Audacity is a digital audio editor and recorder with multiple functions. For this reason, and because it has been on the market for more than 14 years, in this article about the best developers we have chosen the application created by Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg.
The History of Audacity
In 1999 Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg developed the first version of Audacity at Carnegie Mellon University, which was released on May 28, 2000 (version 0.8). In parallel with its release, it was added to the “SourceForge.net” platform.
Since then, the application has continued to reap mentions and awards. In 2008 it was included by PC World magazine in the list of the 100 best programs of that year.
In 2011 it was one of the most downloaded applications on SourceForge (76.5 million downloads), and this platform gave it the award for Best Multimedia Project in 2007 and 2009.
Compatibility and Accessibility
The utility is fully compatible with JAWS, NVDA and Windows screen readers, and the VoiceOver tool on Mac OS X operating systems.
And you can control the platform from your computer’s keyboard, having the option to use a large number of keyboard shortcuts.
Audacity Features
In addition to being a multi-source audio recorder (16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit), the application is a powerful editor for digital audio post-production. For example, you can add effects to your podcasts or do more complicated things like record and edit a complete album (Tune-Yards, Merrill Garbus).
With the utility you can import and export to WAV, AIFF, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, formats supported by the libsndfile library, WMA, AAC, AMR and AC3. You can also cut, copy, paste and undo, mix multiple tracks, incorporate effects and plugins such as Echo, Paulstretch (extreme stretching), Phase, Wahwah, Reverb, Inversion and Silence truncation (also add new effects via LADSPA, Nyquist, VST and Audio Unit effect plugins). You can perform surround editing, remove noise, analyze the track spectrum (using the Fourier algorithm), process effects and digitize files, among many other functions. One of the highlights of the platform is that the user interface is very similar on any operating system, and that is due to the use of the wxWidgets library.
The Audacity License
Audacity is a free and open source application that is licensed under the GNU license and is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. As you can see, Audacity is a great application that edits and records digital audio, and since its release it has been renewed and has not betrayed users with a change in its license.
