Audio Editing Software
Finding a good audio editing software is about as hard as finding a good bank. There are a kazillion out there, they all have some features, some meet your needs more than others, and of course they all claim to be the best. Some have certain requirements if you want to take advantage of certain features (a bit like Operating Systems), some demand a monthly fee (licensing?), while others are free. Of course there are always going to be those that have all the features, demand monthly fees, and still suck (like Bank of America – sorry, I couldn’t help it). All things considered, the goal is to find the one that services you best for your specific needs.
In this post, I’m going to start with my preferred applications and then I’ll discuss some of the pros & cons of more advanced audio recording and editing software on the market. I’ll also be mentioning different kinds software licensing standards that are often confusing to many people. To learn more about the differences between licensing terms such as freeware, shareware, Open Source, and others, please see this fine compilation of terms.
Audacity
(http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)
Audacity is an intuitive audio recording and editing application for Mac, Windows, Linux, BSD, and just about any other operating system out there. Best of all, it’s a Free and Open Source software.
If you’re a pro audio engineer, recording, or remix artist, you’re probably not going to go for a free recording/editing software. However, for the rest of the world, Audacity delivers great results for a simply unbeatable price. The following are some of the key features:
- Record live, multi-track audio or overdub existing tracks with an unlimited number of tracks.
- Convert tapes, records, or any outside source into digital recordings or CDs
- Import/Export/Edit Ogg Vorbis (OGG), MP3, AIFF, WAV, and other sound files
- Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together
- Change the tempo of a recording with out affecting the pitch
- Recording/editing quality of 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit
- Supports many Open and proprietary plugins, including VST
- Noise reduction/filtering
- And much, much more!
Visit Audacity’s site for more info or to see a complete list of features)
If you’re interested in seeing what many of the pros use, the following have stood the test of time and continue to be industry leaders:
Pro Tools
(Digidesign) 
The undisputed champion and perhaps the oldest of professional digital audio recording software. Pro Tools has been the known standard for many years and it’s user base spans from recording garage bands to producing elaborate movie scores, and everything in between.
Reason
(Propellerhead) 
Hailing from the early days of techno, Reason quickly matured into an awesome all-in-one studio emulation complete with synthesizers, samplers, drum machine, looping tools, mastering & mixing tools, vocoder, effects, pattern sequencer and tons more. Perhaps one of the most unique features is the authentic simulation of real rack-mount hardware and the ability to add as many components as you want. Propellerhead’s first product release was ReCycle, a sample loop editor launched and marketed in conjunction with Steinberg’s Cubase.
Cubase
(Steinburg) 
Cubase is a well-refined all-in-one digital audio production environment with over 25 years of development backing it, and boasts being “probably the most feature-rich MIDI sequencing toolset in the audio industry today. The most recent version (Cubase 5) includes advanced features for creating beats and loop editing, undoubtably to cater to the explosion of remixing and mashups.
Finale
(MakeMusic) 
Finale was one of the first, and is still regarded by many as one of the industry standards for notation software. In short, Finale takes a piece of music that you’ve played into your computer, and then transcribes it into sheet music.
There are many others, and new competitors pop up all the time. Feel free to comment and/or share your thoughts on great audio editing software.
