To reach the Audacity Download page, click this blue sentence.

You may find the exact type of information most relevant to your project if you go through our questionnaire tree, by clicking “Click Here” (follow the red arrow).

WARNING: If you don’t like thrills, don’t study Audacity.

This website was created when we were teaching ourselves about the free, open source audio editing software, Audacity. The software has, of course, evolved since then, but remains basically the same. We hope this discussion will deepen your understanding of Audacity and the history of audio editing.

It’s addictive: If you like audio, you don’t even have to use Audacity to be thrilled by the discussion and projects on the internet concerning Audacity. The thrills are everywhere, in Audacity blogs, articles, and YouTube videos on the web.

You’ll find answers to questions you do not yet have the knowledge or experience to ask. And just by searching, you’ll be part of a community of internet explorers sharing and reading about audio discoveries and accomplishments using Audacity.

For example, if you are a pianist, here’s one obscure forum post that solves not only a little-mentioned piano recording problem you might encounter, but also a very important fact about Audacity that could save anyone’s project from being lost. (Hint: be sure to read the last sentence in the post.)

Who is Audacity for?

If you are a software developer looking to develop commercial software, you already know that open source free recording software such as Audacity will provide a ready starting point for developing an audio product.

You will find a list of commercially available audio inventions based on the open source code of Audacity here. Some examples are:

• electronic keyboard audio enhancement,
• UmixIt mixer board interface and karaoke window,
• Thinklabs cardiograph for digital stethoscopes,
• Audio_Voice customization for use with Audiotouch.

If you are a student of audio engineering, you may already have utilized the simple interface and advanced audio editing capability of Audacity in your studies. Many audio courses make use of Audacity for teaching audio editing. Such studies may be accessed at Wikiversity.org. Here’s a great one-hour Audacity course.

If you are an absolute beginner in audio editing, you will be able to utilize Audacity free recording software at a beginning level, while achieving an advanced result. Not only is the software free and well-explained in internet manuals and help files, but training to use Audacity is also available in the form of YouTube tutorial videos available on the internet.

Just in case you are not convinced, here is a very demanding advanced project that even a beginner can follow, if motivated to do so: audio cassette to CD transfer.

If you try to follow the video, because the instructions are verbal and detailed, you will need to pause the video (click the || symbol) to write down (or type into your minimized Wordpad) the instructions when it goes too fast.

The author cautions: “Sound like fun? It’s not. But it’s thorough, it’s free, and it’s faster than most methods I’ve seen.”

Thankfully, Audacity projects are generally far less detailed than the audio cassette to MP3 transfer.

Is Audacity the free recording software you need?

Unless you are quite familiar with digital audio editors, your top question about Audacity is whether it is worth your while to use this software for your audio projects.

Maybe you have questions similar to mine that have held you back from downloading Audacity and experimenting with it:

• How does Audacity compare with costly similar software such as Cubase, Adobe Audition, Cakewalk, or Pro Tools?
• How does Audacity fit in with the MIDI and band-adapted capabilities of the Macintosh’s Garageband, or if using a Mac, would Audacity supplement Garageband’s capabilities in some way?
• How does hardware for digital audio editing compare to Audacity software?

In delving into the “What Is Audacity?” question, you will see that the capabilities of Audacity are within reach of anyone who can read a manual, operate a computer, and watch a YouTube video, and that Audacity can produce a high quality product.

You will see that training in using Audacity is available with a simple search on the internet for “Audacity tutorial.” Here is the Sourceforge portal for Audacity manuals and tutorials.

Download Audacity and the LAME MP3 encoder (assuming you will want MP3 recordings) here, to get started using Audacity.

Audacity tutorials on the web are outstanding.

In the event you plan to utilize YouTube tutorials to explore Audacity, we would suggest that you download the VIRAL TUBE toolbar, after checking out our How VT Works page on this website, to simplify and organize your search for Audacity videos.