Our List of 5 Best Audacity Alternatives for Podcasters (2024)
As a podcast professional, having efficient tools to produce high-quality audio content is crucial. Audacity has been a popular choice among creators for its user-friendly interface and cost-free access.
However, it has its limitations.
It’s important to explore Audacity alternatives that offer enhanced features and more intuitive workflow. Refer to Cleanvoice's guide on how to choose the right alternative for you.
Let's dig into our list of the five best Audacity alternatives for podcasters.
What is Audacity?
Audacity—available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and other operating systems—is a free, multi-track audio editor and recorder.
It boasts impressive capabilities, including live audio recording, tape-to-digital conversion, sound file editing, and effects. It's a perfect tool for podcasters and podcast editors who want a fully-featured editing tool without breaking the bank.
However, as the podcasting landscape evolves, there are compelling reasons to consider Audacity alternatives:
Why Look for Audacity Alternatives?
1. Limited Editing Capacity
Audacity's integrated recording and editing might seem convenient but performing advanced editing tasks will be difficult. For fine-tuned editing and mixing, you need more robust tools.
2. Stability and Performance Issues
Many users have reported bugs and performance issues that can slow Audacity down or even make it unstable. This can be frustrating when you're trying to produce professional content.
3. Outdated Interface
While Audacity is user-friendly, its interface design can feel outdated, especially compared to more modern alternatives.
Criteria to Consider When Choosing Audacity Alternatives
Feature Set
Examine whether the software offers comprehensive features that align with your podcasting needs.
Here's a breakdown of what to look for:
- Recording Capabilities
- Editing Tools
- Noise Reduction and Restoration
- Effects and Plugins
- File Export and Compatibility
Learning Curve
The learning curve affects your ability to use the software and produce content efficiently.
Here's what to consider:
- Beginner-friendly vs. advanced interfaces and workflows
- User Resources
- Training and Support
Supported Platforms
The compatibility of the Audacity alternative with your chosen operating system is a critical consideration.
Here's what to look for:
- Operating System Compatibility
- Cross-Platform Options
- Mobile Compatibility
5 Best Audacity Alternatives
- Cleanvoice: An AI-powered tool that cleans, enhances, and transcribes podcast audio.
- Sound Forge Audio Studio: A powerful tool to record, edit, and optimize audio.
- Adobe Audition: A robust DAW with great features for podcasters and editors.
- Tenacity: A free-to-use DAW with a great range of features.
- BounceCast: An intuitive tool for basic editing.
1. Cleanvoice
Cleanvoice AI is an AI-powered tool that automatically enhances audio recordings by removing filler words, mouth sounds, and stuttering.
Just upload your audio, and Cleanvoice will scan it for imperfections and automatically remove them using a fine-tuned AI engine. You can easily export the audio to your editing tool to add to episodes when you're done.
Cleanvoice also features a highly accurate AI transcription engine with multispeaker and multilingual detection—perfect for quickly creating show notes, blog posts, and social media content using audio clips.
Relevant Features
- Filler Words:
Eliminate filler words like “umm” or “ahh” from recordings
- Mouth Sounds:
Remove mouth sounds like clicks, pops, and breaths from audio recordings.
- Stuttering:
Reduce stutter during long pauses in speech or when there is an interruption.
- Multi-Lingual & Accent Detection:
Detects and removes filler words in multiple languages and accents.
- Integrations and Exports:
You can integrate Cleanvoice with your favorite audio editing tool to quickly clean up recorded audio and add it to your production workflow.
- Podcast Transcription:
Its AI technology generates transcriptions from your podcast or audio recording in a few clicks. It supports multiple languages.
- Podcast Mixing:
It normalizes audio levels with just a click of a button.
Pricing
Cleanvoice offers both subscription and pay-as-you-go pricing.
Subscriptions offer monthly limits for edited audio—10 hours for €10, 30 hours for €25, and 100 hours for €80. Pay-as-you-go credits let you buy a specific number of hours of processed audio, usable within two years.
2. Sound Forge Audio Studio
Sound Forge Audio Studio is a digital audio editing software developed by MAGIX.
It’s a powerful audio editing, recording, processing, and mastering tool with an extensive feature set, support for high-resolution audio, and the ability to handle professional-level audio editing tasks.
Relevant Features
- Recording:
It can record up to 32 simultaneous 64-bit/192 kHz audio channels for ultimate fidelity.
- Audio Editing:
It provides a complete set of tools for audio editing. You can cut, move, split, and work with audio files in numerous ways.
- Restoration and Mastering:
With the suite of plug-ins, you can easily enhance and restore audio with high-quality effects.
- Effects:
It includes a range of built-in effects. You can also use VST plugins to expand your options.
Pricing
The regular price for Sound Forge Audio Studio is $59.99.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Has a great library of audio effects
- Offers excellent value for money
- Easy to use and super intuitive
- Has different tools and filters that can be combined with other programs
Cons
- Lacks options for noise reduction.
- Not ideal for working with noisy voiceovers or outdoor noise
Rating
4.7 out of 25 reviews
3. Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition[a] is a professional audio workstation that allows you to create, mix, and design sound effects.
It’s a comprehensive toolset that includes multitrack, waveform, and spectral display.
Relevant Features
- Multitrack Recording and Editing:
It supports multi-track recording and editing, which allows you to work with multiple audio tracks simultaneously.
- Audio Effects:
It offers advanced audio effects and real-time previews.
- Session and Clip Markers in Multitrack:
You can create session markers and clip markers for multitrack to add, edit, and move clip markers in multitrack mode.
- Variable Playback Speed:
It allows you to play your audio at different speeds, such as 1.1x, 1.2x, etc.
Pricing
Adobe Audition offers different pricing options for users.
They have an annual plan billed monthly at $20.99/month and an annual plan for $239.88/year. Students can access the entire Adobe Creative Cloud suite (including Audition) for just $19/99/month.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Reliable voice recording software
- Remix feature for seamless trimming or duration adjustment
- Steady interface with added and refined features
- Offers a blend of templates and customization options
Cons
- Learning curve for interacting with its many tools
Rating
4.6 out of 198 reviews
4. Tenacity
Tenacity is a user-friendly multi-track audio editor and recorder available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and other operating systems.
It’s based on Audacity and is being developed by diverse volunteers. The range of functions and the operation are very similar, making this a great alternative to check out.
Relevant Features
-
Recording: It allows recording from audio devices, both real and virtual.-
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Export/Import: It supports various audio formats and is extendible with FFmpeg.
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Plug-ins: It provides support for VST, LV2, and AU plugins.
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Scripting: You can script in the built-in scripting language Nyquist, Python, Perl, and other languages with named pipes.
Pricing
Tenacity is free to use.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The software is being actively developed by a community of volunteers.
- It doesn’t contain any form of external advertising.
- It works offline.
- It consumes fewer device resources.
Cons
- Some users find the interface outdated.
- Some users prefer a different workflow offered by other audio editing software.
Rating
4.6 out of reviews
5. BounceCast
BounceCast is an intelligent digital audio app designed to record, enhance, and master podcasts and video audio automatically on desktop and mobile.
It uses unique and file-specific real-time data analysis to adapt to every recording and optimize audio.
Relevant Features
- Recording & Trimming:
You can record podcasts and video audio on your desktop computer or the go via mobile devices.
- Smart Enhancement:
It offers intelligent application of subtractive equalization, transparent compression, peak limiting, and level normalization.
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Control Unwanted Frequencies: Resonance and EQ control is applied based on automatic data-driven analysis of your audio file to improve the overall clarity to meet professional standards.
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Intelligent Soundcheck:
Run a clap test to analyze and learn the recording environment.
Pricing
BounceCast offers both the premium and free version of their app.
With the premium version of the software, users can enjoy a range of advanced features, including the ability to record and edit podcasts, automatic leveling, audio restoration, intelligent soundcheck, interactive guidance, and export to multiple formats.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Available on IOS and Android devices
- Provides guidelines for users
- Supports uploading and exporting files in multiple formats
Cons
- Some users claim it doesn’t produce studio-quality
- Some users report issues with compatibility on their computers
Rating
4.1 out of 45 reviews
Conclusion
Selecting a proper audio editing software for your podcast is vital to producing high-quality content. While Audacity has been a popular choice and it's free, it still has flaws. Hence, make a list of Audacity's downsides, and pick a software that provides better features from your checklist.
At Cleanvoice, we give podcasters and podcast editors a simple, automated way to clean podcast audio. Our tool detects and removes imperfections automatically, giving you a clean, high-quality audio file that’s ready to edit.
