Songcrafters.org

Audacity 2.3.0 released today - Sept. 29, 2018

"Many new features (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/New_features_in_Audacity_2.3.0), and over 90 bugs fixed (since 2.2.2)."

https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-2-3-0-released/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-2-3-0-released/)

Hi 64. Do you know if the latest version has the silence feature in the edit section like the older versions of Audacity had? I found that very useful when editing unwanted sound out of a track between vocals. Now I have to reduce the volume by the maximum to get a similar result. Also, do you know of another way to do it?

Farrell

Quote from: Farrell Jackson on October 22, 2018, 07:41:38 PMHi 64. Do you know if the latest version has the silence feature in the edit section like the older versions of Audacity had? I found that very useful when editing unwanted sound out of a track between vocals. Now I have to reduce the volume by the maximum to get a similar result. Also, do you know of another way to do it?

Do you mean where you select a section of audio, then press Ctrl+L to completely silence the highlighted section? If so, that's still there and I've never noticed it to be missing from any previous version. Perhaps that's because I've always used the Ctrl+L shortcut rather than selecting it from a menu and it's possible that they moved the menu location between versions. I'm not sure where it was originally in the menus but in 2.3.0 it's in the Edit menu under "Remove Special". I assume the menus and shortcuts are the same in the Windows and Mac versions as they are in the Linux version which is what I'm using.

Yes that's it. I've not used the Ctrl+L shortcut before but that does work. I saw the "Silence Audio" was missing but I didn't look far enough in the "Remove Special" menu. That's much easier than using the decreased volume. Thanks for clearing that up for me 64!

Farrell

Audacity 2.3.2 was released yesterday (May 13, 2019). It has over 20 bug fixes and a few minor improvements. The biggest improvement only affects new users; the LAME mp3 encoder is now built-in for Windows and Mac versions of Audacity. In the past, you'd have to find LAME online, then download it and install it to give Audacity the ability to export mp3 files. That was due to patents on the mp3 format which prevented the Audacity developers from including mp3 support with Audacity. But those mp3 patents have now expired, so Audacity will ship with built-in mp3 support from now on. Currently, it's only in the Windows and Mac versions; Linux users still have to install LAME separately. I'm not sure why that is but it's not a problem for most Linux users.

https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-2-3-2-released/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-2-3-2-released/)

https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/New_features_in_Audacity_2.3.2 (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/New_features_in_Audacity_2.3.2)

Got it, thanks for heads up 64!

Audacity 2.4.0 was released today (May 16, 2020).

https://www.audacityteam.org/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/)

The Mac version now works on Catalina.

There are also lots of new features and bug fixes for all versions (Linux, Mac, Windows).

https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/New_features_in_Audacity_2.4.0 (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/New_features_in_Audacity_2.4.0)

That's today's job...

Got it ! Thanks again 64 for keeping us updated on the latest versions of Audacity!

Farrell

Oops! A serious bug has been found in Audacity 2.4.0 which causes loss/corruption of audio, so they've temporarily removed it from Downloads while they investigate.

https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-2-4-0-released/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-2-4-0-released/)

So you might want to avoid 2.4.0 until the bug is fixed. Presumably, that will be released soon as version 2.4.1.

The bug has been fixed in version 2.4.1 which is available now.

https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-2-4-1-released/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-2-4-1-released/)

Updated. Thanks again 64!

Farrell

Updated, thanks for the link, 64!

In my opinion it still has "a bug". If I have for example a project with 15 tracks and I would like to listen to two of them as "solo", I must mute 13 tracks. It's a bit troublesome. On my old PC I had a version which allowed to set one or more tracks to "solo mode".

Quote from: Redler on May 21, 2020, 10:18:22 PMIn my opinion it still has "a bug". If I have for example a project with 15 tracks and I would like to listen to two of them as "solo", I must mute 13 tracks. It's a bit troublesome. On my old PC I had a version which allowed to set one or more tracks to "solo mode".

To solo more than one track, hold down the Shift key when clicking Solo.

You can also configure the behaviour of the Solo button in Edit / Preferences / Tracks / Tracks Behaviour. See https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tracks_behaviors_preferences.html#solo (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tracks_behaviors_preferences.html#solo).

Got it on my work Mac now - thanks! Haven't used it yet, but it's a long bank holiday weekend :-)

Thanks for the heads-up!

 Ok, thanks a lot 64!

Version 2.4.2 was released today (June 26, 2020). Not much has changed though. It mainly updates a graphics library that it uses, though I doubt that you'll see any difference. But if you like to always have the latest version, this is it.

https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-2-4-2-released/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-2-4-2-released/)

I have several daws that I use regularly and I still find AUdacity has a growing list of uses for me.

1., After exporting from my Boss Recorder or my DAW, I do a playback in Audacity and listen for dropouts, A/D overload, or any audio glitches.  Also since it's possible to export a mix and accidentally have too long a tail (empty time without sound) or to have too short a tail (the fade out can be lost), or many other things, I feel more confident in a mix after exporting it to Audacity and listening.

2. After the "audition" of my exported mixdown I often go back into my DAW and fix mix issues I heard listening via Audacity.  Or I may even notice that the whole track isn't levelled/normalized and stays down in the -6 dB area and never approaches 0 dB.  Or I may notice that my song is a wall of 0 dB continuous ear-attack and I wonder, how will a listener enjoy a song with no buildup, and no dynamic range, that's just continuously LOUD?    For some reason seeing it as smear of digital audio Toothpaste outside the multitrack environment is very helpful.

3.  It's a great all round format convertor. 

4.  It works as a great test application for sound card driver issues.  On windows for instance, my main daw CUBASE requires ASIO, so if there's an ASIO driver issue with something and I want to know if it's the ASIO layer that's gone barkers in windows, I use Audacity to send to WASAPI audio layer in Windows, and listen through my DAW's audio interface, but without the ASIO layer's stupidity.   If the rig works but ASIO is down, it's reboot time, if I have more work to do in Cubase.

5.  I use it to fix up my dawless mixdowns from the boss BR600,  add additional fade-outs and fade-ins, EQ out something that I couldn't EQ right on the boss because I find EQing through menu diving almost impossible, and so on.

And did you guys know Audacity has a boatload of frequency analysis and spectral editing features?  Wow!

(https://i.ibb.co/X36g74N/audacity-is-magnificent.png) (https://ibb.co/dLXqPc1)

And there's a separate Mixer screen (select "Mixer Board..." from the View menu). When I first started using Audacity many years ago, I didn't know about the Mixer Board and I was mixing my tracks from the track view screen using the little level sliders at the left of each track. The Mixer Board makes mixing much easier with its long sliders and level meters.



By the way, I just noticed a cosmetic bug in the Mixer Board. The two buttons on each track both say "Mute". The bottom one should actually say "Solo". I'm sure it did in previous versions, so this bug must have just been introduced in version 2.4.2. It's only cosmetic though. Clicking the bottom button will solo the track. You can also solo multiple tracks by holding down the Shift key as you click each track's Solo button.

What is this alchemy?!!!!

Thanks for the heads up - I had absolutely no idea this view existed!

I wish the dark theme on Audacity looked as nice on Windows as it does on Linux, on Linux it themes the "non client" (title bar area).   It would be possible to add this to Audacity with a little C/C++ GDI-layer coding, I should look into doing that as a contribution to the project.

Anyone wanting a quick tour of viewing spectrograms check this video


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WYw3qoTdU4

Quote from: WarpCanada on February 05, 2021, 10:51:17 AMI wish the dark theme on Audacity looked as nice on Windows as it does on Linux, on Linux it themes the "non client" (title bar area).

Actually, Audacity doesn't change the title bar. It's dark in my screenshots because I have my OS (Ubuntu) theme set to dark. If I set the Ubuntu theme back to its default, Audacity's mixer board looks like this:



So the solution is to change your Windows theme. There is a dark theme available in Windows 10 under Settings > Personalization > Colors. However, I don't think it includes a dark title bar. Fortunately, there are plenty of additional themes you can download:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop-themes-94880287-6046-1d35-6d2f-35dee759701e (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop-themes-94880287-6046-1d35-6d2f-35dee759701e)

You should be able to find one you like in there. Or maybe you can look into creating your own Windows theme.

True, however some apps on Windows do not use the system theme and have their own. For example, I'm using Google Chrome to view this website, and it's title bars are totally drawn by the app itself and not by windows.

I am gonna turn on the dark Windows theme though and see where I get.

Audacity is currently running a short survey to help them decide which features to work on and improve. If you'd like to help shape the future of Audacity, why not complete the survey. It doesn't take long. There are just 13 simple questions which are mostly multiple choice. One of the questions is " How do you share the audio with others?" and it has options for Dropbox, OneDrive, Soundcloud, etc. I clicked "Other (please specify)" and typed in "songcrafters.org". Another question is "What kind of online collaboration features would be important for you?". I checked "Forums". I have no idea what kind of forum-based collaboration features they have in mind, but since Songcrafters is a forum, I'd be interested in anything they might come up with that could be useful to us in collaborating.

https://www.audacityteam.org/5-minute-survey-help-us-make-audacity-better/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/5-minute-survey-help-us-make-audacity-better/)

Audacity version 3.0.0 was released yesterday (March 17, 2021).

https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-3-0-0-released/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-3-0-0-released/)

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/new_features_in_this_release.html (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/new_features_in_this_release.html)

https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.0.0 (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.0.0)

It's a completely amazing piece of software.   I am thinking I'll fire up Visual C++ and get the tools installed to build it from source as I have some ideas for what it needs.

Update:  I updated my Visual Studio 2019, and grabbed audacity and its dependencies and it was super easy to get it be buildable and debuggable on Windows, although the "CMake" tools are a bit weird and take a bit of getting used to.   The instructions on the Audacity website make building this code super easy.  If you aren't familiar with the C++ programming language and the WX framework though, I think this code would be pretty dense and hard to understand.  If you do know C++ and wx (formerly wxWidgets), then this should be pretty easy to wade into.

Audacity 3.0.2 released today (April 19, 2021).

https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-3-0-2-released/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-3-0-2-released/)

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/new_features_in_this_release.html (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/new_features_in_this_release.html)

https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.0.2 (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.0.2)

"This is a significant bug fixing release."

Audacity has been acquired by Muse Group. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Time will tell.

https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/muse-group-formed-to-support-musescore-ultimate-guitar-acquires-audacity/ (https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/muse-group-formed-to-support-musescore-ultimate-guitar-acquires-audacity/)

https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-musescore-announcement/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-musescore-announcement/)



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

Don't know musescore but I use Ultimate Guitar app all the time and love it.

Audacity news. I've not delved into it, but it seems audacity is trying to collect some data and some people are upset. One person I discussed this with said, "the Linux people have even bigger issues with it. The data collection prevents it from being used by kids and this violates the GPL. Basically: It's not free software if it's not free for kids to use."

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/04/open-source-audacity-deemed-spyware-over-data-collection-changes (https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/04/open-source-audacity-deemed-spyware-over-data-collection-changes)

That's disappointing. I hope it gets resolved. One of the great things about open source software is that the project can be "forked". That's when somebody else takes the source code in its current state and starts changing it according to their own values and ideas as a new, independent project. The article you linked to says "Conversations on both Reddit and GitHub have include talk of a fork of Audacity into a new project, in a bid to eliminate it of the data collection and licensing alterations."  So there's hope.


On a more positive note, Audacity is working on a new Source Separation effect. This would allow you to take a pre-mixed track such as a commercial recording, for example, and split it into individual tracks for bass, drums, vocals, guitar, etc. It remains to be seen just how well this will work, but even if it's just so-so, it will be a great help in learning songs because you'll be able to focus on just one part at a time. According to their news updates, it's progressing quite well and could be available in a release very soon.

https://www.audacityteam.org/source-separation-and-extensible-mir-tools-for-audacity/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/source-separation-and-extensible-mir-tools-for-audacity/)

Here's another article about the data collection issue:

https://fosspost.org/audacity-is-now-a-spyware/ (https://fosspost.org/audacity-is-now-a-spyware/)

And here's an article about the call for a fork to a new project:

https://fosspost.org/audacity-fork-needs-help/ (https://fosspost.org/audacity-fork-needs-help/)


Update (July 6, 2021) - The story has even made it to the BBC News site: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57721967 (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57721967)

Wow! Talk about good news (source separation) and bad news (spyware) about one of my favorite applications. Hopefully the threat of a fork will be enough to get the team at Muse to reconsider this. Or, minimally, make this data collection an opt-in proposition.

Audacity 3.1 was released on Tuesday, October 26, 2021. It has some nice new features that are commonly found in other popular DAWs.

https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-3-1-is-out-now/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-3-1-is-out-now/)

New features: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/new_features_in_this_release.html (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/new_features_in_this_release.html)

Release notes: https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.1 (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.1)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpA138b-J9s

Nice. Thanks 64!

That is a significant upgrade. I stopped using Audacity a while back because, for my needs, I was more comfortable working in reaper.
But this is worth checking out again.

Audacity 3.1.1 released today, November 11, 2021. This is a bugfix release. See the release notes (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.1.1).

Audacity 3.1.2 was released on 16 Nov 2021. Another bugfix release. See the release notes (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.1.2).

Audacity 3.1.3 was released today (Dec, 23, 2021).

https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-3-1-3-released/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/audacity-3-1-3-released/)

Highlights:

• Improved overall performance, but especially the loading of projects which they claim will now load up to 50x faster than version 3.1.0.
• Made it harder to accidentally create loop regions when attempting to use Timeline Quick Play.
• Added snap guides when resizing clips.
• Added new default shortcuts Shift+L (set loop to selection) and Alt+Shift+L (Clear Loop).
• Re-added selection and quick play indicators in the timeline.
• Fixed various crashes and other bugs. Details can be found in the release notes (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.1.3).

Got it, thanks 64!

Although I use a full DAW mostly (Cubase) I wanted to mention that Audacity is still a trusted daily tool.

My workflow in Cubase ends with an export to MP3.

Then I open that MP3 via the Audacity mp3 import facility then I audition the track with Audacity. This provides three things that I don't get with Cubase:

1. Playback through a non-ASIO audio driver, in this case, my Behringer mixer which has a different DAC.
2. Audacity's OWN waveform view and tools for zooming in on the waveform.
3. I can see any horrible mistakes, transients, truncations (on the audio fade out at the end) or glitches.
4. I can hear anything that went really wrong in the mastering chain.

I really do recommend EVERYONE who doesn't use AUdacity for this "post mastering and audio file rendering verification"  to use it or any other capable tool, just as a second check.

If you have for example, a usb DAC ("usb headphone amp") such as many serious music listeners use, you can use AUdacity to send audio to that non-ASIO-capable audio DAC, and use a high quality pair of music-enjoyment headphones to simulate what a listener will hear when they click play on your track.

Audacity also has thousands of other uses for me, I do flight simming and AUdacity is my audio editor of choice for .wav file loops for engine sounds, for aircraft, and a dozen other tasks.

Even though it may not be "your current DAW" (say you use reaper) you should keep this around on your computer.   Remember that a hammer is not a pair of pliers, and the more tools you have, the more capability you have.

It was announced today that the next version of Audacity (v3.2 scheduled for release around late September) will include support for realtime effects. Finally!

https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=126279 (https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=126279)

They've also added support for VST3 effects plugins.

Here are some preliminary release notes which describe other changes that will be in version 3.2.

https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.2 (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Release_Notes_3.2)

Quote from: 64Guitars on July 11, 2022, 04:13:24 PMIt was announced today that the next version of Audacity (v3.2 scheduled for release around late September) will include support for realtime effects. Finally!

Awesome! Looking forward to this release.
 

Anyone know if I try v3.1 on my Win7 pro (64 bit) and it doesn't work, will it effect my v2.4.2 install? It's working fine so don't want to mess it up.

I don't even want to try to upgrade to win10 so outside of buying a new comp. am I out of luck on the newer versions?

Thanks!

Quote from: hardlock on July 11, 2022, 05:27:37 PMAnyone know if I try v3.1 on my Win7 pro (64 bit) and it doesn't work, will it effect my v2.4.2 install? It's working fine so don't want to mess it up.

I don't even want to try to upgrade to win10 so outside of buying a new comp. am I out of luck on the newer versions?

According to this page (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audacity_Versions#compatibility) in the Audacity wiki, the latest version of Audacity is compatible with Windows 7. However, on this page (https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Windows_7_OS), they list a few caveats to be aware of.

This page (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_and_updating_audacity_on_windows.html#updating) on updating Audacity says that the installer will prompt you for the name of the installation folder. If you accept the default, then it will overwrite your previous version. However, if you specify a different folder name, then that's where the new version will be installed. Presumably, that should keep it separate from your previous version, but I don't know that for certain.

If you want to be certain that the new version won't mess up your current version, you can install the new version to a USB flash drive and run it from there. See this page (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/portable_audacity.html).

Finally, be aware that Audacity 3.x has a new file structure which isn't supported by older versions of Audacity. You can open your old 2.x projects in Audacity and it will convert them to the new format. But you cannot load projects saved in 3.x into older versions of Audacity. See this page (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/updating_from_audacity_2.x_to_audacity_3.html).

Thanks much 64! Will give it a try.

Audacity 3.2 was released today.

https://www.audacityteam.org/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/)

It now supports realtime effects!  %)!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTRnDNR9LR8


You can also now share your Audacity project in the cloud for free.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaCr4jk8pM4

Quote from: 64Guitars on September 22, 2022, 11:40:51 PMYou can also now share your Audacity project in the cloud for free.

This might be useful for collaborations, perhaps an alternative to sending attachments by email.

Audacity 3.4 is in beta, so the final release should be available soon. Looks like it has some useful new features.

https://support.audacityteam.org/additional-resources/changelog/audacity-3.4 (https://support.audacityteam.org/additional-resources/changelog/audacity-3.4)


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

Those features really do look useful.

BTW: I use an optimization and maintenance tool on my Mac (developed by a Ukranian company), and it flagged Audacity as "Suspicious." That gave me pause. I vaguely remembered the concerns over Audacity from a couple of years ago (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?msg=372654). I have largely overcome any minor hesitation about using it.


Apparently some forks of Audacity sprang up in 2021 (Tenacity, Audacium) after the main app was accused of being "spyware," but none of these forks built up any momentum. But it seems that the forking was somewhat effective as a protest.

What are your thoughts, 64G? Is that a good interepretation?

• "Muse Group formed to support MuseScore, Ultimate Guitar; acquires Audacity" (https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/muse-group-formed-to-support-musescore-ultimate-guitar-acquires-audacity/). Scoring Notes
• "Audacity 3.0 called spyware over data collection changes by new owner" (https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/04/open-source-audacity-deemed-spyware-over-data-collection-changes). AppleInsider.
• "Actions we propose to take on PR #835 #889" (https://github.com/audacity/audacity/discussions/889). GitHub.
• "Apologetic Audacity rewrites privacy policy after 'significant lapse in communication'" (https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/23/audactiy_apology/). The Register.

I haven't trusted Audacity since The Muse Group acquired it. However, all of my concerns are based on its use of the internet. So I just turn off my modem before I open Audacity. Or I can also turn off my wired internet connection in Ubuntu's system menu:

Ubuntu System Menu - Turn Off Wired Connection.jpg

I did a quick search to see if the Mac has something similar and found this page:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1792330 (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1792330)

I assume that there is also a control to switch off a wireless internet connection.

Audacity doesn't need internet access and it never had it before The Muse Group acquired it. So just don't let it access the internet by switching your connection off before opening Audacity and it should be perfectly safe to use.

Audacity 3.4 was released today (November 2, 2023).

https://support.audacityteam.org/additional-resources/changelog/audacity-3.4 (https://support.audacityteam.org/additional-resources/changelog/audacity-3.4)

https://www.audacityteam.org/download/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/download/)



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