Monday, September 29, 2008

Audacity

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

  • Record live audio.
  • Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
  • Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
  • Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
  • Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
  • And more! See the complete list of features.

About Free Software

Audacity is free software, developed by a group of volunteers and distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Free software is not just free of cost (like "free beer"). It is free as in freedom (like "free speech"). Free software gives you the freedom to use a program, study how it works, improve it and share it with others. For more information, visit the Free Software Foundation.

Programs like Audacity are also called open source software, because their source code is available for anyone to study or use. There are thousands of other free and open source programs, including the Firefox web browser, the OpenOffice.org office suite and entire Linux-based operating systems such as Ubuntu.

We welcome donations to support Audacity development.

Ohloh has statistics on the value of Audacity development. The Ohloh "badge" at the bottom of each page on this site shows updated summary values. We set up the Ohloh pages about Audacity so the statistics show only the values of Audacity-specific development, excluding the third-party code libraries Audacity uses.

Bundling, Reselling or Distributing Audacity

Vendors are free to bundle Audacity with their products, or to sell or distribute copies of Audacity (see Vendors and Distributors of Audacity) under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Recommended Download

System Requirements

Click the appropriate link below, which takes you to the SourceForge download page - don't "save link as.." or "save target as..". The SourceForge download should start automatically. If it does not, click the links in the orange panel marked "direct link" or "mirror". Only these links and the automatic download are authorized versions of Audacity. Disable any automatic download managers if the download is incorrect.

Optional Downloads

  • LADSPA plugins 0.4.15 installer (.exe file, 1.5 MB) - over 90 plug-ins.

  • LAME MP3 encoder - Allows Audacity to export MP3 files.

  • VST Enabler - Allows Audacity to load VST plug-ins.

  • Plug-Ins - Download additional effects and filters.

  • If you have trouble with your download, or need an older version of Audacity, try our alternate download links (older versions can be viewed by clicking on the appropriate package).

  • Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista: Audacity 1.2.6 zip file (3.0 MB) - If you cannot run the installer because you are in a computer lab or other restricted environment, download and unzip this file instead.

System Requirements

Windows 95 and NT are not supported.

The values in the "Recommended RAM/processor speed" column below are for tasks like recording for an hour, or editing three 20 minute tracks simultaneously. The values in the "Minimum RAM/processor speed" column will be fine for smaller/shorter tasks, especially if unnecessary programs are closed.

Windows version Recommended RAM/
processor speed		 Minimum RAM/
processor speed
Windows 98, ME 128 MB / 500 MHz 64 MB / 300 MHz
Windows 2000, XP 512 MB/1 GHz 128 MB/300 MHz
Windows Vista Home Basic 2 GB / 1 GHz 512 MB / 1 GHz
Windows Vista Home Premium/
Business/Ultimate		 4 GB / 2 GHz 1 GB / 1 GHz

Generally, Audacity works best on computers meeting more than the minimum requirements in the table above. Where Audacity is to be used for lengthy multi-track projects, we recommend using Windows 2000, XP or Vista running on machines of substantially higher specification than the minimum stated above.

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