Audacity is available for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. It’s been around quite a while and is highly rated, with over three million downloads from cnet.com.
You can download your free copy of Audacity at…
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
You can use Audacity to record and edit your tunes so you can sell them as downloads on the internet. You can fade in and fade out beginnings and endings of songs, so people can hear short samples on such places as CDbaby.com and Earbuzz.com.
As of this writing, Audacity will import and export the following files:
- WAV
- AIFF
- MP3
- OGG
One word of warning. Open source software is developed by many programmers from all around the world, and we owe a lot to these people who give of their time. However, documentation on how to use this type of software is usually a little more sketchy than documentation for commercial programs. So you may have to do your own search to find a way to learn it that’s suited to your learning style.
This page: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Tutorials, has various tutorials on:
- Making ringtones
- Creating podcasts
- Creating and burning CDs
- Exporting to iTunes and iPods
The good thing is that because Audacity has been around a long time, there is a lot of documentation if you search for it.
When I used Audacity (an older version) I was quite happy with what it could do, and even used it in preference to some of the other store-bought programs I had.
If you are new to audio, or are looking for a good audio recording and editing program, it’s worth the time to learn this one. And the price is unbeatable – FREE.
Good editing,
Allan Harris,
BellaOnline’s Musician’s Editor
My Music on CDbaby: Music to heal emotions & boost your creativity