in case you didn't know

http://www.audacityteam.org/

Larry

Cool, thanks!

Thanks for posting. Audacity is a great little program. Glad to see the newer versions are better equipped to work with MIDI. Haven't done anything beyond opening some midi files but I look forward to using that feature in the future.

I didn't know Audacity also supports MIDI.

How long has this been going on?

Notes

Say what?

I was only aware of it since version 2.1.3 I downloaded back in October.

Thanks for the heads up Larry!

OK, this may clarify things.

Audacity is a free and powerful audio editor.

Audacity can open a midi file but cannot play it. However, it can record any sound you play on your computer's sound system. Here are seven easy steps to convert a midi file to wav with Audacity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzRQB195PcA

Actually, Audacity can play the MIDI file as audio.

There's just no built-in feature for capturing or exporting that audio.

The current version I have plays midi files and has since at least version 2.1.3.

It has 16 colored blocks, one for each midi channel and a vertical keyboard along the left side adjoining the piano roll screen.

There's an option under the Export Menu to export as midi. (which it does) (Plays fine Media Player)

So I guess that Audacity now has at least some midi capability that includes playing and exporting as a midi file.

HI MUSIC STUDENT

Have you set your midi device in edit/options / midi device


HI

Mike

I stand corrected! Thanks for providing true clarity.

Thank you!

Can someone explain why one would use Audacity when there are full DAW for free? I found one unique use for it when ripping MP3 from vinyl, but other than that, I honestly do not understand the appeal.

I'm with you. What does Audacity do that Real Band doesn't?

Bob

Audacity is quick, easy to use, and has quite a few nice editing features.

It's often not my first choice, but when I need it, it works well, quickly, and efficiently.

Different tools for different tasks.

Insights and incites by Notes

First, in Rockstar's example, Audacity will record the entire album, one song after the other as one recording. (It will do the same with YouTube or Soundcloud or any download) and using the command Ctrl-B and placing the cursor at the beginning of each song, label each song and then export each song as an individual file named and with meta data completed if you desire.

It does not have a 48 track limit. In fact, if you have the hardware and computer to handle it, it will record 48 tracks at once. RB may record the same, but it does have the limit of 48 tracks.

Audacity is not marketed or intentionally intended to compete with DAW's. It is an audio editor with some DAW capability much the same as BIAB. BIAB can also operate as a multitrack recorder but that is not its forte. The same can be said for Audacity.

Audacity is in fact, absolutely easy to understand and navigate.

I personally have never experienced a crash with Audacity.

Not sure about RB but Audacity can have multiple instances open at once.

The appeal of Audacity is not necessarily how it compares to another free program that happens to be a DAW, but its ease of use, stability and audio editing features.

The thought immediately came to mind when this question was raised, to the similarities of questions and opinions often voiced here on the forum of such programs as Sonar and Reaper and the preferences of using one or the other over RB. One is not simply better than the other but is preferred by a particular user for many reasons I think.

HI Charlie

I couldn’t agree more a very useful tool for the box.
Some very good effects like amplification and EQ very controllable and you can bring a male or female vocal to the front with a good choice of freq boost. Even draw your own curve.
Great for trimming and removing any little clicks, or other short blips that would go unnoticed as silence.

Mike

Thanks for the heads-up, Larry. I love Audacity.


Merry Christmas!


Regards,


Bob

Don't forget about "batch processing". Point it at a dozen old mp3's and it will scan and apply any effect, for example normalization of all to the same level.

Batch processing is really useful when you want to make the same edits to multiple files. It comes in handy if you want to remove background noise from a series of audio lectures, remove clicks from recorded vinyl albums, or apply normalization to a bunch of sound clips.

I suppose it must be down to one never being exposed to other audio editing programs. In my opinion, Audacity is terribly confusing as an audio editor compared to all others I have used. But to that point, about 14 years ago I began using a DAW that has a significantly more flexible and easy to use audio editor built right in. I have never looked back. I have tried Audacity multiple times over the years when it would add in some type of feature I am already used to and it always seemed awkward to me; kind of like an RPN calculator for those of you that know what that means.

These are audio editors that seem more straightforward to me:
Cool Edit
GoldWave
Sound Forge
Wavosaur

When I started using Tracktion DAW, with its clip based graphical editing, need for an external audio editor disappeared for me, hence the relative age of the list of editors above. Tracktion 6 is entirely free now and simply runs circles around functionality of Audacity for musician use while making music, including album composition.

The only functions I see Audacity filling a need are ripping MP3 files from vinyl albums or maybe stealing music from YouTube and other streaming services.

Everything Notes said and its FREE,

when I want to work with SOUND but am not doing MUSIC (as folks HERE would thing "music" i.e, DAW stuff) e.g, my own vinyl, mp3, etc. audio data that has nothing to do with the need for DAW overhead. Plus its FREE

if I had a nickle for every time folks come on this, or ANY MUSIC SW, site and asked for or are only interested in best FREE this or that i'd have more than enough for a few double Macallon's at the LV AIRPORT bar with a meal at the old sports bar (long since turned into a bunch of fast food joints)

If anyone has a better commercial product great (I have a TON myself but when I want to just open and reformat an audio file, cut & copy a snippet for whatever reason, etc. I click on Audacity shortcut.

Besides MuseScore, Audacity is probably in competition for title of best FREE ANYTHING to do with audio and music. (that ought to heat up the thread)

Peace
Larry

So, you're saying you find Audacity and the others audio editors inferior to Traction 6 for stealing music? How does Traction 6 stack up against the expensive DAW's such as Pro Tools, Sonar, Reaper, Studio One and Mac' versions of Logic and Reason for stealing music? I found that to be a rather odd function to feature in your praise of Traction 6.

Maybe not your intent, but certainly what you wrote. "Tracktion 6 is entirely free now and simply runs circles around functionality of Audacity ... The only functions I see Audacity filling a need (for) stealing music from YouTube and other streaming services."

Charlie, you got it backwards - It seems that the most praise I see for Audacity is from those ripping music from streaming services, and for auto indexing music from LP's. WHen I bought a USB turntable a few years ago, the turntable actually had a nice guide for using Audacity for this purpose - and Audacity worked nearly flawlessly for my task of digitizing my vinyl collection once I got the gap between songs level adjusted properly.

The other audio editors I listed had a fairly common set of tools for snipping, selecting, etc. Audacity's tools don't follow the somewhat common convention - this is my recollection; not saying that they have modified the convention to be more like other editors and DAW based audio editor audio selection, snipping, etc. tools since a couple of years ago.

You might not want to read all of this below - Just get T6. It's nag-free, etc. on Tracktion's site here:

https://www.tracktion.com/products/t6-daw
Tracktion 6 (which is a full-fledged DAW and entirely free) stacks up very well against the expensive DAWs and always has. I recall going to a Sweetwater Music workshop on new features of Pro Tools. First off, the workshop got started over an hour late because the demonstrator from Avid crashed Pro Tools and had to do a partial or full (I can't recall which) re-install.

Then one of the features which was being praised in that release was auto cross-fading of clips; something that had been part of Tracktion's audio editor, in a non-destructive manner, since it's inception, years before that.

I used this feature of Tracktion (version 1 or 2 many years ago), when my wife was attending lectures on a weekly basis, and then the organization running the lecture series would sell the lecture the following week, every other week.

I volunteered to do the editing of the lectures, removing pregnant pauses, repeated phrases, coughs and throat clearing, unnecessary mouth noises, etc. with Tracktion's non-destructive editor - making VERY heavy use of the auto cross fading feature between clips. I would take a 1 hour lecture down to usually about 1/2 hour. So, no this wasn't music editing - for which non-destruction auto cross fading is incredibly useful, but for spoken word.

One of Tracktion's only weaknesses against the more well known DAWs(expense really has nothing to do with the quality), is that it does not have notation based midi editing or a built in score generator.

DAWs that I have used, albeit with less time, in addition to Tracktion:

Pro Tools
Cakewalk (way back in the day)
Reaper
Garageband
Logic
Digital Performer
PowerTracks Pro Audio
Studio One
Mixcraft (this would be my next choice for feature/$ ratio)

Other aspects of Tracktion from past versions which have kept me in the fold were their excellent suite of bundled plugins. The Final Mix mastering and Mackie channel strip and other plugins still weigh in very well against products that people pay more for than Tracktion to begin with. Final Mix was a ported plugin from Mackie's large format digital mixers back in the day. When Tracktion was discontinued by Mackie, this plugin unofficially was no longer supported, but I have successfully used it and the Mackie plugins in versions 4,5 and 6. It is no longer bundled with Tracktion. There is a Master Mix DSP plugin which is similar, but is only available for purchase or included in their latest DAW, Waveform.



-Scott

Scott, I'm familiar with Traction and agree it is quite a robust audio program and DAW. New releases and updates of Audacity have brought improved plug ins but many are still quite basic. But despite all the shortcomings, Audacity is one of the best known and most used audio editing programs around and will be with us for quite some time I believe.

Mac and I worked on a DAW called nTrack Studio by Italian Engineer Flavio Antonolio that is worth a serious look.

Flavio's plugins were excellent, some were created by Jeezer Wakefield, a top British Audio Engineer.