LoginSign Up
← Back to all sparks
A

Audacity

DESIGN
Velocity0.0

Multi-track audio editor and recorder for music and podcast production

www.audacityteam.org ↗

Audacity 4's rewrite reaches public beta while the 3.7 line absorbs the bug reports.

audio-editingmajor-rewritepublic-betaopenvinocloud-integration
◆Current state
Audacity is running two tracks at once. The 3.7.x line is in patch mode — crash fixes, scripting-parameter corrections, FFmpeg 8 support, Windows ARM64 — while the ground-up 4.0 rewrite moved from internal alpha to its first public beta in June. The alpha notes show where the rewrite's effort went: recording anywhere on the timeline, loop-region export, configurable paste behaviour, a smoother playhead.
◆Where it's heading
The project is spending its feature budget entirely on 4.0 and treating 3.7.x as the thing that has to keep working until 4.0 lands. Alongside that, cloud and machine-learning surfaces keep creeping in — audio.com import, OpenVINO effects promoted to their own menu category and extended to macOS. Audacity is repositioning from a local waveform editor toward an editor with a hosted account and on-device AI effects attached.
◆Prediction
Expect further 4.0 betas focused on timeline editing behaviour and stability, with the 3.7.x line reduced to security and crash fixes once 4.0 reaches release candidate.

◆Recent moves

  1. 1mo ago

    Patch fixes scripting parameters, effect presets and paste behaviour

    A dense fix release for the maintenance line: paste into new or empty tracks, tone generation, Distortion presets, and several scripting and macro command names. It also adds control over silence placement. This is 3.7.x doing its job while 4.0 gets the attention.

    View source ↗
  2. 1mo ago

    Audacity 4.0.0 Beta 2

    ⚡ SPARK

    The rewrite becomes something outsiders can actually run. Everything the alpha releases accumulated — record anywhere, loop-region export, paste preferences, playhead behaviour — is now in front of the user base, which is why the 3.7.x line has been reduced to fixes.

    View source ↗
  3. 7mo ago

    Hotfix restores waveform scrolling and selection

    A same-week hotfix for a scrolling and selection regression introduced two days earlier. Notable only as evidence of how fast the maintenance line has to turn around when the rewrite has the team's attention.

    View source ↗
  4. 7mo ago

    FFmpeg 8 support and audio.com import dialog

    Adds FFmpeg 8, OGG/Opus export through FFmpeg, 16-bit FLAC import fixes and middle-mouse panning. The audio.com import dialog is the interesting part — it pulls the hosted service further into the local editor's file flow.

    View source ↗
  5. 8mo ago

    Alpha adds record-anywhere, loop export and paste preferences

    The pre-beta alpha where 4.0's timeline editing took shape: recording at any point, exporting the loop region, configurable paste behaviour and ruler-click playback. Read as the changelog for what the June beta actually contains.

    View source ↗
  6. 0y ago

    Windows on ARM support arrives, with caveats

    Audacity runs natively on Windows ARM64 for the first time, though without VST or OpenVINO plugin support and requiring a matching FFmpeg build. A real platform expansion shipped as a beta-quality edge of the stable line.

    View source ↗