September 12, 2008: Audacity shines in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2008

Four students participating with Audacity in Google Summer of Code successfully completed their projects, and their code will be in future versions of Audacity.

The four projects were:

* FFmpeg support, to greatly increase the range of file formats that can be imported and exported
* new GUI classes for future use in displaying audio tracks
* on-demand/level-of-detail file loading, for near-instant loading and editing of uncompressed files
* sticky labels that stay with the audio through cut and paste

Congratulations and thanks to all our participating students for what they contributed to improve Audacity, and thanks to everyone who worked so hard on mentoring and administration. We wish all this year's students every success and hope they will continue their involvement with Audacity in future.

Audacity wins BOSSIE: In August, Audacity won the sound editing category in InfoWorld's BOSSIE (Best of Open Source Software) Awards for 2008.


Chosen by InfoWorld Test Center editors, analysts and reviewers, the annual BOSSIE awards "celebrate the best products that open source has to offer".

June 09, 2008: Audacity in PC World 100 Best Products of 2008

The editors of PC World have chosen Audacity as one of the PC World 100 Best Products of 2008 .

PC World 100 Best Products of 2008

The article is available now on PCWorld.com, and will also be featured in the July 2008 issue of PC World, which hits newsstands June 17.

The respected 100 Best Products Awards honor products that meld practical features with innovation and reflect the rapidly changing technology marketplace. To select the winners, PC World's editors examined hundreds of products, including those that have appeared in the magazine over the past 12 months. The 100 winning products and services were selected for their exemplary design and usability, features, performance, and innovation.

“These awards go to the best technology products we've seen in the last 12 months,” stated Edward N. Albro, editor of PC World. “Our editors looked at hundreds of hardware, software and Web products to compile this list of outstanding performers. Congratulations to Audacity.”

Also, in February, Audacity was selected for PC Magazine's “Hall of Fame” of Best Free Software.

May 08, 2008: Audacity 1.3.5 Released

The Audacity Team is pleased to announce the release of Audacity 1.3.5 (beta) for Windows, Mac and Linux/Unix. Changes include improvements and new features for recording, import/export and the user interface. Because it is a work in progress and does not yet come with complete documentation or translations into foreign languages, it is recommended for more advanced users. For all users, Audacity 1.2.6 is a stable release, complete and fully documented. You can have Audacity 1.2.6 and 1.3.5 installed on the same machine.
Beta version 1.3.5

Recording / Playback

* Several bugs fixed so that latency correction should be better, and more devices work correctly.
* Problems with invalid sample rates under Linux should be much rarer.
* Newer version of Portaudio library.
* New feature to record onto the end of an existing track (hold Shift while clicking Record).

Import / Export

* Updated versions of Libogg, Libvorbis, Libflac, Libsndfile and Twolame libraries.
* Handling of unsupported file formats more informative.
* Handling of file names with slashes on OS X improved.
* New dialog allows replacement of illegal file name characters on all platforms.

Interface

* Improved scaling and layout for rulers and VU meters.
* Envelope fixes/improvements including full control of undo/redo.
* New keyboard shortcuts and improved menu navigation.
* Preferences:
o More intuitive tab arrangement.
o New options for mute/solo and Metadata Editor behavior.
o Language can now be changed without restart.
* Expanded Build Information tab.

Effects

* New Vocal Remover plug-in, improvements for Generate effects.

Compilation

* Fixes when building Audacity with libraries disabled.
* Improvements to make Mac and Solaris builds easier.

Security

* Full fix for issue CVE-2007-6061 on systems where temporary directories can be changed by other users (thanks to Michael Schwendt).

Miscellaneous

* Updated translations for many locales.
* Several stability improvements.

See the included README.txt for more information about this release and New Features in 1.3 for more information about the 1.3.x beta series.

March 24, 2008: Call for Students! Apply NOW for Audacity projects in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2008

Students! Interested in supporting Audacity and earning a stipend this summer? Extended application deadline! Apply by 5:00 PM PDT on April 7, 2008 (00:00 UTC on April 8, 2008)!

Audacity is a mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code 2008! GSoC offers student developers $4,500 stipends to write code for various open source projects.

Google Summer of Code 2008

We are now seeking student participants. We look for evidence that the student has a real interest in our project, 'Do they actually use it?' rather than just choosing some project that is part of GSoC.

If you are an interested student, please follow these steps:

1. Review the student app documentation. Also check the GSoC FAQs, especially from 'How does a student apply?'.
2. Make sure you are eligible.
3. On the Audacity Wiki, check the project ideas page.
4. If you find an interesting idea, or have one of your own, check Writing GSoC Proposals.
5. Then email us. Far better to discuss plans with us before applying.

If you know any students who might be interested, possibly those already involved in music/audio research, please point them to our website for this information.

March 17, 2008: Audacity and Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2008

We are very happy to announce that Audacity has been accepted as a mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code 2008! GSoC 'offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects'.

We are now seeking student participants. As we wrote in our application: At student selection stage, we look for evidence that the student has a real interest in our project, 'Do they actually use it?' rather than just choosing some project that is part of GSoC.

If you are an interested student, please follow these steps:

1. Review the GSoC FAQ, especially from 'How does a student apply?'.
2. Make sure you are eligible.
3. On the Audacity Wiki, check the project ideas page.
4. If you find an interesting idea, or have one of your own, then check Writing GSoC Proposals.
5. Then be in touch with us -- far better to discuss plans with us before applying.

If you know any students who might be interested, possibly those already involved in music/audio research, please point them to our website for this information.

February 23, 2008: LinuxQuestions.org Audio Authoring Award 2007

Audacity was chosen as Audio Authoring Application of the Year in the 2007 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice poll. LinuxQuestions.org is an active online Linux community. In the voting, Audacity received nearly 70% of the 444 votes cast. Thanks to everyone who voted.

November 13, 2007: Audacity 1.3.4 Released

The Audacity Team is pleased to announce the release of Audacity 1.3.4 (beta), which includes several new features and user interface improvements, such as:

* New Welcome Screen with introduction to Audacity.
* New 'Mix and Render to New Track' command.
* Support for VAMP audio analysis plug-ins.
* More keyboard shortcuts and navigation.
* Reworked solo/mute handling.
* New preference: Select all audio in project, if none selected (on by default).
* New preference: Beep on completion of longer activities.
* Envelopes: Many fixes when copying, pasting, or repeating.
* Many translation updates.
* Metadata editor added for OGG, FLAC and WAV/AIFF exports. Metadata import improved.
* Muted tracks are no longer audible in the exported mix.
* Improvements to latency correction.

Note that this release is for Windows and Linux/Unix only. The latest Audacity beta for Mac OS is version 1.3.3.

See New Features in 1.3 for more information about 1.3.4 and the 1.3.x beta series.

Check out the new e-book on Podcasting with Audacity.