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,

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.

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.

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.)

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.

DELETED

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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?

this.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to download Ocenaudio and give it a try. Thanks guys.

Wavoosaur is def better for surgical editing.