Audacity

Audacity is a free, open-source multi-track audio editor and recorder available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, built and maintained by a global community of volunteer developers. It's a popular starting point for podcasters, musicians, and students who need serious audio editing tools without a subscription fee.

You can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize older recordings from cassettes, vinyl, or other analog sources. Once captured, Audacity lets you import, edit, and combine multiple sound files, then export the result to a wide range of formats - including batch-exporting several files at once, which saves time on repetitive editing tasks.

Editing itself is straightforward: cut, copy, paste, and delete audio with unlimited undo and redo, so you can experiment freely without fear of losing earlier work. For more advanced analysis, Audacity includes a spectrogram view for visualizing and selecting specific frequencies, plus a dedicated Plot Spectrum window for detailed frequency-domain inspection - features usually reserved for paid audio software.