Launched in 2000, Audacity is one of the world’s most popular apps for audio editing and recording, having accrued hundreds of millions of downloads over its 26-year lifespan.
It’s not hard to see why: not only is it free, open-source and cross-platform, Audacity has become increasingly powerful in recent years, inching ever closer to becoming a fully-fledged DAW while preserving the simplicity and ease-of-use that it’s known for.
Today, Muse Group is launching Audacity 4, bringing with it a host of significant improvements in what its creators are describing as “the biggest update” in the software's history. Audacity’s latest update overhauls the software’s editing workflow, polishes up its interface and introduces new ways for users to organize their work, all with the aim of making the app easier and more intuitive to use.
Open up Audacity 4, and you’ll be able to see the difference straight away: the software now opens on a dedicated home screen and has been outfitted with a refreshed user interface that has a more modern feel. (If you like the classic Audacity look, you can switch back over.)
The update isn’t just skin-deep though, and Muse Group says it has improved “nearly every aspect” of Audacity’s audio editing workflow in an effort to provide greater flexibility when working on complex projects. Clips can now overlap on the timeline and be combined in groups, and they’ve also been equipped with new handles for trimming and stretching. Audio editing is now non-destructive, so trimming clips no longer deletes the underlying audio.
A new Split tool has been introduced that allows you to slice up clips with ease and precision, and the Envelope tool has been improved. What’s more, each track in Audacity 4 now has its own level meter that can also monitor audio input when recording, and the main playback meter can be switched to a vertical orientation.
Audacity 4 also introduces Workspaces, which allow you to switch between multiple versions of its interface designed for different use cases. The interface is now more customizable, and you’re able to save customized iterations of the UI as Workspaces that suit your personal workflow.
The update has also refreshed the software’s catalogue of audio effects to make them more intuitive to use, and the application now supports a broader range of third-party VST3/AU/LV2 effects.
It was important for us to bring one of the world's most iconic audio editors into the new era
"Audacity has been helping creators record and edit audio for more than 25 years, and our goal with version 4 was to prepare it for the next 25”, Muse Group’s Chief Product Officer Julia Sazhina said in a press release.
“At Muse Group, we're always looking ahead at how technology can help creativity. It was important for us to bring one of the world's most iconic audio editors into the new era. We are not changing what creators love about Audacity, but giving it the modern architecture needed to support the intelligent tools and connected workflows of the future."
Audacity 4 is now available for macOS, Windows and Linux. Head over to MuseHub for a download.
