- Apps To Edit Music
- What Is The Best Music Editing Software
- What Is The Best Free Music Editing Software
Good free music editing software could make your music enjoyment better. These music editing software freeware could help you edit music files in various ways, like cutting music file, cropping music file, removing background noise from music file, merging music files, etc. Some music editing software apps could even help you convert music to popular audio formats like MP3 and WAV. You could make use of these free music editing software apps to achieve your goals and improve music entertainment.
MAGIX is a leading music editing software. With this software, it is possible to digitize your audio files, edit as well as optimize music to the required level. With the cleaning lab product of this software, you are presented with 290 presets for restoring audio making it a complete workstation. What is a Music Editing Software? Linux MultiMedia Studio, now known as LMMS, is a free music editor software program to help you edit music files on computer. LMMS offers a huge number of impressive features as a whole, including the FX Mixer, Automation Editor, support for MIDI Keyboard, some in-built audio effects and instruments and compatibility with some popular standards in Digital Music Production and editing. Audacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. Developed by a group of volunteers as open source. Adobe Audition is one of the best editing software we've reviewed because of its intuitive audio interface and powerful editing and repair tools. Apr 08, 2019 Avid Pro Tools is a wonderful audio editor for games, music, film, and broadcast. Avid has launched a new tool which is free and offers 16 MIDI and 16 audio which has the capability to record about four audio files from four inputs. Avid Pro Tools Features: Cleanest audio editing and mixing software.
The below are 5 best free music editing software for you to edit music files on your computer. Take a look and select the one you like to edit music files and entertain yourself with wonderful edited music files.
Part 1: 5 Best Free Music Editing Software to Edit Music Files
1. Audacity
Audacity should be the first on the list. Originated in 2000, Audacity is a pioneer of free music editing software free to download and use. This free music editing software download is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. What is Audacity? It is a powerful music editor that lets you perform all the necessary operations with audio files: record music, mix audio samples, cut and trim tracks, merge several MP3s, apply effects, mute parts of a song, and much more! Audacity has an impressive list of supported audio formats including M4A, M4R, WAV, MP3, AAC, AIFF, FLAC, MP2, MP3, OGG & others.
2. Reaper
Although Reaper is not technically free, it does offer a very long free trial (60 days). This is a full featured DAW and goes far beyond the capabilities of most of the software listed here.
REAPER is a complete digital audio production application for Windows and OS X, offering a full multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing and mastering toolset. It supports a vast range of hardware, digital formats and plugins, and can be comprehensively extended, scripted and modified.
Professionals use Reaper, home studio enthusiasts use Reaper, and composers use Reaper. It can easily hold it's own against Pro Tools and Logic Pro. If you ever want to do some multi-tracking, music production or sound design in addition to audio editing, you have to check this out.
3. WavePad
WavePad - which comes from NCH Software that is known for the easy-to-use productivity tools — is a good-to-go, intuitive music editing software app when you need professional-level audio editing on your PC. You can use the tool for the creation of a music fusion by blending different tracks and professional music creation through recording and all. WavePad does offer support for almost every popular audio format, such as MP3, WAV, VOX, GSM, WMA, OGG, AAC, etc. And, as it comes to the audio editing aspect, you have both advanced and standard features. For instance, WavePad offers lots of functions like copy, insert, silence, auto-trim etc. In addition, WavePad lets you apply certain sound effects to your work as well. On top of all, tab-based interface of WavePad makes more than enough sense, and you will have to get additional plug-ins if you want to enhance productivity tools. WavePad could be a free music editing software app, but also available as Premium version starting from $39.95.
4. Wavosaur
Wavosaur is tight programming and then some. But despite its tiny footprint, this free audio editor has tons of features so you can change bit rates, convert, create and apply volume envelopes, cut, dice, slice, detect beats, normalize, and much more.
It's also very fast in applying those edits and non-destructive, which means you may undo your actions without reloading the original file. What Wavosaur doesn't do is reverb, chorus, flange, and compress, etc. Instead, the program relies on VST effects plug-ins (Virtual Studio Technology, a standard from industry heavyweight Steinberg) for FX. That's no doubt part of the reason it's so efficiently-sized. You can find download links and listings of many free VST effects plug-ins on the Wavosaur website if you've none of your own.
5. LMMS
Linux MultiMedia Studio, now known as LMMS, is a free music editor software program to help you edit music files on computer. LMMS offers a huge number of impressive features as a whole, including the FX Mixer, Automation Editor, support for MIDI Keyboard, some in-built audio effects and instruments and compatibility with some popular standards in Digital Music Production and editing. The UI of LMMS is truly professional one and the availability of plug-ins can take the productivity to a new extent too. so, when you are not ready to pay, LMMS is a solution you can depend upon for easier editing and mixing of music. Of course, there are a few perks of being an Open Source project, such as wide range of support. Also, to be noted, LMMS is made by a set of musicians!
Part 2: The Best Music Editing Software - Leawo Music Recorder
If you are not a professional music editor, the best music editing software for you should be Leawo Music Recorder, a combination of music editing software and professional music recording software that could record and edit music files on computer for non-professionals in simple clicks. As a music recording software app, it could record any sound on your computer, including songs played on your computer and by you. As a music editing software app, it could compress music files, add music tags automatically and manually, etc.
Leawo Music Recorder
☉ Record any music file from computer stream audio and built-in input audio.
☉ Record music from 1000+ music sites like YouTube, Facebook, Veoh, VEVO, etc.
☉ Schedule music recording via the internal recording task scheduler.
☉ Automatically/manually add and complete music tags like artist, album, cover, genre, etc.
The below steps would show you how to record and edit music file with Leawo Music Recorder. Download and install this music editing software app on your computer and launch it.
Note: To edit music with Leawo Music Recorder, you need to use it to record your music file and then you could edit the recorded music file.
Step 1: Set output directory
Firstly, after you run Leawo Music Recorder, click on 'Audio Source' button (the microphone icon) at the bottom left corner. Under the 'General' tab, you could set output directory to save recorded and edited music files in the 'Output' box.
Step 2: Set audio source
And secondly, go to 'Audio Source' tab to determine the audio source: Record Computer Audio or Record Audio Input. This is upon your real situation. Simple video editing software free. If you want to record and edit music files played on your computer, choose 'Record Computer Audio'. If you want to record and edit music files sung by you through the microphone, click the 'Record Audio Input' option.
Step 3: Set output format
Third, choose the 'Format' option and select the saving format. This music editing software supports MP3 and WAV audio formats as output. Select either one according to your needs. Meanwhile, you could compress music files here by adjusting the Bit Rate and Sample Rate. This would help reduce the music size.
Step 4. Start to record music
Start recording by clicking the red 'Record' button before you play the music files. The music recording would start immediately. When you finish recording, this music recording software would automatically download and add music tags to the recorded music files.
Step 4: Manually edit tags if necessary
Click the button again to finish recording process. Right click on the newly-created track and open the 'Edit' tab. You could manually edit tags like Title, Artist, Album, Year, Genre, etc.
Conclusion
As music editing software, Leawo Music Recorder allows you compress music files, edit music tags like artist, album, artwork, etc. You could also directly upload the recorded and edited music files to iTunes music library in one click.
Part 3: Video demo on How to use Leawo Music Recorder
If you are reading this article it means that you are looking for the perfect audio editing software for Mac that you can use. But, before you blindly follow the list and start downloading all the audio editing software mentioned here, one thing you should keep in mind is your personal requirements. Before you even begin reading this article, you should know what you are looking for. For example, whether you are looking for audio editing software to edit podcasts or something complex enough to help you score a movie.
You should also keep your budget in mind. No matter how good a software is, the one that you can afford will always serve you better. Finally, you should also keep your skillset in mind and ask yourself whether you are ready to invest time in learning an audio editing software or not. Once you have answered all these questions for yourself, you will be able to find and focus on the software that will help you the most and will not waste time chasing the shiniest audio editing software in the market.
I have tried to structure this article, by keeping all these things in mind. So, you will find the best free audio editing software, the best audio editing software for editing podcasts, best professional audio editing software, and so on and so forth. However, note that all these classifications are not entirely exclusive as most of the audio softwares have features that overlap a lot with each other. At the end of the day, the best audio editing software for you will depend on what you need and feel comfortable working with. With all that said, here is our list of the best audio editing software for Mac that you should use:
- Adobe Audition: Best Overall Audio Editing Software
- Logic Pro X: Best DAW Software for Mac
- Avid Pro Tools First: Best Free Audio Editing Software
- Audacity: Best Audio Editing Software for Podcasters
- ocenaudio: Best Audio Editing Software for Beginners
- RX Post Production Suite 4: Best Audio Post Production Tools
- Fission: Best Audio Editing Software for Fast and Lossless Audio Editing
Note: While I am focusing this article on macOS operating system, most of these apps work on Windows PC too. The only app that doesn't work on Windows is the Logic Pro X.
Best Audio Editing Software to Use in 2020
1. Adobe Audition: Best Overall Audio Editing Software
I want to start this list by using the most obvious and best overall audio editing software that the market has to offer. Whether you want to record and edit audio or want to create a background score for your upcoming movie, Adobe Audition can handle all your needs. Not only the software has all the features that you require from an audio editing program but it also has multi-track recording and editing capabilities which is something that we associate with digital audio workstations. Adobe Audition also offers one of the best audio clean-up and restoration tools on the market. It supports a ton of plugins which add even more power to the software. Whether you want to remove noise with precision or add audio effects, you can find plugins for everything here.
My favorite feature of the Adobe Audition is its waveform editing environment which allows you to pinpoint the problems and apply necessary adjustments. Adobe also brings AI enhanced tools which can make your audio editing life easier. For example, there's an 'Auto Ducking' feature which uses Adobe's AI-based ‘Adobe Sensei' technology to automatically lower the volume of background track to make the vocals more pronounced. Other features of the app include batch processing of audio files, automatic speech alignment, iXML metadata support, synthesized speech, and more. You will also appreciate the clean and user-friendly UI.
Note that Adobe Audition is a pro audio editing tool so users who have never used an audio editing software before might find it a little difficult at the start. That said, Adobe does provide free tutorials for both beginners and experienced users which should get you started.
Pros:
- Good User interface
- Extensive Editing Tools
- Huge plug-in support
- Great audio clean-up and restoration tools
What os does macbook pro use. Cons:
- Subscription-based pricing makes it expensive for long-term use
- Hard for beginners
Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS
Install:Free Trial, $19.99/month
2. Logic Pro X: Best DAW Software for Mac
I love Apple's software products just for the fact that they integrate so well with the hardware. Final Cut Pro X is my favorite video editing tool as it allows me to edit a 4K video on my 2016 MacBook Pro. The experience is the same for Logic Pro X. Despite being one of the best overall audio editing software on the market, it works without any hiccup even on the older generation of MacBook Pros. That said, let's move away from the obvious advantage that Logic Pro X has over other music editing software and talk about its features, starting with its UI. In my opinion, the user interface of Logic Pro X is probably the best among all the software listed on this list. It is clean and every tool that you want to access is accessible with just a few clicks.
Note that while you can use Logic Pro X for just editing audio files for your podcast or any other similar project, you will be under-utilizing the software and it will be hard to justify its cost. Logic Pro X is a proper DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) which is aimed at music producers. It features a varied instrument library covering almost all music genres. What surprises me the most is how close the virtual instruments sound to their real counterpart. Even people with the most discerning ears will be able to tell them apart. What few instruments or music genres it doesn't support can easily be added thanks to its support for plugins and extensive plugins library that is available for anyone to use.
My favorite music kit is the 'Drummer Kit' plugin which when enabled gives you an AI-enabled drum track (electronic or acoustic) while you add your music on top. Logic Pro X also comes with more than 7000 royalty-free music loops that can automatically conform to the tempo and key of your project. There's also support for patches which allow you to quickly load complex multichannel sounds. There are features like 'Smart Tempo' which automatically manages tempo across all the content in your project, Flex Time and Flex Pitch, Track Alternatives, automation, audio effects, music notation, and more.
The only problem with Logic Pro X is it cost. I think for people who are even going to use 10% of the features of Logic Pro X, the cost is justifiable. It's a onetime fee, after which the software is yours. There's no hidden charges and no subscription. That said, if you just want to use it for normal audio editing this will be an overkill, especially when there are a ton of good options out there.
Pros:
- Flawless integration with Mac hardware and operating system
- A complete DAW
- Drummer Kit
- Over 7000 royalty-free track loops
- Beautiful user interface
Cons:
- High upfront costs make it inaccessible to many prospective users
Supported Platforms: macOS
Install:$199.99
3. Avid Pro Tools First: Best Free Audio Editing Software
Avid Pro Tools First is the free version of 'Avid Pro Tools', a professional grade audio editing software, costing upwards of $500 and used by filmmakers and TV professionals to produce and score music for movies and TV shows. While the 'Avid Pro Tools First' is a toned down version of its paid counterpart, it is more than enough for most of the users. It brings a fast 64-bit audio recording and mixing engine along with a variety of session templates with preloaded instrumental tracks covering most genres so that you can start creating your music as soon as you get familiar with the software.
It brings professional grade editing tools. From editing the MIDI tracks to adjusting tempo to fixing pitch and time, Avid Pro Tools First can handle everything. The software also comes with Avid's Xpand!2 virtual instruments and UVI Workstation 3 sample player, thus giving you access to royalty free loops and beats. This free version even comes with 23 utility plugins allowing you to shape your music just the way you want to. Recording your own music or audio is as simple as connecting your mic or instrument and hitting the record button.
When recording audio, you can take advantage of the loop recording feature which allows you to record multiple takes and then use the one that you like the most. The software is also great for people who like to collaborate with others. If you buy Avid's cloud subscription ($4.99/month), your work will be saved on the cloud. You can then share it with your colleagues to work together. In fact, even the free version which we are discussing here allows you to share up to three projects with other users. So, as you can see, you are getting a ton of professional grade features inside an app made for professionals which are used by the industry leaders and you don't have to pay a penny. That's a deal that I cannot refuse and neither should you.
Pros
- Professional grade editing tool for free
- Free online sync for up to three projects
- Royalty free track loops
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Costs a lot to upgrade to the pro version
Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS
Install:Free
4. Audacity: Best Audio Editing Software for Podcasters
Not everyone needs a complete digital audio workstation. In fact, 90% of people who are looking for an audio editing software are looking for a simple program which can help them carry out basic audio editing such as trimming, noise reduction, voice modulation, background score addition, and so on. Whether you are a YouTube or a podcaster or someone who just needs to edit audio for home videos, all of the above-mentioned audio editing software will be a bit of overkill. you need a piece of software which not only enables you to perform these essential editing actions but also which is easy to learn use. For that use case scenario, Audacity is the best tool on the market.
Don't get me wrong, you can use Audacity as a DAW (especially now that it supports MIDI import) but in my views, it's not meant for that. It's simple and approachable UI makes it best for users who don't want to spend months learning an audio editing software. It is an open-source and free audio editing tool which brings a simple and interactive user interface with all the essential tools that you will need. From recording your audio clips to editing it using cut, trim, copy, and paste tools, to using audio effects, generators, and analyzers, Audacity can handle everything. Since Audacity is popular, it is also supported by a host of plugin developers allowing you to find plugins for almost anything that you might need for your project.
Despite being open-source and free, Audacity sees new updates on a fairly regular basis so you are not left using a software of the past. Just recently, Audacity was updated to support the dark mode on macOS Mojave and it looks great. There's also the new spectrogram view which allows you to pinpoint the problems and edit them accordingly. My favorite thing about Audacity is that it will take you just a couple of hours on YouTube to learn the basics and start your editing journey. That alone makes Audacity far more approachable than any other audio editing software.
Pros:
- Free and open-source
- Approachable and simple user interface
- Doesn't require you to do a Ph.D. to start editing
- Large and helping online community
Cons:
- If you are the right target audience, I don't think there are any cons
Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, and Linux
Install:Free
5. ocenaudio: Best Audio Editing Software for Beginners
Just like Audacity, ocenaudio is a free and open-source audio editing software that brings a simple to understand user interface. If for some reason Audacity is doesn't feel right to you or you just want to check out other audio editing software before settling on one, ocenaudio should be next on your list. Just like Audacity, ocenaudio features a clean editing environment which makes it easy for beginners to get started. In fact, as far as looks are concerned, ocenaudio looks more modern than Audacity.
Coming to the features, ocenaudio brings all the basic audio recording and editing features. You can just connect a microphone and press the record button and start recording. When you are editing, you can access all the tools including track selection, track cutting and splitting, copy and paste, multi-trackediting and more. Just like Audacity, ocenaudio supports real-time preview for applied effects. Users can not only apply native effects but also use VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plugins to import effects which are not included with the software.
Like Audacity, ocenaudio also supports the spectrogram view. You can use it to analyze the spectral content of your audio signal for getting a better understanding of all the problems.ocenaudio is also good at handling big files. Even after uploading files which were multiple GB in size, the software didn't hiccup. I have a 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro, so it's not even that I was using it on a powerful machine like an iMac.
While ocenaudio is a good audio editing program, there is one big problem with the software that will turn many users off. The app doesn't support multi-track editing which makes it useless for many users including me. I have so much fun when using this program and I prefer it over audacity both for its UI and speed. However, the missing support for multi-track editing means that I cannot use this app for my work. Another drawback of this app is that it lacks is a thriving online community.
You won't find many online video tutorials on this one. If your work involves multi-track editing, you won't be using ocenaudio. That said, for users who are just getting started with audio editing and doesn't require a multi-track editing program, this is the best free audio editing software on the market right now.
Pros:
- Free and open-source
- Modern looking UI
- Easy for beginners
- Support for VST Plugins
- Can easily handle large audio files
Cons:
- Multi-track editing not supported
- Not many quality video tutorials available
Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, and Linux
Install:Free
6. RX Post Production Suite 4: Best Audio Post Production Tools
iZotope RX Post Production Suite 4 is without a doubt the best post-production tools available for audio editors. iZotope has been leading the industry when it comes to refining audio for decades now and no other company comes even close to it. The latest version 4 update has made its tools even more potent when it comes to editing audio. The suite comprises of multiple tools namely RX 7 Advanced, Dialogue Match, Neutron 3 Advanced, Stratus 3D, Symphony 3D, Insight 2, and RX Loudness Control. Each tool serves a specific purpose and combined they can fulfill all your post-production audio editing needs.
Apps To Edit Music
Starting with the RX 7 Advanced, it brings a powerful repair assistant that can automatically recognize noise, clippings, clicks, hums, and more and remove them with a click. Dialogue Match automatically learns and match the sonic character of dialogue recording. Neutron 3 is a professional tool for building great mixes. It brings a 'Mix Assistance' which can listen to all the tracks in your mix and gives you a balanced starting point. Similarly, the rest of the tools in the suite bring features to tackle a specific part of audio post-production.
But only the power of tools is not what iZotope known for, it's also known for the way it presents the tools. Mp3 mixer software, free download for windows 8. All the tools work in a highly visual way, giving you a good look at the problems and what you can do to solve them. Just look at the screenshots above, and see how audio is represented in a detailed way. That said, all this power comes at a cost as if there's one thing more that iZotope is known for, it's for its pro pricing. If your work revolves around fixing audio and audio post-production, these tools can save you so much time while delivering a better product that you can justify the price. However, if you are someone who is just looking to get into audio editing, it will be hard to swallow the bill.
Pros:
- Best audio production tools on the market
- Best noise removal
- Available as plugin for your favorite audio editing software
- Repair and salvage lost audio
- Automatic audio processing tools make it easy to use
Cons:
- Cost is too high
Supported Platforms: Windows and macOS
Install:$1844
7. Fission: Best Audio Editing Software for Fast and Lossless Audio Editing
If you find all of the above audio editing software to be too complex then check out Fission. It's a simple audio editing software that focuses on providing a fast and lossless audio editing environment. You get quick access to all the audio editing tools. You can join, cut, and trim audio, edit audio metadata, use the batch converter to convert multiple audio files at once, and more. I love that it supports multiple file formats and you can easily edit and convert files to MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, FLAC, AIFF, or WAV.
For quick edits, you can also use Fission's smart split feature which automatically cuts audio files based on silence. Other features include gain adjustment, cue sheet support, volume normalization, and more. Fission is made by Rogue Ameba, a company that is well known in the Mac community for making splendid audio products, and Fission is no different. If you don't want to invest time in learning audio editing and want a quick and easy-to-use tool, this is the one to get.
Pros:
- Best for quick editing jobs
- Supports lossless editing
- Supports multiple file formats
- Batch processing
What Is The Best Music Editing Software
Cons:
What Is The Best Free Music Editing Software
- No pro editing features presence
Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, and Linux
Best Audio Editing Software: Final Thoughts
There are many other pro-level DAW software on the market which have not made the list as I have no experience in music production. The article is for audio editing software and I have tried to keep my list to reflect that. The only reason I have mentioned Logic Pro X is that I know some users will be looking for a DAW software here and for them it's going to be useful. If you are just working with spoken audio and want a free editing app, very few apps can beat Audacity and hence it's on the list.
But I love the user interface and speediness of ocenaudio and hence it made the list too. I guess what I am trying to say is that every person has their own specific requirements and the software you choose will depend on that. I have chosen the seven apps that will meet the needs of 90% of users reading this article. If you want something more specific and don't know where to look, drop requirements in the comments section below and at the least, I will guide you in the right direction.