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If you’re reading this guide, you understand the importance of tweaking the sound in an audio file for better results. Now, some people will argue that audio editing is more of an art than a science.
How do some editors manage to obtain brilliant sound out of their files? There are many reasons for that.
One of them is using the best audio editing software to meet their needs. And we’ll be showing you the best audio editing software options on the market in a moment.
From cleaning up the noise to manipulating audio, there’s a lot of work to do on an audio file before it comes out great for listeners. Whether you’re editing audio files for personal use or for clients who expect premium results for their investment, there’s a need to produce great sound.
Unfortunately, using audio editing software takes time to explore all the functionalities available. So, going for audio software is a serious consideration.
Therefore, your best audio editing software will depend on your needs. For instance, editing audio as a hobby will require software that’s different from editing for professional music production.
Furthermore, your skill level will affect your choice. Likewise, your budget determines the audio software you can purchase.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the 5 best audio editing software so that you can see which one fits your needs best.
What is the best audio editing software?
In this guide, we’ll consider 5 best audio editing software for various purposes:
Let’s dive into the details of each software
1. Adobe audition
Best for every user
Key Features:
Loudness meter: this helps you analyze your tracks to ensure that it meets the loudness requirements of your intended use. Likewise, it becomes easier to meet broadcast requirements and streaming services such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Fortunately, Audition provides presets for these streaming services.
Match loudness: this allows you to maintain consistent loudness throughout your clip. This is important if you use your audio files on a particular platform.
DeReverb: sometimes, you have to record sounds in a room full of echo. In this case, the dereverb feature will come in handy. You can remove the echo in your sound clip. Also, Audition allows you to remove reverberations for all frequencies, low frequencies, high frequencies, and more.
DeNoise: often, you’ll have background noise like hisses, vehicles, coughs, ringing phones, etc. in your audio tracks. The denoise feature makes it easier to remove the background noise. Better still, you don’t have to go through a long process like the noise reduction tool. This is available in effects and is a destructive feature.
Favorites: if you edit audio for a purpose at regular intervals, there are common tasks you take while editing the clip. The favorites feature allows you to record these tasks and apply them whenever necessary.
Overlapping waveforms: usually, when you overlay an audio track on another audio in a multitrack session, you’ll hear both sounds during the replay. Now, Audition plays the overlay audio by default. But if you want both tracks to play during that period, there’s an option to play overlapping clips simultaneously.
Pros:
The loudness meter helps to target streaming services
Robust sound removal, noise reduction, and audio restoration tools
Built-in adobe audition effects
Discounts for students and teachers
Cons:
Expensive
No MIDI support
No free version
Steep learning curve
Pricing Plans:
Adobe Audition: costs $20.99/month
Creative Cloud apps: costs $54.99/month
2. Ashampoo music studio
Best for Windows users
Key Features:
Mix tape: this will turn your music into mix tapes according to your preferences. You’ll find this handy if you’re a DJ or an event host. To perform this task, you have to drag your audio files into Ashampoo’s editor. You can start the mix with a fade-in and end it with a fade-out. Furthermore, the crossfade duration lets you specify the number of seconds it will take a song to fade into the next one. You also have the option to select your device.
Split audio files: this feature allows you to separate your audio file into parts. This may be necessary if you need a specific part of your audio for other purposes.
Cut start & end: sometimes, there’s unnecessary noise at the beginning and end of an audio file. The cut start and end feature allows you to remove those parts of your clip.
Quick rip: this allows you to extract audio tracks from discs into Ashampoo. After uploading the songs, this tool will search for its name online. Then, you can also search for its cover image.
Burn: with this feature, you can transfer your audio files into a disc. From the rip & burn menu, there are options to burn your audio on a disc. You can also burn your mixtapes onto a disc. Apart from mixtapes, you can create audiobooks and the greatest hits from various disks.
Pros:
The organizer helps to organize audio files on your device
Burn music into discs
Extract music from discs
Intuitive interface
Cons:
Consumes a lot of memory and CPU
The record feature doesn’t offer a system audio option
Pricing Plans:
Ashampoo Music Studio: costs $39.9.
3. Soundop
Best for music producers
Key Features:
Group: this feature allows you to have many audio clips in a single group. Once you do this, there are various editing options. For instance, you can edit a single clip in the group or all clips simultaneously.
Fade: if you have a few clips in a group, you can create a fade between the clips. For instance, you can set up a crossfade duration at the end of a clip and the beginning of the subsequent one. You can also select a fade type for the fade-in and fade-out settings.
Transparent and Send to back: When a clip is on another clip in the editor, the clip at the top will be audible by default. However, with the “Send to back” feature, you can send the clip on top to the back. If you want both clips to be audible simultaneously, use the “Transparent” feature.
Split: this feature makes it easy to separate an audio clip into many parts. For instance, if you want to separate a concert into different sections, this feature will come handy.
Shift: this tool allows you to shift the source audio in a clip. So, if your clip is a one-minute window, you can shift your longer source audio to fit a part of the audio into your clip.
Loop: sometimes, you may need to loop a short clip if it’s in the background to a longer presentation. All you have to do is select “Loop” in the clip settings.
Pros:
Intuitive layout
Excellent customer support
Supports major audio formats
Offers CD support
Cons:
No free version
Pricing Plans:
Soundop: costs $99.
4. FL Studio
Best for DJs
Key Features:
Insert silence: if you want to add silence to any part of your audio, you can use the insert silence feature. This is especially useful at the beginning and end of your clip, where you want to eliminate noise.
Normalize: this feature helps to raise the volume of your audio file if it’s too low. When you normalize, the highest peak in your audio file will reach its maximum value. Apart from normalizing the entire file, you can select an especially low portion and normalize it.
Auto-slice: this feature detects every transient in your audio file. You’ll see markers at these points. Just to be sure, you can zoom in to ensure the markers are accurate. Otherwise, you can move the marker to the right place. After applying the auto-slice, you can play various sections of your audio file.
Loop: when you use the loop tool, it will create markers that cover a portion of your audio. You can adjust these markers depending on how big the portion you want to loop. Once you play, the software will repeat the area you’ve looped. There’s also a loop tuner to adjust the settings.
Plugins: you’ll find plugins to purchase for FL Studio. These plugins extend the functionality of FL Studio through elements such as drum beats, effects, and more.
Pros:
A high number of features
Huge library of plugins
Good recorder
Has mobile app
Cons:
Steep learning curve
Pricing Plans:
Fruity: $99
Producer: $199
Signature: $299
All plugins edition: $499
5. Audiodirector
Best for videographers
Key Features:
Sound clips library: some common sounds occur in our everyday activities. When you need these sounds in your audio editing, you’ll find them in the sound clips library. For instance, there are music jingles, instruments, explosions, sports, and more.
Dockable video preview: in case you have to edit audio for a video, you also want to ensure synchronization between the audio and video file. The dockable video preview helps you achieve this even while editing the audio. With this feature, you can play the video and edited audio simultaneously to see if the sound fits the video.
AI De-Reverb: if your sound was produced in a big room, it’s normal to have some echo in the sound. With the AI de-reverb feature, you can efficiently remove echo automatically.
AI speech enhancement: if you’re recording a video or audio outside the studio, you’ll likely have background noise as a result of the environment. The AI speech enhancement helps to clean up your audio and ensure only the necessary sound is audible.
Multichannel device recording: for audio recording, you need both the vocals and instruments. Audiodirector allows you to record from all these devices at once. In addition, if you have prerecorded audio files, you can add them as tracks in the recording. This will make your recordings faster.
Pros:
Excellent customer support
Intuitive user interface
Cons:
No free version
Software can lag sometimes
Pricing Plans:
AudioDirector 365: $51.99 annually
Director Suite 365: $89.99 annually
Lifetime license of AudioDirector 12 Ultra: $96.99
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is an audio editing software?
Audio editing software is a piece of software that allows users to edit and generate audio files. Some everyday tasks in audio editing software include eliminating noise, adding effects, recording audio, removing reverb, and more.
Furthermore, some audio editing software packages allow you to install plugins to extend their functionality. These plugins are pieces of small software packages that perform specific editing tasks in your editing software.
While editing audio files, software packages will offer you tools to perform destructive and non-destructive editing. To explain, destructive editing makes permanent changes to your original audio file, while non-destructive editing doesn’t alter your audio file permanently.
Audio editing software can be used from hobbyists to professional music producers.
Key features of audio editing software
Even though this guide covered 5 audio editing software packages, you’ll literally find tens of options when researching. So what are the key features you should look for in every software? Here are 6 of them:
- Noise filters: If wishes were horses, users would wish all audio files were recorded in the studio. Unfortunately, sound can be recorded in many venues unfavorable to good sound. So, you may find a lot of noise in your audio file. These include vehicle horns, hisses, and other forms of noise. Obviously, one of your major editing tasks is to eliminate this noise. As a matter of fact, editing software packages will have different capabilities in removing background noise. Some tools will allow you to remove noise manually, while some can do it automatically without many tweaks from you.
- Normalization: An audio file will sound bad and unprofessional if the volume fluctuates while the audio is playing. With the normalization feature, you can boost the volume of the audio file. Furthermore, some tools will allow you to select aspects of your file and normalize them. As you normalize your file, you can replay it to fine-tune it until you get the best result. Your audio editing software must provide this feature to help produce consistent volume through your file.
- Audio recording: Before editing, you need an audio file. In some cases, you have to create these files first. That’s why most audio editing software packages allow you to record audio files. Beyond that, some software tools allow multiple channel recording. So, if you want to record vocals along with instruments, you can do that once. This feature will save time if you want to create audio with many tracks that need to play simultaneously. Of course, if you’re going to record audio tracks on an editing software, you’ll need external recording gear to do it effectively.
- Clipping tools: Sometimes, the length of your clip will be too long. In other cases, there are periods at the beginning and the end of your clip where there’s unnecessary sound. Clipping tools will help cut these parts of your audio. If you’re creating an audio mix with many audio files, you should have tools to fade out of the current track and fade into the next track.
- Reverb removal: Recording sound in a big room or hall means you can get a lot of echo in your sound. This feature will make it easy to remove reverb in your file. Luckily, some audio editing tools do this automatically. All you have to do is click a button and see the magic.
- Save audio: After editing an audio file to your taste, you need to be able to export it from your editing software. So, you should have the option to export your audio in major formats such as mp3, aac, wav, and more. Another feature you want is the auto-save. This way, if your software crashes while editing a file, you won’t lose all your changes.
Ultimately, your needs will determine the features you exalt while considering audio editing software. However, you should consider these features as they’re all critical to the audio editing process.
Final Thoughts
Purchasing audio editing software is a decision that requires time and research. Beyond reading guides like this, you should watch videos and read customer reviews.
Otherwise, you may purchase audio editing software that will cause a lot of frustration and poor audio results. As mentioned earlier in this guide, your preferred editing software will depend largely on your needs.
So, ensure you clearly define your needs before settling on an option. By doing this, you’ll know the most important features to look out for in the software.
What’s your best audio editing software, and why? Let’s know in the comments!
