Best Software for Audio Editing

Hello everyone this is a very sincere and honest review about a software called audacity audio editor pro. This software is considered to be the best audio editing software for pc because of its simplicity and ease of use. There are many features in it that can help you overcome your needs in terms of audio editing. By using this type of software, the beginner users can learn to edit audios in no time compared to other types of software for editing audio.

In this article, you will find honest details about the features of the audacity audio editor pro. It will help you decide if it’s right for you or not.

Audacity (Windows, Mac, Linux)

This is the godfather of free audio editing software. You can multi track to an extent (have more than just one stereo track e.g. a full band recording). There are a range of effects and plugins, and it’s easy to use once you get used to it. It’s by far the most popular free audio editing software. Volume automation is easy using the envelope. Deleting and muting sections of audio is also a breeze. Recording is easy too. Tip: Reset all the gain sliders if you want to do a gain staging/ track balancing. You might also like our post on how to eq vocals.

It does have its drawbacks though. The user interface is not particularly appealing, and there a lot of features that you’ll rarely use that clutter the tool bar.

It looks a bit ancient, but it gets the job done. This is an awesome starting point for anyone wanting a free editor.

Link: Audacity

BEST FOR ANDROID DEVICESAudioLab


  • Price: Free to $14.99
  • Experience Level: Beginner
  • System Compatibility: Android

LEARN MOREWhy We Chose It

We like AudioLab as best for Android because it includes high-end tools to trim and mix audio for your Android smartphone or tablet.Pros & ConsPros

  • Tools to edit, mix, merge, and compress audio from your phone
  • Mobile-optimized interface
  • Many features are free to use

Cons

  • Paid upgrade required for more than the most basic features
  • Only basic audio editing features

Overview

If you want to cut or mix audio away from home quickly, the freemium AudioLab app for Android is a solid option. We picked it as best for Android devices because it enables you to trim, mix, merge, tag, convert, normalize, change speed, remove silence, and use many other features without paying.

It’s not nearly as powerful as many of the desktop apps discussed above, but it’s pretty good for a smartphone-based editor. You likely won’t want to use this for professional use, but it’s great for things like ringtones, social media, and basic edits.

You can download AudioLab and start for free. The Pro upgrade uses a “pay what you want” pricing model where you can pay $1.49 to $14.99. The two most important features unlocked are an equalizer and multichannel editing. AudioLab is also available at no extra charge as part of the Google Play Pass subscription.

TwistedWave (web app, Mac, iPhone)

Another awesome online web application for editing sound. Again, it can’t multi-track, but it makes up for this with usability and features.

It’s easy to normnalize your audio and the effects are easy to apply.

Quick tip: like a lot of audio editing software, if you delete a section of audio the rest will ‘shuffle’ back so that there aren’t any gaps. If you want to remove noise without shuffling the audio, you need to ‘mute’ or ‘silence’ the section with noise.

In TwistedWave you can do this easily by highlighting the section of audio that you want to mute and hitting ‘s’ on your keyboard!

Link: TwistedWave

twistedwave is a new free online DAW or sound software to use in your home studio

BEST FOR APPLE DEVICESLogic Pro X


  • Price: $199.99
  • Experience Level: Intermediate to Expert
  • System Compatibility: Mac

LEARN MOREWhy We Chose It

Pros & ConsPros

  • High-quality audio editing designed exclusively for Mac
  • Straightforward editing and composition experience
  • Massive library of plug-ins, effects, and sounds

Cons

  • No Windows version available
  • Relatively high price tag

Overview

For die-hard Mac users, Logic Pro X may be the best audio editor available. This DAW includes powerful features and is extendable to support a huge list of plug-ins, effects, and sounds. Whether you’re a DJ working on a remix or want to create a high-quality recording from scratch, Logic Pro X has the tools you need.

The low-latency app allows you to edit audio on the fly. Once installed, you have access to dozens of plug-ins, including 70 effects and 24 instruments. It also includes more than 10,000 premade loops, drum kits, and sampler instruments. There is so much in Logic Pro X that it’s unlikely one person would use everything, but just about any audio editing and mixing need is covered.

Logic Pro X costs $199.99 from the Apple App Store. You can download and try it with a 90-day free trial before paying.

Wavosaur (Windows)

This one is a bit ancient. Dinosaur… Wavosaur… get it?!

It’s looks like the missing link in the evolutionary chain between tape cutting (prime apes) and modern best DAWs (humans).

Joking aside, this application may be basic, but it works. The download is only 1.3MB. Now that is small!

And it’s not that old. The latest version was released in 2013. It’s a good piece of classic Windows music production software. No frilly bits, no messing about. Straight to the point.

It supports VSTs but doesn’t come with any. If you want to apply effects you’ll need your own. There are loads of great analysis tools and volume automation is easy.

It’s very basic and doesn’t look great. But if you just want to get the job done without downloading a huge application, it’s perfect.

Link: Wavosaur

Wavosaur, a new free online DAW sound editing application to use in your home studio

ocenaudio (Windows, Mac, Linux)

This new simple audio editor has a clean and colourful user interface. It’s so easy to use! It’s fast and it’s lightweight compared to Audacity.

It’s bundled with loads of effects (including compression, EQ and reverb) that you can apply and tweak in real-time.

This is a huge benefit as most free editors are destructive (they record effects straight to the audio) so you have to rely on a ‘preview’ button. This is how Audactiy works, for example. But in ocenaudio you can play with the parameters of the effect and hear the changes instantly.

The editor has VST support so you can use your own plugins. It’s easy to record audio straight in to the software as well. There are lots of useful tools (such as a spectogram) for the more advanced user.

One downside of this software is that it only supports single stereo/mono files. You can’t have a multi-track session and record several instruments in your home studio and mix them. More on recording voice and mixing vocals here.

But for editing stereo music files, or mono audio files (such as a voice recording) this is awesome. It’s also relatively simple in terms of features compared to Audacity, although they aren’t trying to compete on that front.

Link: ocenaudio

ocenaudio, a new free audio editor

Hya-Wave (Chrome)

This is a member of the new wave of online audio editors that run in your internet browser. And it’s my favourite of that bunch.

Released in January 2015, I only discovered this a few months ago. The interface is clean and user friendly and the learning curve is pretty much non-existent. Three cheers for simplicity!

It doesn’t support multi-tracking but you can copy, paste, cut, clear and crop your audio. You can load and save in the cloud, apply live effects and share to social media or via URL (take a listen to a song I applied some compression and a high-pass filter to here: )

Browser based DAWs could be the future of audio editing. There are several out there for music composition already and now more audio editors are appearing too. Click here to see how to master a song at home.

This is ideal if you are recording or editing on the fly and don’t want to install large programme on to your laptop.

Link: Hya-Wave

Hya-Wave is an online editor that is free to use and brand new in 2015

BEST FOR PROFESSIONALSPro Tools


  • Price: Free to $79.99 per month
  • Experience Level: Expert
  • System Compatibility: Windows, Mac

LEARN MOREWhy We Chose It

We chose Pro Tools because it features leading technologies to create, edit, produce, mix, master, and deliver professional-quality music recordings.Pros & ConsPros

  • Professional audio production software suite
  • Integrated hardware options
  • Robust editing and mastering features

Cons

  • Subscription pricing required
  • Lower-end versions may not have what you need

Overview

Pro Tools is a longtime leader in audio production for serious pros. We chose it as best for professionals because it includes extensive editing and production tools to help you create, edit, produce, mix, master, and export high-quality audio suitable for a Hollywood movie or professional studio album.

Beginner and intermediate users may enjoy trying the free version, but there’s little surprise that the best Pro Tools has to offer comes from the highest-end Pro Tools Ultimate version. That comes with the highest limits, most functions, and native integrations with Pro Tools hardware.

The Pro Tools First version is available for free, the regular Pro Tools version costs $29.99 per month, and Pro Tools Ultimate costs $79.99 per month.

WavePad (Windows, Mac, iPad, Android)

A slightly older DAW, but still highly useful. The interface may not be as sleek as some of the editors listed here, but it makes up for this in features.

It’s easy to install and easy to use. There are lots of bundled effects including noise removal, compression and reverb. There are also some great analysis tools for more advanced users. Reverse reverb: here’s how to create this cool trick.

Pitch and speed changes are possible. So is audio scrubbing, which can be very handy. It doesn’t support multi-tracking so you can only edit stereo or mono audio files.

My absolute favourite feature of this software is the batch processing (which I discussed in the introduction). You can apply compression, reverb, EQ or any effect to a number of audio files at once. This can save you HOURS in the right situation.

Link: WavePad

WavePad is a great free programme that can batch process

Conclusion

If you are a music producer, audio engineer, podcaster or movie maker, you need a good-quality audio editing software to make your life easier. There is a variety of software available online to choose from.

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