FAQ:About Audacity/ru



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Is Audacity really free? Why?
Yes, Audacity is completely free, open source software. You are free to use this program for any personal, commercial, or educational purposes, including installing it on as many different computers as you wish. You are also free to give it away, sell it, or modify it for your own use, under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

The authors of Audacity decided to release it under the GPL for many reasons. Some of us do it out of generosity. Some of us do it for moral reasons, because we feel that all software should be free; others believe that there is a place for both free and proprietary software.

One reason Audacity is free is so that it will be more popular and useful. Yet another reason is to encourage collaboration. Because of Audacity's free license, dozens of people around the world have contributed code, bug fixes, documentation, and graphics.

We welcome donations to support Audacity development.

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Does Audacity contain any spyware or adware?
No. Audacity does not include any spyware or adware. Audacity is completely free and open source. It is developed by a not-for-profit volunteer group, and the source code is available for anyone to study or use.

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May I distribute copies of Audacity?
You can redistribute Audacity under the GNU General Public License, which gives you permission to modify, copy, and sell the program as long as you keep the same license and make the source code available. For details, see License, and Advice for Vendors.

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Someone is selling Audacity on eBay. Is this legal?
It is legal to sell Audacity, as long as the seller makes the program and source code available under the GNU General Public License(GPL).

Some vendors try to trick customers by selling the software under a different name. If you bought a product and later found out it was Audacity, we encourage you to ask for a refund or file a complaint if you feel you did not get a fair deal. We ask vendors to give proper credit to the Audacity project, and allow users to make an informed choice.

If you have concerns that Audacity (unmodified or otherwise) is being sold without a copy of the GPL, or without any offer to provide source code, please [mailto:abuse@audacityteam.org e-mail] us in confidence.

If you want to obtain Audacity on CD, free ISO downloads and inexpensive CDs by post are available from suppliers on our Audacity on CD page.

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I saw an ad that misled me into thinking paying for Audacity. What can I do?
Some advertisers are deliberately misleadeading people by giving the impression you have to pay for Audacity, when it is in fact free.

If the ad is a Google ad and does not comply with their terms you can complain about it to Google here

If the Google ad did not "Accurately represent the product or service", that is something that Google will act on. For example, we have complained about an ad that claimed to provide the 'latest version' of Audacity 'guaranteed', whereas there were later versions with more functionality available. In the comment field you should say in what way the advertising did not "Accurately represent the product or service".

If you ended up paying by credit card for a service due to a fraudlent advertisement, you may be able to initiate a chargeback with your credit card company. You need to show that the advertising and website that you visited was misleading. Generally you should try to sort out a refund with the retailer first, but often they are near impossible to contact and there is a timelimit of several days on initiating a chargeback.

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How can I change the language displayed in Audacity?
Audacity can display in many non-English languages. The language Audacity uses on first run is now determined by the language the operating system uses. Note that on Windows, the Audacity installer only sets the language for the installer to run in, not the language Audacity runs in, which is determined as above.

To change the current Audacity language, go to the Interface Preferences, choose the specific language required from the "Language" box, then click OK. Most of the interface will change language at once, but a very few interface elements will change next time you restart Audacity.

If Audacity is already running in an unfamiliar language, you can still navigate the menus sequentially to change the language, or change it in the Audacity settings file. For instructions, please see Changing the current language on our Wiki.

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Will there be a version of Audacity for iPod, iPad or other smartphones or tablet computers?
Current versions of Audacity work internally with uncompressed audio to permit high quality editing with a wide range of effects. Audacity therefore needs more processing power and disk space than is typically available on portable music players like iPod, smartphones like iPhone or tablet computers like iPad. The same applies to devices running Android or any other mobile operating system, because the wxWidgets interface library we use does not yet support mobile platforms. However, Audacity in principle does support a tablet PC running Windows XP (including Windows XP Tablet PC Edition), Vista or Windows 7. There are many alternatives available for lightweight recording or editing on mobile platforms:
 * Android: TapeMachine Recorder
 * iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad:
 * VC Audio Pro
 * Monle
 * iSaidWhat?!
 * Symbian: Mixx Mobile
 * Windows Mobile: WavePad for CE (free).

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How accessible is Audacity for motion- or visually-impaired users?
Audacity has numerous keyboard shortcuts which can be customised in the Keyboard Preferences. Most of Audacity can be wholly or partially used without a mouse, with excellent keyboard navigation of the selection. A few features currently have no keyboard alternatives, namely clips and the Envelope and Draw tools.

Audacity works well with most screen-reader programs on Windows including Jaws, Window-Eyes and NVDA, but a few features, notably Label Tracks and Meter Toolbar aren't read. We are still working to improve screen-reader support for Mac OS X and Linux.

For more information, see Accessibility. There are useful links to free screen readers and support resources for the blind on our Wiki page Audacity for blind users.

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Does Audacity run on 64-bit systems?
There is no 64-bit version of Audacity, but in principle it should run on 64-bit systems, subject to having appropriate drivers for the sound device. Sufficient RAM must be available to run Audacity smoothly and support the greater memory requirements of 64-bit systems compared to 32-bit.

Windows and Linux 64-bit
On 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Linux, sound device drivers specific to the 64-bit operating system are essential. If upgrading from a 32-bit to 64-bit operating system, a 64-bit capable computer is required, and the sound device drivers must also be updated to a 64-bit version.

Users upgrading from 32-bit Windows XP to 64-bit Windows Vista or 7 should make especially sure their computer is well above Audacity's minimum system requirements for Windows.

Mac OS X 64-bit
We strongly recommend the Beta version of Audacity for 64-bit systems. OS X 10.5 supports both 64-bit and 32-bit processors equally well, with few if any issues with the supplied system drivers.

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