A new version of Audacity, the open-source audio editor, is now available for Linux.
Audacity 2.3.1 restores support for Linux desktops. Last year’s major Audacity 2.3.0 release was only available on macOS and Windows platforms. Linux users were stuck on version 2.2.1.
The reason for the omission? A severe crashing bug that only affected Linux.
With that show-stopper bug now resolved, Linux can finally upgrade to a new release of Audacity.
What’s New in Audacity 2.3.1?
In Audacity 2.3.0 the famed audio editing tool added a stack of new features and general improvements. Audacity 2.3.1 is a more modest release in comparison, and is composed largely of feature refinements and bug fixes.
For example, the new “micro fades” feature is now optional rather than default. Opt-in available from Playback Preferences. Likewise, the new ‘scrub ruler’ is turned “off” by default based on user feedback.
I would recommend reading our full news post on the Audacity 2.3.0 release for more details and links on what’s changed.
Install Audacity 2.3.x on Ubuntu
You can download Audacity installers for Windows and macOS from the Audacity website. Here you’ll also find the source code for Linux builds.
An unofficial (and, as of writing, not-yet-updated) Audacity Flatpak is available on Flathub.
To install Audacity 2.3.x on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or later you can make use PandaJim’s Audacity PPA.
Jim’s personal package archive contains built packages of Audacity 2.3.1 for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, 18.10 and Ubuntu 19.04. The PPA can also be used on elementary OS 5.0 and Linux Mint 19.1.
To add the Audacity PPA to your software sources run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
If you’re on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS you also need to run:
sudo apt update
Finally, you can install Audacity with this command:
sudo apt install audacity