Audacity can be used to fulfill a range of audio editing needs. It’s great for tightening up your podcast, recording music, creating an audio track for a video, or converting audio files from one format to another.

How to Download Audacity for Free

  1. Click on the DOWNLOAD button to go directly to the Audacity download site.
  2. Choose your OS and download the correct file.
    Download Audacity
  3. This will open a new page, with installation instructions and the option to choose the standard installation or downloading a Zip file.
    Download Audacity installer
  4. This will take you to yet another download page, on a site called FOSS HUB. This time, when you choose the file the download will begin.
    Download Audacity from FOOSHOG
  5. Double click on the file that just downloaded and click through the installer file, and then you can start using Audacity.

Audacity interface

How to Uninstall Audacity in 3 Easy Steps

  1. Open the Add or Remove Program tool in Windows.
    Add or Remove Program
  2. Find Audacity in the software list.
    Uninstall Audacity
  3. Click Uninstall and the program will walk you through the rest of the process.

Audacity Overview

Audacity is an open-source audio editing software that can be downloaded for Windows, Mac, and Linux. I don’t have a strong editing background but was able to quickly grasp the main concepts of how to work the program, and make my audio sound just the way I wanted. For anything I was unable to figure out, such as removing an echo, the help documentation was able to walk me through what needed to be done.

Professional Level Editing Software

I was able to upload multiple audio formats to my Audacity soundboard, and using multiple tracks combine and create a single file. You can edit all the tracks at once, or a single section within each track.

Audicaty multi-track capacility

There are a lot of different effects that you can add to improve your sound, but I found the “Noise Reduction” to be the most helpful. I was able to highlight a background noise that appeared several times throughout my podcast, and Audacity was able to remove every occurrence of this sound from my clip.

You can adjust the sound levels, frequencies, bass, and treble and adjust the volume for either the whole track or just parts of it.

It Doesn’t Just Edit, It Records Audio As Well

I find Audacity to be a versatile tool. When using it, I can either record through a microphone or capture the computer’s playback. It’s important to keep an eye on the levels as you record to make sure the final result will sound great.

FAQ

Is Audacity Free?

Audacity is 100% free and there are no limits on the size, length, or number of tracks in your project. However, there are Plugins that you can add to enhance the Audacity features, and some of these are not free.

Is Audacity Safe?

I ran the Audacity file through VirusTotal and none of the antivirus programs flagged the file. I also ran my own check on my computer after installing Audacity and it was clean.

How can I import audio from an MP4 to Audacity?

You will need to download and install a plugin called FFmpeg to import MP4 files. This plugin will also allow you to import AC3, AMR (narrow band), and WMA as well.

How can I record sounds from my computer to Audacity? (Windows only)

The first thing you have to do is enable the Stereo Mixer. You can do this by right-clicking on the volume icon on your icon tray and click Sound. Then go to the Recording tab and enable the Stereo Mixer.

Then, open Audacity, and in the recording section choose Stereo Mix, and then you can start recording from your computer.

Setting Stereo Mixer

Download Audacity now!