Audacity Changelog

What's new in Audacity 3.5.0 Beta

Mar 1, 2024

Major changes:
Cloud project saving
We've introduced a new cloud-saving feature that allows you to save your Audacity projects to audio.com. This allows you to work from any device, share & collaborate with others and restore previous versions if something went wrong.
Automatic tempo detection
Audacity can now automatically detect the tempo of imported loops, and adjust them to be in tempo.
Tempo detection is done via both audio analysis and metadata checking. If you want to prepare your loop for automatic tempo detection without relying on audio analysis, both acidizer tempo tags or simply writing "123 bpm" anywhere into the filename work.
Automatic tempo detection can be turned off via Preferences -> Import/Export.
Pitch shifting
You now can non-destructively change the pitch of a clip by holding Alt and pressing the Up and Down arrow keys. Alternatively, you can click on the overflow menu (...) and select "Pitch and speed...". When changing the pitch this way, an arrow in the UI indicates how much you've shifted it.
Other changes:
Changes:
Added an option to skip plugin scanning to Preferences -> Effects.
Improved accessibility. (Thanks, David Bailes!)
When zooming in vertically (Ctrl+scroll on the vertical scale), the zeroline now remains centered. Moving the vertical zoom off-center still is possible via Shift+scroll on the vertical scale.
Changed the look of the selection adjust cursors (previously pointing fingers on Windows and macOS, now look like >| everywhere).
Changed the timeline options button from a green triangle to a settings gear. From it, you can switch between Beats & Measures or hh:mm:ss timeline rulers, set various preferences regarding to looping, as well as playhead behaviors: "Scroll view to playhead" (previously: "Update display while playing") and "Continuous scrolling" (previously: Pinned Play Head).
Improved BSD support. (Thanks, Brad Smith!)
macOS: Changed the Audacity.app icon on macOS to fit new design guidelines.
Added an overflow menu, as well as speed and pitch indicators to clips.
Reordered some menus.
Removals:
There have been a number of removals of niche features to simplify the app. This should make the app a bit less overwhelming to use, and also will speed up future development as fewer things need to be considered.
Removed the read-only mouse preferences page.
Removed Printing options.
Removed Screenshot tool. To make a screenshot, use Win+Shift+S (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+4 (Mac) instead.
Removed Karaoke view.
Removed the "solo=none" preference.
Removed timeline tooltips preference.
Removed "dragging selection edges" preference.
Removed some warning dialogs and associated preferences.
Removed "scrolling left of zero" preference.
Replaced "Advanced Vertical Zooming" with new always-on behavior.
Removed some vertical zoom presets.
Removed EQ XML to TXT converter, which was needed for the Audacity 2.3 -> 2.4 transition. It is now a plugin instead, downloadable at https://plugins.audacityteam.org/additional-resources/eq-curves/eq-xml-to-txt-converter.
Bugfixes:
Fixed a number of dialogs that were able to grow too large to fit on the screen.
#2133 Fixed the playback cursor sometimes desynchronizing with actual playback. (Thanks, David Bailes!)
#3723 #5615 Fixed the GetInfo scripting command.
#5283 Fixed "Reset configuration" command breaking modules preference page.
#5389 Fixed stereo tracks randomly splitting into mono.
#5500 The Export Audio -> (external program) option remembers the command line argument again.
#5670 #3903 Fixed the Compressor effect sometimes corrupting audio. (Thanks, David Bailes!)
#5580 #4952 Fixed Timer Record sometimes failing to export. (Thanks, David Bailes!)
#5681 Fixed incorrect level measurements for mono tracks in Noise Gate effect. (Thanks, Steve Daulton!)
#5750 When exporting multiple files, the mono/stereo setting is now honored properly.
#5848 Fixed some effects failing when language is set to German, Korean, Dutch, Slovenian, or Turkish.
#5868 #1548 Fixed 8 and 9 inputs not working on keyboard inputs which have AltGr+8/9 mean [ and ]. (Thanks, David Bailes!)
#5858 Fixed Audacity crashing when making a stereo track using keyboard. (Thanks, Joe Souza!)
#5976 Fixed the "Set default" button not working in the metadata editor. (Thanks, dg-no-9!)
#5977 Linux: Fixed a memory leak in Wayland by explicitly running on X11. (Thanks, Takahashi, Naoki!)

New in Audacity 3.4.2 (Nov 16, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.4.1 (Nov 9, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.4.0 (Nov 5, 2023)

Major changes:
Music workflows:
Audacity now features several music related features, such as switching between hh:mm:ss time and Beats & Measures, and time-stretching clips to align them to a song's tempo.
Time stretching:
Hold Alt (macOS: Option) while hovering over the top third of a clip edge to stretch it.
New exporter:
Audacity now features a new export window with easier access to options such as sample rate and custom mapping (for 5.1 or 7.1 audio). Additionally, the "Browse" button uses the native file browser now!
Other changes:
For MP3, Audacity now always uses Joint Stereo mode, which always delivers the best possible quality.
#4720 Simplified pasting logic.
Simplified stereo tracks. Left and right channels now always have synchronized clip starts and ends, and the same sample rate in both channels.
#5014 Added cursors trimming and stretching left and right, and changed the I-beam cursor to be less similar to either.
#4448 When importing audio, the project sample rate no longer changes.
#5204 The spectrogram colors are now perceptually uniform, and the colormap has gotten a name: Roseus. It also can be used for dataviz outside of Audacity, see https://github.com/dofuuz/roseus for more info! (Thanks, Myungchul Keum)
New defaults: The Time Signature toolbar now gets shown, the solo button is set to multi-track mode, time tracks have a wider starting range.
#5291 Unsquished the Audacity logo found in some places of the app.
#2330 Clicking on the border of two clips no longer merges them.
#2530 Overdubbing on Windows fails with WASAPI with default Recording device.
#443 Built-in Opus support.
Libraries:
lib-time-and-pitch implements a time stretching algorithm originating in Staffpad.
Audacity now uses Conan 2.
Continued extracting code into libraries and modules, especially in the context of importing and exporting.
Bug fixes:
#3778 --nogap metadata no longer is ignored.
#4410 fixed a crash with LV2 plugins (thanks jfroyall!).
#2471 #4798 fixed some crashes related to macros.
#4769 fixed a crash when pasting in certain configurations.
#4677 Accessibility: GUI can be disabled again for VST2 plugins (thanks, David Bailes!).
#4988 Accessibility: Restored window control IDs, improving NVDA compatibility (thanks again, David Bailes!).
#4872 fixed a crash on launch on OSX 10.9 (thanks, René Bertin!).

New in Audacity 3.4.0 Beta 1 (Oct 23, 2023)

Major changes:
Music workflows:
Audacity now features several music related features, such as switching between hh:mm:ss time and Beats & Measures, and time-stretching clips to align them to a song's tempo.
Time stretching:
Hold Alt (macOS: Option) while hovering over the top third of a clip edge to stretch it.
New exporter:
Audacity now features a new export window with easier access to options such as sample rate and custom mapping (for 5.1 or 7.1 audio). Additionally, the "Browse" button uses the native file browser now!
Other changes:
For MP3, Audacity now always uses Joint Stereo mode, which always delivers the best possible quality.
#4720 Simplified pasting logic.
Simplified stereo tracks. Left and right channels now always have synchronized clip starts and ends, and the same sample rate in both channels.
#5014 Added cursors trimming and stretching left and right, and changed the I-beam cursor to be less similar to either.
#4448 When importing audio, the project sample rate no longer changes.
#5204 The spectrogram colors are now perceptually uniform, and the colormap has gotten a name: Roseus. It also can be used for dataviz outside of Audacity, see https://github.com/dofuuz/roseus for more info! (Thanks, Myungchul Keum)
New defaults: The Time Signature toolbar now gets shown, the solo button is set to multi-track mode, time tracks have a wider starting range.
#5291 Unsquished the Audacity logo found in some places of the app.
#2330 Clicking on the border of two clips no longer merges them.
#2530 Overdubbing on Windows fails with WASAPI with default Recording device.
#443 Built-in Opus support.
Libraries:
lib-time-and-pitch implements a time stretching algorithm originating in Staffpad.
Audacity now uses Conan 2.
Continued extracting code into libraries and modules, especially in the context of importing and exporting.
Bug fixes:
#3778 --nogap metadata no longer is ignored.
#4410 fixed a crash with LV2 plugins (thanks jfroyall!).
#2471 #4798 fixed some crashes related to macros.
#4769 fixed a crash when pasting in certain configurations.
#4677 Accessibility: GUI can be disabled again for VST2 plugins (thanks, David Bailes!).
#4988 Accessibility: Restored window control IDs, improving NVDA compatibility (thanks again, David Bailes!).
#4872 fixed a crash on launch on OSX 10.9 (thanks, René Bertin!).

New in Audacity 3.3.3 (Jun 9, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.3.2 (May 7, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.3.1 (Apr 28, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.3.0 (Apr 24, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.3.0 Beta (Apr 15, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.2.5 (Mar 2, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.2.4 (Jan 27, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.2.3 (Dec 27, 2022)

New in Audacity 3.2.2 (Dec 6, 2022)

New in Audacity 3.2.1 (Oct 5, 2022)

New in Audacity 3.2.0 (Sep 23, 2022)

Prominent changes:
Added a new Effects button to the tracks menu, allowing you to place realtime effects.
Further information can be found can be found on https://support.audacityteam.org/audio-editing/using-realtime-effects
Merged the mixer bar with the meter bars.
Added a new Audio Setup button, replacing the Device Toolbar by default. The device toolbar can be re-added via the View > Toolbars menu.
The Effects menu has gotten a new sorting. Other sorting and grouping options can be found in the Effects preferences.
Updated the icons.
Added a quick audio sharing feature.
More info can be found on https://support.audacityteam.org/basics/sharing-audio-online
Plugin changes:
VST3 effects are now supported.
The following plugin formats are now realtime capable: VST3, LV2, LADSPA, Audio Units.
Plugins now automatically get scanned, tested and enabled when Audacity starts.
System changes:
Apple Silicon (arm64) is now supported on macOS
Note: When using an arm64 Audacity, you must use arm64 versions of FFMPEG and plugins. Plugins for x86-64 (Intel macs) will not load.
For the time being, Audacity will continue to download x86-64 versions by default to avoid these incompatibilities, but you can download an arm64 version from Github releases: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/releases
FFMPEG 5.0 (avformat 59) is now supported, in addition to avformat 55, 57 and 58
Added support for Wavpack
On Linux, Audacity can now be compiled without JACK present.
Audacity now uses XDG directories on Linux.
Note: If you are upgrading from a previous version, Audacity will keep using the ~/.audacity-data and ~/.audacity folders until you delete them.
Switched from mad to mpg123 as MP3 importer
License update:
Audacity binaries are now licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 3.
Most code files remain GPLv2-or-later, but VST3 support required this license update.
More information can be found in the announcement post: #2142
Removals:
Removed the Zoom Tool. You can use the zoom buttons or Ctrl+Scroll (macOS: Cmd+Scroll) to zoom instead.
The Audacity Manual HTML pages are no longer included in the installation.
If you require offline access of the manual, you can download it here: https://github.com/audacity/audacity-manual/releases
You also can download PDFs of https://support.audacityteam.org straight from its sidebar (or the three-dot button on mobile devices).
Fixed bugs:
#3079 Fixed Audacity sometimes not being able to import MP3 files (or reporting Huffman Data Overruns)
#2590 Fixed rare data loss bug when placing labels during recording
#2272 Fixed clip titles being able to disappear off-screen when editing them
#2162 Fixed Punch and Roll not paying tracks in sync
#1889 Fixed clip titles changing name when applying some effects
#1624 During batch processing, Audacity will no longer stop to ask for a sample rate when an unsupported one is chosen, but choose the nearest supported one instead.
#2265 Fixed mod-script-pipe not being installed on Linux
#3571 Fixed GTK packaging in Appimages. This fixes various issues with icons, dropdowns and similar things not appearing properly.
#3634 Improved M4A/AAC support. Previously the target bitrate was not honored at all, now it can be set between 98 and 160 kbit/s (mono) or 196 and 320 kbit/s (stereo). The UI does not yet reflect these limits.

New in Audacity 3.2.0 Alpha 1 (Aug 30, 2022)

Prominent changes:
Added a new Effects button to the tracks menu, allowing you to place realtime effects. Further information can be found can be found on https://support.audacityteam.org/audio-editing/using-realtime-effects
Merged the mixer bar with the meter bars.
Added a new Audio Setup button, replacing the Device Toolbar by default. The device toolbar can be re-added via the View > Toolbars menu.
The Effects menu has gotten a new sorting. Other sorting and grouping options can be found in the Effects preferences.
Updated the icons.
Plugin changes:
You can find plugins on https://plugins.audacityteam.org
VST3 effects are now supported.
The following plugin formats are now realtime capable: VST3, LV2, LADSPA, Audio Units.
Plugins now automatically get scanned, tested and enabled when Audacity starts.
System changes:
Apple Silicon (arm64) and Universal Binaries are now supported on macOS
FFMPEG 5.0 (avformat 59) is now supported, in addition to avformat 55, 57 and 58
Added support for Wavpack
On Linux, Audacity can now be compiled without JACK present.
Audacity now uses XDG directories on Linux.
Note: If you are upgrading from a previous version, Audacity will keep using the ~/.audacity-data and ~/.audacity folders until you delete them.
Switched from mad to mpg123 as MP3 importer
License update:
Audacity binaries are now licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 3.
Most code files remain GPLv2-or-later, but VST3 support required this license update.
More information can be found in the announcement post: #2142
Other changes:
Removed the Zoom Tool. You can use the zoom buttons or Ctrl+Scroll (macOS: Cmd+Scroll) to zoom instead.
Fixed bugs:
#3079 Fixed Audacity sometimes not being able to import MP3 files (or reporting Huffman Data Overruns)
#2590 Fixed rare data loss bug when placing labels during recording
#2272 Fixed clip titles being able to disappear off-screen when editing them
#2162 Fixed Punch and Roll not paying tracks in sync
#1889 Fixed clip titles changing name when applying some effects
#1624 During batch processing, Audacity will no longer stop to ask for a sample rate when an unsupported one is chosen, but choose the nearest supported one instead.
#2265 Fixed mod-script-pipe not being installed on Linux

New in Audacity 3.1.0 (Oct 28, 2021)

New in Audacity 3.0.5 (Sep 30, 2021)

New in Audacity 3.0.4 (Aug 26, 2021)

New in Audacity 3.0.3 (Jul 26, 2021)

New in Audacity 3.0.2 (Apr 19, 2021)

Better Diagnostics:
As well as bug fixing we have also added more detailed reporting into Audacity to track down some hopefully not too common problems with the new format we introduced in 3.0.0. If you see an unexpected error message with a “Show Log…” button on it, please send the log to [email protected], tell us how the problem happened, and whether it’s repeatable. We think, but do not know for sure yet, that some problems some users of 3.0.0 have had may be caused by networked drives which are slower than drives on the same laptop. We’ve increased a ‘timeout’ which should fix that.
Macro Output:
Users of the Macro feature in Audacity to process multiple files will find there is a new preference, Macro output, for where the results are put. The old way of doing things put the results with the files being processed. You can still do that if you want to keep doing it that way by adding an extra step in your macros.
Untangling Code:
In parallel with 3.0.2 and 3.0.0 work, we’ve been doing a lot of other work on Audacity on another branch that is for the future and not in 3.0.2. Paul Licameli has been untangling dependencies in Audacity and making many graphs of the structure to guide what to untangle next. Here is a small extract of one of those graphs.
If code is hard to work with, we work more slowly. These changes to untangle the code should make Audacity more flexible, and make it easier to work with the code. We kept these changes out of 3.0.0 and 3.0.2, as the changes were substantial and the important aup3 work took precedence. Hopefully the more flexible cleaner structure will be a big win for future versions of Audacity.
Bug Fixes:
3.0.2 has some simple to do but important bug fixes. The compressor effect was not working for longer selections. We were also very occasionally getting an error messages at start up of Audacity, requiring a restart of Audacity. You can read more about what we did for 3.0.2 on the New Features page of the manual.

New in Audacity 3.0.0 (Mar 18, 2021)

Unitary Project:
Audacity 3.0.0 introduces the new AUP3 project format. Project files saved with this version will have an aup3 extension, for example My-Project.aup3. We believe that this new project format will make life easier for Audacity users, as it replaces the previous project storage format - which used an AUP file and its associated _data folder full of little audio clips - with a single project file that integrates those two parts.
The old structure caused too many users to lose or damage their projects by moving or deleting the project components. The new single project file structure precludes that happening.
Project size:
Saved Projects with the new unified file structure should not be larger than similar projects with the old multiple files structure.
As you work on a project, Audacity will consume additional temporary disk space. This is normally released on closing the project. This is not new with Unitary Project File, previous versions of Audacity also used to do this.
Performance:
Extensive speed testing has shown that for most work in Audacity the new project file can be a little faster than the old project structure.
This is especially true of using the Effects and Generators which run faster with the new project file.
Automatic Recovery:
Automatic Recovery (following a crash) is different in Audacity 3.0.0. It is simpler with no orphan block-files or missing block-files to worry about
When Audacity is launched following a crash it will offer to recover the crashed projects.
You can choose to either accept the recovery or to discard the projects.
You can select projects for either action by clicking on their checkbox, or you can select all by clicking on Select.
You can discard just some and then the recovery dialog will remain open enabling you to select others for recovery.
Backing up your project:
There is a new backup command for projects: File > Save Project > Backup Project.
This saves a copy of the current project as an AUP3 file, but with a new name. It is the safe and recommended way to make a safety backup copy of a project as you work on it.
This could serve either as a single backup copy of the project, or as one of several incremental copies of the project in the state it had at a particular date and time.
Unlike "Save Project As..." using this command will leave your current project open enabling you to continue working on it.
Two new Languages added:
Corsican language has been added for 3.0.0, thanks to Patriccollu.
Marathi language has been added for 3.0.0, thanks to Mukul Kulkarni.
Label Sounds replaces Sound Finder and Silence Finder:
A new analyzer has been introduced called Label Sounds. It supersedes and replaces the old Sound Finder and Silence Finder analyzers.
Label Sounds is a tool which can useful to label the different songs or sections (or silences) in a long recording, such as the tracks from an LP or cassette.
This analyzer is an upgrade of the old Sound Finder from previous versions of Audacity. It is more accurate, and more versatile than previous versions, supporting both region labels and point labels.
It detects the audio level in the selected track(s). When the track level exceeds a specified threshold level, the audio is considered to be "sound", and when below the level it is considered to be "silence".
There are options to add point labels before or after each detected sound, region labels around each sound, or region labels between each sound (effectively labeling the silences).
Enhanced Directories preferences:
Default folder locations have been added enabling you to specify the folders to be used for each of the Audacity actions: Open, Save, Import and Export.
If you set a default folder for any of those actions Audacity will always offer that folder location when you invoke that action.
If a particular action's default folder is left blank (default setting) then Audacity will offer the last-used location for that action.
The default setting is for all to be blank.
See Directories Preferences for more details.
Improvements to Macros:
Import and Export of Macros:
Import and Export of Macros has been added to the Manage Macros dialog.
Only one Macro can be imported or exported at a time.
Comments in Macros:
Comments can now be added to Macros to enable you to document what is happening in the Macro.
There is a new command "Comment" in the Macro command set. Editing its parameters enables you to type the text of your comment.
Noise Gate improved:
The Noise Gate effect has been improved for version 3.0.0 of Audacity. It now supports faster Attack times (down to 1ms), and provides separate controls for Attack, Hold and Decay. The effect can also process much longer selections in one pass (up to 13.5 hours at a sample rate of 44,100 Hz.)
Multi-view can be set as user-default view:
In Tracks preferences you can now set Multi-view as your preferred user-default view for tracks.
Preferences settings that affect Edit behavior
We realized that we had a couple of settings in Tracks Behaviors Preferences that affect the operation of the Cut, Paste, and Delete editing commands in perhaps unexpected ways: Editing a clip can move other clips; Enable Cut lines
So a new page was added to the Manual to explain the subtleties of these behaviors, please see Preferences settings that affect Edit behavior.
Mixer Board improvement:
We have changed Mixer Board so that its window always remains on top when it is in use.
Many users have requested this and the original developer always wanted to do this but could not at the time because of issues with the libraries used for this feature.
These libraries have been updated by the provider and we can now make Mixer Board a top window on all three platforms.
Repeat last Generator, Analyzer or Tool:
A Repeat last used command has been added for Generators, Analyzers and Tools. These are not in the menus but are "ghost" commands that you can assign custom shortcuts to.
This enables you to simply repeat the last generator, analyzer or tool that you used, with the last settings that you used, using that custom shortcut.
Nyquist Upgrade
Nyquist has been updated to the latest Nyquist Version 3.16
This has enabled us to clear a lot of long-standing Nyquist-related Audacity bugs.
Bug Fixes:
A large number of bugs were fixed for this release.
Here is a small selection of some of the most important.
Key P1 bugs fixed:
P1 208 - Some effects (including equalization effects) delete Envelope Control Points, or do not move them when timeline changes
P1 2367 - Change Pitch effect may create spurious clip at end
P1 2492 - Linux: Crash when applying or previewing Sliding Stretch effect on stereo track
P1 2544 - "Editing a clip can move other clips" turned off can cause corruption when copying and pasting audio
P1 2630 - A project saved with an imported MP3 with Unicode metadata cannot be opened
P1 2656 - Cannot horizontal scroll when paused in Play-at-Speed
P1 2669 - Win: Save As can be used to overwrite the existing project without warning
Key P2 bugs fixed:
P2 1300 - Mac: COMMAND + V paste limitations in standard file save dialogs
P2 1579 - Mac: Cut/Copy from file save dialogs using shortcuts does not work
P2 2187 - No error/warning message when using a missing aliased audio file
P2 2296 - There is no Import or Export for Macros
P2 2464 - Cannot drag just the selected audio and label with Time Shift Tool
P2 2437 - Mac: "Open with" fails when Audacity is running
P2 2473 - Linux: Numbers on meters have opaque backgrounds
P2 2487 - Playback meters do not respond during preview of non-real-time effects
P2 2491 - Reset Configuration does not reset Extended Import preferences
P2 2509 - Filter curve and Graphic EQ help links are broken in release version
P2 2527 - Reset Configuration does not reset Project rate or selection timers
P2 2573 - High / Low Pass filters limited to ~94 mins stereo at 44100 Hz
P2 2581 - Inconsistent behavior when pasting and not enough room
P2 2593 - Play-at-Speed does not play unless you have used normal Play first
P2 2616 - Labelled Audio Cut and Delete disabled by Sync-Lock
Key P3 bugs fixed:
P3 852 - Noise Reduction preview failure when track rate is different from project rate
P3 1592 - Sound Activated Recording fails when recording meter disabled
P3 1686 - Equalization effects ignore and remove any amplitude envelope
P3 2295 - ENH: cannot add a comment in a Macro with Audacity
P3 2366 - Macros: Run does "Select All" ignoring setting in Tracks Behaviors Preferences
P3 2460 - Enh: Can't select "Multi-view" as default view mode in Tracks preferences
P3 2510 - Mac: Drag&Drop of a project file onto Audacity in Apps bar or Finder fails if Audacity is active in the Apps bar
P3 2534 - Change Speed merges selected clip with adjacent clips - residual fix to be tested
P3 2564 - Metadata: Artist and Year tags missing on M4A(AAC) exports
P3 2611 - Mixer Board does not stay on top of main window

New in Audacity 2.4.2 (Jun 26, 2020)

Easy configuration reset:
A new command has been added to the Tools menu: Tools > Reset Configuration.
This resets your Audacity configuration, preferences, export settings and toolbars, to default settings.
This command acts immediately with no dialog and no choice of actions or chance to abort.
Undo is not available for this command.
User presets in Effects, Generators and Analyzers are left untouched, as are any Macros you may have created and plug-ins.
Please see Reset Configuration for further details.
MP3 exports and imports without padding
Audacity now supports LAME's gapless playback info, allowing MP3s to be exported and imported without additional padding.
Other applications that support the LAME tag, for example audio player applications, will be able to read MP3 files exported by Audacity without the padding.
Bug Fixes:
In less than a month we have fixed a further 41 bugs in this maintenance release.
Here is a small selection of some of the most important.
Key P1 bugs fixed:
P1 2442 - Windows: Crash when importing (or editing) to a disk with insufficient disk space available
P1 2449 - Mac: Attempting to export as M4A(AAC) yields an FFmpeg error message
P1 2457 - Windows: WAV Export runs 6 to 7 times slower than on 2.3.3
P1 2459 - Macros with Nyquist effects don't apply saved parameters
P1 2471 - Mix Stereo down to Mono fails if space at start of track.
P1 2478 - Windows: with an empty rules list in "Extended Import" prefs - Tab or Home crashes Audacity
P1 2479 - Mac: AudioUnit effects are not applied if you initially use the preview
P1 2484 - Win/Linux: OPUS import fails
Key P2 bugs fixed:
P2 2403 - Undocking meter toolbars while playing/recording results in a frozen meter
P2 2408 - A region label gets split on inserting audio when Sync-lock is turned on
P2 2418 - Time toolbar displays incorrect time if project rate isn't 44100
P2 2419 - Time toolbar: Opening and closing preferences resets format to hh:mm:ss
P2 2428 - Nyquist Effects do not display a Progress Dialog if run from a Macro.
P2 2431 - Real-time effects - Enable checkbox has no effect
P2 2439 - Mix and Render to New Track selects left channel of new stereo track
P2 2443 - Mac/Linux: Old (PowerPC) projects open flat-lined or with corrupted display on Intel machines
P2 2456 - audacity 2.3.3 config with Spectral Selection toolbar corrupts lower dock in 2.4.x and can crash
P2 2458 - Possible crash when clearing text field in Gain dialog

New in Audacity 2.4.1 (May 22, 2020)

New in Audacity 2.3.3 (Nov 23, 2019)

New in Audacity 2.3.2 (May 14, 2019)

New in Audacity 2.3.1 (Mar 10, 2019)

New in Audacity 2.3.0 (Sep 30, 2018)

New in Audacity 2.2.2 (Feb 22, 2018)

DROPOUT DETECTION:
New feature Dropout detection is controlled from a setting in Recording Preferences called "Detect dropouts".
When this setting is "on" (default setting) Audacity will detect dropouts (brief gaps in the recording) and will insert zeroes into the recording to keep the other good parts synchronized. These silent spans will make the dropouts more obvious, but keep the duration of the recording correct. Dropouts may be caused by a disk drive that cannot keep up with the recording. This can happen, for example, with a slow USB or network drive, or if antivirus software is slowing writing to disk, or if other activity on the computer is slowing the computer down.
When recording stops, a Warning message is shown and a label track, called "Dropouts", is added showing the lost parts, labeled with consecutive numbers.
IMPROVED ZOOMING:
Zooming with the mouse wheel - Mouse wheel zooming has been changed so that the focus for the zoom is:
With the mouse pointer outside the selection, the leftmost or rightmost edge of the current selection, (if a selection exists).
Mouse pointer position will be used as the zoom focus if the mouse position is inside the current selection, (if a selection exists).
If no selection is present, zoom focus is as it was before and is taken as the mouse pointer position.
ZOOM TOGGLE:
A new command has been introduced, Zoom Toggle, accessed by a new button or by View > Zoom > Zoom Toggle (shortcut Shift + Z).
Zoom Toggle toggles between two pre-defined zoom levels. These presets are user selectable in Tracks Preferences.
Defaults are normal Default Zoom level and 4 Pixels per Sample (which shows a fraction of a second of audio as samples)
Either of the two presets can be changed in Tracks Preferences using the dropdown menus.
VERTICAL ZOOMING CHANGES:
Simple Vertical Scrolling:
A context menu has been introduced for the Vertical Scale. This is activated by right-clicking in the Vertical Scale.
Advanced Vertical Zooming:
Left-click, and click&drag, in the Vertical Scale remain available as a user-selectable option. The default setting is "off",
You can turn on advanced mode for vertical zooming from Edit > Preferences > Tracks Behaviors and selecting Advanced Vertical Zooming.
EXTRA MENU:
A new Extra menu has been created from consolidating the Ext-Bar and Ext-Command menus that were introduced in the previous 2.2.1 release.
Theme tweaks:
Hover Appearance:
In dark theme, the change in appearance of sliders when you hover over them is greater than before.
In light and dark themes, buttons such as 'pause' and 'pin' now highlight when you hover over them and they are down. Previously there was no visible change.
The hover effect for buttons when they are up has been changed to work better in conjunction with this change.
Icon Appearance:
In dark theme the microphone and speaker icons are now brighter and not dulled as they were before.
OTHER CHANGES:
For menu commands that are enabled (not grayed-out) if you hold the Shift key and click on the sub-menu item, instead of executing the command the Keyboard Preferences pop open at the chosen command. You can then change that (or any other) shortcut binding.
Interface Preferences has been upgraded so when selecting languages the proper spelling of these languages is shown with accented and special characters.
The Index page in the Manual has been upgraded - so that now any item that can be clicked on/through in the front page imagemap now has a corresponding text entry in the index (this is primarily as an aid to VI (Visually Impaired) users) Additionally the Index has been divided into alphabetic sections to aid readability.
BUG FIXES:
For those who really have to know, the list of bugs fixed in 2.2.2 is here.
Multiple use of "Save As" to the existing open project can result in data corruption/loss
Crash undoing during record, using Discard button of History window
Exporting audio in compressed formats to device with insufficient space produces inconsistent/truncated results
In Export Multiple, Cancel does not remove the file that is in progress when Cancel is chosen
Crash using SBSMS pitch change at low sample rate
Installer has old logo for 2.2.1 and 2.2.0
(Mac) Equalization: "Telephone" curve displays a flat line, no sound on Preview
Toolbars: open undocked if previously not shown, unless Reset Toolbars first
Analysis effects that create labels should give focus to label track
Control value may be out of range when using FloatingPointValidator
Analysis effects produce false indication that a label is open for editing
Import Uncompressed File Dialog Incorrect Reference to Menu Item
Wave Color not grayed out in TCP dropdown menu when in Spectrogram view
Hover indication on note track channel toggle appears on all tracks (when they rerender)
Unicode page encodings fixed ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Un-muting with a single track unnecessarily activates the Solo button
Applying chain to file should zoom-to-fit

New in Audacity 2.2.1 (Dec 7, 2017)

New in Audacity 2.1.3 (Mar 18, 2017)

NEW FEATURES:
New Distortion effect, Rhythm Track (was called Click Track) and Sample Data Import (thanks to Steve Daulton). Also effects are no longer grayed-out when in pause.
New scrub ruler (Paul)
New ‘pinned’ option so the waveform moves and the recording/playing head stays still. (Paul)
New features in Timer Record (Mark Young & Steve)
CHANGED:
On Mac, audacity.app is now added to /Applications/ directly rather than adding a folder there.
64 bugs/annoyances in 2.1.2 fixed of which 15 were long standing issues. (Entire team involved; Tracking and testing by Gale)
Lots done (by Paul) to systematically deal with memory leaks.
Fuller details on the changes since 2.1.2 can be found in the 2.1.3 Release Notes.
IMPROVEMENTS:
(macOS) We now support Trackpad and Magic Mouse horizontal scroll without SHIFT key and Trackpad pinch and expand to zoom at the pointer.
PortAudio upgraded to r1966 - includes Windows 10 fix.
Extensive work to eliminate memory leaks
Pinned (fixed and centered) play/record head for playing and recording
(Mac) On Mac, audacity.app is now added to /Applications/ directly rather than adding a folder there.
Audacity is now digitally signed on Mac and Windows (but not Windows XP).
Added Audacity Tour Guide to Manual.
Added New features in this release to Manual.
New scrubbing features:
Scrub Ruler
Scrub Toolbar (off by default, enable it at View > Toolbars)
Effects and Generators:
Effects, edits and other functionality are now not grayed-out when paused during playback or recording and thus the editing functions can be selected and performed
New Distortion effect (replaces Leveller)
Change Tempo and Change Pitch have new options to use the higher quality but slower SBSMS algorithm, which ensures the selection length does not change and no content is lost.
Click Track generator updated and renamed to "Rhythm Track" with improved sounds and new "Swing amount" control for unequal beat duration.
New Generator for Sample Data Import
New and changed shortcuts:
ALT + RIGHT to Move to Next Label and ALT + LEFT to Move to Previous Label. These shortcuts allow the name of the label and its order in the labels in that track to be read by screen readers. As well as moving the edit position, these shortcuts jump playback to the requested label.
The shortcut for Play/Stop and Set Cursor has changed from SHIFT + A to the more easy to use X.
New and changed menu items:
New Edit Menu items "Store Cursor Position" and "Select > Cursor to Stored Cursor Position" (during transport, the position of the playback or recording cursor is stored). Edit > "Region Save" and "Region Restore" renamed to "Store Region" and "Retrieve Region" respectively
New Tracks Menu item "Type to Create a Label (on/off)" (turning it off prevents shortcuts accidentally creating labels in the focused label track)
New options and preferences:
New option when exporting MP3 to mix to mono
New recording preferences for naming of recorded tracks
New Timer Record features:
Options on completion e.g. Save and/or Export, quit Audacity, shut down (on Windows).
More informative dialogs, including warnings on disk space.
Protection against accidental canceling.
BUG FIXES:
Many bugs from 2.1.2 fixed. Some examples:
Incorrect calculation of free disk space when using 24 bit audio.
(Windows) ReaPlugs plugins froze Audacity upon interacting with the plugin.
In 2.1.2, closing an effect window using the red close button at top left rather than the button on the dialog led to a crash.
(Mac and Linux) Nyquist effects were excessively slow when a label track was present. This fix has also speeded up Nyquist effects generally compared to Audacity 2.1.2.

New in Audacity 2.1.2 (Jan 20, 2016)

New in Audacity 2.1.1 (Jul 16, 2015)

New in Audacity 2.1.0 (Mar 29, 2015)

Changes and Improvements:
Effects:
LADSPA, VST and Audio Unit (OS X) effects now support real-time preview, save/load of user presets and saving effect settings across sessions. Note: Real-time preview does not yet support latency compensation.
VST effects now support import/export of FXB preset banks.
Shell VST effects that host multiple plugins are now supported.
All Effect Menu items (built-in or plugin) can now be used in a Chain.
Items in the Effect, Generate or Analyze Menus can be sorted or grouped by name, publisher or class of effect.
Noise Removal is improved and renamed to "Noise Reduction".
Change Speed has new time controls for current and new length. You can now enter the speed change as a multiplier e.g. "2" is twice as fast.
New "Crossfade Tracks" effect can be used for crossfading two tracks. This replaces Cross Fade In and Cross Fade Out.
Nyquist Prompt and most shipped Nyquist effects now have Preview button.
Interface:
Redesigned Meter Toolbars: The default shows separate Record and Playback Meters, half-height so they can be wider while docked, in gradient style.
A frequency selection can now be made (and spectral edit effects applied to those frequencies) when in a spectrogram view. You can also create or adjust frequency selections in a new "Spectral Selection Toolbar" (available at View > Toolbars).
Transcription Toolbar (Play-at-speed) can now loop play and cut-preview.
Timer Record now saves recordings automatically into an existing project.
New Armenian translation.
Operating system and sound device support:
(Windows) Audacity 2.1.0 requires Windows XP SP3 (32-bit) or XP SP2 (64-bit), Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or 8.1.
(Windows) Audacity is now compiled using Visual Studio 2013.
(Windows) Recording with WASAPI host now includes experimental support for physical inputs (up to 24-bit depth) as well as loopback recording.
(OS X) 10.10 (Yosemite) is now supported including Apple Audio Units.
Please report any issues with WASAPI recording/playback or Yosemite to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/contact/#feedback .
(Linux Ubuntu) Under Unity, keyboard shortcuts are not visible in the Audacity menus. Keyboard shortcuts are visible if you install the classic GNOME Flashback interface or under Unity if you open Audacity with the UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 environment variable. Audacity compiled from source will ship with src/audacity.desktop.in set to UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 but it will remain up to distributions to use this desktop file.
Bug fixes:
Interface:
Typing "j" or "k" in a label track activated the "move cursor" shortcut.
Spectrogram log (f) view displayed incorrectly until vertically zoomed.
Fixed crash after zooming out on vertical scale beyond +/-1.0.
Selections made with Selection Toolbar were not restored after Undo.
Undo could fail silently if a selection included/touched a clip boundary.
Imports and Exports
If there were invalid FFmpeg libs in system PATH this prevented Audacity recognising the installed FFmpeg or the FFmpeg specified in audacity.cfg.
Mac OS X:
Fix uninitialized buffer - this should correct playback buzz or crackle where the upper of multiple tracks started with or contained white space.
Device names were corrupted when using system language other than English.
Fixed crashes using (external program).
Waves v9 Audio Units should now work correctly.
GNU/Linux:
Fix "Audacity already running" error when using the command-line or context menu to open multiple or further files.
Fix segfault exporting an FFmpeg format to an unwritable folder.
Fix silent failure exporting FFmpeg, MP2 or OGG to an unwritable folder.
Fix ENTER activated an effect when OK button was greyed out.
Addendum:
The previous Audacity 2.0.6 version fixed an issue that projects did not reopen correctly if they contained tracks having 2^31 samples or greater of audio (just over 13.5 hours at 44100 Hz).

New in Audacity 2.0.6 (Sep 29, 2014)

IMPROVEMENTS:
Import or export using FFmpeg now requires FFmpeg 1.2 or later (or libav 0.8 or later). For recommended downloads of recent FFmpeg please visit http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown.
New Tamil translation (largely complete).
(OS X) Easier Audacity installation using the DMG: drag the Audacity folder to the /Applications shortcut.
Interface:
Redesigned, searchable Keyboard Preferences with Tree, Name and Key views.
Edit Menu: "Cut" and "Delete" are now in the top level of the menu.
Transport Menu now includes "Play/Stop" and "Play/Stop and Set Cursor" (use Keyboard Preferences to create shortcuts for "Play" and "Stop").
Tracks Menu now includes "Mix and Render to New Track".
Track Drop-Down Menu now has Move Track To Top and Move Track To Bottom.
New right-click menu choice "Delete Label" to remove single labels.
"Snap To" now offers choice of snap to the "closest" or "prior" position. Note: the previous "Snap To On" keyboard shortcut will no longer work.
"Snap To" settings are now independent for each project.
Effects:
Truncate Silence: redesigned with simpler option "Truncate Detected Silence" to shorten to the specified length without compressing silence.
VST effects: New "Settings" dialog lets you specify buffer size (for faster processing) and enable buffer delay compensation (to prevent inserted silence). Compensation may cause a crash in a few plug-ins.
VST effects now support standard FXP presets.
LV2 effects are now supported on all platforms (textual interface only).
BUG FIXES:
Click or drag on the Timeline after Loop Play continued to loop.
Transcription Toolbar did not play slower than 0.1x speed.
Interface:
Region Restore did not restore the region after using Preferences.
Dragging selections with the keyboard or Selection Toolbar digits was very slow.
(OS X) Some full and reduced Menu Bar items were not translated.
(OS X and Linux) Fixed various interface crashes.
Effects:
Reverb and Paulstretch were missing from Chains.
Analyze > Contrast could report very inaccurate rms levels.
Noise Removal: Attack and decay times were half as long as set.
(OS X and Linux) Nyquist effects ran much more slowly than on Windows.

New in Audacity 2.0.6 RC 1 (Sep 26, 2014)

BUG FIXES:
Interface:
Region Restore did not restore the region after using Preferences.
Dragging selections with the keyboard or Selection Toolbar digits was very slow.
(OS X) Some full and reduced Menu Bar items were not translated.
(OS X and Linux) Fixed various interface crashes.
Effects:
Reverb and Paulstretch were missing from Chains.
Analyze > Contrast could report very inaccurate rms levels.
Noise Removal: Attack and decay times were half as long as set.
(OS X and Linux) Nyquist effects ran much more slowly than on Windows.
Click or drag on the Timeline after Loop Play continued to loop.
Transcription Toolbar did not play slower than 0.1x speed.
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS:
Import or export using FFmpeg now requires FFmpeg 1.2 or later (or libav 0.8 or later). For recommended downloads of recent FFmpeg please visit: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown .
New Tamil translation (largely complete).
(OS X) Easier Audacity installation using the DMG: drag the Audacity folder to the /Applications shortcut,
(OS X) Audacity 2.0.6 will not officially support OS X 10.10 Yosemite when released (in particular, Apple Audio Units may not open in Audacity).
Interface:
Redesigned, searchable Keyboard Preferences with Tree, Name and Key views.
Edit Menu: "Cut" and "Delete" are now in the top level of the menu.
Transport Menu now includes "Play/Stop" and "Play/Stop and Set Cursor" (use Keyboard Preferences to create shortcuts for "Play" and "Stop").
Tracks Menu now includes "Mix and Render to New Track".
Track Drop-Down Menu now has Move Track To Top and Move Track To Bottom.
New right-click menu choice "Delete Label" to remove single labels.
"Snap To" now offers choice of snap to the "closest" or "prior" position. Note: the previous "Snap To On" keyboard shortcut will no longer work.
"Snap To" settings are now independent for each project.
Effects:
Truncate Silence: redesigned with simpler option "Truncate Detected Silence" to shorten to the specified length without compressing silence.
VST effects: New "Settings" dialog lets you specify buffer size (for faster processing) and enable buffer delay compensation (to prevent inserted silence). Compensation may cause a crash in a few plug-ins.
VST effects now support standard FXP presets.
LV2 effects are now supported on all platforms (textual interface only).

New in Audacity 2.0.5 (Oct 22, 2013)

New in Audacity 2.0.5 RC 1 (Oct 16, 2013)

New in Audacity 2.0.4 (Sep 7, 2013)

New in Audacity 2.0.3 (Jan 22, 2013)

Bug fixes for:
Crash using Undo whilst time-shifting a track.
Crash using Repair if the selection extended into an empty track.
Export Multiple didn't prevent export if there was no audio or all audio was muted. This allowed export of small invalid files.
Time Track:
Loop Play of a speeded-up track inserted silence.
Playback and rendering was significantly inaccurate, creating
audible and visual glitches.
Accessibility:
The mnemonics character "&" was read out by screen readers in most of the Preferences choices.
NVDA did not read static text in most dialogs. Text can now be read by using INSERT + B.
JAWS and Window-eyes misread the "Duration" control in Silence Generator.
Toolbar buttons could not be pressed by ENTER
Other interface bug fixes.
Changes and Improvements:
The SoX Resampler library (libsoxr) has replaced libresample in
Audacity releases, offering both higher quality and greater speed. .
Time Tracks new features:
"Set Range" now changes only the range of the Time Track, preserving the pitch/speed set by any existing warp points.
Vertical scale added with options for linear and logarithmic display and interpolation.
Upper and lower speed limits will now be remembered when saving and reopening a project in 2.0.3. Warp points in projects saved by previous Audacity versions will be correctly restored in 2.0.3.
Warp points saved in a 2.0.3 project will be preserved if opened in previous versions but playback and display will be incorrect.
New effects:
Studio Fade Out (uses a filtered "S" curve).
Adjustable Fade (accessible effect for creating partial fades
and adjustable fade shapes).
Bass and Treble (replaces Bass Boost).
General:
Real sample rates up to 384000 Hz are now supported for playback and recording in high resolution devices (the maximum is up to 192000 Hz for Windows DirectSound host).
Labeled Regions in Edit Menu is renamed to "Labeled Audio" and now allows splits to be placed at point labels. Labeled audio regions that touch without overlapping are treated as separate regions. Overlapping labeled audio regions are treated as a single region.
New Croatian translation of Audacity.
Compilation:
CMake is required in order to build libsoxr

New in Audacity 2.0.3 RC 1 (Jan 19, 2013)

Bug fixes for:
Crash using Undo whilst time-shifting a track.
Crash using Repair if the selection extended into an empty track.
Export Multiple didn't prevent export if there was no audio or all audio was muted. This allowed export of small invalid files.
Time Track:
Loop Play of a speeded-up track inserted silence.
Playback and rendering was significantly inaccurate, creating
audible and visual glitches.
Accessibility:
The mnemonics character "&" was read out by screen readers in most of the Preferences choices.
NVDA did not read static text in most dialogs. Text can now be read by using INSERT + B.
JAWS and Window-eyes misread the "Duration" control in Silence Generator.
Toolbar buttons could not be pressed by ENTER
Other interface bug fixes.
Changes and Improvements:
The SoX Resampler library (libsoxr) has replaced libresample in
Audacity releases, offering both higher quality and greater speed. .
Time Tracks new features:
"Set Range" now changes only the range of the Time Track, preserving the pitch/speed set by any existing warp points.
Vertical scale added with options for linear and logarithmic display and interpolation.
Upper and lower speed limits will now be remembered when saving and reopening a project in 2.0.3. Warp points in projects saved by previous Audacity versions will be correctly restored in 2.0.3.
Warp points saved in a 2.0.3 project will be preserved if opened in previous versions but playback and display will be incorrect.
New effects:
Studio Fade Out (uses a filtered "S" curve).
Adjustable Fade (accessible effect for creating partial fades
and adjustable fade shapes).
Bass and Treble (replaces Bass Boost).
Real sample rates up to 384000 Hz are now supported for playback and recording in high resolution devices (the maximum is up to 192000 Hz for Windows DirectSound host).
Labeled Regions in Edit Menu is renamed to "Labeled Audio" and now allows splits to be placed at point labels. Labeled audio regions that touch without overlapping are treated as separate regions.
Overlapping labeled audio regions are treated as a single region.
Compilation: cmake is required in order to build libsoxr.
New Croatian translation of Audacity.

New in Audacity 2.0.2 (Aug 24, 2012)

New in Audacity 2.0.2 RC 1 (Aug 10, 2012)

New in Audacity 2.0.1.0 (Jun 29, 2012)

Bug fixes for:
Interface: Selection Toolbar: a value for the previous whole second displayed if the value was close to a whole second.
Finding zero crossings could cause the selection to expand into white space at either side of the clip.
Clips did not drag to another track if mouse was over a selection.
Mixer Board: Rendering four tracks resulted in a redundant Track Strip followed by a crash.
Imports, Exports and Files:
Exporting to WAV or AIFF led to a "Libsndfile says" error or corrupted output due to order of metadata in imported files.
(Mac) Fixed crashes importing MP3 files on PPC machines.
Effects and Analysis:
Normalize: Fixed issues where normalization could be to wrong value if applied with DC offset correction, or if applied to "read-directly" WAV and AIFF files before On-Demand completed.
Sliding Time Scale: fixed an audible discontinuity at the beginning of the processed selection; fixed a serious quality problem on Linux 64-bit. Other miscellaneous bug fixes, including fix to prevent zooming with mouse wheel or ball scrolling the content off-screen,
Changes and Improvements:
Shortcuts can now be added in Keyboard Preferences to items in the Generate, Effect or Analyze menus, including user-added plug-ins.
Nyquist Effect plug-ins can now be added to Chains.
New "Paulstretch" effect for extreme slowdown without pitch change.
New "Sample Data Export" Analyze effect for exporting a file containing amplitude values for each sample in the selection.
New Preference (off by default) to import files On-Demand (without seek ability) when using the optional FFmpeg library.
New Preference (off by default) to retain labels when deleting a selection that snaps to the label without extending past it.
(Mac) Audacity now has excellent compatibility with the VoiceOver screen reader. For details, please see: http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/accessibility.html#mac .
CleanSpeech Mode (no longer supported) will not now be enabled even if it was enabled by an earlier version of Audacity.
Added Serbian (Latin and Cyrillic) translations.

New in Audacity 2.0.1 RC 2 (Jun 26, 2012)

BUG FIXES FOR:
Interface:
Selection Toolbar: a value for the previous whole second displayed if the value was close to a whole second.
Finding zero crossings could cause the selection to expand into white space at either side of the clip.
Clips did not drag to another track if mouse was over a selection.
Mixer Board: Rendering four tracks resulted in a redundant Track Strip followed by a crash.
Imports, Exports and Files:
Exporting to WAV or AIFF led to a "Libsndfile says" error or corrupted output due to order of metadata in imported files.
(Mac) Fixed crashes importing MP3 files on PPC machines.
(Linux Ubuntu) .Aup files could not be associated with Audacity (they opened in the web browser instead).
Effects and Analysis:
Normalize: Fixed issues where normalization could be to wrong value if applied with DC offset correction, or if applied to "read-directly" WAV and AIFF files before On-Demand completed.
Sliding Time Scale: fixed an audible discontinuity at the beginning of the processed selection; fixed a serious quality problem on Linux 64-bit.
Other miscellaneous bug fixes, including fix to prevent zooming with mouse wheel or ball scrolling the content off-screen.
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS:
Shortcuts can now be added in Keyboard Preferences to items in the Generate, Effect or Analyze menus, including user-added plug-ins.
Nyquist Effect plug-ins can now be added to Chains.
New "Paulstretch" effect for extreme slowdown without pitch change.
New "Sample Data Export" Analyze effect for exporting a file containing amplitude values for each sample in the selection.
New Preference (off by default) to import files On-Demand (without seek ability) when using the optional FFmpeg library.
New Preference (off by default) to retain labels when deleting a selection that snaps to the label without extending past it.
(Mac) Audacity now has excellent compatibility with the VoiceOver screen reader. For details, please see: http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/accessibility.html#mac .
CleanSpeech Mode (no longer supported) will not now be enabled even if it was enabled by an earlier version of Audacity.
Added Serbian (Latin and Cyrillic) translations.

New in Audacity 2.0.0 (Mar 14, 2012)

Changes since version 1.3.14 Beta:
Bug fixes for:
* Interface:
Fixed playback speed and synchronization problems when dragging clips or tracks between tracks having different sample rates.
(Windows) Removed a crash risk where shortcuts could be used to record or import in one project while importing or exporting in another.
* Imports and Exports:
Fixed crashes when changing the sample format of read-directly WAV or AIFF files using the Track Drop-Down Menu.
Fixed a crash importing MP3 files that had duplicate metadata tags (this is a bug in current libsndfile which has been patched in Audacity; MP3 files mislabeled as WAV which have duplicate tags will still crash Audacity on Linux if Audacity has been compiled against an affected version of system libsndfile).
Fixed an issue where excessively high or corrupted sample values in the audio could corrupt exports from the start of the problem for the rest of the file, and could corrupt the rest of the project.
(Linux) Fixed Audacity could not be compiled against FFmpeg 0.7.x and 0.8.x.
* Effects and Analysis:
Fixed crash on launch when using "Ambisonic Decoders (PC)" VST plug-ins and other plug-ins that enable additional floating point exceptions.
Fixed Plot Spectrum background could be transparent on some machines.
Bug fixes for Click Track, High Pass, Low Pass and Vocal Remover.
Chirp, Tone and Silence generators now remember their settings.
* Other miscellaneous bug fixes.
Changes and Improvements:
* New Interface preference to show the track name in the display (this is off by default).
* Longer default Playback preference for effects preview and preview before cut.
* Restored use of Page Up and Page Down to scroll horizontally.
Bug fixes and new features between 1.2.6 and 2.0.0
Bug Fixes:
Labels now accept lower case "z".
(Windows Vista/7) Pressing Stop after recording could cause a crash.
(Mac OS X) Fixed shortcut keys activating when typing in file open or save windows.
(Mac OS X) Audacity 2.0.0 fully supports Unicode, which fixes an issue where Audacity could not work with folders having non-English characters in their name.
(Linux) Playing existing tracks while recording in mono could cause recordings to be distorted or low-pitched.
New features: There are dozens of new features in 2.0.0, including:
Many effects significantly improved, especially Equalization, Noise Removal and Normalize. Vocal Remover now included plus GVerb on Windows and Mac. VAMP analysis plug-ins now supported.
Improved label tracks with Sync-Lock Tracks feature in the Tracks Menu. Multiple clips per track. Tracks and selections can be fully manipulated using the keyboard. Many more keyboard shortcuts.
New Device Toolbar to manage inputs and outputs. Timer Record feature. New Mixer Board view with per-track VU meters.
Automatic Crash Recovery in the event of abnormal program termination.
Fast "On-Demand" import of WAV/AIFF files if read directly from source. FLAC now fully supported. Added support for optional FFmpeg library for import/export of AC3/M4A/WMA and import of audio from video files.

New in Audacity 2.0.0 RC 2 (Feb 27, 2012)

Changes since version 1.3.14 Beta:
Bug fixes:
Imports and Exports:
Fix a crash importing MP3 files that had duplicate metadata tags (this is a bug in current libsndfile which has been patched in Audacity; MP3 files mislabeled as WAV which have duplicate tags will still crash Audacity on Linux if Audacity has been compiled against an affected version of system libsndfile).
Fixed an issue where excessively high or corrupted sample values in the audio could corrupt exports from the start of the problem for the rest of the file, and could corrupt the rest of the project.
Effects and Analysis:
Fixed crash on launch when using "Ambisonic Decoders (PC)" VST plug-ins and other plug-ins that enable additional floating point exceptions.
Fixed Plot Spectrum background could be transparent on some machines.
Bug fixes for Click Track, High Pass, Low Pass and Vocal Remover.
Chirp, Tone and Silence generators now remember their settings. Other miscellaneous bug fixes.
Changes and Improvements:
New Interface preference to show the track name in the display (this is off by default).
Longer default Playback preference for effects preview and preview before cut.
Restored use of Page Up and Page Down to scroll horizontally.
Summary of bug fixes and new features between 1.2.6 and 2.0.0:
Bug Fixes:
Labels now accept lower case "z".
(Mac OS X) Fixed shortcut keys activating when typing in file open or save windows.
(Mac OS X) Audacity 2.0.0 fully supports Unicode, which fixes an issue where Audacity could not work with folders having non-English characters in their name.
New features: There are dozens of new features in 2.0.0, including:
Many effects significantly improved, especially Equalization, Noise Removal and Normalize. Vocal Remover now included plus GVerb on Windows and Mac. VAMP analysis plug-ins now supported.
Improved label tracks with Sync-Lock Tracks feature in the Tracks Menu. Multiple clips per track. Tracks and selections can be fully manipulated using the keyboard. Many more keyboard shortcuts.
New Device Toolbar to manage inputs and outputs. Timer Record feature. New Mixer Board view with per-track VU meters. Automatic Crash Recovery in the event of abnormal program termination.
Fast "On-Demand" import of WAV/AIFF files if read directly from source. FLAC now fully supported. Added support for optional FFmpeg library for import/export of AC3/M4A/WMA and import of audio from video files.

New in Audacity 1.3.14 Beta (Feb 17, 2012)

New in Audacity 1.3.13 Beta (Apr 12, 2011)

Bug fixes for:
Interface:
Cutting or copying from a track at a given sample rate into a track at another rate resulted in speed-changed audio.
Generating inside a clip could modify the clip length or create spurious clips.
Recorded stereo tracks were only half the height of imported or generated stereo tracks. Imported stereo files had a "1" appended to the track name.
Edit > Region Save did not save the cursor position.
(OS X) Crash when quitting an empty project window, or when closing the main project window while a progress dialog was on screen.
Numerous other interface fixes including Dependencies dialog, Keyboard Preferences and spurious lines drawn on waveform.
Imports and Exports:
Support added for later versions of the optional FFmpeg library up to current FFmpeg HEAD. This should significantly improve FFmpeg support on Linux. FFmpeg downloads for Windows and Mac updated to v0.6. This fixes mono AAC files importing as stereo, though current 0.5 versions of FFmpeg will still work.
Both FFmpeg and LAME should now be properly detected even when other versions of those libraries exist on the system.
New warning (on by default) for importing uncompressed audio files. Better error messages when read-directly uncompressed files are missing.
Imported ID3v2 metadata tags were removed when exporting without the Metadata Editor appearing (for example, when using an export command in Chains). Note: As a result of this fix, ID3v1 tags must now be written by exporting using (external program) and an installed LAME.
U-Law/A-Law files with WAV headers now use the standard 18 byte fmt chunk, so should now be recognised by most telephony applications.
Variable bit rate MP3s exported using "MP3 Files" were larger than necessary because using the bit reservoir was disabled.
(OS X) Files imported from iTunes could create invalid characters in the .aup project file, causing an error when re-opening the project. Note: An error "reference to invalid character number" will still occur if re-opening a project created in previous Betas that contains such characters. To fix the issue, open a back-up copy of the .aup file in a text editor, turn off word wrap, then in the line indicated in the error message, remove the string of characters that starts with &# and ends with a semi-colon (;).
Other bug fixes:
Nyquist effects: fixes for crashes, incorrect slider behaviour and better support for backslashes, double quotes and Unicode characters.
(Windows and OS X) Processing of VST effects was substantially slower than in previous versions of Audacity.
(OS X 10.5 PPC) A first-time installation of Audacity Beta would hang on launch if VST effects were detected.
Changes and improvements:
Control Toolbar renamed to Transport Toolbar.
Device Toolbar (on by default) now contains all input and output device choices, including host and recording channels. Input/output choices are no longer in Mixer Toolbar on Windows XP or some older operating systems. New Transport > Rescan Audio Devices menu item to refresh the device list.
New "Sync-Lock Tracks" feature (turned on in the Tracks menu) to allow groups of audio and/or label tracks to retain synchronisation when the track length changes.
Equalization: New "Manage Curves" dialog for importing and exporting curves.
Noise Removal: New "Sensitivity" slider to adjust the noise threshold, and new option to isolate noise.
New "Extended Import" Preferences for specifying different importers to open specific file extensions.
Improved Automatic Crash Recovery with all project changes autosaved.
MIDI tracks can be vertically zoomed, time shifted and display bar lines. Note: the channel selection buttons are not available in 1.3.13.
Simpler installer with top-level "Audacity" folder.

New in Audacity 1.3.13 rc3 (Apr 7, 2011)

Bug fixes for:
Interface:
Cutting or copying from a track at a given sample rate into a track
at another rate resulted in speed-changed audio.
Generating inside a clip could modify the clip length or create
spurious clips.
Recorded stereo tracks were only half the height of imported or
generated stereo tracks. Imported stereo files had a "1" appended
to the track name.
Edit > Region Save did not save the cursor position.
Crash when quitting an empty project window, or when closing the
main project window while a progress dialog was on screen.
Numerous other interface fixes including Dependencies dialog,
Keyboard Preferences and spurious lines drawn on waveform.
Imports and Exports:
Support added for later versions of the optional FFmpeg library up to
current FFmpeg HEAD. This should significantly improve FFmpeg support
on Linux. FFmpeg downloads for Windows and Mac updated to v0.6. This
fixes mono AAC files importing as stereo, though current 0.5 versions
of FFmpeg will still work.
Both FFmpeg and LAME should now be properly detected even when other
versions of those libraries exist on the system.
New warning (on by default) for importing uncompressed audio files.
Better error messages when read-directly uncompressed files are missing.
Imported ID3v2 metadata tags were removed when exporting without the
Metadata Editor appearing (for example, when using an export command
in Chains). Note: As a result of this fix, ID3v1 tags must now be
written by exporting using (external program) and an installed LAME.
U-Law/A-Law files with WAV headers now use the standard 18 byte fmt chunk,
so should now be recognised by most telephony applications.
Variable bit rate MP3s exported using "MP3 Files" were larger than
necessary because using the bit reservoir was disabled.
(OS X) Files imported from iTunes could create invalid characters in the
.aup project file, causing an error when re-opening the project. Note:
An error "reference to invalid character number" will still occur if
re-opening a project created in previous Betas that contains such
characters. To fix the issue, open a back-up copy of the .aup file in a
text editor, turn off word wrap, then in the line indicated in the error
message, remove the string of characters that starts with &# and ends
with a semi-colon (;).
Other bug fixes:
Nyquist effects: fixes for crashes, incorrect slider behaviour and better
support for backslashes, double quotes and Unicode characters.
(Windows and OS X) Processing of VST effects was substantially slower than
in previous versions of Audacity.
(OS X 10.5 PPC) A first-time installation of Audacity Beta would hang
on launch if VST effects were detected.
(Linux) Recordings made with the pulse device crashed or stalled when
using overdub and/or software playthrough.
(Linux) Play-at-Speed crashed at 0.08 speed or lower if Audacity was
configured with libsamplerate.
Changes and Improvements:
Control Toolbar renamed to Transport Toolbar.
Device Toolbar (on by default) now contains all input and output device
choices, including host and recording channels. Input/output choices are
no longer in Mixer Toolbar on Windows XP or some older operating systems.
New Transport > Rescan Audio Devices menu item to refresh the device list.
New "Sync-Lock Tracks" feature (turned on in the Tracks menu) to allow
groups of audio and/or label tracks to retain synchronisation when the
track length changes.
Equalization: New "Manage Curves" dialog for importing and exporting curves.
Noise Removal: New "Sensitivity" slider to adjust the noise threshold, and
new option to isolate noise.
New "Extended Import" Preferences for specifying different importers to
open specific file extensions.
Improved Automatic Crash Recovery with all project changes autosaved.
MIDI tracks can be vertically zoomed, time shifted and display bar lines.
Note: the channel selection buttons are not available in 1.3.13.
(Windows and Linux) The window Close button and other system close or
shutdown commands now quit on closing the last window. File > Close now
always clears to a new, empty project.
(OS X) Simpler installer with top-level "Auadacity" folder.

New in Audacity 1.3.13 Beta (Mar 28, 2011)

New in Audacity 1.3.12 Beta (Apr 2, 2010)

Bug fixes for:
Imports and Exports:
AAC files could not be exported at 48000 Hz
When importing multiple native file formats using FFmpeg, all files after the first reverted to using the native importer
FFmpeg custom export window too large on 800 x 600 resolution monitors
Projects froze if files imported via On-Demand were no longer available
(Linux) WAV/AIFF exports were corrupted if overwriting an aliased file which had been imported using the command line
Labels:
Cutting or deleting a region in the waveform and label track did not move the labels in advance of the cut
Incorrect behavior snapping to labels and boundaries when Snep To was enabled
Labels can now be reversed if included with the audio selection
Other bug fixes:
When using non-English languages, Generate effects truncated the selected region
Mice with high-precision scroll-wheels could cause a crash
Changing recording preferences using the Transport menu did not update the menu in other open projects
(Windows 7) Clicking in a file open or save dialog caused files or folders to disappear from the list, and file filtering was broken
Changes and improvements:
A hover tooltip is now provided if the Mixer Toolbar input selector cannot control the system slider for the selected input.
More intuitive behavior when moving and resizing labels by dragging
Support added for importing lists of files (LOF) containing relative paths
Export Multiple: new option to use a numerical prefix before existing label or track names; "Success" dialog now resizable
New Equalization preset "Inverse RIAA", with new button to invert other curves
Timer Record now remembers last scheduled duration
Meter Toolbar can now be made much narrower, and so more suitable for vertical orientation
New Preferences choice for "System" language which is used on first run instead of asking user to choose language
Warning now provided if WAV/AIFF exports are not successfully completed
(Linux) Improved icon set in compliance with freedesktop.org Icon Theme Specification 0.6

New in Audacity 1.3.12 RC1 (Mar 2, 2010)

New in Audacity 1.3.11 Beta (Jan 19, 2010)

New in Audacity 1.3.10 Beta (Dec 2, 2009)

Bug fixes for:
Imports and Exports:
Freeze importing audio files when Default View Mode set to Pitch (EAC)
Simultaneous On-Demand imports sorted incorrectly
WAV or AIFF files imported as noise if Preferences set to copy in the data at 24-bit quality
WMA exports corrupted if they contained metadata
Metadata Editor appeared before the Export window when exporting to any format
Effects:
Crash or hang using Equalization on longer tracks
Reverse did not reverse clip boundaries
Nyquist:
Excessive memory consumption led to slow processing or crashes
Values appearing in Nyquist effects text boxes were not always the default or previously entered values
Errors running Nyquist effects in European locales where comma used as decimal separator
VST effects remained in Effect menu even when re-scanned and no longer available
Truncate Silence produced incorrect results if silences spanned a block boundary
Other bug fixes:
Spurious "not writable/disk full" errors when saving projects
Playing, rendering or exporting multiple tracks led to desynchronised playback or loss of audio data
Crash opening Preferences when no recording and/or playback devices enabled or connected
Preferences window: OK button did not respond to ENTER when a tab selected in left-hand panel
Mixer Board solo button handling
(Windows) After a period launching correctly, Audacity sometimes did not come up on top at launch
(Mac OS X) Correctly installed Help folder could not be found
(Mac OS X and Linux) Output slider could affect VU playback meter which then did not reflect actual waveform volume level
(Linux) Undoing or redoing a label edit could cause a crash
Changes and improvements:
Linked audio and label tracks disabled until a future Beta version so they can be bug fixed
Input volume slider will be disabled if it doesn't have proper control of system slider; use the system slider instead
Proper support for copying/pasting label-with-audio including label text; new Edit > Paste Text to New Label menu item to paste system clipboard
Contrast Tool now modeless, more intuitive handling of multiple project windows, various other minor improvements

New in Audacity 1.3.9 Beta (Dec 2, 2009)

New in Audacity 1.3.8 Beta (Jul 17, 2009)

New in Audacity 1.3.7 Beta (Jan 28, 2009)

Cross-platform Bug Fixes:
Muting/soloing caused incorrect channel results in exported stereo files
Noise Removal and all Nyquist effects pasted the original unmodified audio at the end of the modified region
Noise Removal inserted a tail of low level noise at the end of the modified region
Nyquist and Compressor plug-ins did not display moving bars in progress dialogue and over-estimated "Remaining Time"
Cancelling Nyquist effects deleted unprocessed audio
Change Speed and Change Tempo failed to modify the original selection length
Cut lines invisible
Fixed various bugs importing multi-stream files via FFmpeg
File > Export as WAV could be corrupted if overwriting an imported WAV read direct from the file
Export multiple "Other uncompressed files" choice always produced 16-bit PCM audio irrespective of chosen options.
MP3 export usually produced a 128 kbps constant bit rate file irrespective of chosen options; reported length often incorrect
MP3 ID3 Genre tag misread on import if the genre list in Metadata Editor was opened and saved
Exported metadata tags in MP3, OGG and FLAC often not seen by player software - now substantially improved
WMA exports (via FFmpeg)corrupted if metadata tags included
Some multi-channel recording devices that previously recorded more than two channels no longer did so
Generated audio did not fit in window
No warning was given when saving an empty project
Beep on completing longer process did not work on many systems
fixed crashes importing lists of files (.LOF), in Meter Toolbar and Change Speed
Platform-specific Bug Fixes:
Windows Vista: crash opening Preferences with no sound devices enabled and connected
Mac OS X and Linux:
Spurious clipping at start of playback
Labels did not accept certain legal characters
Shortcuts did not work after running effects
Project Rate did not change to respect rate of first imported file if that rate was unsupported
Mac OS X only:
Crash resizing project window
Menu items became inactive or visibly corrupted
File > Open dialogue did not always work on OS X 10.4
Impossible to set independent Command and Control shortcuts that shared the same key
Freeze importing uncompressed files via On-Demand (please report any remaining instances of this to: [email protected])
Portable settings were not picked up, instead settings were taken from the default location
Fixed unavailability of FFmpeg installer
New Features:
F11 Full Screen mode
High-quality "Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift" effect
Audio Contrast Analyzer for testing audio on the internet for WCAG2 accessibility compliance.
Windows: sound devices can now be opened using the more efficient DirectSound API
Other changes:
Latency correction should be improved for many users by employing a fixed rather than variable correction
Grouping of Effects into categories turned off until a way is added for users to do so themselves
Numerous minor interface improvements such as Metadata Editor navigation, new "hh:mm:ss + hundredths" selection format
Note: Windows users wanting to export MP3 files will require the latest version of the LAME encoder from http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/

Audacity Changelog

What's new in Audacity 3.5.0 Beta

New in Audacity 3.4.2 (Nov 16, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.4.1 (Nov 9, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.4.0 (Nov 5, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.4.0 Beta 1 (Oct 23, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.3.3 (Jun 9, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.3.2 (May 7, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.3.1 (Apr 28, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.3.0 (Apr 24, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.3.0 Beta (Apr 15, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.2.5 (Mar 2, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.2.4 (Jan 27, 2023)

New in Audacity 3.2.3 (Dec 27, 2022)

New in Audacity 3.2.2 (Dec 6, 2022)

New in Audacity 3.2.1 (Oct 5, 2022)

New in Audacity 3.2.0 (Sep 23, 2022)

New in Audacity 3.2.0 Alpha 1 (Aug 30, 2022)

New in Audacity 3.1.0 (Oct 28, 2021)

New in Audacity 3.0.5 (Sep 30, 2021)

New in Audacity 3.0.4 (Aug 26, 2021)

New in Audacity 3.0.3 (Jul 26, 2021)

New in Audacity 3.0.2 (Apr 19, 2021)

New in Audacity 3.0.0 (Mar 18, 2021)

New in Audacity 2.4.2 (Jun 26, 2020)

New in Audacity 2.4.1 (May 22, 2020)

New in Audacity 2.3.3 (Nov 23, 2019)

New in Audacity 2.3.2 (May 14, 2019)

New in Audacity 2.3.1 (Mar 10, 2019)

New in Audacity 2.3.0 (Sep 30, 2018)

New in Audacity 2.2.2 (Feb 22, 2018)

New in Audacity 2.2.1 (Dec 7, 2017)

New in Audacity 2.1.3 (Mar 18, 2017)

New in Audacity 2.1.2 (Jan 20, 2016)

New in Audacity 2.1.1 (Jul 16, 2015)

New in Audacity 2.1.0 (Mar 29, 2015)

New in Audacity 2.0.6 (Sep 29, 2014)

New in Audacity 2.0.6 RC 1 (Sep 26, 2014)

New in Audacity 2.0.5 (Oct 22, 2013)

New in Audacity 2.0.5 RC 1 (Oct 16, 2013)

New in Audacity 2.0.4 (Sep 7, 2013)

New in Audacity 2.0.3 (Jan 22, 2013)

New in Audacity 2.0.3 RC 1 (Jan 19, 2013)

New in Audacity 2.0.2 (Aug 24, 2012)

New in Audacity 2.0.2 RC 1 (Aug 10, 2012)

New in Audacity 2.0.1.0 (Jun 29, 2012)

New in Audacity 2.0.1 RC 2 (Jun 26, 2012)

New in Audacity 2.0.0 (Mar 14, 2012)

New in Audacity 2.0.0 RC 2 (Feb 27, 2012)

New in Audacity 1.3.14 Beta (Feb 17, 2012)

New in Audacity 1.3.13 Beta (Apr 12, 2011)

New in Audacity 1.3.13 rc3 (Apr 7, 2011)

New in Audacity 1.3.13 Beta (Mar 28, 2011)

New in Audacity 1.3.12 Beta (Apr 2, 2010)

New in Audacity 1.3.12 RC1 (Mar 2, 2010)

New in Audacity 1.3.11 Beta (Jan 19, 2010)

New in Audacity 1.3.10 Beta (Dec 2, 2009)

New in Audacity 1.3.9 Beta (Dec 2, 2009)

New in Audacity 1.3.8 Beta (Jul 17, 2009)

New in Audacity 1.3.7 Beta (Jan 28, 2009)

New in Audacity 1.3.6 (Oct 25, 2008)

New in Audacity 1.3.5 Beta (May 8, 2008)

New in Audacity 1.3.3 (Mar 6, 2008)