Here at the Engineering Computer Center we are constanly researching and trying out Open Source Programs.  One of the advantes of these programs is the availability of the source code to the users.  This means that the user will be able to make changes to the source code that would customize the program to theri own needs or just make it better for the other users.  

Improvement of an existing product is a challenge that we as the future Engineers will constantly face at various points of our career. We thought that you might be interested to in checking Audacity for its audio and editing features and at the same time for the challenge of making it better.

What is Audacity?

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Some of Audacity's features include: 

What are some of its features?

Some of Audacity's features include: 

·  Importing and exporting WAV, MP3 (via the LAME MP3 Encoder, downloaded separately), Ogg Vorbis, and other file formats 

·  Recording and playing sounds

·  Editing via Cut, Copy, Paste (with unlimited Undo) 

·  Multi-track mixing 

·  Digital effects and effect plug-ins. Additional effects can be written with Nyquist 

·  Amplitude envelope editing 

·  Noise removal 

·  Support for multichannel modes with sampling rates up to 96 kHz with 24 bits per sample 

·  The ability to make precise adjustments to the audio's speed, while maintaining pitch, in order to synchronise it with video, run for the right length of time, etc. Unlike many other programs, Audacity has very few audible artifacts (doubling, or chorus type effects) when lengthening or shortening a file. 

·  High ease of use 

·  Large array of plug-ins available  

How can I download Audacity? 

Windows (click here to download Audacity for Windows)  

Mac OS X  (click here to download Audacity for Mac OS X)  

Linux/Unix (click here to download Audacity for Linux/Unix)  

Where can i get support for Audacity? 

TUTORIALS
DOCUMENTATION 

 NOTE:  Engineering Computer Center or Wayne State University is nether affiliated nor signed any contracts with the makers of Audacity.