For just a quick down and dirty audio recording from computer source, Audacity is a no-frills solution that any user can get up and running with quickly without the intimidating functions seen in most standard DAWs. This would be a great tool to start with to record church services, or basic live performances where someone wouldn't want to use a full DAW like Ableton Live or Studio One.
FL Studio is great for quick audio editing, where you need to quickly make an edit to a song or add a new part to an existing song. Due to the included audio processing plugins, there is no need to purchase more to increase the software's capability. These features lend it to "out of the box" solutions, where quick implementation with no hidden costs is important. For serious audio editing and mix down, FL Studio is not well suited, as it is designed to be a good all round music creation software, rather than a dedicated audio editor.
With no subscription fees unlike other products on the market, I am very confident I will continue using Audacity for my simple audio editing needs. I'm not an expert in audio editing, I'm sure what works for me as a more general user in a public institution would not suit someone more experienced, but I'm very happy with the quality of work I'm able to produce.
Audacity is for audio prodcasts only and not for video podcasts. Audacity does not have a transcript development feature. Audacity can not edit using the transcript feature that does not exist. I use another program to develop a transcript and edit using that transcript. Then I move the file into Audacity for final processing.
I gave it the above rating because it is an incredible software for music creators and even though it might be hard to use at first, but once you get the hang of it, you will never be troubled again, and in all honesty, nothing comes easy life, especially if one yearns to become good at. Same applies with FL Studio. In conclusion, it is a great software.
Audacity is great for this, it doesn't require a network connection once downloaded, and previous versions of the software are still functional in my experience. I have never experienced the program crashing, lost work, corrupted files, anything of the sort.
I have never had issues with speed in Audacity, I don't integrate it with other software but the program runs smoothly even with larger jobs. I haven't measured the CPU while using Audacity, but I imagine it's not high compared to other, more professional or specialized programs in the same category.
We have not used direct support for Audacity, other than using the information available on their website, which resolved the issues we were experiencing so we had a good experience in that regard. As this is Open Source FREE software, I don't believe there is direct support available. In saying that, it has the following great support options:
Online documentation and FAQ
Online tutorials covering all functions
Online user forums where questions are asked and answered by other users
Online wiki with more information
With these options most issues should be able to be resolved to get full use from Audacity.
Again I found it helpful to write up a step-by-step tutorial for coworkers based on our institution's standard practices. This combined with support from coworkers to answer questions is very effective for simple everyday use of Audacity. The support in-program is minimal but troubleshooting in the internet age is straightforward.
While the comparison it's really apples-to-apples, since Audacity is only designed for audio editing, and I use other tools like Camtasia and screenflow for both audio and video, the other tools do make it convenient to edit the audio within the same software as I edit the video, rather than having to do both in separate software solutions.
Audacity is a free open-source software that is only for recording and editing some audio, while FL Studio on the other hand allows you to create your own music, record your audio, edit your audio and many other features all for a small price. FL Studio has way more effects pre-sets than Audacity. Even though Audacity's recording features can come close to FL Studio, there are many other factors that led to me opting to invest in FL Studio. Many other music producers also recommended FL Studio; therefore, that's what I chose. I have used both software for almost 2 years each, first being Audacity and then I decided to get FL Studio and have been using it for all my audio recording, editing and music making ever since.
I feel that Audacity is useful, simple, and suited both to casual users and more advanced use cases. There are options for expanding functionality in complex situations, but the option to not mess with it as a beginner is perfectly fine and suited to most everyday uses in my institution.
Like I mentioned beforehand, it is slightly expensive but if you think of it, it is a lifetime investment.
FL Studio is also essential to have if one wishes to create music of their own or background songs because that way, you won't have to pay someone to create music for you.
