Audacity

Audacity 4.0

Audacity 4 rebuilds the application interface on Qt and introduces many new quality-of-life improvements, including a new clip-editing model. Most Audacity 3 workflows remain available, but some controls have moved or changed.

Watch the video:

Editing clips

• Clips can be selected directly. Click a clip header to select it, or Shift-click to select multiple clips.
• Several clips can be edited together. Moving, trimming and time stretching apply to all selected clips.
• Clips can be grouped. Groups remain together when moved, copied, pasted or duplicated.
• Clips can be placed more freely. They can move between mono and stereo tracks. Moving a clip over another replaces the overlapped part instead of blocking the move.
• Splitting has a dedicated tool. Press or hold S, then click the waveform or clip header. Split, split-cut, split-delete, split at silences and split to a new track are also available as commands.
• Paste handles more cases automatically. Audacity can create a track when needed, adapt compatible channel layouts and paste audio files from the operating-system clipboard.
• Alignment guides, sample-boundary snapping and per-project snap settings have been added or expanded.

Interface and tools

• The interface has been rebuilt on Qt, with native high-DPI rendering.
• Toolbars and panels can be moved, docked, floated, shown or hidden.
• UI layouts can be saved as Workspaces. Audacity includes Modern, Classic and Music workspaces.
• Light, dark and high-contrast themes are available, along with accent colors, track colors and several clip styles.
• The new Home screen shows recent projects with preview thumbnails.

The separate Select, Envelope, Draw and Multi-tool modes have been removed. Their functions are now context-sensitive:

• Volume envelopes are displayed in the Clip gain mode.
• Sample drawing becomes available when the waveform is zoomed to individual samples.
• Splitting is available by holding S.
• Track and effect parameters use consistent rotary controls with fine adjustment and double-click reset.
• Sync-Lock has been removed. Delete, cut and paste now have explicit variants for either leaving a gap or moving later material to preserve timing.

Playback and recording

• The playhead remains visible during navigation and can be dragged to a new position.
• Playback can seek to another position without stopping.
• Recording can start anywhere on the timeline and creates a clip at that position.
• Loop boundaries and the interaction between playback, selections and loops have been revised.
• Punch and Roll, lead-in recording, latency compensation, software playthrough and per-track input monitoring have been rebuilt for the new interface.
• Audio Setup now includes system-default devices, refreshable device lists and custom channel mapping. Audacity can follow operating-system device changes automatically.
• Official Windows builds include ASIO playback and recording support.

Tracks, meters and effects

• Track headers now contain live playback and recording meters.
• Preset handling is consistent across built-in, destructive and realtime effects.
• Built-in effects, generators and analyzers have been rebuilt for the Qt interface.
• Supported plugin formats are VST3, Nyquist, LV2 on Linux and Audio Units on macOS. Audacity can display generated controls when a plugin's own interface is unavailable.
• Spectrogram has been redesigned with clearer guides and rulers, and faster rendering.

Projects, import and export

• Audacity 4 uses the new .aup4 project format.
• .aup3 projects open and convert to .aup4 without changing the original file. Converted projects cannot be saved back to .aup3.
• Older .aup projects can be imported.
• Project files store preview thumbnails and Audacity 4's additional clip and appearance data.

And last but not least, we had the audacity to change the Audacity logo.

Compatibility notes

The following Audacity 3 features are not available in Audacity 4.0, but we're working on adding them in future releases.

• Time Tracks
• Note/MIDI tracks
• Mixer
• Macro Manager and the scripting pipe
• VAMP and LADSPA plugin hosting
• Play-at-speed

Sync-Lock and the old tool modes were replaced by the workflows described above.

Additionally, Audacity 4 ships with some missing exporting and rendering features, analyzers, and effects.

Update: audacity-sources-4.0.0.tar.xz was updated to include SoundTouch and sbsms 3rd-party libraries.

This is a patch release. It contains the following changes:

• #11690 Enabled ASIO support for the Windows builds, playback and recording device selection is remembered per-host now
• #11679 Added FFmpeg 9 support
• #11714 Fixed several sources of project corruption and data loss: when the disk runs out of space, when a drive is disconnected right after a project is closed, and when a recovered project is closed without saving
• #11709 Fixed crashes while a realtime effect editor is open, master track effect changes can now be undone
• #11696 Fixed a freeze when double-clicking the timeline while a MIDI track is present MIDI playback now also starts from the set position instead of the beginning
• #11711 Fixed a crash after a failed recording attempt
• #11526 Fixed clips having the wrong tempo after opening a project (Thanks, David Bailes (@DavidBailes)!)
• #11623 Fixed a freeze on startup on systems with an incorrect font configuration

Full Changelog: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/compare/Audacity-3.7.8...Audacity-3.7.9

UPDATE: due to issues with our infra, the manual published earlier was corrupted and was replaced. There were no security risks involved.

Hello everyone, beta 4 is here!

There are a lot of changes since the last beta, which was beta 2. Where is beta 3, you ask? We do not know.

Highlights:

• #11330 ASIO support on Windows, finally!
• #11581 FFmpeg 9 support
• #10280 Bass and Treble effect is back
• #11205 Import for legacy Audacity projects (.aup)
• #11389 "System default" option for playback and recording devices
• #11498, #11467, #10441 Better clip editing. And yes, we heard the feedback and now the playback cursor does not jump to the start of the clip when you click on it.
• #11750, #11375, #11120 Export upgrades: Export preferences page, custom sample rate option, trim blank space on export

Stability:

• #11604 Plugins that crash Audacity are now detected and marked as broken, instead of crashing the app on every launch
• #11378 Fixes project corruptions
• Many other crash fixes and stability improvements
• Many fixes for Audio.com cloud integration

Minor goodies:

• Installers and builds in general are much smaller, and now there are ARM64 builds for Windows and Linux
• Improved accessibility, including better support for screen readers, still far from perfect and we keep working on it
• Improved dependency management, now Audacity 4 can be built in an offline environment

For the full picture of what to expect, head over to our special page: https://www.audacityteam.org/next/

UPDATE: due to issues with our infra, Windows packages contained outdated builds instead of beta 4 and were replaced with builds from this pipeline run. There were no security risks involved.

:warning: This is still a beta

We are getting closer to the release, but still expect bugs, rough edges, and features that don't work quite right yet, or aren't there at all. Please don't use it for important work, and keep backups of your projects. If you open your Audacity 3 project in Audacity 4 a copy will be made, so your original data will be intact.

• Found a bug? Open an issue
• Want to chat? Join the discussion

This is a patch release. It contains the following changes:

• #10688 Fixed an exception thrown when pasting into a newly-created track (Thanks, David Bailes (@DavidBailes)!)
• #10870, #10884, #10775, #10629 Fixed tone generation, waveform-scale setting, SetClip Name parameter, and clip-boundary command names for scripting and macros (Thank you, David Bailes (@DavidBailes)!)
• #11106 Fixed the loading of presets for the Distortion effect (A million thanks, David Bailes (@DavidBailes)!)
• #10947 Fixed paste into an empty audio track not preserving the source sample rate (Thanks, Juan Gabriel Colonna (@juancolonna)!)
• #10776 Allowed AltGr modifier in label and clip name editing (Thanks, Davide Peressoni (@DPDmancul)!)
• #9938 Added options to choose where silence is truncated (start/middle/end) (Thanks, Noah Rosenfield (@nosenfield)!)
• #9935 Added Podcast 2.0 chapters JSON export for label tracks (Thanks, Noah Rosenfield (@nosenfield)!)
• #10103 Improve UI on HiDPI displays on Linux/wxGTK (Thanks, Ivan A. Melnikov (@iv-m)!)
• #10099 Fixed MixerBoard Mute and Solo button display (Thanks, Ivan A. Melnikov (@iv-m)!)
• #10681 Fixed multichannel FLAC import
• #10999 Fixed envelope being broken after joining clips

This is a hotfix release. It fixes broken waveform scrolling and selection for some users introduced in 3.7.6. The fix was provided by @iv-m and @DavidBailes, thank you!

Other changes:

• #9940 Added checksum to WavPack export (thanks @ajsand)

New Contributors

• @iv-m made their first contribution in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/10011
• @ajsand made their first contribution in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9940

Full Changelog: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/compare/Audacity-3.7.6...Audacity-3.7.7

This is a patch release. It contains the following changes:

• #9742 Added FFmpeg 8 support
• #9565 Added middle-mouse drag panning over track panel (Thanks, Anders Jenbo (@AJenbo))
• #9863 Added "Import from audio.com" dialog to import audio files from audio.com
• #9838 Fixed unstable cloud audio uploads
• #9576 Allowed export as OGG/Opus when exporting with FFmpeg
• #9929 Fixed 16-bit FLAC import
• #9897 Library updates: libcurl to 8.17.0, wavpack to 5.7.0

New Contributors

• @AJenbo made their first contribution in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9565
• @kgramhans made their first contribution in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9510
• @teetow made their first contribution in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9975

NOTE: When we first published the changelog, we accidentally included Spectrogram Wavelet analysis (Thanks, Klaus Gram-Hansen (@kgramhans)) as if it were already shipped. That one is not quite ready yet, so it is not enabled in this release. Sorry for the confusion!

If you're curious and want to play with the experimental wavelet-enabled build, you can grab it here: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/actions/runs/20054770477

Full Changelog: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/compare/Audacity-3.7.5...Audacity-3.7.6

Notable changes since alpha-1

• Allow track range selection using shift enter by @embarc-gabriel in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9600
• Record anywhere by @grliszas14 in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9540
• Export loop region by @grliszas14 in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9489
• Paste behaviour preferences by @luapmartin in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9612
• Add setting to configure whether clicking on ruler should trigger playback by @embarc-gabriel in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9707
• Create loop region only when control key is pressed by @embarc-gabriel in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9712
• Smoother playhead by @saintmatthieu in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/9613

Windows ARM64 beta

In this release, we added support for Windows ARM64. At this time, it comes with the following caveats:

• Audacity for WoA requires Windows 11 or later. Windows RT is not supported.
• Plugins (VST, OpenVINO, etc.) are not supported.
• It requires an WoA-version of FFmpeg, the regular installer does not work.
• It was not thoroughly tested with all features and workflows due to a lack of devices – your feedback is welcome.

Other changes:

• #8942 Windows on ARM support (Thanks, Vasanth K (@vask2108) and Linaro!)
• #9121 FLAC importer now supports 32-bit PCM (Thanks, Dr. K. D. Murray (@kdm9)!)
• #8851 Fixed crash when rendering spectrum view (Thanks, Hailey Somerville (@haileys)!)
• #9097 Fixed lost focus when registration window was closed
• #8932 Fixed crash on wav import (when audio file is up to 7 ms long)
• #4444 Fixed crash when using Macro Wizard
• #9100, #8890 Updated libopus to 1.5.2, updated libcurl to 8.12.1, updated libpng to 1.6.50

This is a patch release. It contains the following changes:

• Added a new welcome/what's new screen.
• OpenVINO effects are now available on macOS. More about that can be found in this blogpost.
• OpenVINO effects can now be found via the Get Effects button. (NB, this is a slow rollout - you may not see it there just yet at the time of release)
• OpenVINO effects have been recategorized into their own category in the Effect menu. This also goes for the transcription and music generator feature, previously found in the Generate and Analyze menus, respectively.
• #6890 Fixed a crash when closing a large unsaved project
• #8709 Fixed a crash when using real-time effects that activate delay compensation
• #8494 Fixed issue where Studio Fade Out creates a new clip when applied at the end of a clip
• #8442 Fixed incorrect waveform rendering on clipped audio
• #8559 Fixed unintended deletion of a clip when joining two clips with pitch adjustment
• #3003 Effect preview now works when the track is muted
• #8666 Fixed possible incorrect calculations in the Hamming window derivative (Thanks, @witwald!)
• #8577 Fixed compilation issues on legacy macOS (Thanks, @barracuda156!)

This is a hotfix release. It fixes the following bugs:

• #8426 Incorrect results when applying effects to multiple clips
• #8425 Truncate Silence fails to work properly when there is more than one silent part

This is a patch release. It contains the following changes:

• #8290 Fixed a crash when applying some effects across multiple tracks if one track is empty.
• #8157, #8155 Fixed some crashes emanating from the Mixer window.
• #7672 Returned the "Residue" option in noise reduction. (Thanks, Christopher Rooney!)
• #7809 Modules are now allowed to stick around when patch releases like this one are published. This means you likely won't need to update the OpenVINO again during 3.7.x.
• #7076 When adding a realtime effect to a track, the effect settings are now opened immediately.
• #7819 Added an infobox when saving a project in a new version breaks compatibility with an old one.
• #7740 Added a preference to turn off automatic tempo detection.
• #4169 When duplicating tracks, the duplicated tracks now have independent realtime effect instances.
• #7700 Fixed range-selection beyond the edge of a clip being destructive.
• #8013, #8008, #8004, #8009, #8003, #8005, #8071 Improved stability of cloud saving.
• #7410 Fixed pasting content from a clip at the beginning of itself being offset in time.
• #4231 macOS: Fixed AUSoundIsolation.
• #6342 Fixed audacity continuing to scroll after letting go of the scrollbar.
• #8110 Fixed black stripes appearing when zooming in while in the envelope or multi-tool.
• #8043 Added a new "get effects" button next to the Upload Audio button.
• #8211 Added UUID instance support. See this page for further info: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/introducing-a-uuid-system-in-audacity-here-s-what-you-need-to-know/128561
• #7154 Fixed label texts using the wrong color in dark themes. (Thanks, GovindaMadhava!)
• #8261 Fixed tracks being incorrectly drawn on high zoom levels using high precision trackpads.
• #7902 Linux: Fixed FFmpeg loading in the Ubuntu 22.04 AppImage.

This is a patch release. It fixes the following bugs:

• #7797 Effects can be applied to time-stretched clips.
• #7620 Moving or renaming the installation directory no longer re-enables disabled modules.
• #7652 Opening the "Adjust Playback Speed" dialog doesn't crash Audacity anymore.