2020 has been a wild ride for many people, not just musicians and music producers. With Corona-related lockdowns and restrictions slowing the industry down, musicians and music producers found themselves stuck with limited resources and innovations. Fortunately, 2023 is already looking brighter; many music-editing tools have been created and improved, allowing musicians to make the most out of their time in the studio.
These days, the right music editor can make or break your sound. Whether you are creating a single, remixing an old track, or chasing a production dream; having the right information and tools is key to success. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what we can expect from some of the best music editors of 2023.
1. Music Reaper – Music Reaper is a comprehensive and intuitive music editor. From basic editing to more complex arrangement and arrangement changes, Music Reaper has you covered. Its intuitive user interface, audio processing algorithms, and highly advanced audio editing functions make it one of the most versatile music editors on the market.
2. ProTools – ProTools has been around for years and is still popular with many artists. Its intuitive user interface and deep suite of tools make ProTools an excellent choice for any music-making task. Whether you want to record multiple tracks and tweak the sounds, create soundscapes for a movie score, or even score a video game, ProTools does it all.
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3. Logic Pro X – Another incredible music editor is Logic Pro X. With this program, you can record multiple tracks and combine them together with impressive effects and mix them. The latest version also includes improved automation, a massive loop library, and powerful mixing tools.
4. FL Studio – FL Studio was already one of the most popular music production programs out there; with the release of their 2023 version, they took their suite to the next level. With its intuitive interface, real-time sound editing, and full integration of hardware and software instruments, this music editor is truly unmatched.
5. Ableton Live – For many musicians and producer, Ableton Live is their go-to music editor. Its intuitive session view makes sequencing beats, sounds, and loops easier than ever. In addition to that, it has some of the best MIDI mapping capabilities available.
6. Cubase LE – If you are looking for a great music editor that is available at an accessible price, then you should definitely check out Cubase LE. While it is not as featured-packed as many other higher-priced music editors, it still has plenty of tools to work with. From making beats, to recording and mixing quality audio, Cubase LE is a great choice for any budget-conscious music producer.
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7. Acid Pro – Acid Pro is another highly regarded music editor. With its GUI, you can create complex patterns from multiple tracks and audio sources, easily manipulating them with an impressive selection of sound manipulation tools. Acid Pro’s integration with VST plugins adds more value to this already amazing package.
8. Reason 11 – Finally, Reason 11 is one of the best music editors available in 2023. The sheer amount of features that this program offers is mind-blowing. Whether you want to record audio, create beats, play a DAW, or even design soundscapes, Reason 11 has you covered.
Whether you are a budding music producer or a seasoned industry veteran, choosing the right music editor can make you sound incredible. Out of the many options available in 2023, these 8 music editors are sure to meet your needs and exceed your expectations.
A lot falls under the realm of music editing. You can create ringtones or clip out parts of songs that you don’t want. Music editing software can also be used to remove noise from a song, merge several music files into one, lower the overall sound, edit your voice, add virtual instruments, etc.
Below is a list of music editors that can do all these things and more. Some are free and others have a free trial period.
MP3Cut.net: Best Online Music Editor for Creating Ringtones
Advantages
Precise editing buttons.
Load songs from Dropbox or Google Drive.
Toggle a fade in and/or fade out.
Make ringtones from videos.
What We Don’t Like
Must wait for the song to upload to the website.
Lots of music editors can convert a song into a ringtone, but MP3Cut.net is perfect for the job since it runs online and doesn’t include a bunch of extra, often confusing features.
Upload the song from your computer, a URL, or your Google Drive or Dropbox account, and then clip out the ends you don’t want to be part of the ringtone. Finally, just save it in the right format for your phone.
MP3Cut.net should be able to make ringtones for all phones. When you’re finished editing the song, the supported export formats include MP3, M4R (for iPhone), M4A, WAV, and FLAC.
You can use this free music editor from any computer that’s running a web browser.
Soundtrap: Best Music Editor for Making Remixes
Advantages
Extremely easy to use.
Lots of instrument options.
No software installation necessary.
Library of premade loops.
Supports live collaboration.
Saves automatically.
What We Don’t Like
Several features aren’t free.
Must make a user account.
Of all the available song remixers you can buy, download for free, or use online, Spotify’s Soundtrap website is by far the easiest to use. Not only that, it has tons of excellent features.
All your layers are easy to access from the side of the page where you can add songs, instruments, and sounds. You can also plug in an instrument or mic and record directly into the program.
There are several little features that make Soundtrap the best. One option can, in one click, isolate everything but the track you’re dealing with. This makes it much easier to focus on editing specific areas of the song.
Something else we like is Cycle Mode which repeats a specific time frame of the song over and over until you stop it. If you’re fine-tuning an instrument’s volume, bass, or reverb, for example, over a specific portion of the song, you want to use this mode to make sure the rest of the song doesn’t continue playing.
You can also invite friends to work with you, where you can each update the same project and chat live.
When you’re done editing, export to MP3 for free, or if you pay, your options expand to WAV, OGG, MIDI, Flat.io, and Noteflight.
The free version lets you create unlimited projects and access hundreds of instruments, over 150 thousand sound effects, and thousands of loops. For more, you can pay for Soundtrap—month-to-month prices range from $9.99 USD/month up to $17.99/month USD.
It runs directly from their website, so no download is necessary.
Ocenaudio: Top Music Editor for Quick Tasks
Advantages
Free music editor.
Several effects.
Portable option.
Real-time preview of effects.
What We Don’t Like
Simpler than other free music editors.
Ocenaudio is a bit like Audacity below in that it’s fairly straightforward and works on all the major operating systems. However, this program is even easier to use and quickly comes in handy for repetitive music editing tasks.
The user interface is simple and modern, so it should be a breeze to understand. There aren’t as many features as there are in Audacity, but that might be a good thing, especially if you want a program that’s a bit easier to use.
If you work faster with a keyboard, you’ll love that it lets you assign shortcut keys to a wide variety of tasks to help you get things done even quicker.
Ocenaudio also supports plugins, importing online music files, generating noise and tones, recording from a mic, saving to an FTP server, creating iPhone ringtones, and exporting to various audio file formats.
In short, if you’re new to music editing, but you need something a bit more advanced than the first few above, try this one before any of the more advanced programs in this list. The features are useful but not overwhelming.
It works with Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP; macOS; and Linux. Older operating systems can download earlier versions of the software.
Audacity: Best All-in-One Free Music Editor
Advantages
Impressive list of features.
Portable option.
Built-in help documents.
Completely free and open source.
Customizable keyboard shortcuts.
What We Don’t Like
Might be too much for the novice music editor.
Audacity is often praised as the best free, yet still professional music editor on the market. It’s open-source and has tons of features any heavy music editor loves.
When it comes to basic editing, Audacity provides easy-access buttons and menu options that make it simple to delete parts of the file, record directly from a microphone, change the speed or pitch, or whatever else you need to do. There are lots of other effects you can apply, too, like echo, fade in/out, invert, repeat, phaser, wahwah, compressor, click remover, and amplify.
Of course, there are also many ways it performs as a professional music editor. In the Generate, Analyze, and Tools menu are options for things like making noise or tones, finding beats or silence, creating macros, and more.
Something else you’ll like is the history menu, where you can see a list of all the changes you’ve made to the file and easily discard them to jump back in time to a previous state.
Audacity also serves as an audio file converter because you can export the open file to MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, MP2, AMR, and other audio formats.
This free music editor works on Windows, Linux, and macOS. This compatibility table on their website lists the latest compatible version by operating system.
FL Studio: Most Comprehensive Music Editor
Advantages
Professional music editing features.
Several editions to choose from.
Plugin support.
Free trial available.
Mobile apps.
What We Don’t Like
Isn’t free.
Huge setup file (large download).
Few free plugins.
Steep learning curve.
FL Studio is a feature powerhouse for any music editor. While it definitely isn’t as easy to just “get” right off the bat like some of the other less complex editors in this list, it won’t leave you wanting more.
You get a big list of free and paid plugins that you can use to expand the program’s functionality, a multitouch user interface, a large sound library, the FL Studio forum, and FL Studio’s video tutorials.
There are four FL Studio editions you can purchase for Windows (11, 10, and 8) or macOS (High Sierra or later), all with free lifetime upgrades. The cheapest option, called Fruity, is $99. Use the edition selection wizard to help determine which one is right for you.
Adobe Audition: Best Voice Editor for Singing
Advantages
Intuitive workflow design.
Incredibly powerful.
Audio repair tools.
Use free with a trial.
What We Don’t Like
High system requirements.
Subscription-based pricing.
Adobe Audition does a good job of balancing user-friendliness with functionality. It’s definitely a robust music editing platform, but unlike some similar programs, it’s not terribly hard to use.
One area where Audition CC excels is when editing music for singers. The program helps you remove silence, hums, instrumentals, and noise. The vocal enhancer tool can be used to target male or female voices. The automatic pitch correction tool comes in handy for musicians, too.
You can buy Adobe Audition for Windows or macOS by itself or as a bundle with other Adobe software. For example, the price is as low as $20.99 USD/month for just Audition, or you can grab Adobe’s whole collection of over 20 apps for $54.99 USD/month.
AudioMass: Best Online Music Editor With Effects
Advantages
Works completely online in your browser.
Several effects.
Totally free and open-source.
What We Don’t Like
To edit more than one file at once, you have to open a new tab or append it to the end.
Doesn’t warn you if you close the window early.
AudioMass is a web-based audio editor that’s completely free and open-source. It can open files from your computer or the web via a URL, and you can also create an audio recording with your mic.
It’s super easy to cut-and-paste clips; there are several effects to pick from, like a fade, invert, or distortion; you can append a separate file to the one you’re working on; and frequency and spectrum analyzers are available, plus tempo tools.
Your export formats are MP3 and WAV, with a few other options like the bitrate, and whether you want to export the whole file or just your selection.
Audio-Joiner.com: Best Editor for Joining Song Files
Advantages
Very easy to use.
Supports unlimited tracks.
Works online.
Save to your computer or an online storage service.
What We Don’t Like
Can’t add tracks stored online, just local ones.
Isn’t ideal for merging dozens of songs.
Most music editors let you copy and paste songs into one file to effectively join them together, but it’s not always easy. This online music merger is dead simple to use: upload the music, pick which parts to clip and which to merge, and then save it back to your computer.
When you join songs, you can do things like make song compilations of your favorite music and merge several smaller clips into one larger file.
The Audio-Joiner.com music editor couldn’t be easier to use. Clipping is as simple as dragging the tabs left and right, and you get a preview each time to make sure you’re starting and ending each file exactly where you want to. You can even fine-tune the selection with your arrow keys.
Tracks can easily be organized before or after other ones, and a fade in/out button is available for each clip.
Something else that makes this music merger a favorite is that once you’ve saved the mix—to MP3, M4A, WAV, or FLAC—you can return to the editor with the exact same setup you were working with. This makes creating similar sound mixes using the same files easy, but without having to re-upload everything each time.
You can use it from any computer that supports a modern web browser.
If you need additional export format options, and you don’t need to cut anything out of the songs, the Clideo Audio Joiner is a great alternative.
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