Last Updated on March 27, 2026
Tenacity is an easy-to-use multi-track audio editor and recorder.
It is built on top of the widely popular Audacity.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Recording from audio devices (real or virtual).
- Export / Import a wide range of audio formats (extendible with FFmpeg).
- High quality including up to 32-bit float audio support.
- Plug-ins providing support for VST, LV2, and AU plugins.
- Scripting in the built-in scripting language Nyquist, or in Python, Perl and other languages with named pipes.
- Editing arbitrary sampling and multi-track timeline.
- Accessibility including editing via keyboard, screen reader support and narration support.
- Tools useful in the analysis of signals, including audio.
- Natively supports MKA/MKV (Matroska) import and export (including support for importing Matroska tracks as label tracks). Importing and exporting audio is limited to using PCM and FLAC codecs only.
- Cross-platform support – runs under Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Differences from Audacity:
- New, modern themes.
- Improved support for more platforms such as Haiku.
- Matroska importing and exporting without needing FFmpeg.
- Support for importing, editing, exporting Matroska chapters as label tracks.
- Sync-lock improvements, including the ability to temporarily override sync-lock.
- Horizontal scrolling in the Frequency Analysis window.
- Under-the-hood changes, such as a revamped build system allowing for modern upstream dependencies.
Website: tenacityaudio.org
Support: Code Repository
Developer: Tenacity Team
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
Tenacity is written in C++ and C. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Audio Editors | |
|---|---|
| Audacity | Multi-track audio editor and recorder |
| SoX | Swiss Army knife of sound processing programs |
| LosslessCut | Swiss army knife of lossless video/audio editing |
| Tenacity | Cross-platform multi-track audio editor/recorder; fork of Audacity |
| Auto-Editor | Automatically edit video and audio |
| audapolis | Editor for spoken-word media with transcription |
| Kwave | Sound editor built on the KDE Frameworks 5 |
| Cecilia | Audio signal processing environment aimed at sound designers |
| GWC | Gnome Wave Cleaner |
| Snd | An advanced sound editor modeled loosely after Emacs |
| Reco | Audio recording app designed for elementary OS |
| pxtone collab | Sample-based music editor |
| Sound Recorder | Straightforward way to record and play audio with simple interface |
| mp3splt | Command-line tool to split mp3, ogg vorbis and FLAC files without decoding |
| WaveSurfer | Tool for sound visualization and manipulation |
| Sweep | Audio editor and live playback tool |
| mhWaveEdit | Simple and fast sound editor |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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I don’t see big enough differences to switch to Tenacity over Audacity right now.
Does Audacity still have privacy concerns?
Hi Ivan. I’m not sure.