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Audacity 1.2.0 Released

Posted by timothy on from the cross-platform-and-smooth dept.

mbrubeck writes "After almost two years of development, the free cross-platform sound editor Audacity has released a new stable version for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Audacity 1.2 has major improvements including professional-quality dithering and resampling, and new pitch- and speed-changing effects. Our previous stable release was announced on Slashdot in June 2002. More recently, Audacity was presented at this year's CodeCon in San Francisco."

13 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. Hopefully studio costs going down by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hopefully open source software will help make studio recording costs go down... it costs a freaking fortune to record a band/etc., and that's part of the reason that artists get little out of their gross profits.

    --
    stuff |
    1. Re:Hopefully studio costs going down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      With Ardour, JAMin, and Audacity my cost (software) to record is $0.00.

    2. Re:Hopefully studio costs going down by LizardKing · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Software is a trivial cost in the grand scheme of things

      That really depends on what you are trying to acheive. If you want a respectable home setup, then software is likely a major part of the cost. Most amateur and semi-pro setups now consist largely of direct to disk recorders and editing suites. Effects, synths and samplers implemented in software are increasingly replacing standalone hardware.

      a decent vocal microphone such as a Neumann U87 will set you back around $3000

      That's not a "decent" vocal mic, it's an exceptional one. For most people recording popular music styles (be it rock or dance stuff) will not need anything more sophisticated than a Shure SM mic which will set them back $100.

      Chris

  2. The world of Out Of Phase Stereo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I use Audacity a lot to do "Out Of Phase Stereo" or OOPS to remove the "center" of a stereo recording.
    Many songs put the vocalist at the center so this is a useful way to remove vocals from a song.
    1) Load your favorite .MP3, .OGG, or .WAV song
    2) one click to split into two tracks (left & right)
    3) click on either left or right track, select "Invert" from the Effects menu...this is the key step.
    4) click-select both tracks and select "Quick Mix"
    5) you are left with a mono recording that has the former "center channel" (usually the vocals) removed!

    This won't work on "live" concert recordings and works best with "Pop/Rock" from the 1960s & 1970s

    Thomas Dz.

  3. still lack vital ui feature? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    i remembered testing it and being really satisfied with its editing features. but, i had no index while playing a project, of where the sound-head was in the file. i am used to seeing a line that shows which audio data is played at the moment, yet audacity lacks that features? is this now available?

  4. comparing the wrong things by qortra · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Audacity is a fantasic wave editor, but it is neither a sampler (like the s900) nor a multitracker (like cubase) nor a proprietary hardware money-making machine (like protools). If you're looking for a computer based DAW, check out Ardour; it's quite nice, and its all graphical (so long as you have jack running somewhere).

  5. !Cool! by tcdk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And I was looking around for a new sound edit program. I've been using CoolEdit for a long time but Audacity seems to do everything I need.

    Just took it for a spin and it looks good. It even have a noise reduction function...

    Hey, just checked the undo feature and you can even undo the mp3 import.

    The mp3 export function seems a bit lacking, but thats what programs like CDex is for (on windows).

    --
    TC - My Photos..
  6. A question for Audacity users.. by Mr+Smidge · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Perhaps I can take advantage of this discussion to ask a quick question..

    How might I record from the line in port of my sound card? I generally record vinyls that I own to a digital format to listen to more conveniently, and audacity's GUI option dialog only allows me to record from /dev/dsp, which records everything, i.e. "What U Hear".

    I tried changing it to /dev/mixer in the config file, but the effect was the same.

    This is annoying, if I'm recording and GAIM happens to make a noise, or something else does. I know I could just kill every other sound-producing process, but I'd rather work out how to record directly from line-in.

    Any clues? Thank you, knowledgeable /. crowd.

    Before you ask, I have STFW somewhat on this..

  7. Debian Woody packages? by Bill+Kendrick · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was so excited when I saw "Debian" listed on the download page, til I discovered it was about some _POTATO_ packages! :^(

    I tried replacing "potato" with "woody" in the apt source URL, but to no avail. :^( Anyone built Audacity 1.2.0 for Woody yet? C'mon! Backports! Backports! I LIVE off 'em! ;^)

    -bill!
    (yes, yes, I know about apt-pinning :^P )

  8. Rezound by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://rezound.sourceforge.net
    I think this is better...

  9. Re:Videoediting by madsdyd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I like Kino - so much that I actually contributed to it. Lots of people seem to like Cinerella There are a lot of other projects.

  10. Re:Videoediting by TuxBeej · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I used Cinelerra for a project in my Japanese theatre class and it was a *very* steep learning curve. Of course, it was also the first time I had done any sort of non-linear video editing, so that is probably paritally to blame.

    After I got used to the interface and the specific methods of inserting transitions and whatnot, I found it pretty simple to add in voice-over tracks and sound/video effects. I was also using it on a Duron 933 w/ 512 MB RAM - not at all a powerhouse video-editing workstation by any stretch of the imagination (check the recommended system on the Cinelerra home page).

    I basically just imported clips from a FireWire digicam, spliced in some clips from some anime to illustrate my points, and added effects to clean up the transitions. I didn't get the project done, but I did find that learning the software was a fun experience. I'll probably try it again someday, but this time, I'll be using a better class of system.

    I would definitely recommend that people at least *try* Cinelerra when they have some time to spare to learn the interface. Having not tried Kino for some such forgotten reason, I can't compare the two.
    --

    --
    Brendan "Beej" Dery "Only in Canada, eh?"
  11. Re:Slashdot math... by stor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hey Dominic!

    I just wanted to let you know:

    I was flipping through a PC Mag at Sydney airport while waiting for a plane and it had a section reviewing sound applications.

    So there was SoundForge, CoolEdit, a wholy bunch of expensive proprietary Windows sound applications and... Audacity!

    I had to blink to ensure I wasn't hallucinating. It got a good review, too. The reviewer was impressed.

    Just thought you'd like to know that you're officially playing with the big boys.

    Cheers
    Stor

    --
    "Yeah well there's a lot of stuff that should be, but isn't"