Audacity audio editor announced 3.6.2 release a week ago, then version 3.6.3 a day ago with a quick-fix.
As you may know, Audacity 3.6.0 introduced new compressor and limiter effects, replacing the old ones. For those who prefer the classic effects, the new point release added a “Legacy” effects section, under “Effects” menu, that contains the old Limiter, Compressor and Classic Filters.
Audacity audio editor announced new major 3.6.0 release few days ago. Here are the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu users.
The new release features new Master Effects. By clicking “Effects” button in app window, it will now show you Realtime Effects and Master Effects options for choice. While, the new Master Effects allows to apply effects to the entire project at once.
Audacity, the popular free open-source audio editor, release version 3.5.0 (then 3.5.1 with quick-fixes) few days ago.
Audacity 3.5.0 is a major release with new features. They include a new cloud-saving feature. By going to menu ‘File -> Save To Cloud …’, user can save Audacity project to audio.com via a free account. So, user can access the project from any other devices, and/or share and collaborate with others.
NOTE: this feature does NOT work in my PPA package, since it’s built with Debian upstream rule that disables network access! If you do prefer this feature, please leave comment below, or use the official AppImage package instead.
Audacity audio editor announced the first point release for the Audacity 3.4.0 feature release today!
The release can now built again in ARM devices and BSD. And, it has various stability and other fixes that 3.4.0 users are urged to upgrade to the new release.
For Linux, click expand the “Assets” section and choose download the .AppImage package.
Then, right-click on the .AppImage file and go to its ‘Properties’ dialog. Add executable permission by enable ‘allow executing file as program‘. Finally, right-click on it and select “Run” to launch Audacity.
Forgive me for the old image.
Option 2: Ubuntu PPA
For choice, I’ve uploaded the new release package into unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04, 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10 with amd64, arm64, and armhf support.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:
Audacity audio editor released the Beta version of the next 3.4.0. Here’s how to try it out in Ubuntu.
According to the project release page, the new release now features several music related features, such as switching between hh:mm:ss time and Beats & Measures, and time-stretching clips to align them to a song’s tempo.
The release also features Time stretching. Just hold “Alt” (macOS: Option) while hovering over the top third of a clip edge to stretch it.
The 3.4.0 also features a new export dialog with easier access to options such as sample rate and custom mapping (for 5.1 or 7.1 audio). Additionally, the “Browse” button uses the native file browser now!
New Export dialog
Other changes include:
always uses Joint Stereo mode for MP3.
Simplified pasting logic, and stereo tracks.
uses Conan 2.
Built-in Opus support.
And stability fixes.
How to Install Audacity 3.4.0 Beta:
Option 1: AppImage
It provides official macOS .dmg, Windows .exe, and Linux .AppImage packages available to download at the link below:
For Linux, click expand the “Assets” section and choose download the .AppImage package.
Then, right-click on the .AppImage file and go to its ‘Properties’ dialog. Add executable permission by enable ‘allow executing file as program‘. Finally, right-click on it and select “Run” to launch Audacity.
Option 2: Ubuntu PPA
For choice, I’ve uploaded the new release package into unofficial PPA for x86_64 (amd64) bit Ubuntu 22.04, 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10 support.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:
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.
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.
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, now it’s updated to Audacity 3.6.0.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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
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:
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: