Re: [AUDITORY] Recommendations for an audio editor?

Subject: Re: [AUDITORY] Recommendations for an audio editor?

From: Francois Deloche <francois.deloche@xxxxxxxxx>

Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2025 23:05:00 +0000

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Comments: To: "Oberfeld-Twistel, Daniel" <oberfeld@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

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Reply-to: Francois Deloche <francois.deloche@xxxxxxxxx>

Sender: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

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Thread-topic: Recommendations for an audio editor?

Hello,

Out of curiosity, Daniel, what limitations did you find when using Audacity? I haven't used it for a while, but I believe it has most if not all the features you mentioned.

Best regards,

---

François Deloche

Postdoctoral researcher

Macquarie University, Dept. of Linguistics

From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Oberfeld-Twistel, Daniel <oberfeld@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, 10 October 2025 19:45
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AUDITORY] Recommendations for an audio editor?

Dear list,

we’ve been using Adobe Audition as an audio editor for decades, but now our IT department is cancelling the campus license due to an (admittedly) high price tag.

So I was wondering if someone can recommend an alternative audio editor. I’ve tried Audacity but find it has some limitations.

Here’s what we want to do with the editor / which features are important:

Look at waveform and spectrogram of audio files (also with more than 2 channels)
Show time axis in units of seconds as well as in units of samples
Convenient zooming (time and amplitude)
Selection of time windows not only with the mouse but also by entering end and start times / samples numerically
Frequency spectrum for the selected time window
Amplitude statistics for the selected time window (at least RMS amplitude and peak amplitude)
Convenient way of switching between audio files
Playback of whole sound and of loops
Format conversion (i.e., WAV to FLAC, sample rate conversion)
Less important: Signal processing / sound effects, except for amplitude normalization

Daniel

---------------------------------

Prof. Dr. Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel

Johannes Gutenberg - Universitaet Mainz, Experimental Psychology

Wallstrasse 3

55122 Mainz

Germany

http://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/oberfeld/