Record and Edit Sound Files with Audacity

If you're looking to record your own musical tracks into your computer, or just to add a bit more bass to your favorite song, Audacity might be the free audio editing program for you. A while back, I heard that the song Fire on High by ELO has a section of reversed vocals in it, so I went looking for a way to isolate the section and flip it so that I could hear the hidden message. After a little searching, I found the program Audacity. It did exactly what I wanted, and a whole lot more.

For a free program, Audacity is incredible. It lets you import your .wav or .mp3 files and then mess with them any way you want. You can play with tons of effects, such as echo, bass, treble, amplify, phazer, wahwah, pitch, and speed. Each effect has multiple options, such as delay, duration, and intensity, so you can get exactly what you want. You can also mix and match songs together, or cut out parts you don't like. It has a built in beat finder, so you can sync up multiple channels of similar songs to make a mash-up. For the adventurous audiophile, it even lets you edit the song's waveform itself.

Editing pre-existing sound files is only a tiny part of what Audacity can do. The program can detect your computer's audio hardware, so if you have a good sound card you can record stuff right into your computer (i.e. connecting your guitar, musical keyboard, microphone, or any combination of stuff to your computer, assuming your hardware is compatable). It also has the option to record "what you hear", which means it copies whatever sound your computer is currently playing onto a waveform and encodes it as a .wav file. This lets you record streaming music or the audio in a game you are playing. Audacity is compatible with multiple plug-ins, so you can add features such as synthesized pedal effects or alternative encoder schemes.