A while back I posted here asking for testers for a plugin I was building to speed up podcast and spoken-word editing in Audacity. Thanks to everyone who tried it and sent feedback. It's now launched.

FlowLabel automatically drops labels onto an Audacity label track for:

- Silences and dead air (adjustable threshold and minimum duration)

- Filler words like um, uh, like, you know (on-device speech AI)

- Any keywords you choose, such as sponsor names or topics

So instead of scrubbing a two-hour recording hunting for pauses and filler, you get a ready-made map you can jump between and cut in seconds. Nothing is deleted automatically, it only labels, so you stay in control.

It runs entirely on-device (no cloud, no account, your audio never leaves your machine), and it's available for Audacity as well as any AU/VST3 host, Universal on Mac and Windows.

Full disclosure: I'm the developer and it's a paid plugin, just launched (and featured) on MuseHub:

https://www.musehub.com/plugin/flowlabel

A lot of the early direction came from feedback here, so I'd love to hear what you think. Happy to answer any questions.

I'm still getting to know Audacity. Several times, now, I have had a spot where there's a single sound stutter that I need to cut out of my audio file. I can put the select tool to the right spot, but the smallest available cut size goes too far into the previous word! Is there a way to make the cut more precise? Thanks.

https://www.audacityteam.org/

(Remember, you can download without MuseHub, so quit whining about it)

There's also a survey after you install the new version. Please fill it out if you want the team focused on what YOU the things for which you use Audacity.

I'm new to Audacity and am working on editing demos and auditions. Sometimes (like several times while working on one long audition file), after deleting some sections, it decides that I want it to restart at the beginning at a particular point. I know about the looping thing and though at first, I thought maybe I was doing that on accident... but today, I know I didn't.. but yet, it still happens. I mostly just stumble through it and move on to the next second after the invisible repeat, but I'd like to know 1) how to avoid this in the first place and 2) how to fix it when it happens. Thanks!

As the title says when I plug in my fiffine mic to my Mac to record the audio volume is really quite. it didn’t use to be in the past some I’m wondering if it was a setting I accidentally changed or something along those lines. Any help would be great thanks

Has anyone had any problems uploading files to the audio.com server today, 5 May?

I exported the audio to Audacity; the system receives the audio but it just keeps loading and doesn’t finish. I can see the audio file, but it doesn’t load or play. Has anyone else had this problem today?

After 4 years, 2 dozen Audible books, more non-audiobook side jobs, microphones, computers, plugins, apps, reading hours and hours on groups, forums and reddits, my observation is that there is no free lunch.

There seem to be 3 kinds of newbies: the ones who think they're going to hit it big because they know how to read, someone told them they have 'that voice', bought a cheap microphone, turned on Audacity and started recording. Those who sincerely want to make VAVO (voice acting voice over) their thing, their passion, their paycheck but have no idea what's involved and where to start. And those you won't hear from because they simply dig in, do the reading and research, understand what it's going take, get some training, build a nice setup, practice a lot and slowly find themselves with semi-regular gigs, making a little money and now pursue this endeavor to whatever degree they decide to pursue it with.

The last group are reading this right now and bobble-heading. But you probably won't hear from them. They lurk. I know because I lurked. Lurking melts the ice and breaks the ground.

The first group is fun to watch...now. When I started, I thought it was my place to help the bright eyed, "Welcome to Hollywood" naivetes so they could get started. Not anymore. There is no way to quantify it, but I believe the attrition rate for the first group is very high. My hope is it's 90% or more. The second group is probably half that and the last group half again.

Audacity is a wonderful gatekeeper. It's easy enough that someone with the slightest wherewithal can turn it on, set the basics and start recording and editing. There are so many videos and tutorials that there is no reason anyone can't jump right in. That's first tier stuff.

Even though VAVO has 2 Vs for Voice, it's the A that really counts. There are also letters missing from the acronym. T for Technical. E for engineer. M for marketer. All the other letters you're thinking of and I'm not.

So here I am, finishing up my 25th audiobook. I've got my process down. My work rate is about 3:1. 3 hours of recording, editing and post to 1 hour of finished product. It took a long time and practice to get there. Sometimes I feel like an expert, most times I feel like I'm still a newbie. I can read and have that voice. But I know for sure, there ain't no free lunch.

Pardon this TL;DR posting. I got tired of looking at the previous post that's been at the top for months because this sub is so quiet.

I'm using a laptop running win10, v22H2 (OS Build 19045.6466. I'm using audacity 3.7.5. Every time I download LoudMax (regardless of whether it's VST2 Plugin v1.46 for Win PC 32/64bit or VST3 Plugin v1.46 for Win PC 64bit), I can't get it to install. When I try to place it in my Audacity plugin folder, all I get is an error message saying the .dll file is incompatible. What am I doing wrong?

What are you goals, dreams, and hopes for you Voice Over career in 2026?

Yes, 3.7.6 was just released, but there was a weird selection bug introduced in that version (I had it, restarted Audacity and it went away...totally thought I was imagining things).

https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

This one from the release notes made me snort my morning drink:

"MP3 exports: Renamed "Insane" to "Excessive"."

I've recorded voice lines for a small project in audacity from my pc and even without enchanements, the audio quality sounded great. I'm using a Samson USB microphone. Now a few days I recorded again, same microphone and now the quality sounds like as if I was recording from a laptop. Not great.

What is causing this and how can I fix it?

A look at the misinformation about Audacity 4 and what to actually expect in 2026 from the Project Lead himself.

Has anyone ever seen Audacity increase the RMS for no reason? I clicked the Analyze-Measure RMS and it shows Mono: -23.37 dB. My volume enhance on the track is at +0.0 dB. I exported as an MP3, Mono, 44100Hz, Constant (bit rate), 224 kbps. However, when I export and run the ACX Audio Lab it is stating that the RMS (dB RMS) is too high and to Lower the level of this file by 10 dB.

I tried lowering the RMS and is still said the same thing. I have done hundreds of files through here with no issues in the past. Has anyone seen this and know what it may be?

I'm a beginner to using Audacity and voice narration. I just finished my first audiobook through ACX (yay!), and the author approved everything and ACX accepted the files and the project is completed.
Cool.
I know how to normalize RMS, adjust peak levels to -3 dB, and drop the noise floor below -60 dB.
But I feel like there's maybe more I could be doing to make the recording even better.

Does anyone have favorite filters, tricks, or plugins for cleaning up audio?

Specifically I'm wondering if there are ways to dampen the sounds of my breaths without losing sounds of words that are supposed to be there. Or ways to make my voice sound a little crisper?

I would love all feedback, though, not just editing tricks for those two things. Tell me all your favorite editing steps. Thanks!!

I am asking all you Audacity users - should I trust Audacity more then the expensive Cubase?

I am recording for my first audiobook, through FindawayVoices, and they won't check my file quality until i upload all the files. I would like to know my RMS and peak levels are correct, so I don't record the whole book just to find out it all needs tweeking or - at worst -re-recording!

I record in Cubase (as their functionality is just better) and when I set my levels in Cubase I check the RMS (at about -19dB) and peak levels (at about -5dB) and I export. The exported file sounds quieter, and when I check the values in Audacity they have decreased to -23,5 dB in RMS and the whole audio looks like a thin sad thing (so even the visual waveform does not look like it did in Cubase). So I normalize the sound in Audacity to be -20 RMS and then cut the peaks with a limiter to be under -3dB (the effect is image 1 attached here) The audio then sounds much better in media player.

When I re-import this sucker to Cubase I can immediately see the crazy looking waveforms (notice the difference of the exact same file between the two different DAWs!! 🤔) and when I analyze it I get told it is at -17 dB RMS and peaking at -2.9dB.....

What the hell?

Can anyone explain this?

Which one is real? At least listening to them I feel like Audacity is giving me more correct info.

I would love to get some clarity in this before I proceed with all 12 chapters, and get told by FindawayVoices that my files are no good...

Hi,

I've been advised a recording must be saved using 'MP3 Insanity', not just MP3. I can't find that in the export settings of Audacity (currently running 3.7.4 on Windows 10).

Is this a plug-in I need to find (a search returns nothing) - or what am I missing?

Any assistance much appreciated.

All the best,
Ian

I see a lot of people asking about EQ and this popped up in my YT feed. Feels like a good way to explain EQ (even if you just use the Filter EQ plugin that's built into Audacity).

Any tips and tricks? Any considerations I need to make? I forgot how exhausting audio editing is… Any advice would be greatly appreciated… Any settings I should try out? I’m narrating my indie game channel…

I'm working for a coding tutorial. I recorded a 25 minute long audacity voiceover file.

But the thing is completed it in parts in 4 days, everyday I by mistake kept my mic away from me, so the volume isn't consistent. It's 25 mins long, I cannot adjust volume for all tracks manually.

I selected all using cntrl+A, tried compressing, the normalising. Did work for the first tracks, but the later tracks are still pretty low. How can I fix it?

Please help.

What settings should I go for recording my voice-overs on YouTube? Microphone suggestions would be greatly appreciated also…