Audacity: Multi-Track Reel-to-Reel for the Digital Age

Do you have the audacity to use Audacity? If you do, our reviewer says he wouldn’t consider you audacious for a second because this app is fantastic.

At one point in my life, I had seven podcasts running at the same time. Yeah, seven. Those days are no more because I’m older and I have less downtime than I once did. Even so, I remember those days well and still use most of the tools I relied on at the time.

One of those tools is Audacity.

According to its website, it’s “an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. Audacity is free, open source software.”

It’s definitely true that Audacity is quite easy to use. It also has a ton of features, such as:

• supports all major audio formats
• includes plugin support
• use it for deep audio analysis
• includes plenty of built-in filters and effects
• recording, editing, and sound manipulation
• convert formats
• and more

Audacity can be used for everything from simple interviews to complex to multi-track songs — and everything in between. In all my years with Audacity, I never once had a problem. In fact, Audacity saved my hide on several occasions, when other, similar apps failed. I’ve even imported video files — which stripped away the video in the process — to improve the audio. I could then export the improved audio back into the video project.

Over the years, I have run into several problems that would have required costlier, more complicated solutions to fix without Audacity.

Installing Audacity on Linux

Once upon a time, I would have installed Audacity from the default repositories of whatever Linux distribution I was using. That was then; this is now: Sure, you can still install Audicity from the default repositories, but if you want the most recent version, you’ll use the AppImage download that’s available on the official Audacity download page.

Once you’ve downloaded the AppImage, I would highly recommend using a tool called Gear Lever. By making use of Gear Lever, you don’t have to run the AppImage from the command line, and it automatically adds a launcher to your desktop menu for easier access.

I would also recommend creating a folder dedicated to all of your AppImage files, which makes them easier to manage. But that’s just me and you should do you.

A Very Handy Trick

Using Audacity isn’t hard, but there’s a lot of secrets of use to be discovered within its menu hierarchy. One really handy trick that never fails to help me out removes background noise without having to depend on AI.

Background noise is the bane of existence for podcasters, and you’ll often need to remove it. Here’s how you can take care of that issue, assuming you already have Audacity up and running and an audio track imported:

Once you’re ready, zoom into the audio track (either using your mouse wheel/trackpad, or via the View > Zoom menu. With the audio track zoomed in, you should be able to highlight a section of the track that only contains the ambient sound.

Once you’ve done that, select Effect > Noise Removal and Reduction > Noise Reduction. In the resulting pop-up, click Get Noise Profile.

Now, click Ctrl+A to highlight the entire track. Once you’ve done that, click Effect > Noise Removal and Reduction > Noise Reduction a second time and then check your settings (you might have to play with the Noise reduction (dB) setting and Sensitivity to get it just right). With everything set, click OK, and you should see the background noise disappear (or almost disappear) from the track. Play it back and you should hear a dramatic improvement. If not, go through the process again and change the settings.

Audacity is an incredible tool for podcasters, interviewers, musicians, or anyone else who needs to create or work with audio. Give it a try and see if it doesn’t have you shouting, “That’s audacious!”