The range of options in WavePad basic - there is also a commercial "Masters" version - is impressive. You can add effects, fades, split tracks, merge tracks, and much more. Performing all of these tasks is easy, and easy to undo if you make a mistake. It's certainly user-friendly, and the fact you can import more or less any sound file format makes it incredibly accessible for anyone (there's no need to mess around with file conversion).

As well as importing from your hard drive, you can also import directly from CD, and there's a tool to burn whatever you want. There is a tone generator, and even a text to speech generator, so you can express yourself with a robotic voice. There are tabs at the bottom of the edit window for you to move easily between open files, a zoom tool so it's easy to highlight exactly the part you want when editing, and the highlighting itself is really intuitive, allowing you to apply effects with precision.

The one function I think WavePad is missing is a BPM analyzer - although this is sometimes unreliable in other programs, it's a nice feature to have.

For anyone that wants to mess around with their sound files - WavePad is a great and lightweight program to use.

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Interface

Whether you choose the stable or beta series, Audacity is not very attractive, and can at first look complex. However, with a little experimentation it soon becomes a very usable application.

For live sound and digitizing old media, you need to feed audio into your computer via a cable. Your audio-in, or mic should be set up by default, but otherwise can be found in Preferences. Recording is then as easy as hitting the red button on the Audacity interface.

Easy to use

What makes Audacity great in this regard is that editing recordings is really simple, not tricky like some professional apps! Using the Highlight tool you can quickly cut, copy, or add effects to parts of tracks. Make a mistake and you can undo as many steps backward as you like, meaning you can experiment knowing nothing can be broken! As you can use up to 16 channels at once, Audacity gives users lots of flexibility.

Editing MP3 and other digital files is just as easy. Drag them into Audacity to open, and then do what you like with them. Adding fade ins or outs is easy, and you can save in whatever format you like. Audacity supports ID3 tags, so you can add all the meta data you like to saved tracks. There is lots more to Audacity, and luckily it has extensive documentation available online or to download.

Conclusion

Audacity is the best free audio editing tool around. It's an incredibly useful application, whether you're recording live or just editing audio files. Despite it's unattractive interface, Audacity is an essential download.

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While we find the interface a little hard to get around, it's a really powerful and flexible application. Importing sound files is easy, they can just be dragged into the window, and then you can edit and manipulate it in many ways.

One basic useful tool for this is making tracks louder or quieter. You can alter the base volume of tracks in iTunes, but the actual file is not affected, and the end result is many files that play at different volumes. With Audacity, you can tweak the volume of the track so it's at a similar level to the rest of your library however loud it is. You can also use it to add fade ins and outs, cut them out altogether and add a variety of interesting effects.

You can also use Audacity to record live from whatever input you choose, and it's really easy to edit and play around with your results. Recording a speech and then adding background music is really logical, for example. Open the speech file and music file out together, edit the sound levels then merge together.

There are tons of other ways to use Audacity, it really depends on your creativity. This portable version does everything the original does, and simply requires installation onto your portable drive to run on a PC.

Audacity is great, and it's fantastic to be able to run it from a USB drive

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Whether you choose the stable or beta series, Audacity is not very attractive, and can at first look complex. However, with a little experimentation it soon becomes a very usable application.

For live sound and digitizing old media, you need to feed audio into your computer via a cable. Your audio-in, or mic should be set up by default, but otherwise can be found in Preferences. Recording is then as easy as hitting the red button on the Audacity interface.

What makes Audacity great in this regard is that editing recordings is really simple, and not pedantic like some professional apps! Using the Highlight tool you can quickly cut, copy, or add effects to parts of tracks. Make a mistake and you can undo as many steps backward as you like, meaning you can experiment knowing nothing can be broken! As you can use up to 16 channels at once, Audacity gives users lots of flexibility.

Editing MP3 and other digital files is just as easy. Drag them into Audacity to open, and then do what you like with them. Adding fade-ins or outs is easy, and you can save in whatever format you like. Audacity supports ID3 tags, so you can add all the meta data you like to saved tracks. There is lots more to Audacity, and luckily it has extensive documentation available online or to download.

Audacity is the best free audio editing tool around. It's an incredibly useful application, whether you're recording live or just editing audio files. Despite it's unattractive interface, Audacity is an essential download. However, we recommend the beta release.

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On getting started you can open any audio file you have saved or record a track from a CD or for example, your favourite internet radio station. Once you’ve chosen the sample rate and made a recording, you are given a visualisation of the wave form on both the left and right stereo channels. On a very basic level, you can simply select chunks of audio and manipulate them as you want; cutting, pasting, copying or mixing. Luckily, for those who like to experiment, you can set the level of undos available anywhere between one and one thousand meaning that even if you make a complete mess you can still get back to the original sample. However, if you do go into detailed editing beware that the trial version doesn't allow you to save files.

Of course, it features all the tools you'd expect to help you fade in and out, normalize samples, convert sample rates and add delay effects among others. However, when choosing an effect to add, there is no way to preview how it will sound which compares poorly to Sound Forge, another quality audio editor that lets you hear a short clip of the audio with the effect applied. In the case of Digital Audio Editor, this could well lead to a lot of time wasted waiting for effects to load and then going back again to adjust them to perfection.

All considered, Digital Audio Editor warrants its price tag of $40 (considering the professional solution will set you back $300), especially for users who have simple editing work to do such as cleaning up a podcast or correcting the sound levels of a mixed track. However if you are intent on doing some serious editing work then you would be better served by the pricier but more complete Sound Forge. As such, this makes a great option for beginners, hobbyists or anyone who's just curious.

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Samplitude Music Studio can be used to mix and edit tracks on your PC, or to record from any device (with suitable microphones or inputs).
It houses virtually everything you'll need in in this package, from a relatively easy to use channel mixing and editing interface where you can build up various parts to make a full track, to the comprehensive and flexible effects and mixing desk modules.

There is a comprehensive manual included, which is most welcome as Samplitude Music Studio is complex and intimidating for new users. A combination of manual reading and experimentation is necessary to get to grips with it, but if the quality and complexity of Samplitude Music Studio is more than you need, it's better to stick to a simpler program.

For anyone that wants a complete PC studio, Samplitude Music Studio should do the job. It's a feature rich and complex application, so beginners should be prepared for a steep learning curve!

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