TOP 100 TOOLS
Audacity

Audacity is an open source cross-platform sound editor and recorder suitable for podcasting.
 

Comments from some of those who selected Audacity as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2009

• the highlight of of my year is working with students in creating visual podcast to represent a year in review. This I've blogged as well. yoursmarticles.blogspot.com/2009/05/podcast-year-in-review-project.html  Mary Howard
• I recommend this open source tool to Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who wish to create podcasts and/or software demos when using a Rapid E-Learning approach. It's easy to use, and enables SMEs and training professionals create high quality audio quickly and efficiently.  Michael Hanley

Comments from those who selected Audacity as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2008

• "Does everything you need to record and edit audio. Easy to use, another winner!"  Karl Goddard
• "who needs anything more complex or pricey?" Mary Cooch
• "a wonderful user-friendly resource bringing podcasting to the people" Bill Miller
• "open source Audio editing in an easy way. Gorgeous tool for all "sound experiments"  Andreas Busing
• "Audacity is still the best application I have found for simple recording and editing of audio. It just works."  Jennifer Maddrell
• "Audio is a versatile option for an elearning. With the free Audacity tool it is easy to produce, edit and publish audio as an MP3 or other file formats."  Steve Rayson
• "Audacity gave the PC community similar capabilities to Mac's GarageBand at no cost.   I like having the ability to review and edit audio before I package it for podcasting"  Britt Wattwood
• "Audacity is easy to use for recording and editing sound files. It is a handy program for creating podcasts, especially for beginners in this area. "  Patricia Donaghy
• "Free and easy to create classroom podcasts and mp3s where the students get to hear, edit and publish themselves.  Promotes ownership – extremely motivating."  Kora Stoll
• "In the past I used Sonic Foundry’s Sound Forge, but Audacity does everything I need. The large library of plugins add all the functionality I think I might ever need. It’s free and open source too"  Charles Jennings
• "I found it is very useful for sound editing. It supports variety of features for audio editing at no cost."  N B Venkateswarlu
• "Use this all the time for audio, no other tool is as good" Phil Bradley
• "Why spend limited funds on a commercial tool that won't do all this free one does?"  Ed Lamaster
• "A great free (open source) tool for creating and editing audio files."  Pattie Mascaro
• "Although I don’t use it very often, any time it comes to manipulating sound it quickly does the job."  Kevin Jones
• "Extremely useful and easy-to-use tool for editing audio. I have found it invaluable in the various multimedia projects I've worked on in college this year. I use the noise removal filter for reducing static on voiceovers that were recorded directly using the built in mic on my laptop - handy if you dont have a fancy audio recording booth. Of course using this method, you won't have superb audio quality, but for less formal requirements such as creating audio for college projects, it's ideal."  Karen OBrien
• "Amazingly powerful for such a small program. I use it almost everyday, even though I have access to much more powerful audio editing software packages."  Jason Edwards
• "a well focussed tool that academics and student can pick up easily. It's very portable and this is important for digital audio where many users want to work in private spaces"  Andrew Middleton
• "This easy to use FREE audio editing software is easy to use for podcasting and editing audio files. You will need the LAME Mp3 encoder if you want to export your audio files at MP3 instead of WAV - but it’s easy to download and install"  Colette Cassinelli
• "I use this tool whenever there is a requirement for audio recording or editing. It is such a useful tool and it's free!" Sathish Narayanan
• "I recommend this open source tools to subject matter experts who wish to create podcasts and / or software demos when using a Rapid E-Learning approach. It's easy to install and use and enables SMEs and training professionals to create high quality audio quickly and efficiently."  Michael Hanley
• "I’m starting to do much more with audio, and Audacity really is a pretty incredible piece of free software."  Jeff Cobb
• " Free and powerful audio recorder and editor. Works with MP3's though you will need to download a copy the LAME MP3 encoder which will allow Audacity to import and export MP3 files."  Rupert Russell

Comments from those who selected Audacity as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2007

• "open source Audio editing in an easy way."  Andreas Busing
• "fabulous free software for recording podcasts"  Don Taylor
• "One of the best (free) audio tools out there"  B J Schone
• "Audio is a versatile option for an elearning. With the free Audacity tool it is easy to produce, edit and publish audio as an MP3 or other file formats."  Steve Rayson
• "Though I use iTunes to manage my music, this is only because it works well with my iPod. And I use an iPod only because my iRiver was smashed and can't be replaced. My real audio application - the tool I use to create, edit and convert audio files - is Audacity. What I like is the ability to work in multiple file formats, to record long chunks of content, easy editing and content filtering (including noise removal) and to output in small MP3 files." Stephen Downes
• "while there are other great audio programs, you cannot beat the functionality for the price!"  Audrey Williams
• "A robust sound recording/editing tool and it is open source."  Guy Boulet
• "In the past I used Sonic Foundry’s Sound Forge, but Audacity does everything I need.  The large library of plugins add all the functionality I think I might ever need. It’s free and open source too."  Charles Jennings
• "This easy to use FREE audio editing software is easy to use for podcasting and editing audio files. You will need the LAME Mp3 encoder if you want to export your audio files at MP3 instead of WAV - but it’s easy to download and install."  Colette Cassinelli
• "I adore free stuff – this is a sound recorder and precision editor – nothing more, nothing less"  Phil Green
• "easy, functional audio recording tool for podcasting"  Nick Hood
• "a tool that is free and easy to download and use to record students"  Ramona Dietrich
• "A free tool from SourceForge.net, I use this to edit podcasts and convert audio files"  Michael McVey
• "Educational content delivery is greatly simplified when one does not have to worry about the receiver's ability to open it.   With .pdf, I know that students will be viewing my files precisely the way I want the content viewed."  Britt Watwood
• "still simple, still perfect"  Patrick Higgins
• "Simple audio editing for recording and editing audio for courses and podcasts"  Seaghan Moriarty
• "Easy to use, free audio editor" Mike Taylor
• "i never imagined i'd be able to edit audio files, especially on the run - this program can be run from a portable drive, eg usb stick, or even from the iRiver that recorded audio with internal microphone .. open source." Michael Chalk
• "I am a big believer in open source tools and this one does everything the expensive programs do."  Susan Quinn