9 Audacity Alternatives 2019: Audio Editing for Beginners and Professionals

Apart from the other main reasons, people edit audios for the pleasure of molding sounds—to create something out of nothing. The free and open source Audacity software allows users to do almost all what a sound editor is designed for. While testing Audacity for this article, we found nothing functionally wrong with the software. Maybe for users who prefer a modern minimalistic interface, Audacity’s look might feel a bit outdated. But apart from that, Audacity is surprisingly powerful software. You should look for Audacity alternatives only if you have tried the software and found it buggy. Or if what you need out of your sound editor is not featured in Audacity.

If you found something that doesn’t quite work for you with the software, fortunately, there are many Audacity alternatives. We have listed our top choices of Sound editors on this article in no specific order. Here is the list.

1. Adobe Audition CC

The feature-packed Adobe Audition CC is incredibly powerful. It has all the functionalities of an audio editor. Its multitrack recording and editing capabilities make it a complete digital audio workstation. It provides a toolset that can pretty much handle all kind of audio editing jobs. In addition to its features, Adobe Audition comes with a beautiful interface. Its layout is intuitive, clean and customizable. The program is packed with sound effects including reverbs, distortion and delays.

The parent company, Adobe Creative Cloud offers the service on a subscription basis. After a free trial, Adobe has plenty of monthly and annual plans for all the Creative Cloud and its applications. Audio Audition has a plethora of features that make subscribing its services a worthwhile purchase.

2. WavePad

The robust Wavepad software is designed for professional editors. The software has a simple user interface, which makes the in-app navigation a pleasant experience. The platform allows you to accomplish a variety of editing tasks with its powerful toolsets. WavePad is compatible with a large number of audio files, and also helps in converting them to different formats. It features a batch processing ability through which you can convert multiple audio files at the same time.

You can redo and undo on the active program almost unlimited times. This is useful for people who simultaneously edit multiple audios. During our testing, WavePad felt smooth with its functions, but the rendering on the software was relatively slow compared to the other programs. With all these features, WavePad undoubtedly deserves its place on our list of best Audacity alternatives.

3. Wavosaur

This free software is amusingly powerful considering it is under 1 MB in size. Wavosaur is the lightest audio editor on the list, nonetheless, it covers most of the important functions of a standard audio editor. Wavosaur features a multi-document interface which allows you to edit multiple files in one session. It also allows batch processing through which you can apply an effect to an entire folder of audio files.

With Wavosaur, you can record audios and then convert them to text. You can use the text output on other software to further work on the file. We found this speech-to-text feature pretty useful. The software has AISO support and can also be operated by external MIDI controllers. Sadly, Wavosaur is only available on Windows platform. But if you are on Windows, Wavosaur editor is a party you can always visit for audio editing, processing, and recording.

4. AVS Audio Editor

If we have to describe AV Audio Editor, we would probably define it as a sweet mix between Wavosaur and Oceanaudio. By that, we mean that it is packed with features, supports all major audio formats, and still runs on simplistic user experience. It is beautifully designed. This is what makes AV Audio Editor a viable Audacity alternative for both the beginners and professionals.

The software doesn’t support audio recording, but we do have a crack. You can download another software, an extension, AV Audio & Sound Recorder, that records sound from multiple sources at once. The platform supports all the common audio formats and allows users to save their output in the format of their choice.

5. Sound Forge Audio Studio

Sound Forge Audio Studio is an excellent alternative for novice sound editors, as it is only designed for basic editing. But the positive thing is that it is great at what it is designed for. Since it is standard, its pro version costs much less than its competition. Apart from that, we found its interface welcoming. The entire face of the software is customizable, through which you can change the layout and the arrangement of the editing windows. You can also add or delete the tools on the toolbar as per your requirement. The software also allows you to extract audio from video files.

Sound Forge Audio Studio offers a huge library of presets, but at the same time, it lags the ability to process multiple files at once. Said that the program’s pro version has almost all of the professional features that the basic version lags. You can get its pro version at $36.

6. Reaper

Reaper is an apt name for an audio editor. But it is not just their brand name that is in place. The software is a complete digital audio workstation, which offers multi-track audio, MIDI recording, editing, processing mastering and mixing features. Reaper is packed with features and is not limited in any functional way. From the professionals to students, everybody can use reaper with its varied toolsets. It also supports a wide range of plugins and hardware. Reaper is baked with features like key signature support, multiple-audio record, multiple clefs and many more. It supports scripting, which means you can edit its code to customize its functionalities.

The program is offered with a 60-days free trial, during which you can completely evaluate the product. After the free days, you can buy the software for as low as $60.

7. Ardour

Ardour is a complete digital audio workstation on which you can freely record, edit and mix audios and MIDI projects. You can also master the sound before exporting the file in the format of your choice. Professionals who have heavy audio projects can rely on Ardour for their audio engineering needs. The primary audience of Ardour consists of recording artists, musicians, soundtrack editors, audio engineers, and composers. Since the audience, it caters to is of hardcore professionals, you can expect quality from the platform, and trust them for results.

Reaper has plugins with full sample accurate automation, through which you can automate any parameter of your audios. In addition to that, the platform features a frame-by-frame video timeline. Ardour is an open source software which encourages collaboration, which means you can open any piece of the development as it happens.

8. FL Studio

Hip Hop artists love FL Studio for its high-quality production tools and loops. Among all the audio editors, FL Studio has the most customizable interface for music production. You can add or delete any tools for its easy access and resize your windows to speed up your workflow. The program has a ton of presets to mix your sounds. It is also compatible with a wide range of third-party VST plugins which further widens the number of effects that come with FL Studio.

FL Studio promises you all its future updates for free. This means that once you purchase the software, you can download any of its future, or previous versions, for absolutely free. This is unusual among the audio production platforms. Currently, FL Studio is available for both the Windows and MacOS users. The program starts at $99 and goes up to $899 depending on what you buy.

9. Logic Pro

Most of our suggested Audacity alternatives are available for both the Windows and Apple users. But if you have a Mac, Logic Pro is your best bet for music production and sound editing. It’s a complete audio workstation where you can record, edit, mix, master and then export in any of the common audio formats. It has a smart tempo feature which recognizes MIDI file and then quantizes audio to match the tempo of the session. This software makes music editing and production relatively easier.

For what it offers, Logic Pro is a great deal. The product is reasonably priced and creates professional outputs. The program starts at $199.

Final Words

Audacity is a decent product. Finding its alternatives for audio editing isn’t very hard in this surplus market. Here we have listed our top picks of Audacity alternatives and briefly introduced them so you can make your decision. This list will help you find an apt audio editing platform.

Do you agree with our list, or do you think we have missed one of your favorite audio editing programs? Do let us know in the comments. Also, to get instant tech updates, Follow TechNadu’s Facebook page, and Twitter handle.