The same job, done here
| What | Audacity | Oxyd |
|---|---|---|
| Tracks | As many as you need, mono or stereo | As many as you need, mono or stereo; 3 to 8 channels come in as a track each |
| Clips | Split, trim, move, join, stretch | Split, trim, move, duplicate, crossfade; no join, no stretch |
| Envelopes | The Envelope tool on a track | A line on each clip, with points to drag; the waveform is drawn as shaped |
| Effects | Built in, plus VST3, AU, LV2 and LADSPA plugins | 70 effects on a track, on the master, or applied to a selection; no plugins |
| Noise reduction | From a profile | From a profile, in Process |
| Truncate silence | Yes | Yes, keeping half of each pause at each edge |
| Loudness | Normalize, Loudness Normalization | Normalise to a peak or a LUFS target; a loudness readout beside the master |
| Recording | Overdub, append, punch in | Overdub from the playhead on a new track; no append or punch in |
| Labels | Label tracks | Markers and regions in one lane; Export cuts between them |
| Export | WAV, FLAC, MP3, Ogg; M4A with the FFmpeg library | WAV, FLAC, MP3, M4A, Ogg; the mix, each track, each region, or between markers |
| Chapters | No | Markers written into MP3, M4A, Ogg and FLAC |
| Transcript | No | Whisper base, on this computer; about one word in ten wrong |
| Project file | .aup3 | .oxyd, one file with all the audio; opens .aup3 and .aup4 |
| Where it runs | An installed app on Windows, macOS and Linux | A current browser; installable from Chrome and Edge; works offline |
| Phones | No | A layout for trim, delete, split, fades, Process, Record and Export |
What Audacity has that Oxyd does not
The list is kept in the open, in the order it will be built, so that nothing here is softened:
- Generators: silence, tone, noise, chirp, DTMF and a rhythm track. Nothing yet.
- Timeline formats and a snapping grid: samples, frames, bars and beats. Time only; snapping to clip edges and the playhead only.
- Scrubbing and play at speed. Dragging in an empty lane seeks; no audible scrub.
- Time-stretch and pitch per clip. Nothing yet.
- Sample-level drawing to repair single samples. The view goes down to single samples; nothing can be drawn.
- Zero-crossing snap, detach at silences, join clips. None.
- Macros and batch processing: chains applied to many files. None; an FX chain can be saved and loaded, one project at a time.
- Preferences for devices, quality, shortcuts and default export settings. None; the output device is the system's.
- Crash recovery beyond a reload. Every edit is saved as it is made, but the undo history is lost on reload.
Opening your Audacity projects
A .aup3 (Audacity 3) or .aup4 (Audacity 4) opens as a project of its own: tracks, clips, names, gain, pan and mute, and labels as markers and regions. Audacity's effect settings do not come across. Open an Audacity project says the rest.
Who should keep Audacity
Anyone whose work needs a row of the list above, or a plugin, keeps Audacity. Anyone with a voice to edit, a project to rescue, a phone, or no wish to install anything has the browser, and the two read each other's projects one way: Audacity's into Oxyd.