Choosing Audacity Software version

I want to record my own, voice and guitar, and sometimes additional tracks. It would be all my own stuff. No importing sounds or music from anyone or anywhere else.

I read that 1.2.6 is stable. I want stable. I want simple. I want as few problems as possible.

I read that 1.3.12 is not stable (yet) and is under development by hosts and users. The word “beta” is part of the description - no idea what that signifies. I read that 1.3.12 is suitable for a Windows 7 O/S, which I have, and that it is basically recommended that only 1.3.12 be downloaded for a Windows 7 O/S. I also read and infer that part of the reason for this is to involve 1.3.12 users in perfecting the version. So what’s paramount - the need for help in finding and working out glitches, or the precise and exclusive suitability of 1.3.12 for Windows 7?

I’m all for helping, but I’m not adept, conversant, or fluent in anything about software. Which should I choose? Is there even a choice, i.e. does 1.2.6 not work with Windows 7 at all?

After I’ve figured out which to download, how do I do that. All the pages that say “download” seem to only take me somewhere else where there’s more explanatory text rather than the actual download.

Thanks,
Hoodoo

what are you recording with ? win linux mac other
laptop or real pc
internal or external interface ?

hey
its free
download and see if its good enough for your requirements

as a user and not a honcho here i think the word stable and beta have slightly different meanings than the rest of the world

stable seems to be a version that they are not working with anymore
beta means the current flavor with probably some big enhancements that dont fit with the previous stable version

this is an ongoing effort
so it is always beta so to speak

if they ever get this one “perfected” then it will be stable
while they try to add some big new features to the next beta

I’m recording with the following:
microphone for single track guitar or guitar and voice recordings, or same mike for doing multiple tracks with voice and various instruments.

The mike is plugged into an MAudio MobilePre interface device (external).

That device goes into the computer:
Dell Studio XPS 9000 - a more than adequately “strong” desktop model
O/S is Windows 7, (i.e microsoft)

Does the above affect any answers?

Thanks.
Still wondering what link/locale starts the actual DOWNLOAD as opposed to pressing “download” in several locations and then just being switched from explanatory text to text to more text.

if you have an external interface with latest drivers you should be okay
but internal soundcards on win7 especially laptops can be a big problem
which is not to say you wont still need to find and set some win7 options. the desktop should be good. my dell desktop had a faulty internal sound card so i need to use an external interface.

dont know about downloads
i get the latest version on a cd from a magazine like max pc or similar

Audacity 1.3.12

In my opinion that should be written in the past tense. “Audacity 1.2.6 was the stable version”.
Hardware and operating systems have moved on, leaving the 1.2.x branch as a “legacy” product.

It is the most stable version for the majority of users. I’ve been using it as my production version since before it was officially released.
It is not yet perfect, so the recommendation is to follow “good practice” and make backups as you go along, but it is sufficiently stable that many commercial companies would remove the “beta” label without a second thought.

Yes, some features are under development, for example there are a couple of developers looking at improving effectiveness of the Noise Removal effect. There are other new features in the pipeline, but they do not get into the beta release until they are known to be substantially stable. The really “experimental” stuff stays in the Experimental branch and is only available for users that either build Audacity from the source code, or choose to test out the alpha versions.

The 1.3.12 version has been out for a good while now with few problems, so the developers do not seem to be in a hurry to bring out a new beta version. As stability is your major concern, I’d recommend using Audacity 1.3.12 and not upgrading to 1.3.13 until it has been out for a while (unless of course you run into any bugs in 1.3.12 which are fixed in the next release).

1.3.12

I don’t think it works very well - we’ve seen quite a few people on the forum try to use it and then have problems - upgrading to 1.3.12 invariably solves their problems.

Go to this page: Audacity ® | Downloads

Where it says “best version for Windows 7” - that links to a page that you should read.

Where it says “Windows 1.3.12” - that link takes you to this page:
http://audacityteam.org/download/beta_windows

On that page, look for the words:
"Recommended Download

  • Windows 2000/XP/Vista: Audacity 1.3.12 installer (.exe file, 11.3 MB) - The latest version of the free Audacity "

That is the actual download link.