Seventeen years into running The GCRN, I finally did what every podcaster threatens to do at 1 a.m. while a progress bar crawls across the screen. I built my own audio editor.
It’s called Altered Audio Editor. It’s free, it’s open source, it’s made for podcasters and voiceover artists, and you can grab it right now. Yes, the guy behind it goes by Megatron. Me. No, it will not turn your podcast into a weapon. It will make your podcast sound better, which is a more useful kind of conquest.
The short version
It’s a multitrack audio editor that follows the workflow experienced editors already know, in its own original takes and similar design, with tools built for podcast production added on top. There’s no account, no tracking, and no subscription. Your audio never leaves your computer. It’s licensed under the GPL, so anyone can read the source, fork it and improve it. It also means it helps me in the buildout.
The catch: it’s pre-release. Windows is the main build, Linux and macOS are experimental, transcripts aren’t in yet, and you should keep backups of your recordings. I’d rather tell you up front than have you find out at 2 a.m. the night before an episode drops so you don’t lose an important project.
Why it exists
I’ve been podcasting since 2006 and building The GCRN since 2009. In that time I’ve edited in the expensive tools, the free tools and the ones in between. Three things kept happening.
First, the pro editors are built for everything. That’s great until you realize that podcast work is the same list of chores every single episode. Level the hosts. Tame the breaths. Fit a 30 second ad into a 30 second hole. Add chapters. Export. Write the show notes. Upload. Do it by hand, then do it again next week.
Second, the meter is always running. A subscription tool is a tool you rent, and the landlord can change the terms whenever they like. Rest assured, they always do.
Third, free tools change hands. When a free editor gets sold, you find out how much of your trust was riding on the old owners. A lot of us felt that when Audacity changed hands, and I didn’t want to be the next “what happened to my editor” story for anyone else. Don’t get me wrong, it’s need a facelift for years but now it’s become the very thing it was trying not to be…part of a bloatware bundle.
I run the technical side of The GCRN myself. I build my own WordPress plugins for the same reason: I would rather own the tools than rent them. The editor was the biggest tool I didn’t own. It was also the biggest reason for me not converting to Linux or ZorinOS to leave Microsoft’s poor decisions with Windows 11 that leave it full of telemetry, bloat, features no one asked for, and AI. Loaded with all of it. See what I recommend to remove that bloat here in, ‘Why I Tear Windows 11 Apart to Its Bare Bones (And Why You Should Too)’.
What it’s for
The purpose is simple. Get you from raw recordings to a publish-ready episode in one place, without relearning how to edit.
That’s why it keeps the familiar workflow. You shouldn’t need a new muscle memory to leave a rented tool behind. The podcast-specific part is what gets added on top, and it follows the order an episode actually gets made:
- Bring in the tracks. Record each speaker to their own file, or open what your call recorder exported. Insert Files as Tracks drops each speaker onto their own track straight from the downloaded zip.
- Balance and clean the voices. Speaker Balance levels everyone in one click. A Voice Chain of up to 16 live effects handles EQ, de-essing, breath gating, leveling and noise. If a whistle, a buzz or a chair squeak ruins a good take, the spectrum view lets you box it and remove only that.
- Edit. Multitrack editing, ripple delete, fades and envelopes. Time Stretch fits a clip to an exact 15, 30 or 60 second ad slot, and Music Fit makes a music bed the right length without changing its speed.
- Check. A loudness scan before you export, then a check after: the app reopens the file and confirms it decodes, isn’t silent and still has its chapters.
- Publish. Chapter markers get written into the file. Publish Package gives you the MP3, show notes, chapters, soundbites and an
episode.jsonwith RSS.com API fields (To be determined on release of this feature for API). Nothing is uploaded unless you do it yourself.
It also works as a plain voiceover editor, because that’s work I do too. Podcasting is the big use case, not the only one.
The name comes from my book, Altered Audio: Podcasting Demystified. Same goal, different format. The book makes the craft less mysterious. The editor makes the tools less of a fight.
Why it’s free, and why it’s open
I’m not selling it, and I’m not planning to. Some of what we build for the site is commercial. This isn’t, and it won’t be. My goal was to give people the access to better tools, features, and usability cross-platform in a familiar look and feel. It was also partially selfish that I wanted new features in a product clearly not getting the attention it once did as they pivot all their innovation into the video editing side of things.
It’s open source under the GPL because I want you to be able to check my work. There’s no account, no login and no telemetry, and the app makes no network calls on its own. Nothing AI-related runs unless you switch it on or attach it (feature down the road). Open code means you don’t have to take my word for any of that. The name and logo stay with The GCRN, but forks are welcome under a different name. Putting it available in other program launchers is just fine with the same name and main GitHub repository though.
Where it stands today
Editing, playback, recording, the Voice Chain effects, conversion and mixdown work today. Transcripts are still to come. The Windows build isn’t code signed yet, so SmartScreen may complain, and the download page explains how to verify your copy with the checksum file. So far, I’ve not had any issues installing it. Builds come from GitHub Actions off the tagged source, so what you download matches what’s in the repository.
If you want more details, the Altered Audio Editor page has the full feature list, screenshots, download steps and FAQ.
Help me break it
The best thing you can do is use it on a real episode (with a backup) and tell me what broke. Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub. If it saves your show some time and you want to chip in, there’s a PayPal link. If you just want to use it and never think about me again, that’s a perfectly good outcome too.
Go make something that sounds great.
