Wavosaur is a digital audio editor for Windows. Sure, those may be a dime a dozen, but there are a few things that make Wavosaur useful. First of all, there's no installation required. You can run Wavosaur from a flash drive if you like. Beware, this 464KB executable will create a bunch of associated configuration files, so you'll want to place it in its own folder. But you can run it from any folder.

Wavosaur also supports VST plugins, multiple file formats including WAV, MP3, and OGG, and all the usual audio editing feaures like copy, paste, mix, trim, crop, insert silence, normalize, fade in/out and so on. If you just want to perform quick tasks like converting stereo files to mono, Wavosaur is a nice low-profile alternative to fuller-featured programs like Audacity or Reaper.

There is no multitrack editing mode, but you can multiple files at the same time. One thing we noticed is that Wavosaur doesn't like working with large files very much. We got it to load a 30 minute file with no problem, but when we went to start editing, the application locked up on us. So we'd recommend Wavosaur for quick and dirty tasks, or for anyone looking for a tiny audio editor that won't take up much space on a flash drive. That said, both Reaper and Audacity can also be installed to a portable flash drive, but they also take up a bit more space.

[via Making Music]

The folks behind the digital audio editing application Reaper just don't seem to know when to stop. We just noticed that the digital audio workstation got bumped up to version 2.0, and by the time we went to download it Reaper 2.002 was out.

Sometimes it seems like there's an update every time we blink. And unfortunately, there's no automated updater, so you have to download and install a new version every time you upgrade.

That said, Reaper 2.0 looks sweet. There's a new default theme which is pretty sexy, but there are also a ton of tweaks under the hood. Here are a few highlights:

• New pitch and time-stretch modes
• New extended mixer views
• New pitch-shifter plugin
• New automation options
• Improved plug-in compatibility
• Performance enhancements and bug tweaks galore

You can download an evaluation copy of Reaper and use it for free for 30 days. After that point, a message pops up every time you load it asking you to register, but the program remains completely functional. A full commercial license will set you back $225, but if you plan to use the software for non-commercial use, you can buy a license for $50.

[via Making Music]

Download Squad reader ch0gan saw our article on digital audio editors Reaper and Audacity and turned us onto another free audio workstation called Traverso. Right now it's a pretty basic audio editor, but it shows promise.

Traverso relies heavily on keyboard shortcuts, which is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, most digital audio editors worth their salt include a plethora of customizable shortcuts to let you speed up your workflow. On the other hand, Traverso does a few baffling things.

For example, you use your mouse to position a red line on the screen. In most software, pressing the space bar would play the audio from the position of the red bar. In Traverso you have to press V on your keyboard in order to bring a blue line over to the red line, and then you can play from that position.

Traverso is still under development. The version we tested was labeled 0.41, so we'll reserve overall judgement until there's a final release. But the absolutely coolest thing about Traveso is that it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. Oh, and did we mention that it's free?

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.

"REAPER is a powerful Windows application for multitrack recording and editing of audio. REAPER provides a flexible but easy to use interface that is suitable for amateurs and professionals alike."-reaper.fm website. That pretty much says it all. Brought to us by Cockos, Inc., REAPER is a decent recording environment, and while it isn't as full featured as ProTools, Audition, or some of the other professional recording applications, it also doesn't need a huge memory or hard drive space overhead to get the job done. You may have seen Jordan's post on REAPER in December last year, but it was only up to version 0.42 at the time. Now REAPER is at version 1.05, and it seems that the developers have been busy. I am pretty impressed with this latest version, and if Jordan didn't convince you then, the deal now sounds much sweeter.

[Via Blizzle.com]

More screenshots after the jump...

Winamp creator Justin Frankel's new company Cockos has released REAPER, a "powerful but sensible" audio recorder and editor for Windows. As we've come to expect from Frankel, REAPER is a bit of a wonder: in a download of less than 1MB, Cockos has packed a ton of features such as unlimited tracks, multi-level undo and redo, plugin support, several input and output formats, and project template support. Currently at version 0.42 and under constant development, REAPER is currently freeware but will become "very reasonably priced" shareware once it hits 1.0.

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