Free Software for Audio recording and editing

**remi** · 22 February 2009, 05:50 PM

I'm searching for Audio recording and editing packages for hobbyists. Do you know some of the mentioned free Audio recording and editing packages, listed at Wikipedia? Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS) seems to be nice, but I'm not sure if it's stable or not? I've already tested MAGIX Music Maker (not free), but I'm not sure if I should invest money, if there are free software packages available?

Remi

**nadger** · 22 February 2009, 06:28 PM

not sure if its what your after but have a look for Audacity its free

**Zenarcher** · 22 February 2009, 07:06 PM

What he said.

**steve.ledger** · 22 February 2009, 08:26 PM

+1 for Audacity

There's even a portable version for carrying around on a USB drive.

You can also load the audio from .avi files.

**jyoung** · 23 February 2009, 12:14 AM

I concur with audacity. Very easy to use.

**geminiguy** · 23 February 2009, 05:22 AM

I've used both and Audacity is the better of the two.

**Luke.Hart** · 23 February 2009, 10:07 AM

I'm not sure how 'heavy-weight' you need to go, but ardour (ardour.org) is pretty good. Obviously it's a lot more than you'd need for simple podcasting, for which Audacity would be fine. I haven't used Ardour in anger, but I regularly use Audacity for preparing sermons from my church for the web (simple crop to the sermon itself, followed by dynamic compression).

**steve.ledger** · 23 February 2009, 10:48 AM

Thanks Luke, Ardour looks interesting - I might give it a try..

**remi** · 23 February 2009, 03:52 PM

Thank you for the great tips. It seems, "Audio recording and editing" is not the complete description. My goal is to create a simple digital audio workstation (DAW) for my son. He should be able to connect his MIDI keyboard, use samples (for example guitar samples or other sounds), record his own voice or other noises and have fun.

What I've seen so far is, that there are different types of Multimedia/Audio editors available:

Audacity - for recording and editing of single files (stereo)
Ardour - for multichannel hard disk recording and video synchronisation
Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS) - for using samples and creating songs, but also recording MIDI from keyboards

I've found a funny video, which shows the possiblities of LMMS: "Gates to Hell (Music with only Windows sounds)" (but recorded under Linux with LMMS).

Remi

**geminiguy** · 23 February 2009, 04:15 PM

LMMS might be more what you're looking for then.
There are some other apps I will check for you, but one he might enjoy greatly would be Hydrogen

http://www.hydrogen-music.org/

and kguitar

http://kguitar.sourceforge.net/

these are really fun for kids wanting to do some of their own mixing, etc.