Well my audacity seems to default to mp3 and I dont renember adding a 'lame mp3' extension
Oh. Its all about mp3 being a licensable wotsit.
Audacity has to ship without it for 'legal reasons'
Fortunately it's all easy enough on Linux.
Agreed. But one needs a bit of deterity to use Audacity. Occasional use of the s/w could be daunting! Frequent use might arm you well enough.
I meant for stereo or multitrack recording. For mono tracks Audacity is no big brainer
Depending on what you want from it I'm guessing?
Like, I needed some sort of VU meter to be able to set my recording levels and there might have been something along the top that looked like them but they weren't particularly clear (unlike those on Quicktime Audio Record etc). And if you wanted to monitor what you were recording via the speakers and couldn't, no matter what you tried to set / switch etc (unlike Quicktime Audio Record).
Now, I'm happy to believe some of those issues could be down to Audacity on Linux on a MacBook and I can't remember if I've tried it on anything else as yet, but it did look a bit 'complex for my very simple needs?
I have no doubt that it's a very capable package, especially for those with the interest / patience to (take the time to) learn how to use it. I don't want to have to *learn* anything, I just want to *do* something. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
There's a free app which emulates the good ol' BBC stereo PPM. Even looking like it.
Neat, thanks. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
The VU meter can be clearer if you undock it by click and drag on its handle to the left of its icon. Park it somewhere below the soundtrack and resize it by dragging the bottom right corner. Right click anywhere on the meter to set options for refresh rate, standard/RMS, db/linear and horizontal or vertical orientation. This will work both Windows and Linux. See my screenshot at
More info at
You can return the meter to the toolbar with View > Toolbars > Reset Toolbars in the Audacity menu.
From memory the ones I saw were just lines moving atop a base scale (so ending up just like a double thick line).
Cool. Whilst we went round to Mums tonight I was doing other stuff so I'll probably look at it next time.
Cheers, T i m
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