Audacity Software Reviews, Pros and Cons (2024)

Reviewed March 2022

Audacity User Review

Reviewed December 2022

One of the best softwares for audio edition and recording.

My overall experience with audacity is a satisfactory one.

PROS

What I like the most about this software is that Is not expensive compared to other audio softwares.

CONS

I really didn’t dislike anything on this software.

Reviewed April 2021

Audacity is that free little program that does a wonderful job.

I have had a joyous experience with Audacity.

PROS

Recording software is extremely expensive. Other brands can make it big impact on your financial situation. For a long time I have been a user of a very popular software editing program. My job requires me to have several computers. Many times I have faced the inability to install software on many machines. So I went with the next best thing. I looked for free stuff. I was so surprised when I started using Audacity. Not only did it have all the same functions, but it produced great sounding audio. Editing was simple, and I didn't have to go through complicated setups just to get the job done. It was like it worked right out of the box.

CONS

I really don't have anything to complain about Audacity. I would even recommend that this is the go-to software for anybody on a budget.

Reviewed August 2021

Audacity, a simple and always useful audio recording software

Personally, I use this software to record some voices in low spec PC's or when I need to record something quickly and easily, for these functions audacity is a great option, but when it comes to doing the full project I don't have the tools I would like to have, do I recommend audacity? Yes, but only as an alternative, not to use it as the main software.

PROS

Audacity is that software with most of us start in the audio recording and editing world, its facility of use and simplicity make it one of the most notable options for people who only want to record audio (plus it's free). Personally, I recommend this daw for people who only want to record voices for a podcast, or for musicians who only want to record demos in a quick and easy way, just by clicking the record button we will be doing everything we want.

CONS

Audacity is... very limited, it is good in its main function, but it really can't offer us much more, today there are daw's and free software more complete than audacity, searching in the web we can find advanced options for any musician, especially for people who focus on mixing and mastering, functions that are very difficult to do in audacity.

Reviewed November 2023

Cant knock it for free!

PROS

Fantastic features for a free to use software. Easily go about editing amd recording audio to mastering and exporting. Definitely a good option if you cant afford the likes of adobe audition or other programs

CONS

None really, but it has a free to use feel to it. Other than tha its awesome!

Reviewed October 2023

audace

it's a tool that allows me to edit audio and export it in several audio formats such as wav

PROS

it's a simple sound mixing tool, for adding sound effects to your audio

CONS

it's easy to use despite its not-so-appealing design!

Reviewed September 2022

Best for bigger

Overall good experience with audacity i recommend to use make the hit with your own style improve your skills through audacity

PROS

I feel good when I was starting making a Beats or recommending because everything easy to use

CONS

I need more mixing mastering equipment in audacity there are less options do to

Reviewed March 2022

It’s Free and Has a Lot of Capabilities

PROS

Audacity makes recording computer audio convenient and easy. Once the settings are plugged in correctly, I can capture audio all day without issue. It doesn’t seem to tax my system as much as Adobe Audition, so that’s a huge plus.

CONS

I honestly don’t have any cons when it comes to Audacity. Since it’s free, I don’t expect much and am always surprised as to what I can accomplish within it. Um… it could be GUI’er?

Reviewed February 2022

Audacity: Excellent for Free, But Pros Will Demand More

I first tried Audacity way back in the early 00's and, while appreciating its feature set, never found it a compelling choice compared to Sound Forge or Wavelab. Mind you, it is totally free and will do the job for most amateur editors.

PROS

Audacity is extremely feature-rich for a free audio editor. This has made it immensely popular with beginners and podcasters looking for a free solution to get started. Audacity is a great place to start to learn audio editing.

CONS

Audacity suffers from one of the ugliest graphical user interfaces out there. Contrast is poor, the blue-on-grey aesthetic is exhausting, and the icons are straight out of a clipart site from 1998. Performance can be spotty on some Macs.

Reviewed April 2022

Audacity - Overdubbing Success at Last

As a former broadcaster (now an educator), I was genuinely impressed with the tool, its simplicity, and the ability to intuit where certain features can be found and how they can be applied.

PROS

The simplicity of both installing Audacity, and using it "out of the box" is inspired. Audacity goes a long way toward facilitating asynchronous recording with the ability to record "Track 1" and then record other tracks directly over track one. Want to sing along with yourself? Audacity enables that. Want to interview yourself with one track over a mic and another over a different mic (to create the illusion of multiple players)? Audacity makes that possible. And it saves down into virtually every imaginable format.

CONS

The noise reduction capability for the software shifts the volume too radically. It's difficult to achieve consistency of volume when trying to reduce noise track by track.

Reviewed May 2021

Power media editting tool for creators

The software is rock solid and once you know how to import and modify the content you can do power editing and creation. this software allowed me to capture decades old audio from outdated formats and bring it into the digital world!

PROS

Audacity works across all the media types that I needed. With Audacity I was able to reconstruct audio recordings based on multiple takes that I had on old cassettes for a music project. The ability to edit with extreme precision to capture outtakes and re-assemble them into a fluid final cut was amazing.

CONS

The UI isn't as pretty as other solutions and it take time with the manual to understand how to use the software. Not a show stopper, but given how much this software can do, it was worth the extra effort to understand the basics.

Reviewed October 2023

The best solution to manipulate sounds!

PROS

Simple enough to be learnt by everyone, deep enough to be used professionally.

CONS

To be honest, this tool has everything you need to work with sound.

Reviewed October 2021

Audacity a free recording software that compete with major very more expensuve

You download it from the internet , you install it in 2 minutes and it works....No worry , no fees

PROS

First it's totally free and also this software is very simple to intall.

CONS

The interface and the menu are a little bit not very great looking like cubase or other major but if you keep in minds that it's free , i think we can do with it

Reviewed May 2021

Great free product that has a learning curve

I'm a scriptwriter in the film and TV business, basically writing drama. I do a lot of research for many of the projects I work on. Some of the research is audio research, such as recording radio documentaries relating to subjects I'm working on. These audio recordings are as useful as any written material, and I often share them with directors and producers I'm working with. Once you get the hang of it, which really shouldn't take too long, it's a great, safe program.

PROS

I like to record podcasts, radio dramas, etc. and was recommended this program as a free, good program for that purpose. It's an excellent deal for the money ($0). I know my way around computers but have no real expertise at sound mixing or recording. I use Audacity basically as a recording medium. You can easily set the time length of the recording, press record, start the audio you want to record, and it works completely in the background, shutting itself off when the timer stops. After that you can click file, export (usually to MP3) assign the folder to store the recording and and it will process the audio and there you go. You can also set it to record and stop at a specific time. Audacity will basically record any audio that passes through your speakers and as a bare bones user that's precisely what I use it for. Audacity is a very powerful program and from what I can see can be used by professional or semi-professional sound engineers. It has many functions, 90% of which I never use and would not know how to use. But that's fine. You can use it without any fear of malware, advertising, someone trying to sell you something. And I appreciate that.

CONS

Audacity, as I said, is a complex, powerful program. Even for doing the simple type of recording I do, there is a bit of a learning curve. For instance, after the audio recording has stopped one would logically export it to a folder where it would be saved. But you have to press stop, even if the recording has stopped. Otherwise export will not work. Not a big deal but it took some figuring and looking at the manual and instructional websites to find that out. Audacity saves recordings as projects. I'm still not completely sure what a project is, but when I first began using Audacity I inadvertently saved many projects and found my computer slowing down. A tech support guy found the issue and I erased all the Audacity files that were taking up a lot of memory. Little issues like that. Also, it seems every time I get a new computer and install Audacity, it doesn't work. I end up with a lot of hair pulling getting it working. That's not really Audacity's fault. You have to have the right configuration in Windows audio settings and they're not that easy to figure out. It takes some trial and error, but once you find the right configuration, Audacity works fine. Audacity is free. There's no one to call for tech support. So be prepared to spend a bit of time setting it up and getting it to work. But once it is set up it's great. At least for the simple recording I do.

Reviewed November 2022

Audio Editing Software

Audacity includes countless fundamental sound effects where you could also add various plugins. Preset EQ bends, are a major take away, with an ongoing sneak peak in the effects and features. There is an incredible Bass and High pitch changes as well as high-and low-pass channels. A basic compressor, limiter, phaser, reverb, wahwah and tremolo impacts likewise show up among the choices. Switching sound or shortening quietness takes simply a quite adjustment. There are some features that highlight you to include voiceovers a webcast or radio track. Maybe the best part is that Audacity upholds processes that utilizes a favorable condition when it comes to adjusting the project rate . For instance, you can adjust a progression of audio effects or sounds at the same time without re using similar features again and again.

PROS

Audacity allows you to keep in either 16-digit or 24-bit sound. One of the most desirable characteristics that it can flawlessly change over and consolidate any sounds you haul in, paying little mind to test rate and organizations. Concerning altering, we can recorder, copy, or erase sound, orchestrate various sound effects on a similar track, and alter directly down to a sample level. The featuring functions permits you to add custom with fade in and fade out options also.

CONS

To be honest I don`t have anything that i don`t like about Audacity as it has always been my first choice for a pre production of my music and arranging the segments or stems for a fantastic collaboration or pre designed output.

Reviewed March 2022

Do you want to learn audio engineering quickly and easily ?

To be honest, I've used it for over 3 years and only use it when I'm in a hurry, it serves the purpose at that moment .

PROS

Speed and ease are always required for anyone, whether it is for their own company or for another business. Time these days is important, and anyone should take advantage of it. I apologize for the introduction, but it will save me the trouble of delivering information to you. I will not say that it is the best audio engineering program, but there are other programs that are more in-depth in this field, such as Adobe Audition, but what is unique about Audacity is that it is very easy to use and has all the things that you will use in audio engineering like other programs . You can master it in a few days, the user interface is very simple and you will not have difficulty, the nice thing is that it is open source, and anyone can download it for free.

CONS

It is true that the user interface is simple and easy to deal with, but it is not the beauty of Adobe Audition, there you feel that you are in an audio engineering program Unlike Audacity , which you don't feel it .

Reviewed March 2023

Audacity intimidated me at first; now we're old friends

With Audacity I'm able to do everything I need to do; manage the timeline, improve the quality of individual clips, equalize if I need more mid-tones, or move out too much bass.

PROS

Most, of course is the price - free. I appreciate that there's a huge amount of community support. You can master the program by watching YouTube videos.

CONS

I personally don't care for the fact you have to select your clip first before you can move it. Select the whole length of the clip you're moving. More drag and drop would be nice.

Reviewed December 2020

Great for Beginners

Overall I had a good experience with Audacity. It's a basic recording software with enough features to get you started. Over-time I added Plug ins to enhance it and it worked pretty well with other software. The biggest downfall was the constant crashes that were not always preventable. It's free and is great if you are on a tight budget. It served it's purpose and gave me an opportunity to record music that sounded like great demos.

PROS

This software is free which made it great for starters. I was just starting out with recording music, jingles and vocals for my then company. Works great on both Windows and Mac, and the installation process was fairly easy. They updated the software which made it run even smoother and less freeze-ups. I was able to record multi-tracks, record live audio, convert records into digital recordings, and record audio to cds. My favorite part was that it was compatible with Mp3, Wav and Aiff files. It gave me the capability to mix sounds together, adjust playback speed, tempo and even change the pitch to one higher or lower. Another big thing about Audacity is that they allow users to make improvements and share it with others, something not too many big companies do with similar software.

CONS

It had many bugs which caused slowdowns. Overtime it got better but bugs still persisted throughout continued use so it crashed a lot while I used it. It doesn't have a variety of mixing capabilities and features for making a professional recordings. It takes a lot of time to learn to use the program

Reviewed July 2022

A simple but powerful audio editing tool you will ever need!

I have been using audacity from the past 7 years, the simple user interface and a plethora of audio features has never allowed me to hop into a different software. Firstly, it is free and open source, secondly the design of this application is intuitive which makes the task more easier. Whether it is mixing, converting or noise cancellation for audios, it has an answer to everything.

PROS

1) Simple and easy design 2) Converts any audio files into mp3 3) Fast and adaptive to any operating system 4) Record/convert/edit audios in a simple way 5) Easy workflow

CONS

1) Robust mixing with multiple features should be added 2) Suggestions to improve the audio as a helps should be notified 3) Integration with 3rd party tools should be included 4) More advanced editing/effects are required to meet the professional standards

Reviewed March 2022

Audacity is good for beginners to pros

When I need to learn songs sometimes the parts are complex. Audacity allows me to record my parts and slow them down to any speed I need to learn them. This made my life so much easier. Certainly there were and are a lot of costly programs that will do the same thing, but as the old saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Audacity solved my problem of needing something to help me learn my parts and so it as been invaluable!

PROS

For me personally I used it to help me learn my guitar parts for my band. It allowed me to capture audio from several sources and file them. I could then speed up, slow down as need be to learn and practice. Later on when I started to write some material it allowed me to create my own songs with multiple tracks. As I am still a noobie I am in awe of the people who can use Audacity to its fullest. My son writes all the music for his band and Audacity allowed him to write and record all the guitar parts as well as bass and drum tracks, mix and edit them. As well is allows him to write and record stems and store them for future use. He used Audacity for his first 2 cd's and I was amazed!

CONS

To be honest, I am such a beginner that there is nothing for me not to like. Perhaps if I had the time and need to really dive in I might find some things, but that is not the case. So far Audacity is everything I need and could hope for, and you can't beat the price!!

Reviewed July 2022

Audio Editing Platform - Audacity

Overall, a pleasurable experience using Audacity. I recommend any DJ or Audio Engineer to try it out!

PROS

Easy to install and use. With practice and generally trying out the different tools, it becomes easier to use. Enables users to import mp3 and wav audio files and alter them to perfection. I would usually add instrumental files and acapella files and line them up perfectly to form my own version of remixes, export them and enjoy.

CONS

There weren’t any real drawbacks to Audacity.

Reviewed May 2021

Audacity Review

PROS

Record all audio formats. It can convert the sounds recorded on cassette tapes to compact discs (CDs). Controls the speed and determination of the sound path in the audio clips. Saving records and the ability to merge them. The ability to add various effects to the sounds. The possibility of recording in multiple tracks

CONS

The UI in Audacity is unattractive, and may seem complicated to beginners. Audacity is not the best choice for recording music, due to its inability to record at most two tracks. The software update is not available regularly.

Reviewed January 2021

Audacity an it's awesome functionality

Overall, I highly recommend this awesome app and I never had any crashes even with my previous old computer.

PROS

I love this app for its ease of usage, it is lightweight, has a portable version that can be easily saved to a thumb drive, has comparable functionalities compared to Fruity Loops, Sony Vegas and Wave Pad. These are just the ones I used and can compare it with but I can say it is a very excellent app in comparison with the ones I mentioned.

CONS

The lame.dll file is just sometimes not detected and you have to download it to export the audio to an mp3 file. Although you can still export it as a .wav file. The available files online are sometimes not compatible to the version and nothing else is available.

Reviewed October 2022

Simple and professional audio editor

I mainly use it to record my voice and edit it, I also use it to fix the sound of my videos, it works well for my needs, it gives a lot of value for a free tool.

PROS

It's free software with many audio edit tools You can use it as a voice recorder with a microphone and also record sounds from the computer itself there are many effects and tools to change or fix your sound, I use it many times to clean the annoying "HISSS" noise from my tracks You can easily import and export your sounds with the formats: MP3, WAV, OGG, and MIDI and you can also use it as a sound format converter There is multi-language support.

CONS

It's not very user-friendly at the start, you need to use some tutorials on the web but it's not difficult to find, I recommend to start using it and looking for tutorials for your specific edit needs.

Reviewed November 2021

Great for beginners to start with

I was recording videos for my Youtube channel, and I needed something like GarageBand to record my vocals. Of course, it's aggrivating to use 2 different computers for this task, but I was able to find Audacity and use the program to get my audio in line. It also sounds really amazing! Took my videos to a more professional level

PROS

I loved being able to record and mix quickly without much trouble. Literally plugged in my microphone interface and started recording away! Once you understand it's simplicity, it can take you a long way!

CONS

There were times where slowing down the audio was too distorted, even after adding the right effects. Also, moving around the interface can be a bit overwhelming. There is alot of buttons in front of you, so making sure you know the userface is very important.