Page 18 - Computeractive - January 2, 2018 UK

B e s t F r e e S o f t w a r e

Jonathan P arkyn recommends new p rograms t hat won’t c ost y ou anything

AUDIO EDITING SOFTWARE
A u dacity 2.2.0

www.snipca.com/26327
What you n eed: Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 or 10

Audacity has l ong b een o ur favourite t ool f or editing audio sequence and A lt+N for s electing the n ext o ne. S ignificantly ,
files. W hether y ou’re r ecording l ive m usic or dictation, support f or Midi fi les has b een a dded, meaning you c an now
converting v inyl records a nd tapes to digital f ormats o r j ust playback t hem f rom w ithin y our p rojects, without the n eed
cutting a nd mixings sounds for f un, A udacity offers a lmost for e xtra software.
everything you’ll ever need. I t p rovides studio-level s ound, If you’ve ever found i t h ard t o w rap y our h ead a round t he
support f or all t he major audio f ormats a nd professional way Audacity works, you’ll be pleased t o l earn that the
multi-track e diting tools – a ll for f ree. The recent version program’s h elp fi les and m anual h ave a lso h ad a m ajor
(2.2.0) brings a w elcome i njection of new f eatures, plus a overhaul. Y ou’ll n ow find s everal new q uestion-mark i cons
whole n ew look. dotted around the p rogram, e ach r evealing i nstructions for
Those who h ave b een u sing Audacity for a w hile will be the s pecific tools y ou’re u sing. Th e p rogram’s online m anual
relieved to hear that the d evelopers haven’t a ltered the has a lso b een u pdated with more images and b etter n avigation.
program’s i nterface too r adically . It still looks and w orks like Download Audacity from the l ink a bove – w e r ecommend
Audacity, t hough there h ave b een a n umber o f i mprovements. the i nstaller option that includes help files. Th e fi le is safe and
Y o u c an now c hoose f rom f our t hemes, including D ark a nd there a re no extras to watch o ut for w hen y ou install i t. We
High Contrast. S ome o f t he menus h ave b een s treamlined, also suggest d ownloading a nd installing s ome o f A udacity’s
and n ew keyboard shortcuts are a vailable for w orking with optional plug-ins – s pecifically t he LAME MP3 encoder, w hich
clips, including A lt+P for s electing the p revious clip in a allows you t o e xport M P3 files.

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1 To enable A udacity’s 2 In the s ame s creen, it’s 3 By default, clicking R ecord 4 Feeling s tuck? M ost t ools
new t hemes, click Edit, worth ticking t he box n ext now c ontinues recording i n and b oxes now f eature
Preferences, Interface then to ‘Extra menus’. This t urns the c urrently selected t rack. new q uestion-mark icons
select the o ne you w ant on Audacity’s n ew extended To start recording i n a n ew like this – c licking i t w ill
in the Th eme dropdown menu b ar, r evealing two track instead, hold d own S hift take y ou directly t o t he
menu. Select Custom hidden menus of tools, (the Record button w ill s how relevant section of the
here t o c reate y our o wn Ext-Bar and E xt-Command. a d own a rrow), then click program’s i nstruction
theme (see www.snipca. Record. manual.
com/26329).

18 20 December 2017 – 2 J anuary 2 018