Digital audio editor

A digital audio editor is a computer application

Application software

Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...

 for audio

Audio

Audio is an electrical or other representation of sound.Audio may also refer to:*Audio, audible content in media production and publishing*AUDIO , an American R&B band of 5 brothers formerly known as TNT Boyz and as B5...

 editing

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

, i.e. manipulating digital audio

Digital audio

Digital audio is sound reproduction using pulse-code modulation and digital signals. Digital audio systems include analog-to-digital conversion , digital-to-analog conversion , digital storage, processing and transmission components...

. Digital audio editors are the main software component of a digital audio workstation

Digital audio workstation

A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...

.

For use with music

Editors designed for use with music typically allow the user to do the following:

• Record audio from one or more input
  Input
  Input is the term denoting either an entrance or changes which are inserted into a system and which activate/modify a process. It is an abstract concept, used in the modeling, system design and system exploitation...
  
  s and store recordings in the computer's memory as digital audio
  Digital audio
  Digital audio is sound reproduction using pulse-code modulation and digital signals. Digital audio systems include analog-to-digital conversion , digital-to-analog conversion , digital storage, processing and transmission components...
  
  
• Edit the start time, stop time, and duration of any sound on the audio timeline
• Fade
  Fade (audio engineering)
  In audio engineering, a fade is a gradual increase or decrease in the level of an audio signal. The term can also be used for film cinematography or theater lighting, in much the same way ....
  
   into or out of a clip (e.g. an S-fade out during applause after a performance), or between clips (e.g. crossfading between take
  Take
  A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.-Film:In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup"...
  
  s)
• Mix multiple sound sources/tracks, combine them at various volume levels and pan from channel to channel to one or more output tracks
• Apply simple or advanced effects or filters
  Audio filter
  An audio filter is a frequency dependent amplifier circuit, working in the audio frequency range, 0 Hz to beyond 20 kHz. Many types of filters exist for applications including graphic equalizers, synthesizers, sound effects, CD players and virtual reality systems.Being a frequency dependent...
  
  , including compression
  Audio level compression
  Dynamic range compression, also called DRC or simply compression reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds by narrowing or "compressing" an audio signal's dynamic range...
  
  , expansion, flanging
  Flanging
  Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, with one signal delayed by a small and gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect: peaks and notches are produced in the resultant frequency spectrum,...
  
  , reverb, audio noise reduction and equalization
  Equalization (audio)
  Equalization is the process commonly used in sound recording and reproduction to alter the frequency response of an audio system using linear filters. Most hi-fi equipment uses relatively simple filters to make bass and treble adjustments. Graphic and parametric equalizers have much more...
  
   to change the audio
• Playback sound (often after being mixed) that can be sent to one or more output
  Output
  Output is the term denoting either an exit or changes which exit a system and which activate/modify a process. It is an abstract concept, used in the modeling, system design and system exploitation.-In control theory:...
  
  s, such as speakers, additional processors, or a recording medium
• Conversion between different audio file format
  Audio file format
  An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. This data can be stored uncompressed, or compressed to reduce the file size. It can be a raw bitstream, but it is usually a container format or an audio data format with defined storage layer.-Types of...
  
  s, or between different sound quality levels

Typically these tasks can be performed in a manner that is both non-linear and non-destructive.

For use with speech

Editors designed for use in speech research add the ability to make measurements and perform acoustic analyses such as extracting and displaying a fundamental frequency

Fundamental frequency

The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0, is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In terms of a superposition of sinusoids The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0, is defined as the...

 contour or spectrogram

Spectrogram

A spectrogram is a time-varying spectral representation that shows how the spectral density of a signal varies with time. Also known as spectral waterfalls, sonograms, voiceprints, or voicegrams, spectrograms are used to identify phonetic sounds, to analyse the cries of animals; they were also...

. They typically lack most or all of the effects of interest to musicians.

Table of audio editing software

Name	Creator	Linux Linux Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...	Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...	Unix Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...	Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...	Free Software Free software Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...	Note
Acoustica	Acon Digital Media
Amadeus Pro	HairerSoft
Ardour Ardour (audio processor) Ardour is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application. It runs on Linux, Mac OS X and FreeBSD. Its primary author is Paul Davis, who is also responsible for the JACK Audio Connection Kit...	Paul Davis Paul Davis (programmer) Paul Davis is a British software developer best known for his work on audio software for the Linux operating system, and for his role as one of the first two programmers at Amazon.com....						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
Audacity Audacity Audacity is a free software, cross-platform digital audio editor and recording application. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and BSD.Audacity was created by Dominic Mazzoni while he was a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University...	Dominic Mazzoni
Audiobook Cutter Free Edition							MP3 MP3 MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...  audiobook splitter
Audio Dementia	Holladay Audio
Audition Adobe Audition Adobe Audition is a digital audio workstation from Adobe Systems featuring both a multitrack, non-destructive mix/edit environment and a destructive-approach waveform editing view.-Origins:...	Adobe Systems Adobe Systems Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...						Previously known as CoolEdit
BIAS Peak BIAS Peak Peak is a digital audio editing application for the Macintosh, used primarily for stereo/mono recording, sample editing, creating loops, and CD mastering...	BIAS BIAS BIAS is a privately held corporation based in Petaluma, California.- History :...
Creative Wavestudio	Creative Technology Creative Technology Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...
Diamond Cut DC7	Enhancedaudio.com, Inc.
Ecasound Ecasound Ecasound is a hard-disk recording and audio processing tool for Unix-like computer operating systems including Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD....	Kai Vehmanen						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
Eko Eko Eko or EKO may refer to:* Mr. Eko, a character from the TV series Lost* EKOenergy, an ecolabel for energy* Eko guitars, an Italian guitar company, a German military term* Elko Regional Airport, an airport which has IATA airport code EKO...	Peter Semiletov
Freecycle							beat slicer
Fast Edit	Minnetonka audio
Fission	Rogue Amoeba Rogue Amoeba Rogue Amoeba Software, LLC is a Macintosh software company that produces audio software, specializing in applications for audio capture. Rogue Amoeba's best-known products are Audio Hijack and Audio Hijack Pro. The Audio Hijack programs allow for users to capture and record audio from any program...
FlexiMusic Wave Editor FlexiMusic Wave Editor FlexiMusic Wave Editor is a digital audio editor computer program from FlexiMusic for professionals and home users for Microsoft Windows. It can edit and record music, apply effects and filters, adjust stereo channels etc.. with waveform editing view. It is a shareware program with some time limit...	FlexiMusic
Goldwave GoldWave GoldWave is a popular commercial digital audio editing software product developed by GoldWave Inc, first released to the public in April 1993. It is used in dozens of schools and universities around the world and is mentioned in numerous research papers covering a wide variety of topics, including...	Goldwave Inc.
Jokosher Jokosher Jokosher is a free, non-linear multi-track digital audio editor, the source code of which is released under the GNU GPL. It is being developed in Python, using the GTK+ interface and GStreamer as an audio back-end, initially just for the Linux operating system but now also with support for Windows...	Jokosher community						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
LMMS LMMS Linux MultiMedia Studio or LMMS, is a free software digital audio workstation. Music can be produced by synthesizing sounds, arranging samples, and playing on a MIDI keyboard by combining the features of trackers, sequencers and synthesizers. It supports LADSPA and VST plugins.LMMS is available for...	Tobias Doerffel						Aims to be similar to Fruity Loops
Logic Pro Logic Pro Logic Pro is a hybrid 32 / 64 bit digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software application for the Mac OS X platform. Originally created by German software developer Emagic, Logic Pro became an Apple product when Apple bought Emagic in 2002...	Apple						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
MAGIX Music Maker MAGIX Music Maker Magix Music Maker is a commercial digital music editor, which was designed by the company MAGIX for the consumer sector. In its present form, its program attributes originate from Magix's professional digital audio workstation, Samplitude. The first version of Music Maker was published in 1994...	MAGIX MAGIX MAGIX AG is an international provider of software, online services and digital contents for multimedia communications based in Berlin, Germany. The Company also operates from branches in the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands...
Media Digitalizer	Digitope						Intended to facilitate recording cassette tapes Compact Cassette The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...  to digital formats
mp3DirectCut Mp3DirectCut mp3DirectCut is a lossless editor for MP3 audio files, able to provide cuts and crops, copy and paste, gain and fades to audio files without having to decode or re-encode the audio. By modifying the global gain field of each frame of MPEG audio, the volume of that frame can be modified without...		(WINE)					lossless MP3 MP3 MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...  editing
MP3 Stream Editor	3delite
MusE MusE MusE is a free software MIDI/Audio sequencer with recording and editing capabilities. It was originally written by Werner Schweer and now is developed by the Muse development team....							DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
n-Track Studio	FAsoft N-track n-Track Studio by FASoft is a multitrack audio editing, digital audio workstation program for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X....
NU-Tech NU-Tech NU-Tech is a digital signal processing platform to validate and real-time debug complex algorithms, simply relying on a common PC. It is based on a typical plug-in architecture and thanks to a free software development kit , the developer can write his own plug-in in C++.NUTSs are not compelled...	Leaff Engineering
Pro Tools Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...	Avid AVID AVID stands for:* Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges in the U.S....						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
Pyramix	Merging Technologies						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
Qtractor Qtractor Qtractor is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application for Linux. Qtractor is written in C++ and is based around the Qt4 library. Its author is Rui Nuno Capela, who is also responsible for the very widely used Qjackctl, Qsynth and line of Linux audio software...	Rui Nuno Capela						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
QuickAudio	Sion Software
Reaper REAPER REAPER is a digital audio workstation created by Cockos. It is distributed with an uncrippled evaluation license with a nag screen explaining the license cost. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X...	Cockos / Justin Frankel						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI... , Unlimited Free Trial
ReZound ReZound ReZound is a digital audio editor, primarily for, but not limited to the Linux operating system. Licensed under the GNU GPL, ReZound is free software. Presently, ReZound's focus is on editing audio files for permanent change as opposed to arranging and/or filtering existing audio files to produce a...	Davy Durham
Rosegarden Rosegarden Rosegarden is a free software digital audio workstation program developed for Linux with ALSA and QT4. It acts as an audio and MIDI sequencer, scorewriter and musical composition and editing tool...							DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
SADiE Sadie Sadie, , a black Labrador Retriever, is a recipient of the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross. She was awarded for detecting an explosive device outside the United Nations headquarters in Kabul in November 2005, and was awarded by the Princess Alexandra on 6 February 2007...	SADiE Sadie Sadie, , a black Labrador Retriever, is a recipient of the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross. She was awarded for detecting an explosive device outside the United Nations headquarters in Kabul in November 2005, and was awarded by the Princess Alexandra on 6 February 2007...						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
Sample Wrench	dissidents
Samplitude MAGIX Samplitude MAGIX Samplitude is a computer program made by MAGIX for recording, editing, mixing, mastering and outputting audio. The first version was released in 1992 for the Amiga and three years later for Microsoft Windows...	MAGIX MAGIX MAGIX AG is an international provider of software, online services and digital contents for multimedia communications based in Berlin, Germany. The Company also operates from branches in the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands...						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
Sequoia MAGIX Sequoia MAGIX Sequoia is a digital audio workstation. It is the most powerful of the MAGIX audio software family, essentially offering a superset of Samplitude's functionality...	MAGIX MAGIX MAGIX AG is an international provider of software, online services and digital contents for multimedia communications based in Berlin, Germany. The Company also operates from branches in the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands...						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
Snd	Bill Schottstaedt
SndBite	Bill Poser
Sound Forge Sound Forge Sony Sound Forge is a digital audio editing suite by Sony Creative Software which is aimed at the professional and semi-professional markets....	Sony Sony , commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....						Formerly from Sonic Foundry
Soundbooth Adobe Soundbooth Adobe Soundbooth was a digital audio editor by Adobe Systems Incorporated for Mac OS X, Windows Vista and 7. Adobe has described it as being "in the spirit of SoundEdit 16 and Cool Edit 2000". Adobe also has a more powerful program called Adobe Audition, which replaced Soundbooth as of Adobe...	Adobe Systems Adobe Systems Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...						Intel only
Soundscape 32	Solid State Logic Solid State Logic Solid State Logic is a manufacturer of high-end mixing consoles and recording studio hardware headquartered in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, UK.- Company information :...						formerly from Soundscape Digital Technology Soundscape Digital Technology Soundscape Digital Technology pioneered Windows based multi-channel studio recording, editing and mastering from the early 1990’s, becoming one of the most widely respected Digital Audio Workstations.- Soundscape SSHDR1 :...
SoX SoX Sound eXchange, abbreviated SoX, is a free cross-platform digital audio editor, licensed under the GNU General Public License, and distributed by Chris Bagwell through SourceForge.net...							CLI CLI -Computing:* Command-line interface, sending commands to a computer by text typed into a command-line interpreter .* Call Level Interface, an SQL database management API...
Sweep Sweep (software) Sweep is a digital audio editor and live playback tool for Linux, BSD and compatible systems. It is able to handle many sound formats, including MP3, WAV and Vorbis. The most notable feature of Sweep is its stylus-like cursor tool called Scrubby....	Conrad Parker
Total Recorder Total Recorder Total Recorder is digital audio editor software, which is able to record any sound coming through a computer soundcard. In addition to recording through a soundcard, Total Recorder is able to record digital sound directly through its virtual sound driver...	HighCriteria
Traverso Traverso DAW Traverso DAW is a cross-platform multitrack audio recording and audio editing suite with support for CD mastering and non-linear processing. It is Free Software, licensed under the GNU General Public License....	Remon Sijrier						DAW Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
Virtual DJ	Atomix Productions
WaveLab WaveLab WaveLab is a digital audio editor by Steinberg aimed at the professional as well as the semi-professional market. It supports multi-channel files, DirectX plugin, VST plugin and DVD-Audio creation. WaveLab was for a long time the main competitor to Sound Forge. Wavelab was started in 1995 and it is...	Steinberg Steinberg Steinberg GmbH is a German musical software and equipment company based in Hamburg. It mainly produces music recording, arranging and editing software as used in digital audio workstations and VSTi software synthesizers.- History :...
Wavosaur	Wavosaur Team
WavePad	NCH Software NCH Software NCH Software is a software development company founded in 1993 in Canberra, Australia. The Denver office was started in April 2008 due to the large U.S. customer base...
WaveSurfer WaveSurfer WaveSurfer is an audio editor widely used for studies of acoustic phonetics. It is a simple but fairly powerful program for interactive display of sound pressure waveforms, spectral sections, spectrograms, pitch tracks and transcriptions...	Centre for Speech Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology The Royal Institute of Technology is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH was founded in 1827 as Sweden's first polytechnic and is one of Scandinavia's largest institutions of higher education in technology. KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education...
XO Wave	XO Audio

See also

• Audio processing
• Digital audio workstation
  Digital audio workstation
  A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
  
  
• Music sequencer
  Music sequencer
  The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
  
  
• Software synthesizer
  Software synthesizer
  A software synthesizer, also known as a softsynth is a computer program or plug-in for digital audio generation. Computer software which can create sounds or music is not new, but advances in processing speed are allowing softsynths to accomplish the same tasks that previously required dedicated...
  
  
• Free audio software
  Free audio software
  This list of free software for audio lists notable free and open source software for use by sound engineers, audio producers, and those involved in sound recording and reproduction.-Audio analysis:-Converters:-Modular systems:-Platforms:...
  
  
• Software effect processor
  Software effect processor
  A software effect processor is a computer program which is able to modify the sound coming from a source of sound in real time.-Principle of operation:...