Fundamentals

Start here if a word in a plugin manual or a tutorial stopped you. Each explainer covers what the thing is, what it does to the sound and when you would reach for it, before pointing you at the tools that do it.

  • Audacity
  • Fundamentals

How to use Audacity: a beginner’s guide to Audacity 4

Audacity is a free, open-source audio recorder and editor for Windows, macOS and Linux — not a full DAW. This guide takes a beginner from the download to an exported file in one sitting: getting Audacity 4 through MuseHub, the first launch, the window, a first sound and a first recording, the first cuts, a first effect, cleanup, and save versus export, including sharing to audio.com.

17 min read
  • MuseSounds & notation
  • Fundamentals

What are MuseSounds?

MuseSounds are instrument libraries made for MuseScore Studio. Most use recordings of real musicians, and they follow the dynamics, slurs and articulations you have already written. MuseHub has 72 MuseSounds libraries, and 12 of them are free.

8 min read
  • Fundamentals
  • Free tools

What is MuseHub? The music software store explained

MuseHub is a free app and store for music software — apps, plugins, MuseSounds libraries, loops, courses — from Muse Group, the company behind Audacity and MuseScore Studio. What is in it, what is free, how installing works and who makes the tools.

3 min read
  • MuseSounds & notation
  • Fundamentals

How to make MuseScore playback sound realistic

MuseScore Studio plays every score with MS Basic, a small built-in soundfont, until you give it something else. Install the free MuseSounds with MuseHub and switch each instrument to them in the Mixer, and the dynamics, slurs and articulations you have already written start to change the sound.

10 min read
  • Audacity
  • Fundamentals

Do you need MuseHub for Audacity?

No — Audacity installs and runs without MuseHub. What each download option on audacityteam.org installs, what MuseHub keeps running in the background, whether you need an account, how to uninstall MuseHub and keep Audacity, whether Audacity is free and what the charges people see are for, and the facts behind ‘is Audacity safe’: the GPL license, the 2021 telemetry controversy and what the app collects today.

9 min read