Archives For audacity

Audacity audio editor released version 3.3.3 a day ago.

The new release fixed the Filter Curve EQ and Graphic EQ scaling when resizing the dialog. Previously, resizing it only cause large blank area while leaving EQ unchanged.

The release also fixed audio.com upload flow. It added track title field which is required for upload, and audio.com link is opened immediately upon upload. However, anonymous uploads that was disabled in the last release is still NOT allowed.

How to Install Audacity 3.3.3 in Ubuntu Linux

Option 1: AppImage

Audacity offers official AppImage package available to download at the link below:

It’s a non-install package that runs in most Linux. Just right-click on it in file manager, go ‘Properties’ and add “Allow executing file as program” permission, finally, click Run it to open the audio editor.

Tip: Ubuntu 22.04 and higher, need to enable AppImage support first by running command below in terminal:

sudo apt install libfuse2

Option 2: Flatpak

Audacity is also available to install as Flatpak package. Ubuntu user can press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run the 2 commands below one by one to get it.

First, run command to enable Flatpak support:

sudo apt install flatpak

Then, run command to install Audacity as Flatpak:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.audacityteam.Audacity.flatpakref

Option 3: Ubuntu PPA

Flatpak takes so much disk space (2 GB+ in my case) for this single application, so here’s an unofficial PPA contains native .deb package for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, and Ubuntu 23.04. Support for Ubuntu 20.04 is still NOT available due to compile bug.

NOTE: the PPA follows the build rule from the Audacity package in Debian/Ubuntu repository, which disabled networking! Meaning there’s NO audio.com sharing!! If you do need this feature, please leave comment for request.

1. First, open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, or by searching from start menu ‘Activities’ overview depends on your DE.

2. When terminal opens, paste the command below and hit run to add the PPA.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

Type user password when it asks (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.

3. If an earlier version was installed via apt install command, you can then upgrade the package using Software Updater (Update Manager).

Or, just run command in terminal to install/update the Audacity .deb package:

sudo apt install audacity

NOTE: Linux Mint may need to run sudo apt update first.

Once installed, search for and open it from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview and enjoy!

Uninstall

For the AppImage, just remove the package file. For Flatpak, open terminal and run command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.audacityteam.Audacity

And run flatpak uninstall --unused to free up disk space.

To uninstall the Audacity software packages installed from PPA, simply open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove audacity audacity-date

Also, remove the Ubuntu PPA either by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

or by launching “Software & Updates” and removing source line under “other software” tab.

That’s all. Enjoy!

For those who prefer the classic .deb package format, I’ve revived the Ubuntu PPA for the latest Audacity audio editor packages.

I was previously maintaining a PPA for the Audacity packages. It was however discontinued. Because, the project depended its own fork of wxWidget library, that is hard to maintain. And, Debian/Ubuntu upstream even stopped updating the software package (stuck at v2.4.x) due to policy changes.

Now, Audacity can be built with the wxWidget 3.2 library from Ubuntu’s system repositories. And, Debian/Ubuntu again keep updating the software package  (v3.2.4 at the moment) in the new Distro releases.

So I decide to continue the PPA with the latest Audacity packages built against the rules from Debian upstream. And, here it is the first build: Audacity 3.3.1.

Audacity 3.3 installed as .deb package

Install Audacity 3.3.1 via PPA in Ubuntu

For the release note, and how to install guide for official packages, see this tutorial.

The PPA so far supports for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, and Ubuntu 23.04 both x86_86 and ARM. Ubuntu 20.04 is not supported at the moment due to compile issue, though I’ll add it support once the problem fixed.

1. First, open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, or by searching from start menu ‘Activities’ overview depends on your DE.

2. When terminal opens, paste the command below and hit run to add the PPA.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

Type user password when it asks (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.

3. If an earlier version was installed via apt install command, you can then upgrade the package using Software Updater (Update Manager).

Or, just run command in terminal to install/update the Audacity .deb package:

sudo apt install audacity

NOTE: Linux Mint may need to run sudo apt update first.

Once installed, search for and open it from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview and enjoy!

If you also installed Audacity as Flatpak, or create a shortcut for official AppImage, you may then have duplicated app icons. You can choose to either remove the other package, or start the .deb version from command line:

/usr/bin/audacity

Uninstall:

To uninstall the Audacity software packages, simply open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove audacity audacity-date

Also, remove the Ubuntu PPA either by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

or by launching “Software & Updates” and removing source line under “other software” tab.

That’s all. Enjoy!

The Audacity audio tag editor announced the new 3.3.0 release. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 23.04.

Audacity 3.3.0 is a new major release that features initial version of Beats and Measures. Some built-in effects (such as, Bass & Treble, Distortion, Phaser, Reverb and Wahwah) are now realtime capable.

The new release also added “Shelf Filter” function which is vailable in ‘Effect -> EQ and Filters’ menu.

Other changes in Audacity 3.3.0 include:

  • New “Time Signature Toolbar” (hidden by default)
  • New ruler, Linear (dB)
  • Add delete button to the Cut/Copy/Paste toolbar.
  • FFmpeg 6.0 support.

How to Install Audacity 3.3.0 in your Linux

Option 1: AppImage

Audacity now provides official Linux package through AppImage. It’s non-install software package that can be run directly to launch the application.

First, download Audacity from the link below (under ‘Assets’ section):

Then, right-click on the AppImage in file manager, go to “Properties” and enable ‘allow executing file as program‘ under Permissions tab. Finally, click run the AppImage to launch Audacity audio editor.

Ubuntu 22.04 and higher does not support AppImage out-of-the-box, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard and run command to enable it:

sudo apt install libfuse2

And, if you want to create app shortcut for this AppImage package, here’s an application to automate the process.

Option 2: Flatpak

Audacity is also available to install as Flatpak package, though it’s not updated at the moment of writing.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, make sure Flatpak support enabled by running command:

sudo apt install flatpak

NOTE: Ubuntu 18.04 needs to add this Ubuntu PPA first before running the command above.

2. Then, just run the single command to install Audacity as Flatpak package:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.audacityteam.Audacity.flatpakref

For the future updates, just run flatpak update org.audacityteam.Audacity every time in terminal.

Once installed, search for and launch Audacity from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment and enjoy!

Option 3: Ubuntu PPA

For those who prefer the classic .deb package, I’ve upload the software package into this unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04 and higher.

Just launch terminal, and run commands below one by one to add PPA and install the editor:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
sudo apt update
sudo apt install audacity

Uninstall Audacity

For the Appimage package, just remove the file and done.

For Flatpak package, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.audacityteam.Audacity

Also run command to remove unused runtime libraries to free up disk space:

flatpak uninstall --unused

For the PPA package, remove it via command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove audacity audacity-data

Also remove the Ubuntu PPA by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

By releasing version 3.0.3 RC1, Audacity digital audio editor finally adds official Linux binary support!

It’s the 64-bit Appimage package that runs in most Linux Distributions. Without installing, it’s a single executable that launches the software via double-click.

According to the Privacy Notice, Audacity may COLLECT personal data necessary for law enforcement, litigation and authorities. And it dissuade those under 13 years old from using the App.

It is incompatible with the GPL license. Use it at your own risk!

Other changes in Audacity 3.0.3 so far includes:

  • switch to 64-bit Windows binary, and drop Windows XP support.
  • Improved default spectrogram colors
  • Fix user interface display issue on HiDPI display in Linux.
  • Fix that font size scales incorrectly.
  • Fix crashes with Macros on files when the macro-output folder is in an unwriteable location
  • No error message when attempting to save to SMB drive
  • Fix Macros running on files can’t be cancelled

To get the Audacity Appimage, go to:

Once you get it, add executable permission in file Properties dialog. Then click run to open the editor:

Audacity audio editor and recorder is easy to install in Ubuntu Software via Snap package. For those prefer the classic deb package, the Ubuntu PPA has updated for the latest Audacity 3.0.2.

Since Audacity 3.0, it requires the development branch of wxWidgets toolkit 3.1.x. However, Ubuntu provides only the stable v3.0 series packages.

Thanks to Pascal de Bruijn, I’ve successfully built wxWidgets 3.1.3 for Audacity. So the audio editor packages updated for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, and Linux Mint 20.

Known issues:

There are however known issues in the PPA build. When starting Audacity in Ubuntu 21.04 or Linux Mint 20, it will popup “An assertion failed” dialog, which indicates:

./src/widgets/FileConfig.cpp(98): assert “mDirty == false” failed in ~FileConfig().

Just click on “continue” button, and the software should start.

Another issue is that the app window slow to open. It takes a few seconds to start due to AlSA issues and warning. However, it works once app window opens!

Install Audacity 3.0.2 via PPA:

Open terminal either from system application menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When terminal opens, run following commands one by one:

1.) Run command in terminal to add the Ubuntu PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

Type user password (no asterisk feedback due to security reason) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then either upgrade from an old release (if exist) via Software Updater, or run following commands one by one to check updates and install (or upgrade) audacity 3.0.2:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install audacity

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA repository, launch Software & Updates utility and remove relevant line under ‘Other Software’ tab. Or simply run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

To remove Audacity audio software, either use system package manager or run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove audacity audacity-data