Audacity is now a much more powerful tool for creating audio, thanks to recent enhancements

The parent company of Audacity, Muse Group, recently announced that the app's newest update makes it more viable as a full on production tool, despite its more well-known reputation as a free app for doing quick audio edits and recording audio. Enhancements to the user interface, faster audio sharing via a new service called audio.com, and VST3 support are just a few of the new features introduced in version 3.2.

The most exciting new feature is probably the non-destructive editing of audio, which will be greatly appreciated by anyone who needs to make changes to an existing track without worrying about permanently altering the sound. In addition, it allows you to preview effects and crossfades in real time as you make changes, so you can fine-tune your work while listening to the audio. That's in contrast to older releases, where you had to render the effect before you could listen to it.

In order to make their VST plugins more stable and reliable, the company rewrote the code base from scratch and added VST3 support in the process. Concerns about its "ugly and a bit archaic" user interface were also addressed. Furthermore, the new "Audio Setup" option in the top bar for editing makes it simpler to adjust input, mic, and output volumes.

The new audio.com site allows you to easily share audio files by sending a link to the file rather than the entire file itself. You can use your account to store data in the cloud, share files publicly or privately, or do both. (Muse Group has updated its privacy policy to state that it will not sell any of the "very limited" user information it collects.) You can get the updated app for nothing right now.