Having a great DAW is important, but a good audio editor is easily the #1 priority for anyone dealing with sound design or mastering their own tunes. So, as the latest addition to the freeware studio section on BPB, I wanted to make a selection of the best free audio editors for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
For the past several years, the only two serious freeware audio editors in existence (probably a few more if we include Linux, though) were Audacity and Wavosaur. There were other free alternatives out there, of course, but many of those were either designed for fairly basic use (making Mp3 ringtones and such), or were severely limited versions of commercial software. There was also (and still is) a considerable amount of free audio editing software which comes bundled with toolbars, demo versions of various bloatware, and pesky adware programs. I got burned by those quite a few times in the past and have paid special attention to include none of that stuff in this list.
The goal for this article was to make a selection of 100% clean freeware tools which can be used for recording, editing, and mastering audio with ease. As always, my advice is to check out all available alternatives, but stick to using only one or two programs once you decide which ones best suit your needs. If you’re looking for a freeware DAW, click here to jump to that article.
Free Audio Editor Applications
Follow the links for screenshots & download info:
- Acoustica Basic Edition by Acon Digital (Windows)
- Audacity by Audacity Team (Linux, Mac, Windows)
- Music Editor Free 2012 by MEFMedia (Windows)
- ocenaudio by ocenaudio (Linux, Mac, Windows)
- Wavosaur by The Wavosaur Team (Windows)
Extended list: Eisenkraut, QuickAudio, ReZound, Sweep, Traverso DAW, WaveSurfer.
For recording and basic audio editing, Audacity is still my #1 choice. I’ve been using it for years (it’s one of the first audio app I ever installed) and am too used to the interface now to make the switch to another application. However, I’ve never really done any serious editing with Audacity. There’s just something about the workflow that doesn’t allow me to do certain things fast enough. But for recording and simple cut/paste sort of stuff, it’s a breeze. Audacity also supports 3rd party VST plugins and comes with its own set of (pretty decent) effects.
Audacity 2.0.
For more demanding editing tasks, I still stick to using Wavosaur. It can get buggy sometimes (especially when using VST plugins), but most of the time it works just great. All of my free sample packs have been edited and looped using Wavosaur. It’s also a handy tool for batch processing and converting a large number of audio files. My favorite features of Wavosaur are the extremely fast and simple workflow and the basic (but perfect for my needs) loop editor.
Wavosaur.
ocenaudio is still in development, but the current beta release looks very promising. It loads VST effects, supports working with large audio files, has a gorgeous looking and clean interface, and acts stable most of the time. I was in doubt that this application will remain free after the beta stage ends, however the developers confirmed that there will always be a free version of ocenaudio available (even if they decide to release a commercial version in the future). Once we get a 100% stable release, this one might easily become my new favorite tool for editing samples.
ocenaudio and Density mkIII.
Another relatively new free audio editor is Acoustica Basic Edition, which is a freeware version of Acon Digital’s flagship Acoustica software suite. The Basic Edition is still a pretty capable editor, with several features you definitely won’t find in other freeware alternatives (convolution reverb and virtual phono preamp, for example). This program also supports VST effects and features a handy set of analysis tools in the main window. Here’s a complete comparison chart for different versions of Acoustica.
Acoustica Basic Edition.
Finally, there’s Music Editor Free 2012, which is actually a surprisingly decent freeware audio editor. At first I though it will turn out to be one of those nasty spyware-filled apps, but just make sure to deselect the optional toolbar during the instalation process and you’ll get a nice clean program. It doesn’t bring anything new or especially exciting to the table, but the interface is nice and simple, and it’s not impossible that someone looking for a simple app will actually like this editor the most. It also offers the infamous rip audio from YouTube feature, for those who are into that sort of stuff.
Music Editor Free 2012.
The programs mentioned in the Extended list section are also worth a look, although most of those are available exclusively to people who use Linux.
Have I missed any great free audio editor? Let me know in the comments section below. Share this article, have fun making music, and thanks for reading BPB!
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two really nice cut and loop programs you’ll find here:
http://www.bjoernbojahr.de/
wooooow, these look fantastic! thanks for the heads-up, i’ll check them out this weekend and add them to the list accordingly.
I just checked them out and they are specialised tools for simple audio tasks rather than fully fledged audio editors like you’ve listed.
Certainly useful in their own way but not really comparable to the programs you’ve already mentioned. ;)
totally would like 2 know if you all have something like a recording prog.. free ware in this web///
Very interesting!
Thank you for the good work, very useful.
Regards, from Quebec City, CAN.
I still like Audacity. 2.0 is great.
Don’t forget the WavePad Free from NCH Software – it’s also a good audio editor with VST support and free usable for personal purposes.
BTW, does the Acoustica Basic Edition have a DC Offset Remover, as I haven’t found one??
I don’t think it does or at least I haven’t found it either!
DC Offset removal can be done with a high pass filter set to around 20Hz (with resonance/q set to 0) so you could just load a VST filter and do it that way? It doesn’t need to be a “special” filter either (analogue modelled, zero delay, etc.), a simple low CPU digital High Pass will do just fine.
If you don’t already have a suitable filter try GVST GHi: http://www.gvst.co.uk/ghi.htm Actually the Whole GVST Suite are handy to use with Acoustica so check out the other plugins while you’re there too.
Hope that helps :-)
Thanks for the tip, but I rather have too much filters than too less… :-)
A high-pass filter reduces the LF content of the DC offset, but can it really remove it?
Yes. DC Offset is caused by frequencies lower than the audible range pushing the main waveform up or down reducing the range available to the actual waveform. By highpassing at the low end of the audio range (around 20hz) you remove all these inaudible waves without affecting the sound of the main waveform.
Look at MeldaProductions MUtility for example ( http://www.meldaproduction.com/freevstplugins/mutility.php ), on the DC Blocking component it has a db/octave setting, just like you’d see on a filter because that’s exactly what it is. :-)
http://www.freesoundeditor.com/incageneng.html?accueileng.html~main – dont forget sound editor this one is nice and tiny yet still good for doing minor chops and edits.
Samplitude Silver is really cool and a useful free DAW. It has some serious limitations (only allows eight tracks, for example), but it’s got some great features and a really nice look and feel to it. I love the scrubber tool!
http://pro.magix.com/en/samplitude/miditech-english.730.html
Whoops! Looks like Samplitude Silver has been covered in an alternate post:
http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2011/05/16/bpb-freeware-studio-best-free-vst-host-applications/
That’s what I get for posting before I read the introductory paragraph (audio editors not DAWS)!
BTW, the ocenaudio editor is very cool. Has a great look and feel to it.Thanks for all the great tips.
yeah, it’s in the VST hosts list already. :)
thanks for the tip anyway and sorry for the late reply!
Bravo care, legenda si!!!
This was a definitely very beneficial post. People are always looking for free audio editors, and this should prove to be quite handy!
Wavosaur is still my go to editor. At times it crashes while editing huge audio files. I also have Acoustica BE, Audacity and OcenAudio installed for comparison. Acoustica BE is close to become my new favorite, only if they resolve the “window resize” issue. The issue is when you add a plugin and double click it to see it’s UI, there are chances that you won’t see the full UI and interestingly you cannot drag the corner to resize the window, so not usable for me at the moment. Apart from that I love it. My only gripe with Audacity is sloppy VST implementation. You cannot preview the whole song after adding a plugin. It plays for some seconds. OcenAudio is cool but again VST implementation is not good.
Thanks for listing these BPB, very helpful.
also check out traverso daw (http://traverso-daw.org/). despite the name, it is not really a daw, but something more of this category. it looks promising, though i haven’t fully use it yet as i am quite happy with audacity and wavosaur (for vst support).
good tip, thank you sir!
Studio one free is a stripped down version of Studio One 2. With the download you are given a trial version of the full software and the free version which the trial version will revert to after 30 days. Studio One free does not support third party vst’s, but comes with a modest array of native plugins for editing audio as well as Presence, a native sample bassed synth. A very useful tool for chopping beats or samples and recording audio. http://studioone.presonus.com/free/
do any of these free audio editors have a function like sound forges “pitch bend” with the envelope nodes? adobe audition does it too. know what im talking about?
I recently got a slow computer on room which i use as delay (connect the inputs of the soundcard to the fx1 send on my analog mixer and the outputs of the soundcard to a channel, which sends to fx1) but i also want to use it as (stereo) recorder. When i record with ableton it skips some samples resulting in a recording with gates….. Which of the audio editors is the most lightweighted for recording on slow pc?