KVR :: Hosts (Sequencers, DAWs, Audio Editors, etc.) » Audacity - is it any good? [View Original Topic]
There are 28 posts in this topic.

leroik - Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:36 pm
I've been using Audacity audio editor and, while it looks clunky, it works pretty well for me with plenty of edit options and output formats to choose from.

However, a friend of mine said, "It's not very good."

Any truth to that? Or do you think he just rules it out because of its interface?

Thanks,
JJBiener - Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:43 pm
It is good for what it is. I wrote a review for a previous version for Muse's Muse, but it doesn't appear to be online any more. It isn't Soundforge, but it doesn't have the price tag. For the price, it is still very useful. I still use it for certain tasks that are hard to do in my DAW. If you get the free LADSPA plugin pack for it, it has a lot of unusual capabilities.

If it is useful to you, don't worry what anyone else thinks.
Akiha - Fri Apr 06, 2012 4:37 am
Very very useful for non-musical folks who need to do basic editing or recording. Whether someone believes it is a 'pro' app or not is irreverent in comparison to how useful it is for it's cost and availability.
Xenakios - Fri Apr 06, 2012 5:04 am
leroik wrote:

However, a friend of mine said, "It's not very good."


Not good for him...(Did he even elaborate on why he says that?) It might be good for you or for many other people.

Personally I don't like how Audacity works, it's not very easy to use it as an external editor for something like Reaper. (It's not fast and easy enough to save an edited file and make that saved file appear back in Reaper.)
ZenPunkHippy - Fri Apr 06, 2012 5:21 am
Check out Ocenaudio ... it's also free ... much nicer interface compared to Audacity, and can edit loop points.

http://www.ocenaudio.com.br/

Peace,
Andy.
Anonymous - Fri Apr 06, 2012 5:27 am
DELETED
Compyfox - Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:25 am
Audacity is still available on Sourceforge.

The only thing I actually like on that old host is the capability to load/save MultiOGG files (infamously known from multi-channel rips from both Guitar Hero and RockBand).

Else it's a pain to edit stuff. Most of the time I find myself lost in non-realtime usage so I pretty much abused it for the "infamous" feature only.

You're better off with a different wave editor. Then again, I'm spoiled with Wavelab for years now. Shrug
Debby747 - Fri Apr 06, 2012 7:21 am
Unless you compile it yourself there is no support for ASIO (from their WIKI):

"Licensing restrictions prevent us including ASIO support in released versions of Audacity, but Audacity can be compiled with ASIO support for private, non-distributable use. This page summarises ASIO licensing issues and steps to compile Audacity with ASIO support."

Apart from that it's not bad.

Greetings
D.
cron - Fri Apr 06, 2012 7:35 am
Didn't Audacity just have a big update for the first time in years? It's now at v2.0 after being stuck on beta 1.3 for as long as I can remember. Haven't tried the new version yet.

I use it occasionally but consider it a necessary evil. For the small amount of audio editing I do, I can't really justify splashing out on a commercial editor. My biggest bugbear with it is that you can't grab and move the edge of a selection. It gets the job done though, and hey, it IS free.
pljones - Fri Apr 06, 2012 8:57 am
Does all the post-production editing I need. I can use all my VST effects with it. It's free. The UI may be fiddly at times but I wouldn't call it difficult to use. (If you want difficult to use, you try Kontakt.)
RunBeerRun - Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:54 am
It's great as a basic hardware recorder, has post-recording vst effect render.

I just recorded a vsti using virtual audio cable into it.
leroik - Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:44 am
Thanks guys. Personally, I have found it to be the best of the FREE editors so far.

I have Sony Soundforge (commercial product) which is quite good but it's VERY slow to launch, which puts me off.

I really like the Edison editor included in FL Studio but the VST version costs too much moolah. Heck, I'd buy that if Image Line reduced the cost or did a decent special on it. Anyone from Image Line listening? Wink
Johnny! - Fri Apr 06, 2012 12:49 pm
ZenPunkHippy wrote:
Check out Ocenaudio ... it's also free ... much nicer interface compared to Audacity, and can edit loop points.

http://www.ocenaudio.com.br/

Peace,
Andy.

this.
leroik - Fri Apr 06, 2012 1:09 pm
Yeah, I'm definitely going to download Ocenaudio and give it a try. Smile Thanks guys.
Igro - Fri Apr 06, 2012 1:15 pm
michi_mak wrote:
Wavosaur comes to mind...
but Audacity does the trick too
yfriendsmmv

Wavoosaur is def better for surgical editing.
Tricky-Loops - Fri Apr 06, 2012 1:28 pm
Audacity is good, but not so good as the pro stuff...

If I want to use VST, I always go for Wavosaur - for example, I cannot load a single VST into Audacity, it wants them all in ONE folder in the Audacity directory. And I think there is no preview, is there?

But I like Audacity for simple tasks, especially cutting or inserting silence or DC-offset-correction.

With Audacity and Wavosaur I can do very much - except mastering.
trimph1 - Fri Apr 06, 2012 1:32 pm
Yeah...for mastering it really is not that good.

But for simple audio processing it is pretty good at that.
SampleScience - Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:04 pm
Wavosaur is my to go wav editor. Oceanaudio looks cool though, I'll give it a try (since I'm an audio app. junky!)
Syncretia - Mon Apr 09, 2012 2:09 pm
Probably can't add to much to this, but the question is quite dubious from the beginning.

There's no such thing as a "good" or "bad" editor. You have to really evaluate it's individual functions. I use it all the time to convert my music to MP3 (with the LAME plugin). However, I would never apply any of Audacity's inbuilt FX like compression for example. I tried the compressor once, and the threshold was so I high it squashed the !#$# out of everything and the threshold was too hard to adjust.

I'd say that if you wanted to mix, or do other things in Audacity, it would be as good as any other editing tool out there. Try googling "audacity summing engine" to see if there are tests to compare its mixing to other DAWs/editors. They all basically seem to be the same to me.
cryophonik - Mon Apr 09, 2012 2:16 pm
In my line of work, we have a saying:

Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.

I think that applies here as well. Audacity is cheap (well, free) and it's fast, in terms of workflow, due to its simplicity. In the grand scheme of audio editors, however, it does the basic jobs, but I wouldn't call it good.
pljones - Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:11 am
Syncretia wrote:
I tried the compressor once, and the threshold was so I high it squashed the !#$# out of everything and the threshold was too hard to adjust.
I used to avoid it too... but recently I seem to have found it invaluable. It's not flattening my mixes any more than I'm asking it to (I've got "based on peaks" checked). It's still a little weird, admittedly, as it seems to apply make up gain even if you don't ask for it. I'm wondering if it improved greatly between 1.2.x and 1.3.x(beta) as I switched a while back.
Tex Ariox - Tue Apr 10, 2012 4:18 am
cron wrote:
My biggest bugbear with it is that you can't grab and move the edge of a selection.

You can in Audacity 2.0.
pljones - Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:26 am
You can in 1.3.x, too.
chk071 - Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:36 am
For audio editing i found Audacity pretty circuitious and unusual in handling. Which is both pretty bad... for example there is no such thing as markers, which is quite essential for me. Also you gotta have to install a bridge to be able to use VST plugins e.g. I just can compare to Wavelab, which is a bliss in terms of handling compared, i wished smaller developers would take a look at those programs which are standards since years and try to implement the most useful functions but no...
pljones - Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:48 am
At the time Audacity adopted the bridge approach, it was the only way to avoid breach of their own licence...
alvfaria - Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:12 am
leroik wrote:

I really like the Edison editor included in FL Studio but the VST version costs too much moolah. Heck, I'd buy that if Image Line reduced the cost or did a decent special on it. Anyone from Image Line listening? Wink


+1
tropicalontour - Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:39 am
It's my go to editor for quick and dirty edits, but there is little by way of help to teach you how to get the very best out of it. I find it a bit clunky to operate and I don't think the VST implementation cuts it, to be honest. I would not use it for mastering.
suecae_sounds - Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:00 pm
I love it for what it is, and do not wish it to be something it is not. It gets the job done, if I'm not out for something esoteric or need ASIO.

There are 28 posts in this topic.