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Best Free Audio Editors in 2021 for Computer / Laptop

Dean

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How does the morning begin? From a cup of aromatic coffee? From a hearty breakfast? For most people, the morning starts with an alarm sound. It so happened that wherever you go or wherever you are, sounds will always surround us, be it the noise of a car engine, the conversation of people in a crowd or the sound of leaves on a tree. Sounds have become an integral part of our life.

If the human brain does not hear any sounds and does not pick up vibrations for ~ 10 minutes (which can only be achieved in special echo-free chambers), it literally begins to think out sounds itself, and the vestibular apparatus begins to behave unpredictably, as a result of which the perception of space is impaired. up to the appearance of nausea and dizziness, since when walking, we are guided by the sound of steps at a subconscious level. This is how closely our life is intertwined with sound.

An echo-free chamber is a specially equipped room that is capable of absorbing 99.9% of sounds and prevents the penetration of electromagnetic waves and vibrations from outside.
We often don't realize how important sound quality is to you, whether it's part of the movie you're watching in the theater, or the footsteps of a video game character that echo through the empty corridors of the dungeon from your headphones.

As an experiment, try watching two videos with the same footage, but different soundtracks, and you will notice that videos with slurred and poorly delivered speech and poor sound quality will bore you much earlier than similar videos with well-delivered speech and recording quality.

In this article, we will look at the best free audio editors that will help not only improve sound quality, but also perform a number of simple manipulations such as trimming, gluing, or reducing noise on an existing audio recording.


What is Audio Editor?​

An audio editor is a program for editing digitally stored audio information. All programs such as an audio editor, with rare exceptions, can be classified as digital DAW systems (Digital Audio Workstation), designed for recording musical compositions and sounds, preparing phonograms, scoring films and computer games, etc. ...

Audio editors are used by both large film companies and sound engineers for post-processing and mastering of sound and voice acting.
Also, audio editors allow you to interact with various MIDI controllers and instruments.

A MIDI controller is a device that converts a specific physical process into a set of digital commands for interacting with the operating system and software.
A MIDI controller can be either a physical or a virtual keyboard that emulates a piano or various gadgets and guitar controllers, percussion instruments, etc.


Best Free Audio Editors​

Below is a list of the most functional and convenient audio editors that work under Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Each of them has its pros and cons, so carefully read the description of each editor and choose the one that suits your needs.

Wavosaur​



Wavosaur

Looking for a simple and lightweight but equally powerful audio editor for Windows with ASIO (Low Latency Transfer Protocol) support? Then you should definitely pay your attention to Wavosaur!
Wavosaur is a free and lightweight audio editor with ASIO support and equally modest DAW system functionality. Wavosaur does not require installation, and the size of the executable .exe file is only ~ 3 MB.


Interface language: English
System requirements (minimum): 32-bit processor with a clock speed of 1 GHz, 512 MB RAM
Operating system support: Windows
Official website: https://www.wavosaur.com/
Download link (Windows): https: //www.wavosaur.com/download.php


  • No installation required;
  • ASIO support;
  • Multi-window interface with support for simultaneous work with multiple audio files;
  • Support for VST plugins;
  • Large selection of various tools for working with sound;
  • Batch processing of files;
  • Convenient work with the spectrogram.


  • Complex and cluttered interface by default;
  • When working with large files (~ 1 GB), the program becomes very demanding on the amount of RAM;
  • There is no possibility to preview the applied effects.


Ardour​



Ardour

Ardor is one of the most powerful professional audio recording and processing software suites available. Ardor's capabilities are limited only by your imagination and the hardware that Ardor is used on.
Unfortunately, not everything is as perfect as it might seem, and Ardor has its own fly in the ointment - these are frequent problems and errors in the program that lead to the termination of the application, and a monthly subscription for using the program. You ask: "Stop! But here are only free programs ?!" To support and further develop the project, the developers ask for a symbolic subscription, the price of which is from $ 1 per month. Agree, it's even cheaper than a mug of coffee in a restaurant.


Interface language: English, Russian
System requirements (minimum): 32 or 64-bit dual-core processor with a clock speed of 1.4 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, at least 350 MB of free disk space for installing the program
Support for operating systems: GNU / Linux, Mac OS and Microsoft Windows
Official site: https://ardour.org/
Download link: https://community.ardour.org/download


  • Ability to work with the audio track of the video container;
  • Support for a large number of audio interfaces, MIDI controllers and sound devices / signal sources;
  • Support for AudioUnits, LV2 and VST plugins;
  • Endless possibilities for mastering, mixing and editing audio files;


  • Difficulty in mastering;
  • Complex and cluttered interface by default;
  • Various stability issues;
  • Monthly subscription (the price of one month of subscription is from $ 1 or $ 45 for an unlimited subscription).


ocenaudio​



ocenaudio

Ocenaudio is a cross-platform, simple yet powerful audio editor developed and supported by the Faculty of Science and Technology Education of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. All lovers of minimalistic and simple interfaces should definitely pay attention to it. Ocenaudio is very careful about system resources, and editing large files does not lead to a decrease in the performance of the program interface.


Interface language: English, Russian
System requirements (minimum): 32 or 64-bit dual-core processor with a clock speed of 1.2 GHz, 2 GB of RAM
Operating systems support: GNU / Linux, Mac OS and Microsoft Windows
Official website: https: // www. ocenaudio.com/
Download Link: https://www.ocenaudio.com/download


  • Simple and intuitive interface;
  • Support for VST plugins;
  • The ability to import audio files from online resources and libraries;
  • Convenient work with a spectrogram;
  • Batch processing of files;
  • Ability to import audio files to Excel and other text files.


  • There is no possibility to work with several audio tracks at the same time;
  • Limited functionality compared to other audio editors.


Audacity​

Audacity
Audacity is arguably the best free open source audio editor, and thanks to constant updates and a huge community of developers, Audacity has established itself as a versatile and flexible personal assistant for editing audio files, creating music, recording podcasts, and post-production. audio files. In 2020, Audacity audio editor is celebrating its 20th anniversary, continuing to strengthen its position in the market as the most popular and long-lived free audio editor.

Interface language: English, Russian
System requirements (minimum): 32 or 64-bit dual-core processor with a clock speed of 2 GHz, 2 GB of RAM. Additionally: it is recommended to use a solid-state drive (SSD) as a temporary cache of the project folder.
Operating systems support: GNU / Linux, Mac OS and Microsoft Windows
Official site: https://www.audacityteam.org
Download link: https: // www. audacityteam.org/download/


  • Multi-window interface with support for simultaneous work with multiple audio files;
  • The ability to create your own effects and plugins;
  • Support for a large number of audio interfaces, MIDI controllers and sound devices / signal sources;
  • Endless possibilities for mastering, mixing and editing audio files;
  • A large number of instructions and training materials for working with the program;


  • Complex and cluttered interface by default;
  • The quality of recording and working with effects depends very much on the audio card / audio device used;
  • To add support for most common audio formats (AC3, M4A / M4R (AAC), WMA, etc.), you will need to install additional libraries.


WavePad Audio Editing​



WavePad Audio Editing

WavePad Audio Editing is a simple and intuitive software for editing audio files. Unfortunately, the functionality of WavePad is much more modest in comparison with other audio editors we have presented. But if you need simple functionality such as cropping, gluing or converting one format to another with the ability to change the bitrate, WavePad will be your best assistant in this matter.


Interface language: English
System requirements (minimum): 32 or 64-bit dual-core processor with a clock speed of 2 GHz, 4 GB RAM
Operating systems support: Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, Android and iOS
Official website: https: //www.nch. com.au/wavepad/index.html
Download Link (Windows): https://www.nch.com.au/components/wpsetup.exe


  • Multi-window interface with support for simultaneous work with multiple audio files;
  • Simple and intuitive interface;
  • Support for VST plugins;
  • The ability to batch process files.


  • There is no support for the Russian language;
  • Limited functionality compared to other audio editors;


Free Audio Editor​



Free Audio Editor

Free Audio Editor is a program for working with sound included in the set of utilities from FAEMedia. For 17 years of its existence, FAEMedia has rightfully earned the title of one of the leading companies in the production of software for working with multimedia files. In turn, their main brainchild, Free Audio Editor, has already managed to win its audience due to the simplicity of working with the program. It allows you to convert in a matter of seconds, trim unnecessary audio elements and remove all extraneous noise from the recording.


Interface language: English
System requirements (minimum): 32 or 64-bit dual-core processor with a clock speed of 1 GHz, 2 GB RAM
Operating system support: GNU / Linux, Mac OS and Microsoft Windows
Official site: https: // free-audio- editor.com/
Download Link (Windows): https://free-audio-editor.com/FreeAudioEditor.exe


  • Simple and intuitive interface;
  • A wide range of different instruments for working with sound.


  • Limited functionality compared to other audio editors;
  • Quite an obsessive offer with an upgrade to the Deluxe version.


Conclusion​

In this article, we did not consider simple and primitive audio editors, the functionality of which in most cases is limited only by the ability to cut, fit and paste the audio sequence.

Any of these programs, with the proper approach and desire, can become an excellent assistant when working with sound and audio files.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize once again that a well-choreographed and edited audio track is no less important element for any content, be it a video voiceover, a stream or just background music in a collage of photos.
 
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