Audacity 4.0 • Hacker News Board

Re: Audacity 4.0

#31

Post by oidar » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:44 PM UTC

>> The following Audacity 3 features are not available in Audacity 4.0, but we're working on adding them in future releases.

Time Tracks Note/MIDI tracks Mixer Macro Manager and the scripting pipe VAMP and LADSPA plugin hosting Play-at-speed Sync-Lock and the old tool modes were replaced by the workflows described above.

>>Additionally, Audacity 4 ships with some missing exporting and rendering features, analyzers, and effects.

Re: Audacity 4.0

#32

Post by basisword » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:44 PM UTC

SMAAART wrote: post #11

I am sure that Suno would love to buy Audacity.

I imagine the backlash would kill it.

Re: Audacity 4.0

#33

Post by thinkingtoilet » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:44 PM UTC

If anyone here has contributed to Audacity I just want to say thank you. I'm not a power user. I'm not in audio. However, over the years I have installed Audacity to do some audio things here and there. It has always been so useful.

Re: Audacity 4.0

#34

Post by _def » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:45 PM UTC

the_other wrote: post #15

ramon156 wrote: post #7

Love what Audacity has become, especially the new UI that does not look like it was forced through some scrum pipeline

Eh? It looks exactly like it was put through a scrum pipeline.

While I agree tbf it could be much worse

Re: Audacity 4.0

#35

Post by basisword » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:45 PM UTC

It's been many years since I used Audacity but the interface looks vastly improved.

Re: Audacity 4.0

#36

Post by vintermann » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:45 PM UTC

Lautzi wrote: post #9

I highly recommend this video [1] by the Head of Software at Muse who had a big part in the development of Audacity 4.0. Some great insights and really fun to watch! [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYM3TWf_G38

Yes, Tantacrul. Pretty weird story, a composer and programmer who absolutely roasted the UIs of well known sheet music dinosaurs Finale and Sibelius in hilarious diss videos on YouTube. Then he conceded a bit reluctantly that Musescore was the better of the lot, but still had plenty of opinions on how it could be better.

So the guitar tabs website which had then recently acquired Musescore offered him a job. Not just a job, but basically to be boss of the whole thing. Then they bought audacity, staffpad and Hal Leonard too. Then they bought out their private equity backer.

I can't think of any other time something good has come out of a private equity roll-up. They haven't enshittified it (from my perspective as a user anyway). It seems in the end these people just loved music more than they loved money.

Re: Audacity 4.0

#37

Post by _def » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:46 PM UTC

Hopefully there will be a selfhostable implementation of their cloud counterpart someday? Maybe only a weekend of vibecoding away.

Re: Audacity 4.0

#38

Post by Mashimo » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:47 PM UTC

AbuAssar wrote: post #4

in the age of 500MB apps (thanks to electron); it is refreshing to see a sub-50MB app again.

Now that I look at it, why is the arm64 that much smaller then x86_64?

36 vs 47MB

Re: Audacity 4.0

#39

Post by tontonius » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:49 PM UTC

GaryBluto wrote: post #16

Very disappointed to see a program I remembered fondly for its native-feeling interface and functional, wholegrain feeling turned into whatever this is. It’s akin to a nutrient-rich home cooked meal being replaced with McDonald’s. I should’ve known it was doomed from the moment I saw an advertisement for their Discord chat room in the readme.

open source apps can be insanely powerful (and free!) but a thing that keeps a lot of them from 'mainstream' adoption is simply the F-tier user experience

gimp had the same issue and i wouldnt be surprised if you also miss the old GTK UI?

making audacity feel like a modern app instead of a dusty relic isnt making it into McDonalds..

I for one applaud this upgrade -- its the polish it should have had years ago

Re: Audacity 4.0

#40

Post by jamius19 » Thu, Sep 03, 2026, 12:50 PM UTC

GaryBluto wrote: post #16

Very disappointed to see a program I remembered fondly for its native-feeling interface and functional, wholegrain feeling turned into whatever this is. It’s akin to a nutrient-rich home cooked meal being replaced with McDonald’s. I should’ve known it was doomed from the moment I saw an advertisement for their Discord chat room in the readme.

Ah yes, the native looking interface that doesn't even properly scale on a 4k monitor! Good times!

God forbid someone actually improves a software!