A Guide to Audio Editing Software: Open Source and Proprietary Tools

When you sit down to produce a podcast, one of the first decisions you face is which software to use. The market offers a wide range of audio editing tools – from completely free, community-built programs to polished proprietary suites used in professional studios. Each category comes with its own philosophy, feature set, and learning curve. Understanding what these tools offer, how they differ, and how the editing workflow runs inside them is essential knowledge for anyone serious about audio post-production.

Open source vs. proprietary: what’s the difference? 🔗

Audio editing software broadly falls into two camps. Open source software makes its source code publicly available, meaning developers worldwide can inspect it, modify it, and contribute to it. It is typically free to download and use. Proprietary software, on the other hand, is developed and owned by a specific company. Access requires purchasing a license or a subscription, and the underlying code remains private. The trade-off is generally this: open source tools give you freedom and zero cost, while proprietary tools give you a polished, feature-rich environment backed by a dedicated development team. Neither is universally better – the right choice depends on what you need to produce and the resources you have available.

Audacity: the open source standard for podcasters 🔗

Audacity is the most widely used free, open-source audio editing tool in the world. Originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University in 1999, it was publicly released in May 2000 and has since been downloaded over 200 million times. Today it is maintained by Muse Group and remains completely free, with its source code open to anyone who wishes to view or modify it. According to a 2024 survey of over 500 podcasters, 24% use Audacity for editing and production – making it the most popular editing choice in the podcasting community.

Interface and key features 🔗

Audacity’s interface follows a menu-driven design built around three core areas: a toolbox containing your selection, zoom, and time-shift tools; a timeline where audio waveforms are displayed and edited; and an audio track window where individual clips are managed and layered. The waveform display makes it straightforward to spot problems – a loud pop or a stretch of silence is visually obvious on the timeline.

The software runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, which means it is accessible to virtually anyone regardless of their operating system. It supports multi-track recording, 16-bit and 24-bit audio, and a wide range of built-in effects including EQ, compression, normalization, and noise reduction. Its clean, text-based menu structure also makes it more accessible to visually impaired users compared to tools that rely heavily on graphical icons without text labels. Audacity’s open-source nature means a thriving global community has built thousands of third-party plugins to extend its capabilities further.

AI-powered additions to Audacity 🔗

In early 2024, Intel introduced AI-powered capabilities for Audacity through its OpenVINO plugin suite. These tools include noise suppression to remove unwanted background sound and a transcription feature that can automatically convert spoken audio into a text label track. Crucially, all AI processing runs locally on the user’s device, meaning audio is never uploaded to a remote server. This aligns with Audacity’s open-source ethos of keeping user data private and processing transparent.

Where Audacity falls short 🔗

Audacity is powerful for its price point, but it has real limitations. Non-destructive editing is possible but not efficient – applying effects like noise reduction permanently alters the audio file rather than storing the change as editable metadata. This means errors in the editing process can be difficult to reverse if you’re not careful. It also lacks built-in remote recording and does not support MIDI editing or virtual instruments, which means it cannot fully function as a traditional DAW for music production.

The standard editing workflow: consistent across all software 🔗

Regardless of which software you choose, the fundamental editing workflow follows the same logical sequence. Understanding this process means your skills transfer easily between tools.

Step 1 – Import, don’t just open 🔗

The first step is always bringing your audio files into the software. This is a subtle but important distinction: in most professional DAWs, you do not simply “open” an audio file the way you would a document. Instead, you import the file into a project. In almost any DAW, you can import via “File > Import” in the menu bar, or by dragging files directly into the workspace. The project then references that file while keeping the original untouched on your hard drive. This is the foundation of safe editing practice – your raw recordings are never at risk during the editing process.

Step 2 – Arrange on the timeline 🔗

Once imported, your audio clips appear in the timeline as visual waveforms. This is where you organize your episode’s structure: placing the intro, arranging interview segments, positioning music beds, and sequencing sound effects. Most editors organize sessions with voice tracks at the top, followed by field recordings and sound effects, then music. A well-organized timeline makes every subsequent editing step faster and less error-prone.

Step 3 – Cut, clean, and apply effects 🔗

This is the main body of editing work. You trim unwanted sections, remove long silences, cut filler words, and apply effects like compression, equalization, and noise reduction. Compression evens out dynamic range – it reduces the volume of loud moments and brings up the quieter ones, creating a consistent listening experience. EQ shapes the tonal quality of voices, typically by rolling off low-end rumble and boosting presence frequencies for clarity. Transitions between segments – such as crossfades between music and dialogue – are applied at this stage to keep the episode feeling seamless.

Step 4 – Export the final file 🔗

Once editing is complete, the project is rendered into a single, distributable audio file. MP3 at 192 kbps stereo is the industry standard for podcast distribution – a good balance between audio quality and file size. Some editors first export a high-quality WAV as a master archive and then produce the compressed MP3 from that. The exported file is what gets uploaded to a podcast host for public release.

Sound Forge: professional proprietary editing 🔗

Sound Forge sits at the opposite end of the spectrum from Audacity. Originally developed in 1992 by Sonic Foundry, it has passed through Sony Creative Software and is now owned and developed by MAGIX. It is aimed squarely at professional and semi-professional users – mastering engineers, broadcast producers, and studio-level podcasters who need precision tools and a reliable, fast workflow. It is available as a one-time purchase or a monthly subscription, with Sound Forge Pro priced between $159 and $239 for a perpetual license.

It is worth noting that Sound Forge is not a traditional multitrack DAW. It is designed as a specialist tool for working on a single audio file at a level of depth that general-purpose DAWs cannot match – making it particularly valuable for mastering, audio restoration, and broadcast preparation.

Non-destructive editing 🔗

One of Sound Forge’s defining strengths is its approach to non-destructive editing. Edits are applied as metadata, meaning the original audio file remains completely untouched while changes are stored as instructions on top of it. This means a professional can make complex cuts, apply effects, and experiment with entirely different approaches – and then revert to the original at any point up until the final export. For high-stakes broadcast or mastering work, this safety net is not a luxury; it is a professional necessity.

Multi-task background rendering 🔗

Another significant advantage Sound Forge offers over simpler tools is multi-task background rendering. Applying a complex audio effect to a long file can take considerable computing time. In many basic programs, the software locks up while processing, and you must wait before continuing work. Sound Forge’s background rendering lets you process one file while continuing to edit another simultaneously – a critical time-saver for engineers working under tight deadlines with multiple projects on the go.

Essential toolbars in Sound Forge 🔗

Sound Forge’s interface is built around a set of specialized, customizable toolbars, each dedicated to a category of tasks. Together, they organize the software’s deep feature set into a logical, accessible layout:

• Standard toolbar – Houses the fundamental file operations: new project, open, save, cut, copy, paste, and undo. These are the tools you reach for constantly throughout any editing session.
• Transport toolbar – Controls audio playback: play, stop, pause, rewind, fast forward, and record. This mirrors the controls of a physical tape machine and is the primary interface for reviewing your audio as you edit.
• Navigation toolbar – Provides zooming controls and marker placement. Being able to zoom into the waveform down to individual samples is essential for precision edits – removing a click, cleaning up a breath, or aligning two clips perfectly.
• Process and Effects toolbars – Give quick access to audio manipulation tools like normalization, fade in/out, and pitch adjustment, as well as the software’s suite of effects processors including EQ, compression, reverb, and noise reduction plugins.

Sound Forge Pro’s customizable interface allows engineers to show only the tools they regularly use and hide everything else, keeping the workspace clean and speeding up the editing process significantly. The software also supports the iZotope Mastering and Repair Suite, including Ozone Elements for mastering and RX Elements for noise reduction – tools that are considered industry benchmarks in professional audio production.

Choosing the right tool for the job 🔗

The decision between open source and proprietary software is not always about which is objectively better – it is about matching the tool to your workflow and goals. Audacity is the world’s most popular software for recording and producing podcasts, and for good reason: it costs nothing, runs on every major operating system, and handles everything from basic recording to multi-track assembly. For a student, independent journalist, or first-time podcaster, it is an ideal entry point. Sound Forge, by contrast, is built for environments where speed, precision, and non-destructive safety are non-negotiable – professional studios, broadcast houses, and mastering suites where the quality of the final output justifies the investment in premium software. Importantly, because the underlying editing workflow is the same across both platforms, skills learned in Audacity translate directly to working in Sound Forge or any other DAW. The logic of importing, arranging, cutting, and exporting does not change – only the depth of the toolset around it does.

What do you think? If you were launching a podcast today with no budget constraints, would you start with a free tool like Audacity to learn the fundamentals, or jump straight into a professional suite like Sound Forge – and does the choice of software actually shape the quality of your storytelling, or is that entirely down to the editor’s skill?

References

1. https://www.audacityteam.org/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity_(audio_editor)
3. https://www.thepodcasthost.com/editing-production/audacity-for-podcast-production/
4. https://riverside.com/blog/audacity-for-podcasting
5. https://sinusoidalmusic.com/news/audacity/
6. https://lowerstreet.co/blog/audacity-for-podcasting
7. https://www.buzzsprout.com/blog/how-to-edit-a-podcast
8. https://audioedit.io/blog/how-to-edit-podcast-audio-post-production
9. https://www.magix.com/us/music-editing/sound-forge/sound-forge-pro/
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Forge
11. https://soundcy.com/article/what-is-sound-forge-pro
12. https://alternativeto.net/software/sony-sound-forge/about/
13. https://www.audacityteam.org/faq/