Audacity and Reaper provide free and cheap audio editing

Posted Jul 11th 2007 4:30PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Audio, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Shareware, Freeware

Podcasters and pretty much anyone in need of low-cost (as in free) audio editing software have been using Audacity for years. It's not quite as full-featured as Pro Tools or Adobe Audition, but with each release, Audacity becomes a more viable alternative for music producers, podcasters, and radio journalists.

While the last stable release of the cross-platform audio editor was version 1.2.6, the developers recently pushed out Audacity 1.3.3 beta, and it's miles ahead of the stable version. Here are just a few of the latest updates:

Import Quicktime files in OSX (mov, aac, m4a)
Add metadata to OGG files
Improved export option selection
EQ and effects improvements
Screen capture utility
Improved spectrogram rendering
Selection bar improvements
New features for label tracks
Auto-save and crash recovery
Collapse and expand tracks
Multiple clips per track

But if you're looking for a more traditional audio editor, you might want to check out Reaper. This audio editor from Winamp creator Justin Frankel is under constant development, but it's already a full fledged program. And best of all, it's uncrippled shareware. The full license is $40, but you can use it for free for 30 days. And at the end of the trial period, you can continue to use the program, but it will nag you until you register.

The latest version of Reaper is version 1.875. And unlike Audacity, it features controls that should be familiar to anyone who has used Pro Tools, Adobe Audition, or other popular (and expensive) audio editing applications. There's a mixer window in the bottom, volume, pan, and effects editing in the playlist, and the ability to edit in ripple mode (delete a section, and the rest of the project will shift to the left).

Here are some of the updates in Reaper 1.875, released this week:

Added an option to prevent projects from overriding device sample rate.
Added scrollbar skinning
Click and drag tracks by their labels
Improved drawing of collapsed tracks
Quicker scanning of already scanned VST plugins

Reaper is Windows only, and runs on Windows 98/ME/XP/2000/Vista.

Tags: adobe audition, AdobeAudition, audacity, audio editing, AudioEditing, pro tools, ProTools, reaper

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-11-2007 @ 4:50PM

someaudioguy said...

I can totally back up Audacity. Just the fact that it plays equally well between Mac and PC makes it worth it's weight in gold.

Haven't tried Reaper yet...

7-11-2007 @ 5:40PM

Trevor said...

"Not quite as full featured as Pro Tools..." That's an understatement :)

Another worth looking at is GoldWave. It's not very well suited to recording, but if you want to cut up and edit your existing mp3s, it's much easier than dealing with Audacity.

7-12-2007 @ 9:09AM

Mike J said...

Along the lines of Reaper is Krystal : http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/ .

7-12-2007 @ 10:18AM

hazard said...

Repear's a great download .. nice one :)

7-12-2007 @ 10:19AM

Brad Linder said...

Yeah, we'd covered Reaper before, but not since the 1.05 release. And to be honest I was never that impressed with it before. It had potential, but it was a far cry from more polished audio editors.

But after seeing that Audacity was updated, I decided to take Reaper 1.875 for a spin, and I'm almost convinced I should stop using my (very) old copy of Cool Edit.

7-12-2007 @ 11:46AM

Yayaja said...

I was looking for something EXACTLY like this for months! I have never heard of audacity OR reaper, Thanks download squad!!!!

8-01-2007 @ 12:12PM

ch0gan said...

There's another free DAW called Traverso which looks interesting, though I've never tried it.

http://traverso-daw.org/

8-02-2007 @ 8:36AM

Glutnix said...

Please hook me up with some Skitch please!

8-15-2007 @ 12:37PM

Pranav said...

How can i use gtalk on my MAC Machine. Can we install gtalk on MAC??

9-29-2007 @ 9:20AM

leonbrown said...

good

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