The free audio editing program Audacity has been updated to v2.2.0, introducing MIDI playback capabilities and new GUI themes.
Audacity is one of the most popular free audio editors for several reasons. Firstly, it’s a community-based project that’s consistently being updated with new features and bugfixes. For example, the long-awaited option to load third party effects in VST plugin format was added not long ago. Also, Audacity isn’t a free version of a paid software, meaning that it doesn’t intentionally miss any important features in order to force its users to spend some cash on unlocking the full potential of the product. And finally, Audacity has been around for quite a while, being the first audio editing software of choice for many users.
This latest Audiacity update is truly an exciting one. It introduces MIDI playback, Pushing Audacity one step closer to becoming a proper digital audio workstation. Granted, virtual instruments in VST plugin format aren’t supported yet, so you’ll have to settle with the default MIDI playback engine on Windows or set up a MIDI software synthesizer program manually on macOs and Linux. However, I’m sensing that we might see support for VST instruments in a future version of Audacity.
In addition to MIDI playback capabilities, Audacity 2.2.0 now comes with four different visual themes. This is the first time that Audacity’s user interface can be customized visually and I’m hopoing to see support for user-generated skins in the future as well. The option to create custom skins has led to some truly breathtaking themes for Cockos Reaper being designed by its users, for example. That said, the provided themes will have to do for now and I definitely prefer the included Dark theme compared to Audacity’s old light-gray looks.
Audactity is available for free download via Audacity (19.34 MB download size, EXE installer, 32-bit & 64-bit standalone application for Windows, macOS, and Linux).
8 Comments
Chris Schutte
onAwesome! was waiting for something like this to happen, hopefully people will now make use of Audacity more!
BE
onWow, that’s a great step for these guys, looking forward to what the future brings! :)
Ike
onLooks good. How is the user experience with the latest version? I remember that the old version always felt a bit slow and laggy. That’s why I preferred Wavosaur for small audio cuts and edits. Is full VST support implemented now? I remember the old version not even showing GUIs of the plugins.
Thanks
Tomislav Zlatic
onThe UX hasn’t changed much in the new version, for me at least. And I also prefer using Wavosaur for smaller editing tasks.
Ike
onThanks Tomislav!
Quese Y. Hijodep
onGracias como siempre, Tomislav Zlatic…Audacity necesita 2 ó 3 arreglitos y se transformaría en la mejor DAW que existe, yo, por ejemplo, en mi pc de trabajo “sin conexión a internet” (teóricamente) tengo ableton, cubase le 9, Mixcraft y Audacity, y solamente utilizo las últimas dos que menciono (Mixcraft y Audacity). Ambas simples, precisas, que con sólo un par de arreglitos quedarían perfectas, fáciles de usar, …casi perfectas para un músico que quiere sentarse frente a su pc y solamente componer música y nada más. Solamente hacer lo que se quiere hacer, música. Saludos cordiales Tomislav Zlatic.
Frank Z
onAs cool as this sounds, I don’t see any OBVIOUS way to change the theme. Audacity is still as goofy and unintuitive as it’s always been.
Frank Z
onHaha! Okay I take it back. I just found it…