Audacity Product Details

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Features:

The following product details were retrieved directly from the SourceForge website.

Recording

• Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize recordings from cassette tapes, vinyl records, or minidiscs. With some sound cards, it can also capture streaming audio.
• Record from microphone, line input, or other sources.
• Dub over existing tracks to create multi–track recordings.
• Record up to 16 channels at once (requires multi–channel hardware).
• Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording.

Import and Export

• Import sound files, edit them, and combine them with other files or new recordings. Export your recordings in several common file formats.
• Import and export WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files.
• Import MPEG audio (including MP2 and MP3 files) with libmad.
• Export MP3s with the optional LAME encoder library.
• Create WAV or AIFF files suitable for burning to CD.
• Import and export all file formats supported by libsndfile.
• Open raw (headerless) audio files using the “Import Raw” command.
• Note: Audacity does not currently support WMA, AAC, or most other proprietary or restricted file formats.

Editing

• Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete.
• Use unlimited Undo (and Redo) to go back any number of steps.
• Very fast editing of large files.
• Edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks.
• Use the Drawing tool to alter individual sample points.
• Fade the volume up or down smoothly with the Envelope tool.

Effects

• Change the pitch without altering the tempo, or vice–versa.
• Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises.
• Alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass Boost effects.
• Adjust volumes with Compressor, Amplify, and Normalize effects.
• Other built–in effects include:
• Echo
• Phaser
• Wahwah
• Reverse

Sound Quality

• Record and edit 16–bit, 24–bit, and 32–bit (floating point) samples.
• Record at up to 96 KHz.
• Sample rates and formats are converted using high–quality resampling and dithering.
• Mix tracks with different sample rates or formats, and Audacity will convert them automatically in realtime.

Plug–Ins

• Add new effects with LADSPA plugins.
• Audacity includes some sample plugins by Steve Harris.
• Load VST plugins for Windows and Mac, with the optional VST Enabler.
• Write new effects with the built–in Nyquist programming language.

Analysis

• Spectrogram mode for visualizing frequencies.
• “Plot Spectrum” command for detailed frequency analysis.
• Free and Cross–Platform
• Licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
• Runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and GNU/Linux.

Screenshots:

A complete list of features and side-by-side comparisons are available on the Podcast Software Review HomePage.

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