Audacity 4.0 Rebuilds the Open-Source Audio Editor on Qt With a New Clip-Editing Model
Audacity 4.0 rebuilds the audio editor's long-standing wxWidgets interface in Qt, adding clip grouping, workspace layouts, and a new .aup4 project format while dropping several Audacity 3 features.
Editor's Note ·
- Correction:
- The article quotes the GitHub release notes as describing "Backward compatibility with `.aup3` conversion." That exact phrase does not appear in the release notes. The release notes actually state: ".aup3 projects open and convert to .aup4 without changing the original file. Converted projects cannot be saved back to .aup3." The one-way conversion described in the article is accurate; the quoted phrasing was not verbatim.
Overview
Audacity 4.0 has been released, rebuilding the free, open-source audio editor’s interface on the Qt toolkit and introducing a new clip-editing model, according to the official release notes and OMG! Ubuntu. The release notes describe the update as one that “rebuilds the application interface on Qt and introduces many new quality-of-life improvements, including a new clip-editing model.”
What We Know
The switch away from Audacity’s long-standing interface toolkit is the headline change. According to OMG! Ubuntu’s coverage of the June beta, “the audio editor’s interface, built on wxWidgets since the project began, now runs in Qt.” That same report notes the rewrite is limited to the front end: “the audio engine which handles file I/O, project storage and the built-in effects, uses the older codebase, wired up to the new frontend via a module called au3wrap.”
On the editing side, the release notes list direct clip selection via header clicks, multi-clip editing for “moving, trimming, and time stretching”, clip grouping, and a dedicated split tool activated by pressing “S”. OMG! Ubuntu adds further detail, describing “Easier clip selection (click to select, Shift + click to select multiple clips)” and the ability to “Move clips between mono and stereo tracks, placed over other clips”.
The interface itself gains native high-DPI rendering, according to the release notes, and OMG! Ubuntu reports the Qt toolkit switch “brings native HDPI scaling, light and dark mode support and is able to follow system accent colours in its UI.” Toolbars and panels can now be moved, popped out, or closed, and users can save custom layouts as “Workspaces”, alongside built-in Modern, Classic, and Music presets, per both the release notes and OMG! Ubuntu.
Audacity 4.0 also introduces a new project file format. The release notes describe a “New .aup4 project format” with “Backward compatibility with .aup3 conversion”. OMG! Ubuntu is more specific about the tradeoff: the new format “stores preview thumbnails and new clip and appearance data” and converts older .aup3 and .aup files automatically, but the conversion is “a one way process as converted projects can’t be saved to older formats.”
Other additions include a redesigned spectrogram tool, live playback and recording meters in track headers, and support for VST3, Nyquist, LV2, and Audio Units plugins, according to the release notes. Windows builds add ASIO playback and recording support. OMG! Ubuntu also reports that preset handling was made “consistent across built-in, destructive and realtime effects”.
Not every Audacity 3 capability made the jump. Both the release notes and OMG! Ubuntu list Time Tracks, MIDI tracks, the Mixer, Macro Manager, VAMP and LADSPA plugin hosting, and Play-at-speed as unavailable in version 4.0. OMG! Ubuntu quotes the project’s own characterization of the transition: “most Audacity 3 workflows remain available” while noting the team “say it’s hopeful missing features can return in a future release.”
According to the Audacity Team’s official download page, the current version is “4.0.0”, available as Windows x86_64 and ARM64 installers, macOS Universal, Apple Silicon and Intel builds, and Linux x86_64 and ARM64 AppImages. OMG! Ubuntu additionally reports that the Snap Store and Flathub builds of Audacity had “neither updated to v4.0 at the time of writing”. The download page’s copyright line credits “Muse Group & contributors” as the software’s maintainers.
What We Don’t Know
Neither the release notes nor the official site specifies a firm timeline for when the missing Audacity 3 features — such as the Mixer, Macro Manager, or VAMP and LADSPA plugin hosting — might return, beyond OMG! Ubuntu’s report that the team is “hopeful” they can come back in a future release. It’s also unclear when the Snap Store and Flathub distributions will catch up to the 4.0.0 release that is already available directly from the project’s website and GitHub.
Analysis
The scope of the change is narrower than “rewrite” framing might suggest. OMG! Ubuntu’s beta coverage cautions that “The Github changelog frames it as ‘ground-up rewrite’ using Qt” but notes that framing describes only the UI layer, not the whole application — the underlying audio engine responsible for file I/O, project storage, and built-in effects is the same codebase Audacity has used for years, bridged to the new Qt front end through the au3wrap module. For users, that means the visual and workflow changes are substantial, but the core audio-processing behavior they’ve relied on is largely unchanged under the hood.