Audacity 4 Looks Like a DAW! Even If the Developers Say It Isn’t

“Audacity 4 will feature a complete remake of the UI and is still quite some ways out.”

Two and a half decades after its first release, Audacity is about to reinvent itself. The beloved free, open-source audio editor that powered millions of podcasts, school projects, and late-night radio promos is getting its biggest overhaul yet — and even though the developers insist it’s not a digital audio workstation, it sure looks like one now.

According to the development team, Audacity 4 is expected to officially release sometime in 2026, and based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s shaping up to be a landmark update for both hobbyists and professionals alike.

Audacity: The Free Editor That Never Quit

If you’ve ever worked in radio, you’ve probably used Audacity. It’s been the default quick-edit tool for decades — lightweight, reliable, and somehow still free. You can record a voice track, clean it up, and export it in minutes.

Audacity is cross-platform, non-destructive, and plugin-friendly, supporting WAV, MP3, FLAC, and AAC along with VST, LV2, LADSPA, and AU effects. Its simplicity makes it indispensable for broadcast engineers and producers juggling deadlines, where “good enough” audio still has to sound great on-air.

And that accessibility is the whole point. While Adobe Audition and Reaper dominate the pro market, Audacity’s zero-cost barrier lets smaller stations and community broadcasters work with the same basic toolkit — no subscriptions, no DRM, no corporate accounts.

If you’re just getting started with affordable tools, check out The Best Free Tools for Radio Production or Audio Processing Explained: How Stations Tune Their Sound.

What’s New in Audacity 4

The official Audacity 4 preview video offers the first full look at what’s coming — and if you want to skip straight to the big reveal, jump to the 32:03 mark for the new interface and features.

According to both the video and posts on the Audacity Team Forum, version 4.0 brings a completely reworked interface, major performance improvements, and real-time effects — all wrapped in a sleeker, DAW-like package.

A Modern, Modular Interface — and Finally, Dark Mode

The flat, early-2000s UI is gone. Audacity 4 features dockable panels, customizable layouts, and yes — dark mode. That might sound trivial, but for anyone staring at waveforms for hours, dark mode is a godsend. It’s cleaner, easier on the eyes, and finally feels like it belongs in 2025.

You can now keep your meters, timeline, and effects stack visible in whatever configuration fits your workflow. For engineers working with multiple tracks — like voice, beds, and imaging — this makes a huge difference. It’s faster, less cluttered, and just more enjoyable to use.

And it’s not just dark mode — it’s all the small UI touches that really elevate this release. One standout: the new dB value readout in the Graphic EQ. It’s subtle, but it completely changes how you dial in precise tone shaping. It’s the kind of refinement you expect in high-end DAWs — and now, Audacity has it.

Real-Time Effects That Actually Feel Real-Time

Older versions of Audacity applied effects destructively — you’d click, wait, and hope. Now, with real-time previewing, you can tweak EQ, compression, or reverb as you listen. This alone pushes Audacity much closer to “true DAW” behavior, whether the devs admit it or not.

According to the GitHub milestone for 4.0, new audio routing and playback changes will further improve responsiveness. For anyone mixing multiple voice parts or station IDs, this is a massive leap forward.

Sync Lock and Close Gap — The Workflow Upgrades I’m Excited About

Two smaller changes are flying under the radar, but they’re huge for anyone editing longform content like radio documentaries or podcasts.

Sync Lock ensures that when you move one track, everything else — your music beds, ambience, and SFX — stay perfectly in sync. No more manually realigning elements every time you shift narration. It’s simple, but it’s the kind of polish Audacity has needed for years.

And then there’s Close Gap — a feature I’ve grown completely reliant on in Hindenburg Pro, which is what I use to record Fully Modulated. Close Gap automatically pulls clips together after you delete silence or a section, keeping the pacing tight. Seeing that feature land in Audacity 4 makes it feel instantly more production-ready.

Under-the-Hood Performance Upgrades

The switch to Qt 6 and a rewritten audio backend promises smoother playback, lower latency, and better multitrack performance — even on mid-range laptops. That’s key for field reporters, newsrooms, or small-market studios still running older gear.

Integration with Muse Hub

Audacity 4 also links directly with Muse Hub, connecting users to curated plugins, sound effects, and potentially collaborative tools. While purists are cautious about external tie-ins, this step builds a real ecosystem around the software — something Audacity has never had before.

So… It’s Not a DAW?

Officially, no. The developers say Audacity isn’t meant to compete with full-fledged DAWs. But when you watch that preview footage — dockable panels, effect racks, real-time monitoring, and now features like Sync Lock, Close Gap, and dB readouts in the EQ — it’s hard not to laugh a little.

Because functionally, Audacity 4 is a DAW for most people who need one. You can record, edit, mix, monitor effects in real time, and export in broadcast formats. For underfunded newsrooms, LPFM operations, and podcasters, that’s not just enough — it’s ideal.

And in a world where software like Adobe Audition (adobe.com) costs $22.99 a month, Audacity’s price tag — free, forever — is still unbeatable.

Why Radio Stations Should Care

Radio has always lived on quick turnaround: grabbing interviews, cutting highlights, trimming tracks, and moving on. Audacity remains the fastest way to do that without getting lost in the bloat of pro DAWs.

Audacity 4’s upgrades mean:

• Faster, more stable multitrack sessions
• Real-time monitoring without heavy CPU load
• Easier plugin management via Muse Hub
• Sync Lock for cleaner multi-track editing
• Close Gap for quicker storytelling and pacing
• A flexible UI for newsrooms, production, or aircheck editing
• Small but mighty UI improvements like EQ dB value readouts

In short, your engineers can spend less time rendering and more time producing.

Huge Props to the Developers

Credit where it’s due: the Audacity developers have absolutely earned this one. What they’ve done here is bring a 25-year-old piece of software into the 21st century without bloating it or losing what made it approachable in the first place.

The new UI, the real-time effects, the usability tweaks — even the tiny touches like visible dB values in EQ curves — show a genuine care for people who actually use this software every day. This update isn’t just a facelift; it’s a thoughtful modernization.

So yeah — massive props to the team for making open-source audio feel modern again. And honestly, if Audacity 4 performs as good as it looks, I might have to rethink my daily use of Hindenburg Pro.

Final Thoughts

Audacity 4 is shaping up to be one of the most significant updates in open-source audio history. It’s modern, faster, and friendlier to professionals — but without losing its “grab and go” spirit.

And while it’s still in development with a 2026 release window, what we’ve seen so far feels like a full evolution, not just an update.

Despite the team’s insistence that it’s not a DAW, it sure looks and behaves like one. For budget-constrained radio operations and independent creators, this is the best deal in production software — period.

When it launches, Audacity 4 might just prove that sometimes the best DAW… is the one that swears it isn’t.