Best Audio Editor for Android for One File or Many Tracks
Android audio editors differ most in what they save and what they charge for. Lexis keeps only MP3 behind a payment; n-Track charges for WAV and MP3.
BandLab is the Android audio editor for layering a voice, instruments and a beat. It costs nothing to start and its Google Play listing promises unlimited multitrack projects. Lexis Audio Editor and WaveEditor do the smaller job of cutting and cleaning up one recording, and Audio Evolution Mobile Studio, $11.99 in the US, is there for anyone who would sooner pay once than see adverts.
Layering a song on many tracks
BandLab, from BandLab Technologies, is a recording studio more than a file editor. Free covers unlimited multitrack projects, cloud storage for your songs, six pitch-correction effects and four mastering presets. The paid Pro and Max plans add 18 more pitch effects, 35 premium instruments, four more mastering presets and splitting a song into up to seven stems where the free tier gives four. The listing talks of “easy export” without naming a file format.
n-Track Studio spells out its tiers in the listing, which is rare. The free edition gives up to eight tracks and two effects per track, and saves your song online. Saving a WAV or MP3 to the phone needs a purchase. The Standard subscription is $1.49 a month and brings unlimited tracks, every effect and WAV or MP3 export. Extended, at $2.99 a month, adds higher-resolution WAV files and multichannel USB interfaces. A year of Standard comes to $17.88, which is more than Audio Evolution costs outright.
Audio Evolution Mobile Studio, from eXtream Software Development, is worth paying for: multitrack audio and MIDI recording with an unlimited number of tracks, no adverts label and no subscription. It imports WAV, MP3, AIFF, FLAC, OGG and MIDI, and mixes down to WAV, MP3, AIFF, FLAC or OGG. The in-app purchases are extras: a USB audio driver for external interfaces, vocal tuning and effects from ToneBoosters.
Run the free trial version first. Its listing gives the limits: projects load with three tracks at most, a mixdown stops at 45 seconds and the app quits after 20 minutes.
Music Maker JAM, now published by Loudly and free with adverts and in-app purchases, builds beats from loops on an eight-channel mixer. That is making music and not editing a recording. To play the parts instead of recording them, try the musical instrument apps for Android and iPhone. Recording a verse over a beat is what the rap apps for both phones are for.
Cleaning up a single recording
Lexis Audio Editor, from pamsys, suits tidying a voice recording or a podcast. It records, trims, fades, normalises and reduces noise, and has a 10-band equaliser, a compressor and tempo, speed and pitch controls. It works on one file, though you can record into that file or mix another one into it.
The listing says the free version has every feature of the paid one except a single thing: saving as MP3. Free saves go to WAV, M4A, AAC, FLAC or WMA. If MP3 is not essential to you, this is the least restricted free editor here.
WaveEditor, from Sound-Base Audio, is the choice when the file must leave as an MP3, which its listing names among the export formats and not among the Pro extras. It is an editor and a recorder in one: cutting, copying and pasting clips, mixing multiple tracks, recording from an external USB microphone, and analysis tools such as a spectrogram and an oscilloscope. Import and export cover WAV, MP3, FLAC and OGG. The Pro upgrade removes the adverts and adds the remaining effects and a recorder widget.
WavePad Audio Editor, from NCH Software, cuts, copies and pastes, adds effects such as echo and reverb, and includes noise reduction and click removal. It names MP3, WAV and AIFF among its formats. The catch is in the last line of the listing: the free version is licensed for non-commercial use only, which rules it out for paid work. For that, NCH points to WavePad Master’s Edition, which is $14.99. Multitrack mixing is a separate NCH app, MixPad, under the same non-commercial condition.
AudioLab, from HitroLab, puts a cutter, a recorder, a format converter and a mixer for multiple tracks in one app, and extracts the sound from a video. It converts between MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC and M4A. Google Play shows adverts and in-app purchases, and the listing does not say what the purchases unlock.
For changing how finished music sounds, see equalizer apps for Android.
Trimming a song for a ringtone
To make a ringtone from a song you own, use AIMP: Audio Cutter, from Artem Izmaylov. Its listing calls it a small tool: crop a file, save the part as an MP3, set it as a ringtone for calls or for one contact. Google Play shows no adverts label and nothing to buy.
MP3 Cutter and Ringtone Maker from InShot Inc. does more. It trims a song on a zoomable waveform, merges or mixes clips, and sets the result as a ringtone, alarm or notification. It reads MP3, WAV, OGG, M4A, AAC and FLAC and can convert the output to MP3 or AAC.
Prices and formats side by side
| App | On Google Play | Multitrack | Formats it saves |
|---|---|---|---|
| BandLab | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Unlimited multitrack projects | Not named in the listing |
| n-Track Studio | Free, in-app purchases | 8 tracks free, unlimited on a subscription | WAV and MP3, on a subscription |
| Audio Evolution Mobile Studio | $11.99, in-app purchases | Unlimited audio and MIDI tracks | WAV, MP3, AIFF, FLAC, OGG |
| WaveEditor | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Yes, mixes multiple tracks | WAV, MP3, FLAC, OGG |
| Lexis Audio Editor | Free with ads, in-app purchases | One file, with a second mixed in | WAV, M4A, AAC, FLAC, WMA. MP3 once you pay |
| WavePad Audio Editor | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Not mentioned | MP3, WAV, AIFF |
| AudioLab | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Mixes multiple tracks | MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, M4A |
| MP3 Cutter and Ringtone Maker | Free with ads, in-app purchases | Merges and mixes clips | MP3, AAC and others |
| AIMP: Audio Cutter | Free, no ads, no purchases | No | MP3 |
The labels and prices are the ones Google Play shows in the US, and it sets a local price in other countries. “No ads” means the listing carries no “Contains ads” label, which is true of n-Track Studio, Audio Evolution Mobile Studio and AIMP: Audio Cutter.
Recording first, editing later
Dolby On, from Dolby Laboratories, is the recorder to try first for music, and it is free with no ads and nothing to buy. Its listing says it applies noise reduction, de-essing, equalisation and compression automatically, lets you trim the start and end, and exports the result to an editor of your choice. It also imports recordings made in other apps. No recording format is named.
Easy Voice Recorder, from Digipom, is free with ads and records to PCM, MP4 and AMR. It keeps the good formats for its paid side: MP3, FLAC and AAC, with trimming, stereo and a Bluetooth microphone, are Pro features. Pro is also sold as a separate app at $4.99. ASR Voice Recorder, from NLL APPS, also free with ads, lists six recording formats (MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, M4A and AMR) and marks only cloud upload as Pro.
Audio Recorder, from Dmytro Ponomarenko, has no adverts label. It records to M4A, WAV and 3GP, and does not state what its in-app purchases add. Fossify Voice Recorder is open source, works offline, has no ads and nothing to buy, names no format and still has “Beta” in its name.
Your phone may already have one. Samsung’s Voice Recorder is listed for Galaxy phones and has an interview mode that uses the top and bottom microphones. Google’s Recorder transcribes what it records.
There is no Audacity for Android
Audacity’s own FAQ says the program is only available for desktop and laptop computers, with no mobile version. It adds that any app in a phone store using the name was not made by the Audacity team. Lexis and WaveEditor are the nearest in kind.
