Audacity 4.0: the audio editor moves to Qt6

The Audacity project has released version 4.0 — the first major update to the popular free audio editor in a long while. The biggest change is hidden under the hood: the interface, built for years on the wxWidgets library, has been fully ported to the Qt6 toolkit. The developers promise that this was followed by “a host of everyday quality-of-life improvements.”

What's new

The move to Qt isn't the only novelty. Audacity 4.0 introduces a reworked clip editing model: clips can now be grouped and arranged on tracks more freely. Splitting fragments has been moved into a separate tool, and the interface as a whole has received a number of usability improvements.

It's also worth noting that adopting Qt brought better support for high-density (HiDPI) displays and other modern refinements — things that were harder to achieve with the aging wxWidgets.

A new project format

Along with the update, the project file format has changed too: Audacity 4.0 uses the .aup4 extension. Older projects in the .aup3 format still open in the new version and can be converted to .aup4, so accumulated work won't be lost.

Where to get it

The source code and release details are available on GitHub. In addition to the sources, ready-made builds have been prepared: an AppImage for Linux, as well as binary packages for macOS and Windows.

It's worth noting that Audacity isn't alone in its push toward Qt6: on the same day, the video editor OpenShot announced its own move to the toolkit, likewise reaching version 4.0. For open-source multimedia applications, this seems to be becoming a common trend.

Source: Phoronix