Good Vocal Recording Software
For voice recording and editing, you have an amazing software called EaseUS Video Editor to use on your Windows PC. The software allows you to edit and add voice recordings to your videos. You can record a completely new voice for your video, or you can add one of the existing audio files from your computer. I – Sound Recorder stands out as one of the best music software for recording vocals, with respect to its highly intuitive UI, as well as its unrivaled ease of usage. Furthermore, it features some advanced functions like recording scheduler and voice-only recording, which is an essential component of noise reduction.
Audio recording software is a necessary thing when it comes to audio recording and related tasks. Whether it is for the basic sound recording needs or professional audio production, these software tools will help you in the process. They will not only help you to record audio but will also let you create professional outputs by letting you edit them as per your needs. But as the audio recording is our primary intention, we are now concentrating on the 12 best audio recording software.
12 Best Software to Record Audio
Most of the below-listed items are free recording software so that you don’t have to worry about the money. However, it may include some paid applications as well because the quality of the service is also a factor that we considered during the sorting process. If you are not planning to buy a premium audio recording tool, you may skip the paid tools. Below is the best audio recording software.
1. Audacity
Audacity is a free open source digital audio editor and recording software developed by The Audacity Team. The software was first introduced on May 28, 2000, which makes it 17 years old as of now. Audacity lets you record audio from multiple input devices such as an external microphone, a built-in microphone, or even the PC streaming. The high-quality sound clips will be added to the interface allowing you to edit them further. You can control many audio features such as amplification, noise reduction, silence removal, etc.
The software is available for Windows, OS X, Linux, and other operating systems and supports almost all popular audio formats including such as MP3, WAV, FLAC, and OGG. So, if you are searching for the best audio recorder, Audacity is the answer.
2. MixCraft
MixCraft is nothing less than a fast, reliable, and efficient audio recording tool. MixCraft is developed by the Acoustica team well known for its software contributions. Powered by a lightning-fast sound engine, it is a complete audio production suite. Unlike Audacity, you have to pay a few dollars to enjoy the complete benefit of the software. However, a free trial version is provided by the company. Mixcraft is available for all the Windows versions and supports almost all of the popular formats.
3. Presonus Studio One Free
Presonus Studio One is a professional audio editing software which also allows recording it. Available for both Windows and Mac versions, this software is a dream of any DAW user. It contains a bunch of professional functions all are helpful for producing high-quality music content. If you are not satisfied with the free features of the Presonus Studio One, you could go for the premium version where tons of new features added.
4. Sonar
Sonar provides the most advanced audio editing environment among the software on this list. It supports some extra audio formats such as WAV, ASF, WMA, and AIFF. It is available for all Windows versions including Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP. Sonar The software consists of numerous functions like mixers and MIDI keyboards which are all helpful to product stunning audio outputs. In addition, virtual machines like samplers, drum machines, and synthesizers are also there in the software.
5. Reaper
Reaper is a lightweight audio editing application with a simple interface and comparatively professional functions. The clean interface is the most attractive feature of this sound tool. You could control the audio features like the stereo, surround sound, as well as the effects like pitch shift, cross-fade, and snap to grid. Reaper is available for both Mac and PC systems and supports audio formats including FLAC, MOV, W64, AIFF in addition to the usual formats.
6. Muse
Muse is an audio sequencer and recorder software dedicated to the Linux OS. If you are a Linux user, you should consider Muse above any of the above applications. You can record from the input sources in both stereo/mono modes. It also supports real-time audio recording. It is a free audio recorder and has no premium versions to upgrade. So, it is very likely for Linux users.
7. Ocenaudio
Ocenaudio is a good audio editing software with a good number of useful features. Being a fast audio editor, the software performs quite nicely in the recording part as well. The software offers numerous audio effects like 31 band equalizer, flanger, chorus, multiple filters, etc. It is one of the most popular audio editing tool for PC, Linux, Ubuntu, and Mac operating systems. Ocenaudio is completely free to use and supports the formats including MP3, WAV, and AIFF.
8. AudioDope
AudioDope is yet another tool that allows editing music files or other audio files. With minimal features, the software is still helpful for both basic audio editing needs and advanced needs. It contains a full audio waveform analysis to improve the quality of the recorder audio file. It features numerous audio filters and effects like high/low pass filters, normalization, pitch scale, chorus, and reverb. AudioDope is currently available for PC and completely free to use. The software also supports extending the features using the VST plug-ins like compressors and phrases. It is a must-try.
9. Wavosaur
Wavosaur is another free audio editor in this list for editing, processing, and recording sounds. The best thing that we attracted to this tool is its small file size. The software is only about 1.5MB in size and allows editing huge audio files. The lightweight interface is a sweetening factor of this tool that never failed to provide extreme performance on the editing and recording process. It has no price and is available for all Windows versions.
10. Ardour
Ardour is an open-source DAW available for the Mac and Linux operating systems. It has the most useful multi-track recording feature alongside many other useful functionalities. Some cons of the software include the lack of built-in effects and filters and the unavailability of the Windows version. If you are ready to adjust to these issues, Ardour also is a good software to record audio.
11. NCH Music Recording Software
NCH is a very old program that allows different operations related to recording music, mixing audio, editing music, etc. It is available for both Windows and Mac platforms with professional functions packed inside. If you are not a fan of any of the above-listed programs, the NCH music recorder is a good choice. A free trial version is available in case you want to give it a try before paying some of your hard-earned money on it. So, don’t hesitate to try NCH.
12. Rosegarden
Rosegarden is another music editor and recorder software which is specially developed for the Linux users. So if you are a proud Linux OS user, you should try this recording software for Linux. The powerful recording system on this tool is capable of capturing crystal clear sound. After finishing the recording, you will be able to edit the recordings as per your requirements. It is a must-try for the Linux users.
Which one is your favorite audio recording software?
Which audio recorder software will you choose for your audio editing needs? Would you go for free software or a premium one? Let us know your thoughts. Also, don’t forget to recommend any other tools which we missed to include in this top audio recording software list.
Voice recording apps are great for recording lectures, meetings, public events, random thoughts and ideas, and they are also great to record yourself sleep talk non-sense in the dead of night. Just don’t share the last one with your friends.
Most Android smartphones come with in-built voice recorders, while those are good, they lack features even for occasional users. Let’s check out some of the best Voice Recorder Apps for Android.
Best Voice Recorder Apps for Android
There are quite a few voice recording apps for Android available on the Play Store which makes it difficult to choose the right one. It all comes down to what you are using it for and the features that you cannot do without. Recently, I wanted to make a quick mental note of ideas, and since it takes more time to put thoughts into words, it got me looking for voice recorder apps. If you’re an iOS user, fret not, you can check out voice recorder apps for iPhone as well.
1. Dolby On
Dolby secret tested a professional music recording “234” last year, and on the same lines released Dolby On for on iOS. This app was recently launched by on Android, and it soon replaced all my audio and music recording apps.
The main feature of this app is its post-processing features that are automatically applied to the recording. It filters the audio for noise reduction, normalization, compression, dynamic EQ, etc. Not just that, it also analysis of the surrounding noise and optimizes the levels even before the recording starts.
If you want to tweak the sound more the app also gives you inbuilt editing tools. You can trim the audio, apply profiles, manually adjust noise reduction, bass, treble, boost the audio, etc. Besides that, if you want to compare the audio without the Dolby sound, you have a quick toggle option for that as well. Although it’s not necessary, I would suggest using headphones at all times.
This app is a great start for normal users, although if you’re a musician, an added feature is integration with SoundCloud which saves you from exporting the track and manually uploading it every time.
Install Dolby On (Android)
2. Easy Voice Recorder
Easy Voice Recorder allows you to easily record audio anywhere, anytime. The app offers the ability to record audio in the background even when the screen is off.
It supports multiple file-formats including the space-saving AMR and the high-quality PCM. It also supports popular formats like MP3 and WAV. It comes with useful widgets and shortcuts that will allow you to begin recording at a moment’s notice, it also has support for Android Wear which is cool.
It comes with a magic wand that will allow you to increase volume and remove quite parts with dead space. Saves times during playback. You can also reduce echo or background noise.
There is a pro version ($3.99) that will allow you to upload all recordings automatically to Google Drive or Dropbox, but you can do it manually as well. Support for Bluetooth microphone and Tasker app.
Easy Voice Recorder is a great recording app that does everything you would expect from a voice recorder.
Install Easy Voice Recorder (Android)
3. Voice Recorder
Voice Recorder (such a generic name) picks up things where Easy Voice Recorder left. It offers everything that the former offered but adds some more features.
Now, you can also save your audio recordings in MP3 format which offers high audio quality. It comes with a microphone tool that will allow you to adjust the sensitivity of the recorder.
Also Read: 7 Best Audio Editing Apps for Android
Where it really shines is the editing department. Voice Recorder will allow you to edit your voice recordings. You can cut, trim, copy/paste, and remove parts that you don’t like, right inside the app. This is useful when you want to remove parts that are boring and useless. The app will also allow you to listen to the final version before saving it.
On the downside, there is no auto-upload function for cloud storage, but you can always upload manually. It doesn’t support PMR but does support WAV. The app is free to use and is ad-supported.
Voice Recorder offers everything that you may need out of your audio recorder except some features that can be taken care of manually. Ability to edit voice recordings can be handy in several situations.
Install Voice Recorder (Android)
4. Parrot
Parrot is probably the most beautiful as well as the most feature-rich audio recorder on the list. The UI is pleasing and makes using the app that much fun.
The free version will allow you to use the speaker, mic or Bluetooth mic for recording. You can see calendar style icons on the recordings to help identify the date you recorded the lecture or meeting. It supports Android Wear.
You can remove echo and background noise, and also control gain where you need more power. Supports different recording formats like previously mentioned apps. They can be set to stop and start automatically based on the sound threshold to skip silence parts during the recording period.
Also Read: Top 10 Call Recording Apps for Android
It comes with some playback options like volume boost, bass boost, and preset reverb. The last one is for listening to recordings as if you were sitting in a small room or a large hall. There is cloud sync and support for Google Drive and Dropbox.
The Pro version will also allow you to record phone calls, both incoming and outgoing. You can set it to automatic or manual. You can set schedules to record audio setting the date, time, and even duration in advance. So the recording will begin with every lecture, meeting that you know you will be attending in the future. Even if you do forget about it.
The free version is ad-supported while the paid version will set you back by $19.99 every year.
Parrot was built for advanced users like teachers, lawyers, businessmen who constantly attend meetings, and so on. It is easy and fun to use and once you use it, you won’t use any other app.
Install Parrot (Android)
5. Cogi
Cogi, interesting name, made the list because it not only offers a beautiful UI, but also a feature that no other app provides. The developers wanted to augment the experience by allowing users to take better notes.
In order to achieve that, they added functionality to take pictures and save it with your audio recordings. It makes so much sense.
Cogi actually offers features that will come in handy and will be used by plenty of people while voice recording. Like for example, you can go back in time, up to 45 seconds, to record what was said that you didn’t record. Cogi does it by actively listening behind the scenes so that you do not miss important things, thinking if only I had started audio recording before.
You can add images and text notes to audio recordings to help to remember the highlights of the day better. They are all grouped together and you can use tags for better search and management.
Cogi offers three plans. Free, Standard, and Pro. The free plan comes with 500 MB, Standard is $14.99 with 50 GB cloud storage, and Pro is 250 GB for $39.99. Premium plans also allow you to record phone calls.
While Cogi is a great app, it is expensive when compared to something like Evernote which allows you to do everything Cogi does, except for the call recording, in the free plan. If you are looking for advanced functions like adding images, links, video to your audio recordings, Evernote is more suitable.
Install Cogi (Android)
6. Rewind
We all have voice recorders on our smartphone but capturing spontaneous moments like a child’s first words are hard to capture. It isn’t feasible to leave the recorder in the background and that’s where Rewind comes in. Rewind is a smart voice recorder app designed to capture spontaneous moments. It runs silently in the background and records everything that happens in your surroundings.
It doesn’t fill up your memory though as it discards all the recordings after a threshold and keeps the latest recording. For example, you can set the app to record 30-minute clips and the app would keep the latest 30 minutes of the audio recordings.
To save up on space you can choose an mp3 instead of wav file format. The app also has a couple of features which you can enable to set a custom trigger for recording like shake to record.
Even though the app doesn’t burn up the memory of your smartphone, it would consume significant resources while running in the background. The would come in handy for brainstorming sessions, surveillance, and recording notes and memos. The app is free and doesn’t have any ads.
Rewind is a great app to have as a backup tool for your conversations, you wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting anything as it will be saved automatically to the phone.
Install Rewind (Android)
7. Voice Memos
The most common problem while recording long lectures, interviews, or meeting sessions is that you have no way of knowing where are important bits in the recordings. I used to either memorize the timestamps or wrote it down on the piece of paper. Voice Memos is a simple app which lets you add tags while recording audio.
The app doesn’t have any fancy layout or features. It features a red record button and a list of recordings. Recording begins as you tap the red button and you can add tags to the recording by tapping the memo button. The tag marks the timestamp with a unique color which makes it easier to access after recording is finished. What’s even better? You can add timestamps after the recording has finished.
There is one thing which is missing, the option to rename the tags. The tags just show the timestamp and you can’t rename the tags. Voice Memos is free on the Play Store.
Voice Memos is great for tagging your recordings with timestamps for easy discovery in case of long recordings.
Install Voice Memos (Android)
8. Zoho Notebook
Zoho is more of a note-taking app which implements voice recording rather intuitively. You can create separate notebooks to keep your notes categorized. Recording Notes is a one-tap action and you can see the whole recording as a waveform which looks cool. You can customize the color of the audio note, rename, and move it around different notebooks.
One small feature which makes it the app great is the alarm feature. You can set a reminder on your recordings and receive a notification when it’s time to review the audio file. To keep the contents private, use the lock feature to secure the files within the app.
Zoho doesn’t have any fancy features, just the essentials like reminder and lock features. It is best for students.
Voice Recording Software Free
Install Zoho Notebook (Android)
9. Otter
Otter is one of the most advanced voice recording apps in this list. Otter is not just an audio recording app, it also transcribes in real time. You can use it in meetings, and classroom to record lectures.
After you’ve recorded your files, otter generates summary keywords for easy discovery. When you play back the recordings, it syncs the words in the transcription with the audio file which makes reviewing notes a lot easier. Otter is free on the Play Store but you get a capped limit of 600 minutes per month. You can upgrade to their subscription plan which starts at $9.99/mo.
Install Otter (Android)
Wrapping Up: Best Voice Recorder Apps
I like Voice Recorder because it has everything a regular person would like in a voice recorder app. It is simple to use and comes with many good features.
Parrot and Cogi both try to offer premium features to make a case for their premium plans which are over-priced in my opinion. I would rather recommend using the popular Evernote app if you are looking to attach images and links to your audio recordings. But, it’s a bit of an overkill for a recording app.
In the end, like always, it all comes down to your personal or professional requirements, what you want and need with your voice and music recording app for Android.
Good Vocal Recording Software App
Which one are you using and why?