Free Audio Editing Program?

I'm looking for a good audio program that I can use to make a pretty much a talk show. I want to be able to add in sound effects (like applause, drum rolls, laughter, etc.) and mish and mash audio clips. Can anyone recommend me a good program (preferably free) that can do this? I need this for a project I'm doing. So far all I know is a program called Audacity, but is there anything better?

 

I was going to say Audacity.

 

Audacity is the best for editing a track (cutting, adding in from other clips, fading etc)
I would use it in conjunction with another program, not sure which though

 

Ok, so audacity wins I guess. What type of program should I use it with? Maybe I can find it.

 

Not sure how well Audacity records, but I'd check into that. Second bit I would recommend is to make sure you get a GOOD microphone. It's amazing how much difference a good microphone can make to sound quality... a properly baffled microphone can really make you sound professional without even having to try.

 

audacity records the digital input of your soundcard bit by bit, so obviously, it will record it "perfectly". soundcard and mic will matter, yes.

and yes, it should handle all your needs. still, i would, maybe, use movie maker as well for adding the clips (like applause and such). but that would just be a preference thing, audacity can handle it all very well.

 

Audacity does a very good job of recording. And microphone placement is every bit as important as mic selection. One of my favorite studio tricks is to slap a set of headphones on a client and have them listen as I move a mic as little as an inch. Suddenly they understand why there is more to it than just "setting up a few mics an punching record". You can do better equalization with placement than you will ever accomplish with a knob.

Gary

 

indeed. without good input, you can't get good output

 

Audiacity for free stuff, for paid Adobe Audition is good.

http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/overview.html

 

I passionatly hate Audition, sorry. They messed up the great thing that was CoolEdit.

 

Amen to that. Too many engineers ascribe to the "we'll fix it in the mix" philosophy. That is just plain wrong. My heroes are the guys back in the 30's, 40's and 50's who set up one or two mics in a room full of instruments and singers and got a perfect balance of all of them. It's an almost lost art.

I can't believe the number of guitarists (and I am not singling the out, just using it as an example) who bring in a Fender twin and track, then when mixing they want it to sound like a Marshal stack. I always remind everyone who I record, get the sound in the room now that you expect on the final mix. (Then I always secretly take a DI to a separate track so we can do the inevitable re-mic through a different amp or amp emulator.)

Gary

 

You can't just say they "messed up" you have to give at least one example. However, unless I'm mistaken, I do believe Audition is Adobe's predecessor to Soundbooth.

 

Try downloading the Fruity Loops demo. Its got a lot of generators and effects. If you like it then it might be worth your $$

Audacity is good for basic use. It doesnt give you much options over the input and output of the channels though.

I use Audition and Ableton for my M-Audio Delta 66 card but unfortunately their not for freeware.

 

Garage band! oooohhhh wait....

I like audacity, but if possible there are a few Linux distros that are dedicated to audio and video editing. You will have to repartition your disk to allow it to be installed, but here is a list of distros that might work:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Top-10-Linux-Distributions-for-Audio-Production-64552.shtml

 

You're right, i was mistaken. Audition was still ok, Soundbooth is where they messed it up (for me). It has the most illogical interface i've seen. It probably still does the same thing but i can't use it as fast as i did before.

 

http://www.free-audio-editor.com/

 

It should be noted that all the linux distros that I mentioned can be run directly on xp, vista, 7 for free, just not at native speeds. Virtual Box from Sun has support for many of the distros for free and with no partitioning I would suggest this give them a try to see if they work on the virtual machine, and if they don't but you like how they work, you could make the effort to put them on your disk. A lot of them are a lot more capable than the free software mentioned here. Some are even used by pros who wanted to move to all opensource models. It doesn't hurt anything to try them out.

New stuff I found out after posting:
I couldn't get virtual box to work with the first one they recommend, but I would try some of the others, they are pretty easy to use once you get into them and some are used by pros.

But on a windows freeware note, I found a site with seven free awesome tools. I bookmarked it about two years ago while stumbling and forgot about it.
This is windows freeware so check it out!
http://blog.audiojungle.net/resources/7-free-digital-recording-apps-for-windows/