Audacity is the free audio editor that’s been powering podcasts and music projects for over 20 years.

Installation

brew install --cask audacity

Recording

Click the red Record button. Select your microphone from the dropdown. Hit Stop when done. Your recording appears as a waveform.

Basic Editing

  • Select a region: Click and drag across the waveform
  • Cut/Copy/Paste: Ctrl+X/C/V (same as text)
  • Delete: Select and press Delete
  • Trim: Select what you want to keep, Ctrl+T

Essential Effects

  • Noise Reduction: Select a few seconds of silence, Effect → Noise Reduction → Get Noise Profile. Then select the whole track and apply.
  • Normalize: Effect → Normalize. Makes quiet audio louder.
  • Compressor: Smooths out volume differences.
  • Fade In/Out: Effect → Fading.

Exporting

File → Export → Export as MP3 (or WAV for lossless). MP3 requires the LAME encoder (Audacity will prompt you to download it on first use).

For podcasts, export as mono MP3 at 128kbps — it sounds great and keeps file sizes small.