Audacity has recently been accused of being spyware. Before using, please read this:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/audacity-spyware-claims-follow-privacy-policy-changes-by-new-owner.2303275/
Audacity is my go-to app for sound editing. It does everything so well. And the help available frok the website is second-to-none. A brilliant free app.
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.
