Audacity

When you open Audacity with an audio file on your system, it is visually presented to you as a waveform of the sound itself. This makes it much easier to cut and reorganize the file. When you press record while a file is open, it will record new sounds to a new track only. This makes it easy to add ambient music or voiceovers. One of the best features of Audacity is that it supports a wide range of plug-ins for various effects, like bass boost, echo, auto duck, changes to tempo and pitch, room reverb, wahwah, tremolo, and many others. File analysis is also possible with Audacity, and it can find clipping, silent parts, and subpar contrast. The integrated beat finder works to create a label for each audio file based on the rhythm. Removing audio noise is simple with Audacity as well. All you have to do is select the noise by itself that should be removed, then find the piece of the file from which to remove it. Both pieces are required since the noise removal process essentially cancels out the initial noise it is given against the entirety of the audio file. Most users will agree that too much noise removal will interfere with the quality of the final product, so using the tool to remove small amounts of noise is ideal. Audacity is nice from a cost and feature perspective, but it isn't exactly easy to use. Just like other similar free and open-source pieces of software, it is more focused on what it can do as opposed to how easy it is to do it. For example, there are several complex steps you must take if you want to use the software with Windows Vista, and there's a third-party app for the Mac that you must also use to use Audacity on a Mac system. The newest version of Audacity includes the most complete line of analytical tools, and it can support more than one clip per track. The software also includes new options and effects, and some of the most complicated functions have been streamlined. For those who don't want to shell out a small fortune for a professional audio editing suite, Audacity is an excellent option. It allows you to easily create and edit podcasts or record sounds directly from the internet. Casual users will love exploring this software, but professionals might find it subpar compared to the power and utility of a premium audio editor.