, and for filtering out background noise from recordings or for experimenting. Audacity is frequently recommended for quick edits on small audio projects. However, some users caution against considering it a professional digital audio workstation or a tool for creating high-quality audio files. Despite this, many believe that Audacity is a great tool for beginners in audio editing and offers simplicity and power for editing or creating tracks. Users also recommend Audacity for podcasting needs, easy and straightforward audio editing, basic sound editing, desktop audio editing, and personal or business use. It is highly recommended for technical and hands-on teams on a limited budget. Users suggest trying out Audacity due to its user-friendly nature and the belief that it can rival paid products in terms of features. They also recommend watching tutorials and consulting online manuals for assistance. Overall, users think Audacity is an excellent choice for beginners, a good starting point for those entering the field of audio editing, and a reliable option for basic yet powerful audio editing tasks.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
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February 28, 2024
Value, Ease of Use and Efficiency for Podcasts
I find Audacity is easier to use and just a simpler application for my needs.
August 09, 2023
Archivist experience with Audacity
iMovie is a user-friendly option for simple audio and video editing, but it requires a Macintosh which many offices may not have. For audio-only editing, Audacity is a free, open-source, accessible option with plenty of tutorials and plugins available for users. They both have built-in functionality for recording audio as well as editing it, but again Audacity is free and easy to use once you know what you're doing.
June 25, 2023
Very satisfied!
I've never tried any alternatives other than using my phone to record. I'd much prefer to record audio clips than to record videos.
November 03, 2022
Basic sound editing and recording in a dead-simple package
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
In a sense, this is apples and oranges. The one is lightweight and free, the other is expensive and feature-rich. We use both for different situations and skill levels.
August 23, 2021
The Only Free Audio Editor You'll Ever Need
All of the DAW's listed above are great for scoring to picture, which is something Audacity doesn't do. But it's an excellent standalone audio editor, which is a vital tool in any studio. It's very easy to transfer the clip, make the changes, and import it back into your session.
July 16, 2021
Great DAW to start any recording
I prefer Studio One because of the richness of its functionality and UX.
Adobe Audition is also a recording and audio editing software, as a user of both software [programs] I can say that Adobe Audition has way more features and tools than Audacity, but the catch is that it is not free, in fact, the complete opposite, it is very expensive. Considering all these factors, I think Audacity is a better choice for you if you aren't yet able to make the investment.
May 08, 2021
Great free app for new users
We support multiple programs but like to offer Audacity as an easier to learn and free alternative so all users don't feel the need to pay for software or work within our computer lab. Audacity offers the functionality that most of our users need, and has been generally well received as an alternative to a monthly subscription - particularly for people with a single project they need to accomplish.
April 29, 2021
Having the Audacity to compete for free
Audacity holds its own against the leading industry competitor software, Audition. For free software, it is incredible the range of options and features that you can find in the paid alternative. Audacity allows us to roll out the software to large teams and get them up to speed in a matter of days, where everyone is on the same page. They can install the software on work and home computers and have access anywhere.
April 14, 2020
A lot of value for the price
Audacity is very basic in comparison to Adobe Audition.
March 20, 2020
Excellent product for simple audio editing needs
Audacity doesn't have nearly all the functionality of GarageBand, but for a free program (and one that can be used on PC as well) it is incredibly well-designed for basic audio editing. You can't beat free, and it has excellent functionality for what it does. Even now I frequently go back to Audacity for quick and simple editing needs.
February 20, 2020
Audacity has been perfect and easy to work with
I had used Sound Forge before, but it wasn't worth the price compared to Audacity's $0! Sound Forge looked a little bit more polished overall, but it wasn't exactly worth the asking price when compared to Audacity. As previously mentioned, it is open source as well, so it is highly customizable when compared to other solutions.
February 16, 2020
Fun, fancy, and free!
I haven't used other products like Audacity. This program came highly recommended to me by a producer when I was looking for an inexpensive way to edit and save music files. I have been using it for the past seven years and have been extremely happy with how easy it is to use, update, and learn.
February 12, 2020
Audacity makes my end product better and my life easier!
I haven't used other similar programs that are still in existence. Alas, I feel certain that had I done so, I would still be a fan of Audacity because of all that it offers and affords for our uses.
February 05, 2020
The best you can find for the price
There are a few features that you will find in Audition that you will not find in Audacity. Most of these are the top-end, professional tools that you will not use very often. You are also going to have to pay significantly more for Adobe Audition than you are Audacity.
January 23, 2020
Audacity is my go-to audio editing software hands-down!
GarageBand has a vast library of sounds to select from, and this is the only advantage that Audacity doesn't have over GarageBand. But in terms of usability, Audacity shines. Audacity is far more intuitive than GarageBand, and thus, it's a no-brainer that I use it.
January 21, 2020
Audacity, the alternative audio recording and editing software!
Audacity may have some limitations but for the majority of users, Audacity will meet their requirements. It offers multiple tracks, can record directly from the computer, has multiple effects that can be applied, can apply and record macros, and can export to different audio formats. Adobe Audio works great and has better multitracking; is able to be saved on Adobe Creative Cloud and can easily integrate with other Adobe applications. The difference, however, is that Adobe Audition is an expensive alternative that is a subscription-based model.
January 17, 2020
Powerful audio editing tools with a no-frills interface
Using Apple's GarageBand for audio editing felt like fighting someone else's highly opinionated ideas of how we should be working. Simple tasks (like keeping audio in sync while making edits across multiple tracks) felt like more work than they should've been, while other tasks (noise reduction, balancing levels) felt so simplified that we had less control than Audacity.
Adobe Audition was just too much tool for us — we had access to it via our company's Creative Cloud subscriptions, but the learning curve was too high for our relatively modest production needs. Audacity, for all of its clunky interface issues, fit just right.
Adobe Audition was just too much tool for us — we had access to it via our company's Creative Cloud subscriptions, but the learning curve was too high for our relatively modest production needs. Audacity, for all of its clunky interface issues, fit just right.
March 20, 2019
Use Audacity (a Free Open-Source Software) for Robust Easy Editing of Your Audio Files
- Camtasia and screenflow
While the comparison it's really apples-to-apples, since Audacity is only designed for audio editing, and I use other tools like Camtasia and screenflow for both audio and video, the other tools do make it convenient to edit the audio within the same software as I edit the video, rather than having to do both in separate software solutions.
As I mentioned, Audacity does not have the bells and whistles of Audition, nor is it as reliable for multitracking. Using Audacity as a simple solution for simple projects is a relatively safe bet.
March 20, 2019
Powerful, free audio suite that's virtually essential for acoustic analysis of linguistic data
The only other related program we've used is Praat, and while Praat is unmatched for acoustic analysis, it also has a brutally steep learning curve and its recording leaves much to be desired (and is incredibly risky in terms of losing your recording). If you need to make and/or process/manipulate a recording via computer, Audacity is the best starting point hands down.
March 20, 2019
Audacity: Quick and Easy Audio Editing
Depending on the task being accomplished, we utilize different audio editing software for each purpose. Audition and AVID ProTools are our go-to software for advanced audio editing projects. GarageBand is great for mid-level difficulty multi-track productions (1-3 day basic projects). Audacity is our recommendation for quick edits and for those who are not looking to purchase expensive software.