Audacity - A User's Perspective
From SPARK
- by Marty Lange
Since 1991, I have been an avid user of audio editing programs on the computer. My first purchase was Wave for Windows, by Turtle Beach. It was a destructive editor, and terribly slow to use on my lightning-fast 486/33 DX computer. In 1996, after I purchased the difficult-to-use SAW Pro package, I read about Fast Eddie by Minnetonka Software. I bought a copy, and fell in love with it. A year later, I also discovered Cool Edit 96, which a few years later became Cool Edit 2000, the king of consumer audio editors. It, too, became a favorite, eventually winning my loyalty over all other audio editors.
However, once Adobe bought Syntrillium’s Cool Edit product line (CE Pro and CE2K), they killed off the low end product, choosing instead to focus on developing what they now called Audition into a high-end audio editor.
Since nothing has been done to improve Fast Edit since about 1998, and with the disappearance of Cool Edit 2000, I began to search for something else to fill the gap. That’s when I tripped upon Audacity.
Audacity is an up and coming audio editor (it’s currently in version 1.2.2), but based on the open source model of software. In other words, it’s completely free of charge, and if you are a computer programmer, you may download the source code of the program and see how it’s constructed. If you are just a normal user like me who trains others and refuses to buy software in the pirate markets (Adobe Audition for only $1.70?), this is good news!
Something else very appealing about Audacity is that it is available in 20 different languages, allows the user to create multi-track projects, and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Did I mention it was free?
Upon first glance, the program looks like a simple audio editor. The interface is meant to appeal to first-time users who are familiar with a tape recorder’s buttons. If you have used other computer audio editors you can quickly adapt your skills to this program. However, once you start exploring its deeper features, you’ll be hooked on using it for all but the most complicated recording and editing projects.
Features
It’s features are numerous. It allows you to edit and save .wav files, .mp3 files, and .ogg files (aka. Ogg Vorbis). The interface allows you to control your volume and recording levels without having to Alt-Tab to the Windows Mixer. The Effects menu is full of different effects that can be applied to your projects. The noise reduction feature does a great job of getting rid of unwanted background noise without adding weird distortion (it works much better than the Noise-Reduction Plug-in for Cool Edit 2000). The Change Time function has helped me squeeze a 65 second file down to one minute, without adding distortion. And the program’s ability to use VST plug-ins from other vendors makes it very versatile.
Another very nice feature is that if you accidentally press record when you have a file open, it does not affect the file that is open, but creates a new track just below the one that is open. This is a very nice feature if you are working with a narrator and they notice that they need to re-record a portion of the file you are working on. You get the ready to speak, press record, and the new recording appears just below the track you are working on. This makes it very easy to cut and paste the new recording into the track you are editing.
Limitations
For those of us who frequently used the Drop Marker function in both Fast Edit and Cool Edit, you will be disappointed with Audacity (at least with the current version – 1.2.2) While Audacity allows you to create a label track, it does not get tied to the audio track you are editing. This means that any markers or notes you make while listening to your recording for editing aren’t effected by edits you make. If you begin editing at the beginning of the file and cut out any portions of the recording, your labels begin to get out of sync.
Another weakness of the program is the time display window. It does not follow the cursor and display the current time as the file is being played back. It only displays where you place the cursor in the file. The time display window is also terribly small. It also has a problem with exporting .wav files and saving them over a .wav file with the same name. But these are minor complaints for a program that is only in version 1.2.2.
This program is not intended to compete with the likes of Adobe’s Audition. It is targeted at the consumer and pro-sumer recordist who wants to do simple single or multi-track audio projects, and wants a clean, simple interface.
The author of the program does accept donations, which is only fair. I encourage you to download a copy of Audacity and try it out. If you like it, I recommend that you give some sort of donation to the author, to encourage him to keep improving the program and to pay him for his efforts. Here in Peru, most of the guys I’m training to do computer recording would never be able to afford to purchase a program like this, and probably will never make a donation, due to their economic situation. But we who do have the means to donate really should do so. Remember, Cool Edit 2000 used to cost $70!
For more information, I encourage you to visit the Audacity website. You can find it at: audacity.sourceforge.net
Join with those of us who have the Audacity to edit our audio for free!
