Many of us have recently upgraded to the newest Mac OS release, Catalina, and with it have experienced issues with our beloved, and long-time recommended audio recording/editing tool, Audacity. This leaves us looking for an Audacity alternative for our editing needs.
First, a bit of background: Audacity is an open source, cross platform (meaning it works on Windows and Mac) tool that has been a powerhouse in the podcasting space for some time now. But with the recent Mac OS release many of us are searching for a new favorite DAW, or Digital Audio Workbench, to record our solo segments and edit our podcast episodes.
Even though there is a resolution to this issue now it may prompt some of us to look for other tools for editing our podcast audio.
Never fear, we’ve got a few suggestions for you here.
As always there’s no clear cut winner that takes the cake, but depending on what you’re looking for here are a few good Audacity alternatives for editing your podcast.
Hindenburg
Hindenburg Journalist has always been a crowd favorite amongst the more advanced Do It Yourself crowd in the podcasting space.
A notch above the UI and capabilities of Audacity this is a powerful tool that brings with it many of the workflows, templates, and automations that we all are looking for in our editing process.
Overall Hindenburg is our Go To option for a podcast editing tool to serve as your Audacity alternative if you’re finding yourself stranded after the Catalina update.
Best For: Detail-oriented podcasters who want a combination of the convenient user interface, a powerful editing tool, and the automations that make producing episodes easy.
Alitu
Alitu is a browser-based tool created by the team at The Podcast Host. While this is a browser based tool, don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the UI. Colin and his team know a TON about editing great sounding audio and has baked much of those best practices right into this tool.
We view Alitu as a great tool if you want to do regular content cuts, and apply some of the algorithmic mastering effects to your audio. This is, by design, not nearly as complex as something like Hindenburg, but the reality is that if you’re recording a high level of audio on the front end you shouldn’t need a full-on DAW to create a great sounding finished podcast.
Where Alitu really shines is its integrations with hosting platforms, like Castos. With these, you can publish your podcast content right to your hosting platform. The Castos + Alitu direct integration is coming online later in November.
Best For: Podcasters who don’t need a ton of cleanup to their audio, but want a convenient, templatized way to create episodes quickly, consistently, and with engineering effects built-in.
Adobe Audition
Long the favorite of professional audio editors, Adobe Audition is the preferred tool of all of the editors at our sister company, PodcastMotor. It is a powerful audio editing tool that will definitely give you all of the options you need to get the best sounding audio possible for your show.
But, like everything, with all of the options and customizability comes a slightly more complicated interface and workflow for you to get episodes out the door.
If you’re big on the details and want every last waveform to be just right this is the tool for you.
Best For: Podcasters who want complete control over every aspect of their podcast. Audition has a steep learning curve, but if you’ll be editing your podcast content for the foreseeable future this might be worth the time investment.
Summary
The ideal solution for an Audacity alternative depends on your situation and needs. Overall you can’t go wrong with any of these tools, as they all will provide you with the power, level of detail, and convenience you need out of an audio editing tool for your podcast.
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