There must be a reason a lot of people download and use this software. With previous downloads added, the number goes up to approximately 200 million downloads. And this number is only as of March 2015. What is Audacity?Īudacity is a free-to-use, open-source digital audio editor and recorder software designed for macOS, Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems like Unix-like.Īs of January 3rd, 2022, Audacity has become the most popular download from FossHub, with over 111 million downloads. You can download Audacity for free directly from their website. This guide will provide you with Audacity’s key features, why you should use it, and how to use Audacity step-by-step. It’s very lightweight and can run on many operating systems and even on the oldest machines. So, whether you are a podcaster, vlogger, audio producer, video producer, or just work with sound, it’s a great tool for you. You can use Audacity for varying tasks such as recording, editing, mixing audio clips, adding effects, conversing audio files, and more. Even though it is free, it rivals any commercial audio software or plugin with its powerful set of features.

There’s a lot here, but we’ll go into more depth in future articles in this series.Audacity is an impressive free and open-source audio recording and editing software.

Selection tools: Here, you can choose where to start selection by time, and then choose to put in an end time, or a length of selection.

Audio tracks: The top of this area has the timeline, and any audio tracks will appear here.

Shortcut bar: Shortcuts to quick actions – such as cut, paste, insert silence, etc – and for zooming.Level sliders: Change the volume level for both output and input, and the drop-down menu to the immediate right is to select an input.Clicking on the the input meter will actively monitor audio levels, and right clicking will give you options to change the refresh rate.

Level meters: The left one is for output, and the right is for input.

Toolbar: In order, from top-left to bottom-right: Selection, Envelope, Draw, Zoom, Time Shift, and Multi-Tool Mode.

Audio controls: The standard controls – pause, play, stop, skip backward, skip forward, and record – for the project as a whole.

There’s a lot of options in the main window, but it breaks down pretty simply.

Beginners guide to audacity