Audacity (audio editor)

Audacity
Audacity 2.2.2 default Light Theme
Developer(s) The Audacity Team
Initial release May 28, 2000 (2000-05-28)
Stable release 2.3.0 (29 September 2018 (2018-09-29)[1]) [±]
Repository
Edit this at Wikidata
Written in C, C++ (using the wxWidgets toolkit)[2][3]
Operating system Windows, macOS/OS X, Linux, Unix[4][5]
Platform IA-32, x86-64, PowerPC
Size 66.8 MB: Windows
71.4 MB: macOS/OS X
includes downloaded Manual
Available in
Type Digital audio editor
License GNU GPLv2 for code and CC BY 3.0 for documentation [6]
Website www.audacityteam.org

Audacity is a free and open-source digital audio editor and recording application software, available for Windows, macOS/OS X and Unix-like operating systems.[4][5] Audacity was started in the fall of 1999 by Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg at Carnegie Mellon University and was released on May 28, 2000 as version 0.8.[7][8]

As of October 10, 2011, it was the 11th most popular download from SourceForge, with 76.5 million downloads. Audacity won the SourceForge 2007 and 2009 Community Choice Award for Best Project for Multimedia.[9][10] In March 2015 hosting was moved to FossHub[11] and by September, 2018 it had exceeded 62.5 million downloads there.

Features and usage

Audacity's main panel annotated. All the components that have been labelled are custom for Audacity.[12]

In addition to recording audio from multiple sources, Audacity can be used for post-processing of all types of audio, including podcasts by adding effects such as normalization, trimming, and fading in and out.[13] Audacity has also been used to record and mix entire albums, such as by Tune-Yards.[14] It is also currently used in the UK OCR National Level 2 ICT course for the sound creation unit.

Audacity's features include:

  • Four user-selectable themes enable the user to choose their preferred look&feel for the application (version 2.2.0 and later)[15]
    • Four user-selectable colorways for waveform display in audio tracks (version 2.2.1 and later)[16]
  • Recording and playing back sounds[17]
    • Scrubbing (Version 2.1.1 and later)[18]
    • Timer Record [19] enables the user to schedule when a recording begins and ends to make an unattended recording.
    • MIDI playback is available (from version 2.2.0 onwards)[20]
    • Punch and Roll recording - for editing on-the-fly (from version 2.3.0 onwards)
  • Editing
    • via cut, copy, and paste, with unlimited levels of undo[21]
    • Features of modern multitrack audio software including navigation controls, zoom and single track edit, project pane and XY project navigation, non-destructive and destructive effect processing, audio file manipulation (cut, copy, paste)
    • Amplitude envelope editing[22]
    • Precise adjustments to the audio speed (tempo) while maintaining pitch in order to synchronize it with video or run for a predetermined length of time[23]
    • Conversion of cassette tapes or records into digital tracks by splitting the audio source into multiple tracks based on silences in the source material[24]
  • Cross-platform operation — Audacity works on Windows, macOS/OS X, and Unix-like systems (including Linux and BSD)[25]
  • A large array of digital effects and plug-ins.[27] Additional effects can be written with Nyquist, a Lisp dialect.[28]
    • Built-in LADSPA, VST(32-bit) and Nyquist plug-in support[29]
    • Noise Reduction based on sampling the noise to be minimized.[30]
    • Vocal Reduction and Isolation for the creation of karaoke tracks and isolated vocal tracks.[31]
    • Adjusting audio pitch while maintaining speed and adjusting audio speed while maintaining pitch[32]
    • LADSPA, VST (32-bit) and Audio Unit (macOS/OS X]) effects now support real-time preview (from version 2.1.0 onwards). Note: Real-time preview does not yet support latency compensation.[33]
    • Saving and loading of user presets for effect settings across sessions (from 2.1.0 onwards).[34]
  • Multitrack mixing[35]
  • Audio spectrum analysis using the Fourier transform algorithm[37][38]
  • Importing and exporting of WAV, AIFF, MP3 (via the LAME encoder, downloaded separately), Ogg Vorbis, and all file formats supported by libsndfile library. Versions 1.3.2 and later supported Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC).[39] Version 1.3.6 and later also supported additional formats such as WMA, AAC, AMR and AC3 via the optional FFmpeg library.[40]
  • Detection of dropout errors while recording with an overburdened CPU
  • A full downloadable Manual[41] (or available online without downloading).

Audacity supports the LV2 open standard for plugins and can therefore load software like Calf Studio Gear.[42]

Limitations

Audacity supports only 32-bit or 64-bit VST audio effect plug-ins, depending on which architecture it was built for, but not both at the same time. It does not support instrument VST (VSTi) plugins.[43]

Audacity lacks dynamic equalizer controls and real time effects while recording.

Audacity does not natively import or export WMA, AAC, AC3 or most other proprietary or restricted file formats; rather, an optional FFmpeg library is required.[44]

Language support

In addition to English language, the Graphical User Interface of the Audacity software program is translated into Afrikaans, Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Welsh.[45]

The documentation, the Audacity Manual, is only available in English.[46] The Audacity Forum offers technical support in: Spanish, French, Russian and German.

Audacity architecture

Software architecture of Audacity showing how the software is built in layers[12]

The layers and modules in Audacity. The diagram highlights three important classes within wxWidgets, each of which has a reflection in Audacity. Higher-level abstractions result from related lower-level ones.

For example, the BlockFile system is a reflection of and is built on wxWidgets' wxFiles. Lower down in the diagram is a narrow strip for "Platform Specific Implementation Layers."

Both wxWidgets and PortAudio are OS abstraction layers. Both contain conditional code that chooses between different implementations depending on the target platform.[12]

Reception

The free and open nature of Audacity has allowed it to become very popular in education, encouraging its developers to make the user interface easier for students and teachers.[47]

CNET rated Audacity 5/5 stars and called it "feature rich and flexible".[48] Preston Gralla of PC World said, "If you're interested in creating, editing, and mixing you'll want Audacity."[49] Jack Wallen of Tech Republic highlighted its features and ease-of-use.[50] Michael Muchmore of PC Magazine rated it 3.5/5 stars and said, "Though not as slick or powerful as programs from the likes of Adobe, Sony, and M-Audio, Audacity is surprisingly feature-full for free software."[51]

In The Art of Unix Programming, Eric S. Raymond says of Audacity "The central virtue of this program is that it has a superbly transparent and natural user interface, one that erects as few barriers between the user and the sound file as possible."[52]

Several authors criticized Audacity for inconvenient user interface, destructive editing and lack of features, comparing Audacity unfavorably to competing products, which require less actions from user to do tasks such as crossfade and noise reduction.[53][54]

Compatibility

Latest compatible Audacity version, by platform.
Operating system (OS) Minimum OS version Audacity version
Windows
(Client versions)		 Vista, 7, 8 and 10 2.3.0
XP-SP3 with SSE2 CPU 2.1.3
2000 2.0.6
98 and ME 2.0.0
macOS/OS X 10.6 to 10.14 2.3.0
10.5 (Universal) 2.1.1
10.4 (Universal) 2.0.6
10.0 1.2.6a
Classic Mac OS Mac OS 9 1.0.0

See also

Literature

James Crook, Amy Brown, Greg Wilson - The Architecture of Open Source Applications - Chapter 2 Audacity, released 2012 under CC BY 3.0 (Open access).[12]

References

  1. ↑ "Release Notes 2.3.0". Audacity Wiki. 2018-09-29. Retrieved 2018-09-29.
  2. ↑ SourceForge (July 2004). "Project of the Month July 2004 - Audacity". Archived from the original on 23 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
  3. ↑ United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2004). "E-Commerce and Development Report 2004" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
  4. 1 2 "Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder". audacityteam.org. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  5. 1 2 "About Audacity". audacityteam.org. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  6. ↑ Audacity Team. "Copyright". Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  7. ↑ "Version 0.8: May 28, 2000" in README.txt of audacity-win-0.8.zip
  8. ↑ "Credits". audacityteam.org. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  9. ↑ "SourceForge.net: 2007 Community Choice Awards". Archived from the original on 20 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  10. ↑ "SourceForge.net: 2009 Community Choice Awards". Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  11. ↑ FossHub.com. "Download Audacity".
  12. 1 2 3 4 James Crook (March 15, 2012). "Chapter 2. Audacity". The Architecture of Open Source Applications. Amy Brown, Greg Wilson. ISBN 978-1257638017.
  13. ↑ "Podcasting with Linux Command Line Tools and Audacity". Archived from the original on 18 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  14. ↑ Frere-Jones, Sasha (May 2, 2011). "World of Wonder: How Merrill Garbus left the theatre and took the stage." The New Yorker. Retrieved 2015-05-16.
  15. ↑ "Themes". Audacityteam.org.
  16. ↑ "Waveform colorways". Audacityteam.org.
  17. ↑ "Playing and Recording". Audacityteam.org.
  18. ↑ "Scrubbing and Seeking". Audacityteam.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-08.
  19. ↑ "Timer Record". Audacityteam.org.
  20. ↑ "Note Tracks". Audacityteam.org.
  21. ↑ "Edit commands in Audacity". Audacityteam.org.
  22. ↑ "Audacity's Envelope Tool". Audacityteam.org.
  23. ↑ "Change Tempo". Audacityteam.org.
  24. ↑ "Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD". Audacityteam.org.
  25. ↑ "Cross-platform downloads for Audacity". Audacityteam.org.
  26. ↑ "wxWidgets Cross-platform GUI Library". Audacityteam.org.
  27. ↑ "Index of Effects, Generators and Analyzers in Audacity". Audacityteam.org.
  28. ↑ "Nyquist Plug-ins Reference". Audacityteam.org.
  29. ↑ Audacity development team . "Audacity: Plug-ins and Libraries".
  30. ↑ "Noise Reduction". Audacityteam.org.
  31. ↑ "Vocal Reduction and Isolation". Audacityteam.org.
  32. ↑ "Change Pitch". Audacityteam.org.
  33. ↑ "Real-time preview of effects". Audacityteam.org.
  34. ↑ "Manage Effects, Generators and Analyzers". Audacityteam.org.
  35. ↑ "Audacity Tracks Menu". Audacityteam.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
  36. ↑ "Multichannel Recording". Audacityteam.org.
  37. ↑ "Plot Spectrum". Audacityteam.org.
  38. ↑ "Audacity's Spectrogram View". Audacityteam.org.
  39. ↑ Audacity development team (2006-10-30). "Audacity 1.3.2 a 1.2.5 released". Retrieved 2010-01-19.
  40. ↑ "Importing Audio". Audacityteam.org.
  41. ↑ "Audacity Manual". Audacityteam.org.
  42. ↑ "Calf Studio Gear supports LV2".
  43. ↑ "FAQ:How do I install VST plug-ins? - Audacity Manual". Audacityteam.org. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  44. ↑ "Audacity: Features". audacityteam.org. 2013-03-22. Retrieved 2013-09-08.
  45. ↑ "Languages - Audacity Development Manual". manual.audacityteam.org. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  46. ↑ "Audacity Development Manual". manual.audacityteam.org. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  47. ↑ Jaworski, Nick; Thibeault, Matthew D. (2011). "Technology for Teaching: Audacity. Free and open-source software". Music Educators Journal. 98 (2): 39–40. doi:10.1177/0027432111428745. ISSN 0027-4321.
  48. ↑ "Audacity". CNET. 2008-11-08. Retrieved 2013-09-01.
  49. ↑ Gralla, Preston (2008-10-22). "Audacity". PC World. Retrieved 2013-09-01.
  50. ↑ Wallen, Jack (2011-07-18). "Giving Audacity its due: An audio editor with serious functionality". Tech Republic. Retrieved 2013-09-01.
  51. ↑ Muchmore, Michael (2010-02-05). "Audacity 1.2 review". Retrieved 2013-09-01.
  52. ↑ "Studying Cases Chapter 6. Transparency".
  53. ↑ Lewis, Daniel (2012-12-03). "7 reasons I'm switching from Audacity to Audition (and why you shouldn't)". Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  54. ↑ McLean, Matthew (2017-06-01). "Audacity Vs Adobe Audition CC | Where Should I Record & Edit My Podcast?". Retrieved 2018-02-15.
Notes
  • Franklin, Jerry (2006). "The Sheer Audacity: How to Get More, in Less Time, from the Audacity Digital Audio Editing Software": 92–105. doi:10.1109/IPCC.2006.320394.
  • Mazzoni, Dominic; Dannenberg, Roger B. (2002). "A Fast Data Structure for Disk-Based Audio Editing". Computer Music Journal. 26 (2): 62–76. doi:10.1162/014892602760137185. ISSN 0148-9267.
  • Bernardini, Nicola; Rocchesso, Davide (2002). "Making Sounds with Numbers: A Tutorial on Music Software Dedicated to Digital Audio". Journal of New Music Research. 31 (2): 141–151. doi:10.1076/jnmr.31.2.141.8089. ISSN 0929-8215.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.