Best Audio Editing Software

Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation built for both studio production and live performance, developed by Ableton, a company headquartered in Berlin, Germany. It is known for its dual Session and Arrangement views, which let producers improvise loop based ideas and then arrange them into a finished track, and it integrates closely with Ableton's Push hardware controller.

Live is sold as a one time purchase across three editions, Intro, Standard and Suite, priced at $99, $349 and $749. Suite adds the full instrument and effect collection, built-in stem separation and Max for Live, which allows users to build custom devices. A free trial is available before purchase, and educational pricing offers a significant discount for students and teachers.

FL Studio is a digital audio workstation for beat making, music production and audio recording, developed by Image-Line, a company based in Belgium. It runs on Windows and macOS and is well known for its pattern based Channel Rack, Piano Roll and step sequencer workflow, along with a large collection of bundled instruments and effects.

FL Studio is sold as a one time purchase across four editions: Fruity, Producer, Signature Bundle and All Plugins, priced from $99 to $499, and every edition includes lifetime free updates to future versions at no extra cost. Producer Edition and above add audio recording, audio clip editing and stem separation, while Signature and All Plugins add extra instruments, vocal pitch tools and glitch effects.

Logic Pro is Apple's professional digital audio workstation for music production, recording, editing and mixing, available for Mac and iPad. Developed by Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, California, it includes an extensive library of instruments and effects along with AI assisted tools such as Session Players, Stem Splitter and a Mastering Assistant. It can be bought outright or accessed through Apple's Creator Studio subscription bundle.

The app covers beat making with Drum Machine Designer and a step sequencer, songwriting with Live Loops, and mixing with a full featured console, Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos support. Logic Pro for Mac is a one time purchase of $199.99 that includes all future updates, while Apple Creator Studio offers Logic Pro alongside Final Cut Pro and other creative apps on a monthly or yearly subscription.

Audacity is a free, open source audio editing and recording application for Windows, macOS and Linux. First released in 2000, it has been part of Muse Group, which also owns MuseScore and Ultimate Guitar, since 2021, while remaining free and community developed under the GPL license. It is widely used by podcasters, musicians, students and hobbyists for recording, editing and cleaning up audio.

The software supports multi-track recording and editing, a large set of built-in effects such as noise reduction, equalization and pitch shifting, and newer AI powered stem separation for isolating vocals or instruments. It reads and writes common formats including WAV, MP3, FLAC and OGG, and supports VST, LADSPA and Nyquist plugins for extending its effects.

Descript is a San Francisco-based editing platform that transcribes audio and video, then lets users edit the recording by deleting, rearranging, or retyping text in the transcript. It includes Overdub for AI voice cloning to fix flubbed lines without re-recording, Studio Sound for one-click noise and echo removal, and Eye Contact correction for on-camera video. It works as both a web app and downloadable desktop app for Windows and macOS.

Descript offers a free plan with about 60 minutes of media per month, with paid Hobbyist, Creator, and Business plans adding more transcription hours, AI credits, and export quality, plus a custom Enterprise tier. It is popular with podcasters, YouTubers, and marketing teams who want to edit spoken content without traditional timeline-based video editing software.

Cakewalk by BandLab was a free Windows digital audio workstation that BandLab Technologies released after acquiring Cakewalk in 2018. It offered unlimited audio, MIDI, and instrument tracks, a built in ProChannel strip with EQ and compression, full VST support, and a 64 bit audio engine, making it a popular no cost alternative to paid DAWs.

The product line has since evolved: Cakewalk by BandLab has been succeeded by Cakewalk Sonar, a redesigned DAW with a free evaluation mode plus an optional BandLab Pro membership that unlocks extra ProChannel modules, Overloud TH-U amp modeling, XSampler, and the full BandLab Sounds library, alongside the simpler Cakewalk Next. Both now run on Windows and macOS and remain free to start.

WavePad is an audio editing application from NCH Software, an Australian company. It offers waveform editing, recording, format conversion, and restoration tools such as noise reduction and click/pop removal. A free Basic Edition is available for non-commercial use, while the paid Master's Edition adds VST plugin support, batch processing of multiple files, and a bundled sound effects library. WavePad is available for Windows and macOS, with companion apps for iOS and Android.

It is aimed at podcasters, musicians, and hobbyists who need a straightforward, low-cost audio editor rather than a full DAW. NCH sells WavePad as a one-time purchase rather than a subscription, and frequently runs promotional pricing, so the exact price of the Master's Edition can vary by region and time of purchase.

Reason, made by Stockholm based Reason Studios, is a digital audio workstation built around The Rack, a virtual studio of over 90 synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, effects, and MIDI players that can be freely wired together. It has been used for music production since 1994 and can run as standalone software or as a Reason Rack plugin (VST3, AU, AAX) inside other DAWs such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro, or FL Studio.

Reason Studios sells access primarily through the Reason+ subscription, which bundles the DAW, the Rack plugin, all rack devices, and a growing sample library with weekly content updates, alongside a separate Reason Rack Plugin only subscription for users who prefer another host DAW. A one time perpetual license option is also referenced on the official site. Reason Studios was acquired by LANDR in January 2026.

REAPER is a digital audio workstation developed by Cockos Incorporated, built for recording, arranging, editing, and mixing audio and MIDI. It runs on Windows and macOS, supports unlimited tracks with flexible routing up to 128 channels, and works with VST, VST3, AU, and CLAP plugins. Its interface, toolbars, and actions list are fully customizable, and the ReaScript engine lets users automate tasks in Lua, Python, or EEL2.

REAPER is not free but is sold at a fraction of the price of other professional DAWs, with a 60-day full-featured evaluation period before purchase. It appeals to musicians, podcasters, and audio engineers who want a lightweight, highly customizable tool without a subscription. Its small install size and low system requirements make it popular for both home studios and professional post-production work.

Pro Tools is a professional digital audio workstation from Avid Technology, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, widely used in music, film and broadcast for recording, editing and mixing audio. It runs on Windows and macOS and is offered through a tiered subscription model, Artist, Studio and Ultimate, alongside a free entry level tier called Pro Tools Intro and legacy perpetual license options sold through resellers.

The software is known for its precise editing tools, extensive AAX plugin ecosystem, and support for professional control surfaces used in recording studios. Ultimate adds features aimed at large scale film, TV and post production work, such as expanded track counts, video engine support and Dolby Atmos mixing, while Artist and Studio target solo musicians and project studios.