Audacity is a free, open source application for recording and editing audio. For more information, see the Audacity project home page.

Installing Audacity

Audacity is not installed by default in Ubuntu. To start using Audacity, install the package audacity from the Universe software channel. For more information on installing packages, see InstallingSoftware.

Once installed, click Applications -> Sound & Video -> Audacity to start Audacity.

Troubleshooting

After installation, you may receive the error message "Error Initializing Audio" with the explanation "There was an error initializing the audio i/o layer. You will not be able to play or record audio. Error: Host error."

To start Audacity without this error, press the Alt + F2 keys on your keyboard and type the following into the box which appears:

gksudo audacity

If Audacity now starts without the error message, you can alter its menu entry with the new command by using the Alacarte Menu Editor. To start Alacarte, select Applications -> Accessories -> Alacarte Menu Editor.

If this method does not work, you can alternatively press the Alt + F2 keys on your keyboard and type:

aoss audacity

This will run Audacity through the ALSA sound wrapper, instead of Audacity's default, OSS. For more information, see alsa-oss.

Locating libmp3lame.so When Exporting MP3 Files

By default, the library libmp3lame.so is not installed in Ubuntu. To install this library, install the package liblame-dev from the Multiverse software channel. (For more information on installing packages, see InstallingSoftware.)

When Audacity asks you to locate libmp3lame.so, you will be able to locate it in /usr/lib and export MP3 files.

Installing the Audacity Beta Version

This article pertains to the stable releases of Audacity. If you'd like to install the beta version of Audacity, see InstallingAudacityBeta.