Wait before installing v2.4.0 !!!
audacityteam.org: "We're currently looking into a serious bug with 2.4.0 and have paused release of it."
But you can still download it from macupdate.com...
I have used Sound Studio for years, but rather than spend $40 to upgrade I decided to check out Audacity. It does everything Sound Studio does with a clean intuitive interface.
Love Audacity. With a paucity of sound editing/mixing apps I love Audacity for its comprehensive toolkit and ease of use. Unfortunately the latest version screws up the menu bar on any open audio file, I am running High Sierra OS.
Use it almost exclusively for changing tempo of my backing tracks, and as such, it performs superbly, being the quickest and fuss-free way of doing this I know!
Audacity had been working well though there is room for improvements, however, being free you can't really complain. While it provides you with the tools you need to edit, it does crash a lot and the latest updates are rather confusing!
Note that all versions of Audacity including current 2.1.3 (as of this writing) have only partial support for macOS Sierra 10.12.x. See notes on dev's site for details and partial workarounds:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Partial_Support_for_Mac_Sierra_in_2.1.3
I understand this a free audio editor and cannot expect a useful audio editor that works smoothly and crash free. Sadly, I have yet to see a workable version. It is crash prone, has very slow GUI updates and look like it was made for Windows95.
I recommend looking at Triumph. A bit complex to start with but the possibilities are awesome and only seen in very expensive tools. The layers in Triumph is truly amazing.
Bloated, slow, ugly GUI and crashes a lot. Even for free it is worthless.
If you really need a good audio editor take a look at Triumph. It is by far the most powerful audio editor and uses the latest OS X features to keep it simple.
I'll have to keep looking. I've known of Audacity's reputation for many years, of course, but it always seemed to be much too difficult to use. However, none of the other programs I tried were satisfactory, so I thought I'd give it a try. IMPOSSIBLE! I'd never be able to learn how to use it, so Ill have to keep looking. I'm giving it on 1-star for ease of use.
One of the most productive audio editors which I used, what is especially important because of not wide range of quality audio tools for MAC. Thanks to developers for making this!
This is one of the most useful free applications I know of. Provides everything I need for editing audio. (Although I can't speak for the Lion version that some people seem to be complaining about).
I really don't understand the people who complain about the interface. I can only assume that either they haven't read the documentation, which - unlike most free software - is thorough and clear, or else they are obsessed with things looking "Mac-like" in which case I have to say - get over it! It's only "skin deep" you know! It's a tool not a decoration, and I know of nothing better for editing audio.
Based on RAZZ's review below, I downloaded this app and used it to extract a chapter from a spoken book.
Damn, that was easy! I know nothing about working with sound files but even without reading the instructions (are there any? I didn't actually look), I had the job done in 30 seconds, no kidding.
Five stars from me because I can't give six.
This program is fast to learn, easy to use and fun! I recommend it to the 90% of everyone who wants to edit audio. The other 10% are welcome to buy other packages for whatever reason they feel it necessary. Thank you Dominic!!!
I have always preferred Bias Peak Pro for a two track editor / DAW, but is no longer being developed. However, this program does a better job than many of it's counterparts that charge quite hefty sums. Thanks so much to the developers for bringing us this fantastically versatile piece of software, and please do keep up the good work!!
Unfortunately Audacity just jumps in the dock in both OS X 10.6.8 and OS X 10.7.4 on 3 different machines. This is have been the experience of more people than myself.
Also I had to use sudo ditto to install as the permissions on the dmg seem faulty.
I selected Ocenaudio instead, currently free in beta.
A free audio editor so I can not complain. It kinda works but the userinterface is so ugly, unintuitive and windows-a-like I truly hate using it. Screen updating is terrible slow on my Macbook Retina i7 when zooming into a wav, plugin support is buggy and scrashes a lot with high end VST plugins.
If you are serious about editing audio on Mac OSX I can highly recommend Triumph.
I downloaded Audacity today and found I needed FFmpeg (0.6.2 OSX 10.4+ DMG) from the Lame site. Downloaded it and was able to export my m4a file to the folder where I wanted it in the iTunes subfolder with other songs. It shows to be there and looks good in Finder (right next to the other songs that were converted into iTunes). It does not show in any of the actual itunes listings.
I love Audacity. I've been using this application for years, all the way back into OS9, and it has become sort of my Swiss Army knife of audio editing.
Sometimes, okay, it's a little flaky. Sometimes it might crash, though such crashes are exceedingly rare in my experience. And there may be commercial programs that do the same kind of thing better, though for some amount of money.
But, c'mon... it's free! And it's still actively supported! Aaaand it's cross-platform! When my Windows using friends ask what a good audio editor is, I can point them towards Audacity, and can be fairly certain that they're getting the same experience that I do. So far, nobody has accused me of steering them wrong.
Either way... very useful, well made app, and well worth the download.
D
I had some high hopes v2 would have a decent up-to-date GUI. But no, the devs keep grabbing back into time for the most outdated audio editor on the market.
And the biggest bug is not fixed: crashes at random when using VST plugins.
But hey, it is free and it works fine for simple tasks.
I can highly recommend Wave Editor. It is not free but imo the best audio editor for OS X.
Have been an Amadeus user/fan for a long time, but Audacity has many similar features and is free. Have used it a few times to remove dead space from lectures/audio books for shortening and it works quite well.
