Editing audio on a home computer is now possible with software ranging from free to expensive. It’s important to capture good sound quality with a mid-range microphone and adapter. Audacity is a good free program to start with, while Sound Forge and Adobe Soundbooth are popular paid options. Specialized software exists for specific purposes like creating audiobooks or podcasts.
In the past, editing audio meant having specialized equipment, which could cost tens of thousands of United States Dollars (USD) and require years of training to use properly. Although most professional studios still use high-end equipment dedicated to editing, it is now entirely possible to edit audio on a home computer quite simply. Software suites range from free packages to packages costing thousands of dollars, with a wide variety of features available.
While the quality of the software available for editing audio on a home computer is relatively good, it’s still very important to make sure you’re capturing a good sound to begin with, or else no amount of editing can save it. Most home computers have relatively poor built-in microphones, which are often plagued by all sorts of white noise or noise originating from the computer itself. For this reason, before you start editing audio at home, it’s a good idea to invest in a mid-range microphone and adapter. Of course, if you want to edit already existing audio files, like merge existing music files or sample audio clips from movies, you won’t need any kind of recording capability.
There are literally hundreds of excellent software suites for editing audio on your home computer, each with its own pros and cons. There really isn’t a best all-purpose program, but Audacity® is a good program to start with, as it has a number of different features, is available for both Windows® and Mac®, and is free. Audacity® can be downloaded online and the included installer will help you set it up. Once installed, there are a number of built-in tutorials, and recording and manipulating audio tracks is easy enough. Once you’ve recorded a number of audio tracks and made them sound the way you want, you can export them to a CD or encode them in MP3 format for easy emailing to friends or posting online.
If you’re looking for a more robust solution for editing audio on your home computer, there are a number of paid software packages out there. Sound Forge, formerly Sonic Foundry, is one of the most popular solutions for Windows®-based computers. It includes robust audio-editing filters to help you get the sound exactly how you want it, lots of effects that can be added, and an easy-to-use mastering system. Adobe® Soundbooth® is another popular package, available for both Windows® and Mac®, featuring a fully functional interface and many plug-ins.
There are also programs for editing audio for very specific purposes. For example, the Audiobook Cutter software suite is specially tailored for people who want to edit audio to create their own audiobooks. There are also a number of free packages to help people create and edit their own podcasts. Because these programs don’t require nearly as much functionality as programs that need to multi-track and burn music, they tend to have better features for those features they focus on, making them the preferred solution for many specialists.
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