Popular Open-Source Audio Editor Audacity Adds Windows 10 Support, More Improvements

Audacity, a popular open-source and cross-platform audio editor, has received a "maintenance" update that brings several improvements. Dubbed v2.1.3, the biggest new addition appears to be support for Windows 10 OS. For Mac users, Audacity now works in tandem with the Magic Mouse. "We now support Trackpad and Magic Mouse horizontal scroll without SHIFT key and Trackpad pinch and expand to zoom at the pointer," the release note says. We also have new "Scrub Ruler" and "Scrub Toolbar" scrubbing options in the application now. Read the full changelog here.

Bugfix

[Tablizer]

Improvements...Windows 10 is now supported (there should be no "Internal PortAudio Error" or failure to find any devices as long as the built-in audio devices are enabled).

That's not "improvements", that's a bug fix in my book.

Nobody uses Audacity anymore

[goombah99]

It's too popular.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a job. It's cucking your dad.

Re:

[Cley Faye]

It is. I don't know what they did (I'll check the changelog when I install it), but I've been using Audacity on W10 with no issues or workaround of any kind.

Re: Bugfix

[Zero__Kelvin]

It doesn't say they REMOVED support for Win 10 ... You misread it evidently.

Re:

[Desler]

Oh shit! An internet badass!!

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[inflex]

Had big hopes for OpenShot, then yep,it went to the crapper and the linux version ended up being more broken than the earlier editions.

Thankfully at least now there's Shotcut ( http://shotcut.org/ [shotcut.org] ) which seems like a far saner group of developers and the product actually works (using it to do all my YT videos). Lots of additional items to add to Shotcut but it's vastly further along.

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[Anonymous Coward]

This is so funnay!!! You going to be the next Dane Cook or Carlos Mencia!!

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You are welcome. :) Boy, you are certainly the big Carlos Mencia fan!

Also, what or who is Dane Cook?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[Desler]

Hurr hurr... What a witty rejoinder.

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[UnknownSoldier]

/sarcasm Exactly, in between reboots. :-)

Ba dum tsh.

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[BronsCon]

I'd say... most days since I started using it in 2015. I was able to say "every day" until it happened to me back in October on a Win 10 Home system. And again 3 days ago, on a Win 10 Pro system.

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[ezelkow1]

That happens? since when? I have been running windows 10 since release and not once has it ever attempted to update while I was using it. At most I have a message in the action center saying updates are available and ready, or that it will need to reboot to update, but I have never had a forced update/reboot occur during usage

Theres a reason there is an 'active hours' setting. It specifically states that windows will never automatically reboot due to an update during active hours with a note below that stat

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[Desler]

It's likely to have happened to some people, but it's heavily overblown. They can't let facts get in the way, though.

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[Anonymous Coward]

For the 3D rendering job, what amateur hour software are you using that doesn't save and restart its state? No program should expect to be running, uninterrupted, for hours - it should be saving state so when something goes wrong, it can just resume from where it left off. (Yes, some of this is lazy developers - I have hydrodynamic software that suffers from this, because it makes engineers grumpy when there's a power cut, beyond our control. Something as simple as saving state every five minutes is such

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

For the 3D rendering job, what amateur hour software are you using that doesn't save and restart its state?

I wouldn't call Z-brush, Mudbox, Maya or 3DS Max amateur. It sounds like you haven't got a fucking clue what you are talking about and don't understand 3D modeling or graphics work at all.

No program should expect to be running, uninterrupted, for hours

Are you out of your fucking mind, you little millennial advert-weened shit? ALL program should be doing that.

it should be saving state so when something goes wrong, it can just resume from where it left off

That sounds like the job of the OS, not software. But being a stupid little Microsoft shill, you would try to pass the blame off.

As for the 3D printing job.. honestly, that should be delegated out and the entire print job sent to the independent processor on the printer.

Woulda, shoulda, coulda..what if what if what if what if. Sorry, you're disconnected f

Re:

[BronsCon]

It actually has "you're" spelled correctly, and says "this device", not "the device" (which would still be proper, anyway). I know for certain, because I'm actually looking at it as I type this, having opened the settings pane to quote it just a few moments ago.

That said, as I've literally never come back to a Windows 10 machine freshly rebooted for updates, but I have had it reboot during Active Hours and while I was actively typing on it (on 2 different machines running 2 different editions of W10, Home

Re:

[BronsCon]

Theres a reason there is an 'active hours' setting.

I'm still trying to figure out what that reason is, as both times it happened to me, once on Win 10 Home, once on a different machine running Win 10 Pro, it not only rebooted during Active Hours, but as I was actively typing!

Active hours lets us know then you usually use this device. When a restart is necessary to finish installing an update, we won't automatically restart your device during active hours.

Bull. Fucking. Shit.

Note: We'll check to see if you're using this device before attempting to restart.

Okay, that makes sense; that must mean they'll only restart automatically if you are using the device.

Which aligns quite well with my experience; I've never come back to an automatically-rebooted-for-updates Windows 10 system, but I've sure had it reboot on me whil

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[robinsc]

Never happened to me, are you sure you have the right timezone setting ? My desktop always reboots overnight when I'm not at the machine.

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[BronsCon]

The clock on the machine displays the correct time. Even if I had my time zone wrong (which I don't; Windows actually defaults to the correct time zone for me, as I share a time zone with MS), it should be using what it believes to be local time (e.g. the time it displays). Thanks for insinuating that I'm a friggin' idiot, while making it obvious that you ain't so bright yourself. :)

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[BronsCon]

Also:

Note: We'll check to see if you're using this device before attempting to restart.

Time shouldn't matter if I'm actively typing.

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[martinfb]

You have to understand, ezelkow1, that it is apparently fashionable these days to live in the 'Alternate Facts' world! ;-)

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[BronsCon]

It's not common, but I've had it happen twice, on two different machines, running two different editions (Home and Pro). I've also seen numerous live broadcasts interrupted by it, the first of which came less than a week after launch (why they upgraded so soon, I do not know). The two incidents I've witnessed firsthand were both within the last 6 months and occurred not only during my configured Active Hours, but while I was actively typing.

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[thegarbz]

Then everyone should set their settings up correctly and quit bitching about their system updating while they are doing work.

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[ArchieBunker]

Yes I have. Windows 10 installs updates without asking, thrashes the drive for hours while doing so, slows any programs you are using to a crawl, and then breaks said program after rebooting while you were getting coffee.

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[BronsCon]

I've had it reboot for updates in the middle of my workday, as I'm in the middle of typing a sentence. Twice. On two different systems. Unfortunately, I need Windows or macOS for a few apps that don't exist on Linux, or I'd make that switch in a heartbeat; and I use a few resource-heavy apps which, while they have Mac versions, simply don't perform as well on a Mac, in no small part because I can build a Windows workstation that trumps any hardware Apple is willing to sell me. That's really what's keeping m

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

windows users are not people. they are mindless slaves. your opinion, like your life is a net negative.

Re: Windows 10 is only useful for off-line work.

[Zero__Kelvin]

One presumes you are using the less accepted definition of popular: "I've never met a single person that liked him, but someone must"

Audacity has problems with Win10?

[GameboyRMH]

Why has nobody told me this? I've been using Audacity on Win10 for months!

From the Age of Aqua

[605dave]

Holy Aqua Interfaces Batman!

http://www.audacity.audio/wp-c... [www.audacity.audio]

Open source projects seem to consistently have poor UIs. And before anyone jumps me, yes I have been involved in interface design on open source apps. Maybe it's a matter of taste, but the current interface looks like a bad Aqua app from 10 years ago. Jelly bean buttons? Seriously?

And to put my time where my mouth is, if any of the developers are reading this and want help contact me. Not a deep coder but have done UI layout in the Mac/iOS world.

Can it resize clips yet?

[Trogre]

Does Audacity have the concept of clips like other sound editors and nonlinear video editors?

The last time I tried to use it, it seemed to treat each track as a single waveform, so if I trimmed a bit off a track I couldn't just drag to grow a bit of it back. This made simple tasks like synchronizing multiple tracks extremely difficult.

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[thewolfkin]

what FOSS audio editors do you use then?

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[Trogre]

Ardour, though I have played with Pro Tools a bit (obviously not FOSS).

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[thewolfkin]

seems interesting. I've never had any complaints with Audacity I find it very flexible. But I'll take a look at Ardour. maybe it has something I never knew i needed.

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[Trogre]

Ardour can be a bit "heavy", but I have been known to use the video editor kdenlive to edit audio tracks when I've badly needed clip resizing. For other sound work that doesn't need chopping and synching, I still mostly use Audacity.

Audacity is a Great Ugly Duckling

[BrendaEM]

I've used Audacity for years. It's a powerful, useful audio editor. The releases are stable. It's a great program.

Though, the UI is not in keeping with the quality of the rest of the program. I have written to the developers. The response I got back suggested that the developers are not really open for any kind of visual changes. In fact, the reskinning functionally was removed in later versions.

I would like a UI that looks more like Ardour. Though, if the developers don't like dark themed UI's, perhaps a slider could be added something like in Adobe Premier so the user can change the light/dark elements on the fly. Other work needs to be done, like modernizing the icons and making sure it is ready for 4K.

Additionally, thank you for Audacity. It is a wonderful program, worthy of being a showpiece in the open source community.

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[drinkypoo]

You do not get to talk shit about ugly UI while using hipster monoface. Get over yourself, your posts are making slashdot even uglier. Are they going to have to take that feature away?

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[robinsc]

Audacity reminds me a lot of goldwave's UI.

You're welcome

[martinX]

"Magic Mouse horizontal scroll without SHIFT key"
It's nice to see a suggestion taken on board and implemented. I use FCP X all day so side scrolling the timeline with the Magic Mouse is very important. When I used Audacity, I noticed it couldn't do that, which slowed my editing down significantly. I reported it, some communication happened, a screen recording was sent, then ... silence ... and now this. Thanks Audacity team. Happy. :-)

No one adds Window$ 10 support

[TheOuterLinux]

Window$ 10 adds you.

Audacity v Ardour

[ThirdPrize]

By the look of it, https://ardour.org/ [ardour.org] is a full multi track recordiing studio while http://www.audacityteam.org/ [audacityteam.org] is a simple wave file editor. There is no comparrison. It is like comparing Photoshop to Paint. Audacity should have given up years ago, especially considering their bar was set so low. It only ever barely worked on OSX.