Free Audio Editor 2012 7.9.4

Audio editing is another weak aspect of MS Windows and it can only be done with third party software. There are lots of audio editors to be found on the Internet, but most of them are too basic, too complicated or too expensive. Free Audio Editor's name should make it obvious that it is freeware. But when you hear of a free editor for audio files, you would normally think that it's something which was patched up together in order to cut, copy and paste audio sequences. That is where you would be wrong. Free Audio Editor provides a wide range of editing tools, adjustable effects and some comfortable methods of importing sound. The interface's user friendly design makes it possible to start editing right away without slowing you down with complex menus and options.

If your Internet connection is not strong enough, it will take some time to download the 21 Mb setup package, but the wait is worth it and you can make up for lost time with the straightforward installation process. Free Audio Editor's system requirements are modest and it can run on all popular versions of Windows.

The main controls on the user interface resemble those from a MS Office software. A series of navigation tabs will display different options on the toolbar. A file can be loaded by browsing for it, after hitting an Open button or you can just drag and drop one directly on the interface. Its sound waves for both right and left channels are displayed on the main area of the interface, making it possible to edit it visually. It is possible to edit a single channel by clicking one of the toolbar buttons, under the Options category. You can click anywhere on the sound waves in order to jump to a specific location and a fragment may be selected by clicking and dragging over it, after which you can cut it, copy, paste it and so on.

There is a rich collection of effects which can be applied to an audio file. They can be found in a tree structure, on the left side of the window, organized in categories such as amplitude and compression, delay and echo, filters, time and pitch and many more. To add an effect, you only need to double click it in the tree structure. Before applying it, a small window appears, where you may adjust the effect with simple sliders or you can select a preset from a drop menu. When this is done, the effect will take a second to be applied, after which the sound wave will look differently.

Free Audio Editor provides various methods of importing a new sound. You can record it with a microphone, rip it from an audio CD, import sound from a video file on your hard drive or download and convert a YouTube video. All these processes are straightforward and they can be launched with toolbar buttons. Recording a sound will obviously require a microphone. If you have it, just hit the New Record button. When launching the software's built in CD ripper, a small window will appear where you only have to select a track and click a Load button, after which the sound will be inserted immediately. Importing sound from videos involves going through an easy to understand wizard. After specifying the video file's path, the sound can be extracted to formats like WAV, MP3, WMA, OGG and others. A YouTube video can be downloaded with a different wizard which only requires pasting a URL and setting a save path. After the download is done, it will let you switch to the previous wizard immediately, in order to extract the video's sound.

Although the toolbar looks a bit crowded, there is no need to panic. Most of the buttons will apply the same effects, found in the tree structure. The rest of them will let you access some interesting tools for burning your work to a CD, editing a file's ID3 tag, converting text to speech, and many more. They are all straightforward and you will not have to navigate through too many options.

Pros:
Free Audio Editor offers powerful and easy to handle editing tools. Importing sounds can be done in various ways and most of the adjustments can be made with sliders or drop menus and they will take effect immediately.

Cons:
Some features, like the batch converter, can be used only if you upgrade your free license to Deluxe. Fortunately, the locked features are not many, and you can still use the software's core functions.

With Free Audio Editor, you can import and edit audio files fast and easily. Due to its simple, yet effective tools, you can get used to the program in no time.

Free Audio Editor has been reviewed by Frederick Barton on 07 Mar 2012. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated Free Audio Editor 4 out of 5 stars, naming it Excellent