Audacity is the free editor most people start with, and it goes further than most people take it. These walkthroughs show the exact menus and settings, from realtime effects to AI-assisted cleanup.
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.
Install plugins through MuseHub, validate them in Audacity, and use them as realtime effects on a track or the master, or as one-off destructive edits — with the formats Audacity 4 loads, the mistakes that make a plugin ‘not work’, and free plugins to start with.
Audacity gets five AI tools — noise suppression, stem separation, transcription, music generation and audio upscaling — through the free OpenVINO AI Tools plugin. Here is what each one does, where to find it, and how to install it from MuseHub.
Remove hum, hiss and room noise in Audacity — the classic three-step Noise Reduction method, what each slider really does, the free AI alternative that needs no noise profile, and the noises none of them can fix.
Ten free audio editors that are genuinely free — for Windows, Mac, Linux and mobile. What each one is best at, where the free tiers hide limits, and how to extend a free editor with plugins.