Audacity

Pros

• A free program that provides professional results
• Tons of plugins and effects that can be used
• A pretty easy program to learn and use
• Can record your audio directly into the program

Cons

• Not a very attractive layout
• Editing files may render to a rather large size

Perhaps the most loved totally free audio program available today, featuring dozens of cool options, effects and plugins

An Overview of Audacity

Since the Internet first became popularized, different editing programs have emerged for video and audio. One of the all-time best audio editing programs, per customer response, has long been the free, multi-format Audacity program. Sleek, easy to use, able to be customized, and much more, this is an ideal program for editing computer audio.

Audacity is actually the name of the company that released the program. Over the years, it has updated with new plugins, new effects and tools, and so much more. It can be used by beginners for basic tweaks, or even the pros for studio quality edits. There also isn’t much of a learning curve involved with the program.

This review is the for the Mac OS version of Audacity. Although the program can be downloaded to Windows, and even mobile, this review will only be covering the version that is available for the Mac OS.

What Audacity Is and What It Does

To call Audacity an audio editor is technically accurate, though it is also underselling what this program can do. A basic audio file can be put into the system, and from there users can change the bass and treble settings, the pitch, tone, speed, and even create echo and reverb effects. All of that is just getting started; it’s the simplistic stuff to do.

In terms of how the program works, it’s pretty easy to navigate. The interface isn’t attractive but it is easy to figure out. You can click and highlight the full audio track or a section you want to manipulate, and from there just click on one of the tools or options up top. The learning curve is easy to get over too, so there aren’t any real growing pains.

The great thing about adding an effect with Audacity is that you can preview what the effect does. If you do not like it, you can simply undo that effect. If you do like it, you can compound many effects on top of each other to play around with the track, until reaching your desired result.

Features of Audacity

One of the coolest features of Audacity is undoubtedly the ability to record your audio right into the program. As with many other audio editing programs, it’s easy to import files, and this program accepts most any extension, but you can record right on the platform and adjust your mic and audio levels accordingly, as well as snipping and creating layers with the track.

You can use this program for so much. Vocal and instrumental isolation is another big feature that people love. You can also use a wide range of plugins to get even more functionality out of the program. This means taking a basic track and polishing it up to sound very professional, and all of this can be done for free and without much time spent learning the program.

Overall, this is a very solid editor that works especially well along with Mac’s other audio tools that come standard on its OS.

Pros and Cons of Audacity

Pros

• A free program that provides professional results
• Tons of plugins and effects that can be used
• A pretty easy program to learn and use
• Can record your audio directly into the program

Cons

• Not a very attractive layout
• Editing files may render to a rather large size