Topic: Audacity: FREE, fast recording/editing software

[Brian Skalinder]

Just checked out Audacity over at Sourceforge.

I've messed around a little bit and so far have successfully and easily used the following features:

• record
• timed record
• split tracks to stereo
• combine tracks to mono
• edit/label multitracks / mixdown to stereo
• amplify levels / find max amplification w/o clip
• unlimited undo
• manipulate individual/ranges of samples
• (un)align tracks to each other or zero
• fade out/in
• invert wav
• reverse (this one's fun, play wavs backwards!)
• frequency analysis
• spectrum view
• wavform view
• pitch (EAC) view (not a clue about this one)

So far as I can tell at this point, Audacity does most of the basic WAV editing I need for transferring and limited master FAST and easily.  I haven't found these features:

• sample rate conversion (not an issue for me at the moment)
• bit-depth reduction (not an issue for me at the moment)
• compressor (would like this for some amplified acoustic recordings)
• cue sheets

But maybe Audacity accepts plugins and I can add third-party features?  Dunno yet.  The cue sheets, no biggie - I use CD-Wave, anyway.  But the others - kinda surprised it doesn't have them.  Gonna have to find out about plugins, I guess.

FWIW, Some features I haven't tried:

• frequency-specific dB adjustments (I guess kind of an EQ, but you can only manipulate one frequency at a time; only two user fields: frequency, +/- dB;  dufus interface)
• echo effect
• FFT filter
• noise removal (get profile, then apply NR)
• phaser effect
• reverse effect
• wahwah effect
• reverb (called freeverb effect)

[B]

heh i was actually using this in tv/radio tech today, editing some voice tracks for the lazy kids who dont know an mpeg from an mp3.  its one of the simplest audio programs i've ever used, and it gets the job done for all that mentioned above...i had a problem saving the audacity project files (but it was probably just the computer i was on)

b

[shroominhumpy]

This thing has literally thousands of plugins avaiable for it. And it is finally a good, multiformat recoder, that isnt a big piece of bloatware that takes gigabites of ram to run properly. Open source is such a beautiful thing. Anyway the link for the plugins. (I am doing pretty hardcore testing right now to see if I can get this thing to crash and what causes it. Nothing has worked as of yet ).
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/plugins.php

[Cooker]

without SRC i doubt i'd have any need for it on the hard drive.
but it's good to know it's out there. without pulling up the page, let me ask - is this srictly windows-based, or it linux friendly?

[mirth]

d) all of the above

[Brian Skalinder]

without SRC i doubt i'd have any need for it on the hard drive.
but it's good to know it's out there. without pulling up the page, let me ask - is this srictly windows-based, or it linux friendly?

Per shroominhumpy's post, I checked out the plugins and there are at least several SRC and bit-depth reduction plugins.  Haven't tried any of them yet, but will eventually.

As for the Linux question, it would have been easier to click the link I provided than to type the question.  Click the link, Mr. Lazy.  

[JasonSobel]

are you talking about version 1.1.0 (released 6/5/02)
or are you talking about the new one, 1.2.0-pre4 (released 2/10/04)

the reason why I ask is that the name of the one released a few of days ago is titled "audacity-unstable", while the older one is "audacity"  

have you been testing out the new one and finding that it is stable?  what's the story?

[Cooker]

yeah i did that anyway brian, and i saw the plugins you mention.

too bad those VST plugins are windows-only, i was hoping this would put me one step closer to using a linux box as my primary machine.

[shroominhumpy]

The testing I have been doing is Windows XP based one the new "unstable" release. This "unstable" release is being considered for official release if it proves to be mostly bug free. As of now I am betting it will be. If someone with some nicer gear would also hop on the testing I think they could try overloads a lot quicker than mine. The only thing I can feed 24 bit to my computer with is my DVD-Audio player. I also dont have a firewire compatible device. A group effort would be nice on this because I am just about tested out.

[hexyjones]

I've been using Audacity to record and edit old cassette source recordings. I've used the noise reduction process with good results. Even just using my systems on-board sound...the results are far beyond my expectations.

With digital sources...Creating a matrix of two stereo sources seemed rather easy.

Recommend!

Be sure to get the newest version...not the "stable" V1.0 version...

[blu666z]

Gonna give it a try tonite!

-Kevin

[blu666z]

I must be an idiot.  Where is timed record?

-Kevin

[Brian Skalinder]

I must be an idiot.  Where is timed record?

Doh!  Sorry, I wasn't clear.  Timed record is a third-party app, called Audacity Scheduler or some such.  It's also on Sourceforge.  Just search for "audacity" and it'll turn up.  Wish it was just integrated...maybe it will be in the future.

[blu666z]

That should definately be a core funciton...thanks for the point in the right direction.

-Kevin

[blu666z]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/audaremote/

I like the function in CDWave to stop recording after a certain amount of silence.  Any idea of a plugin like that?  

-Kevin