Archivist experience with Audacity
Updated August 09, 2023

Archivist experience with Audacity

Holly Fitzpatrick | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Audacity

I use Audacity for audio recording, editing, normalizing audio levels, and more. It's especially handy when I need to sync prerecorded audio segments to a presentation so it can be viewed more than once by attendees at their own pace. The program offers quite a bit of functionality for a free software.

Pros

  • Splicing audio segments together
  • Recording & re-recording directly in the program
  • Editing sound levels so segments aren't dramatically louder or quieter than another

Cons

  • Adding more instructions: it's a simple program but users may need an external guide to get started
  • Automatic filter for background noise
  • Speech to text captioning
  • In-program recording
  • Simple audio splicing, editing, normalization
  • Export to suitable file types, MP3 WAV FLAC
  • Very positive ROI given it is a free program
  • No subscription fee!
  • Open-source, can add plugins as needed
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.

Do you think Audacity delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Audacity's feature set?

Yes

Did Audacity live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Audacity go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Audacity again?

Yes

Audacity is well-suited for any basic audio recording and editing needs. If you have a small budget, only need a program for a small, specific project, or don't need too many extra tools, Audacity is the perfect program for you. It helps me prerecord presentations before posting them online, so I'm not giving the same presentation over and over again.

Using Audacity

4 - Audio editing is necessary for mine & my supervisor's work as archivists, as well as our staff photographers who film events for our university department. We need to make sure photos, audio, and video are archived in good quality and proper formats to preserve their longevity for years to come.
  • Editing audio files to prepare for preservation
  • Exporting audio in correct formats best for preservation
  • Recording audio to use in marketing videos
  • We use Audacity for marketing, but I assume most users don't use it to better preserve their files like we do in archival work
  • Would love to expand our promotional media with audio, since most of it is still photography
With no subscription fees unlike other products on the market, I am very confident I will continue using Audacity for my simple audio editing needs. I'm not an expert in audio editing, I'm sure what works for me as a more general user in a public institution would not suit someone more experienced, but I'm very happy with the quality of work I'm able to produce.

Evaluating Audacity and Competitors

  • Integration with Other Systems
  • Ease of Use
The ease of use is the most important part for us, we perform a wide variety of tasks in archives and a program with a low barrier to entry, modest learning curve, and wide availability of tutorials is the priority. We are more casual with our editing needs than someone specializing in this field, the simplicity of use is a major factor.
In the future, I might look further into programs built with the open-source software of Audacity. There might be plugins available to further simplify or customize my workflow. But otherwise I don't think I would change anything about how audio editing programs were evaluated for archival use, I am very happy with the quality of our work.

Audacity Implementation

Again I found it helpful to write up a step-by-step tutorial for coworkers based on our institution's standard practices. This combined with support from coworkers to answer questions is very effective for simple everyday use of Audacity. The support in-program is minimal but troubleshooting in the internet age is straightforward.
  • Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal - We did not have any major issues, to me the best way to train people on new software is by writing a step-by-step tutorial for them using the standard practices of your institution.
  • Slight learning curve for new users, easily remedied with coworker support

Audacity Training

  • No Training
Yes, it was easy to learn without formal training and I believe this method will be effective for most institutions like mine, with staff similar to mine. We already use specialized programs to maintain digital assets, learning how to edit and record with Audacity in the internet age is very easy.

Configuring Audacity

I feel that the configurability of Audacity is decent, it has plenty of plugins owing to its open-source nature, but I find that I largely do not need them for my work. Creating plugins is too complex for me, but I have not encountered any situations I would need to do that with.
Nothing specific, evaluate your institution's needs and search for external plugins if needed. The default settings are more than enough for my casual audio editing needs.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
N/A

Audacity Support

Using Audacity

Audacity is decently user friendly, while any questions generally have to be answered by externally searching for tutorials or other users encountering the same issue, it is still straightforward, simple, and easily resolved. It's installable on any type of computer, compact, and easy to install. Beginners may have a harder time, but once you know what you're doing, it's very easy to use.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
None
  • Recording audio in-program
  • Cutting audio segments & piecing them together
  • Normalizing audio levels
  • Exporting to appropriate formats
  • Getting started, external tutorials have to be sourced

Audacity Reliability

I feel that Audacity is useful, simple, and suited both to casual users and more advanced use cases. There are options for expanding functionality in complex situations, but the option to not mess with it as a beginner is perfectly fine and suited to most everyday uses in my institution.
Audacity is great for this, it doesn't require a network connection once downloaded, and previous versions of the software are still functional in my experience. I have never experienced the program crashing, lost work, corrupted files, anything of the sort.
I have never had issues with speed in Audacity, I don't integrate it with other software but the program runs smoothly even with larger jobs. I haven't measured the CPU while using Audacity, but I imagine it's not high compared to other, more professional or specialized programs in the same category.

Integrating Audacity

Relationship with Audacity

Upgrading Audacity

Comments

More Reviews of Audacity

  1. Home
  2. Audio Editing Software
  3. Audacity Reviews
  4. User Review of Audacity