Install Audacity 2.4.1

Audacity audio editor 2.4.1 released. Here is how to install Audacity 2.4.1 – Audacity audio editor for Linux Ubuntu. Audacity 2.4.1 fixes a serious bug in the briefly available Audacity 2.4.0.

Audacity 2.4.1 – New Features

Time Toolbar: We have split the recording/playing time off from the selection toolbar and it can now be dragged to make it larger. This is particularly for people recording themselves playing a musical instrument, where they will typically be further from the screen when playing, and benefit from a larger numerical display. The new toolbar can be ‘undocked’ from the foot of the screen, and made larger still, for more distant viewing.
Multi-views: We have added a new optional mode for viewing audio. In this new mode you can see both the waveform and a spectrogram at the same time. Previously you would switch back and forth between them if you wanted both. You can get into this multi-view mode by clicking on the down-pointing triangle beside the track name in the panel on the left of the wave. This will drop-down a menu with options, including multi-view mode.

For a more detailed account of changes, including a list of some of the many bugs fixed since 2.3.3, see: https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/New_features_in_Audacity_2.4.1

Audacity – General Features

Recording – Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize recordings from other media.
Export / Import – Import, edit, and combine sound files. Export your recordings in many different file formats, including multiple files at once.
Sound Quality – Supports 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit. Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and dithering.
Plug-ins – Support for LADSPA, LV2, Nyquist, VST and Audio Unit effect plug-ins. Effects can be easily modified in a text editor – or you can even write your own plug-in.
Editing – Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete. Also unlimited sequential Undo (and Redo) in the session to go back any number of steps.
Effects – Real-time preview of LADSPA, LV2, VST and Audio Unit (macOS) effects. Plug-in Manager handles plug-in installation and addition/removal of effects and generators from the menus.
Accessibility – Tracks and selections can be fully manipulated using the keyboard. Large range of keyboard shortcuts.
Analysis – Spectrogram view mode for visualizing and selecting frequencies. Plot Spectrum window for detailed frequency analysis. Support for Vamp analysis plug-ins.

Run the following commands in terminal to install Audacity 2.4.1 in Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install audacity

You can also download the latest version of Audacity from:

Installation Packages

Installation packages for Audacity are provided by many GNU/Linux and Unix-like distributions. Use the distribution’s usual package manager (where available) to install Audacity. If necessary, you could try searching for an appropriate Audacity package on rpmseek.

Alternatively you can build the latest Audacity tagged release from our source code.

The current release version for Linux is Audacity 2.4.1

Incorrectly built packages

Some distributions offer older Audacity 2.3.0 which is broken on Linux, or 2.0.6, 2.1.0 or 2.1.1 that were incorrectly built against too recent wxWidgets (3.0.x). Audacity 2.4.1 may be built against wxWidgets 3.0.2 or 3.1.1.

Unofficial PPA for Ubuntu/Linux Mint

PPA packages for Audacity are available for Ubuntu and corresponding version of Linux Mint – but do check you are downloading 2.4.1 or 2.3.3, not 2.3.0 (which is unusable on Linux). Uninstall any packaged version of Audacity before installing this PPA.
If you add independent sources to your Ubuntu software sources then “Ubuntu Software Center” and software updates will offer unstable daily development builds of Audacity. Don’t install those unless that is what you really want.