For simple edits, audacity is like notepad - it gets the job done without much fuss. for anything more complex, I recommend a DAW like Reaper or Cakewalk.
deleted by creator
I agree.
I liked the simplicity of Audacity, but every change is destructive, so any changes that involve multiple steps are a problem. For example, consider this sequence: 1) remove noise, 2) add reverb 3) change pitch 4) trim ends 5) oh shoot, I want to change reverb settings.
With a full DAW like Reaper, steps 1, 2, and 3 are adding effects but not changing the original audio. So if you want to tweak the settings or remove the effect, it’s no problem.
There’s many other benefits, but this is the issue that really motivated me to move to Reaper.
I wouldn’t recommend an alternative. Audacity is the Swiss army knife of audio tools. Depends on what you’re doing though, really.
Free? likely nothing. Paid? Adobe Audition is my preference, but only because I cut my teeth on Cool Edit back in the day.
Depends on what you’re doing though. If you need a sequencer LMMS is pretty great.
I like ardour. But it depends on what you use audacity for
