Members veracohr Posted July 21, 2012 Members Share Posted July 21, 2012 I've known about Audacity for a while, but pretty much just knew that it existed and was free. Not much more. I wanted to show someone on another forum an example using a synth kick drum sample (just 432ms in length), and I wanted a program that clearly showed the length of the audio in seconds. My normal DAW Digital Performer didn't give me that (only bars/notes/ticks), so I Googled "audio editor", and Audacity was the first result. So I downloaded it in less than a minute, installed it in just a few, and started it. Without any doing on my part it automatically recognized my MOTU UltraLite audio interface and chose it as the source input. I imported the sample quickly and discovered I could zoom in very easily and show just what I wanted to show. Very little learning curve, at least as far as the simple use I put it to. In the process I also discovered the built-in spectrum analyzer which is pretty cool. It also accepted both Audio Units and VST plugins, which DP doesn't (version 5 at least). I also use Live which accepts both, but Live has its limitations. I think I remember seeing some other plugin types I'd never even heard of that Audacity accepts. It comes with a lot of stock plugins, which I haven't tried out yet, and it also recognized my UAD-2 card and plugins, yet still started up in about a quarter of the time it takes DP to start. I've been wanting a good audio editor for a while to do work on samples, especially drum samples, but it's not something I need that often so I've gotten used to the process in DP. Audacity seems very user-friendly and I think I'll definitely find a use for it! I'm certainly not leaving DP or Live for Audacity; I need excellent MIDI sequencing which DP gives me, and Live's looping is indispensable for early writing of my songs. Still, if I knew it was this useful I'd have downloaded it long ago! The only complaint I have, which isn't very big, is that I wish the background of the audio window were white. It's gray and gives no option for changing the color. I want more contrast between the representation of the audio signal and the background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wrongnote85 Posted July 21, 2012 Members Share Posted July 21, 2012 hell yes! i don't have ANY fancy recording gear, just my phone and an irig, but i can record a single track and email it to myself and then open it in audacity and put together a song that way. i haven't delved deep into it yet, but what little i can do with it is very easy to use. i did this with it just the other day: http://soundcloud.com/brad-williamson-4/lone-to-remain-traverser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members electrochrisso Posted July 21, 2012 Members Share Posted July 21, 2012 I agree, Audacity is a very good piece of audio software, I use the noise removal..., in the effects menu, for audio with too much background noise, such as tape hiss/motor noise or buzzing etc. and it does a fantastic job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peanutroad Posted July 21, 2012 Members Share Posted July 21, 2012 I think I remember seeing some other plugin types I'd never even heard of that Audacity accepts. Those would be the Nyquist and Ladspa format plugins that come over from the Linux versions. Some are pretty decent, all are usable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted July 21, 2012 Members Share Posted July 21, 2012 I wonder how you edit a song, or as in your mentioned case only a kick, in an editor which has not timeline in a musical unit, for example bars & beats? What is "DP" ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JeffLearman Posted July 21, 2012 Members Share Posted July 21, 2012 DP = Digital Performer, in this case. Audacity is very cool for what it is -- a free wave editor. I wouldn't use it to replace a DAW (though it's probably changed a lot since I last tried it, quite a few years back). I'd use a wave editor to apply an effect and bake it into an audio track, and in general I wouldn't do this for a track on a song if I had a plugin that sounded as good. However, plugins have to work in real-time, and wave editors do not, so they can have much more complex algorithms. When I tried it, it didn't sound nearly as good as 16-bit CoolEdit96 (also free, but limited to 16 bit format), for noise removal and pitch shift doubling. I'm no golden-eared type, and the difference between 24-bit results on Audacity versus 16-bit results on CoolEdit96 were night and day obvious, and I used the 16 bit results. For simpler things Audacity worked great. (I believe CoolEdit96 is available for Windows only. It got bought by Adobe and converted to its DAW product, the name of which I don't remember.) In my case, I used it (actually, cooledit) to process samples for my Rhodes soundfont. I used it to de-noise the samples, which was great: I'd always been annoyed by the hiss noise level in a Rhodes. I also used it to produce the stereo effect for the stereo version. My intent was to do pitch-shift doubling, but it turned out more like a cross between PSD and mild chorus effect, which worked for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members daklander Posted July 21, 2012 Members Share Posted July 21, 2012 DP = Digital Performer, in this case.Audacity is very cool for what it is -- a free wave editor. I wouldn't use it to replace a DAW (though it's probably changed a lot since I last tried it, quite a few years back). Well worth another look. Audacity is much more accomplished in what you can use if for these days and just might pleasantly surprise you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members electrochrisso Posted July 22, 2012 Members Share Posted July 22, 2012 When I tried it, it didn't sound nearly as good as 16-bit CoolEdit96 (also free, but limited to 16 bit format), for noise removal and pitch shift doubling. I'm no golden-eared type, and the difference between 24-bit results on Audacity versus 16-bit results on CoolEdit96 were night and day obvious, and I used the 16 bit results. For simpler things Audacity worked great. (I believe CoolEdit96 is available for Windows only. It got bought by Adobe and converted to its DAW product, the name of which I don't remember.) Depends on how long ago you tried it, Audacity is up to V2, the noise removal, and other plugs have been substantially updated, at least Audacity is still on the move with improvements. I am downloading, CoolEdit96, which does look very useful too, and will do a noise removal comparison and see how Audacity stands up these days. I will put a good download link here: http://www.threechords.com/hammerhead/cool_edit_96.shtml The Freeware Hammerhead Rhythm Station is here too, which I found to be quite a useful drum machine I have used in the past, you can also export the drum patterns you make into wav files too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Huh? Posted July 22, 2012 Members Share Posted July 22, 2012 Audacity is great if you are sitting with an acoustic or piano and get an idea in your head, that you want to get down extremely fast, before it oozes into the ether. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JeffLearman Posted July 22, 2012 Members Share Posted July 22, 2012 Depends on how long ago you tried it, Audacity is up to V2, the noise removal, and other plugs have been substantially updated, at least Audacity is still on the move with improvements. I am downloading, CoolEdit96, which does look very useful too, and will do a noise removal comparison and see how Audacity stands up these days. I will put a good download link here: http://www.threechords.com/hammerhead/cool_edit_96.shtml The Freeware Hammerhead Rhythm Station is here too, which I found to be quite a useful drum machine I have used in the past, you can also export the drum patterns you make into wav files too. It was a while back, now that I think of it -- say, 2005? Seems to me it was changing a lot at the time, but adding new features and GUI elements, rather than updating the particular audio algorithms I was interested in. I think they had just added multitrack capability (which still didn't turn it into a DAW, though some folks seemed to be trying to use it that way). In any case, I'll be very interested in your opinion. I recently revamped my Rhodes piano (replacing hammer tips, grommets, adding the 'miracle mod' action speed bump, and may add backchecks), and hope to sample it again, more extensively this time. I'll be needing a good wave editor, and it'll be great if I can use Audacity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members monstermaker Posted July 22, 2012 Members Share Posted July 22, 2012 Always a good source for quick and easy file conversions too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JeffLearman Posted July 22, 2012 Members Share Posted July 22, 2012 For file conversions, I use Illustrate's dBPowerAmp Music Converter. Terribly convenient, supports a wide variety of pluggable codecs. It used to be free; then someone got fussy about MP3 and Spoon was one of the few to choose to pay rather than face legal hassles. It now costs $38. I'm still using the old free version, but it doesn't integrate as well in Win7, so one of these days I'll be upgrading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted July 24, 2012 CMS Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 So I downloaded it in less than a minute, installed it in just a few, and started it. Without any doing on my part it automatically recognized my MOTU UltraLite audio interface and chose it as the source input. Since your regular DAW is Digital Performer, I assume you're using a Mac. Core Audio is good at recognizing the best way to talk to an audio device, but with Windows, you have to beat it into submission. As far as I can tell, Audacity still doesn't support ASIO drivers under Windows, and this limits what you can do with it using a multichannel interface. I was trying to help out someone who couldn't get audio into Abelton Live from his Mackie Firewire mixer. He said he also had Audacity and couldn't get it to work with that either. I tried it and found that in Windows, Audacity uses only MME or DirectSound drivers (sorry if this isn't the computer-correct terminology - those are the only choices), so all I can see is inputs 1-2 instead of all 16. Apparently Sourceforge doesn't distribute ASIO capability with the program due to license requirements but it's possible to compile an ASIO-capable version for personal (not to be distributed) use. But how many casual users are smart enough to do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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