Audacity Versions Save

This version adds realtime effects and VST3.

Prominent changes

• Added a new Effects button to the tracks menu, allowing you to place realtime effects. Further information can be found on https://support.audacityteam.org/audio-editing/using-realtime-effects
• Merged the mixer bar with the meter bars.
• Added a new Audio Setup button, replacing the Device Toolbar by default. The device toolbar can be re-added via the View > Toolbars menu.
• The Effects menu has gotten a new sorting. Other sorting and grouping options can be found in the Effects preferences.
• Updated the icons.
• Added a quick audio sharing feature. More info can be found on https://support.audacityteam.org/basics/sharing-audio-online

Plugin changes

You can find plugins on https://plugins.audacityteam.org

• VST3 effects are now supported.
• The following plugin formats are now realtime capable: VST3, LV2, LADSPA, Audio Units.
• Plugins now automatically get scanned, tested and enabled when Audacity starts.

System changes

• Apple Silicon (arm64) and Universal Binaries are now supported on macOS
• FFMPEG 5.0 (avformat 59) is now supported, in addition to avformat 55, 57 and 58
• Added support for Wavpack
• On Linux, Audacity can now be compiled without JACK present.
• Audacity now uses XDG directories on Linux. Note: If you are upgrading from a previous version, Audacity will keep using the ~/.audacity-data and ~/.audacity folders until you delete them.
• Switched from mad to mpg123 as MP3 importer

License update

• Audacity binaries are now licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 3. Most code files remain GPLv2-or-later, but VST3 support required this license update. More information can be found in the announcement post: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/discussions/2142

Other changes

• Removed the Zoom Tool. You can use the zoom buttons or Ctrl+Scroll (macOS: Cmd+Scroll) to zoom instead.

Fixed bugs:

• #3079 Fixed Audacity sometimes not being able to import MP3 files (or reporting Huffman Data Overruns)
• #2590 Fixed rare data loss bug when placing labels during recording
• #2272 Fixed clip titles being able to disappear off-screen when editing them
• #2162 Fixed Punch and Roll not paying tracks in sync
• #1889 Fixed clip titles changing name when applying some effects
• #1624 During batch processing, Audacity will no longer stop to ask for a sample rate when an unsupported one is chosen, but choose the nearest supported one instead.
• #2265 Fixed mod-script-pipe not being installed on Linux

This version adds realtime effects and VST3.

Prominent changes

• Added a new Effects button to the tracks menu, allowing you to place realtime effects. Further information can be found on https://support.audacityteam.org/audio-editing/using-realtime-effects
• Merged the mixer bar with the meter bars.
• Added a new Audio Setup button, replacing the Device Toolbar by default. The device toolbar can be re-added via the View > Toolbars menu.
• The Effects menu has gotten a new sorting. Other sorting and grouping options can be found in the Effects preferences.
• Updated the icons.

Plugin changes

You can find plugins on https://plugins.audacityteam.org

• VST3 effects are now supported.
• The following plugin formats are now realtime capable: VST3, LV2, LADSPA, Audio Units.
• Plugins now automatically get scanned, tested and enabled when Audacity starts.

System changes

• Apple Silicon (arm64) and Universal Binaries are now supported on macOS
• FFMPEG 5.0 (avformat 59) is now supported, in addition to avformat 55, 57 and 58
• Added support for Wavpack
• On Linux, Audacity can now be compiled without JACK present.
• Audacity now uses XDG directories on Linux. Note: If you are upgrading from a previous version, Audacity will keep using the ~/.audacity-data and ~/.audacity folders until you delete them.
• Switched from mad to mpg123 as MP3 importer

License update

• Audacity binaries are now licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 3. Most code files remain GPLv2-or-later, but VST3 support required this license update. More information can be found in the announcement post: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/discussions/2142

Other changes

• Removed the Zoom Tool. You can use the zoom buttons or Ctrl+Scroll (macOS: Cmd+Scroll) to zoom instead.

Fixed bugs:

• #3079 Fixed Audacity sometimes not being able to import MP3 files (or reporting Huffman Data Overruns)
• #2590 Fixed rare data loss bug when placing labels during recording
• #2272 Fixed clip titles being able to disappear off-screen when editing them
• #2162 Fixed Punch and Roll not paying tracks in sync
• #1889 Fixed clip titles changing name when applying some effects
• #1624 During batch processing, Audacity will no longer stop to ask for a sample rate when an unsupported one is chosen, but choose the nearest supported one instead.
• #2265 Fixed mod-script-pipe not being installed on Linux

This is a patch release. It improves the following aspects:

• Improved performance. Loading in projects especially should now be up to 50x faster compared to 3.1.0. #2121 #2087 #2065 #2267

• Added snap guides when resizing clips #2066

• Added new shortcuts for looping: Shift+L for "Set Loop to Selection", Shift+Alt+L for "Clear Looping Region" #2209

• Added a new selection region indicator in the timeline (identical in function as the one found pre-3.1, but with updated visuals)​ #2067

• Changed error messages to look less like a crash report #2178

• Re-added the Quick Play indicator (green triangle and line) that got lost during 3.1.0 development #2122

• Fixed Play-at-speed not updating the playback speed dynamically #2149

• Fixed looping regions being created unintentionally when attempting to use Timeline Quick Play #2182

• Fixed looping sometimes playing the wrong audio #2103

• Fixed a bug that could cause data-loss when joining multiple clips #2226

• Fixed scrub preview visibility #2294

• Fixed a bug when trying to locate FFMPEG manually #2282

• Fixed a glitch with Loop Playback #2314

• Fixed a crash and a macOS-specific bug when renaming sync-locked clips using a dialog box. #2199, #2198

• Fixed a crash when releasing a clip handle #2147

• Fixed a freeze when closing Audacity with the logging window open #2114

• Fixed a crash when loading a saved project using certain compilers #2216

• Fixed a crash on paste after running macros #2021

• Fixed a crash when cancelling a nyquist prompt #2239

This is a hotfix release. It improves project performance significantly (up to 50x) compared to 3.1.0, and fixes the following bugs:

• Fixes a crash when releasing a clip handle #2147

This is a hotfix release. It fixes the following bugs:

• Fixed UTF8 support in clip titles #2135
• Fixed data loss when joining clips #2123
• Fixed a crash with exporting resampled tracks #2136
• Fixed a crash when opening projects with very small double values #2128

This is a hotfix release. It fixes the following bugs:

• Fixed FFMPEG imports only importing the left channel #2046
• Improved Audacity's performance when many clips are present
• Fixed a crash with detach at silences #2072
• Fixed clip name corruption when applying effects to adjacent clips #1889
• Fixed a crash with the time shift commands #2061
• Fixed custom themes not working #2043

Other than that, this release is identical to Audacity 3.1.0

This release introduces clip handles, smart clips and playback looping as its major new features.

Smaller changes:

• Context menus have been added in more places.
• In the preferences, Tracks > Track behaviors > Editing a clip can move other clips is now disabled by default
• The spectrogram defaults have been changed: scale type to Mel (was Linear), top of scale to 20000 Hz (was 8000 Hz), window size to 2048 (was 1024), and zero padding to 2 (was 1).
• The main volume controls no longer change the system volume.
• Raw Import now will remember the previously used settings. Automatic detection of the format now is a button.
• A journaling feature has been added for QA purposes.
• Generate > Tone now supports triangle waves.
• There now exist "What's new" screens for the update and welcome dialogs.
• Timeline Quick Play for regions and locked regions have been replaced by playback looping.
• The shortcut to rename labels and clip names has temporarily been hardcoded to Ctrl+F2.
  • This conflicts with the default xfce shortcut to change workspaces.

Library changes:

• FFMPEG now supports avformat 55, 57 and 58.
• PortAudio has been updated to version 19.7 and devendored (so it can be built against 19.6).
• Several libraries (expat, libsndfile, ...) have been devendored. The CMakeLists.txt lists which versions we build against.

Fixed Bugs:

There are some 50 issues closed labeled as bug. Among them:

• AppImages support localization. #1382
• Progress bars for Nyquist generators have been made more accurate. #1856
• Rhythm tracks can no longer drift off-time by 2ms over 9 minutes; they're now sample-accurate. #1853
• The play button has regained a pixel or two to become a triangle once more. #1792
• Auto Duck has been made way more accurate and should no longer miss sections above the threshold. #1389
• The manual now only is included in the executable once #1917
• Shift-clicking a menu item no longer opens the settings menu #1358
• FFMPEG no longer segfaults ALSA #1170
• Audacity no longer crashes when macros output directory is set to C:\ #1174
• A bouncing ball of death problem has been fixed #1312

Prominent features

• Clip Handles (replacing the Time Shift Tool)
• Smart Clips (non-destructive resizing of clips)
• Playback Looping

Smaller changes

• Context menus have been added in more places.
• In the preferences, Tracks > Track behaviors > Editing a clip can move other clips is now disabled by default
• The spectrogram defaults have been changed: scale type to Mel (was Linear), top of scale to 20000 Hz (was 8000 Hz), window size to 2048 (was 1024), and zero padding to 2 (was 1).
• The main volume controls no longer change the system volume.
• Raw Import now will remember the previously used settings. Automatic detection of the format now is a button.
• A journaling feature has been added for QA purposes.
• Generate > Tone now supports triangle waves.
• There now exist "What's new" screens for the update and welcome dialogs.

Libraries

• FFMPEG now supports avformat 55, 57 and 58.
• PortAudio has been updated to version 19.7 and devendored (so it can be built against 19.6).
• Several libraries (expat, libsndfile, ...) have been devendored. The CMakeLists.txt lists which versions we build against.

Fixed Bugs

• AppImages support localization. #1382
• Progress bars for Nyquist generators have been made more accurate. #1856
• The play button has regained a pixel or two to become a triangle once more. #1792
• Auto Duck has been made way more accurate and should no longer miss sections below the threshold. #1389

This is a hotfix release that fixes a bug on macOS that could corrupt project files when being opened via cmd+o on languages where the decimal separator wasn't a dot. (#1571)

Fixes a user reported issue #1476, which possibly leads to the project corruption