Record and edit audio with Audacity

The Sound Recorder in Windows is basic and limited in the time it can record. Audacity is an open source audio recorder and editor with no such limits.

Installation is simple. The website warns that Windows 7 is not fully supported yet but we have used it on Windows 7.

Read more: Audacity tips | audio editing advice

Audacity will automatically use the default recording device set in Windows but it can be told to use a different one in the Preferences Window and how many channels to record at once. This is normally one or two for mono or stereo recording. The audio level can be set using a slider with feedback from the level meters. There are warning lights for when the signal is too loud, which is very useful for avoiding nasty distortion.

Once audio has been recorded it is simple to crop and remove unwanted sections. Simply select them with the mouse and press delete. Audacity automatically plays the selected audio so it is easy to check whether or not you have selected the correct section.

There are lots of effects for removing noise or changing the speed or pitch of the audio.

There are several plug-ins for Audacity that can be used to extend it. The LAME MP3 encoder adds MP3 export and there is also one for using VST effects.