7 Things You Should Know About Audacity
1. What is it?
Audacity is a free, open source, software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.
2. Who's doing it?
It's a basic program that is relatively user-friendly and can be used by anyone in need of basic audio editing.
3. How does it work?
Audacity is a timeline-based audio-editing software program. The audio clip is either imported into the program or it is recorded via a microphone. The audio will display on a timeline that can be cut, trimmed, amplified, or silenced. It can then be saved primarily as an MP3 or Wav file.
4. Why is it significant?
It's free, open source, and available for all of the main operating systems.
5. What are the downsides?
The interface may not be quite as pretty or intuitive as other popular editing programs.
6. Where is it going?
Since Audacity is open source, it depends on the work of independent coders for improvement, however bugs are constantly being reported and addressed. A stable 2.0 release of the program is in the works.
7. What are the implications for teaching?
The availability of Audacity along with the capability to perform most basic audio manipulation tasks makes it a great choice for educators and students.