audacity
TLDR
Launch Audacity graphical interface
SYNOPSIS
audacity [-help]
audacity [-version]
audacity [-blocksize nnn] [AUDIO-FILE] ...
DESCRIPTION
Audacity is a free, open-source graphical audio editor for recording and editing sounds. It supports multiple audio formats including uncompressed formats (WAV, AIFF, AU) and compressed formats (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC) through external libraries.
Audacity provides multi-track editing, recording from various sources, effects processing, and format conversion. It supports LADSPA and Nyquist plugins for extended functionality. The editor is disk-based, meaning audio data is stored in a temporary directory during editing rather than entirely in memory.
Audacity is primarily an interactive graphical application. For batch processing or command-line audio manipulation, tools like sox or ecasound are more suitable.
PARAMETERS
-help
Display a brief list of command line options.-version
Display the Audacity version number.-blocksize nnn
Set the Audacity block size for writing files to disk to nnn bytes.-test
Run self-diagnostic tests (only present in development builds).
FILES
~/.audacity-data/audacity.cfg
Per-user configuration file./var/tmp/audacity-_user_/
Default location of the temporary directory. Should be on a fast local disk with ample free space.
ENVIRONMENT
AUDACITY_PATH
Directories searched before standard locations for plugins and configuration files.LADSPA_PATH
Additional directories searched for LADSPA plugins.
CAVEATS
Audacity has limited command line functionality and is not designed for batch processing. The temporary directory requires significant disk space for large projects. Some audio formats (MP3, FFmpeg formats) require additional libraries to be installed.
HISTORY
Audacity was started in 1999 by Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg at Carnegie Mellon University. It became one of the most popular open-source audio editors, available across Linux, macOS, and Windows. In 2021, the project was acquired by Muse Group, which led to community concerns about telemetry and privacy. The project continues development with regular releases.
