Best Free Audio Editors: Record, Edit and Produce Music Without Spending a Thing

Whether you’re recording a podcast, producing music, or just editing audio files, you don’t need to pay for expensive software like Pro Tools or Adobe Audition. The free and open source audio tools available today are genuinely powerful — I use them for all my audio work.

Here are the best free audio editors for every use case.

Audacity — The Best All-Round Audio Editor

Audacity has been the go-to free audio editor for years, and for good reason. It’s simple, reliable, and does everything most people need: record, edit, cut, splice, apply effects, and export. The latest version (Audacity 3.x) brought a new file format (AUP3) that stores everything in a single project file instead of scattered data folders, plus real-time effects preview and improved tooling.

It’s perfect for recording podcasts, editing voiceovers, cleaning up audio (noise reduction, click removal), and basic music editing. The spectral selection tool alone is worth the download if you need to remove specific frequencies from a recording.

Download Audacity — View in our directory

LMMS — Best Free Music Production Workstation

LMMS (Linux MultiMedia Studio) is a full digital audio workstation (DAW) for music production. It’s designed for creating music from scratch — beats, melodies, basslines, and full arrangements. The interface is inspired by FL Studio, so if you’re coming from that world, you’ll feel at home.

LMMS includes a piano roll editor, beat/bassline editor, built-in instruments (including a powerful synthesizer), and support for VST plugins. You can compose complete tracks, export to WAV/FLAC/MP3, and even use it with external MIDI controllers.

Download LMMS — View in our directory

Strawberry Music Player — Best for Music Collection Management

Strawberry is primarily a music player, not an editor, but it has audio processing features that make it worth including here. It’s a fork of the classic Clementine player with better audio codec support, CD ripping, and a powerful equaliser. If you manage a large music collection, Strawberry’s organisation features are excellent.

It supports WAV, FLAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, and every other audio format you can think of. The built-in transcoder lets you convert between formats — useful for creating space-efficient copies of your FLAC collection for portable devices.

Download Strawberry — View in our directory

VLC — The Swiss Army Knife (Audio Edition)

Everyone knows VLC as a video player, but it’s also one of the most versatile audio tools out there. It plays damn near every audio format, converts between formats (Media → Convert/Save), records audio from any source playing through it, and has a 10-band equaliser with presets. It’s not a dedicated editor, but for quick cuts, conversions, and playback, it’s indispensable.

Download VLC — View in our directory

Which Audio Tool Should You Choose?

• Recording and editing podcasts or voiceovers? Audacity is all you need.
• Producing music tracks? LMMS gives you a full studio for free.
• Managing a large music collection? Strawberry keeps everything organised.
• Quick conversions and playback? VLC handles everything.

Free audio software has never been this good. Download a couple and see what works for your workflow — you’ll probably find yourself uninstalling your paid tools before long.

Looking for more free creative tools? Browse our Creative & Multimedia directory for more free software.