# Substitute For Audacity



## DanoBSD (Jul 29, 2021)

Hello everyone I am very pleased with FreeBSD. I just can't find a substitute for audacity. I just need something to eliminate noise with. Thanks so much Delete if not allowed. I am still new.


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## jardows (Jul 29, 2021)

DanoBSD said:


> Hello everyone I am very pleased with FreeBSD. I just can't find a substitute for audacity. I just need something to eliminate noise with. Thanks so much Delete if not allowed. I am still new.


Does Audacity not work for you?  It is available in the ports tree or as a package.
audio/audacity


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## DanoBSD (Jul 29, 2021)

Yes I am well aware also, thanks for taking the time to read my post. I am unhappy with the recent changes to audacity.


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## Cthulhux (Jul 29, 2021)

Tenacity.


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## DanoBSD (Jul 29, 2021)

Thanks ill have to check it out I think that was the one I had tried to install from source earlier. But. I will have to look into it. Couldn't fix the errors and couldn't figure out what dependencies it needed I was able to figure out two but not the library -lSM problem.


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## bsduck (Jul 29, 2021)

You can try audio/kwave. It has less features than Audacity but can be an alternative for basic editing.


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## DanoBSD (Jul 29, 2021)

Yeah I had messed around with it I don't know if in FreeBSD it has a noise reduction option.


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## sidetone (Jul 29, 2021)

audio/ardour6


> Ardour is a digital audio workstation. You can use it to record, edit, and mix multi-track audio. Produce your own CD's. Mix video soundtracks. Experiment with new ideas about music and sound. Generate sound installations for 12 speaker gallery shows.





> Ardour capabilities include: multichannel recording, non-linear, non- destructive region based editing with unlimited undo/redo, full automation support, a mixer whose capabilities rival high end hardware consoles, lots of plugins to warp, shift, and shape your music, and controllable from hardware control surfaces at the same time as it syncs to timecode. If you have been looking for a tool similar to ProTools, Nuendo, Cubase SX, Digital Performer, Samplitude, or Sequoia, you might have found it.








						ardour - the digital audio workstation
					






					ardour.org


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## kpedersen (Jul 29, 2021)

I believe the version of Audacity we have in ports is old enough to not contain all that creepy bullsh*t.





						ports - FreeBSD ports tree
					






					cgit.freebsd.org
				




So possibly keep with this until either a fork emerges victorious or the maintainer incorrectly grabs the very latest spyware from upstream.


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## eternal_noob (Jul 29, 2021)

kpedersen said:


> the maintainer incorrectly grabs the very latest spyware from upstream.


Better remove that port entirely before this happens. Spyware has no place in FreeBSD.


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## bsduck (Jul 29, 2021)

eternal_noob said:


> Better remove that port entirely before this happens. Spyware has no place in FreeBSD.


Then let's remove Chromium and Firefox to begin with...


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## sidetone (Jul 29, 2021)

bsduck said:


> Then let's remove Chromium and Firefox to begin with...


I was thinking of one day becoming a maintainer and porting Palemoon and its associated email client, with a cleaned up substitute for Gecko, that only calls on the gtk version it needs, without requiring the gtk version it's not written for.

Also, Thunderbird has a nice application called deskutils/birdtray that allows me to dock it and control it better from the bar tray, which would be good to fork or use for the email client associated with Palemoon.


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## ralphbsz (Jul 30, 2021)

eternal_noob said:


> Better remove that port entirely before this happens. Spyware has no place in FreeBSD.


A: At this point, it seems very clear that Audacity is not spyware. How do I know that? I know that it is on the list of software that employees at several very large computer companies that are super privacy focussed are allowed to run on their work machines. Furthermore, several people have examined the source code of Audacity and found that it does not report anything, other than properly anonymized crash and update reports.

B: But even if Audacity were to report usage information back (which is what you would call "spyware"), you don't get to dictate what software other people should be able to run conveniently on their machine. You are free to not install "spyware" on your machine, but please don't try to dictate what other people get to do or not do.

Disclaimer: I have never run Audacity, nor do I plan to do so in the near future. This is about principle, not a specific example.


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## sidetone (Jul 30, 2021)

They want to run something else. It's as simple as that. The license allows a fork, and it seems for whatever reasons, many prefer that.

The company can keep proprietary versions plus benefits from the GPL code. That doesn't have to affect the way the Opensource community implements Audacity forks. For some, there's an objection that the company that owns it is the only one that can choose to keep its adjustments to itself.


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## eternal_noob (Jul 30, 2021)

ralphbsz said:


> At this point, it seems very clear that Audacity is not spyware.











						Audacity is now a Possible Spyware, Remove it ASAP
					

The famous open source audio manipulation program was acquired by a company named Muse Group two months ago. The same company owns other projects in its




					fosspost.org
				











						New privacy policy is completely unacceptable! · Issue #1213 · audacity/audacity
					

For anyone not yet aware the official privacy policy was updated on the 2nd of July and contains some very disturbing things, most notably under data collection is "Data necessary for law enfo...




					github.com
				






ralphbsz said:


> you don't get to dictate what software other people should be able to run conveniently on their machine


Of course. But i am free to tell what i am thinking about it.


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## kpedersen (Jul 30, 2021)

ralphbsz said:


> A: At this point, it seems very clear that Audacity is not spyware. How do I know that? I know that it is on the list of software that employees at several very large computer companies that are super privacy focussed are allowed to run on their work machines.


Though millions of users at very large companies also run Windows. These days I would absolutely classify that as spyware going onto malware. Any software that does not operate 100% in the interests of the user is effectively malware.

The new owners of Audacity have made it very clear that they will be adding functionality to Audacity that does not benefit the user and that the telemetry is hidden enough that people are unable to turn it off.


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## ralphbsz (Jul 30, 2021)

eternal_noob said:


> Audacity is now a Possible Spyware, Remove it ASAP
> 
> 
> The famous open source audio manipulation program was acquired by a company named Muse Group two months ago. The same company owns other projects in its
> ...


For a complete rebuttal, read https://librearts.org/2021/07/audacity-privacy/

And: Most Linux builds of Audacity are compiled without the error reporting / upgrade checking anyway. That's why even highly privacy-sensitive organizations are allowing Audacity to be run inside. They allowed that after checking the source code of their builds and internal repositories.


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## ralphbsz (Jul 30, 2021)

kpedersen said:


> Though millions of users at very large companies also run Windows. These days I would absolutely classify that as spyware going onto malware. Any software that does not operate 100% in the interests of the user is effectively malware.


Sorry, but your viewpoint is so ludicrous as to become meaningless. Microsoft's software operates 100% in the interest of Microsoft. Anything else would be silly. If you install software written by Alice, Bob and Charlie, it operates in the interest of Alice, Bob and Charlie. Now, in our world you are free to enter into a contract with Alice, Bob and Charlie, read and understand that contract, and then decide whether you can find a situation in which both you and Alice/Bob/Charlie have advantages. That's what interactions between people are all about (we do better together than individually), and in most societies, contract law is the vehicle through which we organize such mutual benefit.

If you don't like the software and contract that Microsoft offers, feel free to not use it. The sheer fact that about 90% of all computer users disagree (and there are very many very smart people among those) demonstrates that your opinion is either outright wrong, or you are in a small minority as far as your requirements are concerned.

Simply saying "Microsoft = spyware + malware" without any evidence is just foaming at the mouth.



> The new owners of Audacity have made it very clear...


Wrong. The new owners of Audacity have massively back-pedaled and explained. Please try to keep up-to-date on the news.


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## sidetone (Jul 30, 2021)

These following aren't for complex recording or mixing. audio/xwave is only useful for basic recording. It uses Athena, and is very primitive. There's also audio/sox which is a terminal line application for recording, playing sounds and very basic mixing. I've done basic editing with sox: trimming parts out of music and changing the speed, and changing file formats.


As for Ardour, it has more advanced capabilities than Audacity. Ardour is really meant for mixing, while Audacity is mostly for podcasts and simple recordings. Some complex mixing can be made with Audacity, but Ardour is made for more complexity. Its interface may be a bit more complicated than Audacity though.


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## Tieks (Jul 30, 2021)

kpedersen said:
			
		

> Any software that does not operate 100% in the interests of the user is effectively malware.



At first glance, that's correct. Please note, that providing personal data to law enforcement bodies may at some point be in the interest of the user as well. For instance, when his bank account is emptied as a result of phishing. The user has personal interests, there are common interests and there are the interests of the owners of the software. Frankly, I don't see much wrong in the case of Audacity.


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## kpedersen (Jul 30, 2021)

ralphbsz said:


> Microsoft's software operates 100% in the interest of Microsoft.


Originally I was being a little self-righteous but now when I think about this vs some bitcoin miner malware that provides the user with some fancy mouse cursors, I actually cant see the difference. The user likes the mouse cursors (so entered the contract) but the unknown part of the software (the scummy miner) is malware. I don't see how this is different to the "useful" parts of Windows vs the scummy parts.


ralphbsz said:


> The sheer fact that about 90% of all computer users disagree (and there are very many very smart people among those)


Without getting too political, a huge proportion of the world also agreed with slavery. There is no such thing as "common knowledge" being correct. The majority really *can* be wrong.



ralphbsz said:


> Wrong. The new owners of Audacity have massively back-pedaled and explained.


They have actually already backpedaled a number of times. Usually once they get caught. But they will keep trying until they slowly erode the trust in that software. It is a little naïve to think that they have seen the light and everything is happy again


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## sidetone (Jul 30, 2021)

I wonder if it would be possible to buy the rights to an early implementation of a software as far as 1.0 release, and give it an Apache license. I wonder if Ardour rights from any previous version can be bought for it to be Apache, so if it's sold later, the rights of one version won't be heavily under one company like Audacity is now. If I were rich, I wouldn't rely on waiting to buy only from one, as from demand, they may want to raise the price more than its value. Come to think of it, Audacity won't do that, because the Apache has a clause about suing for rights of it, while they own it, unless it's dual licensed in a way that doesn't interfere with their rights to it. They obviously want to own it, and that can take away more than they want. Ardour already does more than what Audacity does. For simplicity or for the style that's simple like Audacity, maybe it can be forked only for that, as GPL suffices for the foreseeable future.

Even improve upon or fork kwave or xwave, that just record and play sound. xwave may sound far fetched to some, but for recording basic things, it's enough. It's like the Wav Player on the old MS Windows, with a more crude window. From the book of Audacity, it's mostly for podcasts, basic recordings, and basic editing.


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## astyle (Jul 30, 2021)

audio/zrythm, audio/rosegarden are a couple alternatives I can recommend... they do run on FreeBSD. I never tried to really do anything with them, but they compiled and opened, and the UI on them looks as advertised on project's page.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Jul 31, 2021)

kpedersen said:


> I don't see how this is different to the "useful" parts of Windows vs the scummy parts.


You must need another vaccine shot.



kpedersen said:


> There is no such thing as "common knowledge" being correct. The majority really *can* be wrong.


The Principals of GroupThink a fascinating topic I plan to cover on my blab site. I believe you will agree once recognized as it happens on cable TV News.

And if you disagree, I'll shame you publicly, discredit you personally and before you know it you'll be apologizing for being born. 



kpedersen said:


> They have actually already backpedaled a number of times. Usually once they get caught. But they will keep trying until they slowly erode the trust in that software. It is a little naïve to think that they have seen the light and everything is happy again


The light was uncomfortable and why they backpedaled. That it wasn't uncomfortable enough why it's happened more than once.


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## DanDare (Jul 31, 2021)

ardour is not a replacement for audacity. For me Audacity works as the SoundForge of opensource world and it's so good.
For now I'm just 'pkg install audacity'

I hope maintainer just elect some fork and keep it going. Audacity depends upon some unmaintained ports (sord lv2 sratom suil lilv)

Long life to audacity or whatever name/fork it gets


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## astyle (Jul 31, 2021)

DanDare said:


> ardour is not a replacement for audacity. For me Audacity works as the SoundForge of opensource world and it's so good.
> For now I'm just 'pkg install audacity'
> 
> I hope maintainer just elect some fork and keep it going. Audacity depends upon some unmaintained ports (sord lv2 sratom suil lilv)
> ...


Depends on how you compile audio/audacity. I tried to compile mine with audio/lash, even though it was a broken port. Hunted down lash.py from a Slackware repo, which was a Python27 file, and I was good to go


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## DanDare (Jul 31, 2021)

astyle said:


> Depends on how you compile audio/audacity. I tried to compile mine with audio/lash, even though it was a broken port. Hunted down lash.py from a Slackware repo, which was a Python27 file, and I was good to go


Nice.
I just installed from pkg 2021Q3. Didn't use it too much since but it's working.
It splashes 
'An assertion failed!
/wrkdirs/usr/ports/audio/audacity/work/audacity-minsrc-3.0.2/src/widgets/FileConfig.cpp(98): assert "mDirty == false" failed in ~FileConfig().'

In start but was able to use it.


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## sidetone (Nov 1, 2021)

Stargate is a new one that's not in ports. Also, audio/zrythm.





__





						Stargate Is The Newest Open-Source Digital Audio Workstation - Phoronix
					






					www.phoronix.com


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