Audacity

Audacity is a free and open-source audio recording and editing platform for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It’s great for creating podcast audio or music and has relatively easy-to-learn tools for adding effects or cleaning up noisier environments.

Useful for…

Pros

Quick to get started

Lots of guidance on their support page

As robust as some paid audio recording and editing software

Cons

More advanced uses require knowledge of music recording

Not as robust as some recording software, such as Logic Pro

Operating Systems

Any

Accessibility

On their Q&A page, the creators acknowledge that “Far less of Audacity is properly accessible to visually impaired users than we would like” but that much of its features are accessible by screen reader or without a mouse. The Audacity Support page offers ongoing updates on its accessibility features.

Cost

Free to all