Audacity 3.5 Released with Cloud Saving, Beat Detection, and More

Audacity, the popular free audio editor, has released version 3.5 with some major new features and improvements. The biggest addition is cloud project saving, allowing you to save projects to audio.com, work across devices, share with collaborators, and restore previous versions.

Another standout new feature is automatic beat and tempo detection. For audio samples, Audacity can now analyze the tempo or read metadata like acidizer tags or BPM values in filenames. This allows loops to be automatically adjusted to the project tempo for seamless integration.

Audacity 3.5 also enhances pitch-shifting capabilities. You can non-destructively change the pitch of clips up or down using keyboard shortcuts or a new Pitch and Speed dialog with voice optimization to preserve formants.

Other changes in version 3.5 include:

• Added subtitle support for importing/exporting WebVTT and SubRip files
• Redesigned plugin manager with search and filters
• Continued accessibility improvements
• Changes to zoom behavior and timeline ruler options
• Improved BSD support
• New app icon on macOS

To simplify the interface, some niche features were removed like printing, screenshot tool, karaoke view, and certain preferences. However, the vocal reduction effect was also removed, with a recommendation to use third-party Intel OpenVINO plugins instead.

Overall, Audacity 3.5 packs in several useful new features for music creators, podcasters, and audio editors, with cloud saving being a particularly welcome addition for collaboration and working across multiple computers. The updated pitch controls and beat detection also enhance Audacity’s capabilities for editing and conforming loops and samples.