Anyone who has wanted to create or edit digital audio files has probably run into the high-complexity problems of most audio-editing tools, which seem to be designed more for budding record producers than for people who just want a simple but effective program.
Over the years, Ive tried many purportedly user-friendly audio-editing programs but didnt find any to my liking until I came across the free open-source program Audacity. For casual audio users, Audacity couldnt be simpler and is, in many ways, like using a tape deck on your computer.
Using Audacity, Ive been able to easily import and edit long recorded meetings and roundtable discussions and convert my rare record collection to digital format. By default, Audacity can export content into the WAV and Ogg Vorbis formats. It can export to MP3 with a plug-in.
Another great aspect of Audacity is that it runs identically on Windows, Mac OS and Linux machines, letting me edit audio files on any of my systems.
The November release of Audacity 1.2.3 fixes a problem on Macs that had caused some major system crashes on my OS X system and forced me to use an older but stable beta version. In my tests, Version 1.2.3 ran flawlessly on my Mac system.
For more information or to download Audacity, go to audacity.sourceforge.net.