Audacity is an easy to use multitrack audio editor and recorder
It was recently announced the launch of the new version of Audacity 3.2 which introduces some pretty cool features including a new effects button, mixer bar merge, effects update, plug-in improvements and more.
For those unfamiliar with Audacity, you should know that this is one of the programs most emblematic of Free Software, with which we can perform audio recording and editing digitally from our computer. This application is cross-platform so it can be used on Windows, MacOS, Linux and more.
Audacity in addition to allowing us to record multiple audio sources it can also allow us to post-processing all kinds of audio, including podcasts, by adding effects like normalization, cropping, and fading in and out.
Main new features in Audacity 3.2
In this new version that is presented, it is highlighted that added the ability to apply sound effects to the slopes risk management. Management is done via the new “Effects” button in the “Tracks” menu.
Another change that stands out in this new version of Audacity 3.2 is that added a new button "Sound settings" which replaced the «Device» panel (this change if desired the user can return through the «View> Panels» menu), as well as the classification method of the «Effects» menu items has been changed (you can choose other grouping methods and effects classification in the configuration).
for accessories in formats VST3, LV2, LADSPA and Audio Units, the ability to work in real time is implemented, Besides that on Linux, it is implemented the capacity to compile without the presence of JACK and the use of directories defined in the XDG specification is enabled instead of ~/.audacity-data and ~/.audacity.
In addition to that, it is also worth mentioning that in this new version the code license changed from GPLv2 to GPLv2+ and GPLv3. The binaries are distributed under GPLv3 and most of the code under GPLv2+. A license change was required for compatibility with VST3 libraries.
Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:
- Updated icons.
- Added fast audio sharing feature via audio.com service.
- Added support for plugins with VST3 effects.
- The “Mixer” and “Indicator” panels have been merged.
- Audacity automatically scans, tests, and enables plug-ins when you start them.
- Added support for macOS systems based on Apple Silicon ARM chips
- Added support for the FFmpeg 5.0 package in addition to avformat 55, 57, and 58.
- Wavpack support added.
- MP3 file import code moved from loco to mpg123.
Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details In the following link.
How to install Audacity 3.2 on Ubuntu and derivatives?
At the moment the application package has not yet been updated within the third-party repositories, we can now choose to download the AppImage file, which we can obtain with the following command
wget https://github.com/audacity/audacity/releases/download/Audacity-3.2.0/audacity-linux-3.2.0-x64.AppImage
Now let's give it execute permissions with:
sudo chmod +x audacity-linux-3.2.0-x64.AppImage
And we can run the application either by double clicking on the downloaded file or on the same terminal with the command:
./audacity-linux-3.2.0-x64.AppImage
Install Audacity from Flatpak
Another method with which we can install this audio player in our beloved Ubuntu or one of its derivatives is with the help of Flatpak packages and type the following command in a terminal:
flatpak install --from https://flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.audacityteam.Audacity.flatpakref
Finally, you can open this audio player on your system by searching for its launcher in your application menu.
In case of not finding the launcher, you can run the application with the following command:
flatpak run org.audacityteam.Audacity
If you already had the player installed by this means and you want to check if there is an update to it, you can do it by typing the following command in a terminal:
flatpak --user update org.audacityteam.Audacity