Popular audio editing software usually costs a lot of money.
However, for some of us, we do not need fancy programs and all of its features.
Simple audio editing with basic functionality for personal use should not be expensive.
Free Audio Editing Software
There are great audio editing programs in the market that are free to use.
Audacity
Audacity is the most popular music editing software on the market.
And it is because it offers a lot of features without spending a penny for it.
The main audacity features:
- Record Audio from any instrument(real or virtual device)
- Theme selection (customizable design)
- Export and import various audio formats
- 32-bit audio export
- Plug-ins support
- Macros for chaining commands.
- Visualization tools to analyze an audio track
Ocenaudio
Great choice for podcasters, YouTubers. Ocenaudio is much easier to work with than Audacity.
Advantages of Ocenaudio:
- It can do basic audio editing and recording.
- Clear Interface (easy to use)
- Beginners Friendly
However, this program will not allow you to use third-party plugins, thus it can limit your process. But if you are willing to use it for basic tasks, then it is a perfect fit.
Ashampoo Music Studio
Ashampoo has a lot of functionality that most audio editing softwares do not have.
It can be great for specific tasks which are covered in the list.
Ashampoo Music Studio features:
- Record audio
- Extract audio from video
- Edit song cover
- Burn audio to CD
- Modify audio
- Create mixtape
- Generate playlist
Avid Pro Tools First
Avid Pro Tools is a competitive digital audio workstation in the music production industry.
And this company offers a free but limited version of the program.
This is a great choice for upcoming music producers that are looking for a free version of a good audio editing software as well.
Avid Pro Tools First features:
- Session templates. It allows you to start a project fast and easily in any genre.
- Virtual instrument Xpand!2
- Record Audio (ability to record up to 4 tracks simultaneously)
- MIDI editing functionality with various tools and helpers
- Loops, sounds and samples included.
- 20+ effects and plug-ins
- Online collaboration feature
- Track freezing in order to save CPU usage
Power Sound Editor Free
A great tool for basic audio editing work. Simple and easy to use audio editing program for all non-techy people.
The main features of power sound editor
- Record audio from any source
- Visually edit an audio file
- Support for all major audio formats
- Rip and burn audio straight to CD/DVD
Ardour
Ardour is a great open-source audio editing software that is able to be used in all platforms – Mac, Windows and Linux.
Ardour is used among various types of professionals including audio engineers, musicians, soundtrack editors, composers and others.
The main features of ardour:
- Record
- Edit
- Mix
That’s all you need for basic audio editing.
AudioTool
AudioTool is not your ordinary audio editing software. It is a chrome extension app that provides an ability to do all essential audio editing work for free.
Besides that, it also gives an opportunity to collaborate with your project online. This feature is not seen in any other free or even most of the paid audio editing softwares.
AudioTool main features:
- Edit Audio
- Compose music
- Collaborate online
- Access to lots of instruments
MP3DirectCut
MP3DirectCut – simple but effective audio editor and recording software. Available only for Windows.
The main MP3DirectCut features:
- Edit audio (modify volume level, fade, cut, copy, paste audio)
- Audio visualization and easy navigation
- Record Audio
HYA-WAVE
Hya-Wave – Innovative digital audio workstation, that is available on Chrome. It offers not only basic sound editing, but also has a list of effects that are easy to implement for your audio file.
Furthermore, it has a great interface that makes great user experience.
Main Hya-Wave features:
- Audio recording
- Audio Editing(copy, cut, paste, crop)
- Pre-designed audio effects
WavePad
WavePad – professional full-featured audio and music editor for Windows and Mac. And it offers a free version, but only for a non-commercial use.
WavePad features:
- Editing tools(copy, cut, split, trim)
- Batch Processing(allows to edit multiple files at the same time)
- Audio effects
- Visual spectrum(great for frequency analysis)
- Noise reduction
Audio Cutter
Audio Cutter might not be the best option for in-depth audio editing. But it is perfect for fast audio trimming, cutting, or adding simple fade in effects.
The main Audio Cutter features:
- Online App (you can use it with your browser)
- Cut, trim audio
- Extract audio from video
- All audio file format support
- Fade in effects
Free Audio Editor
Free Audio Editor is already used for a decade. And it is popular for audio editing because it has a very simple and easy to use interface.
Free Audio Editor features:
- Majority of audio file format support
- Audio recording
- Great audio effects
- Audio editing(cut, copy, paste delete)
WaveShop
WaveShop – lightweight open-source audio editing software for Windows. Even though it looks old school, it has a large number of nice features to offer.
Main features of WaveShop:
- Peak, RMS, Spectrum Analysis (statistics included)
- Fade effects
- Audio editing (copy, cut paste, insert, delete)
- EQ, Compression plugins
- Change audio formats
LMMS
LMMS – free digital audio workstation, that is available on Linux, Windows and Mac. It is fully functional music production software. You are able to do much more than just basic audio editing.
LMMS features:
- Song editor
- Rhythm sequencer
- FX Mixer
- Piano Roll
- Automation Mapping
- A lot of synthesizers
- Sampler
- Audio recording
Hydrogen
Hydrogen – another open-source digital audio workstation, that has a capability of most of popular music production softwares.
Hydrogen features:
- Song editor
- Tempo Detector
- Pattern editor
- Piano roll
- Mixer
- Instrument channels
- FX plugins
- Sound library
- MIDI connection
- Audio recording
Wavosaur
Wavosaur – free audio editing software that has an ability to create, and edit audio. This program makes it easy to edit audio because audio visualization is simple and clear.
Wavosaur features:
- Edit audio
- Produce music loops
- Visual audio analysis tools
- Record audio
- VST Plugins support
- Real-time effect processing
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a ton of choices for finding the best free audio editing software. All of them have essential functionality to edit audio files or even produce songs.
Choose what fits your needs and don’t bother spending a dollar on expensive fancy audio editing software.
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